This surrender is completely the wrong message to give to the electorate.
This is a betrayal of Maori of Women of every person and group this Right Wing bigot has insulted and mocked.
Labour has dignified this Right Wing extremist and has handed him an undeserved media platform and have created a media rod for their own backs way beyond this debate.
With this victory over Labour by TVNZ, voters will be asking is there anything that Labour won’t back down on?
Through Labour’s subservience Mike Hosking will take the moderator’s chair, and his smug gloating at this personal vindication of his extreme misogynist and Right Wing views on our television screens will make the debate unbearable to watch for many.
This supercilious wretch is not fit to mediate a kindergarten finger painting contest.
As he arrogantly treats the debaters (of both sides), as wayward children, the serious issues will become lost, and the debate will be cheapened and trivialised.
By caving in and agreeing to be part of this farcical circus, Labour has been smacked and smacked down hard and the country knows it.
No doubt Labour have got an assurance from TVNZ that Mike Hosking will act as the benevolent media arbiter, and in so doing, will condescendingly patronise and glaringly favour Cunliffe over Key, to the point of farce, (and beyond).
As Mike Hosking bathes in his personal magnificence as he smugly tells the Prime Minister to, “Shut up and give Mr Cunliffe a fair go”. the whole country will cringe at the spectacle.
It doesn’t really matter now what Cunliffe says in the debate, or promises the voters, he has already lost. He will be entering the leaders debate as a crippled loser who needs to be favoured out of charity.
In giving in to this outrageous imposition by TVNZ, the public can now know for certain, that David Cunliffe and the Labour Party are hostages to the establishment, any assurances that David Cunliffe gives voters in the debate are worth nothing because Labour cannot be relied on not to fold at the slightest pressure from big business, foreign powers, vested interest, oil drillers and yes the media, all those that make up the current establishment.
No matter how reckless, unjust, or cruel. Any humiliation is bearable, any outrage is excusable.
From deep sea oil, to massacre in Gaza.
Labour as the Loyal Opposition Party guaranteed to support the establishment.
The only question left is what will be their next back down?
Labour has had plenty of chances to reform the media environment when it has been in government.
It chose to continue with the corporate profit making model for publicly owned television and radio so can hardly complain when its drive to extract dividends rather than deliver quality broadcasting results in the likes of Hoskings reigning supreme.
Rather than making fools of themselves by empty threats to boycott they should have promised reforms of publicly owned media that would lead to them focusing on providing the public with the best possible information on local and international events combined with a range of points of view and expert analysis from people who know what they are talking about.
The trouble is if they did that even more people would realise how fucked their precious capitalism is.
Jenny the views of everyone who is interested in the left are being put forward and going into the petition as well. Now it is time to stop the consciousness-raising and get positives-raising behind the strong David Cunliffe that we have. And facilitate and enable him as much as possible.
Much of the media’s approach is unfair and unbalanced and we know that they will go off in the lifeboats and leave the rest of the country dealing with the aftermath if anything goes awry. So we must deal with that thought and make sure that we make our firm stand on firm ground and just keep on with positive action that advances Labour.
3rd attempt!
+100 @ Lefty.
I submitted a comprehensive response but it disappeared up its own arse (went into a black hole). Somehow I doubt moderation but I’ll wait and see.
Still … it’s what an interloper probably deserves – it’s just that I hope this site isn’t becoming part of the Xero phenomenon.
Time is tight and opinions are cheap it seems these days (especially when one is competing with a well financed brigade of trolls).
I disagree with your points. It would have hurt Cunliffe and Labour more as weak if Hosking was removed at this stage as the issue was in the open rather than behind the scenes.
He did rather snooker himself with this previous comment.
Labour leader David Cunliffe told NewstalkZB in April that he would be happy to debate Prime Minister John Key “anytime, any place, anywhere, I’ll even do it on Mike Hosking’s show.”
Well he didn’t. This issue shows is another media beat up. Labour complains about a clearly inappropriate choice for moderator of the debates and the media then converts into a “Cunliffe won’t show” discussion. How about we debate the appropriateness of Hosking being the moderator.
Cunliffe has come across as cowardly from all of this. Here was his golden opportunity to go in there against (perceived) adversity and nail everyone with his oratory. Instead he threatened Hosking with a dossier of naughty words & phrases… What was he thinking!!!
He was probably thinking about the desperate poverty so many kiwis find themselves mired in. He was probably thinking about how he can turn around NZ’s steady descent into an American model of education, health, and insurance.
He was probably distracted by human concerns. Something which Mike Hosking has not bothered with for a long time.
You and McGrath are obviously following the Slater approach to blogging. Invent some shit, and keep repeating said shit ad nauseum in the hope that other people will also believe in said shit.
As New Zealanders become poorer due to the divisive Marxist practice of Free Trade, Elitists like Mr Hoskings will find themselves subject to more and more raw hatred.
Mr Hoskings is yet another Marxist who believes men and women are somehow equal. To anyone with brains, this is absurd. Any culture who does not value women more highly than men is doomed.
Free trade destroys local industry. Lets see what Karl Marx had to say about free trade.
“But, generally speaking, the Protective system in these days is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively. It breaks up old nationalities and carries antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, I am in favor of Free Trade.”
While that is nice for utopians, in practice, in reality, it causes a lot of anguish and destruction for the working class and their children.
What do elitists care if our working class and industrial base are destroyed? They are rootless cosmopolitans; much like the cockroach and the rat, they would be happy to live anywhere. “Free trade” they cry, but how many of them even know a trade?
As for women being more valuable than men, that should be obvious.
Indolent, arrogant men could be replaced by a small pool of breeding males, with very little loss to society, and a massive drop in violence and domestic abuse. Women can now do everything men can. While lazy New Zealand men sit around playing shooting games, women defend our country and serve in our armed forces.
We New Zealand males are becoming redundant. Lets show that we are worth keeping around.
Not at all. I am in no way against a strong government, or for a treasonous insurrection to “retake the New Zealand Constitution”.
There is no way we can return to limited government. Our people have been debased by decades of “liberty”. To attempt to remove a lot of state support, and guidance, like several idiot parties are advocating would be nothing less than a return to anarchy and slaughter. It is a survivalists fantasy.
Perhaps these libertarian anarchists see themselves holed up in their mansions, firing their rifles at the Walking Dead that come pleading for food and water. “You should have worked harder!” they scream as they shovel shells into the breech.
No, comrades, the way of the future is a mixed economy, in a morally conservative society. Already Premiere Putin, leader of the Free World has banned swearing in movies, and the promotion of perverse lifestyles to children. The bourgeois agendas of the left and right do not fool him. He knows what is good for the working class.
Have to agree with BM on this one. That’s an odd comment and reinforces why Labour has only 1 male vote in 5.
[lprent: Read the about. This site isn’t just for the Labour party. After all we let unthinking morans from the right like yourself write here. Read the policy about attributing motives to this site that don’t exist.
I get irritated by pinheaded fools being dumbarses about the site. Banned for a week to give you time to read the pages. Let me know if you need more time. ]
This election may seem stupid to you, but it is neither; pointless, nor pre-determined. The party representation proportions will be significantly changed once the votes are counted. Even if you believe that the next parliament will be; Nat-led, rather than Labour-led, the coalition agreement and private member bills submitted to the ballot over the next parliamentary term will differ.
Just because it looks like you may not win is not a reason to stop trying.
@Tom Jackson 9.33
It’s an ironic position when you care a lot about what you think is going wrong, and turning out badly, and then you help to bring this about. So why don’t you step back now you have made the comment about being pointless etc. That won’t change anything for the better except it provides a warning of possible outcomes we should keep in mind.
We now are in the situation where if one can’t say anything good, it’s better to say nothing at all. Don’t be a Cassandra any more! Just drop a bit of positive in if you see something that sparks an approving thought. I think it is good advice I am giving and I must follow this myself. And I advise all other lefties and Standardistas to adopt the same thing.
Don’t diss anyone except people like that sneaky cur that was supposed to have supplied goss to a journalist. But we don’t know if that was true anyway. What a good idea for one of these corkscrew jonos to make it up. He/she can’t reveal their sources, and seeing they don’t have any personal code of integrity and their employers are leaders in the art of sly obfuscation, the goss leak may not even have happened, probably just a song at twilight from a twilight lurker-writer’s head.
My comment won’t let me edit even though there is lots of time. I just checked on Cassandra to refresh myself.
Wikipedia on Cassandra. In their image she looks as if she is tearing her hair out!
[Apollo] he gave her the curse of never being believed. In an alternative version, she fell asleep in a temple, and snakes licked (or whispered in) her ears so that she was able to hear the future..(Ha ha snakes whispering into jonos’ ears – how apt, the apse slides in and out of our myths and beliefs.)
I was doing some replication work on the databases this morning getting the backup server at home on fibre running. Could have been causing issues.
I try to do this type of work on saturday morning as it is the quietest period on the site during the days and I’m not really that keen on doing it in the middle of the night anymore.
With respect disagree Jenny. TVNZ would never have backed down and Labour have made the point splashed over all of the MSM that Hoskin is a biased idiot.
It was time to get on with policies and not keep fighting this distraction.
He can ask tough questions as long as e does to both. He should try and remain neutral and fair. In the end what really decides are the policies and how well the leaders respond during the debate. Cunliffe will need persuasion, conviction, affability as well as aggression and fire at times. He is more than capable of all that. Though in his perceived favour, Key has smile, spin and hyperbole.
Perhaps he should have backed out of the debate and secretly asked Winston to take his place. That would have put John Key and TVNZ in a rather embarassing position.
..yes..everything you say about hosking..(and more..)..is true..
Yet I can predict that Labour Party apologists will be arguing here that “Mike Hosking is not so bad”. And the dossier Labour have collected on Hosking’s past outrages will be quietly shelved, never to see the light of day, as David Cunliffe makes his Party’s peace with Mike Hosking and the far Right embedded in the media.
It seemed to me to be quite a clever piece of positioning on Labour’s part. Hoskings is going to have to be very careful he’s fair and balanced after this publicity. One foot wrong….
