text:
New Zealand First or America First?
A tale of two Christmas speeches
Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, December 20th, 2018 - 194 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:
Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
194 comments on "Open mike 20/12/2018 "
Uber Pike
James a UK immigrant to NZ ,,, and resident troll here …. supports and participates in the the breaking of NZ laws … and such is his pride he brags about it at left wing blogs.
Uber a tax dodging law flouting corporation came into New Zealand ….. and under the last National Government were allowed to operate …. despite, but yet typically under the last Nact Government, they were at least 80% non-compliant to the Land Transport Passenger Service regulations … under which they are lawfully and legally required to operate.
It makes you wonder what other laws and regulations James thinks should be ignored …. food?, ignoring all those burdensome hygine and food safty regulations… a james bbq with pink chicken would make a uber fine food provider.
Uber doctors? …. where maybe they don't actually have a legit doctors certificate … but they can fill your prescritions cheap of the internet… what a uber bargin that would be.
anyway it begs the question ….Did James lie on his NZ residency application?? … treating his legal requirements and honesty as merely optional… or did he declare that he would help NZ, by leading the way in showing us what laws and regulations should be ignored
The Pike River Mine / deathtrap was run like a corner cutting and regulation ignoring Uber outfit.
I highly recommend this Pike River documentary …
Watching it left me vastly better informed of the criminal disregard for workers safety .. red line after red line were crossed and ignored …non compliance with the regulations and ignoring laws pertaining to explosive gasses …all leading to the inevitable but preventable deaths for the 29 West Coast workers.
And for me it really highlighted our dishonest grave dancer Alwyn … and his degenerate smears on this subject relating to Andrew Little.
James 1.1
Wow you really do have an unhealthy obsession with me.
Nice to see I'm in that little head of yours so early in the morning.
alwyn 1.2
My, you really woke up with a hangover this morning, didn't you.
Puckish Rogue 1.3
I'm feeling a tad left out, don't I even rate a mention?
Robert Guyton 1.3.1
You're fully assimilated now, Pucky. Perhaps we should have said…a small ceremony, perhaps, maybe a badge…sorry!
Puckish Rogue 1.3.1.1
I need to get my mojo back is what it is, the current set up in National is not motivating enough, I need inspiration, I need National not Labour-lite, I need something to believe in, I need a hero, I need…
https://i1.wp.com/www.whaleoil.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1478989_561528227258268_120535684_n.jpg
There it is 🙂
alwyn 1.3.1.1.1
I'm afraid you have gone over to the dark side.
Anakin Skywalker, better known as Darth Vader, seems to be more appropriate for you nowadays.
Puckish Rogue 1.3.1.1.1.1
Well thats just mean 🙁
Ad 1.3.1.1.2
Tuppence Shrewsbury 1.4
That's not a documentary, it's a dressed up presentation of opinions.
shadrach 1.5
"and his degenerate smears on this subject relating to Andrew Little."
I'm not aware of what James has said about Andrew Little and Pike River, but if it relates to Little's time with the EPMU, then he may well have been referring to this http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-andrew-little-failed-pike-river.html.
Andrew Little was asleep at the wheel.
te reo putake 1.5.1
Bullshit. Little was the head of the union. His job was to administer the organisation, not personally visit every worksite to check for issues.
alwyn 1.5.1.1
Well for someone who was only doing what you suggest as being "His job was to administer the organisation," he certainly had a lot to say about the details of the operation.
Did you bother to read that link and see exactly what Little did say? They are direct quotes you know.
te reo putake 1.5.1.1.1
I've read it many times. In fact, pretty much every time some git makes the same mistake about Little's role. Pike River were anti-union, and incentivised their staff to breach health and safety rules and kept the true situation in the mine secret. Andrew Little is a clever guy, but he doesn't possess ESP.
shadrach 1.5.1.2
"Little was the head of the union."
And in that capacity he defended PRC management on their safety record, and led a union that failed to act on specific concerns raised prior to the accident.
"His job was to administer the organisation…"
Are you seriously arguing he isn't responsible for his own comments about PRC? That as head of the union he bears no responsibility for the safety of the union's members? What was he paid to do exactly?
"…not personally visit every worksite to check for issues."
But he is responsible for what he says. Particularly when what he says reflects precisely on those safety issues. And he was ultimately responsible for the union and it's members. He failed.
Again, bullshit. His comments were based on what information he had at the time. As I've already said, the company lied through its teeth and made life as difficult as possible for the union. To use the National party's excuse du jour, it was an operational matter. Andrew was an administrator based in Wellington, not an organiser based in Greymouth. He could only report what he was told, becuase he had no direct involvement.
Tiger Mountain 1.5.1.2.1.1
be good to see Andrew Little make some sort of definitive statement on this, one mad Trot offshoot newsletter, is what the various Nattys keep quoting
as I understand it Mr Whitall ran an anti union/union busting culture that saw the organiser reduced to riding the workers bus to try and get access to the site! Rebecca McFie's "Tragedy at Pike River Mine" lays it out how marginalised the Union was there, requests from Mr Rockhouse to include the EPMU in training exercises were met with dismissive emails from Whitall–"the Union and Pike are not to be mentioned in the same sentence"…etc.
the attacks on Little are rather transparent given Solid Energy's "seal it up" plan being derailed, and the Pike River Recovery Agency charging ahead with reentry
shadrach …
Hi Tiger.
The claims regarding Little's involvement with Pike stem from his own comments and his own inaction. The material in the post (http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-andrew-little-failed-pike-river.html) is damning.
alwyn …
You do realise, I hope, that all Andrew's statements were made AFTER the explosion that almost certainly killed the workers.
The explosion was on 19 November. Little's statements were made to the Herald, and Close Up on 22 November.
If he hadn't found out what was going on by then he damn well should have. Both he, and the MP for the area, O'Connor had by then been to the mine and still they defended the company and said that everything was fine and there were no concerns by the Union about safety.
Gabby …
Of course it's conceivable he was lied to wally.
shadrach 1.5.1.2.1.2
"His comments were based on what information he had at the time."
Which were ill-informed, and ignored concerns of others from within the business and the industry.
"As I've already said, the company lied through its teeth and made life as difficult as possible for the union."
And Little enabled them.
"Andrew was an administrator based in Wellington, not an organiser based in Greymouth."
That's a terrific cop-out. Andrew Little was with the EPMU/Engineers Union since before 1997. He was National Secretary from 2000. In summary, at the time of Pike he had been with the union for more than 13 years, 10 as National Secretary. For you to argue his position was simply as "an administrator based in Wellington" is pure nonsense.
Muttonbird 1.6
I must say this is a shock. James is not even a real Kiwi even though he pretends he is.
Immigration management in this country in the last 20 years has been terrible. There has been zero work done on the ability of social infrastructure to cope with the flood of toff-nosed poms washing onto our shores.
James claims to be about 48 years old and has sent three kids through Kristin at 25K per annum each. The eldest of these kids owns and runs their own business now and is approximately late 20s.
I'm left wondering when it was that James actually entered New Zealand as an immigrant with his British family?
James himself might like to shed some light on this…
James 1.6.1
More fun to leave you wondering and obsessing.
Muttonbird 1.6.1.1
There are honest commenters on this forum, and then there is you.
James 1.6.1.1.1
There are morons – then there is you who will never raise to that level of intellect.
…. anyway it begs the question ….Did James lie on his NZ residency application?? … treating his legal requirements and honesty as merely optional… or did he declare that he would help NZ, by leading the way in showing us what laws and regulations should be ignored
Did ya james ? … do tell.
it will also distract you from your unhealthy obsession with Ed … otherwise known as trolling.
Spill your 10 pound pom uber guts ….
Ed 2.1
Resin – if James trolls you, you are doing something right.
Remember Roosevelt's words.
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."
And are reasons statements true James?
James 2.1.1.1
Reason seems to think so. But then again he/she seems to have issues.
Dv 2.1.1.1.1
So you don't deny them then.
Interesting to know.
James 2.1.1.1.1.1
I note that reason hasn't denied having an unhealthy obsession with me – interesting to know.
dV …
So james. I will have to believe what Reason has written about you.
Sayonna
Enough 2.1.2
James is an opinionated ignoramus. A classic case of "opening mouth before engaging brain". I recently posted about the demise of CanTeen's AYA regional cancer service, only to receive an uninformed, abusive response from this idiot.
Surprisingly little reaction from other Standardistas to what is an avoidable calamity for young cancer patients in New Zealand.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/19/370303/the-fight-to-save-cash-strapped-canteen
marty mars 2.1.2.1
I missed your post thanks for reposting.
"CanTeen, which relies on community support and donations, helps youngsters aged between 13 and 24 dealing with cancer. It provides someone to talk to, connects peers, runs activities and workshops, helps people with their grief. The website says: "CanTeen takes care of things like topping up your phone, getting you to appointments or the food situation in your cupboard so you don't need to stress.""
Such great work supporting very vulnerable people. My niece is younger, with her third cancerous growth returning, at age 12. Such a tough area to be able to support people. I hope finding can come – a vital, underrated service.
As for James he's just another weakling rwnj. A loser pretender who is probably the saddest of all of us here truth be told.
Your comments beg the question that you obviously have issues.
Do you stalk women on the internet publishing what you think you know about them?
Are you one of those creepy internet stalkers ?
Ignoring your garbled syntax, "that you obviously have issues" is not a question wee James, it's a statement. Stalking? Pot, kettle, black?
Are you really so conceited that you can't appreciate your own immaturity. Back in the UK you'd be rightly termed a prat.
I note that reason hasn't denied staking women on the internet- interesting to know.
marty mars 2.2.1.1.1
You stalk goats don't you or is it just sheep? Come on geezer fess up.
BM 2.2.1.1.1.1
You're getting James confused with Bwaghorn.
He's the sheep botherer.
marty mars …
bwaghorn …
I never bothered a sheep that didn't deserve it.
DJ Ward …
You guys just dropped down too Kiwiblog speak.
Only the good looking goats.
And the occasional opossum.
mac1 …
So you live in the Americas to enjoy opossums, James?
We have possums in NZ, phalangeridae, the bushy-tailed phalanger.
Opossums are Amurrican.
This fact makes me doubt your assertion.
James …
I import them.
You're now worse than the Hawkes Bay slave trader, James……. I'd quit while you're still out of jail!
About the only crime not committed here is treason, so I'd leave the corgis well out of it.
Dennis Frank 3
Trump tweeted that Isis is defeated in Syria: "Trump is reported to have ordered a full, rapid withdrawal of the 2,000 US troops in Syria, declaring victory over the Islamic State, and taking allies and his own advisers by surprise." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump
Leading war-mongers are dismayed. "Trump's own national security adviser, John Bolton, is adamantly opposed to the decision". "Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican senator who is a Trump loyalist on most issues, denounced the decision. "If these media reports are true, it will be an Obama-like mistake made by the Trump administration," Graham said in a statement. "While American patience in confronting radical Islam may wane, the radical Islamists' passion to kill Americans and our allies never wavers."
Trump wants a Nobel peace prize? He didn't actually tweet that he had made peace in Syria – yet. But Obama got one without making peace. Perhaps Trump is considering calling the Nobel committee bluff. Would look good on the cv. He could send his Secretary of State to meet Assad with terms: you declare peace, thank Trump for creating it, we'll give you foreign aid to grind up all them random bits of concrete everywhere, for recycling.
Dennis Frank 3.1
