Clinton and mates both within the DNC and the big dollar donors were pathologically unable to do partnership with anyone. That the DNC buried Bernie was proof alone of this.
That said, despite Bernie being a 74 year old communist in the land of the free, he would have impassioned the you enough to get him to the White House.
There was passion for Bernie, there was passion for Donald, but there was no passion for Hillary.
The DNC lost the election, rather than Donald winning the election
I think the Democrats need to stop treating the people as morons
1. Celebrity endorsements don’t appear to work
2. Ignoring your voting base doesn’t work
3. Calling potentially half the people in your country deplorables doesn’t work
4. Assuming you have the votes and not bothering to campaign doesn’t work
5. Assuming all women will for for a women is…actually quite sexist
“Following Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential race, the Ku Klux Klan has announced plans for a celebratory rally in North Carolina, an important swing state in which Trump ultimately received 51% of the vote.”
The only electoral cohort that came even close to “half” were those who abstained, or were prevented from voting by Republican voter suppression laws and direct intimidation. Clinton and the serial rapist shared the remainder – with her in front (just) – about 25% each.
chris73… treating people as morons is the MO of those – mostly the extreme right and morally compromised – who favour the slanderous and dirty politicking of Trump, and which is delightedly promoted by the click driven money-making media
none of what you refer to made the slightest headline in any of the papers I read
the tabloid innuendo you refer to, was I assume encouraged by – the racist, mysogynistic, sexually abusive language that was actually recorded coming out Trump’s own mouth
Clinton supporters are avoiding looking at the obvious. I did a post on this. A super majority of non-college educated whites, men and women, voted Donald J Trump.
Democrats have lost that white working class vote for now. If Trump does what he does right, Democrats will also lose much more of the black and Latino working class vote in 2020.
Trump did not win off the backs of the poor disenfranchised working class. He won off the backs of authoritarian middle class white people.
Maybe you should take a look at the queues of people who lined up at Trump rallies all throughout the country, take a look at the type of people they were, and get yourself a reality check.
Whatever gains she made among well-educated and Hispanic voters nationwide either didn’t occur to the same extent in the key battlegrounds, or were overwhelmed by Mr. Trump’s huge appeal to white voters without a degree.
Bear in mind that white median household incomes in the USA are 70% higher than black median household incomes IIRC.
Most blacks voted Clinton, most whites voted Trump.
That skews Trump’s apparent income figures upwards.
Trump’s opportunity: consolidate his white working class appeal and extend it into the Latino and black working class. Entrench his support in the rustbelt/mid west states.
The Democratic Party long abandoned/long ignored the white non-degree qualified working class.
And this week a supermajority of them male and female turned their backs on Hillary Clinton and voted for Trump.
The issue is that the Democratic hierarchy and the DNC were intestinally incapable of accepting anyone else except Hillary Clinton, the ultimate status quo candidate in a change election year.
actually I’m sure someone said the deep state had probably endorsed trump at the last minute which is the main way he got over the line – so trump is as establishment as anyone else – of course he’s really just a better liar or maybe a glove puppet for putin and/or the deeeep staaate – hard to know – one thing we DO know is he is a disaster for the environment, of that we can be 100% certain.
And my American friends (who have been saying for over a year now that a Trump victory was absolutely inevitable) are wildly optimistic about Trump being great for America.
Only time will tell us which group was on the money – tho my mates are one up on predicting the election result.
Trump is beyond awful, but he is a result of Republican intransigence and Democrat refusal to take account of ordinary people, in their catering to the establishment.
50% of the USA didn’t vote, as their Government no longer represents them in any way shape or form.
Or maybe Clinton was a weak candidate too concerned with going to millionaires fundraisers in California and Martha’s Vineyard even in the last couple of months of the campaign.
Instead of doing extra community visits in Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
or maybe not – post truth politics entitles the loudmouth liars like trump especially when innocent ordinary people are scared and suffering – it’s just a bigger version of sensing murders – take advantage of people, make money, and run run away when the edifice begins to fall – which it will and sooner rather than later imo.
Trump got just a wee bit less vote than Romney or McCain, Clinton got a lot less than Obama. To me, that doesn’t make a wave of enthusiasm for Trump, it means there was just a lot less enthusiasm for Clinton. Most of the old tribal loyalties held, most of the Republican “never Trumpers” came home in the end. The few “never Trumpers” that held out were compensated by the few alt-right deplorables that no responsible political party should ever seek to attract.
When voting means going out and standing for hours in line, you need to be motivated to do it. That’s generally the experience in poorer parts of cities, not so much in wealthier suburbs or rural areas.
As I understand it, minorities in the primaries weren’t enthused by Bernie and generally went for Clinton. If they weren’t fired up in the primaries, why would they find a lot more enthusiasm in the general? Who really thinks those voters that found Trump’s brash siren song would have been more attracted to Bernie’s socialism? Remember socialism is still a dirty word to most older people in the US, and what little data we have suggests older people leaned Trump, younger people (who aren’t so negative about socialism) leaned Clinton.
I have still never seen a good explanation of why the Dem elite were so enthusiastic about Clinton, to the extent that other credible candidates never even put their hands up. Were they simply so attracted by her experience and high approvals at the end of her State time that they underestimated how much the stains from previous smear campaigns would show? Particularly under sustained fresh attack from the right and far-left?
Is the lesson that “change” is always a powerful argument and that Clinton was “too experienced”? The argument that change is best brought by someone that thoroughly knows the existing system may be too difficult to get across. Maybe there’s a Goldilocks level of experience. Sanders, McCain, Romney, Kerry, Gore had all been in the system a long long time.
Lots of people on The Standard defended Clintons nomination as the Dem candidate. A big mistake IMO.
And the American people punished the Democrats by not only putting the White House, the Senate, the House, and 3 more state governorships in the Republican tally. They also de facto have given the Republicans control of the Supreme Court.
“When voting means going out and standing for hours in line, you need to be motivated to do it. That’s generally the experience in poorer parts of cities, not so much in wealthier suburbs or rural areas.”
Good points Andre. I too think that the lack of commitment to the democratic process – with the difficulty of voting and the complexity and gerrymandering of districts (particularly by the Republicans in 2010 with the REDMAP) – by the US in general, makes their promotion of world wide democracy laughable.
Until they can get their own house in order, they have no business trying to tell others.
“The Democrats cannot rebuild by pointing fingers at Hillary Clinton and her campaign, which as the Keys demonstrated, were not the root cause of her defeat,” he said. “The Democrats can rehabilitate themselves only by offering an inspiring progressive alternative to Republican policies and building a grass-roots movement.” Allan Lichtman
To which I might add, a movement has to be built around something, and no movement can be built around Business As Usual.
During the presidential election campaign where, though it was virtually ignored by Clinton, who never properly never challenged Trump on this issue, Climate Change is one of defining issues between Trump* and the Democrats.
Because of this the Democratic Party couldn’t do better than coming out in support of Standing Rock, which is a movement that embodies the protection of the environment over corporate profit.
Bernie has done it. He has visited Standing Rock.
