Sunday GMT
For posting on events, news, opinions and anything of interest from around the world.
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World view – Sunday
Posted by Pete George on February 18, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/18/world-view-sunday-37/
Timeline around Slater’s stroke
This is reference post.
It became obvious about the end of October that there had been a significant change at Whale Oil – after multiple posts a day under the author ‘Cameron Slater’ they suddenly stopped. There have been no posts since.
There was no explanation at all until ‘Whaleoil staff’ advised on on January 21, 2019 at 8:00am in ‘Where the hell is Cam?’:
The eagle eyed amongst you have no doubt spotted that Cam has not written any posts for Whaleoil or Incite Politics for some time. In fact, Cam has been absent since October but, for various reasons that will become clear, we opted not to make any announcement till we were ready. That time has now come.
In late October Cam had to go to hospital by ambulance not once but twice. After being discharged from his first stay in hospital he had to be readmitted due to complications. Cam suffered a serious stroke that left him partially paralysed down his right side and totally paralysed in his right arm including his hand and fingers as well as severe impairment in higher order functioning and moderate speech impairment. Prior to this event Cam was perfectly fit and healthy with no predisposing stroke risk factors. Doctors have concluded that the cause of the stroke was entirely due to stress.
There will be no other public announcement or comment regarding Cam’s health other than to say that he is approaching his recovery with typical determination (some would say obsession) and a never-give-up attitude.
Progress is being made, but it is very long and very hard. Cam cannot concentrate, read or take phone calls for more than ten or fifteen minutes a day. He cannot cope with loud noises, background noises or being interrupted and he certainly does not have the ability to form complex thought structures. The vision in Cam’s right eye has also been affected.
However, it would be untrue to pretend that we don’t need your help. Much as it pains us to ask others for help, we have concluded that we must ask for your assistance in helping Cam pay the huge legal bills he has incurred as a result of having to defend himself from the lawfare of his enemies.
Please help us to help Cam with his recovery by supporting our efforts to minimise further stress which could prove fatal to him.
This raised quite a few questions and speculation, especially since Friday when a court judgment was released, as repoted by NZ herald who had obtained the judgment: Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater loses defamation case
Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater has lost one of the country’s longest running defamation cases after failing to put up any credible defence.
The judgment made public today saw Justice Paul Davison find in Blomfield’s favour, ruling out a defence from Slater after long delays and failures to meet legal requirements to defend a claim of defamation.
Slater has taken the judgment to the Court of Appeal. There is yet to be a ruling on what the loss will cost Slater.
The case against Slater and his company, Social Media Consultants Ltd, focused on nine blog posts on the Whaleoil website over a month in mid-2012.
It saw claims by Blomfield the blog posts were a deliberate attack orchestrated by a former business partner Warren Powell and associates after a falling out in their Hells Pizza business.
The new judgment came after a defamation hearing due to start on October 8 was adjourned when Slater and lawyers arrived at court without a proper defence.
In total, Slater had entered or attempted to enter five statements of defence over the course of the case which all failed to meet the legal requirements for attempted defences of truth and of honest opinion.
Those defences required the blogger to either present the source of details he claimed as fact to show they were true, or to show statements had been made as opinion based on facts which were known at the time of publication.
Davison said Slater had been “afforded considerable leniency” to meet deadlines and get a proper defence before the court.
There had been “indulgence” to allow Slater to change his defence with one High Court judge even providing the blogger guidance as to how to prepare for the defamation hearing.
Davison said Slater’s attempts to change his defence and to introduce new pleadings was rightly seen as “a last-minute attempt to prevent the (Blomfield’s) claim from being heard and determined by the court”.
He said it was possible to see delay as Slater’s objective when seeking court hearings on issues such as a security for costs.
Davison said the statement of defence Slater had arrived with when the trial was due to start failed to identify the facts which would have been used to prove his blog posts were true.
Instead, large piles of evidence had been pointed to which, in a number of cases, relied on “a third party’s allegations about the plaintiff”.
And instead of providing a defence of honest opinion, Slater’s court filings instead repeated his inadequate defence of truth.
