General Debate 26 January 2015

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IGM

Why all the bullshit by MSM over Bob Kerridge stating fact, backed up with statistics? When are we going to get rid of the types in media that get a dress-wearing Labour MP (PI) stating the comment was racist and farmers have guard dogs. If, and I doubt, any farmers do, have the types of dogs these gang member mates of the MP possess, they would be pig dogs, not watchdogs. Good Lord, the PI probably saw an old huntaway and thought it was a pitbull, he would be that clueless.
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January 26, 2015 8:13am
big bruv

Well said IGM. It seems that we are no longer allowed to tell the truth.
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January 26, 2015 8:18am
duggledog

Greece looks to be officially f***ed now.

Nobody in the mainstream media had the courage or political inclination to ask Norman or Turei their thoughts on the price of oil per barrel currently; would they be able to maybe quiz them on their thoughts on Syriza and their plans?

I won’t hold my breath.

Syriza’s ‘f you’ to Germany is akin to John Minto telling the MSD to get stuffed, we don’t want the benefit any more.
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January 26, 2015 8:18am
calendar girl

Can the irreconcilable Bain debaters please go elsewhere today to have their private debate – it’s boring.
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January 26, 2015 8:19am
Longknives

Those ‘outraged’ Journalists should take a drive through Otara one day and see the shitloads of unregistered Pit Bull/Bull Terrier mongrel mutts wandering the Streets.
Bob Kerridge is dead right.
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January 26, 2015 8:19am
big bruv

Watching Breakfast TV on Labour party TV (aka TV One). The Englishmen, Rawdon Christie has just done a pathetic segment taking the piss out of the Scottish Culture. Now, would that man be brave enough to take the piss out of Maori Culture?

We are not allowed to tell the truth about certain races in NZ these days. However it seems that we can still take the piss out of any race that does not have black or brown skin.
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January 26, 2015 8:22am
waikatogirl

Greece has voted in their far left party. They want half their debt written off. They are sick of recession reforms and have voted for change! Radical left party wishing away debt is blissfully ignorant.
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January 26, 2015 8:23am
duggledog

IGM and BB

That’s been evident since that study a few years ago showed Maori and PI’s cost the state three dollars for every dollar they produce.

They went bat shit crazy about that too. But those were and still are the facts.

General procedure is for whoever makes the statement that upsets whatever minority it is, apologises and it’s all forgotten.
Kerridge probably won’t.
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January 26, 2015 8:23am
duggledog

waikatogirl

Greece should never have been allowed into the Euro. Spain and Italy are bad enough.

They see paying tax as something rather beneath them. They really do.
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January 26, 2015 8:24am
itstricky

The fact that you characterise someone as “the PI” beyond what they say shows you why you’ll never agree with the MSM, igm. Nor with the rest of civilised society. And after that, you have the nerve to ask for statistics. Hilarious.
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January 26, 2015 8:24am
big bruv

I do hope that the EU tells the bludging Greeks to go and get fucked. I hear that the new socialist leader of Greece wants at least half of their debt to be written off.

Now, before any of the low life left who read this site get all bent out of shape it is worth remembering that the Greeks sponged off the productive EU nations (here read Germany) for years. The retirement age for Greeks (pre GFC) was 50 years of age.

The new Greek government should be told this.

1. You owe us a shot load of money, we will not be renegotiating anything.
2. If you don’t pay we will kick you out of the EU, close your borders and leave you to rot.
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January 26, 2015 8:26am
Simon

Greek state to default just after ECb announce a massive money print program. Lol.

It is starting to unravel.

In nz the state is opening up to massive infusion of Chinese money to help the ponzi economy going. NZ is about 3 to 5 yrs behind the PIGS.
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January 26, 2015 8:26am
Inandout

Hosking takes another of his days off and Jack Lame fills in, so back to a music station. I might be tempted to watch TV in the morning when Paul Henry returns.
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January 26, 2015 8:28am
Jack5

Chinese bid to up the flow of Chinese immigrants and Auckland property investment:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11391731
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January 26, 2015 8:30am
Simon

Big bruv you mean the greek state borrowed at arms length. Not the Greek people. All free market including the default. You read like a leftard
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January 26, 2015 8:30am
Inandout

big bruv: When Germany pulls out of the EU and dumps the Euro, these bludger countries will have to fend for themselves.
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January 26, 2015 8:31am
Chuck Bird

“Can the irreconcilable Bain debaters please go elsewhere today to have their private debate – it’s boring.”

@calendar girl

It is unfortunate that some think miscarriages of justice are boring. This is not just about the Bain case but any case where the guilty get off or innocent are convicted. There are also countless miscarriages of justice where judges give out discharge without conviction and permanent name suppression to people because of their job, social status and/or connections.
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January 26, 2015 8:33am
EAD

Telling the truth in our self styled “top ranked, open democracy and free press” country is an offence in this country if it badly portrays any race except “Pakeha” as these 2 articles show:

“A big marketing drive is on to draw more Chinese people to New Zealand real estate” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11391731

Even Gareth Morgan gets in on the act and tells us that what we see with our own eyes is a lie as “foreigners are not to blame for rising house prices. http://garethsworld.com/blog/economics/foreigners-auckland-house-prices/

While Duncan Garner asks “Are we being racist when it comes to foreign drivers?” In 2013 overseas drivers were involved in up to 800 crashes. In three-quarters of the incidents, the foreigners were found at fault.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/65350406/duncan-garner-driven-to-distraction–the-issue-is-safer-roads-not-foreigners
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January 26, 2015 8:34am
Jack5

I’m not sure what IGM and Longknives are posting about Kerridge n dogs n farmers at 8.13 and 8.19 respectively. Is there a link please,IGM, or are you referring to this?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/65391587/spca-boss-links-dog-attacks-to-ethnicity
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January 26, 2015 8:34am
stephieboy

Interesting item on TV 3 news in respect of some social media taken some of the piss out of ISIS by photoshopping and satirising and ridiculing their world caliphate pretensions .
ISIS use cruelty and fear to advance their cause .Maybe this is a good dose of their own medicine back albet using satire and ridicule to blow the bubble on their mad hopes and dreams.
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January 26, 2015 8:35am
Komata

I see that Dame Susan Devoy has now weighed in on this, calling the Kerridge statements divisive and racist etc, (my words BTW, not direct quotes). No surprise ther, but I wonder if she has even bothered to check the reasons that Kerridge has given or has merely reponded to the MSM’s statements; not good for someone who is supposedly required to be both ‘neutral’ and ‘dispassionate’. The fact that Kerridge has no reason to ’embroider’ the truth, is renowned for calling a spade a spade and is actually correct is apparently irrelevant .

It does Dame Susan no credit..

And farmers with ‘Guard Dogs’? If the MP is referring to the Border Collies, Kelpie’s, Blue Healer’s et al that are the working dogs on any farm, (dogs which BTW, will always protect their humans), then certainly, but methinks he’s mixed his metaphores and doesn’t have a clue about the way farms operate. Being both a PI and ‘city bred’ this is possibly not too surprising, but one does have to wonder if he really has any idea about what goes on outside his own, very small and PI-centred world.

Methinks he may not…
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January 26, 2015 8:35am
Jack5

Komata (8.35) … ah, Dame Devoid, the badminton player whom the Lefties and PC mob didn’t want in the race job, but whom they have been able to brainwash into their neo-Marxist, multiculturist ideology.
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January 26, 2015 8:41am
EAD

I timed out above but I was going to add that our Media no longer really holds politicos and their policies to account especially if that policy is part of the Frankfurt School 11 point plan. Instead it just tows the establishment line on just about everything.