To regain any shred of credibility and to heal the rifts between the Party and the base. the Clintons the Gores and the other leading Democratic Party establishment figures need to visit Standing alongside Bernie Sanders. Otherwise the Democrats will continue to be riven with divisions that will make building a “grass-roots movement” nigh near impossible.
The American people need to see them standing there, alongside Bernie.
*(Notice I said “Trump” and not the Republicans. The reason. Even the establishment Republican Party insiders know that climate change represents a deadly near and present danger. [Not that they want to do anything about it that might affect Business As Usual])
An even better question would be would the current Labour MPs allow him to, even if he could (which I doubt). Andrew Little to me is a genuine person making a good fist of a difficult job. But he’s not Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn.
An even better question would be would the current Labour MPs allow him to, even if he could….. Grey Area
By this standard even Bernie Sanders was not Bernie Sanders. (Who was blocked by the Democratic Party establishment.)
Andrew Little could do worse than to take a page out of Trump’s play book, who defied the whole Republican Party establishment, virtually telling them all to go to hell.
…can Andrew LIttle transform himself into a Bernie Sanders?
He is already more than half way there Jenny. He is saying exactly the same things as Bernie Sanders. Problem is: the msm are bypassing the message in order to concentrate on putting words into his mouth he never used, or misinterpreting (on purpose) words he did use. So his message is not getting through to the populace.
He continues to move around the country talking to people at every opportunity but that of course is not enough. How do you force the msm to play fair?
Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if you take take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up—if you do these things, then next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today and—what started here will indeed have changed the world—for the better
Yes Jenny. I go along with that quote. It’s hard sometimes when your enemies (be they personal or political) are determined to cause you to fail but the answer is to never give up. It’s my past experience that it makes you are stronger person in the end.
Traditionally blaming the media has been quixotic, however dishonest they were. But the media are no longer monolithic – they are increasingly vulnerable and may perhaps be brought into more of a semblance of neutrality.
They know – no-one better – that their clickbait cynicism and bias is losing them their market share. There are fewer cushy outcomes for laid-off journalists every day.
Stuart, it is my view that ‘the people’ don’t actually want neutrality. The most popular news network in the US is Fox, who are openly pro-right. Their main competition, CNN and MSNBC, are both pro-left. The MSM are losing market share to alternative news delivery, such as blogs, virtually all of which have a declared bias. The days of a neutral media are, in my opinion, long gone.
Friend of mine did some research on this – taught a group of journos at three papers a quality metric for reporting – timeliness, accuracy, balance, depth & so on. Lifted their circulation by 70%.
It’s like comedy and tragedy – people don’t want the mental effort of serious drama – but they remember and prefer serious over cheap ‘entertainment’.
There’s no point in following invented news – truth is stranger than fiction so ultimately made-up stuff is boring.
Fox succeeds because things like Murdoch’s influence prevent real journalism from competing. The truth does not serve Murdoch’s neo-liberal ends – so he gradually destroys the validity of his business. It’s almost Grecian.
He is already more than half way there Jenny. He is saying exactly the same things as Bernie Sanders.
– where has Little attacked the conduct of the banks and the financial sector?
– where has Little attacked the effect of neoliberalism and free trade policies?
– where has Little attacked the obscene wealth of the mega-rich?
– where has Little advocated for increased taxes on millionaires and corporations?
– where are the crowds of thousands following Little around to hear him speak?
The clock is ticking for neo liberalism bulshit progressives.
The question is do the ‘morans’ rebel first…and deliver us a big pile of crap like Trump or whatever Fascists are climbing to power in Europe.
Or do we, the Leftists or Progressives, or even Centrists…take the initiative, ‘grow some’, turn on our supposedly benevolent, lesser of two Evils, overlords…and deliver candidates of REAL DEEP STRUCTURAL CHANGE TO THE WHOLE ECONOMIC MODEL>
Turn Labour Left.
And vote for the Left wing candidate who doesn’t scream in horror at being labeled a Socialist or any related label.
(or keep to our bubble and sit around like stunned mullets when Trump or Brexit or whatever-next rolls in to town)
“Or do we, the Leftists or Progressives, or even Centrists…take the initiative, ‘grow some’, turn on our supposedly benevolent, lesser of two Evils, overlords…and deliver candidates of REAL DEEP STRUCTURAL CHANGE TO THE WHOLE ECONOMIC MODEL>”
I’d back that, had enough of a government and it’s more of the same year in year out, the system is not working, is it? anyone here think the western political system in it’s current formats working?
Yes Siobhan, but it won’t happen with this bunch of neolib labour MPs. I think we are banging our head against a brick wall around here telling Labour time and time again to mend its ways. Many of the commentators here cannot see the need for a change in direction.
“Morans” = ordinary people who see that the current arrangements are definitely not working for them and their children’s future.
Who can see that no one in the establishment, or current political parties, want to know.
Who see that the only way to change BAU is to chose someone outside the tweedledee and tweedledum establishment.
No matter how repugnant.
Not “morans” but entirely logical people.
The same will happen in New Zealand, unless we get alternatives that differ, in reality not rhetoric, from the current “take of your leg and still take of your leg but use some anesthetic” alternatives. ( Nod to D Cunliff).
Obama’s cowardly, pathetic attempts to curry favour with the extreme right only earned him contempt from all sides. Look at the following two photographs. The first shows him with Raoul Castro….
Why did he fear to be seen shaking hands like a man with Castro? Because he was imagining what Fox News would do with the footage. It’s a perfect example of the sort of vacillation that has made the last eight years such a wasted opportunity and a disappointment.
“Barack Obama, forty-forth president of the United States, called the operation against Osama bin Laden “the most important single day of my presidency.””
Thanks Chris. What a hero he was, sitting in that “situation room” with the grave and heroic expression of a true warrior. I wonder if he gathered his cast of heroes around the “situation room” like that every time they killed someone with a drone….
Between 2009 and 31 December 2015, the administration claimed that it launched 473 strikes, mostly with drones, that killed between what it said were 2,372 and 2,581 terrorist “combatants”.
“He continues to move around the country talking to people at every opportunity but that of course is not enough. How do you force the msm to play fair?” Anne
Anne, the MSM would sit up and take notice, as if given an electric shock. If Andrew Little joined Phil Goff in declaring that a Labour led Government would, “from day one”*, send the deep sea oil drillers and seabed miners packing.
That would be being a true Labour party. Something the “don’t scare the horses” Labour caucus would fight tooth and nail.
It is the sort of thing that is really required to fight AGW.
Labour, and the US democrats, were both to much part of the establishment to do it.
Now they have Trump to push against instead of a Government which pretended it was on the side of stopping AGW, but in reality continued to subsidise and fight wars to support big oil, we may see some real hard activism against climate change in the USA.