His cabinet ministers calling him a moron, his hired help getting sent to prison, you might think prospects of impeachment had increased since Democrats started promoting them, eh? Well, Gordon Campbell assessed those prospects a week ago and concluded "Trump's destiny is to be a winner, not a loser." http://werewolf.co.nz/2018/12/gordon-campbell-on-whether-trump-is-likely-to-be-impeached/
I still feel the same, and doubt Mueller has any rabbit in his hat. Doesn't matter how much the US media trumpets Trump's influence-buying, voters know that's all just American politics as usual – the only way it could harm him is if there was a positive alternative they could anticipate. No sign of that.
SPC 3.2
Erdogan will be pleased, he can now go ahead and butcher those of the most effective force fighting Islamic State in Syria (which Turkey itself never did).
This might well also enable the settlement of Islamists backed by Turkey in their failed attempt to depose the government of Syria in "Kurdish" areas on their border.
The withdrawal otherwise means the US has no leverage in the future of Syria, but Turkey's hand will be stronger.
francesca 3.2.1
I think its probably also an acknowledgement that the Astana process for a peace settlement and a new constitution in Syria is the only game in town, and the US is not part of it. When you've lost the war and are not part of the peace(and the spoils)why waste any more cash
I predict a fresh "outrage" chemical or otherwise,clearly perpetrated by the Syrian govt, to pull the US back in .
Trump attempted this withdrawal once before, Khan Sheikhoun was the result.
I guess Assad just doesn't want the Yanks to leave (eye- rolling -tongue -in- cheek)
Surely the Kurds knew the US would betray them in the end?
Maybe now they'll consider the offers of increased autonomy from the Syrian govt
Probably a little late, but there's surely no chance now of a purely Kurdish state at this point
SPC 3.2.1.1
Sure the smart move for the Kurds would be to do a deal with Damascus and get Syrian government troops in before the Turks can act.
The complication might be the presence of some of the Syrian Arabs who fought IS alongside them, some of whom left the battle against the Syrian government once Islamists began to dominate rebel held areas – they might well now be in the refugee category.
Ad 3.2.2
Next comprehensive Kurd massacre coming up.
That does seem to be the case.
True about the US but I'm sure that Turkey won't have any say either. This is going to fall to Syria, Russia and Iran to fix. Assad would do bloody well stepping up to support the Kurds.
Since Trump and Erdogan talked last Friday the US has cleared the sale of Patriot missiles to Turkey, ordered State Department personnel in Syria to be evacuated from the country within 24 hours, declared victory over ISIS, and Turkey's request to extradite Fethullah Gülen is to be looked at.
That's one helluva phone call.
marty mars 4
"President Putin, speaking at a meeting with his top military brass in Moscow, singled out his new Kinzhal hypersonic missile and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, saying they have significantly bolstered Russia's military capability, reports news.com.au.
"No one has hypersonic weapons yet, but we have it," he said."
ummm vlad I think you mean no one ELSE has them
Also overnight, the US government admitted it is powerless to defend against these 'game changer' hypersonic weapons. The Government Accountability Office says their speed, altitude and maneuverability simply make them too difficult to stop.
The report states: "There are no existing countermeasures."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12179868
Okay now I see a problem – facing a humanity wide crisis of climate change you toolboxes decide to build more deadly weapons – I curse you all.
"Putin has said about a dozen countries were producing missiles of the type banned by the INF treaty." Well okay, but if Russian intelligence agencies have indeed discovered this and reported it to him, why doesn't he identify them? If those countries have signed the INF treaty, wouldn't it expose them to ridicule and condemnation?
Not to mention discrediting the entire notion of arms reduction treaties. And their usage in international law. And, consequently, the viability of international law as a method of peace-keeping. So now we await deployment by those countries, and the reassurance that such proliferation will provide its own deterrent effect on usage.
"Which countries are developing hypersonic weapons? "The U.S., Russia and China are ahead of other nations in developing hypersonic weapons," Richard Speier, adjunct staff with Rand, told CNBC. Speier, who worked to initiate the Pentagon's Office of Counter-Proliferation Policy, added that France, India, and Australia are also developing military uses of hypersonic technology." https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/hypersonic-weapons-what-they-are-and-why-us-cant-defend-against-them.html
greywarshark 4.1.1
Mutually assured destruction, I remark cheerfully! What an oxymoron.
mauī 4.2
I think you will find Russia's missiles are more of a defensive mechanism than an offensive weapon. Useful against western propaganda at least. For instance without the Russian S-400 we would have seen much more destruction in the Middle East.
marty mars 4.2.1
Yeah nah.
mauī 4.2.1.1
We agree, great.
It's most likely a bad translation.
Climate change is going to cause mass migration and resource wars. Given this fact responsible governments are gearing up to repel the invaders.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/14/16589878/global-climate-change-conflict-environment
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/once-again-climate-change-cited-as-trigger-for-war/
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/377634/defence-force-sets-its-sights-on-climate-change
People in danger of dying tend to act in ways to protect their life.
Responsible governments wasting billions on stuff that won't work while the things they could do go undone. That is irresponsible imo.
You do understand that there's nothing that they can do right?
Climate change is happening. This will result in mass migration. The target countries for that mass migration can't support the migrants. This means that those target countries have to stop those migrants. Some of those migrants are going to be bloody well armed and so the target countries will also need to be well armed. There will be some well armed other countries trying to force the target countries to take the migrants despite knowing that they can't afford them.
Countries have the right and the responsibility to defend themselves.
Yeah you're a real gunfight on the titanic type of guy – I'm not.
Draco T Bastard 4.3.1.1.1.1
Just accepting reality an the simple fact that, when climate change truly bites, it's going to leave a lot of people (measured in the billions) either facing death or looking to migrate an that the places that they can migrate to can't afford them.
The UN really should have looked at curbing population growth back in the 1970s. They didn't and most governments of the world still think that increasing population is the Bees Knees and so still won't do it and so out younger generations are still fucked.
Puckish Rogue 5
NZfirsts facebook page makes for interesting reading today
https://www.facebook.com/NZFirst/?ref=br_rs
Gabby 5.1
They're a pretty selfish vindictive bunch aren't they puckers. Forget pulling up the ladder, just set that sucker on fire.
Puckish Rogue 5.1.1
I agree, I've never voted for NZFirst and I never will
OnceWasTim 5.2
Yep. I especially liked one comment:
"Stuart Ward BREAKING NEWS !!!
The 'national' party has welcomed the news that they no longer have to worry about what their M.Ps and SUPPORTERS will use for brains if KFC needs the cabbages for coleslaw.
A new product on the hair care market, Control GX "the shampoo with brains" will provide a satisfactory alternative.
Consideration is being given to replacing Simon Bridges with either a "complimentary hotel bottle" of the shampoo, or his nearest contender, an adolescent tiger slug by the name of Slimey Norman"
Well you won't have to worry about Simon Bridges because it"ll be JC sorting NZ out when shes elected PM 🙂
mac1 5.3
Thanks, PR, for the peek into the abyss.
I probably should have added a warning to the comment 🙂
The Fairy Godmother 5.3.1.1
Do I sense another ode coming on.
Puckish Rogue 5.3.1.1.1
There is something I've been working on but its not quite the right time yet 🙂
The Fairy Godmother 5.3.1.1.1.1
I do enjoy your odes.
mac1 5.3.1.2
"Shaken but not Stirred" An ode to the Collins
I took a look in th' abyss,
Just a look, a little peek,
And what I saw will never miss
Down in the pits where she doth tryst-
Worse than the seven levels of Hades,
Where Tantalus strove in the Greek,
The Ban Sí in Eire's green glades
Or the fell dwellings of the Shades-
The horror of her Gorgon gaze,
Too close e'en from the peaks
Of Darian- 'mid the Centaur's maze-
Where Judith eyes her prizéd preys.
Appropriate 🙂
Conservatives proving, yet again, just how bloody ignorant and stupid they are.
Ed 5.4.1
Add wilfully to the word ignorant.
And add selfish and greedy.
/agreed
greywarshark 6
Meanwhile here in NZ, trying to find out some information through an 0800 number about CourierPost's processes, I have been taken through 4 options that don't apply and left with 5 which seemed mostly related to NZPost, where shops are etc and tried that in the absence of other options. I got a repeat of the options from 1-5 again.
So NZPost apparently doesn't know what it is doing, and proposes to keep customers on a loop running after their tails, while they decide.
Really a small example of the route the country has gone.
Try Spark.
They take the biscuit in this.
I find that true of many businesses and not just in NZ. Their attempt to get the customer to the right person via an automated system almost invariably ends up confusing the customer.
JohnSelway 6.3
If you keep button mashing they machine gets fed up and you'l get a person. That's what I have always found with the IRD at least. And ANZ
Some have called for New Zealand to be more involved in peace-making and arbitration, as per Norway and Sweden.
Neither of them (Norway is in NATO and Sweden is in the EU) have been involved in the matter of Ukraine. And we have our stalled FTA with Russia to consider. So this is one which we might well take up.
The issues are well known, Russia does not like former territories of the USSR joining NATO or the EU. It uses the presence of ethnic Russians in these territories as an excuse and economic dependence on gas as a means to intefere in their nations affairs politically.
The central issue is the tension that occurs when loyalty to nation state and ethnic identity patriotism (over the future of the Ukraine in the EU and NATO) is divided.
There are obvious paths to resolution, but the question is whether NATO and Russia would prefer the impasse to continue rather than realise one. So the first question that we would have to ask each party (before offering to mediate), do they want the matter resolved?
francesca 7.1
Does the EU actually want Ukraine?
Particularly now that Its economy has dive bombed. And its adherence to European "values"is seriously in question with the current Poroshenko govt at least
Tymoshenko won't be much better
Of course Russia doesn't want NATO on its doorstep, any more than the US would have accepted the Warsaw pact in Mexico
Ukraine can't be in NATO while there is the war in Eastern Ukraine
Russia would need very strong assurances from NATO (and would they be worth the paper they're written on) to withdraw their support for Donetsk and Lugansk
And what about the wishes of the people who live in those areas?
Very early on in Putin's rule , he wanted to join NATO
Maybe this should be looked at again
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/853851/Putin-wants-NATO-to-let-Russia-join.html
I think he had a point
I would love NZ to be involved in mediation etc, but it would not be possible without serious "arm twisting" from our "special friend"over the ocean
SPC 7.1.1
Sure back in mid 2001 there was the option of a European security co-operation on the one hand and a united defence force for world peace-keeping at UN direction. Russia in NATO. But the later military intervention in the ME (choice of response to 9/11 soon ended the trust required for that).
At the moment the momentum is towards a EU defence force (ironically made possible by the US request for 2% GDP defence spending in the region), with independent relationships with both Russia and (possibly via a continuing NATO) the USA (and maybe UK depending on where that is headed).
The medium term issues – the nature of the EU and Russian gas supply agreements while sanctions continue and whether Russian pressure on Ukraine has any impact on its domestic politics.
francesca 7.1.1.1
Germany's economic and industrial well being depends on Nord Stream2 ;any alternatives are too expensive. US imposed sanctions are only going to reshape how Europe does business, to the detriment of US control.
US gas, reliant on fracking, is never going to be cost effective against Russian gas, which doesn't involve fracking, let alone the difficulties of transport.
Germany and Russia together…the horror!
After all NATO was to keep Russia out, to keep America in, and to keep Germany down
Particularly now that Its economy has dive bombed.
Probably not any more. The Ukraine's economy wasn't all that good to start with which is why the USSR's leadership gave it Crimea. Now that Crimean has left it's back to being a basket case.
According to the US's overturning of democratic governments – they can be ignored.
Morrissey 8
I'm baa-a-a-a-a-aaackkk!
Eight days suspended, and I'm back.
Hopefully.
te reo putake 8.1