I don’t care what Labour had/has to say about Hosking, he is the wrong man person for the job. Why does TVNZ always choose a guy, and a white guy at that? Guyon… etc
I have been trying to find examples of Hosking’s hate speech. links?
For the first time in quite awhile (4years+) I think the left with Labour as the largest party are going to win this election
Positive policies and no more infighting is going to carry the day
The Nats arrogance will be the deal breaker
They are certainly in a better position than they have been for a while. Not that you’d know it from the media. The Greens are focused as hell. Labour has good policies and most of the the people on board. The sense that I got from the NZF conference is that their supporters would prefer to go anywhere else to avoid touching National.
The only real hassle I see is the IMP supporters spending their time slagging everyone else on the left off. But that is to be expected. It now has the complete concentration of fragile egos who spend less time working on building a party and more on talking about the new miracle to happen.
bad12…agreed…i dont see much criticism of David Cunliffe…quite the contrary…there is some suspicion of some in caucus occasionally ( but who isnt a wee bit suspicious ?)
….generally IMP is very positive towards a Left coalition govt….their constituency is very young, techy, quite radical …not Labours constituency at all…judging from my Labour voting relatives who are all 50+
That’s right; both Bad12 & phillip ure are IMP aligned, but I don’t see them throttling back on the robustness of their discourse (or feud, if you will). So it’s not that we focus on; “slagging everyone else on the left off”, as we also go after ourselves, but mostly the Tories!
This is from a comment about IMPs I made to Chooky [at 5.1] on yesterday’s MS election stats post:
We are a strangely disparate group from my experience with NZ Politics. I come from a Green (once Labour) background, others from; National, Labour, Maori (through MANA) & NZF Parties. However we seem to building a team where, while we certainly don’t agree about everything; we are committed to working together to change the present corrupt Government.
Lolz Paupial, someone half inched your S, you should be more ‘onto it’, have a look at ‘Open Mike’ over the past week?, the ongoing debate between myself and Phillip has definitely ben ‘throttled back’,
‘Throttled’ actually as Phillip after our last exchange ”is never,ever, engaging with me again”…
Ps: insert mad laughter, i would have but the printed version looks a bit ugly…
Alien, Mmmm Bacon, ssshhh, i have four pieces in the fridge and they will make my life all that much more worth living on ‘diet days’ Sunday/Monday when i radically reduce the intake in the weight loss effort,(gloat: 88KG this week from 118KG December 2013)…
Alien, Laugh, i have recently been tempted to really stoop for Bad Taste as a stratagem with a discussion of the benefits of rat traps, which i have this week deployed, over rat poison, 3 packets of which i have bought and used in the past six months,
Wishing tho to re-invent myself as an admittedly dated adherent to an equally dated philosophy, SNAG, i have decided against discussing all aspects of my current barbarity here…
I chase house flies out of doors and windows so I don’t have to spray or whack, so well done on the non discussion of rat traps.
Having said that, it does pose problems for vegan environmentalists. Do they kill the destructive rats or possums? If they kill them, what method, a shot to the head or a belly full of poison?
If they agree to eradicate, why are they less worthy than beef and lamb? Why can’t I eat bacon if they agree to torture invasive species?
It’s a heck of a question for those vegan environmentalists out there.
Ta for the heads up – I don’t need to be more of a pauper than I already am!
I’ve been a bit busy of late, so missed quite a few Open Mikes, and other posts on TS in the last week or so. Though I seem to remember PU saying that he’d; never engage with certain people again, before, but not managing to follow through. We’ll have to see whether he manages; “never,ever, engaging”, any better.
Lolz Pasupial, i dare not comment any further on never ever, altho i have to admit that the cessation of hostilities has made ‘Open Mike’ a little bit of a cleaner read this week,
(And i might add taken a bit of the laughter out of the conversation for me, but, we have to realize that it aint our own private sandpit we are tossing the toys round in)…
building a team where, while we certainly don’t agree about everything; we are committed to working together to change the present corrupt Government
And that was the sense I got from hanging around the Internet Party’s “Party Party” tonight/this morning in Dunedin and chatting with many people. A wide range of people came along. There was a good mix in terms of demographics, ethnicities and even ages! Kim Dotcom even caught up with lovely 98yo Aunty Joyce (thanks for the photo, Tat):
There is a significant groundswell of feeling to see a change in Government. The mainstream media’s fault-finding and anti-Cunliffe slant is recognised. Support is strong for Cunliffe to lead the new government. To the broader Left and progressive voters, I say: take heart, galvanise your like-minded friends, family and wider network to vote on 20 Sep.
Good summary, especially the bit about fragile egos and the methodology of some mip supporters.
Like I’ve said before, odd that a 1% party has all the right ideas, but none of the votes.
An old quote that’s apt – Winners don’t wait for chances, they take them.
Alien, i see you have added a word to LPrent’s quote, the word? Some, as in Some IMP supporters,
Read as written by LPrent, His comment addressing ”the IMP supporters”, in the plural takes a swipe at all InternetMana Party supporters and is thus the exact same behavior that the comment protests against in relation to ”spending their time slagging off everyone else on the left”…
I did add the word ‘some’, from my own perspective, thinking it less definitive.
I know of a couple of mip good sorts who are okay and don’t aggressively attack the rest of the left in order to make political capital in a grandiose manner, so for me, one brush doesn’t tarr all.
Alien, ”is that ok”???, hell everything is ok to me,(until you see the Black note appear at the bottom of your comment that is),
”Aggressively attack” my plea is of course guilty as hell with respect to this aspect of commenting, tho personally my defence is that i happily engage on any level, not necessarily ”to make political capital in a grandiose manner” but if the conversation is going to be ‘gutter’ its either my first or second language,
(As you can see from our polite discussion the other day Alien, we both can stick to a ‘straight debate’ surrounding the facts, just as we both are fully adept at poking our little sharpened sticks metaphorically in each others eyes,
Probably a big part in our racing for the bottom when the conversation hits the gutter is the ‘shits and giggles’ it generates for us personally as dredging up something wickedly nasty as a retort i would suggest has you laughing like a loon as much as it does me)…
All good here (apart from the bold black text of doom).
If one can’t take a pointed stick to the eyes every so often, then stop playing and take up knitting, I say.
His comment addressing ”the IMP supporters”, in the plural takes a swipe at all InternetMana Party supporters and is thus the exact same behavior that the comment protests against in relation to ”spending their time slagging off everyone else on the left”…
Point taken. But the contrast between the Labour and Green party activists quietly labouring away at the pre-campaign work and the IMP tactic of slagging off other activists has been particularly striking to me over the last few months.
“IMP supporters spending their time slagging everyone else on the left off… the complete concentration of fragile egos who spend less time working on building a party and more on talking about the new miracle”
Am I included in this group you so casually denigrate? I’ve been commenting on the site less than usual precisely because; I’ve been out working on building a party, and facilitating students’ enrollment on the voting register. Sure, our; phillip & Jenny do have their quirks, but I’m sure there are other regular commenters who haven’t yet declared themselves as IMP supporters, who are also offended by your profiling of us.
Anyway, I agree with Ray that; “the left with Labour as the largest party are going to win this election”, or at least; that we’re still in with a real chance. “Positive policies and no more infighting” seems less likely however – I like Cunliffe and his faction, but am not so keen on others in the Labour Party (the ones who; while in the party, are not of the party).
The only real hassle I see is the IMP supporters spending their time slagging everyone else on the left off.
If Harawira’s performance on The Nation this morning is any guide then the answer is the opposite. He was ‘the statesman’ from start to finish. If he keeps that up then its looking good for him and the broader Left.
Is this a shameful backdown? Good strategy closer to truth. Cunliffe has raised the issue and is pragmatic now. He looks reasonable and realistic and Hosking is now aware through the petition, that not everybody loves and admires him. Cunliffe has been relentlessly picked on by all and sundry for months. Give the guy a break, without him the Left are going to sit on the Opposition benches. The only major error he has made was the Trusts earlier this year. The rest is just gossip and trivia, no doubt orchestrated by right wing media gonks. I’m with you Ray, the sea change for our entitled, arrogant and ignorant rulers is on the way.
1 jrobin
We need to stop fighting battles that take the focus off Labour Party policies and keep up the criticism of National Party policies rather than spending all our energy talking about the right wing bias in the media (even though it is the worst it has ever been). Labour were right to complain to TVNZ as Mike Hoskings will have to be a bit more careful than he would have been otherwise, but Cunliffe refusing to take part would be ridiculous. If you think the bullying of Cunliffe by the MSM is bad now it would only get worse if he didn’t turn up for the Leader’s debate.
I just hope he starts replying to every question about his leadership or disunity or supposed faults with a “I’m here to talk about the policies that are important to NZers, not to talk about trivia.”
The bias of the media, and the way its dominated by corporate-led infotainment IS an election issue.
I think left MPs are best keeping to their election policies. It’s up to the rest of us ordinary folks to keep the pressure up on the MSM to play fair during the election period – and to keep campaigning for better media after the elections.
Agree Jrobin. Nztv and Hosking have been put on notice. Hosking will be careful. He must realise that he will have a very short career when Labour wins if he is not mindful of this fact. His bff key is not going to be around much longer. Cunliffe has had the best of all the interviewers I have seen/heard him interviewed by. I don’t see this being any different.Even with ‘the popinjay’ (thank you Paul) moderating, Cunliffe will make key look like the uneducated playground bully that he is. All squealing and abuse but no substance. Bring it on.
I do not see Cunliffe’s acceptance as a back down but an inevitability. He has made his point and now it is up to tvnz and Hosking to honour their word of complete impartiality. They will be hung out to dry if they don’t. The whole country will be watching
In Politics -Stuff, a headline reads “John Minto Burns Israeli Flag.” He didn’t of course and didn’t know at the time that a flag had been burnt as the text of the column says.