This article from Breitbart is a brilliant analysis of the MSM in Germany and how they try and paint the wonderful Pegida movement as extremists when all the extremities are from the “anti-fascists” and Politicians themselves:

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/24/german-anti-islamisation-marches-what-the-mainstream-media-doesnt-want-you-to-know/

“If you got your news from the mainstream media, what is increasingly known in Germany as the ‘liar press’ (Luegenpresse), the story might very well end there.”

“The fact that many of the supporters appear to be middle class, grandparents, or young couples doesn’t matter. As one government minister remarked, they are merely “Pinstripe Nazis”.”

“The fact is PEGIDA weren’t the ones throwing glass bottles and fireworks at Wednesday’s demonstration, it was the tens of thousands of left-wing counter-protesters who would stop at nothing to prevent the PEGIDA march from going ahead.

The activism by ironically self-proclaimed ‘anti fascists’ started well before the march was due to begin outside the Leipzig opera house. Appraised of the fact that train-loads of PEGIDA supporters would be coming from Dresden, the home of the movement where they had their own march banned by police, they deigned to prevent their arrival by setting fire to the railway between the two cities.”

And there is a New Zealander over there and I love this quote as they’ve obviously seen the light:

“A native of New Zealand, now a resident of Leipzig tells me: “I’m a former leftie, but I saw the light. I’m a human rights campaigner now, I support PEGIDA because of female genital mutilation, and the sexual abuse of young girls in Europe by radical Muslims”. “
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January 26, 2015 8:42am
jcuk

It could be that sanity is returning to europe.. just a small glimmer of hope … as the austerity folk get their come upence for their foolish policies …. NZ and America point to the falsity that austerity is.
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January 26, 2015 8:42am
gravedodger

@Komata, you omitted “The New Zealand Huntaway” now recognised by many dog admirers as a distinct breed.
Some of them are ginormous big enough to saddle up for kiddy rides.
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January 26, 2015 8:46am
G152

Get Susan Devoy out there catching all those vicious strays and counting how
many are -untrained- terrier types owned by persons of ethnicity.
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January 26, 2015 8:46am
Yvette

Labour is reviewing all of its existing policy after its dismal election result.
Mr Little has made it clear his chief targets will include the capital gains tax and lifting the age of superannuation entitlement from 65 – two policies he believes cost Labour votes.

Well, that “made it clear” … as mud.
Does Labour still support these two policies or not.
And if they were valid for the good of the country before the Election, should they be dropped because Labour had a little difficulty in Cunliffe explaining them?
Is political cowardice, or attacking your own policies a good way to improve your image?
Little change, Little hope, Little wonder 🙂
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January 26, 2015 8:51am
kowtow

Breakfast TV Rawdone Christie?

A few CHRISTmasses back the studio was adorned with CHRISTmas decorations, the bland ,seclar type. They read viewers feedback. One asked why there were no CHRISTian decorations. Fair question.

Rawdone looks at the camera and says “We wouldn’t want to upset anyone”.

S’far as I’m concerned if you refuse to acknowledge that CHRISTmas is CHRISTIAN then you’re going to offend a lot of Christians……. but that’s OK.

Sums up practically the whole fucking lot of the lying, hypocritical “Je suis” media class.
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January 26, 2015 8:55am
kowtow

SPCA dog comments.

Actually it is not an “ethnic” thing. It is largely a social issue. All over the world the same thing applies. It is the under classes who have these dogs. Nasty aggressive anti social irresponsible unlicensed and uncontrolled , the owners that is, and they of course have dogs that reflect their own personalities and circumstances.

Every city and large town has them. In Auckland it hapens to be mainly brown but that won’t be exclusively the case.
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January 26, 2015 9:01am
Dave Mann

According to TV NZ’s ‘journalist’ there’s a festival called ‘Laneway’ happening sometime in Auckland and tickets are all sold out:

http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/sun-set-shine-thousands-auckland-s-laneway-festival-6224067

Call me an old stickler for detail, but why didn’t the report tell us the DATE that this wonderful event is going to happen? What has happened to journalism in NZ?
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January 26, 2015 9:02am
waikatogirl

Gravedodger: “The New Zealand Huntaway” now recognised by many dog admirers as a distinct breed.
Some of them are ginormous big enough to saddle up for kiddy rides.

***
Love Hunterways. Not a guard dog (such as pitbulls, etc) although great alarm system as bred for their bark. Like boarder collies, soft as butter. Wonderful farm dogs and family pets.
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January 26, 2015 9:04am
EAD

Big Bruv

be sceptical about the picture that the controlled MSM is trying to portray with Syriza winning in Greece.

Many of us on the right, particularly the Libertarian right, think this victory is brilliant news. Why? Because it might be the beginning of the end for the evil EU as Syriza are the only mainstream party that will pull out of the EU in Greece and the MSM doesn’t want that.

Remember when Iceland kicked out the bankers? The MSM tried to paint it as a catastrophe but in hindsight it was the best thing Iceland ever did: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-22/different-view-iceland-recovery

And the thing is with left wing politics in the economic sense is that you can recover from them – the damage is not permanent.

The “democracy” and its effects we suffer from the West however is becoming much more permanent and cancerous and is going to be very hard to get rid of. Most countries experiences with balkanization (sorry multiculturalism is the fashionable word) which is what the EU is trying to impose with its open borders, is that it ends up in bloodshed of which the events of recent weeks are only a prelude.
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January 26, 2015 9:08am
Gulag1917

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534&v=DuGqA-c_-n0
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January 26, 2015 9:09am
OneTrack

jcuk – “It could be that sanity is returning to europe.. ”

It sounds more like insanity to me – the lazy socialists of Greece want free stuff and they want someone else to pay for it. Well the Germans should just work harder to pay Greece’s bills shouldn’t they?
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January 26, 2015 9:12am
Colville

Farmers and dogs.

I have hunted with a farmer (mate of a mate) down in the Mainland who had had a problem with his and his neighbours boots getting flogged off the porch. He lost two pairs of $1000+ high tpoped La Sportiva climbing boots that he used on the farm coz his ankles were fucked.
Anyways… middle of the night one time he is up taking a leak and he sees car lights in his road and being of a suspicios nature he wanders out with a torch. He sees someone running away.

So he lets the dogs out. 🙂

Dogs treed a skinny lil fella who wouldnt come down because of the dogs. Bloke goes away and drops a dime to Plod. Plod is a hour away but gets there after a while to find very stressed out Native sitting high up a tree.

They got his mate in the pickup car too. Neighbour blocked the road with a tractor. That is the problem with being Bad on a dead end rural road 🙂

Turns out they had a very nice lil earner going selling flash boots and hunting gear like coats to cash converters.
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January 26, 2015 9:13am
Jack5

If I lived in Otara I would have at least one scary (to humans) dog.

Folk who have the economic misfortune to have to live in poorest suburbs aren’t allowed to have firearms to protect themselves from the gangs, drug dealers, and thugs, who live close by, or even next door. So they get a dog. Nine out of ten them don’t have the time, the knowledge, or the will to exercise them. Their investor landlords don’t fence the properties sufficiently to keep the dogs in and legitimate passersby safe, and if they own the property themselves, the dog owners typically don’t have the cash to fence it securely.

They usually get their dogs from backyard breeders who sometimes mix fighting breeds, such as, say, a shar pei and a staffy, or perhaps don’t even know (or care) what the bloodlines are.

