“For more on the situation in Venezuela, we go to the BBC’s Orla Guerin.”
RNZ National, Thursday 31 January 2019, 6.15 a.m.
Emotion merchant Orla Guerin is “emotional” as always. Her voice throbs as she summons up an approximate imitation of earnest solicitude and sincerity. It’s clear who she’s been told to portray as the hero in this Washington-directed farce: “The authorities turning up the heat on Venezuela’s young Opposition leader….”
RNZ National Morning Report host Susie Ferguson (herself a former BBC “reporter”) ends the one minute coverage of Venezuela for the morning: “That’s the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido talking to Orla Guerin.”
Venezuela has been an object of ridicule and loathing on New Zealand’s state broadcaster for years now….
I don’t know where you get the impression I “adore” the democratically elected leader of Venezuela. I acknowledge that both he and Chávez before him were far from perfect, and made many mistakes. I was particularly incensed by Chávez’s ideological assault against El Sistema, Venezuela’s world-renowned music program. He attacked it on the barbaric and ridiculous ground that classical music was a middle class thing.
I was astonished and alarmed to see Chávez grandstanding in the U.S., ostentatiously delivering free fuel to the poor areas of some U.S. cities in order to show up the neglectful Bush administration. That always seemed like a provocative and foolish thing to do. He—and now Maduro—also did little or nothing about diversifying the country’s economy—leaving it prey to pirates like the Bush gang and its obedient vassals in the E.U., Canada, Australia, Israel and the fascist regimes of Central and South America.
They’ve been pretty damned hopeless—but they’ve never been involved in the destruction of another country, leave alone four or five. And let’s not forget that the plight of the country, the suffering and the violence, is due mainly to the extreme right-wing, democracy-hating Venezuelan insurrectionists, and the aggressive and totally illegal “sanctions” imposed by U.S. regimes, mounting in ferocity and pitilessness following the failed coup of 2002.
You either support the rule of law and democratic elections, Gabby—or you meekly give in and reluctantly support Trump, Pence, Pompeo, Bolton, and Abrams.
What d’you reckon will happen when a government takes every measure it can to destroy legitimate opposition morrie? Including creating a new legislature to do an end run around the elected one?
“Legitimate” opposition? These are the insurrectionists that fought and lost the 2002 coup. They boycott elections because they know they will never get a large enough vote to win or to even cut a deal.
Venezuela’s elections in 2013 and 2018 were praised by all observers. Not the insurrectionists and their U.S. backers, but by all people who observed the elections. They were certainly far cleaner than the U.S. elections of virtually any year. (And, no, it wasn’t those Evil Masterminds, the RUSSIANS, it was the Republican gerrymanderers and the army of corrupt officials who disenfranchised hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of mainly African American and Latino voters.)
The Communists routinely boycotted elections as a matter of strategy in many countries. Did that invalidate all those Western European elections?
Not always. But it certainly was in this case. As one of the opponents of Maduro in last year’s election, Henri Falcón, explained: “Electoral boycotts almost never work. In country after country, opposition forces that abandoned the field of electoral competition have lost ground and allowed rulers to consolidate power.”
National effectively boycotted the Epsom seat in several recent elections, so as to enable a member of the ACT cult to get a seat. They did something similar to help Peter Dunne in Ohariu. Do those boycotts invalidate New Zealand’s last three or four elections?
The elections in Venezuela in 2013 and 2018 were cleaner and more transparent than any U.S. federal election. In 2013, even Forbes magazine could not deny that. Nothing changed in the intervening years, other than the extreme right’s self-inflicted massive injury of the boycott.
Hosking dresses like a man with serious insecurity and self esteem problems.
And for Hawkesby, well that was a petulant and child-like rant. It didn’t do the Nats any favours at all which I’m sure was the purpose of the article.
She would fit right in as one of the cast in that Brit programme “Benidorm”. And yes, clothing choices are up to each person’s preference, but when KH tosses the first stone……
Yet another puerile and vitriolic rant by a Nat aligned MSM lackey. The CT backed instructions went out about 2 weeks ago I reckon – it’s “Dirty Politics” in its most virulent form from now until the next election.
Edit: Even questioned the presence of baby, Neve. She’s seven months old for God’s sake and needs her Mum. Dad might have work commitments as the moment.
Here it is:
Jacinda Ardern’s baby Neve was also there – I don’t know why, I’m not sure if other people’s kids were there, but let’s not call that weird because we’ll be lynched.
Nasty piece of work.
Wonder what her teenage brats are up to these days.
If her teenage offspring turn up half normal they’ll be doing okay. Some regularly scream about kids being to be taken off their parents to get them out of abusive environments. The sort of people who strenuously support Mike Hosking.
Is it right to leave kids in environments with polluted outlooks of their parents?
Morrissey……please put up that freaky photograph of Hosking in his ripped jeans, seemingly pointless chains, and something resembling a wannabe tough boy leather jacket……the one you posted a couple of years ago.
More things to make you go hmmmm. Steve Munchkin has possible financial links to rooskies, lifts sanctions on rooskies, rooskies hire former Drumpf transition staffer.
As the arguments about taxation culminate in the release of the tax report either today or tomorrow, the human cost of a low tax economy needs to be remembered. Richardson and Garner need to get of their high horses and go to Hospital Hill in Napier. There used to stand Napier Hospital. Closed in 1995 to pay for Bill Birchs tax cuts. It has been demolished now, but for 2 decades it stood as a reminder of where tax cuts after tax cut will enventually get us.
We need a capital gains tax. What is left of our health system need it.
We have a capital gains tax. Bridges has promised to remove it, but we don’t know how much tax revenue that will lose. (Yes there are many exemptions from treating capital gains as income – the family home being well-known.) National increased revenue from tax on capital gains by its “bright line” test which said that gains from the quick sale of property will automatically be regarded as taxable income unless there were special reasons – Bridges now wants to cut out all tax on capital gains – whoopee for those involved in buying and selling companies for a profit . . .
if you bought shares when some of the SOEs were sold, you have done quite well, but it would be good if you didn’t have to pay tax on those gains – does Bridges have a cunning plan to help a few blind trusts for retiring National politicians?
Yes. English intended to drive the Public Health system into ruin so that Presto. The Private system can ride in to pick up the broken bits that can be turned into profit. Just as in Britain it is happening so, right now.
We must have a Health system like the Americans. Right?
Yes, American’s spend the most on health care in the world and have one of the worst most expensive and inequatitable systems. I think something like 40% of American’s don’t even have access to health care and they are paying through the nose for that!
Happy to say, NZ health system is still very good, like our educations system, but you can see how the privatisation and routing and lowering of standards, while making it free (in real terms) to 4 million tourists per year and hundreds of thousands of the world living here who don’t require to pay any extra in real terms (because even if you are supposed to pay, you don’t really have to) or have private health insurance before entering the country, so the quality issues are being subtly and not so subtly pushed… We now seem to have as many people in NZ per year in NZ using all the roads, medical and hospitals and services as those who permanently live here…
The government might be aiming to stabilise migration, but decreasing immigration seems to be “in the ‘too hard basket” for now. Hope they keep their eye on the long-term ‘ball’.
“privatisation and routingrorting and lowering of standards” (just once, for info only)
Thanks Drowsy. But under Labour/NZ First/Greens last year sounds like immigration and work permits INCREASED (not stabilised) dramatically, according to TDB, 4 million tourists, 129,000 new migrants and 150,000 temporary work permits, combined they nearly equal the resident population of NZ.
Meanwhile reports of apparently work shortages seem to be lies… as local workers in constructions are having to lay off people because their wages have become too low and small (local) builders are shut out of the contracts as it becomes about who you know and lowest cost …
NZ has a quality construction issue which after lazy immigration, is the 2nd biggest problem facing the housing crisis. As fast as our Rogernomics market based construction solutions build them, they need remedial work and can’t be lived in, throwing more people out to rent who should be home owners living in their homes, and then the construction firms themselves are liquidated…
If a company is liquidated there should be proper penalties for the directors including not being able to be a company director for at least a decade… and personal fines.
Perhaps then the firms would be more choosy and of a higher standard and less likely to liquidate at the first sign of trouble so they don’t have to pay their workers and subcontractors…
It seems that being undercut by so many overseas players with deep pockets is a factor. Who knows how many of them are bringing in overseas workers and profiting from underpaying them (like the listed NZ firms) and getting payments for the job…. meanwhile the big players are able to hoover up all the housing contracts…
Also poor plans being approved by council have also been a factor…
The problem is that the firms bringing in the low cost labour and tourists are having their profits subsidised by Kiwi taxpayers who have to pay for the hospitals and schools and roads and wastewater that all these cheaper workers and tourists need, meanwhile throwing our local firms paying better wages under the bus and putting them out of work, or the standards have fallen so low with construction with planning, labour and materials that the new buildings need remedial work almost immediately and the tourist ventures are more likely to be overseas owned with substantial overseas labour to run them… so it’s a Ponzi… because it is not sustainable.