Davison said it wasn’t necessary to rule on the merits of the case because of the legal, technical flaws in Slater’s attempted defence.
“However, in my view the documents relied on by the defendants do not provide cogent support for the propositions and conclusions they seek to draw from them in relation to the defences of truth and honest opinion, or the bad reputation of the plaintiff.”
The judgment recorded Slater had made claims in a blog post which included saying the “Blomfield files” would expose “drugs, fraud, extortion, bullying, corruption, collusion, compromises, perjury, deception, (and) hydraulic-ing”.
Davison said Slater’s defence “fell well short” of providing facts which supported the accusations printed.
As indicated the court hearing was in October, before Slater had his stroke.
The REASONS JUDGMENT OF PAUL DAVISON J [Re application by defendants to file fourth and fifth amended affirmative statement of defence, security for costs and admissibility of evidence] shows:
Hearing: 26 September, 8, 10, 11, 12 October 2018
Judgment: 26 October 2018
So presumably Slater received the judgment the Friday before having his stroke.
The last post by ‘Cameron Slater’, Bring peace to the world by buying our ham, was on October 30, 2018 at 10:05am.
There was a political post just prior to that – A year into this government and at least one commentator thinks they’ve done jack all – on October 30, 2018 at 9:30am that quoted what looks like a NZ Herald opinion by David Cormack that doesn’t have a link.
Prior to that Nice sentiment but aid isn’t where it is at was posted at October 30, 2018 at 9:00am which links to an RNZ article ‘The days of treating you as pests are over’ from 4:01 pm on 29 October 2018.
That could have been scheduled any time after 4:01 pm on Monday 29th.
A comment was posted by Slater at 9:25 pm Monday 29th:
So it appears that Slater had his stroke some time between then and the end of October (the Wednesday).
There have been no more posts under Slater’s name since then at all.
There have been a number of comments since then starting with this one:
That could have been posted by someone else. Whale Oil gave no indication that Slater could have been incapacitated for two and a half months.
No indication there that there there was any problem (apart from the sudden cessation of posts).
So it seems that several days after having had a stroke Slater is commenting again. and the comments have continued since then. Including:
Whats wrong with lambchop, roast and cutlet for names?
Apart from chips and mashed potato, is there anything made from plants that tastes good? Asking for the daughter who was perplexed as to who would even consider buying plant-based mince.
Instead they will go down the path, well worn, twice over, of Bill English.
He back Amy Adams and has been advocating strongly in her favour. But a man who wont stand by his mates isn’t leadership quality.
They always poll the leader. They already know how tits he is.
I wonder if they will stop the Greens writing about GE. It is now scientific fact that GE is safe, yet the Greens constantly push their own denialism on GE.
Except she is a terrible bully, though not as bad as Paula Bennett.
They were posted through November and the last one on 1 December 2018. On 3 December and following:
She, amongst others in parliament, is well known as a terrible boss. Staff turnover is the indicator. Paula Bennett has one of the worst, but for some reason she is never touched. Barry has more than those in media, and it is somewhat strange that the nats are sticking by her when her sackings involved Parliamentary Services intervention and they were never involved in the much highlighted JLR staffing issues. Surely Bridges should at least be asking her to spend some time on the back bench like he was going to do with JLR?
Saying the others do it too never worked in the kindergarten sandpit , what makes you think it will work now?
Ignore all that and focus on the illegal work. Yes he is a mincing pooftah with a silly moustache and is soft, but what he says is illegal regarding party work.
So why did he decide to walk out at 0800 meeting yesterday?
Really? So the 1996 election never happened and the member for Rakaia was never elected.
Wrong, that was Jim Bolger.
She was elected as the MP for Rakaia. Jim Bolger was elected as MP for Taranaki-King Country in 1996. No one is ever elected as PM. They are selected as leader of their party and nothing else.
You cant tell me that had Bill English remained as prime minister that he wouldnt have signed, of course he would have. The globalist influence of McCully would have endured.