In all suburbs, you wonder about cultural differences in attitudes to animals. Some of the most caring dog owners I have encountered have been Japanese and Chinese folk, but some new arrivals do things like buy a sheepdog and think a walk around the block every second day is sufficient exercise. It’s sad to see in a city a broken-spirited sheepdog that has turned vicious because of lack of exercise and mental challenge. Let’s not forget, though, there are plenty of rat-shit white and Maori dog owners.
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January 26, 2015 9:24am
flipper

For the benefit of Calendar Girl (Lord only knows which year :-) ) and birdbrain, I respond to your gratuitous jibes by noting the following.

In January and February 2013 The Outside The Beltway Group published two 20,000 word papers dealing with what it described as “the Bain, Binnie, and Collins Conundrum.”

Open your minds, read and learn from this extract……

****“ …..

5. How to move this forward
As we have noted earlier, we have been advised that there are ample grounds on which Mr Bain and his team could seek a JR and/or a BOR suit against Collins and the Crown. There may also be grounds for malfeasance suits.

At mid-January 2013, it seems that more than 70 per cent of New Zealand favours an early and fair resolution, including payment (to David Bain) of appropriate compensation.

Simply following existing (or previous) bureaucratic capture advice will do nothing to improve the public’s perception of this problem, which has all the ingredients necessary to evolve into a weeping political sore

As a consequence of following MoJ/Douglas Graham’s advice, the Cabinet (earlier, as well as the current) has exposed New Zealand law to international ridicule. The Law Commission’s earlier recommendation of an independent panel should be resurrected, adopted, and put in place by Statute, so that it cannot be avoided (or fiddled) by bureaucrats and Ministers seeking to salve bruised egos. The criteria used by the Thomas Royal Commission (based on UK Home Office procedures) should form the basis of compensation criteria.

A fundamental problem that must be addressed is who should be able to seek compensation, and the nature of any exceptional circumstances. Limiting compensation to a “free pardon” is one of the problems. There has never before been a case where someone spent 13 years in prison as a consequence of a serious MOJ, accompanied by investigatory incompetence, exacerbated by equally culpable judicial incompetence, which required PC correction. That the jury took less than six (6) hours to find Mr Bain not guilty at his 2009 trial is in itself demonstrative of the need for compensation.

Compensation should have been offered immediately. But that would have bruised the inflated egos in central government’s investigatory and prosecutorial agencies. This problem dogged the Thomas case and persists in respect of all MOJ cases. That attitude must cease.

A new and fair compensation procedure cannot apply to Mr Bain’s case, which as a consequence of Collins’ incompetence, has become an un-holy mess.

The basis on which the Justice Binnie inquiry was agreed with Mr Bain’s team MUST be restored forthwith. Ergo, Judith Collins needs to bite the bullet and restore trust in her office, and her actions as Minister of Justice. But these failures will require the consumption of large portions of humble pie.

We suggest that the Cabinet take charge of proceedings by appointing a Committee, headed by Christopher Finlayson (who has an established record as a successful grievance / apology / financial settlement Minister). Judith Collins would need to be part of that committee, but independent bureaucratic advice seems impossible given the Crown’s entrenched position. Since the SG is not now perceived to be neutral, that is a problem that John Key and his closest advisors must solve. The Government cannot risk a JR or BOR suit.

6. A basis for resolution?

We presume that somewhere in the bowels of the Crown’s bureaucracy a draft settlement proposal exists. There have been numerous published suggestions that the rule of thumb” is $100,000 per year, plus punitive damages, incidentals and costs. At present the system seems to be ad hoc, with no clear guidelines or transparent calculation procedure.

We anticipate that Mr Bain’s team will have a very definite basis for settlement in mind, but
no matter how the compensation arrangement is finalised, it should:

• be transparent and open to public scrutiny,
• absolve any legal aid repayment provisions in place,
• be tax free, and
• Contain a full apology.

7. Conclusion

The Bain saga is a blot on New Zealand’s judicial landscape. Had it not been for the Judicial Committee of the PC, and the excellent work of the Hon Justice Ian Binnie, an honourable resolution, accepted by the over-whelming majority would never have been possible.

That long overdue apology to Arthur Thomas should be made by the Commissioner of Police. Similar apologies should be made by Police and Crown Law to David Bain – and the long-suffering community. “

Since then (February 2013):

• The Bain team filed for Judicial Review of Collins’ actions – a case scheduled to be heard in February;
• Collins’ resignation was “compelled” for other reasons, and she is no longer in The Cabinet;
• Amy Adams has taken over as Minister of Justice, and promptly entered negotiations with Reed et al;
• Those negotiations resulted in the discontinuance of the JR proceedings;
• An undertaking by the Crown to proceed in accordance with the agreement that resulted in the establishment of the Binnie inquiry.

And it will surprise no one that birdbrain types continue their peddling of shibboleths and, worse, lies.
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January 26, 2015 9:25am
Hugh Pavletich

THE HOUSING PROBLEM IS A LOCAL GOVERNMENT COSTS OUT OF CONTROL PROBLEM … Hugh Pavletich … http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org

What we have had over the past 20 / 30 years is an increasingly degenerate public service culture at both the central and local level.

The arrogance has only increased with the costly incompetence.

A $400 billion housing bubble; $20 billion leaky homes fiasco; a $50 billion Christchurch earthquake recovery that should be about $25 billion; a $20 billion seismic assessment fiasco; a $ ? contaminated soils one … I could go on and on …

And STILL no political focus on “de-risking” our metros …. following the Christchurch earthquake events. Remarkable !

There is truly enormous scope to drastically cut the costs out of them at both the central and local levels … and that’s the only way to go.

At its core … the housing problem is a costs out of control problem at the local level.

We have on the one hand the dysfunctional Christchurch Council, and on the other, the smaller functioning adjoining LG units of Waimakariri and Selwyn.

The evidence is staring us in the face … and blindingly obvious to those with an IQ level above room temperature.

Politicians always however need the obvious …. researched … and this is why the Productivity Commission is engaged in a follow-up report on land supply, following the ones on regulatory performance and housing affordability.

We are still waiting however … a decade on … for meaningful and basic structural research … Focus on Restoring Housing Affordability | Scoop News

Back mid-2012 I outlined the “Christchurch prescription” within Christchurch: The Way Forward | Scoop News .

The above needs to be read closely. Much of what is said here, applies elsewhere.

Christchurch City Council Mayor Lianne Dalziel has made an important start … and as yet not adequately appreciated … by bringing in a new Council Chief Executive Dr Karleen Edwards for about $390,000 per annum in contrast to the earlier Tony Marryatt at about the $540,000 mark … roughly 72% the earlier guys salary.

This “trendsetter” should be filtering through the rest of the public service at both central and local level.

Is the State Services Commission aware of this ? We saw how “clever” they were, with the recent CERA Sutton / Rennie fiasco … Just more bureaucratic institutional failure | Scoop News

One of the great advantages of our local government structure here in New Zealand, in contrast to the North American model, is that the formers roles are thankfully much more limited.

In broad terms they need to be kept to providing just property services.

Property taxes for property services … and most importantly … that these are clearly broken out and itemised on peoples and businesses quarterly Rates Demands.

The costs must be clearly related to the services provided. Then relative performances can be measured with some accuracy.

The worst direction central government could take is “wet – nursing” local government, by attempting to impose top-down solutions. Far better to make some key structural changes … then just let local governments sort themselves out … with most importantly …. the active participation and scrutiny of local ratepayers.

Locals taking responsibility for their own Local Government … with “bottom up” solutions.

