Matt Nippert continued his excellent work on foreign trusts yesterday in The Herald: Jet, mansions figure in $232 million foreign trust case to be heard in Auckland court An Auckland courtroom will on Friday become a battleground over Manhattan penthouses and a private jet amid…
As widely reported, the US has just released online 8000 documents (13 million pages) of declassified documents from the CIA. The records include UFO sightings and psychic experiments from the Stargate programme, which has long been of interest to conspiracy theorists. The move came after…
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China has just pulled the plug on 100 coal fired projects. This is on top of another 15 coal fired projects being scrapped or abandoned in September of last year. The country intends to cap coal powered electricity generation at 1 100 GW (still a…
In breaking news: Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world,…
Theresa May has finally set out some guidelines on the shape of Brexit: Prime minister vows to put final Brexit deal before parliament ... She said her government’s 12 priorities for crunch negotiations with the EU 27 meant Britain would: • Not be seeking membership of…
A rich old white idiot, who would only be amused at our anger, has vented about the homeless, in a piece that shouldn't be rewarded with our clicks. Businessman Sir Bob Jones wants begging made illegal, saying homeless people are mostly fat and a disgrace…
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Civic Square, noon-2 pm, 21 January 2017 ‘Love trumps Hate’ Festival in Wellington to mark US Presidential Inauguration An occasion to celebrate democratic values and human rights will take place in Wellington to coincide with President-elect Trump’s inauguration on Saturday 21 January. Co-organiser Mark Derby…
Labour and The Greens are planning a joint "state of the nation" event this Sunday. On Stuff: Labour and the Green Party will jointly lay out their agenda for 2017 at the first ever "state of the nation" event involving both parties. However there will…
Recently we had a conversation in Open Mike about the Powerdown. There seemed to be a bit of misunderstanding about what that is, so here is an introduction. The Powerdown is a process where societies, in the face of climate change and resource depletion, choose to transition…
Various events are planned in protest around Trump's inauguration. One of them is a series of marches organised by and for women: SISTER MARCHES Sister Marches are solidarity events inspired by the Women's March on Washington, and organized by volunteers around the world. If you…
Yesterday we posted on Oxfam's report on wealth inequaliy in NZ, "The country’s two wealthiest people own the same amount as the poorest 30 percent in New Zealand". Later that day the Oxfam report on the world situation was released: World's eight richest people have…
The health of our democracy continues its seemingly inexorable decline: Voter participation on decline despite MMP Outspoken - Victoria University academics are worried that despite the introduction of MMP 20 years ago voter participation in elections is continuing to decline. They said the country's democracy…
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With friends like this who on the left needs enemies? From Bomber Bradbury's blog: ... Andrew Little was the Leader of the EPMU right before the Pike River Mine accident. There have been all sorts of quiet angry questions about the role of the EPMU…
How's Bill English doing? John Roughan in The Herald is not impressed - Bill English is not following his best instincts First there was the response to a question that came out of left field on just his second week in Key's chair. "Are you…
More extremely rich people. It's a good thing! It must be, because over the years, headlines in various outlets and referring to various countries have uncritically reported the rise in the number of millionaires or billionaires as though it's something to quietly celebrate. Underlying the bullshit…
Most measures of inequality focus on income, so its great to see this study of wealth inequality in NZ by Oxfam: Top 1% of NZers own 20% of wealth The country's two wealthiest people own the same amount as the poorest 30 percent in New…
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Bill English is on a quick European visit, currently in England. The joint May / English statement is full of the usual platitudes - a "new and exciting chapter" apparently. It's true that England will be looking for new trade partners in the aftermath of…
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Bill English likes to talk about "social investment". Commentator Simon Wilson at The Spinoff is a big fan: Social investment: the two uninspiring words upon which the entire election could hang ... For several years now English has been driving a profound reform programme in…
Sculptor Michael Parekowhai has revealed his sculpture The Lighthouse to the public eye. It cost $1.5 million, funded primarily by Barfoot and Thompson. Natural questions always get asked about whether this amount of money should be used for, well, homes for the homeless. I mean,…
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Bill English yesterday - New Zealand faces 'possible' election hacking US spies have found Russia ordered an 'influence campaign' during the US election, and President-elect Donald Trump has finally acknowledged Russia did hack Hillary Clinton's campaign emails. Mr English says our elections could be hacked…
Green Party press release, Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter will be standing in the Mount Albert by-election to be held on 25 February, said the Green Party today. Well-known for her strong advocacy of the City Rail Link and ways to cut congestion in Auckland, Ms…
At this moment for Trump it's time to show some actual concrete deliverables. And for the New Zealand electorate, it's also well time we saw some actual cards on the table. So there's some common economy questions I'd have for Donald Trump, Bill English, or…