The Democrats may even use it as a point of difference against the Repugs. LOL.
yes the rise of the conservative right is depressing, but don’t assume that this is a “body blow” to Democrats…. despite all the slanderous lies and conspiracy theories about Obama and Hillary, he won two elections and Hillary won the popular vote
I predict that things will change drastically over the next 4 years from the Republicans’ and Trump’s reign and their regressive, illiberal, self-destructive politics…
and the real ‘body blow’ will be to American society and the many many poor and minority groups who will suffer the fallout
imo you have waged a bitter relentless attack on Clinton, Obama, Democrats, the Left and anyone who expresses disgust for the slanderous lies and prejudice-feeding awfulness of Trump
I see the massive majority of Black, Hispanic and minority group voters who voted for Hillary over Trump (including the majority of all Americans who voted) as a sign that liberal, progessive and decent values are alive and well in the the US.
I am also convinced that the Republicans got their support from the hatred machine they created that blamed Democrats, Clintons and Obama for every real or perceived problem or threat to their way of life.
Now that the Republicans have control of everything and fail to make things better, maybe we’ll see a complete reversal in those statistics in 4 years time
What slanderous lies about Hillary? Whitewater? Qatar and the Saudis investing in the Clinton Global Initiative? The “suicide” of so many people who have posed a threat to the Clinton crime family?
Richard, statements like “Clinton crime factory” are exactly what I meant by “slanderous lies”
– and lets be very clear, the entire Republican machine has generated multiple unfounded and disproven politically motivated accusations about Hillary Clinton over the past 20 years
Your utter disrespect for Hillary Clinton means you can’t even begin to see that Trump is in a league of his own when it comes to dissembling, hiding the truth and outright lying.
The rate, volume, putrescence and malevolence of what Trump has said about his opponents over the past few months make him completely untrustworthy and unfit to be given any kind of responsibility for governing on behalf of all Americans.
Trump has fed the seething hatreds of many Repubicans, his lack of transparency regarding his tax returns is instructive, his lies about his dealings with Russia, his illegal use of his ‘charities’, the slanderous and relentless birther conspiracy which he fostered. And I haven’t even started on Trump University fraud…
by Daphna Whitmore I thought the #LetWomenSpeak meeting would be a good time to talk about free speech and why it is important for the left. Then the mob stampeded the open-air gathering and no one got to speak. Here’s what I was had prepared. Today I want to talk ...
By Don Franks Today my friend Ani O’Briien went to a meeting in Auckland and wrote: “No sooner had Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull arrived at the Rotunda, a protestor (who had managed to get past the barrier) ran at her and threw a red substance all over her and a security ...
Jonathan Milne, managing editor for Newsroom Pro, has expressed his indignation about the outcome of a court decision yesterday in an article headed Posie Parker wins the beautiful freedom to make an ugly argument.Newsroom Pro laments: High Court Justice David Gendall has regretfully allowed an outspoken anti-trans activist to enter New ...
imagine my surprise this week when the National Party, in their infinite wisdom, decided to release an education policy. As you can imagine, this got us so riled up here in the office that we dusted off our Windows XP laptop, waiting 17 hours for all the updates to be ...
Come on Jess thought Mr Evans come on. He watched the large clock on the wall tick closer to 8:40am. Come on girl.In two minutes he had to submit the class attendance report and with Jess having already been late once that term it’d mean an automatic visit from the ...
This week’s UN IPCC report warned climate emissions will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C. Bronwyn Hayward points out in The Hoon podcast how far behind NZ’s government and councils are now on climate action compared to the rest ...
Chris Hipkins, after he became prime minister, committed to defeating the cost-of- living crisis. He proceeded to make a bonfire of policies that were at the heart of Jacinda Ardern’s administration. But, as Richard Prebble pointed out this week, “the government has not just U-turned, it has repudiated the ...
There are some wellness, crystal-gazing, holistic spiritual guidance types in my disaster-hit coastal community who insist that the power of positive thinking will overcome the physical and material damages incurred by the community. They object to restrictions on road travel … Continue reading → ...
Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector is inherently unstable, like military ...
1. We see here new police minister Ginny Andersen. Which larger than life NZ political figure was her great-uncle?a. Rob Muldoonb. Bill Andersenc. Richard John Seddond. Norman Kirk2. We see here archival footage of Ginny Andersen coming out of her electorate office to ask ex-tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop if he ...
Buzz from the Beehive Stuart Nash, speaking as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, one of his remaining portfolios after he was dropped down the Hipkins Government batting order, has drawn attention to the blue economy and its potential. Nash says the government is investing in the blue economy, or – ...
Photo by Josh Mills on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the ...
Roundup is back! We skipped last week’s Friday post due to a shortage of person-power – did you notice? Lots going on out there… Our header image this week shows a green street that just happens to be Queen St, by @chamfy from Twitter. This week (and last) in ...
After threatening Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of consequences if he dared to bar her entry, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has been given her visa, regardless. This will enable her to hold rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, and spread her messages of hostility against an already marginalised trans community. Neo-Nazis may, ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR:Auckland MayorWayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
Open access notables The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products has put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are weshortchanged democratically by the way ...
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is to meet China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang where she might have to call on all the diplomatic skills at her command. Almost certainly she will face questions on what role ...
TL;DR:The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots – Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins – or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
Chris Trotter writes – The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crown’s media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even “celebrate” its existence (presumably as proof of Democracy’s broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. That’s a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldn’t have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkins’ newly appointed Chief of ...
Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
Buzz from the Beehive New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
Nick Matzke writes – Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for its historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi today. The ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, with several hundred ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has concluded her visit to China, the first by a New Zealand Foreign Minister since 2018. The Minister met her counterpart, newly appointed State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, who also hosted a working dinner. This was the first engagement between the two ...
World-class satellite positioning services that will support much safer search and rescue, boost precision farming, and help safety on construction sites through greater accuracy are a significant step closer today, says Land Information Minister Damien O’Connor. Damien O’Connor marked the start of construction on New Zealand’s first uplink centre for ...
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Dean Lewins/AAP With 36% of enrolled voters counted in today’s New South Wales state election, the Poll Bludger’s results currently ...
A former entertainment mecca in the middle of Auckland is up for grabs. The problem? It’s been run into the ground. Have you got spare cash sitting around? Do you want to buy something grand, something special? How does a nine-storey complex covering 3,486 square metres in the middle of ...
Posey Parker appeared in Auckland today for a brief few moments, but it was clear that she was going to have a hard time being heard above thousands of people exercising their own right to free speech The streets of Auckland’s city centre were thick today with the noise of tubas, ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson was knocked to the ground by a motorcyclist who appeared to fail to stop at a pedestrian crossing after today's counter-protest against Posie Parker. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson was struck by a passing motorcycle this morning as she protested Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s rally event at Albert Park. Davidson was standing on Princes St holding a sign reading “trans solidarity” when a band of motorcyclists, there in support of Brian and Hannah Tamaki’s Vision NZ, ...
By Krishneel Nair in Suva“The most important thing from my perspective is a strategic partnership — a partnership where the media should not be seen as the enemy or a nuisance.” This was the view of the Communications Fiji Ltd news director and Fijian Media Association executive Vijay Narayan ...
The noise began long before Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (AKA Posie Parker) arrived. Despite an 11am scheduled start time to her planned rally to “speak for women”, the Albert Park rotunda was surrounded by 10.30. But the crowd was not there to see or hear her. A truck parked at the entrance ...