Former Christchurch Central Labour MP Brendon Burns made this extremely clear in a The Press OpEd early 2012 … Shining a light in the darkness | Brendon Burns | The Press …

For this city to best recover from its seismic nightmare, the process of decision- making needs to be inverted to truly empower communities. Such a radical change is very difficult to accept for anyone – of any political persuasion – who happens to be in power.

To date, the required response is tokenistic. A top-down command and control system may be appropriate in the days after a disaster but not in a recovery which will take years. Among the ultimate victims will be those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk when it comes to true community engagement. Just look at the Christchurch City Council.

Generally, the top-down solutions over the past quarter century have been a consistent, repetitive and extremely costly series of disasters.

Audit NZ woeful oversight too … as just one glaring example of many.

The focus must be on two essential structural changes …

First …not allowing Local Governments to screw around with land supply (note the solutions within “Christchurch: The Way Forward” above.)

Second … requiring Local Governments to finance infrastructure properly … along the lines of the Texas bond financing Municipal Utility District model ( basic information ) … for blindingly obvious reasons of efficiency and inter-generational equity. Section 10 of the LG Act steers it in that direction too.

It must be made clear to the Local Government sector that they have no right whatsoever to EFFECTIVELY BAN the development and construction of affordable housing. And further to this … that people should have the right to choose how they want to live.

Eric Crampton and the New Zealand Initiative team have got the “problem analysis” pretty much right … but need to think carefully on the solutions front.

Economists by training see solutions in terms of “incentives”. Quite appropriate with respect to the private sector.

It’s a natural caste of mind. But government and performance … and I’m talking here of just “acceptable performance” ( realistically below what we would expect in the private sector … therefore the former should be paid accordingly) is an entirely different beast.

Governments at all levels require different types of disciplines. Most importantly … the structures and systems (the simpler the better … it can never be simple enough when it comes to government) put in place to ensure LGs work to an acceptable level.

The “German model” (where Federal funds are fed through to the local level) has no relevance here in NZ. It’s a political non – starter … prescribing booze for alcoholics. They would soon be back for more.

It needs to be emphasised the issue here is restoring housing affordability … not inventing it.

Luke Malpass, a former Research Fellow of the New Zealand Initiative did a study tour of Europe (mainly Switzerland and Germany) and Texas some years ago … and learnt first-hand the cultural gaps between the Old World and the New.

Like Texas, we are part of the New.

Year after year (11 now) the Demographia Surveys illustrate why we should be looking towards Texas for the best ideas … and adapting their solutions to our own systems and political culture.

We should be approaching this as the Japanese did with the car industry following World War 11 … when they visited Detroit and learnt better ways of producing cars. They learnt so well in fact … by producing the most reliable cars on the planet … that they nearly sent their teachers broke !

The Media Release by Local Government New Zealand below is enormously important … and a sincere congratulations to its National President Lawrence Yule.

Last Thursdays TV One Breakfast programme comments by New Zealand Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith and this writer (hyperlinks below) are hopefully helpful too … recognising we are just 2 New Zealanders of 4.5 million of us.

The locals will work through much better local solutions than Smith, Yule and Pavletich ever could.

We are all in this together.

The stage is now set for meaningful progress … in starting on the path of getting our Local Government costs under control, so that housing affordability is restored in New Zealand.

Indeed … New Zealanders, with our dynamic democracy, are the global leaders in working together getting solutions in place on these issues. We should be proud of that.

(New Zealand ) Local government supports sensible change to the RMA | Scoop News

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1501/S00358/local-government-supports-sensible-change-to-the-rma.htm
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January 26, 2015 9:32am
Manolo

Reality hits Europe: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11366613/How-the-European-dream-is-dying-state-by-state.html

Europe is being swept by a wave of popular disenchantment and revolt against mainstream political parties and the European Union.

In 2007, a majority of Europeans – 52 per cent – trusted the EU. That level of trust has now fallen to a third. Once, Britain’s Euroscepticism was the exception, and was seen as the biggest threat to the future of the EU.

Now, other countries pose a far bigger danger thanks to the political discontents unleashed by the euro. In Greece, a far-Left Socialist party, Syriza, has won the electionswith a political programme that would overturn eurozone policies, and many believe the Greek revolt against the loss of their economic sovereignty by eurozone diktat from Brussels or Frankfurt is only the beginning.
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January 26, 2015 9:34am
Gulag1917

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czyrjDjQP_w
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January 26, 2015 9:35am
stephieboy

EAD, as self confessed Libertarian why does Conspiracy Theory and your ideology often go hand in hand ?

http://foxtrot-echo.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/whats-with-libertarians-and-conspiracy.html

PS . Is KB an example of MSM ?

Just curious.
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January 26, 2015 9:38am
Jack5

Re Flipper’s long screed at 9.25 contains:

…the Cabinet (earlier, as well as the current) has exposed New Zealand law to international ridicule…

International ridicule? What crap!

However, if there is any ridicule, it ought to be about the jury composition in the second Bain trial, with someone with a record and a name change slipping on to the jury. Then this person was to the fore in media jubilation coverage and surely was among the jury members who attended the celebratory piss-up on the day of Bain’s acquittal.

If there is a big pay-out, perhaps Von Beynan will write a book that will make the Bainiacs ashamed to admit their part in getting the settlement.
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January 26, 2015 9:39am
hj

Greece reminds me of the stinking fish analogy… anyone heard that?
I see the “neo nazi Glolden Dwan” campained from slammer for “alleged”….. But that’s o.k.
What about our own Greens who are ideologically “linked” to Pol Pot?
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January 26, 2015 9:43am
Reid

This sounds a bit unjust.

UK women sentenced to death in Bali as a mule while her co-defendants escaped with real light sentences (bribery anyone) and who claims the syndicate threatened her two UK sons if she didn’t do it (which they are known to do all the time) and of whom five Supreme Court UK judges urged the UK Foreign Minister to fund her appeal and in respect of which the Minister turned her down.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11391891
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January 26, 2015 9:53am
Reid

“This week the Herald looks at what Auckland needs to make it an even better place to live.”

Can I suggest bulldoze it and start again? It’s a crap city and always has been. The only reason many who live there hallucinate it’s any good at all is because most of them have never lived anywhere else and it’s all they know. A bit like the Filipino’s who live on the best rubbish dump in the Phillipines and think the other rubbish dumps aren’t nearly as good as theirs.

And guess what? Their first topic is transport and guess what again, they don’t even touch on the root cause. This is what amazes me. Even though everyone who lives there knows the problem, none of the officials ever talk about it. The root cause of course being that almost all Auckland travel for work or pleasure is NOT spoke and hub but suburb to suburb. AND, even if you can get transport from your suburb to the suburb you want to get to (which you never can), it’s 99% certain that you’re not going to get drop off anywhere near your target destination. So WTF are you going to do?

THAT’S the problem, every single Aucklander apart apparently from officials and the useless MSM journo’s knows it too, and yet all said officials and journos ever ever do is talk about the USELESS hub and spoke model. Which makes travel twice as long if you’re going to use it because you have to go right into the hub and then out to the spoke you need. And who’s going to do that? No-one. Is why everyone NEEDS (as in, not optional) their cars.

Reason #1 why Auckland is the biggest load of crap lifestyle-wise in the whole country.

I can’t wait for reason #2 tomorrow.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11391753
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January 26, 2015 10:18am
Fletch

The Associated Press offers a correction (of sorts) to the story about how 2014 was the hottest on record.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a story Jan. 16, The Associated Press reported that the odds that nine of the 10 hottest years have occurred since 2000 are about 650 million to one. These calculations, as the story noted, treated as equal the possibility of any given year in the records being one of the hottest. The story should have included the fact that substantial warming in the years just prior to this century could make it more likely that the years since were warmer, because high temperatures tend to persist.

