Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
The Editor doesn’t moderate this blog, 3 volunteers do, they are very lenient to provide you a free speech space but if it’s just deranged abuse or putting words in bloggers mouths to have a pointless argument, we don’t bother publishing.
All in all, TDB gives punters a very, very, very wide space to comment in but we won’t bother with out right lies or gleeful malice. We leave that to the Herald comment section.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist abuse, homophobic abuse, racist abuse, anti-muslim abuse, transphobic abuse, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
Interesting numbers- since the American-loving president of Columbia Ivan Duque was kicked to the curb, flights of drug smuggling planes into Venezuela have more than halved.
https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-disables-3-narco-jets-that-entered-its-airspace/
Most drug smuggling to NZ comes through the US base at Christchurch Airport. If the government actually cared about drug dealing, why haven’t the yanks been kicked out?
Ohhh my, you are a tinfoil wearing conspiracy theorist, a terrorist loving one at that!
You are a sad sad Muslim, get a job, broaden your horizons.
Do you know for sure that the assertion about Christchurch is wrong?
If you have nothing factual to add don’t bother about taking swipes at the name. He may be from Iran which reached a higher standard of societal achievement than us centuries ago. Or he may not be. It doesn’t matter but your comment wasn’t funny. I aim for better myself and you aren’t right.
My bruv, a construction manager in Wellington in the early norts, for better or worse, prefers secret knowledge to general knowledge. A sure sign. But he said the Weta animation folk were fueled by cocaine to get the job done, allowed in by the govt.
He also, close up, reckoned parliament was a sex-fest. He was there but had zero general understanding. Not denying his ‘facts’. Even if, it wouldn’t refute much. He, sans gen. understanding, has gone off to crazytown, which is always for the Right for the rich.
Megan Main. Formerly from MBIE/INZ whose achievements were to fuck up immigration policy and the MIQ quarantine system, and who is now onto Her next gig as CEO of ACC is cutting 10% of Her workforce.
We probably need a reverse 501 policy where we can deport specimens such a She to Australia. More fool the muppets under Her rule that thought She was an OK specimen. Ugly, in every sense of the word
Ir’s a shame to waste material lovingly prepared and presented.
Don’t know whether this is a hate piece from one side or the other or a let’s love them all bit of moonshine but knowing what’s out there is useful in understanding. I haven’t seen it but someone feels strongly enough to cleverly present and load it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ByJb7QQ9U
Debunking the Palestine Lie
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/516390/former-fiji-pm-frank-bainimarama-jailed
Bainimarama, the 69-year-old former military commander and 2006 coup leader, had been found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
2006=2924 – 18 years ago.
We had our coup start in 1984. Who can we take to Court and pull their pants down in public and smack their bare bottoms with a paddle from our lot?? Because someone/people deserve that humiliation and further punishment right here in NZ/AO.
And it is no use bringing up Sue whatname’s law against smacking children. I don’t care what fallacious arguments are brought up. Having no punishment at all is bad for the direction of the malleable child, adult and society and when it’s from the top, something drastic is needed as a lesson and a prevention. Sounds extreme, but as I have pointed out before, we swing like a pendulum from one extreme to another. And balance not banning, and intention to make better rather than just punish should be our aim. But some things are truly serious and deserve consideration to match.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/516237/managed-retreat-how-do-we-get-out-of-the-way-of-climate-change
Interesting. The government will no doubt show its usual unimaginative thinking. First step – who amongst our moneyed funders would like to manage this while we sit back and say it is too difficult, we can’t afford it etc
When are the thoughtful, informed, experienced managers going to arise and coalesce here in this country and say to everyone, we people can do better than this pampered political class who have their seats warmed for them by their forebears. (Let Goldilocks get in, test the offerings and show us the way to real government not this tawdry, nutrient-less, university- monetarist-factory produced stuff !)
This is interesting comment on our overseas concerns. It covers trade, 5 eyes spying, Australian Labour Party dissension over Israel, our dairy and apple exports. Something for everyone.
New Zealand’s geopolitical friendly fire has its limits
Geoffrey Miller May 5
…Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand.
Carr had made highly critical comments about Pillar II of the Aukus pact, which New Zealand is contemplating joining, at a conference held by New Zealand’s Labour Party opposition in Wellington in mid-April.
Meanwhile, trade minister Todd McClay has engaged in some plain speaking of his own. In a press release on Thursday, McClay called Canada’s refusal to comply with a ruling in New Zealand’s favour on ‘tariff rate quotas’ by the disputes settlement body of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) ‘cynical’ and ‘disappointing’.
The minister said he was seeking legal advice, as New Zealand had ‘no intention of backing down’.
Canada has been allocating a large share of its preferential duty quotas for dairy products to its own domestic processors. This has heavily limited the ability of lower-cost exporters such as New Zealand to enter the Canadian market.
(Similar happened once with lamb and the USA. Other countries’ producers get sick of us pushing our low-cost, mass-produced product on them. Talking about grass-fed and grain-fed being different isn’t the whole story.)
To outsiders, it might seem surprising that Australia and Canada are on the receiving end of the remarks made by the New Zealand ministers. All three countries are members of the Five Eyes – and Australia is New Zealand’s only formal ally. And New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sought out his counterparts from both Australia and Canada in December and February to issue joint statements on Gaza.
However, the exceptions probably prove the rule.
Bob Carr is from the same Labor Party as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. However, no love appears to be lost between Carr and the current Australian Labor Party leadership when it comes to foreign policy issues. In 2021, Albanese was heavily critical of an internal party motion supported by Carr which called for a boycott of Israel.
In trade, the picture is more complex. It is true that New Zealand, where there is largely a bipartisan consensus on the merits of free trade, has a long track record of speaking up for itself when it feels hard done by – even against close partners.
Most famously, this included successfully taking a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute in 2007 against Australia over the country’s long-standing de facto ban on importing New Zealand apples. The WTO case is now largely forgotten. When it is remembered, it usually as a technocratic measure that did not affect wider bilateral relations..
https://democracyproject.substack.com/p/new-zealands-geopolitical-friendly?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1885783&post_id=144339525&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=18e5oz&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email.
(Australia went to the point of accusing us of planting false evidence to make a case against their apple growers. One of our knowledgable people while visiting Oz found some I think cotoneaster, hit by fireblight, in a public space. This was important because Oz had refused our apples because we had this or some other plant disease which they said they hadn’t, and so they banned our apples. When the very disease was seen by a NZ person, the usual Kiwi bashing started up. We won eventually. But Oz blames Kiwis as an automatic reaction when trouble arises.)