IF what i seen aired on my TeeVee news last night surrounding the attack by the Israeli army on the UN school is in fact the truth,
IE: that UN officials had hours befor the shells rained down on that school, a place of refuge for women and children, begged, cajoled, and pleaded with the Israeli’s through direct contact, going so far as to provide them with the GPS coordinates for the location,
It saddens me to say that the small amount of sympathy i have thus far held onto for the Jewish State has evaporated,
Perhaps those within the US who openly support such Murder, with industrial efficiency, of children on a daily basis might care to cast around within their own borders for a ‘new promised land’ as such atrocities will in time provoke the need either for the use of weapons of mass destruction by the perpetrators of this ongoing child murder, probably within their own borders, and/or, a new ‘exodus’ of the Jewish people on a Biblical scale…
Yeah TV, seen that, perhaps Tracey Watkins inordinately extended ability to gush glowingly over Slippery the Prime Minister has dried up and desperate needs have in turn lead to desperate deeds,
Pretty low life bottom of the barrel Stuff do you not think Stuff.co.nz,???
i doubt this particular act of electoral bias by Stuff.co will have much effect as its not a hard print news organ that this gauche display appears within,
Most of us, computer literate to the extent of being able to access that particular site,(and in my case not much more), will probably have already, a long time ago,made our decisions as to which side of the political spectrum we will be voting,
Still, not a good look, and, another nail in the coffin for the mainstream media of New Zealand, and, Stuff.co can be assured that like the NZHerald, when the pay-walls go up i for one WILL NOT be paying them any of my coin to be subjected to such shit…
There was an advertisement the other day on Armstrong’s column of a blue bus in supposed motion with key’s face on the bus and blurb (go #team key or some such thing) which I can’t remember. I commented on it but when I went back it had disappeared.
Opposed to Iraeli STATE TERRORISM and the murdering of Palestinian little kids and civilians? Want to STAND UP and be counted? Today, Saturday 26 July 2014 – assemble 2pm Aotea Square Auckland. Hope to see a BIG turnout of decent people who are equally outraged at the violation of the most basic rights of Palestinians – the right to life! I’ll be there and encourage as many as possible to please attend and help spread the word. How would YOU like to be a Palestinian in Gaza right now? Penny Bright
‘When Firstline are focusing on flag burning rather than dead Palestinian children – that’s why you must march this Saturday at 2pm against Israeli aggression’
By Martyn Bradbury / July 25, 2014
This Saturday, Aotea Square, 2pm is that time to stand not only against Israeli aggression, but it’s tome to stand up against the pro-Israeli bias in our media….
Win,lose,draw, at some point after the September Votes have been counted we are going to have to get into casting our critical gaze upon all the parties of the left with a view to picking out and pointing to just what went right and what went wrong,
i definitely DO NOT propose to start such a process today, engaging in such behavior at this stage in the cycle being ‘not very helpful’ in terms of unity as the real contest is about to begin,
However,
In the case of poor old much maligned Labour who just can’t catch an even break any time anywhere it would seem i would suggest that to see what has been inherently amiss so far in the ‘campaign lead-up’ can be found encapsulated in a TV3 news item aired when David Cunliffe announced the parties election policy on education,
If you can find this particular video clip, aired the night of the education policies announcement on TV3 news at 6,(sorry my computer literacy leads me not to be able to provide a www), i would suggest that on a number of levels which do not involve the actual policy a number of ‘things’ best described as ‘wrong’ are encapsulated, epitomized, and, exposed within that one short news clip…
I was thinking about regional development and house prices ans the Reserve Bank. Largely because I was up in a so called “successful province” the other day (Taranaki) and things looked pretty dead there and the local businesses were saying things were either very tough or totally unreliable – good one day and quiet for the next week.
RE agents said houses were not selling etc etc etc.
So why cant the deposit for houses outside of Auckland and Canterbury be at 5% and have it at the 20% in those two provinces? Is it just because “who wins Auckland wins the election?” and to tell them they need a 20% deposit would mean they would vote for the other guys? (If the RB was able to do this, Im sure the Government would still get the blame)
If that deposit differential could be introduced then maybe we would have more folk looking at the provinces which would help them and with people can come business opportunities.
Auckland prices are a result of migration – from in NZ and from other countries, and Christchurch’s prices are a result of the earthquakes and the migration in for the rebuild.
I see Fran O Sullivan has joined the chorus of calls to raise the pension age.
Its easy wait 2 more years when you spend your working life either sitting on your ass at your PC (eating chocolate), or flittering from one social function to another on the Auckland cocktail circuit.
Just took part in “The Reactor” at Scoop. One of the videos to comment on was Johnathon Coleman saying if any minister knew about the FBI investigation of Dotcom, that would have been a massive red flag and he would have never got into New Zealand. Oops, Mr Coleman is in deep poo.
@ Papa TTuanuku 11.16
Okay – another word learned. Apopo – tomorrow. Tuwhera be open
And an extra – as an acronym it refers to –
APOPO is a registered Belgian non-governmental organisation which trains African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. APOPO’s mission is to develop detection rats technology to provide solutions for global problems and inspire positive social change.
Perhaps we should discard the week, as in Te wiki o te reo Maori, Maori language week, dialing the one week out of the year down to one day a month and then at a future point one day a week every week of the year where te reo Maori is promoted…
Here is a technical problem for me re the Standard posts. Any suggestions please?
I am able to post. I do get notices of new TOPICS in my email, but I do not get notices of new posts. Nor do I get ‘please confirm’ notices as I used to get before. This problem has been going on for over a week now.
While posting a comment, I do tick the two little boxes as usual.
I have cleared the cookies and restarted the computer a couple of times, but still no luck.
I tried to login and asked for a now password from ‘word press’, but says, that email does not exist!
What is the problem and how do I rectify this? Any one know? Thanks.
[lprent: Should in theory be fixed now for the emails. It was caused by my new fibre installation at home.
The emails were running out through my smtp server at home, and it took me a while to notice that my outward emails weren’t going outwards. I’d changed ISPs with the UFB install and therefore the onforwarding mail server wasn’t set up. I didn’t notice, I’d also started a new job on Monday so wasn’t at home to send emails.
Problem was that I only got the UFB installed on the friday before going to the new job after screaming at chorus about being at home for 8 weeks holiday and they hadn’t managed to do the installation while I was available. I got most of the other bits fixed last weekend, but missed the smtp and also my offsite database backups ]
There is an interesting post from another blog – on why the rich actually need governments – put up by the Irascible Curmudgeon. http://theirasciblecurmudgeon.blogspot.co.nz/ He quotes –
The very rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “are different from you and me.” Their wealth makes them “cynical where we are trustful,” and makes them think “they are better than we are.” If these words ring true today, perhaps it is because when they were written, in 1926, inequality in the United States had reached heights comparable to today.
As the University of Michigan’s Mark Mizruchi points out in a recent book, the American corporate elite in the postwar era had “an ethic of civic responsibility and enlightened self-interest.” They cooperated with trade unions and favored a strong government role in regulating and stabilizing markets. They understood the need for taxes to pay for important public goods such as the interstate highway and safety nets for the poor and elderly. Business elites were not any less politically powerful back then. But they used their influence to advance an agenda that was broadly in the national interest….
Surowiecki thinks that the change in attitudes has much to do with globalization. Large American corporations and banks now roam the globe freely, and are no longer so dependent on the US consumer. The health of the American middle class is of little interest to them these days. Moreover, Surowiecki argues, socialism has gone by the wayside, and there is no need to coopt the working class anymore.
Yet if corporate moguls think that they no longer need to rely on their national governments, they are making a huge mistake. The reality is that the stability and openness of the markets that produce their wealth have never depended more on government action….
But when economic storm clouds gather on the horizon, everyone seeks shelter under their home government’s cover. It is then that the ties that bind large corporations to their native soil are fully revealed. As former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King aptly put it in the context of finance, “global banks are global in life, but national in death.”
These must be condensing though as it was drawn up around 1980s and the changes talked about in Irascible’s post have hit hard and will continue to compress downwards.
I loved this bit from the Republicans manifesto of which I only read 1/52, (o that by the end of a year I’ll have read the whole thing.) So many grand phrases. It’s so rich that it makes my stomach heave. And so tempting to believe in then, and wish for now. Even though it had important lies and obfuscations in it then.
But doesn;t this sound nice. I wonder if it has been tried anywhere?
<i>On its Centennial, the Republican Party again calls to the minds of all Americans the great truth first spoken by Abraham Lincoln: “The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere.”
Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further: “In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people’s money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative.”
@joe90 1.34
Tom Lehrer talented and with a presence, and a very fast delivery on The Elements. His elocution teacher must have been good.
The Michael Moore piece mentioned Wisconsin people protesting.
I remember Wisconsin Works from Ruthless Richardson’s time also Jenny Shipley (doesn’t Jenny sound a sweet name). WW was a mean-minded set-up that of the type that you would feel they would push people off cliffs if there was a way to collect pay for the trip down.
Anyway this was interesting from wikipedia about how pragmatic pollies act when a job (that they want to see done) gets pushed through their political forum.
In January 2011, the state legislature passed a series of bills providing additional tax cuts and deductions for businesses at “a two-year cost of $67 million”.[31]
In early February, the Walker administration projected a budget shortfall in 2013 (Wisconsin functions on two-year budgets) of $3.6 billion[32] and found that a budget repair bill to resolve a $137 million shortfall for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011,… The Walker-backed bill proposed taking away the ability of public sector unions to bargain collectively over pensions and health care and limiting pay raises of public employees to the rate of inflation, as well as ending automatic union dues collection by the state….
Protests : At 1:00 am on February 25, following sixty hours of debate,[60] the final amendments had been defeated and the Republican leadership of the Wisconsin State Assembly cut off debate as well as the public hearing and moved quickly to pass the budget repair bill in a sudden vote.