The story also reported that 2014 was the hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, but did not include the caveat that other recent years had average temperatures that were almost as high — and they all fall within a margin of error that lessens the certainty that any one of the years was the hottest.

An earlier version of the story quoted Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis as noting that the margin of error makes it uncertain whether 2014 was warmest, or the second, third or sixth warmest year. She said that regardless, the trend shows a “clear, consistent and incontrovertible” warming of Earth. That reference to the margin of error was dropped in later versions.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d7375a310ef6475c9841accc756c4ba4/heat-noaa-nasa-say-2014-warmest-year-record

At least they have been honest enough (though in hindsight) to actually look into the claims.

I very much doubt this gets as much media coverage as the original story.
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January 26, 2015 10:45am
stephieboy

Reid, sorry I live in Auckland and its not crap. I love it with plenty of the great outdoors whether your a boatie,swimmer, tramper, camper , musician , eating and dining et etc .T

There is so much on offer and to do .

Less whinging and bleating is in order I believe. !
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January 26, 2015 10:46am
Reid

Interesting article on Churchill. Starting to explode the myth. It’s interesting to me because I think the first photo they show in the article has his handler cut off. He was Bernard Baruch. Look him up but don’t expect the MSM sites to tell you who he really was.

Incidentally if you want one of the best insights into wartime Churchill from a non-conspiratorial perspective then read Lord Alanbrooke’s War Diaries – censored versions published in 1957 (Turn of the Tide) and 1959 (Triumph in the West) and an uncensored version in 2001 (War Diaries edited by Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman). Alanbrooke was the CIGS (Chief of Imperial General Staff) for most of the war. Before he was appointed CIGS he led the BEF and conducted the withdrawal.

Withdrawal is one of the most difficult military operations and it’s why I personally give von Manstein my own award as the best WWII general for his masterly management of that operation in Russia.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/winston-churchill-the-enigma-of-a-british-hero-10000596.html?icn=puff-7
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January 26, 2015 10:48am
Longknives

South Islander perchance Reid?
You seem to have something of a chip on your shoulder about Auckland..
*For what it’s worth I’ve lived in a few places and Dunedin is by far the shittiest- That place is a cold old dump..
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January 26, 2015 10:52am
mikenmild

Nothing much new about Churchill in that article, Reid. But we all need some measure of antidote to the unalloyed fawning at the great mythic qualities of his life and career.
Please tell me who Bernard Baruch ‘really’ was.
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January 26, 2015 10:57am
Longknives

Rolling Stone Magazine is at it again- With this attack on Clint Eastwood and American Sniper

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/american-sniper-is-almost-too-dumb-to-criticize-20150121

Ranting and raving about George Bush and ‘WMDs’…Christ the Left are pathetic.
Hardly surprising from the magazine that airbrushed and elevated the Boston Bomber to ‘Sex Symbol’ coverboy…
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January 26, 2015 11:01am
Akaroa

Re:Reid at 1018:

Hear hear!! I’ve been living in Akl – right in the centre of the city in an apartment in the shadow of the Sky Tower – for just over five years now after living in Wellington for thirty years between overseas stints.

I hear what Reid is saying loud and clear. Don’t get me wrong! Living in Akl, and being so close to the waterfront and all suits my personal agenda perfectly.

But i’m retired, no commuting, no deadlines to be where-ever when-ever. In other words no pressure.

But if I was a nine-to-five, distant-office-working, daily-wrestle- with-traffic bunny, I’d have moved on long since.

Having lived for extended periods in several big UK and Overseas cities, including a year in London, three years in Bangkok (!!), two years in Singapore, two and a half years in Hong Kong and two years in last-place-God-made-Aden, I rate Auckland’s liveability quotient as middling to low. Mainly because its difficult to get anywhere without fighting the traffic to near-exhaustion of one’s patience and equanimity.

Why do I stay? Like i said, I’m a retired bunny and can pick and choose when and where i go around this “Fine City’ of ours. No pressure!!
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January 26, 2015 11:02am
Reid

South Islander perchance Reid?

I lived in Auckland between 1980 and 2005 Longknives. I know it well.
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January 26, 2015 11:04am
Inandout

Manolo: When nations lose their borders, as has happened under EU, they begin to lose their identity. The Euro merely compounded the problem because a country tends to use their bank notes to reflect their own culture, be it famous countrymen/women or royalty. The Euro bank note is none of these things, looking more like a pretty prospectus, meaningless and bland. A cynic may say those who first engineered the EU wanted to break down borders and make the member countries open to benign dictatorship from Brussels.
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January 26, 2015 11:09am
mikenmild

‘A cynic may say’
Or a fruit loop.
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January 26, 2015 11:12am
Kimbo

@ big bruv

Watching Breakfast TV on Labour party TV (aka TV One). The Englishmen, Rawdon Christie has just done a pathetic segment taking the piss out of the Scottish Culture. Now, would that man be brave enough to take the piss out of Maori Culture?

We are not allowed to tell the truth about certain races in NZ these days. However it seems that we can still take the piss out of any race that does not have black or brown skin.

Yep. What part of the dialectics of radical/critical theory isn’t clear? “Mainstream” is part of the hegemony that “oppresses” the “mariginalised”, including through controlling the dominant language and discourse such as jokes. So only those “privileged by the system” get to decide who we joke about and how. But when the oppressed turn it around it is “consciousness raising”. Hence they have succeeded in removing humour from the public domain that is designed to belittle and therefore control.

This free “know your leftie” community service was brought to you in the interests of helping you channel your umbrage and discontent.

Plus as a member of the Ngati-Scottish, our culture (or at least a straw-man version dreamed up by Sasenachs) deserves a good piss-take, Don’t take it all so seriously. Only the radical left want us to live by the sad maxim, “everything is political”. Or Fox News too for that matter, whose sole angle seems to be, “how come it is ok to rip into white folks?”.
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January 26, 2015 11:15am
cricko

mikenmild, @10.57

At least Churchill had a life.

You should try and get one.
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January 26, 2015 11:16am
mikenmild

That’s quite cutting cricko. I’m a bit upset by that.
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January 26, 2015 11:17am
Kimbo

@ mikenmild

Nothing much new about Churchill in that article, Reid. But we all need some measure of antidote to the unalloyed fawning at the great mythic qualities of his life and career.

The Brits and the Americans may have fawned over Churchill (although he lost the 1945 election so that maybe tells you something about the UK public perception of his all-round abilities even at the height of his powers), but I think Kiwis and Aussies especially have always had a good balanced perception of his strengths and weaknesses – especially as we paid so dearly for his military follies and catastrophic misjudgements:

Gallipoli 1915
Greece 1941
Crete 1941
Singapore 1942
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January 26, 2015 11:22am
Manolo

Don Quixote of the Deep South gets spanked at The sub-Standard:

[Stephanie: This comment was literally a copy-paste of an entire post from your site. This is in clear breach of the policy on “link-whoring” and you have been warned about this before.
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January 26, 2015 11:25am
Kimbo

@ mikenmild

…having said that, and it is realistic and healthy to acknowledge that Churchill got a LOT wrong, nevertheless he wasn’t wrong on the one thing that REALLY counted.