Chris Schulz on the nearly three-hours of joy Keanu Reeves’ latest non-stop orgy of violence brings. This is an excerpt from our pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up to have it delivered to your inbox every Friday here. Keanu Reeves has annihilated the place. In what appears to be ...
Teacher unions have criticised National's curriculum plan, but the party was targeting concerned parents and his political opponent, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. ...
Don’t underestimate the significance of TVNZ’s new documentary series about Kai Kara-France, a fighter acclaimed on the world stage but still criminally underrated at home, writes Don Rowe. In 2015, when I first profiled Kai Kara-France for the now-defunct Mana magazine, he told me he’d never wanted to sign with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Justin Lloyd/AAP The New South Wales state election is today. Polls close at 6pm AEDT. Votes cast on election day ...
If current trends continue, by 2053 half of retirement-age New Zealanders will be renters. Right now, options for over-65s who don’t own their own home are limited.This story was first published on Stuff. What’s life like when you reach retirement age, but don’t own a home of your own? Most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Feigin, Postdoctoral Fellow in Genomics and Evolution, The University of Melbourne Anom Harya/ShutterstockShoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land on the next tree. Many groups of mammals seem to have taken this evolutionary advice to ...
When a big corporate is alarmed about possible law changes, it asks its well-connected lobbyist to intervene. A text message exchange between a Cabinet Minister and his lobbyist "mate" follows. ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend This week, it's What's Up With ADHD?, written by Mirjam Guesgen and published in North & South's April 2023 issue. You can find the full article, with illustrations by Rachel Salazar, in this month’s issue of North & South. Once a condition ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend This week, it's What's Up With ADHD?, written by Mirjam Guesgen and published in North & South's April 2023 issue. You can find the full article, with illustrations by Rachel Salazar, in this month’s issue of North & South. Once a condition ...
"He imagines the rattling windows of his bach": a sad seaside saga by Majella Cullinane Màiri watches him as he walks down the hill next to her house. The man appears gradually – first his head covered in a tweed cap and earphones, then the unkempt hair and beard, ...
"He imagines the rattling windows of his bach": a sad seaside saga by Majella Cullinane Màiri watches him as he walks down the hill next to her house. The man appears gradually – first his head covered in a tweed cap and earphones, then the unkempt hair and beard, ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how our top authors make a living writing books, the sky-high fares coming from independent taxi drivers, how the people of Muriwai are putting their lives back together post-Cyclone Gabrielle, why a Levin chocolate maker is ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how our top authors make a living writing books, the sky-high fares coming from independent taxi drivers, how the people of Muriwai are putting their lives back together post-Cyclone Gabrielle, why a Levin chocolate maker is ...
The popularity of stories about unhappy rich people says more about our need to view them that way than it does about how they experience their livesOpinion:Succession is returning to Aotearoa’s television screens. It joins other portrayals of the emotional traumas that come from having far, far too ...
The popularity of stories about unhappy rich people says more about our need to view them that way than it does about how they experience their livesOpinion:Succession is returning to Aotearoa’s television screens. It joins other portrayals of the emotional traumas that come from having far, far too ...
Not content with transforming KiwiSaver, Simplicity is now planning to out-build Kāinga Ora. Duncan Greive meets a pair of of unlikely revolutionaries trying to fix housing – a task which seems impossible, even for the state itself.In September of 2020, a builder named Shane Brealey sat down and typed ...
The Auckland Writers Festival has just launched its 23rd programme, the first since Covid to include its signature line-up of visiting international writers. With 160 events to choose from, here’s books editor Claire Mabey’s top 10 to help you navigate your way through the lit fest universe.Straight Up: Ruby ...
Taking her her young family around the world as she rows is a key factor in Emma Twigg's decision to defend her Olympic single sculls title at next year's Paris Olympics. And, Andy Hay writes, the next Emma Twigg could be waiting in the wings at the Maadi Cup next week. ...
The Fijian Drua will need to start and finish well, while Moana Pasifika’s coach wants to see a full 80-minute performance this weekend as the two regional teams continue their Super Rugby Pacific campaigns. The Drua tackle the Highlanders in Dunedin today and Pasifika face the Hurricanes at Mt Smart ...
By Todagia Kelola in Port Moresby A number of small contractors in Papua New Guinea are still waiting for positive feedback for money owed to them by government agencies after 12 years. A 2015 Post-Courier front page picture showed a man, David Goli, who chained himself at the then headquarters ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Beryl Exley, Professor, Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Griffith University Shutterstock Last August, the federal government set up an expert panel to look at the continuous improvement agenda in teacher education in Australia. The panel, led by ...
The New Zealand First leader took to the altar of an East Auckland church today to set out his 2023 election agenda. It was, as Stewart Sowman-Lund found out, pretty much what you’d expect. Winston Peters rolled into Howick today with a state of the nation speech that, he claimed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Wardle, Professor of Public Health, Southern Cross University Shutterstock Earlier this week, Australian retail giant Woolworths announced a move into health-care delivery via development of its subsidiary HealthyLife’s online portal. Through this portal, Australians can book a same-day ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters - eyeing a political comeback - has used a scene-setting speech in Auckland warning against a "conceited, conniving, cultural cabal". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Peterson, Adjunct Associate Professor, Auckland University of Technology The Sheep Song.Tim Standing/Daylight Breaks/Adelaide Festival Few Adelaideans remember a time before the Adelaide Festival. Formed in 1960 as a civic enterprise and financed against loss by prominent Adelaide businessmen, the ...
Analysis - The Greens lay down a challenge as the minor parties approach an election in which both National and Labour are going to need coalition partners to form a government, writes Peter Wilson. ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva Communications Fiji Ltd (CFL) chair William Parkinson has called for a repeal of Fiji’s Media Industry Development Act 2010 and more discussion on the proposed Media Ownership and Registration Bill 2023. He said this during a public consultation on the review of MIDA Act 2010 ...
High Court Justice David Gendall regretfully allows anti-trans activist to enter New Zealand, but warns the expression of her views may be harmful to our vulnerable rainbow community. Jonathan Milne does his best to be civil.Opinion: Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull calls herself Posie Parker. And that's what I'm going to call her. Because she is ...
It’s about time somebody made a wacky TV show about how bonkers spelling is. Enter comedian Guy Montgomery and his Guy Mont Spelling Bee. The three years since Covid-19 began have been pretty rocky, but one of the best things to come out of the chaos was Guy Montgomery’s Guy ...
Te Rōpū Mātai Hinengaro o Aotearoa, The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) stands beside LGBTQIA+ and Takatāpui communities rallying against anti-trans rhetoric in light of the impending visit of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker). We are ...
Earlier this month, everybody’s favourite Monster of the Week series Married at First Sight Australia toppled 1News to become the highest rating television show for New Zealand viewers aged 25-54. The controversial reality series garnered an average audience of 137,000, or 6.7% audience share from March 5 until March 11. ...