Labour and Auckland council wants more taxes on the middle classes because they are easy targets, National is seizing it’s chances to squeeze back into power… all in all very depressing…
If user pays were user pays, then shouldn’t those using the services and bringing in the workers have to pay big bucks for the visas, have a bond if their workers leave so are not actually doing the work, have a much higher threshold for being able to bring someone in, (aka pay at the top end of the pay scale for the so called ‘experience’) so that there is money to pay for the hospitals and schools and roads and waster water of their overseas workers and 4 million tourists are not subsidised by the tax payers on NZ who are also being shunted off the hospital waiting lists or spending 4 hours in traffic each day or can’t swim in their water ways because their is too much pollution.
Like wise the ‘private’ educational institutions many of whom are just conduits for residency of low quality poorly educated people, who suddenly sport a ‘masters’ they bought from a NZ institution mostly private who gets $20k per year from them.
Unlike the more well known international universities in the top 100 universities in the world, increasingly in NZ we are devaluing our tertiary institutions with paid degrees that accepts anybody with the cash… regardless of their educational ability or inability.
Unlike the more well known international universities in the top 100 universities in the world, increasingly in NZ we are devaluing our tertiary institutions with paid degrees that accepts anybody with the cash… regardless of their educational ability or inability.
Sounds good. So, what you’re saying is that NZ universities have been lowering their entry criteria and have a special category for cashed-up no-hopers. I couldn’t find any evidence for this though …
YES. And if memory still serves, wasn’t there some question about NAT’S investing in Ryman’s?? and that policy looked tailormade ????? Someone may recall.
@ianmac Re the article by Graham Adams on Noted.
I did not note any perception in the article.
Just the usual selective bias cherry picking info
and juxtaposition to ” prove” a point
Some one else comes along and through similar
cherry picking juxtaposition proves the opposite.
Does get tiresome .
No shortage of cherry pickers in this country.
There are thousands on social media 🙂
Please don’t go. You and your contributions here have been long and valued by me, and I know, many others.
I and some others (Anne, Redlogix) have been having a conversation this morning over on the post on “The world cannot afford billionaires” about behaviours here and related matters. Go and have a read – just check the sidebar as the links are there eg Anne to me, me to me, Redlogix to me etc. Hope that may help change your mind.
Re Rata, I am not going to criticise him or her as he/she has the same rights to comment here as me, provided he/she complies with the rules in the TS’ Policy.
However, since this new personality appeared recently, I have been a bit bemused by his/her postings and personally I decided the best thing to do was just ignore. IMHO he/she really does not post enough substance to bother replying to or attempting any debate on the issues raised. There is not much point when there are so many other more interesting interactions going on here.
And thank you for posting that link. I meant to do so on Sunday (?) when I first read it and we were discussing that issue on MS’s post on the $100,000 donation. So we need you to stay!!!!
veutoviper. I have a huge sense of humour (though my wife only laughs sometimes) and I was really just grinning to myself as I wrote my response to rata. I thought he was trying to be too clever so responded in that vein. I am not leaving TS. Some serious ideas here but I like the sort of response people like Robert sometimes give us too. Brightens the day.
And yes I read your plan of how a blog should run. Good stuff.
Churchill as Minister of defence in 1914 refused credit to Turkey to enable for them to regain their repaired naval ships. The result was that Turkey was powerless to withstand pressure from Germany. The Germans “gave” a ship to Turkey, raised a Turkish flag on her, then sent her in to the Black Sea to shell a Russian town. Thus, Churchill’s decision tipped Turkey into being our enemy. Well done Winston.
Churchill is one of the few people about whom I am very ambivalent. He did great things and he did terrible things, and most of his actions all came from the same place and attitude. He connected with people from all classes and was a considerate officer in the trenches, but he also set tanks and cavalry on workers. And so many other juxtapositions.
Pretty much everyone with an opinion on him is correct, lovers and haters all.
It’s perhaps worth noting that his descendants continue to wreak havoc among the underprivileged. His horrible grandson Rupert Soames was in charge of that awful Serco shitshow.
“Non a l’Eurovision 2019 en Israel!”
Move Eurovision From Israel, Peter Gabriel and Leading U.K. Artists Urge BBC
Signatories to letter say venue must change because of ‘Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights’; BBC rejects call
Haaretz, Jan. 30, 2019
Some 50 British cultural figures, including musician Peter Gabriel and actress Julie Christie, signed a letter published on Tuesday in the Guardian calling on the BBC to push for the locale of this year’s Eurovision song contest to be changed because of “Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights.”
The BBC rejected the call, saying it was ‘inappropriate to use the BBC’s participation for political reasons.’
“The European Broadcasting Union chose Tel Aviv as the venue over occupied Jerusalem – but this does nothing to protect Palestinians from land theft, evictions, shootings, beatings and more by Israel’s security forces,” read the letter.
“The BBC is bound by its charter to ‘champion freedom of expression,'” the figures said. “It should act on its principles and press for Eurovision to be relocated to a country where crimes against that freedom are not being committed.”
Also among the dozens of signatories were filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, and musician Roger Waters.
Earlier this month, protesters in France stormed the stage after a performance by Netta Barzilai, who won the song contest in 2018, carrying a sign saying “Non a l’Eurovision 2019 en Israel!” (No to Eurovision 2019 in Israel).
I would think letting Israel host the Eurovision Song Contest would be a form of punishment for them, but they aren’t sharp enough to know the difference.
Hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel? Surely this in itself is an admission that Israel is not part of the Middle East, but an artificial Western colony, in the Middle East
Who knew Ports of Auckland were privately owned… maybe they think that they are because of the stupid COO structure but unless they were sold off by Auckland council they are still an asset owned by the ratepayers of Auckland or are supposed to be even if they are under the Rogernomics structure…
Pretty sure Ports of Auckland will face climate change issues, but of course keep head head in sand and collect bonuses…
Govt needs to fill gaps on climate infrastructure cost
Lyttleton “Port and Ports of Auckland were not included in this report as they privately-owned.”
It is hard to believe that this sentence was written by an actual journalist. As well as being factually incorrect, it is grammatically incorrect as well.
If they spoke this sentence out loud, you would wonder if they were mentally challenged.
The old economics’ engines of imperialism are outdated. Further more, no one can out China, China.
Technology, and the unstoppable nature of the demands of a increasingly multi-polar nature to world economic growth, along with those practicalities to sustainable resource management, requires the economics of Quantity, whether that be the numbers of segregated financial gains or overall volumes traded, transition to the economics of Quality ( the value systems of the less direct tangibles in the co-operative life styles of the societal demand & supply being developed – which NZ is starting upon to the terms of the Govt’s first wellbeing budget).
If shit like this doesn’t drive Lenin to rise from his grave to strangle the kleptocratic gangsters occupying the Kremlin, then nothing will.
Russia’s Justice Ministry has proposed exempting officials in “exceptional circumstances” from anti-corruption regulations in new draft legislation, following a plan set by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year.
Russia ranks among the world’s most corrupt countries, with Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index ranking it in 138th place this year out of 180 countries.
[…]
The Justice Ministry did not provide examples of the “exceptional circumstances” that would allow officials to escape punishment. Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported Monday that the ministry would provide specific examples of exemptions to anti-corruption laws after public discussions of the proposal wrap up on Feb. 8.
The measures to amend the legislation were proposed by Putin in an anti-corruption plan he signed in June 2018.
Ilya Shumanov, the deputy head of Transparency International Russia, told the publication that the amendments provide loopholes for officials to avoid responsibility.
“There’s not a single rational explanation for the use of exceptional circumstances when an official couldn’t declare a conflict of interest,” Vedomosti quoted Shumanov as saying.
Really interesting case study of “conversion disorder”, previously referred to as mass hysteria
The diplomats withdrawn from the Cuban embassy with injuries caused by a mysterious “”sonic or microwave weapon developed by the Soviets” turned out to have been bothered by crickets
I’m feeling the same , the cicadas are crazy noisy this year.
an excerpt
” In terms of locations under pressure, embassies are strong candidates, especially when a considerable number of the staff are undercover spies. One C.I.A. agent told me that these low-grade panics happen a lot. Writing in The New Yorker in 2008, the novelist and former British spy, John le Carré, made the case that spies are susceptible to a unique form of hysteria. ”
The unknown cause struck a building of people here in NZ recently. Ambulances etc. Then the kids who smelt compost?
(I heard my first cicada for the season yesterday here in sunny Marlborough.)
Kia ora The AM Show technical you are correct mark officially a heatwave is 5 days of 5 degrees above the normal level of heat. But I say our temperature should be measured in the full Sun then we will get the actual temperature that will be 5 degrees higher than what is been reported. Why my you ask that Eco Maori is advocating this change well its to warn the vulnerable elderly people.