Have a dig into the War Cabinet records of just how much influence Halifax was trying to exert in the week leading up to Dunkirk. He was convinced the war was lost and that to continue fighting was just needless sacrifice and bombast.
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January 26, 2015 11:34am
wat dabney

“The Associated Press offers a correction (of sorts) to the story about how 2014 was the hottest on record. ”

Booker has a piece…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11367272/Climategate-the-sequel-How-we-are-STILL-being-tricked-with-flawed-data-on-global-warming.html

…which covers the information covered here:

“Massive Tampering With Temperatures In South America”
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/massive-tampering-with-temperatures-in-south-america/

As can be seen, across-the-board significant downward temperature trends have, through radical “adjustments,” been utterly transformed into significant upward trends. Basically these entire temperature records have been completely fabricated.

And then what happens is that, since there is no terrestrial coverage for the overwhelming surface of the Earth, these fabricated numbers are assumed to represent the temperature of half the continent of South America. Thus the impact of these fabrications is vastly magnified.

And even then, after faking and extrapolating a completely false upward temperature trend in this manner, they still had to lie through their teeth in order to claim a “record” temperaure, since even with all their extreme fabrications their manufactured numbers show otherwise.
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January 26, 2015 11:37am
calendar girl

Chuck Bird @ 8:33am –

“It is unfortunate that some think miscarriages of justice are boring. This is not just about the Bain case but any case where the guilty get off or innocent are convicted.”

Don’t twist my words, Chuck, to suggest that I have no interest in or concern about miscarriages of justice. I made it clear in my comment that I was referring to the “irreconcilable Bain debaters”, not a wider ‘miscarriages of justice’ subject. Nice try, though.

If you want to begin to understand what I’m saying, just take a glance at the obscenely-long contribution above at 9:25am. Screeds of it that would make Penny Bright proud, and almost all of it a direct quote cut-and-pasted from a 2-year-old document that could have been linked readily on the net.

But not “all of it” was a quote. The beginning and end of the 9:25am comment featured the name-calling and accusations of lies that seem to come too readily to ‘debaters’ of the Bain situation.

It’s not debate, and it’s boring.
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January 26, 2015 11:37am
Chuck Bird

“However, if there is any ridicule, it ought to be about the jury composition in the second Bain trial, with someone with a record and a name change slipping on to the jury.”

@Jack5

Do you know if the offending was serious enough to bar him or her from jury service.

Disqualification

The following persons are not qualified to serve on any jury in any court on any occasion:

(a) any one who, at any time, has been sentenced to imprisonment for life or for a term of 3 years or more, or to preventive detention:

(b) any one who, at any time within the preceding 5 years, has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 3 months or more, or to home detention for a period that is, or is more than, 3 months.
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January 26, 2015 11:49am
UglyTruth

Hollow Earth, anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2jq9uBmpO4
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January 26, 2015 11:55am
EAD

The MSM again promoting its anti-family agenda:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/love-sex/65407540/Seven-year-itch-still-alive-and-well-stats-say

One of the best reads on this area is Dr. Henry Makow who offers timeless advice to the individual in helping them to understand the subtle war that is being waged on them by the MSM:

http://henrymakow.com/000691.html
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January 26, 2015 11:57am
wat dabney

Kimbo,

You seem to imagine that a military defeat must mean that the intention was inherently a folly and catastrophic misjudgement. A curious argument.

Gallipoli, for example, was an operational failure rather than a strategic error. Had it been properly handled by its commanders it could have been a spectacular success and knocked Turkey out of the war (for whatever that was worth.) The delay due to Hitler’s decision to support Italy in its Greek adventure has been blamed for his fatal failure to take Moscow before the arrival of winter. Crete was so devastating to the German paratroopers that they were never used in that role again, possibly saving Malta and thus the whole of the North African theatre. And Singapore, again, was purely an operational. Quite how you blame Churchill for this is a mystery.
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January 26, 2015 11:57am
Reid

We’ve all seen the photo of the two Japanese hostages with the ISIS guy in the desert haven’t we.

Here’s an example.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/japan-pm-shinzo-abe-says-credibility-of-hostage-video-is-high-653331

It’s all over the internet. Pick your site.

So.

Can anyone explain how come the shadows on each of the hostages fall on opposite sides of their faces?

Maybe the desert has two suns?
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January 26, 2015 11:58am
wat dabney

Congratulations Reid, you’ve managed to tie ISIS to the “fake” moon landings.

This conspiracy is clearly bigger than we thought/
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January 26, 2015 12:03pm
EAD

Amid the devastation of yesterday’s Mariupol artillery strikes which killed or wounded dozens, which of course Murray McCully and the entire Western MSM promptly blamed on Russia – an ‘odd’ clip has emerged.

A Ukrainian journalist approaches what she thinks is a Ukrainian soldier (since he is wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and is carrying an AK) and asked him as they run through the battlezone, “tell me, what happened here?” His response, which requires no translation, speaks for itself.

Forward to 2:36 for the “Ukrainian” soldier’s response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwIUsX63Hk#t=189

The Politcians and MSM conspiring together to whip up fear in order to make the public clamour for war against the latest boogieman? Surely not…..
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January 26, 2015 12:04pm
Kimbo

@ Reid

We’ve all seen the photo of the two Japanese hostages with the ISIS guy in the desert haven’t we….

Can anyone explain how come the shadows on each of the hostages fall on opposite sides of their faces?

Maybe the desert has two suns?

Hmm. Anyone else around here prepared to contribute generously to a collection so Reid can travel immediately to the region to investigate the alleged anomaly in person?
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January 26, 2015 12:04pm
Reid

Congratulations Reid, you’ve managed to tie ISIS to the “fake” moon landings.

No that’s only you who’ve done that wat. I’ve merely asked a perfectly reasonable question about an image that’s been published around the world and because you can’t answer my question you’ve jumped to a conclusion just like you’ve been taught to do.

This is why you’re a sheeple. Because you do things like what you’ve just done without even knowing you’re doing it. Just like a sheep jumping as they go through the gate.

It’s not my fault, it’s your fault. So own it. I’m merely asking a perfectly reasonable question. Don’t blame me for asking it.

Same applies to you Kimbo.
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January 26, 2015 12:10pm
Reid

That’s fantastic EAD. Although you do realise that now all the sheeple are going to madly google to find out why Ukraine has so many freedom fighters who speak perfect English with a US accent.

Funny how the camera pans away straight away isn’t it. You’d think this would be a major new development if you were a real journalist intent on truth, freedom and democracy, wouldn’t you.
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January 26, 2015 12:15pm
EAD

Further to my 11.57 – surely this must be the new low for sexual voyerism:

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/new-tv-show-sex-box-features-couples-literally-having-sex-in-a-box-on-stage-in-front-of-studio-audience_012015

Points 3, 10 & 11 of the Frankfurt School Plan

3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
10. Control and dumbing down of media
11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family

Wily Munzenberg, summed up the Frankfurt School’s long-term operation thus: “We will make the West so corrupt that it stinks.”

http://www.henrymakow.com/frankfurt-school-satanic-judaism-in-action.html
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January 26, 2015 12:18pm
EAD

Reid,

Orwell would be proud of how the MSM manipulate the sheeples mind:

One month’s “freedom-fighter” is next months “terrorist”.

Those fighting against Assad some of whom morphed into “ISIS” being the most recent example.

Or “extremist” children in the UK:

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/01/06/the-war-on-toddler-terrorists-britain-wants-to-force-nursery-school-teachers-to-identify-extremist-children/
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January 26, 2015 12:19pm
UglyTruth

Maybe the desert has two suns?

Check out this asshole “Mick West” turning as he moves from side to side to try to debunk the face shadows.