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for feijoa lovers – here’s how to make the most of it.Fragrant and sweet, with a delicate jelly centre surrounded by gritty, tangy flesh, all encased in a green sour skin. My parents’ feijoa tree has just dropped its first fruit, ...
A new poem by poet and novelist Maggie Rainey-Smith. Bang a Drum We’ve hit Gentle Annie passed the pub at Okaramio and on the left, at Wakapuaka there’s Sunnybank where parents left their children An oddly named orphanage manned (ha) by Nuns childless women in black habits, scapula, cowls and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Buntting, Director, Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, University of Waikato Getty Images Less than a fortnight after teachers staged a national strike, education was back in the headlines with the National Party’s release of its curriculum policy – ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)Number one in both ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision of the High Court to reject the application to overrule the decision of the Minister of Immigration to allow Kellie-Jay entry into New Zealand. This was the only right result for a nation that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fan Yang, Research Associate at RMIT and Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University Baidu’s ERNIE Bot was launched to considerable disappointment.Ng Han Guan / AP On March 16, Baidu unveiled China’s latest rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT – ERNIE Bot (short for “Enhanced ...
By Meri Radinibaravi in Suva Former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has told The Fiji Times to ask the Republic of Fiji Military Forces about claims that his bodyguards were allowed to take guns on to Fiji Link flights without proper authorisation. “I understand that there’s some enquiries going on regarding that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University Installation view of Troy Emery’s work Mountain climber 2022 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August ...
National’s education policy reinforces an old-fashioned and hierarchical curriculum that does lasting harm to many students, writes educational specialist Dr Sarah Aiono. Announcing the National Party’s new education policy this week, leader Christopher Luxon cited a recent NCEA pilot in which two-thirds of students were unable to meet the minimum ...
Attempts by rainbow groups to stop an anti-trans campaigner entering the country have failed. The High Court has dismissed a judicial review application from Gender Minorities Aotearoa, InsideOUT Kōara and Auckland Pride, aimed at the immigration minister for allowing Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull into New Zealand. As part of the application, the ...
The High Court is this morning considering an interim order that would prevent an anti-trans campaigner from making it into New Zealand. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is expected to arrive on our shores today ahead of two planned rallies in Auckland and Wellington over the weekend. After immigration officials deemed her safe ...
I was disappointed to see yesterday afternoon’s announcement that Auckland has chosen to leave Local Government NZ (LGNZ). Hamilton’s membership of LGNZ is one of collaboration and sharing. Being a member gives us important views from other ...
It’s the most talked about local opera production in years – but does it live up to the chatter?The lowdownYou’ve probably heard of the “unruly tourists”, the British family who created a media firestorm as they toured around the country leaving trash and turmoil in their wake. You’ve ...
As reported by Newsroom’s Marc Daalder this morning, correspondence released under the Official Information Act shows advice about puberty blockers was removed from the Ministry of Health website “in the hopes it creates fewer queries” from anti-trans campaigners. The line that was removed from the site said puberty blockers “are ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nuclear submarines The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The ...
Secondary teachers will strike again next week after an agreement on improved pay and working conditions was not reached. The strike will take place on Wednesday, less than two weeks after thousands of educators took to the streets across the country. “PPTA Te Wehengarua members have shown they are serious ...
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission is encouraging organisations and individuals to share their views on human rights in Aotearoa New Zealand for the government’s upcoming report to the United Nations. The report informs a process ...
Secondary and area school teachers around the country have voted overwhelmingly in favour of more industrial action, including a one day national strike next Wednesday, in support of their collective agreement negotiations. “PPTA Te Wehengarua members ...
At a time when our need for collective action is stronger than ever, Auckland Council has opted out to save each of its residents just 25c a year, writes former Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins.I grew up in rural Southland, in the shadows of the Cut The Cable movement. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Jakoboski, Oceanographic Data Scientist, Moana Project’s Te Tiro Moana Team Lead, MetService — Te Ratonga Tirorangi Moana project, CC BY-ND The world’s oceans are buffering us from the worst climate impacts by taking up more than 90% of the ...
Morning Report - RNZ and Newsroom's political editors consider National's education pitch, and the political responses to lobbying revelations and Posie Parker. ...
The Free Speech Union will be an intervener this morning as the High Court considers whether Immigration New Zealand's decision to allow Posie Parker (Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull) entry into New Zealand was legal, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free ...
For over a decade, Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club has come under fire for denying entry to people wearing religious headwear. Despite the Human Rights Commission getting involved, it seems the rule remains unchanged.One of the definitions given by the Oxford dictionary for the word cosmopolitan is: “including people from many ...
Chris Hipkins’ dump of Ardern-era policy has potentially jeopardised a major part of the government’s climate change response. In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks to climate policy expert Christina Hood from Climate Compass to find out why this month’s Emissions Trading Scheme auction failed and ...
The head of Local Government NZ, the group representing councils across the country, has hit back at claims made by Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. It was his casting vote that saw Auckland Council leave the representative group yesterday evening, with councillors divided on whether or not it was the right ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Al-Tamini Tapu, Geoscientist, The University of Queensland Warrumbungle national park.colinslack/Shutterstock Our new study published in Nature Geoscience on an ancient chain of Australian volcanoes is helping to change our understanding of “hotspot” volcanism. You may be surprised to learn eastern ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sussex, Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University There’s been a lot of recent shouting about Australia’s national security policy. It began with the Nine newspapers’ “Red Alert” extravaganza, spread over multiple articles. Featuring a graphic of warplanes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Goldlust, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University Shutterstock Earlier this month, regulators flagged electricity price rises in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Like many people, you’re probably wondering how you can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Veal, Adjunct Professor, Business School, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock A little more than a century ago, most people in industrialised countries worked 60 hours a week – six ten-hour days. A 40-hour work week of five eight-hour days ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xavier Ho, Lecturer in Interaction Design, Monash University Sony Entertainment Mainstream games are embracing openly queer characters – and so are many of their players and fans. The Last of Us, the prestige HBO adaptation of the critically lauded ...
The capital’s transport overhaul will have spent $130 million on consultant fees by the end of next year, Stuff reports. Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) expects to spend $60 million on outside experts in the coming year, after already spending $38.5m in the past three years and $35m this year. Greater ...
Chris Hipkins’ dump of Ardern-era policy has potentially jeopardised a major part of the government’s climate change response. Bernard Hickey talks to climate policy expert Christina Hood from Climate Compass to find out why this month’s Emissions Trading Scheme auction failed and how she feels cabinet have destroyed confidence in ...
Christopher Luxon says the policy is what’s needed to address serious issues with reading, writing and maths in primary schools. Others aren’t so sure, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.Back ...
Although Auckland Council’s big cleanup following this year’s extreme weather events continues, “things are getting more difficult at this point”. Five weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle, some 7,000 Aucklanders remain impacted by the aftermath of the floods, slips and heavy winds that battered the region in January and February. Auckland Council’s ...
A traffic bypass stole 20,000 potential daily visitors from its main streets and local businesses. Three years on, how are the Waikato town’s 9,000 residents coping?The tourism centre is closed – “permanently”, says the sign. The cafe next door, once called River Haven, now with two missing letters making ...