Welcome back, cobber. I trust your loins are fully girded and you have a weeks worth of pent up commentary with which to handsomely entertain us.
PS, good on your former professor for staying away in solidarity 😉
Morrissey 8.1.1
The Professor is on "garden leave" at the moment, Te Reo.
te reo putake 8.1.1.1
Good Lord! Has he been accused of some impropriety?
Morrissey 8.1.1.1.1
Afraid so. This could be even worse than the circumstances that led to the termination of his contract at that Swiss finishing school. More details when they become available.
Great news.
Earth to Morrissey, are you reading?
Nice to have you back old bean. Squadron Leader and I were seriously, seriously concerned about your time in the brig.
Pip pip. Chin up, let bygones be bygones and we'll all move forward what?
SaveNZ 9
The country's first crime and victims survey suggests almost two million crimes were committed last year, about seven times the number reported to police.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378680/survey-reveals-volume-and-nature-of-crimes-committed-in-new-zealand-last-year
soddenleaf 9.1
I don't think they got everyone. S.S. trust wrongly exposed a criminal, and so frustrated the he'll out of everyone who wants to know who these peolle are, it's a crime surely to distract and misinfirm. Geez how can I be sure that anything the Sen.Sen.Tru. say!
Washington DC is sueing Facebook over Cambridge Analytica.
I'm hoping 2019 is the year all open societies legislate and regulate Facebook et al, as radio was in the 1920s and tv was in the 1950s.
Its corroding global democracy and must be controlled.
For those who want to join the stampede; a couple of tutorials on grabbing your data and deleting your account.
#DeleteFacebook
https://deletefacebook.com/
https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/how-to-delete-your-facebook-account-really-update/
Bruce 10.1.1
I 've thought it easier to just keep posting pics of nipples and tits till they delete it , seems easier.
Ad 10.2
Sorry FCC formed 1930s.
Hopefully if Trump gets angry enough with tv news he'll reform the Act.
alwyn 10.3
Perhaps the Coalition of Losers will try and take New Zealand back to the situation in the late 1930's.
Radio news broadcasts were written in the Prime Minister's office and had to be read out on New Zealand radio stations exactly as they were written.
I'm sure that Tsar Winnie and his off-sider [Jacinda] would love to bring that back.
Then we wouldn't get stories on the TV news about how they are going to halve the number of children in poverty, but not for at least a decade, book-ended by a story about the number of people needing food parcels from the City Mission having doubled during their first year in office and another story about how the number of homeless people and of drug users on Queen St having also risen greatly in the last year and how people working in shops are routinely assaulted these days.
I'm afraid that this current Government is offering only the promises that were described so well in the Union rallying song of 1911.
As the International Workers of the World put it.
"Work and pray, live on hay, you'll get pie in the sky when you die."
[Don't use belittling language, ta. TRP]
Ad 10.3.1
Radio and tv and advertising are already regulated.
Alwyn do you do Facebook on a Remington?
alwyn 10.3.1.1
"do Facebook"?
Wash your mouth out. I looked at the way Facebook was designed to operate when it started. I decided that I would never, ever go on that crazy system.
Never have and never will.
Obviously I looked at how it would work with a great deal more care than those of you who rushed into it like lemmings running over a cliff and are now regretting it.
Ad 10.3.1.1.1
I've never been on Facebook and never will.
I can see from your clear comments you agree to the necessity of regulating Facebook and similar companies.
alwyn 10.3.1.1.1.1
"I've never been on Facebook".
I have obviously misjudged you in my assumption.
You are very sensible. I think their business case is a terrible one, particularly as it has become almost compulsory for teenagers to use it if they don't want to be isolated from everything their friends are up to.
On the other hand I don't really see how it can be safely "regulated" as you put it. That just puts someone else in a position of power over what people are allowed to see. I think I still prefer the glorious anarchy that was the original internet. The only regulation I would accept is that people should legally own their own data and they, and they alone, should have the ability to allow, or disallow, companies like Facebook from using it.
Ad …
No other part of our information or broadcasting is unregulated.
The Washington v Facebook re Cambridge Analytica case I pointed to is exactly the kind of regulation you are seeking.
BM …
I think their business case is a terrible one, particularly as it has become almost compulsory for teenagers to use it if they don't want to be isolated from everything their friends are up to.
Not quite, Facebook is now for Mums and Grandmothers.
All the younger people have bolted to Instagram , snap chat, twitter, what's app etc.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/250172/social-network-usage-of-us-teens-and-young-adults/
Which is hardly surprising, you don't want your mother/grandmother reading about all the bad shit you've been up to.
I had heard that was happening but I didn't realise that the decline started so long ago.
Those numbers are for the US I suppose. I wonder when it dived here?
Long-haired preachers come out every night
To tell you what's wrong and what's right
But when asked how about something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye
In that glorious land above the sky
Work and pray, live on hay
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
That's a lie
And the starvation army they play
They sing and they clap and they pray
'Till they get all your coin on the drum
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:
You're gonna eat, bye and bye, poor boy
In that glorious land above the sky, way up high
You'll get pie in the sky when you die
Dirty lie
mac1 10.3.3
What the PM told us has been achieved so far by this coalition government when she spoke yesterday in the adjournment debate.
"…… I could just say this about the last 12 months: 3.9 percent unemployment, a Budget surplus, 73,000 more jobs, 2.7 percent GDP growth including 1 percent in the June 2018 quarter alone, 111 Provincial Growth Fund projects, 60 million trees planted, $917 million contributed to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund after almost a decade of nothing, 384,000 families better of with the Families Package, 774,000 New Zealanders now receiving a winter energy payment, 4,000 KiwiBuild homes under contract, 1,200 new public housing places, more than 200 new or rebuilt classrooms, 1,500 new teachers, 600 new learning support coordinators, 600,000 New Zealanders with access to cheaper GP visits, and hundreds of new police officers already."
Good eating, that. Gourmet. Tasty. Healthy.
"including 1 percent in the June 2018 quarter alone".
Well that didn't last very long did it?
Latest quarter was 0.3%, the lowest number for 5 years.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz//business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12180129&ref=clavis
" $917 million contributed to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund".
That is a bit like saying that you contributed $100 to the TAB.
In October the return on the fund was -4.84%. That's right it dropped in value by a couple of billion dollars. I suspect the same thing happened in November and will probably also happen this month.
https://www.nzsuperfund.co.nz/sites/default/files/documents-sys/October%202018%20Monthly%20Report.pdf
"4,000 KiwiBuild homes under contract,".
Really. It is rather more significant that they can't even get offers on the houses that Twyford is buying, and that the sort of place that they are calling "homes" are studio apartments. Subsidies are now being made available to anyone who will buy a place.
Those places were meant to be for families who were locked out of the market. Instead they have sold to people like the Doctor/Marketing Manager couple we were told about.
Other stories tell us that the lottery winners who are offered the property refuse to buy them and that they are then sold on the open market for whatever they can get for them.
mac1 10.3.3.1.1
Try this one.
"Yes, I'm extremely proud of the actions we have taken this year as the Government, some of which include extending paid parental leave, stopping foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes, making the first year of tertiary study free, stopping the State house sell-off, building that first KiwiBuild home, restarting super fund contributions, increasing the minimum wage, passing the Child Poverty Reduction Bill in my name, implementing the Families Package, making GP visits cheaper for many New Zealanders, investing in fixing hospitals and schools, funding more teachers, beginning to plant one billion trees, investing in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, beginning to recruit 1,800 more police—"
PM Ardern Q 1 18 December 2018 to Simon Bridges
gsays 10.4
I am trying to suppress the smugness, about 6 or 7 years ago a colleague made the observation that ' with Facebook, you are not the customer, you are the product'.
Seems to be spot on.
alwyn 10.4.1
I wish I had thought of that wording. It very accurately, and succinctly, sums up what I thought when I first looked at the scheme.
I suppose I should also follow your example and try and suppress the smugness about never having gone near it.
A variation of if it's free, you're the product.
francesca 11
I finally managed to get out of Facebook (it was like the bloody Hotel California …you can check in but never leave) but still had concerns about my profile being up , so thats a great piece of info there. Thanks for that Joe
Morrissey 12
Jim Mora apparently believes substandard content is acceptable as long
as he occasionally "balances" it with "the NYT, the Guardian, the Atlantic."
On Friday 30 November this writer, and no doubt many other people, listened with disbelief and horror as Jim Mora abandoned all pretence to be running any sort of intelligent or reasoned discussion on his RNZ light chat show. The first two guests seemed designed to insult and provoke anyone who cared about anything. At 4:28 p.m. I sent the following email….
Kiwiblog?!!?? Bob McCoskrie?!! WTF?
Dear Jim,
You first quoted the extreme right wing Kiwiblog, then in the very next breath you quoted the even more extreme Bob McCoskrie. Ali Jones reacted the way that any sensible listener would have: "What a load of RUBBISH!"
What's next? Are you going to approvingly quote the complacent right wing New York Times opinionist David Brooks, or some mad article from the Daily Telegraph, or the so-called "Sensible Sentencing Trust", as you so often do?
Have you thought of quoting someone who actually writes in a thoughtful and balanced manner? Gordon Campbell perhaps?
You have a duty, surely, to assemble a credible and serious hour of broadcasting. Kiwiblog and Family First are anything but credible and serious.
Yours in concern at the standard of your program,
Morrissey Breen
At 5:10 p.m. Jim Mora replied:
I also quoted The Standard yesterday, Morrissey, I regularly quote the NYT, the Guardian, the Atlantic. Jim
And that is the core of the problem with Mora and his show: this spurious hypothesis that quoting something relatively sane makes up for treating the likes of Bob McCoskrie as a serious commentator.
Yesterday (Wednesday December 19th) Mora—or his producer Julie Moffett—was back at it. To discuss the planned Hamilton-Auckland rail link, they once again wheeled on the worst possible person. I sent off another email pronto…
Gary Mallett???!!!
A lot of people and organizations have spent a great deal of time and effort considering the pros and cons of the Hamilton to Auckland rail link. However, instead of bringing on someone who knew what he/she was talking about, you—or your producer—chose the extreme right wing Hamilton councillor Gary Mallett. He's an ACT Party member notorious for, amongst other things, his unhinged attacks on Māori. His language in your interview this afternoon reflected his simplistic thinking: "absolutely pathetic….pathetic…absolutely no impact in reducing congestion…. costing mega-millions… this is people's hard-earned money…I'm completely agnostic as to how we travel…"
Both Penny Ashton and Mike Rehu expressed their disapproval, but you joked that "Gary's supporting some interesting arguments though!"
That's five minutes of airtime wasted.
So far, Jim Mora has not replied to that remonstration.
Rapunzel 12.1
What is it with these husband and wife media "duos" you would expect they would have common interests but some impartiality surely goes with the job?
In a double dose today his wife, somebody Lambie, was "doing" the afternoon show on a "competing" station and doing her best to absolve the "Sensible Sentencing 'Trust'" for their appalling and derelict behaviour. The result was her interviewing the (?) McVicar who immediately somehow to turn it round inextricably to the "trust" being the victim in all this.
Why are these tag teams insulting the people of NZ – that pair, Hosking etc, Soper etc it's getting beyond tedious they're everywhere like pack of "Stepford" wives".
Morrissey 12.1.1
Mora introduced an ex-S.S. trooper this afternoon as "victims' advocate Ruth Money."
Another horrible media husband and wife team, by the way, is Bill Ralston and Janet Wilson. It's not always plain sailing between them, obviously….