People under the bridge the actual temperature they will be exposed to when outside with no nice air conditioning whare /house like the wealthy can afford and minimise any deaths caused by the heat wave records are still being broken. Also that neanderthal from America that you and duncan were waving your little flags for has been suppressing any media around Papatuanukue from taking about climate change. I also know that for accuracy of the Papatuanukue temptures by metrologist the whole Papatuanukue will have to change and measure the actual temperature in the midday Sun to minimise un factual temperature readings
The Tawhirirmate wind of change is getting under big businesses skirts that its is not on that management get more money than they can spend and the people making the company’s dividends are just serviving. West Pack bank giving there workers the living wages. The AM Show is a cracked record replaying Kiwi build every day that’s a typical neanderthal trait repeat repeat can not think of a intelligent positive topic I see this trait in other Neanderthals. All intelligent people can work out whats bullshit and what’s fact 97 % of OUR scientist have proven that climate change is a fact but thee neanderthal goes with the 3% of scientists that have a conflict of interest and the oil barrons spinning and deny climate change. Your man in New York is not quite accurate the polar freezing that’s hitting New York at the minute was predicted by the 97% of scientists that neanderthals chose to ignore years ago . The cause of New York freezing is directly linked to the polar ice caps melting and that phenomenon is causing the Polar Vortex to wabble hence the polar vortex now covers thousands of miles of more land in that region than in normal condition. I did look at the story now for accuracy but I read this prediction last year.??????????.Bruce Stick LEASE HOLD LAND to foreigners. But for THE Average KIWIS that system of leaseing land will make us much more poorer Make it that foreigners only being able to lease land this will protect the average KIWIS living standards. judy why didn’t you talk about the duopoly of buildings suppliers in Aotearoa when you weren’t warming the opposition seats O that’s why the old men hogging the dividends from those 2 big companies are nationals main political donator /BRIBES Who shorted the housing market this phenomenon has been traveling throughout the Western Society’s housing markets being shorted so the wealthy can reap the capital gains. The neanderthal that are shorting housing market in the west cannot think past there own well-being or even their tamariki future.
The banks make enough profits to cover paying their employees a living wage especially when they charge life insurance policy holders 4 million people have some cover 25% in fees that’s the highest charges in the Western Papatuanukue.? Advertiseing Alcohol????. Its the cleaners the security guards that will be better off with the bank finally paying the living wage. Bull trades are getting $25 a hour +. What a the lower paid workers get has know collaborations or a effective on what the higher skilled worker earns at all. Ka kite ano. P.S know mark all commercial organisations will use most things to gain customers. The bankers don’t like – – – – Ana to kai
What Eco Maori is upset about this system is it lies to Maori & PI people the professionals say they don’t know why we have these health problems . Thats discrimanation there who cares about them If they die so be it they are infiror dosen’t matter. How is the system lieing these professionals know for a fact that SUGAR and ALCOHOL is one of the main causes of many health deases that kill US off before we get to 55 years old hence the longevity gap .The system lets business surround poorer communitys with shop’s selling these EVIL prouducts sugar and alcohol and gambling bars as well WTF. If one goes to a wealthy suburb you won’t see outlets flogging this shit for many miles. You see the innocent Tangata think we would not sell someone a prouduct that would cause there life to be shortened by 20 years so the white man would not do this they trust the system to have there best interest at heart YEA RIGHT .The capitilist system is buyer be ware on price and the effects of the prouduct has on ones health. Even if the system knows the prouduct kill’s people early one still has to prove its a FACT in the UNJUSTICE system before it becomes fact or have millions of dollars of studys dune to prove the facts that the professionals know is a fact but say nothing to keep there dividens flowing into there hip pockets from the companys that flogg this SHIT. Thats OUR reality WHANO
Western medicine says many Māori and most Pasifika people are obese. Some people are angry about the system that ‘fat-shames’ them in this way. Others are focused on finding solutions that actually work. Carmen Parahi reports.
Gina Sausau is vital, her body is strong, she fizzes with enthusiasm.
The 31-year old encourages others – mainly Māori and Pasifika people – motivating them with her words and inspiring them into action.
Yet three years ago, she was a different, physically and mentally heavier woman.
The health sector and the measures they’re using for Māori and PI is not working. They don’t take into consideration our culture. Everything they’re doing to combat obesity is not going to work.”
The New Zealand Health Survey 2017/18 found nearly a third of Kiwis are obese. Those living in deprived areas, where Māori and Pasifika peoples are often over-represented, were 1.6 times as likely to be obese.
Letele wants the Government to put a cap on the number of fast food joints allowed to operate in low socio-economic areas.
“Go and look around Mangere and parts of West Auckland. You won’t see that in Remuera or Mission Bay. We’re being targeted but we’re falling for it.
“Our kids are walking to school eating fizzy and pie. We’re bombarded with it, that’s the issue for me. We get less money, it’s just hard.” Ka kite ano links below P.S Alcohol is loaded with sugar
Well Whanau Eco Maori has been reasearching our history our tipuna’s .
I seen storys back in 1840 of maori complaining about not getting the same money for poaka as his Europeen neighbours they got $2 a poaka and maori only got $1 so one can see that this discriminational behaviour would have flowed through all froms of commerce in the New Zealand systems for 250 years. Quickly eroding Tangata Whenua money whenua and mana this is the compounding effect in reverse
A compounding effect is if my 6 X greatgrand father Jose put $2 in a bank acount it would be worth $2 million at the minute. So one can see that this Europeen behaviour to Tanagta Whenua O Aotearoa has had a devestating effect on Maori wealth how well if my 6x greatgrandfather Jose had $2 million in assets back then it would eroded down to $2 at the minute . (Kia Kaha Wahine Eco Maori Tau tokos you all they way)
First milestone for Mana Wahine claim at Waitangi Tribunal
A claim lodged by Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Awhina – the rūnanga of the Public Service Association – to address employment inequities suffered by Māori women has now been officially registered by the Waitangi Tribunal as claim Wai 2864.
“It’s fantastic the Tribunal will hear our claim. It calls out the Crown for its failure to address injustices that have relegated generations of wāhine Māori to low paid jobs with working conditions that leave them extremely vulnerable,” said Georgina Kerr, one of four PSA members who lodged the claim on behalf of Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Awhina.
This includes the failure of the education system to adequately prepare wāhine Māori for meaningful employment, the failure to eliminate bias and discrimination in the workplace, and the failure to consistently fund services that should be enhancing the lives of Māori wāhine and their whānau.
PSA Kaiwhakarite Māori Marcia Puru said “many wāhine Māori have been chronically disadvantaged by these breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. That has to stop”.
Latest figures from the State Services Commission show while Pākehā women in the Public Service earn 13% less than their male counterparts, wāhine Māori earn 22% less than Pākehā men. Ka kite ano links below
“An 82-year-old woman believes a trio of the unruly tourists scammed her out of almost $9000, claiming they would fix her roof but left a hole in her ceiling….
Leonard (the 82 year old woman) told Newshub that she recognised one of the three from the rowdy British tourist group when she saw photos.
The group caught the attention of worldwide media after a seemingly innocuous litter incident at Takapuna Beach erupted into a North Island tale of thefts, unpaid bills and general nuisance behaviour….
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Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
It must be a day ending in Y because the Guardian - remember when it used to be a good paper1 - is running another spurious story about Corbyn's leadership being threatened over anti-Semitism.The headline the Guardian runs is: "MPs tell ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 23 through Sat, June 29, 2019 Editor's Pick When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ...
When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...
Robots could soon replace many low-skill jobs, such as President of the United States. US Presidential hopeful and doomsday prophet Andrew Yang went to extreme lengths to make a point in the first round of Democratic primary debates today, replacing ...
More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...
First way – the state, Keynesian demand management, the working class as the base of support. Second way – free-market, reduce the scope of the state and cut taxes, relative indifference to social justice. Third Way – well that's the ...
E15 is a London-based housing campaign that arose from the eviction of a group of young working-class mothers from a homeless hostel in 2013. Cat Wiener, through her work with the Revolutionary Communist Group, helped get Focus E15 up and ...
Going Upstairs: If we accept the LGBTQI+ community’s untrammelled right to advance their understanding of love, then we must also accept Israel Folau’s right to articulate his own simplistic and inadequate interpretation of the Christian religion.ONE OF THE FIRST things ...
So, some Labour MPs and peers have written Corbyn a letter complaining about the re-admission of loudmouth MP Chris Williamson, who had been suspended over allegations he made anti-Semitic comments.Never mind the Guardian's typically biased headline that Corbyn is facing ...
When the NZDF was asked to release US information on Operation Burnham which would have revealed how the villagers died, they refused, claiming that the US objected. So, Nicky Hager and Deborah Manning requested it in the US, under that ...
Statistics New Zealand has released a new report on New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, with a sectoral breakdown shown how much is caused by different sectors of the economy. The data is crystal clear: half our emissions are caused by ...
Another day, another IPCA report finding police misbehaviour, this time in relation to police beating a suspect in Huntly in 2017. But despite a finding that officers used excessive force, the police as usual refused to prosecute their own. But ...
The State Services Commission has released its report into Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf's handling of treasury's budget security failure. And it is not good:Outgoing Treasury secretary Gabriel Makhlouf was "clumsy", unreasonable and fell "well short" of expectations in his handling ...