The vote was 51 in favor and 17 opposed, with 28 representatives not voting.[60] The final vote took place without warning, and the time allowed for voting was so short (lasting only 5–15 s)[61] that fewer than half of the Democratic representatives were able to vote; many reportedly pushed the voting button as hard as possible but it did not register.[62] Four Republican representatives voted against the bill.[63]
In recent days, many journalists, including Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and Ronan Farrow on MSNBC, have asked when is Israel justified in attacking crowded civilian settings in order to kill militants. Robinson: “So if you’re an Israeli commander and you know that there’s a Hamas military facility next to a medical clinic, but you’re not completely sure the militants are still there, while the clinic is likely packed with injured civilians, do you still pull the trigger?”
Over a decade ago, Yonatan Shapira, then an Israeli air force pilot, bravely confronted his top commander, Lt. General Dan Halutz, over what were euphemistically called “targeted assassinations.” Israeli warplanes regularly fired missiles at Hamas leaders in Gaza, also killing innocent civilians, some of them children.
Shapira asked General Halutz, What if a Hamas leader were located in Tel Aviv? Would you order our pilots to fire there, risking Israeli bystanders? Halutz said no.
So you value Israelis over Palestinians, Yonatan responded. Get someone else to fly your aircraft.
Labour leader David Cunliffe has launched his party’s West Auckland campaign and the message is a multicultural team for a multicultural community.
In front of a roomful of cheering, red-scarf wearing Labour Party members, Cunliffe introduced the candidates for Kelston, Helensville, Upper Harbour, Te Atatu and his own electorate New Lynn.
Note: This Webworm discusses sexual assault and rape. Please read with care.Hi,A few weeks ago I reported on how one of New Zealand’s richest men, Nick Mowbray (he and his brother own Zuru and are worth an estimated $20 billion), had taken to sharing posts by a British man called ...
The final Atlas Network playbook puzzle piece is here, and it slipped in to Aotearoa New Zealand with little fan fare or attention. The implications are stark.Today, writes Dr Bex, the submission for the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill closes: 11:59pm January 16, 2025.As usual, the language of the ...
Excitement in the seaside village! Look what might be coming! 400 million dollars worth of investment! In the very beating heart of the village! Are we excited and eager to see this happen, what with every last bank branch gone and shops sitting forlornly quiet awaiting a customer?Yes please, apply ...
Much discussion has been held over the Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB), the latest in a series of rightwing attempts to enshrine into law pro-market precepts such as the primacy of private property ownership. Underneath the good governance and economic efficiency gobbledegook language of the Bill is an interest to strip ...
We are concerned that the Amendment Bill, as proposed, could impair the operations and legitimate interests of the NZ Trade Union movement. It is also likely to negatively impact the ability of other civil society actors to conduct their affairs without the threat of criminal sanctions. We ask that ...
I can't take itHow could I fake it?How could I fake it?And I can't take itHow could I fake it?How could I fake it?Song: The Lonely Biscuits.“A bit nippy”, I thought when I woke this morning, and then, soon after that, I wondered whether hell had frozen over. Dear friends, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Asheville, North Carolina, was once widely considered a climate haven thanks to its elevated, inland location and cooler temperatures than much of the Southeast. Then came the catastrophic floods of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. It was a stark reminder that nowhere is safe from ...
Early reports indicate that the temporary Israel/Hamas ceasefire deal (due to take effect on Sunday) will allow for the gradual release of groups of Israeli hostages, the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails (likely only a fraction of the total incarcerated population), and the withdrawal ...
My daily news diet is not what it once was.It was the TV news that lost me first. Too infantilising, too breathless, too frustrating.The Herald was next. You could look past the reactionary framing while it was being a decent newspaper of record, but once Shayne Currie began unleashing all ...
Hit the road Jack and don't you come backNo more, no more, no more, no moreHit the road Jack and don't you come back no moreWhat you say?Songwriters: Percy MayfieldMorena,I keep many of my posts, like this one, paywall-free so that everyone can read them.However, please consider supporting me as ...
This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...
A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...
Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...
Last year, 292 people died unnecessarily on our roads. That is the lowest result in over a decade and only the fourth time in the last 70 years we’ve seen fewer than 300 deaths in a calendar year. Yet, while it is 292 people too many, with each death being ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 5, 2025 thru Sat, January 11, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
Without delving into personal details but in order to give readers a sense of the year that was, I thought I would offer the study in contrasts that are Xmas 2023 and Xmas 2024: Xmas 2023 in Starship Children’s Hospital (after third of four surgeries). Even opening presents was an ...
Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
Hi,Webworm has been pretty heavy this year — mainly because the world is pretty heavy. But as we sprint (or limp, you choose) through the final days of 2024, I wanted to keep Webworm a little lighter.So today I wanted to look at one of the biggest and weirdest elements ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
We’ll have a climate change ChristmasFrom now until foreverWarming our hearts and mindsAnd planet all togetherSpirits high and oceans higherChestnuts roast on wildfiresIf coal is on your wishlistMerry Climate Change ChristmasSong by Ian McConnellReindeer emissions are not something I’d thought about in terms of climate change. I guess some significant ...
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is wishing all New Zealanders a great holiday season as Kiwis prepare for gatherings with friends and families to see in the New Year. It is a great time of year to remind everyone to stay fire safe over the summer. “I know ...
From 1 January 2025, first-time tertiary learners will have access to a new Fees Free entitlement of up to $12,000 for their final year of provider-based study or final two years of work-based learning, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Targeting funding to the final year of study ...
Finally, some good fucking news. The Friday Poem is back! Last year, The Spinoff leveled with its audience about the financial reality it faced and called for support from its audience. Some tough decisions were made at the time including cuts to our commissioning budget and the discontinuation of The ...
The soon-to-be deputy PM has already had a crucial win behind the scenes. First published in Henry Cooke’s politics newsletter, Museum Street. Margaret Thatcher used to love prime minister’s questions. If you’re not familiar, the UK parliamentary system has a weekly procedure where the prime minister is subject to at least ...
Summer reissue: The current coalition not lasting beyond this parliamentary term is an idea that’s been seized on by its opponents. History suggests it’s unlikely – but not impossible. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Port Vila More than 180,000 registered voters are expected to cast their votes today with polls now open in Vanuatu. It is remarkable the snap election is even able to happen with Friday marking one month since the 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the ...
New Zealand needs to boost its productivity growth and become more attractive and accessible as a workplace in order to fix its labour market woes, a recruitment agency says.Commenting on new salary survey results from Robert Walters, Shay Peters, the company’s Australia and New Zealand chief executive, says the Government ...
Comment: When Newsroom’s editor Jonathan Milne invited me to write one of two special pieces for the summer break, I faced quite the conundrum. My options were to either review a work of non-fiction or write a column about hope and optimism for 2025.I initially misread Jonathan’s request to review ...
By Daniel Perese of Te Ao Māori News Māori politicians across the political spectrum in Aotearoa New Zealand have called for immediate aid to enter Gaza following a temporary ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel. The ceasefire, agreed yesterday, comes into effect on Sunday, January 19. Foreign Minister Winston Peters ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Sherlock, Lecturer, School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University Australian-owned brand UGG Since 1974 has announced it will change its name to “Since 74” for sales outside Australia and New Zealand. There has been a long-running battle over the rights ...
The committee has agreed to split into two sub-committees to increase the number of people it can hear from in the time available. Each sub-committee will meet for 30 hours total, together making up 60 of the 80 planned hours of hearings. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Parmeter, Research scholar, Middle East studies, Australian National University The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, to come into effect on Sunday, has understandably been welcomed by the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis are relieved that a process for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Carson, Senior Research Fellow, School of Medicine, The University of Western Australia Over the past several days, the world has watched on in shock as wildfires have devastated large parts of Los Angeles. Beyond the obvious destruction – to landscapes, homes, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rose Cairns, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, University of Sydney AtlasStudio/Shutterstock TikTok and Instagram influencers have been peddling the “Barbie drug” to help you tan. But melanotan-II, as it’s called officially, is a solution that’s too good to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor in Strategic Management, The University of Queensland A series of wildfires in Los Angeles County have caused widespread devastation in California, including at least 24 deaths and the destruction of more than 12,000 homes and structures. Thousands of residents ...
COMMENTARY:By Monika Singh The lack of women representation in parliaments across the world remains a vexed and contentious issue. In Fiji, this problem has again surfaced for debate in response to Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica’s call for a quota system to increase women’s representation in Parliament. Kamikamica was ...
What compels someone of significant status in society to break the law, repeatedly, might be the same reason I did as a poor teenager. Former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who left parliament a year ago today following revelations of shoplifting, is now at the centre of another shoplifting complaint. As ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kath Albury, Professor of Media and Communication and Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, Swinburne University of Technology natamrli/Shutterstock Last week, social media giant Meta announced major changes to its content moderation practices. This includes an ...
"Gisborne has suffered from housing underdevelopment and a lack of supply, coupled with damage from severe weather events," Minister Tama Potaka says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marta Andhov, Associate Professor, Law School, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Iconic Bestiary/Shutterstock They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But in the world of legal contracts, pictures can be worth even more by making complicated concepts more ...
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Labour leader David Cunliffe has dropped his objection to appearing in a live televised leaders’ debate with Prime Minister John Key.
You naughty little boy for daring question us. Now do as you are told
This surrender is completely the wrong message to give to the electorate.
This is a betrayal of Maori of Women of every person and group this Right Wing bigot has insulted and mocked.
Labour has dignified this Right Wing extremist and has handed him an undeserved media platform and have created a media rod for their own backs way beyond this debate.
With this victory over Labour by TVNZ, voters will be asking is there anything that Labour won’t back down on?
Through Labour’s subservience Mike Hosking will take the moderator’s chair, and his smug gloating at this personal vindication of his extreme misogynist and Right Wing views on our television screens will make the debate unbearable to watch for many.
This supercilious wretch is not fit to mediate a kindergarten finger painting contest.
As he arrogantly treats the debaters (of both sides), as wayward children, the serious issues will become lost, and the debate will be cheapened and trivialised.
By caving in and agreeing to be part of this farcical circus, Labour has been smacked and smacked down hard and the country knows it.
No doubt Labour have got an assurance from TVNZ that Mike Hosking will act as the benevolent media arbiter, and in so doing, will condescendingly patronise and glaringly favour Cunliffe over Key, to the point of farce, (and beyond).