Rapunzel 12.1.1.1
It's as they say "all about the business" and by the look of it cases of not "what you know" but "who", do they get two for the price of one?
I find it quite off-putting being harangued, I like something a bit topical or "newsy" while driving but this level of "opinion" will see me turn to the music stations. I'm still trying to work out how Lambie framed McVicar as the "victim" but she did with very little mention of what they had posted and how serious that was – it was found out about last March so that was kept quiet for a long time while donations were still being sought publicly.
Morrissey 12.1.1.1.1
She presented McSticker as a victim as smoothly and casually as she and her husband call him and his cronies "victims' advocates."
The dishonesty has its limits, however. In 2011 Noelle McCarthy was forced to interview McSticker. She could not hide her revulsion….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/noelle-mccarthy-swallowed-vomit-for-15.html
Rapunzel 12.1.1.1.1.1
Makes my head spin sometimes, but I can believe it – I live in Tauranga and while in lots of ways it is great, the divide in the way we think between me and some family members/aquaintances is sometimes surprising and I am hard pressed to understand how we can see things so differently.
Then I read this https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12180474 and conclude that there are some people in the world who are going quite mad.
Who is this "we" being referred to very often? I believe in the "village" much of the time but not one rigid mindset.
Is he one of these increasingly crazy people who think the public needs saving from itself and only he/we/they "peddle" the truth? It's becoming quite bizzare.
Morrissey …
That fool was nominally "in charge" of the NZRFU in 1999; most infamously, he allowed advertising lout Kevin Roberts to have an Air New Zealand jet "decorated" with a hideous distorted picture of the All Black front row on it. The players were mortified and embarrassed, and pleaded for them not to do it, but Moffett and Roberts didn't care and the monstrosity was forced through.
Jacinda Ardern is not the first person to be dismissed rancorously by David Moffett. His harebrained "traitors" remark is just the latest in a long line of stupid insults. When he was NZRFU head creep, he angered Rugby League supporters by (accurately) scoffing at the sport as "five tackles and kick". Later, the hypocrite took a job as CEO of the National Rugby League.
Another Australian whacko, Peter Scutts, was the CEO of the Auckland Blues while Moffett was running his ignorant mouth. Scutts, to show how "professional" the Auckland Rugby Union was, took it on himself to ban the Wellington Supporters Club from running onto the hallowed turf of Eden Park with their Leo the Lion mascot, something that they'd done for about a hundred years. Even worse than that little piece of meanness, in 1997 Scutts refused to change the playing strip of the Blues for the Super 12 final against the ACT Brumbies; both teams had almost identical strips. Scutts cited "the heritage of the Auckland Blues"—-the team was less than two years old. In the event, the final was a shambles, with two almost identically dressed teams on the field, and the game of rugby football reduced to a laughing stock.
Morrissey,
David Farrar, who writes all the primary items on Kiwiblog (it is his blog), is not extreme right. You have confused him with Cam Slater.
I would agree that some of the commenters on Kiwiblog are extreme right. But not David.
Just as I would say that The Standard is not extreme left, though I certainly think a number of the commenters are.
Morrissey 13.1
I like Mr Farrar, and I appreciate the light hand he wields on his site. However, to pretend that anyone with his stridently anti-union and wildly pro-Israel views—he came back from a (guided) tour of the Occupied Territories a few years back and solemnly informed Jim Mora that he had seen nothing going on there—is not extremely right wing would be less than honest.
He's certainly more civilized and personable than Cameron Slater, but there's not a great deal of difference in their politics.
SPC 13.1.1
There are many Jewish (and wider related group of relatives) centrists blinded by nationalism and or religion into a pro Zionist position, this does not make them right wing, let alone extreme right wing. DPF would be in the former cateogry (though he is right wing all the same).
There are many Christian Adventists (Slater is one) whose support for Zionism is religious and part of some concept of a Judeo-Christian nationalism where Israel is a western Christendom colonial pet project.
This is right wing in that this Christian dominionism (American) uses the idea of end time Advent ending human self government/democracy to justify lack of human action on social justice (and climate change) in the USA or the wider world. It serves to enable the GOP to serve 1% mammon with their votes.
Dennis Frank 13.1.2
Tempting to file him in the `useful idiot' category of rightists, but probably a tad unfair and I was inclining toward your more generous view when I realised a reality-check is probably a good idea. So I googled his political alignment and found this on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farrar_(blogger)
"Farrar professes a classical liberal approach to politics, that is often compromised by his party affiliation with the liberal conservative National Party (for instance over state security powers vs individual rights) and identifies as a moderate of the center-right on the political spectrum. He was a co-chair of National's Classical Liberal Policy Advisory Group at its formation in 2004. He supported the legalisation of prostitution and of civil unions in New Zealand. Farrar supports a New Zealand republic, and is on the National Council of the New Zealand Republican Movement. Economically his views are more in keeping with those of parties to the right of the National Party, such as the market fundamentalism of the minority ACT party."
So socially liberal, economically dry, but the quote implies he self-identifies "as a moderate of the center-right on the political spectrum." As a Republican, he seems progressive rather than conservative to us (but the contrary to Americans due to their early departure from monarchy).
SPC 13.1.2.1
He uses being liberal/progressive to assist with mainstreaming his right wing cause. The rich get richer, the state doing less …
SPC 13.2
Extreme right and extreme left is quite rare, so I would agree.
He is a liberal, but a right wing one, certainly no centrist.
The debate point is between centre right or simply right. I'd go with the latter – some confuse his being liberal with being centre right. No so for mine. Sure there is common cause between right wing and centrist and centre-left liberals from time to time but his vehemently anti-Green posts do not come from a centrist position, but a right wing one. The same with his involvment with the Taxpayers Union.
Like most of the right wing of the National Party they tend to hide in plain sight and manouvre to achieve the right wing change by both stealth and by increment.
I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet.
After watching this 45 minute documentary from the UK.
It is not for the faint-hearted.
https://www.kinderworld.org/videos/animal-rights-documentaries/land-of-hope-and-glory/
Puckish Rogue 14.1
Challenge accepted:
http://time.com/4252373/meat-eating-veganism-evolution/
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/30/why-humans-started-eating-meat-critical-diet/
I condemn thee for the sin of hubris, nay even the of crime against all humanity in seeking us to forsake our own Judith-given right to the flesh, the delicious flesh, of farmed animals, to give up out culture, our beliefs, there is only one sentence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_EuNmQOpbw
marty mars 14.1.1
Please don't have a video duel. ffs
DJ Ward 14.1.1.1
I recon a Naked and Afraid video of a starving urban vegetarian when a normal omnivore person catches a rat, priceless.
Ed 14.1.2
Did you watch the video?
Puckish Rogue 14.1.2.1
Nope. I've already stated that the best path for NZ would be to make all sheep, beef, pork and chicken (and any other type of animal I've missed) farming free range
Ed 14.1.2.1.1
That would be a massive step forward.
Of course free range must mean free range.
Outdoors.
James 14.2
Veganism causes mental retardation:
https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/12/veganism-causes-mental-retardation-in-kids-top-danish-doctor-claims.amp.html
You did not watch the film about the animal farming industry.
Until you have the courage to look at it – your opinion is simply shrill and desperate.
James 14.2.1.1
Did you read the study about veganism causing mental retardation?
Unless you do you are a biased uninformed leaf eating shrill.
Stalking me again.
te reo putake 14.2.1.1.1.1
This is a discussion forum, Ed. Replying to comments is not stalking and if you don't want to engage with other commenters, you do not have to.
Equally, you have no right to try to stop them commenting whenever they feel fit. If you post a comment, then folk have the right to reply.
Gabby 14.2.1.1.2
Has all the fat in your arteries cut off the oxygen from your brain jimby?
Ed 14.2.1.1.2.1
The film Forks over Knives explains the health benefits of a plant based diet.
indiana 14.3
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sick-toddlers-parents-charged-for-her-strict-vegan-diet/news-story/65e2d8943184e1f3e798c848ce4d1edf
Whilst I have no issues with people choosing to follow a vegan lifestyle (usually this is done when a person has had a chance to challenge all the information put before them), I'm against people trying to force others to follow it as if there is no other dietary choice. The reality is that this world does not need overlords – especially vegan ones.
I'm not trying to force you to follow a plant based diet.
However I am asking that you actually look at what 21st century industrial farming looks like.
But all of you critics are too scared to confront the reality of what factory farming looks like.
indiana 14.3.1.1
Why lead with this then? "I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet." Should you have lead with, "I challenge anyone to support factory farming, after watching this."
Just because he is pro Israel does not make him extreme right.
I would agree he is right rather than centre right. But if you think David is extreme right, then so is Simon Bridges. But maybe that is what you think.
Sabine 15.1
you finally typed something that is correct
"if you think David is extreme right, then so is Simon Bridges."
Simon Bridges is far right, so is the current lot of all National MP's, and i would include Bill English, the double dipper from Dipton in that lot too.
There is not one current man or women in the National Party that would not put themselves and Party above Country, Duty and Honor. A bit like the republican lot in the US.
Draco T Bastard 15.1.1
The National Party is extreme right-wing.
JohnSelway 15.1.1.1
Bullshit Draco. Extreme right is what we see in the US republicans.
Extreme right are starting to build in Europe also. National is NOT extreme right.
They only seem extreme to you because you are so far left that you're not even left anymore. Just some weird authoritarian collectivist.
Draco T Bastard 15.1.1.1.1
The National party are extreme because their beliefs do no match up with reality.
Me, I'm all for living within the physical limits of the world. Which means to say that I'm not extreme in anyway, shape or form.
The problem that you, like many, is that you think that trying to live within those limits is extreme. And yet, the whole point of the market was actually to bring about living within those limits.
The market is there to restrict use of resources.
JohnSelway 15.1.1.1.1.1
I don't actually think how you think I do and we have more in common that you might realise. Particularly around how finite our resources are and how they need to be utilised.
But you can't just say "National are extreme right" based upon your own metrics because it doesn't work that way. They aren't extreme right by any real political, economic or social methodology that is in common parlance or study. It's no different to someone on Kiwiblog saying labour are extreme left because they are so far right themselves.
When you or the kiwi blogger say "extreme right/left" what I hear is "I don't know what words mean"
Draco T Bastard …
I have, occasionally, considered that we may be talking past each other.
But you can't just say "National are extreme right" based upon your own metrics because it doesn't work that way.
Reality isn't my metric – it just is. It has physical constraints that we need to live within and we're not doing that.
And compared to reality Labour is also extreme right-wing as they're still following the same failed economics that National follow.
That's what that article you posted is about. It's a good article and shows up some of the failings of the economists.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DucIFuBU8AAAsIn.jpg
On a totally different topic but replying here to get your attention…
This might be of interest to you:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/why-do-econ-classes-barely-mention-behavioral-economics/578092/
The question I have is: Why do so many econ students (or anyone else for that matter) not learn about the physical resources that the economy is based upon?
Given the greatly amplified role of professional economists at every level of policy making, the extent to which economics is disconnected from reality is becoming more alarming.