David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill passed its second reading in Parliament last night, 70 - 50. Which means now the real struggle for consensus over amendments begins. Pretty much everyone who voted for it agrees it needs changes ...
Compare And Contrast: One of the reasons so many powerful forces combined to oust the Third Labour Government was its obvious determination to move beyond progressive rhetoric and embrace progressive action. When assessing the behaviour of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
DairyNZ has released its submission on the Zero Carbon Bill and is calling on the Government to revise the methane target in the Bill to one that does not put at risk New Zealand’s world-leading dairy sector. Farm profit could ...
July 15 (BusinessDesk) - Foreign Minister Winston Peters will have bi-lateral meetings with two of US president Donald Trump's most hawkish defence and security advisers in a five day trip to Washington D.C. ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero are calling for Members of Parliament to show political courage as the Zero Carbon Bill goes through the crucial Select Committee process. ...
Annual net migration was provisionally estimated at 50,200 (± 800) in the year ended December 2018 compared with 52,600 in the previous year, Stats NZ said today. ...
New Zealanders have the opportunity to contribute to the government’s Review of Retirement Income Policies, including questions around Superannuation and KiwiSaver. Submissions are now open for the Review, being run by the Commission for Financial ...
Yesterday at Mataatua Marae the Tamaki Makaurau Electorate of the Māori party congratulated Rangi Mclean who was appointed to the Vice president Tāne role of the party nation-wide executive. ...
The funding crisis facing the disability sector has become more urgent following the disturbing news that the Ministry of Health will not increase contract prices for providers this year, the New Zealand Disability Support Network said today. ...
The growing number of working poor is an alarming indicator that the regulatory Minimum Wage does not cut it said Closing the Gap spokesperson Peter Malcolm. ...
Historic hui gives overwhelming agreement for a Māori Inquiry The inquiry into state run Oranga Tamariki will be led by whanau, kaimahi and Māori leaders. ...
Drug infiltration into our maximum security prisons is putting prisoners and staff at unnecessary risk, and one tool that would be of huge benefit is a full body scanner. ...
The Socialist Equality Group is hosting a protest rally in Cuba Street, Wellington (at the intersection with Left Bank) on Sunday 14 July at 2:30pm to oppose the persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and to ...
Simon Shepherd: The National Party proposed its own medicinal cannabis scheme last year. Its Health Spokesperson, Michael Woodhouse, says it shouldn’t have been ignored. So I began by asking him what his problem is with the government’s proposed regime. ...
Countries around the world are also dealing with medicinal cannabis. Britain legalised it last year, but the uptake has been slow. Neurologist Professor Mike Barnes wrote the report that convinced UK lawmakers it was a good idea. He's coming here ...
Simon Shepherd: Green MP Chloe Swarbrick’s name has become synonymous with drug reform, so following years of campaigning for safe, public access to medicinal cannabis, what does she think of the government’s new plan? Well, Chloe Swarbrick joins me ...
Social Credit is calling for a Government enquiry into the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board over it's handling of the Sarah Preece attack in 2017 and its subsequent report. ...
An overwhelming response sees Māori from across the country pouring into Māngere today. The call for action came from Māori leadership concerned with the practice of tamariki removals by the state. Whānau, experts, and highly skilled Māori from ...
Responding the announcement of a $2.37 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund to a Northland berry farm, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “Why couldn’t this business get a loan from the bank? If no bank was ...
Multicultural NZ is delighted to congratulate former Gisborne Mayor, Meng Foon, who has been appointed as New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner. ...
Award-winning broadcaster, Waatea has been selected by North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to exclusively livestream the historic Māori-led Inquiry on Oranga Tamariki. ...
“The Peace Movement sends an urgent call to Winston Peters to reject any US demands for New Zealand participation in patrolling the Persian Gulf and Straits of Hormuz. New Zealand should have nothing to do with any war on the ...
More than 50 senior non-commissioned officers from militaries in the Asia-Pacific Region gathered this week in Auckland for a conference hosted by the New Zealand Army. ...
The addition of an absurd Treaty of Waitangi clause in the Plant Varieties Act raises the question whether “Maoridom” will claim royalties on new plant varieties, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today. ...
What are we going to do about District Health Boards? News this week that the Government is looking at a further bail-out of cash-strapped Boards to help reduce their deficits has raised afresh questions about the sustainability of the current ...
Legal proceedings were filed in the Wellington High Court this week to have certain blocks of land at Shelly Bay returned to the ownership of Taranaki Whānui iwi. The land in issue is currently the proposed site for a high ...
Heart Kids, the only charity which supports families of heart children, acknowledges the fear and distress of families who have voiced their concern over paediatric cardiac services in New Zealand. ...
Amnesty International has released a scathing report into the United States’ response to gun violence, a report that New Zealand policy-makers can learn from. In Scars of Survival: Gun Violence and Barriers to Reparation in the USA, survivors of gun ...
New Plymouth District Council has corrected information it gave the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union regarding ratepayer-funded flight expenses in 2017/18. A Council spokesperson states: ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand welcomes the announcement of Meng Foon as the new Race Relations Commissioner. “Our community, along with many others, has deeply felt the absence of an advocate in that role, particularly in light of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that New Plymouth District Council was the fourth highest-spending council in the country when it game to air travel in the 2017/18 financial year. The Council spent $285,391 on flights, $256,235 of which was domestic, ...
Today I have submitted against the application of the Queenstown Lakes District Council seeking a "right to polllute" in their latest resource management application to the Otago Regional Council. I have done so in my capacity as a Dunstan ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mair Underwood, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland Months after a public breakup with her husband, the politician Barnaby Joyce, Natalie Joyce made news when she displayed her “new” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Huber, Postdoctoral researcher, Swinburne University of Technology Most (80%) Australian parents worry children spend too much time with screens. But what children are doing on and off screen matters more than ...
A local photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ requesting they work “unpaid” on Married At First Sight NZ. A wedding photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ on Reddit after the production company requested that they work for ...
How ANZ Bank fought for more than three years to keep its role in New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme quiet and stop a regulator telling out-of-pocket investors the details. ...
Sam Brooks reviews Mean Mums, the new sitcom from Three that manages to make putting a great show together look easy.When it premiered as part of Three’s Pilot Week last year, I called Mean Mums the winner of the bunch. Nearly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Last week on this podcast we talked to Ken Wyatt about the government’s plan for a referendum – hopefully this parliamentary term – to recognise ...
Imagine if we treated our native birds with as little care as we do our precious fish stocks, writes ecologist Stella McQueen.Earlier this year, 900 at-risk native mudfish were relocated to make way for a wastewater development. But despite a ...
For when toast or cereal just doesn’t cut it, but you don’t have the time or inclination to do any actual cooking, try this. If I ever cook rice (or grains of any kind) for dinner, I often make extra to ...
For their latest ageing episode, Hilary Barry joins the On the Rag team to talk wrinkle creams, menopause and why people still think she is Jeremy Wells’ mum. This month’s episode of On the Rag is all about ageing. Time ravages ...
The Auditor-General's investigators are to look into the National Party's complaints about taxpayer funding being used to underwrite KiwiBuild homes. ...
Its rolling slate of cringey jokes and meaningless trivia is a familiar sight wherever there’s a captive audience – but what the hell is Giggle TV? Johnny Crawford looks into the tweet-stealing, wife joke-telling phenomenon.If you’ve spent any time in ...
COMMENTARY:By Yamin Kogoya in Auckland More than 50 years of “torture” has been inflicted on the Papuan people by the Indonesian government. With the complicity of Western governments, great fear has been put in the hearts and minds ...
It’s landlords who are finding themselves out in the cold as property managers begin to walk away from clients who haven’t insulated their rentals, reports Don Rowe.Two weeks after the first of New Zealand’s healthy homes deadlines, property managers are ...
Event date and time: Friday, July 26, 2019 – 17:00–18:30JOIN US for this Pacific Media Centre‘s smorgasbord “launch” mid-winter fono and celebration for: + Two new documentaries on climate change and media freedom + The ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Tuesday’s contentForeign affairs and trade Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): US ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Monday’s contentOranga Tamariki, state care of children, adoption Bonnie Sumner (Newsroom): Māori ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Senior research fellow, Southern Cross University Humans’ distant ancestor Australopithecus africanus had a unique approach to raising their young, as shown in our new research published today in Nature. Geochemical ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joyce Y.M. Nip, Senior lecturer, Department of Media and Communications; Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney As China grows more powerful and influential, our New Superpower series looks at what this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trent Yarwood, Infectious Diseases Physician, Senior Lecturer, James Cook University and, The University of Queensland This year’s flu season is off to an early start, with 144,000 confirmed cases so far in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Todd Denham, PhD Candidate, School of Global, Urban & Social Studies, RMIT University Governments are looking to fast rail services to regional cities to relieve population pressures in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zsuzsanna Csereklyei, Lecturer in Economics, RMIT University Wholesale prices in the National Electricity Market have climbed significantly in recent years. The increase has coincided with a rapid increase in the proportion of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Koa Whittingham, Psychologist and Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Bluey is a ground-breaking Australian children’s television series and the most downloaded show in ABC iView history. Since premiering in October 2018, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Both PM and deputy PM in action on foreign relationships, major climate report being released today, and DOC staff facing escalating threats. Both the PM and deputy PM are in action ...