9 December 2018:
Really? immeasurable damage? Fortunately stats show otherwise. WO never supported Peters, but I did personally. I am glad I did because now Bill English is gone and I’m still here. I am not some toady to any political party, and will never be again. The fact that you think I should have toadied up to a Bill English led National party despite the animus shown to me by the party show that you don’t understand either me or my personal belief structure.
And:
The use of terms like old prick and old crook implies that other politicians are inherently honest. They aren’t. Bill English in particular, who was aided and abetted over the years by Michelle Boag and Murray McCully, amongst others.
Again you us a superlative, un fathomable, that shows a lack of perception your part. Even Blind Freddy know the old political saw “the enemy of my enemy s my friend”. See, that wasn’t that hard to perceive was it?
What you also fail to perceive is that politics isn’t a zero sum, winner takes all game. It is a common failing though of dyed in the wool, blinkered National party supporters.
Politics is the art of the possible, it is about finding pathways to victory and National’s continued adherence to zero sum and winner takes all mean they may well spend an awful long time in opposition. That would be good thing. Until they change, their (and yours) continued arrogance dooms them.
More:
Most atheists that I know are worse than happy handclappers bashing anyone with a belief telling them how wrong they are. This woman sounds precisely like that.
Its Thursday ,the prime minister will conveniently be away from the house.
Are you completely stupid or just a troll. National has said they would repeal this, how can they be “under instruction”?
You can have an opinion, and I can point out facts that show your opinion is ill-founded, ill-informed and wrong.
Made my boss cry within 15 minutes of stepping in the door. Once I knew how to make her cry that just emboldened me to set better times.
Maybe they should endorse three strikes…Imagine Cindy having to push that through.
Just like the prime minisda
Nah, Baz is on the money.
Helped immensely by stupid questions from Bridges. Total facepalm there. It is clear he hasn’t got the skills to challenge Cindy. I am waiting for a silly Christmas stunt to get attention.
…
Im not ashamed and never will be. If you think Simon Bridges or Bill English would have done any different over the recent UN happenings then you are seriously unobservant of the wet liberal leadership National has had since John Key took over. Murray McCully did in fact do precisely what you have said, he was the one steering it thru before the election…and had National won they would have done exactly what the CoL has done.
National is still wetter than the ocean, just because it wears a blue wetsuit doesn’t mean they aren’t wet.
…
Word is she used to push around Parekura Horomia, which is impressive shoving power.
In January:
Not betrayed at all. I understand how MMP works. The only vote possible for me to get rid of Bill English was Winston, job done, extremely satisfied.
From 3 weeks ago:
Using your standard there would be about 10 MPs left.
Back in my day he’d be hung on the coathooks by his shorts, bog-washed in the Taj and given the bash for being a smarty pants…and Bob Hunt would have likely caned him, just because…all on the first day.
So, let’s get this straight….relatives with a criminal past preclude someone from public office? How many generations back does that apply?
Bridges is a lying so & so when he says he doesn’t know much about the Vernon Tava wet dream. McCully has been setting it up and working with Goodfellow on it.
Bridges is lying when he says he doesn’t know much about the Vernon Tava wet dream. McCully has been setting it up and working with Goodfellow on it.
I don’t know whether that cartoon of Simon makes him look like a giant douche or a turd sandwich.
No, one must not…they started carrying on with each other while both married and then Dowie decided she wanted to be Mrs Ross 2.0.
Murray McCully’s work, with Goodfellow and Bridges involved even though they deny it.
How’s that sink Winston, govern alone plan working out?
And where did all his votes go? Not National. Collapse Winston vote and govern alone looks retarded now.
Next you’ll be sounding like Labour voter.. Rogue poll…rogue poll.
I think if they throw milk the truth just might come out and end up all over John Keys face.
You guys don’t know Mark Mitchell very well, do you?
Fyfe would be an appalling choice given his private life.
It’s curious that he started commenting a few days after suffering a stroke, and has continued since, but hasn’t been posting.
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/timeline-around-slaters-stroke/
Core party support versus floating voters
That doesn’t mean they are guaranteed levels of vote the parties will get though. Indicating they are close to a single party doesn’t mean they will vote for them (tactical voting) or vote at all.