As Mike Hosking bathes in his personal magnificence as he smugly tells the Prime Minister to, “Shut up and give Mr Cunliffe a fair go”. the whole country will cringe at the spectacle.
It doesn’t really matter now what Cunliffe says in the debate, or promises the voters, he has already lost. He will be entering the leaders debate as a crippled loser who needs to be favoured out of charity.
In giving in to this outrageous imposition by TVNZ, the public can now know for certain, that David Cunliffe and the Labour Party are hostages to the establishment, any assurances that David Cunliffe gives voters in the debate are worth nothing because Labour cannot be relied on not to fold at the slightest pressure from big business, foreign powers, vested interest, oil drillers and yes the media, all those that make up the current establishment.
No matter how reckless, unjust, or cruel. Any humiliation is bearable, any outrage is excusable.
From deep sea oil, to massacre in Gaza.
Labour as the Loyal Opposition Party guaranteed to support the establishment.
The only question left is what will be their next back down?
This is all so terribly disappointing Labour had a chance to put these media Czars in their place and fluffed it.
Now I fear by empowering the Right, Labour have permanently damaged the media discourse in this country.
They should have stuck to their guns.
Now we will be forced to accept this unbalanced Right wing harpy as a serious media commentator on our nations TVs for the foreseeable future.
Labour has had plenty of chances to reform the media environment when it has been in government.
It chose to continue with the corporate profit making model for publicly owned television and radio so can hardly complain when its drive to extract dividends rather than deliver quality broadcasting results in the likes of Hoskings reigning supreme.
Rather than making fools of themselves by empty threats to boycott they should have promised reforms of publicly owned media that would lead to them focusing on providing the public with the best possible information on local and international events combined with a range of points of view and expert analysis from people who know what they are talking about.
The trouble is if they did that even more people would realise how fucked their precious capitalism is.
Jenny the views of everyone who is interested in the left are being put forward and going into the petition as well. Now it is time to stop the consciousness-raising and get positives-raising behind the strong David Cunliffe that we have. And facilitate and enable him as much as possible.
Much of the media’s approach is unfair and unbalanced and we know that they will go off in the lifeboats and leave the rest of the country dealing with the aftermath if anything goes awry. So we must deal with that thought and make sure that we make our firm stand on firm ground and just keep on with positive action that advances Labour.
3rd attempt!
+100 @ Lefty.
I submitted a comprehensive response but it disappeared up its own arse (went into a black hole). Somehow I doubt moderation but I’ll wait and see.
Still … it’s what an interloper probably deserves – it’s just that I hope this site isn’t becoming part of the Xero phenomenon.
Time is tight and opinions are cheap it seems these days (especially when one is competing with a well financed brigade of trolls).
Time for a nanna knap
@OncewasTim
See Lprent at 5.09 pm may be reason for that.
I disagree with your points. It would have hurt Cunliffe and Labour more as weak if Hosking was removed at this stage as the issue was in the open rather than behind the scenes.
He did rather snooker himself with this previous comment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11299118
What a pity John Key was too chicken to turn up.
Well he didn’t. This issue shows is another media beat up. Labour complains about a clearly inappropriate choice for moderator of the debates and the media then converts into a “Cunliffe won’t show” discussion. How about we debate the appropriateness of Hosking being the moderator.
I have no problem with Hosking.
I have no problem with Campbell.
Christ, Key has had to put up with that asshat Campbell and his sycophantic greenie/dotcom bullshit, you don’t see him moaning about it.
Best thing for Cunliffe is just to suck it up, get on with it and show that he’s got the goods.
Cunliffe has come across as cowardly from all of this. Here was his golden opportunity to go in there against (perceived) adversity and nail everyone with his oratory. Instead he threatened Hosking with a dossier of naughty words & phrases… What was he thinking!!!
He was probably thinking about the desperate poverty so many kiwis find themselves mired in. He was probably thinking about how he can turn around NZ’s steady descent into an American model of education, health, and insurance.
He was probably distracted by human concerns. Something which Mike Hosking has not bothered with for a long time.
Here’s a thought. Maybe he can think about all that AFTER he gets elected when he’s in a position to do something about it. Just a thought.
are you seriously stating that someone can only be elected if they don’t obviously think and care about poverty and turning the country around?
You and McGrath are obviously following the Slater approach to blogging. Invent some shit, and keep repeating said shit ad nauseum in the hope that other people will also believe in said shit.
They, like Slater and Crosby/Textor, have leaned that from the techniques of Paul Joseph Goebbels.
It must pain you to acknowledge and talk about the real problem.
Give Hoskings all the rope he needs.
As New Zealanders become poorer due to the divisive Marxist practice of Free Trade, Elitists like Mr Hoskings will find themselves subject to more and more raw hatred.
Mr Hoskings is yet another Marxist who believes men and women are somehow equal. To anyone with brains, this is absurd. Any culture who does not value women more highly than men is doomed.
Why should Women be more valued then Men?
What a bizarre comment.
Why don’t you ask your pretend wife? When she’s finished the pretend housework, of course.
whoar..!..hosking a ‘marxist’..?
..he hides it well…
Hosking certainly does hide it well.
And as for Hosking valuing women over men… I guess it depends what for.
Free trade destroys local industry. Lets see what Karl Marx had to say about free trade.
“But, generally speaking, the Protective system in these days is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively. It breaks up old nationalities and carries antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, I am in favor of Free Trade.”
http://mailstar.net/classwar.html
While that is nice for utopians, in practice, in reality, it causes a lot of anguish and destruction for the working class and their children.
What do elitists care if our working class and industrial base are destroyed? They are rootless cosmopolitans; much like the cockroach and the rat, they would be happy to live anywhere. “Free trade” they cry, but how many of them even know a trade?
As for women being more valuable than men, that should be obvious.
Indolent, arrogant men could be replaced by a small pool of breeding males, with very little loss to society, and a massive drop in violence and domestic abuse. Women can now do everything men can. While lazy New Zealand men sit around playing shooting games, women defend our country and serve in our armed forces.
We New Zealand males are becoming redundant. Lets show that we are worth keeping around.
yes yes..i know that marx predicted pretty much everything that is happening now..
..(and that is fascinating in its’ own right..)
..aside from the obvious civil liberties issues..yr ‘pool of breeding males’ idea does have much to recommend it..
..the only problem is perfecting a fool-proof/fail-safe boofhead/should-not-breed detector..
..and of course..such a detector should also be able to grade women..
Liberties must be curtailed for the greater good, comrade. A strong Dictatorship of the Proletariat may well be required.
have you thought about branching out into stand-up comedy..?
I find a lot of “comedians” like to reference their genitals, and are proud of their licentiousness.
Poor examples for the future Working Class youth.
yeah..!..yeah..!….doing that routine..
..it’s a bit of a young ones steal..
..but you wear it well…
Best word to describe Hoskins.
A popinjay
pop·in·jay [pop-in-jey]
noun
1. a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter; coxcomb; fop.
@Paul. Perfect word! perfect description! LOL. Dandy also springs to mind.
..’louche’ wd also have to be woven in somewhere..
Classic case scenario of the “Bourgeoisie”
I prefer the slightly more earthy “twat”, or perhaps “bell end”
This folks, is a rare example of a ‘paleo-conservative’.
Not at all. I am in no way against a strong government, or for a treasonous insurrection to “retake the New Zealand Constitution”.
There is no way we can return to limited government. Our people have been debased by decades of “liberty”. To attempt to remove a lot of state support, and guidance, like several idiot parties are advocating would be nothing less than a return to anarchy and slaughter. It is a survivalists fantasy.
Perhaps these libertarian anarchists see themselves holed up in their mansions, firing their rifles at the Walking Dead that come pleading for food and water. “You should have worked harder!” they scream as they shovel shells into the breech.
No, comrades, the way of the future is a mixed economy, in a morally conservative society. Already Premiere Putin, leader of the Free World has banned swearing in movies, and the promotion of perverse lifestyles to children. The bourgeois agendas of the left and right do not fool him. He knows what is good for the working class.
I say we follow his lead.
Have to agree with BM on this one. That’s an odd comment and reinforces why Labour has only 1 male vote in 5.
[lprent: Read the about. This site isn’t just for the Labour party. After all we let unthinking morans from the right like yourself write here. Read the policy about attributing motives to this site that don’t exist.
I get irritated by pinheaded fools being dumbarses about the site. Banned for a week to give you time to read the pages. Let me know if you need more time. ]
Oh, he’ll never have enough time. He does his thinking in a vacuum.
Aw Mike, to anyone with brains, your comment is absurd. I have no idea where you get your idea of Marxism from, but it’s not the commonly held one.
I guess it was pointless to complain in the first place, since Cunliffe can’t really avoid having to debate, but Key can.
Lord, I wish this stupid, pointless, pre-determined election was over and done with.
TJ
This election may seem stupid to you, but it is neither; pointless, nor pre-determined. The party representation proportions will be significantly changed once the votes are counted. Even if you believe that the next parliament will be; Nat-led, rather than Labour-led, the coalition agreement and private member bills submitted to the ballot over the next parliamentary term will differ.
Just because it looks like you may not win is not a reason to stop trying.
@Tom Jackson 9.33
It’s an ironic position when you care a lot about what you think is going wrong, and turning out badly, and then you help to bring this about. So why don’t you step back now you have made the comment about being pointless etc. That won’t change anything for the better except it provides a warning of possible outcomes we should keep in mind.
We now are in the situation where if one can’t say anything good, it’s better to say nothing at all. Don’t be a Cassandra any more! Just drop a bit of positive in if you see something that sparks an approving thought. I think it is good advice I am giving and I must follow this myself. And I advise all other lefties and Standardistas to adopt the same thing.
Don’t diss anyone except people like that sneaky cur that was supposed to have supplied goss to a journalist. But we don’t know if that was true anyway. What a good idea for one of these corkscrew jonos to make it up. He/she can’t reveal their sources, and seeing they don’t have any personal code of integrity and their employers are leaders in the art of sly obfuscation, the goss leak may not even have happened, probably just a song at twilight from a twilight lurker-writer’s head.