The Auditor-General's investigators are to look into the National Party's complaints about taxpayer funding being used to underwrite KiwiBuild homes. ...
Cancer can happen to anyone, even if they have followed the advice. While healthy living is not a guarantee, it does stack the odds in your favour. ...
Food researcher George Henderson assesses best-selling NZ low-carb cookbook What The Fat, and asks: How did it become so popular, and why is a laxative included in the sausage roll recipe? ...
Practical steps to take right now if you’re appalled at the news coming out of the United States.This article was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated with current information.From the far side of an ocean, we in ...
Grant Robertson, a cricket fanatic whose day jobs include being minister for finance and minister for sport, raced from Wellington to northwest London on the weekend to watch the Black Caps in what turned into the greatest one-day international ever ...
Ātea editor Leonie Hayden headed out to the hui for a Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children, and found a unified Māori force that has decided enough is enough.When first announced, Saturday’s Oranga Tamariki hui was to ...
A vulnerability has hit users everywhere, New Zealand included, and it reveals something very troubling about the way the tech world worksNew Zealand Schools, district health boards and even the perhaps the halls of power have found themselves compromised by ...
By RNZ Pacific New Caledonia has a healthy lead on the Pacific Games medals table after the first week of the competition. The French Territory has won 42 gold medals after the first six days of competition and more ...
Open Mike 31/01/2019 
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...13 hours ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...14 hours ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...17 hours ago
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...2 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...3 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...3 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...6 days ago
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1 week ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...2 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...2 weeks ago
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 2 weeks ago
When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...3 weeks ago
Robots could soon replace many low-skill jobs, such as President of the United States. US Presidential hopeful and doomsday prophet Andrew Yang went to extreme lengths to make a point in the first round of Democratic primary debates today, replacing ...3 weeks ago
More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
Statistics New Zealand has released a new report on New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, with a sectoral breakdown shown how much is caused by different sectors of the economy. The data is crystal clear: half our emissions are caused by ...3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...17 hours ago
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mair Underwood, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland Months after a public breakup with her husband, the politician Barnaby Joyce, Natalie Joyce made news when she displayed her “new” ...9 hours ago
The number of residency applications are outstripping the Government's lowered planning targets by thousands. ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Huber, Postdoctoral researcher, Swinburne University of Technology Most (80%) Australian parents worry children spend too much time with screens. But what children are doing on and off screen matters more than ...10 hours ago
A local photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ requesting they work “unpaid” on Married At First Sight NZ. A wedding photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ on Reddit after the production company requested that they work for ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Yau, Adjunct professor, College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook University The Administrative Appeals Tribunal recently granted a woman with multiple sclerosis the right to have a sex therapist paid for under ...10 hours ago
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“For more on the situation in Venezuela, we go to the BBC’s Orla Guerin.”
RNZ National, Thursday 31 January 2019, 6.15 a.m.
Emotion merchant Orla Guerin is “emotional” as always. Her voice throbs as she summons up an approximate imitation of earnest solicitude and sincerity. It’s clear who she’s been told to portray as the hero in this Washington-directed farce: “The authorities turning up the heat on Venezuela’s young Opposition leader….”
RNZ National Morning Report host Susie Ferguson (herself a former BBC “reporter”) ends the one minute coverage of Venezuela for the morning: “That’s the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido talking to Orla Guerin.”
Venezuela has been an object of ridicule and loathing on New Zealand’s state broadcaster for years now….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/rory-carroll-takes-advantage-of-simon.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/two-democratic-heroes-two-very.html
And Susie Ferguson seems to have no other modus operandi than the frivolous once-over-lightly:
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/come-back-kim-hill-urgently-oct-19-2013.html
You seem to be quite the Nick Manuro fanboi morrie, what’s your adoration based on?
I don’t know where you get the impression I “adore” the democratically elected leader of Venezuela. I acknowledge that both he and Chávez before him were far from perfect, and made many mistakes. I was particularly incensed by Chávez’s ideological assault against El Sistema, Venezuela’s world-renowned music program. He attacked it on the barbaric and ridiculous ground that classical music was a middle class thing.
I was astonished and alarmed to see Chávez grandstanding in the U.S., ostentatiously delivering free fuel to the poor areas of some U.S. cities in order to show up the neglectful Bush administration. That always seemed like a provocative and foolish thing to do. He—and now Maduro—also did little or nothing about diversifying the country’s economy—leaving it prey to pirates like the Bush gang and its obedient vassals in the E.U., Canada, Australia, Israel and the fascist regimes of Central and South America.
They’ve been pretty damned hopeless—but they’ve never been involved in the destruction of another country, leave alone four or five. And let’s not forget that the plight of the country, the suffering and the violence, is due mainly to the extreme right-wing, democracy-hating Venezuelan insurrectionists, and the aggressive and totally illegal “sanctions” imposed by U.S. regimes, mounting in ferocity and pitilessness following the failed coup of 2002.
You either support the rule of law and democratic elections, Gabby—or you meekly give in and reluctantly support Trump, Pence, Pompeo, Bolton, and Abrams.
What d’you reckon will happen when a government takes every measure it can to destroy legitimate opposition morrie? Including creating a new legislature to do an end run around the elected one?
“Legitimate” opposition? These are the insurrectionists that fought and lost the 2002 coup. They boycott elections because they know they will never get a large enough vote to win or to even cut a deal.
Venezuela’s elections in 2013 and 2018 were praised by all observers. Not the insurrectionists and their U.S. backers, but by all people who observed the elections. They were certainly far cleaner than the U.S. elections of virtually any year. (And, no, it wasn’t those Evil Masterminds, the RUSSIANS, it was the Republican gerrymanderers and the army of corrupt officials who disenfranchised hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of mainly African American and Latino voters.)
The Communists routinely boycotted elections as a matter of strategy in many countries. Did that invalidate all those Western European elections?
Boycotting is a dumbarse strategy morrie. I’m not recalling the praise of last year’s election though. Who were the praisors? Don’t count yourself.
Boycotting is a dumbarse strategy…
Not always. But it certainly was in this case. As one of the opponents of Maduro in last year’s election, Henri Falcón, explained: “Electoral boycotts almost never work. In country after country, opposition forces that abandoned the field of electoral competition have lost ground and allowed rulers to consolidate power.”
National effectively boycotted the Epsom seat in several recent elections, so as to enable a member of the ACT cult to get a seat. They did something similar to help Peter Dunne in Ohariu. Do those boycotts invalidate New Zealand’s last three or four elections?
The elections in Venezuela in 2013 and 2018 were cleaner and more transparent than any U.S. federal election. In 2013, even Forbes magazine could not deny that. Nothing changed in the intervening years, other than the extreme right’s self-inflicted massive injury of the boycott.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/05/14/venezuelas-election-system-holds-up-as-a-model-for-the-world/#4bb2eec671e2
Kate Hawkesby’s childish column berates Labour MPs for their clothes. Hmm, given her husband’s and her own choices, it was rather hypocritical.
To be fair for a 67 year old the make up artists do
a decent job on Mike Hosking.
Hosking dresses like a man with serious insecurity and self esteem problems.
And for Hawkesby, well that was a petulant and child-like rant. It didn’t do the Nats any favours at all which I’m sure was the purpose of the article.
Yes, our ripped jean, hairsprayed hero, Mr Hosking, and Katie’s “Ibiza nightclub” look are real fashion gems…
She would fit right in as one of the cast in that Brit programme “Benidorm”. And yes, clothing choices are up to each person’s preference, but when KH tosses the first stone……
Reality @ (2.2.1) … OMG Benidorm 🙂
Compared to KH, that show oozes class plus!
Does she not approve of clothes?
The popinjay and his flibbertigibbet
Enough +1
You beat me to it Reality:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12198959
Yet another puerile and vitriolic rant by a Nat aligned MSM lackey. The CT backed instructions went out about 2 weeks ago I reckon – it’s “Dirty Politics” in its most virulent form from now until the next election.
Edit: Even questioned the presence of baby, Neve. She’s seven months old for God’s sake and needs her Mum. Dad might have work commitments as the moment.
Here it is:
Nasty piece of work.
Wonder what her teenage brats are up to these days.
How DARE people out of the office dress like they’re out of the office. It’s creeping communism gone mad.
Yeah Gabby, as she says weird as..
I’ll get in first before some dim-witted rwnj rabbits on about conspiracy theories;
The reference to CT backed instructions… is tongue in cheek. Got it?
+1
Crime against Humanity lashes out at its perceived crime against fashion
Anne @ (2.4) …
If KH had any idea and you’d think she would being a mother, she’d realise the reason baby Neve is there, Jacinda is most likely still breastfeeding!