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-the-latest-isis-video-of-two-japanese-men-is-a-fake-shadows-wrong-perspective.5614/

The shadows on the ground will appear to converge because of the relatively short distance between the camera and the subject, but the same argument can’t be applied to neck shadows because the sun as the light source is virtually at infinity relative to the camera-subject distances. The Japanese guys are both facing forward, unlike our turd debunker.
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January 26, 2015 12:23pm
Reid

Orwell would be proud of how the MSM manipulate the sheeples mind:

He’d be rolling in his grave wouldn’t he EAD. as we know his book was a warning. As was Animal Farm. Yet even when what they were warning about pans out in facts and reality before our very eyes, even so, the idiot sheeple are so stuck in their trance that they refuse even to consider dipping their hooves into even a single one of even the more obvious truths.

This is what is in store for both them and us: http://graystatemovie.com/

Did you see EAD the director and his wife somehow had a “gas” explosion in their home that took them out before the movie was completed?

It says a lot doesn’t it about the sheeple that most of them are so dumb that words won’t do it anymore, they’d need a movie like this to wake them up. And even then, it’d only be the smart sheep who did respond.

Check out this asshole “Mick West” turning as he moves from side to side to try to debunk the face shadows.

Oh dear UAT. Now you’ve destroyed stephieboy’s “devasting” reposte as he triumphantly posts the very first thing he finds as he googles “japanese isis hostage shadow debunk” as if that automatically provides the answer.

What’s he going to say now, I wonder.
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January 26, 2015 12:31pm
Kimbo

@ wat dabney

Gallipoli, for example, was an operational failure rather than a strategic error. Had it been properly handled by its commanders it could have been a spectacular success and knocked Turkey out of the war (for whatever that was worth.)

Depends on whether you think “knocking out the props” was a worthwhile strategy. Personally, I think Germany WAS the prop for all the Central Powers in the Great War, and Haig had it right – the Western Front was the place where the war would be won and lost. Anything else, like Gallipoli, and Italy, and Palestine and Salonika – “the world’s largest POW camp” – that dissipated strength from that crucial theatre was a mistake.

The delay due to Hitler’s decision to support Italy in its Greek adventure has been blamed for his fatal failure to take Moscow before the arrival of winter.

Yeah, but that is hardly a justification for getting involved at the time! You are making a post hoc appeal that rests on an outcome courtesy of “the fog of war”, whereas Churchill’s strategic decisons (almost invariably bad) should have stacked up on their own merits before the operation was conducted. Plus he still tried to justify his mad plans when they were clearly proven wrong, like his critique of Munro’s decision to evacuate Gallipoli when it was clearly irrevocably bogged down – “he came, he saw, he capitulated”

But back to Greece in 1941: The British forces were doing a good job of pushing the Italians back in Cyrenaica, and the Greeks were more than holding their own in their own back yard (they only had to fight the Italians!). It was only when Churchill ordered support for the Greeks (that they didn’t ask for or need) that he stirred up a hornets nest. Plus the uprising/coup in Yugoslavia is another supposed reason for the delay in the invasion of Russia. In reality, neither was significant, plus it all assumes that IF Moscow had fallen…which is not clear-cut. It was never a goal for the Wehrmacht in the first place, and the Soviets could well have relocated their capital further east. Capturing Moscow did Napoleon no good in 1812!

Crete was so devastating to the German paratroopers that they were never used in that role again, possibly saving Malta and thus the whole of the North African theatre.

I don’t dispute that the Fallschirmjäger incurred great loses at Maleme, but so did we! And we lost! And while what you say about Hitler’s reluctance to use them again is correct, yet again, that was not a justification at the time for trying to defend Crete – which, unlike Malta and Gibraltar was a strategically useless piece of rock.

And Singapore, again, was purely an operational. Quite how you blame Churchill for this is a mystery.

Well, as Singapore was the bulwark of Britain’s Far East military policy (which therefore also included the defence of India, Australia, New Zealand, and with ramifications also for South Africa and Aden/Suez) I think that the politicians ultimately in charge have to be held accountable. It happened on their watch, and as Churchill himself acknowledged, it was the most humiliating defeat in the history of the British Empire.

Despite the difficulties of supply, equipment and air cover Percival was clearly incompetent and a defeatist. Who ultimately put him there? On whose watch did it occur? If Churchill (rightly) gets the reflected glory for (to quote you) “operational” victories such as El Alamein, Normandy and the final German surrender, then he is also responsible for the failures.
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January 26, 2015 12:33pm
stephieboy

EAD (1,690 comments) says:
January 26th, 2015 at 12:04 pm

Could you outline why you think state controlled Russian media is more relaible than say Reuter’s ?

Irony there re Russia Today etc and your libertarian anti statist pretensions ?

Reid, firstly instead of explaining your alleged anomalies re Japanese prisoner explain the location of the two alleged faked french place officers ?
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January 26, 2015 12:50pm
Fletch

Saturday Night Live parodies the country song, with The Wishin’ Boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hy6eFWFkRw
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January 26, 2015 1:02pm
EAD

Stephie,

When the hammer falls, I imagine you’ll actually be queuing up to move into a FEMA camp just so you can be “safe”.

“Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
― George Orwell, 1984
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January 26, 2015 1:07pm
Jack5

Kimbo’s 12.33 post includes:

…it all assumes that IF Moscow had fallen…which is not clear-cut. It was never a goal for the Wehrmacht in the first place …

This is from chapter 5 of Gerhard Weinberg’s A World at Arms, and he sources it from two German authorities, Schüler and Heinrich Bücheler, and an Earl Ziemke article in Military Affairs 1975 (Weinberg is referring to a split in the command between those who wanted to hold their positions in Oct-Nov 1941, and those who wanted to take Moscow):

Others, including Hitler himself, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the army, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch and Chief of Staff Halder, thought that one last push might win them Moscow, and with it better winter quarters for the German forces. Such a local victory would also disrupt the Soviet railway and command system, would mean the Russians would lose Moscow’s industrial facilities, and strike a major psychological blow. The now available evidence makes it clear that General Halder was the most influential and extreme advocate of such a renewed offensive.
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January 26, 2015 1:10pm
kowtow

Winston Churchill. All well and good to get parochial and Kiwi or Aussie or Gallipoli about the great man’s legacy, but his real achievement is on the world stage and as a shaper not of one campaign, one victory or one or three losses.

His decision to fight ,alone and to carry the Cabinet overshadows every other mistake, or negative thing in his life.

This is a man who shaped history ,made history, defeated evil , did the right thing at the right time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/11157482/The-day-Churchill-saved-Britain-from-the-Nazis.html

By Boris Johnson
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January 26, 2015 1:15pm
chiz

Reid:

Although you do realise that now all the sheeple are going to madly google to find out why Ukraine has so many freedom fighters who speak perfect English with a US accent.

There’s nothing to google here, apart from the ongoing mystery of why you can’t be bothered paying the slightest bit of attention. If you had been paying attention you would know that many foreigners have gone to Ukraine to help them fight the Russians. They are pissed off by what’s happening there and the failure of their own governments to do more. Its no different to the fact that many westerners have gone to Syria and Iraq to help fight ISIS. This has been covered in the MSM.
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January 26, 2015 1:24pm
Kimbo

@ Jack5

…in Oct-Nov 1941, and those who wanted to take Moscow…and with it better winter quarters for the German forces…

As the German Army in 1941 was only really set to win through blitzkreig (as per Poland in 1939, France in 1940, and the Balkans in early 1941) rather than attrition, you could argue that their goose was cooked by that stage anyway.

The Soviets had plenty of unexpected cannon fodder that was surprisingly well-equipped and plenty of land to trade for time – even though that and relying on ‘General Winter’ were never Stalin’s intended strategy. His tactical judgments were even worse that Churchill’s!