This is most telling point about modern economics that needs to said and repeated:
Modern economics is simply not connected to reality.
This article misses a bit though that may even be far more important than the fact that economics ignores actual human motivations. Modern economics misses the fact that economics is about the availability and distribution of scarce resources.
How much land do we have?
How much of that land can be used to support humanity?
How much is needed to maintain a healthy environment?
These are questions (and others of a similar bent) that modern economics not only doesn't answer – it doesn't ask. And so we have nations converting every square in of land to farms and the extinction rate increasing tilting the environment further to outright collapse. We've fished up so much fish that the ocean ecology is also close to collapse.
We do this for profit because its supposed to bring about the best outcome and yet all the evidence shows that the profit motive is bringing about the worst possible outcomes. Climate change and ecological collapse has been brought about by the drive for profit and the need to have a growing economy to feed that profit. A growing economy can only come about with a growing population.
All the evidence is that the carrying capacity of the Earth as far as humans go is about two billion. We're presently at seven and climbing.
Economics, the stuff that the economists and politicians ignore, tells us that we need to live within physical constraints but we've gone way past those constraints chasing profit.
Pat 15.1.1.2.2.1
hear hear…well expressed
Pat 15.1.1.2.3
excellent article…well spotted
Wayne 15.2
Somehow that got posted in the wrong place. It was about David Farrar, though I assume most people know that.
As for the comments, well if you think National is extreme far right, then I guess that makes Labour centre right or right.
Labour are Centre right.
National is right wing.
Labour is centrist, and the Green Party's agreement with them to spend no more than 30% GDP declared their coalition government would be centrist. This is why they could and did include NZ First. They had to in any case to get a majority and that need gives them an excuse for their moderation – which is given again and again to their party members and all those in society who wanted more.
It's not getting worse under them, it's going to get better … slowly.
Or they will not go further right, but they will not cross any centre lines moving back to the left at such a slow pace.
How long have I been saying that the Labour Party is right-wing?
Cinny 16
Parliamentary expenses and receipts.
Dang !!! That's a lot of expensive bureaucratic paperwork.
Has been suggested to give out credit cards, which would absolutely cut back processing costs for expenses.
I thought they would already have ministerial credit cards, then I remembered paula bennet, her staff member misused the office credit card.
Can someone clear up my confusion please, as it appears ministerial credit cards are not a new thing, were they scrapped at some stage? Or did they never exist?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/66-50-for-coffee-and-eggs-the-huge-cost-of-processing-mps-receipts-revealed.html
Chris T 16.1
Think Shane Jones choice of movies
veutoviper 16.2
Government Ministers still have credit cards, Cinny. They have not been scraped.
I don't have time to go into detail as due out, but here are a couple of links re these Ministerial credit cards. All expenses etc relating to Ministers of the Crown are handled by Ministerial Services, part of the Dept of Internal Affairs.
https://www.dia.govt.nz/Ministers-expense-releases
Actual monthly reports are here –
https://www.dia.govt.nz/pubforms.nsf/wpg_MCCE!OpenView
I actually found that Newshub article confusing and questionable, but don't have time etc at present to go into detail but MPs who are not Ministers also can claim expenses etc but this is done through Parliamentary Service – not Ministerial Services in DIA.
Parliamentary Service is part of Parliament –
https://www.parliament.nz/en/footer/jobs/parliamentary-service/
https://www.parliament.nz/en/footer/about-us/parliamentary-service/about/who-we-are/
I know there is lots more on how MPs claim expenses etc through Parliamentary Services but must race out. Will try to get back to this later today.
Cinny 16.2.1
Thanks so very much VV for the links, will have a good read and get my head around it. Much appreciated 🙂
Up north the land of stupid people end their year will all the class one would expect of them.
May the great prevaricator, who takes procrastination to another level, has apparently reduced Corbyn, the great communicator, to whispering to himself "stupid woman" (no recording of this exists, he claims he said "stupid people").
After recent attempts to pose a vote of no confidence in the PM, but not yet her government, this does not seem credible (the argument that either stupid woman and stupid people were statements of fact is a strong one, and one leads to the other, as these were the people that kept her on as leader of their party).
Apparently because May is a woman, noting that she is stupid while being a woman is seen as a sexist attack, or misogny. This is taking identity politics micro aggression to the next level, and given this is the Tory Party, it is obviously an attempt trying to divert attention from their own reality – May has chosen to delay the vote on her Brexit plan and leave it to the media to run a Brexit with no deal scare campaign over the holiday break to soften up the MP's before the vote.
All ones eggs in one basket (she has said their will be not be another referendum to over-ride a parliamentary impasse).
So should the deal not get parliamentary approval, Corbyn will propose a vote of no confidence in the government over it facing a no deal Brexit (the media scare campaign will help him in this).
So will posing Corbyn as an anti-semite, and now as a misogynist, save the Tory Party from their own Brexit divisions. May needs the so called "Blairites" (while moderates and the May deal is the middle course between a no deal Brexit and staying in the EU, they mostly prefer going back to a referendum) to vote for the deal for fear of a no deal Brexit if they vote no. Thus the hard-line refusal to go to a referendum is to influence them.
Stupid people are playing chicken on the highway called Brexit in the UK parliament because they claim giving the people another say, is not respecting what they decided last time they were asked. This is a brain dead parliament that reigns as a tyrant for 5 years and treats it subjects for this period of incarceration as fools. Stupid people.
Gabby 17.1
I hope he did it in a cod French accent.
On the face to it, Corbyn has shown himself completely incompetent during the Brexit debates. His standing will have gone down (including among his moderate MP's), though perhaps not enough to stop him becoming PM at the next election.
However, nothing he has done has either bought an election forward, or will result in a second referendum. He should have been able to achieve one of those.
Instead he has made it more likely May's deal will get through. Maybe that is what he wants, hence his tactics to date. So an election, whenever it happens, can be fought in clear air.
His policy is to have the May deal fail in parliament.
A sort of alliance between the hard Brexit Tories and those who want a referendum facilitated by having a position based standards for a deal they would support not being met (maybe not possible).
If he is successful, May might resign rather than preside over a no deal Brexit – after all parliament could easily deny consent to a no deal Brexit government being in office.
Corbyn could however choose to play white knight – entice Tories against a no deal Brexit into supporting a parliamentary move to suspend Brexit and call for a new referendum, rather than a new election.
With a May deal, the government takes responsibility – most now favour remain in polls – and the Tory Party divisions (there are as many for a hard Brexit and remain as in favour in their caucus and party membership) are going nowhere. Nor is the Northern Ireland, Scotland and the LD (where will the pro remain Tories and anti Corbyn Blairites go?).
There is no way the Tories can win this game, whatever happens, Corbyn's Labour has the advantage/all the cards.
gsays 17.2.2
While no expert on UK politics, I can't help think that there is little to gain by acting too forthrightly currently.
Akin to being leader of the opposition.
marty mars 18
101 stuff that UK labour or Corbyn haven't found an answer to. The distraction that sticks
Parliament descended into chaos on Wednesday as angry Tory MPs accused Jeremy Corbyn of calling Theresa May a "stupid woman", which the Labour leader vehemently denied.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/19/jeremy-corbyn-accused-of-calling-theresa-may-a-stupid-woman
It may have been better to say yep I said it and here's why…
Dennis Frank 18.1
I liked this bit: "While May was still in the house, the former Tory chair Patrick McLoughlin asked Bercow to censure Corbyn. "He muttered words which were quite clearly visible, accusing the prime minister of being a 'stupid woman'," he said, as MPs shouted "Shame!" and "Disgrace!""
Since the former Tory chair confirms that the words were clearly visible, they will show up on any video recording of Corbyn uttering them, so their inaudibility is no real problem. Sceptics just need to watch the recording to see those words hanging there in the air just after emerging from his mouth…
Guilty of being seen as having a thought crime – which is apparently calling a stupid person, a woman.
Gabby 18.1.1.1
Stupid old white man would've been fine.
SPC 18.1.1.1.1
Everyone in the Commons would have looked at each other – the comment could have applied to themselves or the first other man they looked at.
Gabby 18.1.2
Bercow's a silly moo.
OnceWasTim 18.1.3
What he should have said was "I realise honourable members are looking for ways to take offence, and I now wonder whether they'd have preferred it if I'd said – Silly Lady boy, and "I'm offended you are offended just as you will be offended I am offended by you're being offended"
Philip Ferguson 19
A concerned school teacher provides a critical take on the issue of transgender children and medical intervention: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/death-by-puberty/
Thanks Philip, an interesting and informative read.
Chris T 20
Surprised no one has brought up the Haumaha report.
Would be interesting to hear justification for Ardern not sacking him.
To piss off Chris Basher Bishop christy.
Chris T 20.1.1
She doesn't consider the report serious to the point of using it to annoy someone?
Well it looks like Hummer's an arsehole but not a workplace bully christy, and being an arsehole is pretty much de rigueur for high placed smootharse bureaucrats.
The Chairman 21
A new report (on the Funded Family Care system) commissioned by the Government points to a host of failings, but makes no recommendation for change.
A disability advocate says the report is a waste of time and the Government should simply get on with changes everyone knows are overdue.
There is concern the report will allow the Government to procrastinate.
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter said she expected the government would announce its plans to overhaul the Funded Family Care system in less than a year, but she wouldn't commit to a specific time-frame nor give away any details. However, she acknowledged affected families have been waiting a long time for justice.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378613/report-highlights-discriminatory-disabled-care-system
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018676219/disability-advocate-says-new-report-treats-people-as-fools
Lets hope the Government gets their A into G on this one and comes up with a balanced overhaul that will appease concerns.
OnceWasTim 22
@Anne and Denis, and probably a few others:
You might be interested in this (as in when the PS started to go tits up with corporatisation):
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46608818
greywarshark 23
For those of you with hair and wanting a new image, to present a new younger you what about this:
https://www.dufp.co.nz/headlines
Manus Island – too small and vulnerable to cope as a dumping ground for problems too big for Australia to cope with.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/378215/manus-island-s-social-fabric-broken
eco maori 25
Kia ora Newshub One has to expect more accidents with all the exra cars and people in Aotearoa of late and not much investment in the road network in the last few years.
Those are huge hailstones in Australia hope not to many people have been hurt what a mess we have to get use to weather like that.
We need to pay a return on waste to save our wild life and enviroment that poor seal nearly lost its life paying a return on all waste is way cheaper than have to try and pull plastic waste out of the sea the size of the Pacific waste .
Ka pai Mark with your song we built this city on sausagerolls hitting number one in Britain lol
One must be real carefull when working in construction I have heard of some shocking accidents
Rob that's the way Wellington showing you the aroha for being Maori santa . People in Aotearoa have expect maori are going to show there pride of being a tangata whenua.
Kate Wreck it Ralph will keep the mokopunas happy for a while.
ka kite ano P.S I have to use a new search ap and it has not got spell check loaded yet some one crashed the old one
Eco Maori video for the minute