My comment won’t let me edit even though there is lots of time. I just checked on Cassandra to refresh myself.
Wikipedia on Cassandra. In their image she looks as if she is tearing her hair out!
[Apollo] he gave her the curse of never being believed. In an alternative version, she fell asleep in a temple, and snakes licked (or whispered in) her ears so that she was able to hear the future..(Ha ha snakes whispering into jonos’ ears – how apt, the apse slides in and out of our myths and beliefs.)
I was doing some replication work on the databases this morning getting the backup server at home on fibre running. Could have been causing issues.
I try to do this type of work on saturday morning as it is the quietest period on the site during the days and I’m not really that keen on doing it in the middle of the night anymore.
@lprent 5.09
Thanks. What you have set up seems to be handling the increased traffic well.
It made Labour and Cunliffe look petty and weak – and all the talk about the folder of Hosking quotes… that sounded like Mitt Romeny’s binder.
No doubt Key will bring it up during the debate.
With respect disagree Jenny. TVNZ would never have backed down and Labour have made the point splashed over all of the MSM that Hoskin is a biased idiot.
It was time to get on with policies and not keep fighting this distraction.
agreed. And Hosking has to be on good behaviour, because if he is too obviously biased then he can be called on it during the debate or after it.
He can ask tough questions as long as e does to both. He should try and remain neutral and fair. In the end what really decides are the policies and how well the leaders respond during the debate. Cunliffe will need persuasion, conviction, affability as well as aggression and fire at times. He is more than capable of all that. Though in his perceived favour, Key has smile, spin and hyperbole.
Perhaps he should have backed out of the debate and secretly asked Winston to take his place. That would have put John Key and TVNZ in a rather embarassing position.
you’ve missed yr calling..
..thought of offering yr services as a consultant..?..a tactician..?
whew jenny..!..have a (vegan) kit-kat..eh..?
.i disagree with you..
..yes..everything you say about hosking..(and more..)..is true..
..but labour blew it by bleating..
..cunnliffe should have laughed..pointed out how rightwing hosking is..
..and expressed hope that hosking wd be able to keep his far-right beliefs in check..for the course of the debates..
..and of course cunnliffe/labour have looked as tho’ their policies/arguments are so weak..
..that a trout like hosking can just blow them away/strike them silent..(!)
..how is that a good look..?
..cunnliffe has to go into these debates with fire in both his belly and his voice…
..he has the intellectual/debating-nous to do that..and he has to sell (that much/over-maligned concept)..his/labours’ vision…
..if cunnliffe goes into these debates continuing his quest to be everyman for everyone..smiling/nodding his way thru…he will tank/get tanked…
..we have seen more than enough of that ‘i’m just a nice/average guy!’ schtick..
..we get that..enough already..!
..now we need to see that intellectual/political-ideas ‘fire’ …
..cunnliffe must demand for his ideas to be heard…
..and show he is able to brush the presence of hosking away..
..as an irrelevancy..
..and that cunnliffe succeeds in this mission..
..is becoming more and more important for him/labour..
Yet I can predict that Labour Party apologists will be arguing here that “Mike Hosking is not so bad”. And the dossier Labour have collected on Hosking’s past outrages will be quietly shelved, never to see the light of day, as David Cunliffe makes his Party’s peace with Mike Hosking and the far Right embedded in the media.
Peace in our time?
Yeah right.
I think you’re wrong Jenny.
It seemed to me to be quite a clever piece of positioning on Labour’s part. Hoskings is going to have to be very careful he’s fair and balanced after this publicity. One foot wrong….
I don’t care what Labour had/has to say about Hosking, he is the wrong
manperson for the job. Why does TVNZ always choose a guy, and a white guy at that? Guyon… etcI have been trying to find examples of Hosking’s hate speech. links?
reason for labour people to be cheerful..(sort of..)
..they have this to look forward to..(from todays’ guardian..)
“..Kim Dotcom: ‘The Internet party will abolish mass surveillance’..
..Tech tycoon believes politicians need to work harder to engage the youth vote –
Dotcom also reiterated his promise that five days before the election – the world will ‘witness a moment of truth’ –
“We’re about to make history” – he said..”
(cont..)
(those ok with giving me the click-thru can go here:..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/kim-dotcom-the-internet-party-will-abolish-mass-surveillance/
(or straight to the source..)
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/25/kim-dotcom-interview-the-internet-party-will-abolish-mass-surveillance-snowden
For the first time in quite awhile (4years+) I think the left with Labour as the largest party are going to win this election
Positive policies and no more infighting is going to carry the day
The Nats arrogance will be the deal breaker
Let us hope you are right. No more shameful back downs.
They are certainly in a better position than they have been for a while. Not that you’d know it from the media. The Greens are focused as hell. Labour has good policies and most of the the people on board. The sense that I got from the NZF conference is that their supporters would prefer to go anywhere else to avoid touching National.
The only real hassle I see is the IMP supporters spending their time slagging everyone else on the left off. But that is to be expected. It now has the complete concentration of fragile egos who spend less time working on building a party and more on talking about the new miracle to happen.
LPrent, some facts would be nice, ”The only real hassle I see is the IMP supporters slagging everyone else on the left off”,
Are you here referring to the general discussions that occur daily at the Standard,???…
bad12…agreed…i dont see much criticism of David Cunliffe…quite the contrary…there is some suspicion of some in caucus occasionally ( but who isnt a wee bit suspicious ?)
….generally IMP is very positive towards a Left coalition govt….their constituency is very young, techy, quite radical …not Labours constituency at all…judging from my Labour voting relatives who are all 50+
That’s right; both Bad12 & phillip ure are IMP aligned, but I don’t see them throttling back on the robustness of their discourse (or feud, if you will). So it’s not that we focus on; “slagging everyone else on the left off”, as we also go after ourselves, but mostly the Tories!
This is from a comment about IMPs I made to Chooky [at 5.1] on yesterday’s MS election stats post:
Lolz Paupial, someone half inched your S, you should be more ‘onto it’, have a look at ‘Open Mike’ over the past week?, the ongoing debate between myself and Phillip has definitely ben ‘throttled back’,
‘Throttled’ actually as Phillip after our last exchange ”is never,ever, engaging with me again”…
Ps: insert mad laughter, i would have but the printed version looks a bit ugly…
“‘Throttled’ actually as Phillip after our last exchange ”is never,ever, engaging with me again”…”
Pick six numbers between 1 and 48 and get down to the lotto shop 😉 :smirk:
And buy a packet of bacon flavoured kittens for the journey home 😀
Alien, Mmmm Bacon, ssshhh, i have four pieces in the fridge and they will make my life all that much more worth living on ‘diet days’ Sunday/Monday when i radically reduce the intake in the weight loss effort,(gloat: 88KG this week from 118KG December 2013)…
Great result that Bad, 88 from 118. keep it up bruv.
Maybe just get bacon flavour diet kittens with that lotto ticket.
Alien, Laugh, i have recently been tempted to really stoop for Bad Taste as a stratagem with a discussion of the benefits of rat traps, which i have this week deployed, over rat poison, 3 packets of which i have bought and used in the past six months,
Wishing tho to re-invent myself as an admittedly dated adherent to an equally dated philosophy, SNAG, i have decided against discussing all aspects of my current barbarity here…
I chase house flies out of doors and windows so I don’t have to spray or whack, so well done on the non discussion of rat traps.
Having said that, it does pose problems for vegan environmentalists. Do they kill the destructive rats or possums? If they kill them, what method, a shot to the head or a belly full of poison?
If they agree to eradicate, why are they less worthy than beef and lamb? Why can’t I eat bacon if they agree to torture invasive species?
It’s a heck of a question for those vegan environmentalists out there.
Bad12
Ta for the heads up – I don’t need to be more of a pauper than I already am!
I’ve been a bit busy of late, so missed quite a few Open Mikes, and other posts on TS in the last week or so. Though I seem to remember PU saying that he’d; never engage with certain people again, before, but not managing to follow through. We’ll have to see whether he manages; “never,ever, engaging”, any better.
Lolz Pasupial, i dare not comment any further on never ever, altho i have to admit that the cessation of hostilities has made ‘Open Mike’ a little bit of a cleaner read this week,
(And i might add taken a bit of the laughter out of the conversation for me, but, we have to realize that it aint our own private sandpit we are tossing the toys round in)…
[lprent: indeed ]
“..[lprent: indeed ]..”
my only comment is that i miss the constant argy-bargy not a jot..
..so see no reason to alter the current status quo..
building a team where, while we certainly don’t agree about everything; we are committed to working together to change the present corrupt Government
And that was the sense I got from hanging around the Internet Party’s “Party Party” tonight/this morning in Dunedin and chatting with many people. A wide range of people came along. There was a good mix in terms of demographics, ethnicities and even ages! Kim Dotcom even caught up with lovely 98yo Aunty Joyce (thanks for the photo, Tat):
https://twitter.com/Tat_Loo/status/492991223485829120/photo/1
There is a significant groundswell of feeling to see a change in Government. The mainstream media’s fault-finding and anti-Cunliffe slant is recognised. Support is strong for Cunliffe to lead the new government. To the broader Left and progressive voters, I say: take heart, galvanise your like-minded friends, family and wider network to vote on 20 Sep.
My pleasure!
Good summary, especially the bit about fragile egos and the methodology of some mip supporters.
Like I’ve said before, odd that a 1% party has all the right ideas, but none of the votes.
An old quote that’s apt – Winners don’t wait for chances, they take them.
Alien, i see you have added a word to LPrent’s quote, the word? Some, as in Some IMP supporters,
Read as written by LPrent, His comment addressing ”the IMP supporters”, in the plural takes a swipe at all InternetMana Party supporters and is thus the exact same behavior that the comment protests against in relation to ”spending their time slagging off everyone else on the left”…
I did add the word ‘some’, from my own perspective, thinking it less definitive.