A year later the Wehrmacht was fighting factory by factory in Stalingrad trying to cross the Volga, which like Moscow, would “also disrupt the Soviet (transport) and command system, (and) would mean the Russians would lose Stalingrad’s industrial facilities, (and the oil in the Caucasus) and strike a major psychological blow”

The same applies to the siege of Leningrad that stretched for two and a half years!

If they couldn’t do it in the first few months from June 1941, they were never going to do it.

The initial strategy of defeating Soviet armies rather than capturing cities was no doubt correct – they were never set up to do both, and they never had the resources to do both! But the replacement Soviet armies just kept on coming, the factories that serviced them were set up to the east of the Urals, and cities such as Minsk and Kiev were ultimately forfeited.

So the failure to capture cities such as Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad became “if only…!” straws that were snatched at after the event.
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January 26, 2015 1:31pm
Kimbo

@ kowtow

His decision to fight ,alone and to carry the Cabinet overshadows every other mistake, or negative thing in his life.

Indeed, as per an earlier post I made. Whatever else Churchill got wrong, that was the utterly crucial one he got right. And it saved Western civilisation.
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January 26, 2015 1:33pm
Jack5

Reid’s 12.15 post about English accents in Ukraine was repeated by Chiz at 1.24:

all the sheeple are going to madly google to find out why Ukraine has so many freedom fighters who speak perfect English with a US accent.

By far the most Russians and Ukrainians who speak English will have an American accent rather than a British one. This is the same for nearly all countries, save India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, and perhaps a few in Western Europe

The American accent certainly predominates in English in most Slavic countries.

And, Reid, there are millions of Ukrainians and Russians who speak English very well indeed.

Why don’t conspiracy theorists do their homework?
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January 26, 2015 1:34pm
Shawn Herles

The Soviets had plenty of unexpected cannon fodder that was surprisingly well-equipped and plenty of land to trade for time – even though that and relying on ‘General Winter’ was never Stalin’s intended strategy. His tactical judgments were even worse that Churchill’s!.

Can’t remember the name of the author off the top of my head, but a couple of years ago I read a book on the battle of Stalingrad which was scathing of Stalin’s tactics, and pointed out that the combination of his purge of military officers and the economic “reforms” which damaged Russia’s industrial base meant that Russia was not remotely prepared for the German attack. Only time, poor decisions by Hitler, and the Russian winter got them off the hook.
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January 26, 2015 1:38pm
cricko

kowtow @ 1.15

there will always be some on this site, mikenmild, etc who delight in finding fault.

Regarding Winston Churchill.

Very few leaders in history during time of war were successful in every single battle or
every single decision they made.

Churchill was instumental in helping save the world from Nazi domination.

Some will always hold him in high regard for that and give him credit for his contribution.

Others will ignore his overall contribution and revell in whatever fault, imagined or otherwise
that they can find to concentrate on.

These types are to be pittied.

(Kimbo gets it, mikenmild is not able to understand.)
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January 26, 2015 1:40pm
waikatogirl

Bullshit alert
Arthur Taylor, career criminal and jailhouse lawyer has petitioned the High court claiming JK’s election result in Helensville was unlawful because the law has excluded hundreds of prisoners who are housed as Paremoremo. The results would have been no different as JK won by more than 18,000 votes over his nearest opponent.

Taylor, who has no formal legal qualifications will be up against The PM’s lawyer Peter Keily, a partner at Keily, Thompson Caisley and a professor of employment law at Wellington Uni.

I presume Taylor will be covered by legal aid for this latest crap!
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January 26, 2015 1:45pm
Kimbo

@ Shawn Herles

Can’t remember the name of the author off the top of my head, but a couple of years ago I read a book on the battle of Stalingrad which was scathing of Stalin’s tactics, and pointed out that the combination of his purge of military officers and the economic “reforms” which damaged Russia’s industrial base meant that Russia was not remotely prepared for the German attack. Only time, poor decisions by Hitler, and the Russian winter got them off the hook.

Antony Beevor?

His work, Stalingrad sold like hot-cakes. And he’s done a few other volumes as well, like the fall of Berlin, D Day, etc..

Stalingrad and the conduct of the entire Southern Russian campaign of 1942 was a another big tactical mistake courtesy of Hitler. Either you go for the oil in Baku OR you look to cut off Southern Russia by capturing Stalingrad abd severing the Volga BUT you cannot do both. Because if one gets bogged down or counter-attacked, the other force will not be able to support it. That, and don’t blame the Roumanians you have left guarding your left flank when that counter-attack comes, when you have caused them to be under-equipped in the first place!
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January 26, 2015 1:46pm
Gulag1917

Some quite disturbed individuals in the the NZ civil service.
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January 26, 2015 1:47pm
Shawn Herles

Antony Beevor?

Yup, that’s the one!
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January 26, 2015 1:54pm
stephieboy

EAD, Your Conspiracy theories and related nonsense about FEMA camps ?

Orwell said this,

“Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.”

George Orwell

Jack 5, Correct . Operation Typhoon the battle to take Moscow was a significant defeat for the Wehmarcht with appalling causlities I. To take the capital would of been a major strategic and psychological victory for Hitler .

It forced him to make a fateful decision and turn south towards the Caucasus which effectively overstretched and over extended his supply lines . That too played an important role in the defeat at Stalingrad .
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January 26, 2015 1:57pm
Lucia Maria

Reid,

Can anyone explain how come the shadows on each of the hostages fall on opposite sides of their faces?

Maybe the desert has two suns?

If the sun is directly overhead, then any slight protrusions on the head or inclination of the head to one side or another will cause a shadow. Note that in the photo, no shadow is cast on the two Japanese prisoners by the man totally in black even though he is towering over his captives – a further indication that the sun is directly overhead.

Surely all of this is not particularly difficult to work out?
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January 26, 2015 1:57pm
kowtow

Beevor.

Tried to find a balanced book on the Spanish Civil war in the public library. Most were down right leftist shite. Ended up with his Battle for Spain.

Beevors’ the man ( even if he isn’t a fan of Franco)
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January 26, 2015 1:59pm
Reid

By far the most Russians and Ukrainians who speak English will have an American accent rather than a British one. This is the same for nearly all countries, save India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, and perhaps a few in Western Europe

The American accent certainly predominates in English in most Slavic countries.

And, Reid, there are millions of Ukrainians and Russians who speak English very well indeed.

Why don’t conspiracy theorists do their homework?

I doubt that Jack but even if it’s the case that millions of Ukrainians speak English very well indeed, then why the fuck does a Ukrainian when approached by another Ukrainian respond in English? And why do they speak it in an American and not a Ukrainian accent?

Why do sheeple feel a need to distort and twist simple and obvious plain and present facts simply so they can continue their bleating in their green green meadows of delusion? Why do you feel the need to do that Jack?
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January 26, 2015 1:59pm
cricko

Stalingrad and Berlin were two classic history books by Antony Beevor.

Regarding Stalingrad.
To say it was critical of Stalins tactics is to take an incorrect inferrence.
Rather it lauded the brilliance of General Zhukov, who was appointed by Stalin.
And the resolve and fortitude of the Russian people.
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January 26, 2015 2:06pm
Redbaiter

Yup, that’s the one!

Still think this is your personal chat room?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Book+on+Stalingrad+critical+of+Stalin
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January 26, 2015 2:10pm
stephieboy

Criko, your right . Also General von Paulus found the tenacity and resolve of the Russian soldiers fighting at Stalingrad unbelievable .

He thought they must be mad as they were possessed !
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January 26, 2015 2:11pm

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