Greens dropped to 4.3% in a Colmar Brunton poll before the last election (12-16 August 2017), but that could be margin of error and/or disgruntled supporters and/or tactical voters the question asked is who would you vote for if an election was held today).
And of course this is historical data subject to margins of error. Support for parties will always ebb and flow.
One important number isn’t included – 43.5% did not rate themselves as close to a single party. That’s a big chunk of floating voters not committed to any one party. When you take into account tactical voting somewhere around half of voters may be up for grabs.
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/core-party-support-versus-floating-voters/
How many victims of Slater and Nottingham?
There have definitely been hundreds of victims of attacks, defamation and harassment carried out by Cameron Slater and Dermot Nottingham. Probably thousands. Some of their targets have been separate, some have been joint.
As has been well covered over they last two days Matthew Blomfield has been a victim of defamation, with both Slater and Nottingham involved. That will no doubt have impacted on others, especially Blomfield’s family.
But I was also dragged into the field of fire when I stopped another in their gang of online bullies and thugs, Marc Spring, from continuing attacks on Blomfield here at Your NZ and they turned against me. This resulted in attacks and defamation online, three years of court battles, considerable expense, impact on family and impact on a number of people contributing at Your NZ, some of whom where attacked via Lauda Finem,
Over the last three and a half years I have been contacted by a number of people telling me they have also been the victims of attack, some saying their lives have been ruined.
As a result of the social media publicity yesterday at The Daily Blog, ‘Phaedrus’ says (to Blomfield):
In 2011, Slater targeted me in my role as a primary school principal because I was very active in fighting against national standards. My suspicion (although I have no evidence) is that this was coordinated with then Minister of Education Anne Tolley’s office. While the vitriol was in no way comparable to that fired at you, it was still enough to end my career as a school principal and to contribute to a breakdown in my health. Your success in making him accountable gives me great joy.
At Kiwiblog, Debbie says:
I owe you gratitude it seems, Pete George.
I personally was described in the worst possible terms on Nottingham’s blog – however I didn’t have the resources to do anything about it, and it was only one blog post (that was more aimed at other parties, but I still got a mention by default). I’m very glad it’s gone. Thank you.
Actually Blomfield deserves the credit for that too. He had Lauda Finem shut down through the court. See BLOMFIELD v THE OWNER AND/OR ADMINISTRATOR OF WWW.LAUDAFINEM.COM [2018] NZHC 2747 [24 October 2018]
Last year Nottingham was convicted on two counts of breaching suppression orders. From the sentencing notes:
[22] Now, I make some findings of fact. Consistent with the verdicts of the jury I have concluded that between 2010 and 2015 Dermot Nottingham published or had published numerous articles on the blog site laudafinem.com. Either Dermot Nottingham is Lauda Finem (in other words, the leading mind of that blog) or he is so intimately related to it that it is proper to conclude that he provided information and draft articles to that blog site knowing and intending that they would be published.
Nottingham wasn’t Lauda Finem on his own, brothers, Slater, Spring and others have also used LF to attack and defame many people.
Nottingham was also convicted of five counts of criminal harassment – but as for the suppression breaches these involved just some of the victims.
[18] It was clear to me that, for some of the complainants, life over an extended period of time had been made very uncomfortable and distressing, in some cases affecting the daily lives of some complainants whose reputations in their community had been so badly maligned as to cause them to withdraw within themselves.
[23] During that five year period the defendant undertook numerous campaigns of harassment against a number of individuals, the most egregious and persistent of which were represented by the five complainants in the trial. I concluded that his conduct by publishing said articles, through other intimidating and harassing conduct- including threatening, watching, photographing, following – was either carried out directly by Detmot Nottingham or at his direction and that he knew his conduct was likely to cause the individuals to fear for their safety or the safety of family members.
[25]…Mr Nottingham seeks to justify and make lawful his conduct towards others by reference to the conduct of other bloggers who habitually take an aggressive and attacking approach in purporting to uncover corruption and injustice.