Such a sweet idea, but Bernie appealed to the same educated white people that Hillary Clinton did. And look where that got us.
Democrats need a candidate for morans.
Wrong again AD.
Bernie would have won. And a real partnership between Bernie and Clinton would have definantly won.
Clearly you’re not a moran, otherwise you’d understand.
And here is the data.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2016-election-poll-bernie-sanders-trump_us_58260f7ee4b0c4b63b0c6928?utm_hp_ref=bernie-sanders
Clinton and mates both within the DNC and the big dollar donors were pathologically unable to do partnership with anyone. That the DNC buried Bernie was proof alone of this.
That said, despite Bernie being a 74 year old communist in the land of the free, he would have impassioned the you enough to get him to the White House.
There was passion for Bernie, there was passion for Donald, but there was no passion for Hillary.
The DNC lost the election, rather than Donald winning the election
I think the Democrats need to stop treating the people as morons
1. Celebrity endorsements don’t appear to work
2. Ignoring your voting base doesn’t work
3. Calling potentially half the people in your country deplorables doesn’t work
4. Assuming you have the votes and not bothering to campaign doesn’t work
5. Assuming all women will for for a women is…actually quite sexist
It all works. Just not quite enough this time.
It may work, but it serves to cheapen the whole electoral process.
Which bit does?
When they go low, we go high?
All 1. to 5.
“When they go low, we go high?”
That’ll be the bit where Obama started spouting on about the KKK.
yeah right rightie
“Following Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential race, the Ku Klux Klan has announced plans for a celebratory rally in North Carolina, an important swing state in which Trump ultimately received 51% of the vote.”
http://theslot.jezebel.com/ku-klux-klan-will-rally-in-north-carolina-to-celebrate-1788829381
You clearly don’t understand anything about the US election.
No. It’s because men hate women in power. Clearly.
“Half”
The only electoral cohort that came even close to “half” were those who abstained, or were prevented from voting by Republican voter suppression laws and direct intimidation. Clinton and the serial rapist shared the remainder – with her in front (just) – about 25% each.
chris73… treating people as morons is the MO of those – mostly the extreme right and morally compromised – who favour the slanderous and dirty politicking of Trump, and which is delightedly promoted by the click driven money-making media
How about all the Clinton supporters who continuously used tabloid sexual innuendo, sneer words and accusations of child rape against Donald Trump.
That’s not “slanderous and dirty politicking” in your books?
none of what you refer to made the slightest headline in any of the papers I read
the tabloid innuendo you refer to, was I assume encouraged by – the racist, mysogynistic, sexually abusive language that was actually recorded coming out Trump’s own mouth
Uh…which US dailies do you read
All the data available to date shows that Hillary voters had lower average incomes than Trump voters.
Trump did not win off the backs of the poor disenfranchised working class. He won off the backs of authoritarian middle class white people.
“Authoritarian middle class white people” from the rust-belt towns?
Clinton supporters are avoiding looking at the obvious. I did a post on this. A super majority of non-college educated whites, men and women, voted Donald J Trump.
Democrats have lost that white working class vote for now. If Trump does what he does right, Democrats will also lose much more of the black and Latino working class vote in 2020.
And a severe drop in turnout compared to the people who elected Obama in 2008 and 2012. Trump’s numbers were roughly the same as Romney’s.
Maybe you should take a look at the queues of people who lined up at Trump rallies all throughout the country, take a look at the type of people they were, and get yourself a reality check.
How about you count and do a reality check?
New York Times – why Trump won: White working class votes
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html
Bear in mind that white median household incomes in the USA are 70% higher than black median household incomes IIRC.
Most blacks voted Clinton, most whites voted Trump.
That skews Trump’s apparent income figures upwards.
Trump’s opportunity: consolidate his white working class appeal and extend it into the Latino and black working class. Entrench his support in the rustbelt/mid west states.
The Democratic Party long abandoned/long ignored the white non-degree qualified working class.
And this week a supermajority of them male and female turned their backs on Hillary Clinton and voted for Trump.
Bernie also appealed to white and black working class.
Democrats have abandoned them.
testing…Good morning all.
The issue is that the Democratic hierarchy and the DNC were intestinally incapable of accepting anyone else except Hillary Clinton, the ultimate status quo candidate in a change election year.
Unfortunately it had to take a pugnacious bully to upset the planned Establishment Coronation.
It’s also going to take a pugnacious bully to drain the Washington DC lobbyist/corporate bought swamp. So I think he’s right for the job.
Quiet possibly, but more likely, repurpose it into something much worse.
actually I’m sure someone said the deep state had probably endorsed trump at the last minute which is the main way he got over the line – so trump is as establishment as anyone else – of course he’s really just a better liar or maybe a glove puppet for putin and/or the deeeep staaate – hard to know – one thing we DO know is he is a disaster for the environment, of that we can be 100% certain.
My US friends say “Sure Trump is gonna clean house. But he’ll dirty it up just as fast with his own crew.”
There is little reason for optimism where Trump is concerned.
And my American friends (who have been saying for over a year now that a Trump victory was absolutely inevitable) are wildly optimistic about Trump being great for America.
Only time will tell us which group was on the money – tho my mates are one up on predicting the election result.
Dan Carlin said pretty much the same thing in his most recent podcast. And Cenk Uygur from the Young Turks.
Trump is beyond awful, but he is a result of Republican intransigence and Democrat refusal to take account of ordinary people, in their catering to the establishment.
50% of the USA didn’t vote, as their Government no longer represents them in any way shape or form.
Or – they were unable to get to a polling booth
http://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/video/people-wait-in-long-lines-for-voting-news-footage/622152102
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/long-early-voting-lines-illustrate-need-more-polling-places
Or knowing the long wait – just couldn’t be bothered.
Or maybe Clinton was a weak candidate too concerned with going to millionaires fundraisers in California and Martha’s Vineyard even in the last couple of months of the campaign.
Instead of doing extra community visits in Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
or maybe not – post truth politics entitles the loudmouth liars like trump especially when innocent ordinary people are scared and suffering – it’s just a bigger version of sensing murders – take advantage of people, make money, and run run away when the edifice begins to fall – which it will and sooner rather than later imo.
Of course, because you were so good at predicting a Trump victory, you now think you can predict a Trump Presidency.
Frankly I have no idea how his Presidency is going to go. But I know that it will not be typical and I am looking forward to it.
of course you are, you have been pimping support for him for a while now
That 50% figure is roughly the same as it always is, nothing special about this election.
That 50% figure is roughly the same as it always is, nothing special about this election.
There’s is something seriously wrong with a ‘democratic’ nation where only 50% of the population vote.
Yes. USA. USA. USA.
Actually the previous polls were around the 60% turnout – so your assessment is way off.
Around 10% less is significant.
I’m not convinced.
Trump got just a wee bit less vote than Romney or McCain, Clinton got a lot less than Obama. To me, that doesn’t make a wave of enthusiasm for Trump, it means there was just a lot less enthusiasm for Clinton. Most of the old tribal loyalties held, most of the Republican “never Trumpers” came home in the end. The few “never Trumpers” that held out were compensated by the few alt-right deplorables that no responsible political party should ever seek to attract.