KH comes across to me as dripping with envy and spite!
KH comes across to me as dripping with envy and spite!
Absolutely. She, and her other half, are so up themselves they can’t bear to think anyone is more intelligent and attractive than they are.
Every so often KH does produce a reasonable piece but I’m beginning to think its more by good luck than good management.
If her teenage offspring turn up half normal they’ll be doing okay. Some regularly scream about kids being to be taken off their parents to get them out of abusive environments. The sort of people who strenuously support Mike Hosking.
Is it right to leave kids in environments with polluted outlooks of their parents?
Hosking’s wife. What would you expect?
Morrissey……please put up that freaky photograph of Hosking in his ripped jeans, seemingly pointless chains, and something resembling a wannabe tough boy leather jacket……the one you posted a couple of years ago.
http://showstudio.com/img/contributors/1601-1800/1739_480n.jpg?1380037109
Her seventh to last paragraph sums it up.
“Nothing to see here”.
Nothing to read here, either, in this article
And if she can’t actually see what is happening at a retreat for a party in government’s caucus, then she is blind.
And if she thinks that she will get close to what is happening in politics, then taking pot shots at politicians over their casual dress won’t help.
Perhaps that is why she writes the shite. She can’t hack the real stuff, so instead hacks trivia.
More things to make you go hmmmm. Steve Munchkin has possible financial links to rooskies, lifts sanctions on rooskies, rooskies hire former Drumpf transition staffer.
https://www.salon.com/2019/01/30/with-sanctions-lifted-trump-transition-member-gets-board-position-on-russian-oligarchs-company/
Just a little spasiba and there’s more where that came from.
As the arguments about taxation culminate in the release of the tax report either today or tomorrow, the human cost of a low tax economy needs to be remembered. Richardson and Garner need to get of their high horses and go to Hospital Hill in Napier. There used to stand Napier Hospital. Closed in 1995 to pay for Bill Birchs tax cuts. It has been demolished now, but for 2 decades it stood as a reminder of where tax cuts after tax cut will enventually get us.
We need a capital gains tax. What is left of our health system need it.
We have a capital gains tax. Bridges has promised to remove it, but we don’t know how much tax revenue that will lose. (Yes there are many exemptions from treating capital gains as income – the family home being well-known.) National increased revenue from tax on capital gains by its “bright line” test which said that gains from the quick sale of property will automatically be regarded as taxable income unless there were special reasons – Bridges now wants to cut out all tax on capital gains – whoopee for those involved in buying and selling companies for a profit . . .
Ed1 yes business would like that.
if you bought shares when some of the SOEs were sold, you have done quite well, but it would be good if you didn’t have to pay tax on those gains – does Bridges have a cunning plan to help a few blind trusts for retiring National politicians?
Bill English’s role in the destruction of a world class health system in this country has been forgotten. Which is a pity.
Yes. English intended to drive the Public Health system into ruin so that Presto. The Private system can ride in to pick up the broken bits that can be turned into profit. Just as in Britain it is happening so, right now.
We must have a Health system like the Americans. Right?
Yes, American’s spend the most on health care in the world and have one of the worst most expensive and inequatitable systems. I think something like 40% of American’s don’t even have access to health care and they are paying through the nose for that!
Happy to say, NZ health system is still very good, like our educations system, but you can see how the privatisation and routing and lowering of standards, while making it free (in real terms) to 4 million tourists per year and hundreds of thousands of the world living here who don’t require to pay any extra in real terms (because even if you are supposed to pay, you don’t really have to) or have private health insurance before entering the country, so the quality issues are being subtly and not so subtly pushed… We now seem to have as many people in NZ per year in NZ using all the roads, medical and hospitals and services as those who permanently live here…
The government might be aiming to stabilise migration, but decreasing immigration seems to be “in the ‘too hard basket” for now. Hope they keep their eye on the long-term ‘ball’.
“privatisation and
routingrorting and lowering of standards” (just once, for info only)Thanks Drowsy. But under Labour/NZ First/Greens last year sounds like immigration and work permits INCREASED (not stabilised) dramatically, according to TDB, 4 million tourists, 129,000 new migrants and 150,000 temporary work permits, combined they nearly equal the resident population of NZ.
Meanwhile reports of apparently work shortages seem to be lies… as local workers in constructions are having to lay off people because their wages have become too low and small (local) builders are shut out of the contracts as it becomes about who you know and lowest cost …
Smaller Christchurch building companies struggling to find work
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/381149/smaller-christchurch-building-companies-struggling-to-find-work
Chch builders out of work as rebuild construction dries up
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018680157/chch-builders-out-of-work-as-rebuild-construction-dries-up
Meanwhile a lot of money spent on middle men touting to place overseas workers into NZ…
New Zealand Job Openings for Filipinos, No Placement Fee Country, and Manpower Agency List
https://mattscradle.com/new-zealand-job-openings-for-filipinos/
NZ has a quality construction issue which after lazy immigration, is the 2nd biggest problem facing the housing crisis. As fast as our Rogernomics market based construction solutions build them, they need remedial work and can’t be lived in, throwing more people out to rent who should be home owners living in their homes, and then the construction firms themselves are liquidated…
If a company is liquidated there should be proper penalties for the directors including not being able to be a company director for at least a decade… and personal fines.
Perhaps then the firms would be more choosy and of a higher standard and less likely to liquidate at the first sign of trouble so they don’t have to pay their workers and subcontractors…
It seems that being undercut by so many overseas players with deep pockets is a factor. Who knows how many of them are bringing in overseas workers and profiting from underpaying them (like the listed NZ firms) and getting payments for the job…. meanwhile the big players are able to hoover up all the housing contracts…
Also poor plans being approved by council have also been a factor…
Big builder Corbel Construction in liquidation
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12170789
Leaky building repairs drag on: $24m bill yet 81 townhouses still uninhabitable
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12098276
Auckland construction company folds, 55 staff laid off, more failures predicted
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11909184
The problem is that the firms bringing in the low cost labour and tourists are having their profits subsidised by Kiwi taxpayers who have to pay for the hospitals and schools and roads and wastewater that all these cheaper workers and tourists need, meanwhile throwing our local firms paying better wages under the bus and putting them out of work, or the standards have fallen so low with construction with planning, labour and materials that the new buildings need remedial work almost immediately and the tourist ventures are more likely to be overseas owned with substantial overseas labour to run them… so it’s a Ponzi… because it is not sustainable.
Labour and Auckland council wants more taxes on the middle classes because they are easy targets, National is seizing it’s chances to squeeze back into power… all in all very depressing…
If user pays were user pays, then shouldn’t those using the services and bringing in the workers have to pay big bucks for the visas, have a bond if their workers leave so are not actually doing the work, have a much higher threshold for being able to bring someone in, (aka pay at the top end of the pay scale for the so called ‘experience’) so that there is money to pay for the hospitals and schools and roads and waster water of their overseas workers and 4 million tourists are not subsidised by the tax payers on NZ who are also being shunted off the hospital waiting lists or spending 4 hours in traffic each day or can’t swim in their water ways because their is too much pollution.
Like wise the ‘private’ educational institutions many of whom are just conduits for residency of low quality poorly educated people, who suddenly sport a ‘masters’ they bought from a NZ institution mostly private who gets $20k per year from them.
Unlike the more well known international universities in the top 100 universities in the world, increasingly in NZ we are devaluing our tertiary institutions with paid degrees that accepts anybody with the cash… regardless of their educational ability or inability.
Sounds good. So, what you’re saying is that NZ universities have been lowering their entry criteria and have a special category for cashed-up no-hopers. I couldn’t find any evidence for this though …
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/applications-and-admissions/entry-requirements/undergraduate-entry-requirements.html
You can make a donation but I don’t believe they give you an academic degree for that, just a receipt for IRD.
https://www.giving.auckland.ac.nz/en/Home.html
YES. And if memory still serves, wasn’t there some question about NAT’S investing in Ryman’s?? and that policy looked tailormade ????? Someone may recall.
+1 millsy
Reality drew attention to a very interesting column on Noted. It is very perceptive written by Graham Adams. It gives a insight into the words of Jacinda, the background to Paula, Jamie Lee, and Sarah. Worth reading for its own sake.
Thanks Reality.
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/sarah-dowie-jami-lee-ross-parliaments-star-crossed-lovers-who-crossed-each-other/
Thanks ianmac.
Filed for future reference.
@ianmac Re the article by Graham Adams on Noted.
I did not note any perception in the article.
Just the usual selective bias cherry picking info
and juxtaposition to ” prove” a point
Some one else comes along and through similar
cherry picking juxtaposition proves the opposite.
Does get tiresome .
No shortage of cherry pickers in this country.
There are thousands on social media 🙂
Your cynicism rata, could be applied to all and every point of view especially where no scientific evidence is available but even then bias can twist.
So by your rule there is no value in exploring any idea ever. How boring.
Sorry The Standard has been killed off by Rata. Goodbye all.