Google today announced at its I/O developer conference a special place for children and parents in the Google Play Store. It's called the Family Store.
You can drill down to apps by age — like apps for kids aged 9-12 and those for kids aged 6-8, as Google Play product manager Ellie Powers said onstage.
The move comes a month after the introduction of Google Play's Designed for Families program. In that program, app developers can designate their apps as kid-friendly and worthy of an ESRB Everyone or Everyone 10+ rating, or an equivalent rating.
Apps that fit these parameters get a cute little star, Powers said.
The new section features plenty of new content, including Crayola DJ, Cutie Patootie, Thomas's Musical Day for Percy, and Doozers-Play Along Stories, according to a blog post from Googler Eunice Kim that has more detail on the new program.
You can find the new section in Google Play here.


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Together Retro
Forum Topics & Replies
Forum Skip to content
Switch Discussion Thread
NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii
4053 postsPage 406 of 4061 ... 402, 403, 404, 405, 406
Re: Switch Discussion Thread
by opa Thu Dec 12, 2019 9:16 am
Does anyone have the port of Doom on Switch? Apparently they're doing another update and I'm just wondering if they fixed the sound yet.
marurun wrote: Demon's Tilt, a video pinball spiritual successor to Devil's Crush, is coming to Switch! Yay!
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/ ... _to_switch
That's really cool. Always good to have more pinball!
by Ack Sun Dec 22, 2019 4:20 pm
So...Dark Souls Remastered worth the price tag in Switch? I haven't spent much time with the series but was always interested.
I have a movie review website now: https://moviereviewsbyamook.com/
isiolia
by isiolia Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:24 pm
Ack wrote: So...Dark Souls Remastered worth the price tag in Switch? I haven't spent much time with the series but was always interested.
Late reply I know...
Depends on what you're looking for. It's a solid version of the game, and in a way, closer to the original release - handheld it's 720p/30, and docked dynamic res up to 1080p/30, following the 720p/30 (target) of the original console versions. The other platforms target 60fps. There are a few adjustments that all platforms get that are really of the "nice" variety, and they all include the DLC now. The Switch version does seem to have low bitrate audio that's a bit muddy, but that's really the only problem with it.
At this time though, the Switch version is still commanding the release price (~$40) where the other console versions have dropped to $20. If you aren't planning to play it on the go, then going with a different version might be better. Personally though, I bought it (along with the PC version), because I find it to be a very replayable game.
4053 posts Page 406 of 4061 ... 402, 403, 404, 405, 406
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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10 Nights | CLOISTERS OF CULTURE
Pisa is a city in central Italy's Tuscany region best known for its iconic Leaning Tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral). Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces and various bridges across the River Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The city is also home of the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century and also has the mythic Napoleonic Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies as the best sanctioned Superior Graduate Schools in Italy.
Saint-Tropez is a town, 104 km to the east of Marseille, in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. It is also the principal town in the canton of Saint-Tropez. It is located on the French Riviera, and it is known today for its famous and extremely wealthy summertime guests. It has been dubbed the 'playground to jetsetters, fashion models, and millionaires', and it is most-enduringly known as the place where the iconic Brigitte Bardot was "discovered" and for its role in the liberation of southern France during World War II.
Marseille, known in antiquity as Massalia, is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of 240.62 km2. The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of 1,204 km2. 1,530,000 or 1,601,095 people live in the Marseille metropolitan area. Located on the southeast coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Marseille is France's largest commercial port and largest French city on the Mediterranean coast. Marseille is the capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, as well as the capital of the Bouches-du-Rhône department. Its inhabitants are called Marseillais.
Monte Carlo, officially refers to an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Monaco has four traditional quarters - from west to east they are: Fontvieille (the newest), Monaco-Ville (the oldest), La Condamine, and Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo (literally "Mount Charles") is situated on a prominent escarpment at the base of the Maritime Alps along the French Riviera. Near the western end of the quarter is the world-famous Place du Casino, the gambling center which has made Monte Carlo "an international byword for the extravagant display and reckless dispersal of wealth". It is also the location of the Hôtel de Paris, the Café de Paris, and the Salle Garnier (the casino theatre which is the home of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo).
ATLANTIC SILHOUETTES
From Palma
Palma, Alicante, Corsica, Cannes, Casablanca, Bermuda, Naples, Lisbon, Málaga, Funchal, Palermo, Marseille, Barcelona, Miami, Cadiz, Cartagena, Civitavecchia, Great Stirrup Cay, Gibraltar
MEDIEVAL MEDLEY
From Rhodes
Rhodes, Lesbos, Istanbul, Barcelona, Piraeus, Kusadasi, Santorini Airport, Sorrento, Monte Carlo, Civitavecchia, Khios
WINE, ART & ARISTOCRATS
From Southampton
Southampton, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Porto, Barcelona, Guernsey, Cadiz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, A Coruña, Gijon
ETERNAL FAVORITES
Palma, Dubrovnik, Venice, Pisa, Corfu, Valletta, Messina, Italy, Marseille, Barcelona, Kotor, Sorrento, Monte Carlo, Antibes, Civitavecchia, Cinque Terre, Argostoli
PACIFIC WANDERLUST
Tahiti, San Francisco, Honolulu, Hilo, Bora Bora, Kahului, Rangiroa, Nāwiliwili, Nuku Hiva
ATLANTIC INTERLUDE
Buenos Aires F.D., Tenerife, Punta Arenas, Montevideo, Lisbon, Funchal, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Ushuaia, Punta del Este, Puerto Montt, Santos, Pisco, Coquimbo, Puerto Chacabuco, Stanley, Mindelo, Provincia Constitucional del Callao, San Antonio Province
ALOHA TO ALASKA
Tahiti, Vancouver, San Francisco, Honolulu, Hilo, Victoria, Juneau, Bora Bora, Ketchikan, Skagway, Sitka, Astoria, Kahului, Rangiroa, Nāwiliwili, Wrangell, Nuku Hiva