When voting means going out and standing for hours in line, you need to be motivated to do it. That’s generally the experience in poorer parts of cities, not so much in wealthier suburbs or rural areas.
As I understand it, minorities in the primaries weren’t enthused by Bernie and generally went for Clinton. If they weren’t fired up in the primaries, why would they find a lot more enthusiasm in the general? Who really thinks those voters that found Trump’s brash siren song would have been more attracted to Bernie’s socialism? Remember socialism is still a dirty word to most older people in the US, and what little data we have suggests older people leaned Trump, younger people (who aren’t so negative about socialism) leaned Clinton.
I have still never seen a good explanation of why the Dem elite were so enthusiastic about Clinton, to the extent that other credible candidates never even put their hands up. Were they simply so attracted by her experience and high approvals at the end of her State time that they underestimated how much the stains from previous smear campaigns would show? Particularly under sustained fresh attack from the right and far-left?
Is the lesson that “change” is always a powerful argument and that Clinton was “too experienced”? The argument that change is best brought by someone that thoroughly knows the existing system may be too difficult to get across. Maybe there’s a Goldilocks level of experience. Sanders, McCain, Romney, Kerry, Gore had all been in the system a long long time.
Lots of people on The Standard defended Clintons nomination as the Dem candidate. A big mistake IMO.
And the American people punished the Democrats by not only putting the White House, the Senate, the House, and 3 more state governorships in the Republican tally. They also de facto have given the Republicans control of the Supreme Court.
“When voting means going out and standing for hours in line, you need to be motivated to do it. That’s generally the experience in poorer parts of cities, not so much in wealthier suburbs or rural areas.”
Good points Andre. I too think that the lack of commitment to the democratic process – with the difficulty of voting and the complexity and gerrymandering of districts (particularly by the Republicans in 2010 with the REDMAP) – by the US in general, makes their promotion of world wide democracy laughable.
Until they can get their own house in order, they have no business trying to tell others.
A tiny green shoot of sanity.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2016/11/maine_just_passed_ranked_choice_voting_bravo.html
Every poll showed that Trump supporters were more enthusiastic than Clinton supporters.
Trump supporters were willing to wait an entire day in line to hear Trump speak for 40 minutes.
And that enthusiasm gap made a difference at the polls.
To which I might add, a movement has to be built around something, and no movement can be built around Business As Usual.
During the presidential election campaign where, though it was virtually ignored by Clinton, who never properly never challenged Trump on this issue, Climate Change is one of defining issues between Trump* and the Democrats.
Because of this the Democratic Party couldn’t do better than coming out in support of Standing Rock, which is a movement that embodies the protection of the environment over corporate profit.
Bernie has done it. He has visited Standing Rock.
To regain any shred of credibility and to heal the rifts between the Party and the base. the Clintons the Gores and the other leading Democratic Party establishment figures need to visit Standing alongside Bernie Sanders. Otherwise the Democrats will continue to be riven with divisions that will make building a “grass-roots movement” nigh near impossible.
The American people need to see them standing there, alongside Bernie.
*(Notice I said “Trump” and not the Republicans. The reason. Even the establishment Republican Party insiders know that climate change represents a deadly near and present danger. [Not that they want to do anything about it that might affect Business As Usual])
What will happen in OUR election?
Will we have a Bernie Sanders?
A damn good question.
A better question might be, can Andrew LIttle transform himself into a Bernie Sanders?
There are signs that this could be possible.
Climate justice and social justice are closely entwined, both mean challenging the status quo. And one inevitably feeds into the other.
Andrew Little declared at the Green Party Conference that, A government he led would become a world leader on climate change.
And long time Labour Party insider Phil Goff as Mayor of New Zealand’s biggest city has just voted down deep sea oil drilling.
These are very hopeful moves for the Labour Party.
So the Auckland Council will have to cancel their scheduled deep sea drilling programme?
An even better question would be would the current Labour MPs allow him to, even if he could (which I doubt). Andrew Little to me is a genuine person making a good fist of a difficult job. But he’s not Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn.
By this standard even Bernie Sanders was not Bernie Sanders. (Who was blocked by the Democratic Party establishment.)
Andrew Little could do worse than to take a page out of Trump’s play book, who defied the whole Republican Party establishment, virtually telling them all to go to hell.
…can Andrew LIttle transform himself into a Bernie Sanders?
He is already more than half way there Jenny. He is saying exactly the same things as Bernie Sanders. Problem is: the msm are bypassing the message in order to concentrate on putting words into his mouth he never used, or misinterpreting (on purpose) words he did use. So his message is not getting through to the populace.
He continues to move around the country talking to people at every opportunity but that of course is not enough. How do you force the msm to play fair?
Trump them with lawyers.
Oops! Sorry Anne, I pasted this in the wrong place.
How do you force the msm to play fair?
Politics, like life, is not fair.
Words to live by:
http://www.lifebuzz.com/10-lessons-from-navy-seal/
Yes Jenny. I go along with that quote. It’s hard sometimes when your enemies (be they personal or political) are determined to cause you to fail but the answer is to never give up. It’s my past experience that it makes you are stronger person in the end.
Blaming the media is a mug’s game. This is 2016. We have many other channels to use, like Facebook, Twitter and party websites.
Traditionally blaming the media has been quixotic, however dishonest they were. But the media are no longer monolithic – they are increasingly vulnerable and may perhaps be brought into more of a semblance of neutrality.
They know – no-one better – that their clickbait cynicism and bias is losing them their market share. There are fewer cushy outcomes for laid-off journalists every day.
Stuart, it is my view that ‘the people’ don’t actually want neutrality. The most popular news network in the US is Fox, who are openly pro-right. Their main competition, CNN and MSNBC, are both pro-left. The MSM are losing market share to alternative news delivery, such as blogs, virtually all of which have a declared bias. The days of a neutral media are, in my opinion, long gone.
Friend of mine did some research on this – taught a group of journos at three papers a quality metric for reporting – timeliness, accuracy, balance, depth & so on. Lifted their circulation by 70%.
It’s like comedy and tragedy – people don’t want the mental effort of serious drama – but they remember and prefer serious over cheap ‘entertainment’.
There’s no point in following invented news – truth is stranger than fiction so ultimately made-up stuff is boring.
Fox succeeds because things like Murdoch’s influence prevent real journalism from competing. The truth does not serve Murdoch’s neo-liberal ends – so he gradually destroys the validity of his business. It’s almost Grecian.
– where has Little attacked the conduct of the banks and the financial sector?
– where has Little attacked the effect of neoliberalism and free trade policies?
– where has Little attacked the obscene wealth of the mega-rich?
– where has Little advocated for increased taxes on millionaires and corporations?
– where are the crowds of thousands following Little around to hear him speak?
Sorry Anne, Little ain’t no Bernie Sanders.