Rata would have improved his ‘argument’ with examples and evidence.
Ianmac
Please don’t go. You and your contributions here have been long and valued by me, and I know, many others.
I and some others (Anne, Redlogix) have been having a conversation this morning over on the post on “The world cannot afford billionaires” about behaviours here and related matters. Go and have a read – just check the sidebar as the links are there eg Anne to me, me to me, Redlogix to me etc. Hope that may help change your mind.
Re Rata, I am not going to criticise him or her as he/she has the same rights to comment here as me, provided he/she complies with the rules in the TS’ Policy.
However, since this new personality appeared recently, I have been a bit bemused by his/her postings and personally I decided the best thing to do was just ignore. IMHO he/she really does not post enough substance to bother replying to or attempting any debate on the issues raised. There is not much point when there are so many other more interesting interactions going on here.
And thank you for posting that link. I meant to do so on Sunday (?) when I first read it and we were discussing that issue on MS’s post on the $100,000 donation. So we need you to stay!!!!
Same sentiments from me ian.
veutoviper. I have a huge sense of humour (though my wife only laughs sometimes) and I was really just grinning to myself as I wrote my response to rata. I thought he was trying to be too clever so responded in that vein. I am not leaving TS. Some serious ideas here but I like the sort of response people like Robert sometimes give us too. Brightens the day.
And yes I read your plan of how a blog should run. Good stuff.
I am pleased you were grinning to yourself – but I didn’t laugh because I thought you were serious! Agree re Robert’s responses.
And my other comments were not a plan – just thoughts.
Stay please ianmac. Your posts are always interesting and informative.
Another interesting snapshot of how perceptions of women’s and men’s performance varies even when doing the same job.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/theres-a-bigger-difference-between-6-and-10-than-you-think/
50 years ago the Beatles played their rooftop concert.
It was their last appearance together as a band.
Ace.
Lennon and McCartney = the greatest composers of popular music since Mozart
This utube clip has had over 205 million views….
Cough cough, Bob Dylan, cough cough.
Cough, cough, Michael Maybrick, cough cough.
Cough, cough, Irving Berlin, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich, Paul Kelly….
Yeah…nah.
If I hummed tunes, the 50+ masses would excel at identifying the Beatles numbers. The Beatles ownership of popular music is waning but what a run.
C’mon Morrisey, I could whistle 30 Beatles tunes and you’d identify every one of them.
Thanks for that…is so easy to forget how timelessly good they were/are
Idiot Piers Morgan upset when historian points out that
Churchill was responsible for the starvation of millions of Bengalis.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/piers-morgan-in-furious-row-with-msp-over-tweet-labelling-churchill-a-white-supremacist-mass-a4051366.html
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/did-churchill-cause-the-bengal-famine/
Churchill as Minister of defence in 1914 refused credit to Turkey to enable for them to regain their repaired naval ships. The result was that Turkey was powerless to withstand pressure from Germany. The Germans “gave” a ship to Turkey, raised a Turkish flag on her, then sent her in to the Black Sea to shell a Russian town. Thus, Churchill’s decision tipped Turkey into being our enemy. Well done Winston.
Churchill is one of the few people about whom I am very ambivalent. He did great things and he did terrible things, and most of his actions all came from the same place and attitude. He connected with people from all classes and was a considerate officer in the trenches, but he also set tanks and cavalry on workers. And so many other juxtapositions.
Pretty much everyone with an opinion on him is correct, lovers and haters all.
He certainly contained multitudes.
It’s perhaps worth noting that his descendants continue to wreak havoc among the underprivileged. His horrible grandson Rupert Soames was in charge of that awful Serco shitshow.
‘
“I know Churchill is a monster. But he is our monster”
Clement Attlee
Starts off badly as it’s possible to start off, by endorsing a less than mediocre book by that numbskull Boris Johnson, for pity’s sake.
The “Churchill Project” is going to be about as rigorous as a Mike Hosking three minute radio rant.
It is all referenced and appears to be in direct contradiction to the piece you have chosen to troll with.
It starts off by endorsing Boris Johnson. Any organization with so little judgment is neither serious nor credible.
The sort of stupidity and bureaucracy we have come to expect from NZ officials…
Kaikoura homeless sent 260km away as housing units sit empty
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018680086/kaikoura-homeless-sent-260km-away-as-housing-units-sit-empty
“Non a l’Eurovision 2019 en Israel!”
Move Eurovision From Israel, Peter Gabriel and Leading U.K. Artists Urge BBC
Signatories to letter say venue must change because of ‘Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights’; BBC rejects call
Haaretz, Jan. 30, 2019
Some 50 British cultural figures, including musician Peter Gabriel and actress Julie Christie, signed a letter published on Tuesday in the Guardian calling on the BBC to push for the locale of this year’s Eurovision song contest to be changed because of “Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights.”
The BBC rejected the call, saying it was ‘inappropriate to use the BBC’s participation for political reasons.’
“The European Broadcasting Union chose Tel Aviv as the venue over occupied Jerusalem – but this does nothing to protect Palestinians from land theft, evictions, shootings, beatings and more by Israel’s security forces,” read the letter.
“The BBC is bound by its charter to ‘champion freedom of expression,'” the figures said. “It should act on its principles and press for Eurovision to be relocated to a country where crimes against that freedom are not being committed.”
Also among the dozens of signatories were filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, and musician Roger Waters.
Earlier this month, protesters in France stormed the stage after a performance by Netta Barzilai, who won the song contest in 2018, carrying a sign saying “Non a l’Eurovision 2019 en Israel!” (No to Eurovision 2019 in Israel).
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/peter-gabriel-move-eurovision-from.html
I would think letting Israel host the Eurovision Song Contest would be a form of punishment for them, but they aren’t sharp enough to know the difference.
Hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel? Surely this in itself is an admission that Israel is not part of the Middle East, but an artificial Western colony, in the Middle East
Ha ! Staging Miss Universe in Moscow ‘pisses all over’ that,
Sounds like something Trump might have been involved in.
He was certainly “involved” in a few beauty contests in the U.S.
“I sorta get away with things like that….”
Who knew Ports of Auckland were privately owned… maybe they think that they are because of the stupid COO structure but unless they were sold off by Auckland council they are still an asset owned by the ratepayers of Auckland or are supposed to be even if they are under the Rogernomics structure…
Pretty sure Ports of Auckland will face climate change issues, but of course keep head head in sand and collect bonuses…
Govt needs to fill gaps on climate infrastructure cost
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/381388/govt-needs-to-fill-gaps-on-climate-infrastructure-cost
Hi Save, (from the RNZ link you supplied)
It is hard to believe that this sentence was written by an actual journalist. As well as being factually incorrect, it is grammatically incorrect as well.
If they spoke this sentence out loud, you would wonder if they were mentally challenged.
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/362616-uk-finance-industry-to-shrug-off-brexit-and-grow—hammond
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5879428/hard-brexit-could-be-hard-on-aussie-farm-export-plans/
The old economics’ engines of imperialism are outdated. Further more, no one can out China, China.
Technology, and the unstoppable nature of the demands of a increasingly multi-polar nature to world economic growth, along with those practicalities to sustainable resource management, requires the economics of Quantity, whether that be the numbers of segregated financial gains or overall volumes traded, transition to the economics of Quality ( the value systems of the less direct tangibles in the co-operative life styles of the societal demand & supply being developed – which NZ is starting upon to the terms of the Govt’s first wellbeing budget).
A Brexit of that for example,
https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/high-earners-pay-to-rise-seven-times-faster-than-average-in-2019-37766793.html
isn’t really that different to the outcomes on societal market forces to a free trade deal with expansionist China perhaps.
If shit like this doesn’t drive Lenin to rise from his grave to strangle the kleptocratic gangsters occupying the Kremlin, then nothing will.
Russia’s Justice Ministry has proposed exempting officials in “exceptional circumstances” from anti-corruption regulations in new draft legislation, following a plan set by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year.
Russia ranks among the world’s most corrupt countries, with Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index ranking it in 138th place this year out of 180 countries.
[…]
The Justice Ministry did not provide examples of the “exceptional circumstances” that would allow officials to escape punishment. Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported Monday that the ministry would provide specific examples of exemptions to anti-corruption laws after public discussions of the proposal wrap up on Feb. 8.
The measures to amend the legislation were proposed by Putin in an anti-corruption plan he signed in June 2018.
Ilya Shumanov, the deputy head of Transparency International Russia, told the publication that the amendments provide loopholes for officials to avoid responsibility.
“There’s not a single rational explanation for the use of exceptional circumstances when an official couldn’t declare a conflict of interest,” Vedomosti quoted Shumanov as saying.