I know of a couple of mip good sorts who are okay and don’t aggressively attack the rest of the left in order to make political capital in a grandiose manner, so for me, one brush doesn’t tarr all.
Is that okay?
Alien, ”is that ok”???, hell everything is ok to me,(until you see the Black note appear at the bottom of your comment that is),
”Aggressively attack” my plea is of course guilty as hell with respect to this aspect of commenting, tho personally my defence is that i happily engage on any level, not necessarily ”to make political capital in a grandiose manner” but if the conversation is going to be ‘gutter’ its either my first or second language,
(As you can see from our polite discussion the other day Alien, we both can stick to a ‘straight debate’ surrounding the facts, just as we both are fully adept at poking our little sharpened sticks metaphorically in each others eyes,
Probably a big part in our racing for the bottom when the conversation hits the gutter is the ‘shits and giggles’ it generates for us personally as dredging up something wickedly nasty as a retort i would suggest has you laughing like a loon as much as it does me)…
All good here (apart from the bold black text of doom).
If one can’t take a pointed stick to the eyes every so often, then stop playing and take up knitting, I say.
Laughs, my knitting needle is poised…
With telescopic sight, or sawn off for maximum effect at short distances. 😆
“…His comment addressing ”the IMP supporters”, in the plural takes a swipe at all InternetMana Party supporters …”
Hmmm, it could also be read as taking issue specifically with those IMP supporters who slag off the rest of the left.
“The only real hassle I see is the IMP supporters spending their time slagging everyone else on the left off.”
Ie, the hassle is those that do slag, those that don’t are no hassle.
Yours in pedantry,
TRP.
Point taken. But the contrast between the Labour and Green party activists quietly labouring away at the pre-campaign work and the IMP tactic of slagging off other activists has been particularly striking to me over the last few months.
lprent
“IMP supporters spending their time slagging everyone else on the left off… the complete concentration of fragile egos who spend less time working on building a party and more on talking about the new miracle”
Am I included in this group you so casually denigrate? I’ve been commenting on the site less than usual precisely because; I’ve been out working on building a party, and facilitating students’ enrollment on the voting register. Sure, our; phillip & Jenny do have their quirks, but I’m sure there are other regular commenters who haven’t yet declared themselves as IMP supporters, who are also offended by your profiling of us.
Anyway, I agree with Ray that; “the left with Labour as the largest party are going to win this election”, or at least; that we’re still in with a real chance. “Positive policies and no more infighting” seems less likely however – I like Cunliffe and his faction, but am not so keen on others in the Labour Party (the ones who; while in the party, are not of the party).
If Harawira’s performance on The Nation this morning is any guide then the answer is the opposite. He was ‘the statesman’ from start to finish. If he keeps that up then its looking good for him and the broader Left.
+100 Anne….Harawira is truly impressive
Is this a shameful backdown? Good strategy closer to truth. Cunliffe has raised the issue and is pragmatic now. He looks reasonable and realistic and Hosking is now aware through the petition, that not everybody loves and admires him. Cunliffe has been relentlessly picked on by all and sundry for months. Give the guy a break, without him the Left are going to sit on the Opposition benches. The only major error he has made was the Trusts earlier this year. The rest is just gossip and trivia, no doubt orchestrated by right wing media gonks. I’m with you Ray, the sea change for our entitled, arrogant and ignorant rulers is on the way.
Agreed. Stop the hand wringing. The public are desperate for light. Plus now it’s Cunliffe vs Key and Hosking. Everyone loves an underdog.
” Everyone loves an underdog”.
Winston has done very well out of being the underdog!
+1 to Ray and Jrobin
We need to stop fighting battles that take the focus off Labour Party policies and keep up the criticism of National Party policies rather than spending all our energy talking about the right wing bias in the media (even though it is the worst it has ever been). Labour were right to complain to TVNZ as Mike Hoskings will have to be a bit more careful than he would have been otherwise, but Cunliffe refusing to take part would be ridiculous. If you think the bullying of Cunliffe by the MSM is bad now it would only get worse if he didn’t turn up for the Leader’s debate.
I just hope he starts replying to every question about his leadership or disunity or supposed faults with a “I’m here to talk about the policies that are important to NZers, not to talk about trivia.”
http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/television-new-zealand-calling-to-have-mike-hosking-dropped-from-moderatingthe-political-debates#share
Just thought I would share this petition again that was first put up on the Standard by Karen.
Whatever Cunliffe and Labour do about Hoskings, I think it is very reasonable to get as many signatures for this as possible.
3,719 now! A lot in such a short time. Food for thought about other issues like Coleman?
3,751 now. They’re on their way to getting to 5000 easily by the end of the weekend.
The bias of the media, and the way its dominated by corporate-led infotainment IS an election issue.
I think left MPs are best keeping to their election policies. It’s up to the rest of us ordinary folks to keep the pressure up on the MSM to play fair during the election period – and to keep campaigning for better media after the elections.
+100
Agree Jrobin. Nztv and Hosking have been put on notice. Hosking will be careful. He must realise that he will have a very short career when Labour wins if he is not mindful of this fact. His bff key is not going to be around much longer. Cunliffe has had the best of all the interviewers I have seen/heard him interviewed by. I don’t see this being any different.Even with ‘the popinjay’ (thank you Paul) moderating, Cunliffe will make key look like the uneducated playground bully that he is. All squealing and abuse but no substance. Bring it on.
I do not see Cunliffe’s acceptance as a back down but an inevitability. He has made his point and now it is up to tvnz and Hosking to honour their word of complete impartiality. They will be hung out to dry if they don’t. The whole country will be watching
“Hosking will be careful. He must realise that he will have a very short career when Labour wins if he is not mindful of this fact.”
Why? Is it Labour policy to fire and hire broadcasters?
There is a large National party logo on online Stuff political section- not authorised by National Party but it looks like an ad.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/
Is this allowable???
they also advertising on facebook for past couple days and i mean a lot .. so alot of us have complained is misleading and spam 🙂
I see two of them. The official logo, plus the new “silver fern on black shirt” one that Key launched this week.
Three if you count the word “national” in bold type and in the official party colours.
In Politics -Stuff, a headline reads “John Minto Burns Israeli Flag.” He didn’t of course and didn’t know at the time that a flag had been burnt as the text of the column says.
IF what i seen aired on my TeeVee news last night surrounding the attack by the Israeli army on the UN school is in fact the truth,
IE: that UN officials had hours befor the shells rained down on that school, a place of refuge for women and children, begged, cajoled, and pleaded with the Israeli’s through direct contact, going so far as to provide them with the GPS coordinates for the location,
It saddens me to say that the small amount of sympathy i have thus far held onto for the Jewish State has evaporated,
Perhaps those within the US who openly support such Murder, with industrial efficiency, of children on a daily basis might care to cast around within their own borders for a ‘new promised land’ as such atrocities will in time provoke the need either for the use of weapons of mass destruction by the perpetrators of this ongoing child murder, probably within their own borders, and/or, a new ‘exodus’ of the Jewish people on a Biblical scale…
Yeah TV, seen that, perhaps Tracey Watkins inordinately extended ability to gush glowingly over Slippery the Prime Minister has dried up and desperate needs have in turn lead to desperate deeds,
Pretty low life bottom of the barrel Stuff do you not think Stuff.co.nz,???
i doubt this particular act of electoral bias by Stuff.co will have much effect as its not a hard print news organ that this gauche display appears within,
Most of us, computer literate to the extent of being able to access that particular site,(and in my case not much more), will probably have already, a long time ago,made our decisions as to which side of the political spectrum we will be voting,
Still, not a good look, and, another nail in the coffin for the mainstream media of New Zealand, and, Stuff.co can be assured that like the NZHerald, when the pay-walls go up i for one WILL NOT be paying them any of my coin to be subjected to such shit…
There was an advertisement the other day on Armstrong’s column of a blue bus in supposed motion with key’s face on the bus and blurb (go #team key or some such thing) which I can’t remember. I commented on it but when I went back it had disappeared.
Opposed to Iraeli STATE TERRORISM and the murdering of Palestinian little kids and civilians? Want to STAND UP and be counted? Today, Saturday 26 July 2014 – assemble 2pm Aotea Square Auckland. Hope to see a BIG turnout of decent people who are equally outraged at the violation of the most basic rights of Palestinians – the right to life! I’ll be there and encourage as many as possible to please attend and help spread the word. How would YOU like to be a Palestinian in Gaza right now? Penny Bright
+100 Penny…and from Bomber
‘When Firstline are focusing on flag burning rather than dead Palestinian children – that’s why you must march this Saturday at 2pm against Israeli aggression’
By Martyn Bradbury / July 25, 2014
This Saturday, Aotea Square, 2pm is that time to stand not only against Israeli aggression, but it’s tome to stand up against the pro-Israeli bias in our media….
Any idea how many children the Israeli terrorist murderers have killed in the last 24 hours?
Two days ago I predicted 7 children killed by the Israelis…
They beat that by attacking an entire school for fucks sake…
http://thestandard.org.nz/tuwhera-mike/#comment-854976
So how many today?
Israelis are committing genocide. Despicable and as low as any human behaviour anywhere… let them dwell in shit
Win,lose,draw, at some point after the September Votes have been counted we are going to have to get into casting our critical gaze upon all the parties of the left with a view to picking out and pointing to just what went right and what went wrong,
i definitely DO NOT propose to start such a process today, engaging in such behavior at this stage in the cycle being ‘not very helpful’ in terms of unity as the real contest is about to begin,
However,
In the case of poor old much maligned Labour who just can’t catch an even break any time anywhere it would seem i would suggest that to see what has been inherently amiss so far in the ‘campaign lead-up’ can be found encapsulated in a TV3 news item aired when David Cunliffe announced the parties election policy on education,
If you can find this particular video clip, aired the night of the education policies announcement on TV3 news at 6,(sorry my computer literacy leads me not to be able to provide a www), i would suggest that on a number of levels which do not involve the actual policy a number of ‘things’ best described as ‘wrong’ are encapsulated, epitomized, and, exposed within that one short news clip…
this is a must-watch from todays’ trawl..