( Will we have a Bernie Sanders? )
I don’t think there’s a snowballs chance in hell. The Labour party IMOP no longer represent the left.
The clock is ticking for neo liberalism bulshit progressives.
The question is do the ‘morans’ rebel first…and deliver us a big pile of crap like Trump or whatever Fascists are climbing to power in Europe.
Or do we, the Leftists or Progressives, or even Centrists…take the initiative, ‘grow some’, turn on our supposedly benevolent, lesser of two Evils, overlords…and deliver candidates of REAL DEEP STRUCTURAL CHANGE TO THE WHOLE ECONOMIC MODEL>
Turn Labour Left.
And vote for the Left wing candidate who doesn’t scream in horror at being labeled a Socialist or any related label.
(or keep to our bubble and sit around like stunned mullets when Trump or Brexit or whatever-next rolls in to town)
“Or do we, the Leftists or Progressives, or even Centrists…take the initiative, ‘grow some’, turn on our supposedly benevolent, lesser of two Evils, overlords…and deliver candidates of REAL DEEP STRUCTURAL CHANGE TO THE WHOLE ECONOMIC MODEL>”
I’d back that, had enough of a government and it’s more of the same year in year out, the system is not working, is it? anyone here think the western political system in it’s current formats working?
Yes Siobhan, but it won’t happen with this bunch of neolib labour MPs. I think we are banging our head against a brick wall around here telling Labour time and time again to mend its ways. Many of the commentators here cannot see the need for a change in direction.
“Morans” = ordinary people who see that the current arrangements are definitely not working for them and their children’s future.
Who can see that no one in the establishment, or current political parties, want to know.
Who see that the only way to change BAU is to chose someone outside the tweedledee and tweedledum establishment.
No matter how repugnant.
Not “morans” but entirely logical people.
The same will happen in New Zealand, unless we get alternatives that differ, in reality not rhetoric, from the current “take of your leg and still take of your leg but use some anesthetic” alternatives. ( Nod to D Cunliff).
Obama’s cowardly, pathetic attempts to curry favour with the extreme right only earned him contempt from all sides. Look at the following two photographs. The first shows him with Raoul Castro….
http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/styles/half/public/2016/03/22/440677-castro-with-obama-pti.jpg?itok=hD0rfW1T
The second shows him shaking hands with Donald Trump….
http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/161110130731-08-obama-trump-1110-large-169.jpg
Why did he fear to be seen shaking hands like a man with Castro? Because he was imagining what Fox News would do with the footage. It’s a perfect example of the sort of vacillation that has made the last eight years such a wasted opportunity and a disappointment.
And of course this:
“Barack Obama, forty-forth president of the United States, called the operation against Osama bin Laden “the most important single day of my presidency.””
http://time.com/84553/osama-bin-laden-situation-room/
Thanks Chris. What a hero he was, sitting in that “situation room” with the grave and heroic expression of a true warrior. I wonder if he gathered his cast of heroes around the “situation room” like that every time they killed someone with a drone….
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/01/obama-drones-strikes-civilian-deaths
https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11746846
History has repeated.. and we said it would NEVER happen again.
warning offensive content.
Anne, the MSM would sit up and take notice, as if given an electric shock. If Andrew Little joined Phil Goff in declaring that a Labour led Government would, “from day one”*, send the deep sea oil drillers and seabed miners packing.
That would be being a true Labour party. Something the “don’t scare the horses” Labour caucus would fight tooth and nail.
It is the sort of thing that is really required to fight AGW.
Labour, and the US democrats, were both to much part of the establishment to do it.
Now they have Trump to push against instead of a Government which pretended it was on the side of stopping AGW, but in reality continued to subsidise and fight wars to support big oil, we may see some real hard activism against climate change in the USA.
The Democrats may even use it as a point of difference against the Repugs. LOL.
*(to borrow a Trumpism)
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/24/politics/donald-trump-day-one/index.html
“The First Day Project”
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Donald+TRump+I+will+from+day+one&view=detail&mid=0B7DFB16D2A3D91C4C690B7DFB16D2A3D91C4C69&FORM=VIRE
Invite Bernie to come to NZ to compete at the next elections. He’d probably beat the useless choices we will have.
No, Bernie would not have won. Because Mike Bloomberg would have run as a spoiler.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/11/would-bernie-have-won-um-bloomberg.html
This is probably better advice.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/11/the_democrats_ran_hillary_because_it_was_her_turn_bad_move.html
The disaster that Obama/Clinton has been for the Democratic Party
At least 870 Democratic elected legislators and leaders lost since 2008.
10% loss in Senate seats.
19% and 20% loss in House and legislature seats.
36% loss in state governors.
The US Democratic Party has taken a body blow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/10/the-decimation-of-the-democratic-party-visualized/
yes the rise of the conservative right is depressing, but don’t assume that this is a “body blow” to Democrats…. despite all the slanderous lies and conspiracy theories about Obama and Hillary, he won two elections and Hillary won the popular vote
I predict that things will change drastically over the next 4 years from the Republicans’ and Trump’s reign and their regressive, illiberal, self-destructive politics…
and the real ‘body blow’ will be to American society and the many many poor and minority groups who will suffer the fallout
While giving Republicans control of all the branches of US government, as well as 33 of the 48 state governorships.
I see this election result as a massive repudiation of Obama’s legacy (which is going to be promptly dismantled next year).
Obama and Clinton do not deserve a pass mark. Especially Clinton who lost states that the Dems had won for 30 years.
CV – you see it your way and I see it mine
imo you have waged a bitter relentless attack on Clinton, Obama, Democrats, the Left and anyone who expresses disgust for the slanderous lies and prejudice-feeding awfulness of Trump
I see the massive majority of Black, Hispanic and minority group voters who voted for Hillary over Trump (including the majority of all Americans who voted) as a sign that liberal, progessive and decent values are alive and well in the the US.
I am also convinced that the Republicans got their support from the hatred machine they created that blamed Democrats, Clintons and Obama for every real or perceived problem or threat to their way of life.
Now that the Republicans have control of everything and fail to make things better, maybe we’ll see a complete reversal in those statistics in 4 years time
What slanderous lies about Hillary? Whitewater? Qatar and the Saudis investing in the Clinton Global Initiative? The “suicide” of so many people who have posed a threat to the Clinton crime family?
Richard, statements like “Clinton crime factory” are exactly what I meant by “slanderous lies”
– and lets be very clear, the entire Republican machine has generated multiple unfounded and disproven politically motivated accusations about Hillary Clinton over the past 20 years
Your utter disrespect for Hillary Clinton means you can’t even begin to see that Trump is in a league of his own when it comes to dissembling, hiding the truth and outright lying.
The rate, volume, putrescence and malevolence of what Trump has said about his opponents over the past few months make him completely untrustworthy and unfit to be given any kind of responsibility for governing on behalf of all Americans.
Trump has fed the seething hatreds of many Repubicans, his lack of transparency regarding his tax returns is instructive, his lies about his dealings with Russia, his illegal use of his ‘charities’, the slanderous and relentless birther conspiracy which he fostered. And I haven’t even started on Trump University fraud…