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You are here: Home / Health Care Policy and Reform / Neoliberalism and health care: the case of the Irish nursing home sector
Neoliberalism and health care: the case of the Irish nursing home sector
The usefulness of neoliberalism as a theoretical concept in health research has been debated. This paper argues that when the concept of neoliberalism is used precisely and concretely, it provides an important and valid framework to analyse how health systems have been transformed over the last several decades. This claim is illustrated through the case of the Irish nursing home sector, which, over the last 20 years, has been turned upside down: from a mostly public system, it has been restructured into a mostly private, for-profit one. Privatisation, a quintessential neoliberal outcome, is analysed in detail. It was fostered by several neoliberal policies and has benefitted Irish (and to some extent global) economic elites. Tax incentives for private home operators and government budgetary constraints have limited state involvement in service provision and supported the expansion of the private sector. Private home staff are subject to more 'flexible' working conditions, which benefits employers. Moreover, the government plans to build new public nursing homes via public–private partnerships, which amount to privatisation. Also, global nursing home chains have begun to enter the Irish market, which offers profitable opportunities to international investors. However, international research shows that quality of care tends to be lower in private homes, due to cost cutting to increase profits.
Neoliberalism is a theoretical concept often used in critical scholarship, having been applied to a variety of contexts and case studies. Yet, theories that become popular run the risk of being over-used or handled incautiously. They may be invoked profusely rather than when strictly appropriate, and their significance may be asserted rather than demonstrated. In this journal, Bell and Green (2016) have raised important issues about neoliberalism as a theoretical concept in public health studies. Their overarching criticism is well taken. They observe that neoliberalism has become a term often used nonchalantly. That is, they note a tendency in some strands of scholarship to assume that neoliberalism explains everything and to reify the concept (Kipnis, 2008). Indeed, as Phelan (2007) remarks, neoliberalism is sometimes conceived in monolithic, reductive ways that neglect its complexity and diversity (Reubi, 2016). There have thus been calls for precision and nuance in the definition and study of neoliberalism (Brenner, Peck, & Theodore, 2010) in order to describe and analyse what can be referred to as 'actually existing neoliberalism' (Brenner & Theodore, 2002)
Nevertheless, the potential of neoliberalism as a concept in health studies should not be dismissed (Schrecker 2016a, 2016b). Indeed, while calls for nuance and specificity are important, we should still pay 'attention to macro-scale issues of context and power relations' (Schrecker 2016a, p. 479). As Schrecker (2016a, p. 479) reminds us, '[w]hatever the varied manifestations of neoliberalism, it is a coherent project the material consequences of which' are plain to see in the form of 'neoliberal epidemics' (Schrecker & Bambra, 2015) or negative health consequences of neoliberal austerity programmes in southern Europe (Stuckler & Basu, 2013).
– Julien Mercille
Read the full paper here.
Filed Under: Health Care Policy and Reform, Nursing Home Care