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-moves-decriminalize-unavoidable-corruption-following-putins-proposal-64316
Really interesting case study of “conversion disorder”, previously referred to as mass hysteria
The diplomats withdrawn from the Cuban embassy with injuries caused by a mysterious “”sonic or microwave weapon developed by the Soviets” turned out to have been bothered by crickets
I’m feeling the same , the cicadas are crazy noisy this year.
an excerpt
” In terms of locations under pressure, embassies are strong candidates, especially when a considerable number of the staff are undercover spies. One C.I.A. agent told me that these low-grade panics happen a lot. Writing in The New Yorker in 2008, the novelist and former British spy, John le Carré, made the case that spies are susceptible to a unique form of hysteria. ”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-real-story-behind-the-havana-embassy-mystery
Strangely the Guardian is still pumping this fake news story
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/31/canada-cuts-staff-in-cuba-embassy-after-mystery-illness-strikes-again
The unknown cause struck a building of people here in NZ recently. Ambulances etc. Then the kids who smelt compost?
(I heard my first cicada for the season yesterday here in sunny Marlborough.)
BlandLiarSarah@Swamp:
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/01/30/sarah-sanders-cbn-god-wanted-trump-president-sot-ebof-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/?fbclid=IwAR3l6s7xPK_cJ5IG8T8ezT2GisvaHi7u_72N-bW7zM6lloituzZn2LpUv7k
Guess Nancy Pelosi’s fucked then……
God’s will Trumps all, North and South.
Kia ora The AM Show technical you are correct mark officially a heatwave is 5 days of 5 degrees above the normal level of heat. But I say our temperature should be measured in the full Sun then we will get the actual temperature that will be 5 degrees higher than what is been reported. Why my you ask that Eco Maori is advocating this change well its to warn the vulnerable elderly people.
People under the bridge the actual temperature they will be exposed to when outside with no nice air conditioning whare /house like the wealthy can afford and minimise any deaths caused by the heat wave records are still being broken. Also that neanderthal from America that you and duncan were waving your little flags for has been suppressing any media around Papatuanukue from taking about climate change. I also know that for accuracy of the Papatuanukue temptures by metrologist the whole Papatuanukue will have to change and measure the actual temperature in the midday Sun to minimise un factual temperature readings
The Tawhirirmate wind of change is getting under big businesses skirts that its is not on that management get more money than they can spend and the people making the company’s dividends are just serviving. West Pack bank giving there workers the living wages. The AM Show is a cracked record replaying Kiwi build every day that’s a typical neanderthal trait repeat repeat can not think of a intelligent positive topic I see this trait in other Neanderthals. All intelligent people can work out whats bullshit and what’s fact 97 % of OUR scientist have proven that climate change is a fact but thee neanderthal goes with the 3% of scientists that have a conflict of interest and the oil barrons spinning and deny climate change. Your man in New York is not quite accurate the polar freezing that’s hitting New York at the minute was predicted by the 97% of scientists that neanderthals chose to ignore years ago . The cause of New York freezing is directly linked to the polar ice caps melting and that phenomenon is causing the Polar Vortex to wabble hence the polar vortex now covers thousands of miles of more land in that region than in normal condition. I did look at the story now for accuracy but I read this prediction last year.??????????.Bruce Stick LEASE HOLD LAND to foreigners. But for THE Average KIWIS that system of leaseing land will make us much more poorer Make it that foreigners only being able to lease land this will protect the average KIWIS living standards. judy why didn’t you talk about the duopoly of buildings suppliers in Aotearoa when you weren’t warming the opposition seats O that’s why the old men hogging the dividends from those 2 big companies are nationals main political donator /BRIBES Who shorted the housing market this phenomenon has been traveling throughout the Western Society’s housing markets being shorted so the wealthy can reap the capital gains. The neanderthal that are shorting housing market in the west cannot think past there own well-being or even their tamariki future.
The banks make enough profits to cover paying their employees a living wage especially when they charge life insurance policy holders 4 million people have some cover 25% in fees that’s the highest charges in the Western Papatuanukue.? Advertiseing Alcohol????. Its the cleaners the security guards that will be better off with the bank finally paying the living wage. Bull trades are getting $25 a hour +. What a the lower paid workers get has know collaborations or a effective on what the higher skilled worker earns at all. Ka kite ano. P.S know mark all commercial organisations will use most things to gain customers. The bankers don’t like – – – – Ana to kai
What Eco Maori is upset about this system is it lies to Maori & PI people the professionals say they don’t know why we have these health problems . Thats discrimanation there who cares about them If they die so be it they are infiror dosen’t matter. How is the system lieing these professionals know for a fact that SUGAR and ALCOHOL is one of the main causes of many health deases that kill US off before we get to 55 years old hence the longevity gap .The system lets business surround poorer communitys with shop’s selling these EVIL prouducts sugar and alcohol and gambling bars as well WTF. If one goes to a wealthy suburb you won’t see outlets flogging this shit for many miles. You see the innocent Tangata think we would not sell someone a prouduct that would cause there life to be shortened by 20 years so the white man would not do this they trust the system to have there best interest at heart YEA RIGHT .The capitilist system is buyer be ware on price and the effects of the prouduct has on ones health. Even if the system knows the prouduct kill’s people early one still has to prove its a FACT in the UNJUSTICE system before it becomes fact or have millions of dollars of studys dune to prove the facts that the professionals know is a fact but say nothing to keep there dividens flowing into there hip pockets from the companys that flogg this SHIT. Thats OUR reality WHANO
Western medicine says many Māori and most Pasifika people are obese. Some people are angry about the system that ‘fat-shames’ them in this way. Others are focused on finding solutions that actually work. Carmen Parahi reports.
Gina Sausau is vital, her body is strong, she fizzes with enthusiasm.
The 31-year old encourages others – mainly Māori and Pasifika people – motivating them with her words and inspiring them into action.
Yet three years ago, she was a different, physically and mentally heavier woman.
The health sector and the measures they’re using for Māori and PI is not working. They don’t take into consideration our culture. Everything they’re doing to combat obesity is not going to work.”
The New Zealand Health Survey 2017/18 found nearly a third of Kiwis are obese. Those living in deprived areas, where Māori and Pasifika peoples are often over-represented, were 1.6 times as likely to be obese.
Letele wants the Government to put a cap on the number of fast food joints allowed to operate in low socio-economic areas.
“Go and look around Mangere and parts of West Auckland. You won’t see that in Remuera or Mission Bay. We’re being targeted but we’re falling for it.
“Our kids are walking to school eating fizzy and pie. We’re bombarded with it, that’s the issue for me. We get less money, it’s just hard.” Ka kite ano links below P.S Alcohol is loaded with sugar
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/110265031/the-stigma-of-a-system-that-
fat-shames-mori-and-pasifika-people
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Well Whanau Eco Maori has been reasearching our history our tipuna’s .
I seen storys back in 1840 of maori complaining about not getting the same money for poaka as his Europeen neighbours they got $2 a poaka and maori only got $1 so one can see that this discriminational behaviour would have flowed through all froms of commerce in the New Zealand systems for 250 years. Quickly eroding Tangata Whenua money whenua and mana this is the compounding effect in reverse
A compounding effect is if my 6 X greatgrand father Jose put $2 in a bank acount it would be worth $2 million at the minute. So one can see that this Europeen behaviour to Tanagta Whenua O Aotearoa has had a devestating effect on Maori wealth how well if my 6x greatgrandfather Jose had $2 million in assets back then it would eroded down to $2 at the minute . (Kia Kaha Wahine Eco Maori Tau tokos you all they way)
First milestone for Mana Wahine claim at Waitangi Tribunal
A claim lodged by Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Awhina – the rūnanga of the Public Service Association – to address employment inequities suffered by Māori women has now been officially registered by the Waitangi Tribunal as claim Wai 2864.
“It’s fantastic the Tribunal will hear our claim. It calls out the Crown for its failure to address injustices that have relegated generations of wāhine Māori to low paid jobs with working conditions that leave them extremely vulnerable,” said Georgina Kerr, one of four PSA members who lodged the claim on behalf of Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Awhina.
This includes the failure of the education system to adequately prepare wāhine Māori for meaningful employment, the failure to eliminate bias and discrimination in the workplace, and the failure to consistently fund services that should be enhancing the lives of Māori wāhine and their whānau.
PSA Kaiwhakarite Māori Marcia Puru said “many wāhine Māori have been chronically disadvantaged by these breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. That has to stop”.
Latest figures from the State Services Commission show while Pākehā women in the Public Service earn 13% less than their male counterparts, wāhine Māori earn 22% less than Pākehā men. Ka kite ano links below
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1901/S00144/first-milestone-for-mana-wahine-claim-at-waitangi-tribunal.htm
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
Was it really the “unruly tourists?”
“An 82-year-old woman believes a trio of the unruly tourists scammed her out of almost $9000, claiming they would fix her roof but left a hole in her ceiling….
Leonard (the 82 year old woman) told Newshub that she recognised one of the three from the rowdy British tourist group when she saw photos.
The group caught the attention of worldwide media after a seemingly innocuous litter incident at Takapuna Beach erupted into a North Island tale of thefts, unpaid bills and general nuisance behaviour….
…The police arrived shortly after, saying they had tracked the car’s registration to a motel but that they had not yet made any arrests.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz//nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12199489&ref=clavis