..stephen colbert interviews elon musk..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/25/elon-musk-colbert_n_5621116.html?ref=topbar
I was thinking about regional development and house prices ans the Reserve Bank. Largely because I was up in a so called “successful province” the other day (Taranaki) and things looked pretty dead there and the local businesses were saying things were either very tough or totally unreliable – good one day and quiet for the next week.
RE agents said houses were not selling etc etc etc.
So why cant the deposit for houses outside of Auckland and Canterbury be at 5% and have it at the 20% in those two provinces? Is it just because “who wins Auckland wins the election?” and to tell them they need a 20% deposit would mean they would vote for the other guys? (If the RB was able to do this, Im sure the Government would still get the blame)
If that deposit differential could be introduced then maybe we would have more folk looking at the provinces which would help them and with people can come business opportunities.
Auckland prices are a result of migration – from in NZ and from other countries, and Christchurch’s prices are a result of the earthquakes and the migration in for the rebuild.
s something like this do-able?
The only people in Taranaki doing well are those in the oil and gas industry, and those in farming.
I see Fran O Sullivan has joined the chorus of calls to raise the pension age.
Its easy wait 2 more years when you spend your working life either sitting on your ass at your PC (eating chocolate), or flittering from one social function to another on the Auckland cocktail circuit.
Just took part in “The Reactor” at Scoop. One of the videos to comment on was Johnathon Coleman saying if any minister knew about the FBI investigation of Dotcom, that would have been a massive red flag and he would have never got into New Zealand. Oops, Mr Coleman is in deep poo.
There’s a poll at the NZ herald on whether apopo should be used in the weather from now on.
@ Papa TTuanuku 11.16
Okay – another word learned. Apopo – tomorrow. Tuwhera be open
And an extra – as an acronym it refers to –
APOPO is a registered Belgian non-governmental organisation which trains African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. APOPO’s mission is to develop detection rats technology to provide solutions for global problems and inspire positive social change.
Perhaps we should discard the week, as in Te wiki o te reo Maori, Maori language week, dialing the one week out of the year down to one day a month and then at a future point one day a week every week of the year where te reo Maori is promoted…
Here is a technical problem for me re the Standard posts. Any suggestions please?
I am able to post. I do get notices of new TOPICS in my email, but I do not get notices of new posts. Nor do I get ‘please confirm’ notices as I used to get before. This problem has been going on for over a week now.
While posting a comment, I do tick the two little boxes as usual.
I have cleared the cookies and restarted the computer a couple of times, but still no luck.
I tried to login and asked for a now password from ‘word press’, but says, that email does not exist!
What is the problem and how do I rectify this? Any one know? Thanks.
[lprent: Should in theory be fixed now for the emails. It was caused by my new fibre installation at home.
The emails were running out through my smtp server at home, and it took me a while to notice that my outward emails weren’t going outwards. I’d changed ISPs with the UFB install and therefore the onforwarding mail server wasn’t set up. I didn’t notice, I’d also started a new job on Monday so wasn’t at home to send emails.
Problem was that I only got the UFB installed on the friday before going to the new job after screaming at chorus about being at home for 8 weeks holiday and they hadn’t managed to do the installation while I was available. I got most of the other bits fixed last weekend, but missed the smtp and also my offsite database backups ]
This is excellent and funny on the Living Wage.
http://lockerdome.com/tre/6170042811288129/6823146309435156
@Bearded Git 12.10
Thanks for Mary Poppins et al – great.
There is an interesting post from another blog – on why the rich actually need governments – put up by the Irascible Curmudgeon.
http://theirasciblecurmudgeon.blogspot.co.nz/ He quotes –
The very rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “are different from you and me.” Their wealth makes them “cynical where we are trustful,” and makes them think “they are better than we are.” If these words ring true today, perhaps it is because when they were written, in 1926, inequality in the United States had reached heights comparable to today.
As the University of Michigan’s Mark Mizruchi points out in a recent book, the American corporate elite in the postwar era had “an ethic of civic responsibility and enlightened self-interest.” They cooperated with trade unions and favored a strong government role in regulating and stabilizing markets. They understood the need for taxes to pay for important public goods such as the interstate highway and safety nets for the poor and elderly. Business elites were not any less politically powerful back then. But they used their influence to advance an agenda that was broadly in the national interest….
Surowiecki thinks that the change in attitudes has much to do with globalization. Large American corporations and banks now roam the globe freely, and are no longer so dependent on the US consumer. The health of the American middle class is of little interest to them these days. Moreover, Surowiecki argues, socialism has gone by the wayside, and there is no need to coopt the working class anymore.
Yet if corporate moguls think that they no longer need to rely on their national governments, they are making a huge mistake. The reality is that the stability and openness of the markets that produce their wealth have never depended more on government action….
But when economic storm clouds gather on the horizon, everyone seeks shelter under their home government’s cover. It is then that the ties that bind large corporations to their native soil are fully revealed. As former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King aptly put it in the context of finance, “global banks are global in life, but national in death.”
I put class comment on Tuwhera last night.
http://thestandard.org.nz/what-will-david-cunliffe-be-accused-of-next/#comment-855457
A description of how classes can be listed in our society is:
Classes:
. Top out-of-sight
Upper
Upper middle
Middle
High proletarian
Mid-proletarian
Low proletarian
Destitute
Bottom-out-of-sight
These must be condensing though as it was drawn up around 1980s and the changes talked about in Irascible’s post have hit hard and will continue to compress downwards.
A party platform from 1956.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25838
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BTDKdN2CUAE2OiW.jpg
@ joe90 1.01
Great. You produce magically the billboards, promises and satisfying and promising progressive situation in usa 1956.
Now wave your magic wand and get it to trans-substantiate. Tom Lehrer gives some advice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0
I loved this bit from the Republicans manifesto of which I only read 1/52, (o that by the end of a year I’ll have read the whole thing.) So many grand phrases. It’s so rich that it makes my stomach heave. And so tempting to believe in then, and wish for now. Even though it had important lies and obfuscations in it then.
But doesn;t this sound nice. I wonder if it has been tried anywhere?
<i>On its Centennial, the Republican Party again calls to the minds of all Americans the great truth first spoken by Abraham Lincoln: “The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere.”
Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further: “In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people’s money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative.”
I think The Elements would be useful in any trans-substantiating.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/AcS3NOQnsQM
Anyhoo, Michael Moore on when the rot really set in.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131117133000/http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/30-years-ago-today
@joe90 1.34
Tom Lehrer talented and with a presence, and a very fast delivery on The Elements. His elocution teacher must have been good.
The Michael Moore piece mentioned Wisconsin people protesting.
I remember Wisconsin Works from Ruthless Richardson’s time also Jenny Shipley (doesn’t Jenny sound a sweet name). WW was a mean-minded set-up that of the type that you would feel they would push people off cliffs if there was a way to collect pay for the trip down.
Anyway this was interesting from wikipedia about how pragmatic pollies act when a job (that they want to see done) gets pushed through their political forum.
In January 2011, the state legislature passed a series of bills providing additional tax cuts and deductions for businesses at “a two-year cost of $67 million”.[31]
In early February, the Walker administration projected a budget shortfall in 2013 (Wisconsin functions on two-year budgets) of $3.6 billion[32] and found that a budget repair bill to resolve a $137 million shortfall for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011,…
The Walker-backed bill proposed taking away the ability of public sector unions to bargain collectively over pensions and health care and limiting pay raises of public employees to the rate of inflation, as well as ending automatic union dues collection by the state….
Protests :
At 1:00 am on February 25, following sixty hours of debate,[60] the final amendments had been defeated and the Republican leadership of the Wisconsin State Assembly cut off debate as well as the public hearing and moved quickly to pass the budget repair bill in a sudden vote.
The vote was 51 in favor and 17 opposed, with 28 representatives not voting.[60] The final vote took place without warning, and the time allowed for voting was so short (lasting only 5–15 s)[61] that fewer than half of the Democratic representatives were able to vote; many reportedly pushed the voting button as hard as possible but it did not register.[62] Four Republican representatives voted against the bill.[63]
All part of a concerted effort to gain dominance at every level of government.
http://www.progressive.org/alec-nation
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
Which crowded cities can you fire into?
by JAMES NORTH, Mondoweiss, July 25, 2014
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/which-crowded-cities.html
In recent days, many journalists, including Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and Ronan Farrow on MSNBC, have asked when is Israel justified in attacking crowded civilian settings in order to kill militants. Robinson: “So if you’re an Israeli commander and you know that there’s a Hamas military facility next to a medical clinic, but you’re not completely sure the militants are still there, while the clinic is likely packed with injured civilians, do you still pull the trigger?”
Over a decade ago, Yonatan Shapira, then an Israeli air force pilot, bravely confronted his top commander, Lt. General Dan Halutz, over what were euphemistically called “targeted assassinations.” Israeli warplanes regularly fired missiles at Hamas leaders in Gaza, also killing innocent civilians, some of them children.
Shapira asked General Halutz, What if a Hamas leader were located in Tel Aviv? Would you order our pilots to fire there, risking Israeli bystanders? Halutz said no.
So you value Israelis over Palestinians, Yonatan responded. Get someone else to fly your aircraft.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/which-crowded-cities.html
For an entire economy not to have enough money is absurd
DTB that link leads to adware
Shouldn’t do. Should go to Photobucket.
there is an excellent doco on maori tv @ nine o’ clock..
..it’s called ‘dogtown and the z boys’..
..and is about the birth of the skateboard culture in california..
..has some great footage from way back when..
Test if the database is now accepting.
Ok – it is. Kill the old db.
Labour leader David Cunliffe has launched his party’s West Auckland campaign and the message is a multicultural team for a multicultural community.
In front of a roomful of cheering, red-scarf wearing Labour Party members, Cunliffe introduced the candidates for Kelston, Helensville, Upper Harbour, Te Atatu and his own electorate New Lynn.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10314780/Labour-comeback-will-be-a-surprise-Cunliffe