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Q: Lock window size to maximize in WPF How do I restrict my WPF window to only permit the maximize and minimize functions. In my application, users should not be allowed to Resize the window.
I changed my WPF window properties as per below:
Window State: Maximize

Resize Mode: NoResize

When I run my application window open in maximize view, but when I double click on the window border it Resizes.  Is it possible to restrict this behavior?

A: With this piece of code Window will open in Maximized state and can be Minimized as well with No Resize. You can also specify some fixed size (Height and Width) to windows if you want like.
Height="350" Width="525"

Xaml:
<Window
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
     WindowState="Maximized" ResizeMode="CanMinimize">
...
</Window>

Refer to Resize Mode section in MSDN Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms748948.aspx
You can refer to somewhat similar post: Minimize window with NoResize mode on

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Four Ways Security Analytics Can Improve Business Performance
By ITBE Staff
Security analytics and metrics are as important to the business as any other key performance indicator – such as liquidity, cash flow, or growth in sales or revenue. Today, more boards and leadership teams are demanding that key security analytics and metrics be included in the operational risk portfolio. This puts pressure on security teams to provide analysis and insights that give management the risk intelligence they need to drive better performance.
Security analytics, when properly designed and implemented, can deliver much-needed insights in mapping the size, scale and scope of risks. Analytics can provide a basis for root cause analysis and remediation strategies across policies, processes and, ultimately, investments in technologies. But what's the best way to do this in a world where the volume, complexity, velocity, variety and veracity of unstructured and structured data makes the task of identifying risks with traditional security monitoring systems cumbersome? We are seeing transformation in the way security programs are tackling the identification and analysis of risk. Yo Delmar, vice president of GRC solutions at MetricStream, has identified four key ways security analytics can be used to improve business performance.
Click through for four ways security analytics can be used to improve business performance, as identified by Yo Delmar, vice president of GRC solutions at MetricStream.
Remember that an Analytic is more than a Metric; it provides insights that help the business make decisions. The key difference is that analytics slice and dice the data on an ad-hoc basis in real time or near real time. Metrics, on the other hand, represent numeric information generated by calculations often derived from aggregating vast amounts of data from multiple sources, such as logs, events or transaction data. A metric that is the result of a calculation does not, in and of itself, provide insights.
Make sure security analytics are aligned to the overall organization risk framework. For example, if a key performance indictor (KPI) is based on the number of orders, then revenue affected on orders lost due to security incidents could be a metric of interest to both security teams and the business. The need to present security analytics in terms management can understand and act on is more urgent than ever – and the security analytic model needs to be built in a way that aligns with how the business views risk.
Use security analytics to tell a story that the business can relate to. Share examples of the cost of recent breaches or incidents in your industry and describe the impact in terms that business and risk managers can understand – real business impact – 'customers were not able to submit online orders for 10 hours' and/or probable loss magnitudes – 'the costs to remediate will likely reach $100m given the number of people affected.' Use security analytics to show trends of increasing exploits against key assets, and demonstrate how your security program has effectively protected sensitive or regulated data and critical business processes. Keep telling the story of how your security program is delivering value. Provide insights backed up by analytics, and use them to justify changes to corporate policy, implementation of stronger controls, and an investment in key monitoring technologies such as identity management and access control.
Big Data analytics can help security teams become smarter, more productive, and better at making predictions by delving into large, diverse and dynamic data sets, and leveraging intelligent analytics languages such as R. Big Data analysis can be used to detect probable threats based on current vulnerabilities, provide analysis of identity and access, correlate events and alerts, and provide meaningful insights into the effectiveness of remediation of security incidents. Patterns of anomalies to normal behavioral performance, IT operations and configuration states, capacity and forecast of IT resources are all potential use cases. Bottom line: Big Data offers the ability to correlate security events in the context of critical business processes, applications and sensitive information. Get connected with your organization's Big Data program or, if it doesn't have one, be an evangelist and start it in security.
The 2013 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report revealed that in 2012, 66 percent of breaches that led to data compromise within "days" or less remained undiscovered for months or more, and that in 69 percent of the cases, a third party discovered the breach.[1] It is statistics like this that drive security teams to remain committed to evolving analytic models that provide insight on how to better protect critical processes and sensitive information.
[1] Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, 2013: http://www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR/2013/
For every risk that surfaces, and for every incident that breaks a threshold, ask yourself this question – is this an improvement opportunity? Look at the area of concern, understand why it is a risk, and work out the storytelling with your business sponsors. Understand the examples from evidence collected, and pool this knowledge for future use. Going up the security maturity curve sometimes seems like the torture of Sisyphus, who was cursed to roll a huge rock uphill only to have it roll back down, daily – but in fact the landscape is constantly changing, and every incremental improvement drives the program to higher levels of agility and value. What cannot be measured cannot be managed or improved. The first step on the journey comes back to metrics, and its wise cousin, analytics.
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text:
The Elisa Project's Life Lessons Luncheon Had DWTS's Nancy Kerrigan, Unexpected Add-Ons To The Program And Rumbling Tummies
Mar 27, 2017 9:30 AM by Jeanne Prejean
After years of holding luncheons at hotels and last year's breakfast at the Belo, The Elisa Project held a luncheon for its Life Lessons fundraiser at the Belo on Friday, March 3. It kicked off with a VIP reception at 11:00, but, unlike other meet-and-greet receptions with the celebrity du jour, this one had no grip-and-grin photo opp with luncheon speaker Nancy Kerrigan, or even a sponsor backdrop. Instead, guests passed the word that "She's over there" and "She's so sweet" and "She looks wonderful" and snapped photos with the accommodating Kerrigan.
Kim Bannister, Ariana Luterman, Nancy Kerrigan and Allana Luterman
Alas, a photo of Co-Chairs Rhonda Sargent Chambers and Melissa Rountree, Kerrigan and Honorary Chair Toni Munoz-Hunt was stalled. Word was passed that "Toni is on her way" as the doors to the ballroom opened just after 11:30. Then tall, gorgeous Toni gathered with Nancy, Rhonda and Melissa for a snap.
Rhonda Sargent Chambers, Toni Munoz Hunt, Nancy Kerrigan and Melissa Rountree
In the crowd of supporters were Kim Bannister, Holly Davis, Pamela Graham, Carlotta Lennox, mom-to-be Jenny Anchondo, Ellen Winspear, Lisa Cooley with daughter Ciara Cooley and daughter-in-law-to-be Bela Pjetrovic, Tiffany Divis, Lynn McBee and Nancy Gopez.
Nancy Gopez and Tiffany Divis
Carlotta Lennox and Pamela Graham
Lisa Cooley, Jenny Anchondo and Bela Pjetrovic
As The Elisa Project Executive Director Kim Martinez stood on the floor with mic in hand, she called the group to their seats at tables pre-set with salads, desserts, a bowl of bread, a floral arrangement, water and ice tea. More about this setup later.
The printed program set out a plan for just five speakers — Kim, The Elisa Project Board Chair Dr. Stephanie Setliff, Star of Hope Awardee Dr. Andy McGarrahan, LEAD Awardee Ariana Luterman and keynoter Kerrigan. Instead, the program was extended with multiple unscripted speakers.
Following the invocation, Stephanie had Rhonda and Melissa come to the podium to talk about their helping those with eating disorders. They, in turn, thanked Toni, whom they asked to address the group.
It was then announced that the Esteem Fashion Show fundraiser would be held once again at Tootsies in the fall. When the announcement of the Esteem honorary chair was made, the supposed honorary chair looked stunned. She had already told them she couldn't do it. Oops.
Stephanie presented the Star of Hope Award to Dr. Andy McGarrahan, who twinned humility with humor in accepting the award.
Stephanie Setliff
Andrew McGarrahan
After Andy's acceptance, Stephanie announced she was going off-script. Co-Chair Rhonda looked at her timeline and looked a bit baffled. But before she could figure out what was going on, she heard Stephanie tell of Rhonda's commitment to the organization over the years and asked her to come back to the stage to receive a token of appreciation. Despite being caught off guard, Rhonda thanked her mom and dad ("Perhaps you should have worn a tie"), her husband and family, and told how much The Elisa Project meant to her.
Kim then presented the LEAD Award to Greenhill student wunderkind Ariana for her volunteering to handle The Elisa Project's social media. In the audience, Ariana's mother, Allana Luterman, recorded her daughter's acceptance on her cellphone.
As a video was shown about The Elisa Project, some guests were starting to wonder if the seasonal mixed salad with herb vinaigrette had been the entrée. After all, it was 35 minutes into the program and the salads and dressing were long gone. All that remained were the empty salad plates putting the desserts just beyond reach. At one table a guest with long arms reached for the passel of rolls and started to pass it around. As more presentations of speakers and a video continued, the floral arrangements were starting to look downright tasty.
Whitney Kutch
In making a call for money at the 45-minute mark, Elisa Board Member Whitney Kutch came to the stage and announced that she and Melissa were issuing a $4,000-challenge for guests to match.
Finally, Kim announced there would be a break for lunch. Quickly, the staff replaced the salad plates with dishes of chicken, carrots and whipped potatoes. Luckily, Nancy's table was one of the first to be served. She managed to take a couple of bites before being called to the podium.
Her life story has truly been challenging. There had been the Tonya Harding episode; the heart-breaking efforts for Olympic gold; her brother's being on trial for their father's death; her recently announced joining the "2017 Dancing With the Stars" cast.
Would she speak on all, or just one, of those subjects? Instead, she spoke extemporaneously for 30 minutes about everything from her kids to her own challenges of looking figure perfect and fitting into costumes. A couple of times during her talk she admitted that she was bouncing from subject to subject.
Then she teared up and told how she had truly been touched by Leslie and Rick McCall's motivation in creating The Elisa Project to fulfill their late daughter's wish to help prevent others from the agony of eating disorders. That would have been the perfect place to have ended the talk. But Kerrigan continued, with some guests slipping out at this point and others sneaking peaks at their watches.
Nearing the end of her talk, Nancy admitted she had been guilty of unhealthy care-taking. She had put others' needs before her own and had worked to overcome that practice. However, she revealed that she was helping one of her sons, who seemed to be following his mother's care-taking role.
Instead of allowing guests to head to their cars, Kim took to the floor with mic in hand for questions from the audience. Less than a handful of hands were raised, while others headed for the door.
Filed Under: Awards, Celebrity, Conversation, lecture, panel discussion, Eating disorders, Events, Fund raiser, FYI, Health, Hmm, Ice skating, In need of help, Indoors, Luncheon, Oops!, Television and broadcast media Tagged With: Andrew McGarrahan, Ariana Luterman, Kim Martinez, Life Lessons Luncheon, Melissa Rountree, Nancy Kerrigan, Rhonda Sargent Chambers, Stephanie Setliff, The Elisa Project, Toni Munoz Hunt


We welcome you to the most astounding city in Europe and in one of the most beautiful Hostels in Berlin!
On the 16th of December 2011 - in the midst of Berlin - in the heart of Neukölln, the 2A Hostel for Berlin tourists opened its doors for all arriving visitors. 2A Hostel offers you an excellent starting point for an exciting visit to Berlin. Our hostel is the first hostel of its kind, in regards to size and facilities, in Berlin's Neukölln District.
Due to its bright, spacious and modern rooms, the 2A Hostel stands out from the usual standard. Our superb record of professional and hospitable service, and our ability to offer affordable accommodations is beyond compare.
Uncomfortable and overpriced hotel rooms & hostels are a thing of the past. We offer an alternative and you reap the benefits: the price of a hostel with the comfort of a hotel room. Inexpensive, comfortable rooms, and a hotel standard, for individual travelers (backpackers), couples, youth and student groups or families.
The 2A Hostel is conveniently located with direct access to the S-and U-Bahn station Neukölln, and close to the Buschkrugallee highway. It is more than ideal. BBI airport is easily accessible by public transport in approximately 30 minutes. Metro and other bus routes stop right outside the door. You even have a entrance which offers you direct access into the "Neukölln" S-Bahn station.
From our doorstep, you can jump right into the S-Bahn Berlin and explore our historic and diverse city. All major tourist destinations in the city and all the other fashionable areas can be easily reached from U-Bahn and Ring Bahn (S-Bahn) direct from the 2A Hostel.
Neukölln Rulez! Cafés, Bars, Culture, Parties and more….
In recent years; Berlin-Neukölln has blossomed into a trendy and creative neighborhood. The enthusiasm for its myriad of small shops, newly opened cafes, bars and galleries are not only increasing in popularity with long-established native Berliners, but it enjoys increasing popularity with tourist. Neukölln is hip, young and vibrant! It is not just a neighborhood, it's a way of life.
In the direct vicinity of our hostel, there are countless numbers shopping, cultural and nightlife opportunities available. The Karl-Marx-Strasse seduces visitors with its special flair and the almost unlimited potential shopping possibilities.
Just feeling good! Be our guest. Have fun and relax.
In our Shared Rooms, you will not only meet many new international friends from the four corners of the world, but also find a comfortable place for relaxing evenings or a bit of solace after an exciting day in Berlin.
The rooms in the hostel are first-class. Every room is vibrantly decorated and they each have their own bathroom with shower. There are no shared bathrooms.
Electronic lockers are installed in every room to ensure the safety of your valuables. The doors of all the rooms and access to the building are secured with an high tech, electronic lock system.
But if you are in need of a bit more privacy, feel free to lodge in one of our single or double rooms with television.
Outside of your room, there is no lack of comfort within our feel-good atmosphere! If you are in search of a small snack between meals, or if you would rather have a drink at the bar in our Lounge with TV and audio entertainment, there are plenty of options available. On warm sunny days, our terrace invites you to linger and relax. Enjoy the sunshine with a good book and a delicious cocktail!
During your stay, you can stay in touch with friends and family. Computer terminals are available for your use in our common area. We also offer WLAN for those who would chose to use their own laptop instead.
Our professional and extremely friendly staff is available to offer you advice and practical help during your stay in our hostel in Berlin. Prepare yourself for a new travel experience.
Specials will follow soon !


text:
Malön är ett naturreservat i Onsala socken i Kungsbacka kommun i Halland.

Reservatet är en ö på 107 hektar strax söder om Onsalahalvön. Det är skyddat sedan 1965. Ön består av gräshedar och stora klapperstensfält.

På ön växer kråkris, trift, mandelblom, kustruta, strandmalört och marrisp. I nordöst finns en träddunge med planterad bergtall. På ön finns ett rikt fågelliv. Man kan se en stor havstrutkoloni samt kolonier med silltrut och gråtrut.

Ön har länge använts som betesmark för att senare för jakt av utplanterade skogsharar.

Källor
Malön, Länsstyrelsen i Hallands län

Naturreservat i Kungsbacka kommun
Naturskyddsområden bildade 1965

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