[29] The Crown further proposes that there are a number of aggravating features to the criminal harassment charges, namely the extent of the harm. The allegations against the complainants included that that they were alcoholics, used drugs, were promiscuous or were corrupt professionals and public officials. The Crown characterised the language used by Mr Nottingham as malicious, misogynistic and entirely abhorrent. Without the need for me to repeat any of those specific offensive allegations, I concur with the summary of Mr Nottingham’s conduct. I also accept that those aggravating features are present.
I’ve been subjected to some of those allegations.
And Blomfield was also subjected to similar allegations – actually I don’t understand why he wasn’t included in “the most egregious and persistent of which were represented by the five complainants in the trial”.
Blomfield was targeted by Nottingham, Slater, and associates. As I was. As were many other people.
A number of people (in addition to Blomfield) were subjected to campaigns of attacks on both Lauda Finem and Whale Oil.
Some of these were prominent in the media, like Len Brown, Bevan Chuang, Colin Craig. It is well known that Slater often attacked Bill English on Whale Oil – English features in the last post on LF nearly two years ago.
But many people attacked and affected were just ordinary people who for one reason or another attracted the ire or whatever of Nottingham, Slater. It’s well known that Slater used to attack people who simply happened to feature in news items.
The ‘West Coast ferals’ is on example, where family and friends of a young man killed in a car accident joined the long list of victims. While that put Whale Oil into the news, it also featured on Lauda Finem. It included this reference:
There is however one exception, a lone image that remains testament to Slaters attack on Mr Matthew Blomfield and one of Blomfields media bitch’s, aka the TVNZ journalist John Hudson; a hunting trophy, albeit in a slightly different form, that has been left almost as if by design, a warning perhaps?
It is a lengthy tirade that turns largely against Blomfield with a raft of typical unsubstantiated accusations and slurs.
It seems to LF that Mattthew Blomfield might just fit the profile of the hacker. After all he certainly has lashings of motive, a definite hatred of Slater, what with an upcoming court hearing which he looks set to lose.
LF often predicted that Blomfield would lose against Slater. One of the many things they were wrong about, as we now know.
The above LF post also included references to and attacks and swipes at a number of other people, including journalists and a mayor.
How many people are victims of all of this, to varying degrees?
It must be thousands. And it took over six years for Blomfield to make a stand and finally get a result.
Many people will be applauding this, for good reason.
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/how-many-victims-of-slater-and-nottingham/
Greens versus NZ First and Labour conservatism
Does Labour use NZ First as an excuse to be conservative on economic and other policies to avoid being linked to Green radicalism? They do use the Budget Responsibility Rules to be conservative. They are an agreement with the Green Party to allay fears of a swing too far left in the last election campaign, but there is disagreement over having the Rules within the Green Party.
I have seen dismay expressed from the the left that the Government is nowwhere near progressive enough,.
Henry Cooke (Stuff): The Greens are looking forward to 2020 already, and the possibility of a world without Winston
At their annual conference last year, a prominent Green Party member gave a speech which called for the party to tear up a central tenet of their partnership with Labour.
He received a standing ovation. Most of the Green MPs present, who had signed off the policy, were in the room. Several agreed with him.
The policy was the Budget Responsibility Rules a set of tight government spending guidelines Labour and the Greens agreed to ahead of the 2017 election. They have gone on to play a huge role in how the parties have governed.
The idea was to blunt the attacks from the right that a Labour-Green government would blow up the surplus and destroy the economy.
Ever since Green supporters and some MPs have been agitating for the party to get rid of the rules. In the last week this began. A “review” of those budgetary constraints has been launched, but this is just a procedural step on the way to either scrapping them or modifying them before the 2020 election.
There always seemed a likelihood that Labour and the Greens would need NZ First to give them any chance of getting into Government last election, and so it turned out.
It’s a long way from the election but there appears to be a greater chance that NZ First won’t make the threshold next year. This would give the Greens more influence over Labour, depending on how many seats they get. If Greens recovered back up to ten to fifteen seats, and were in Cabinet with Labour, they should get significantly more say and sway.
In the same week, co-leader James Shaw made the most forceful argument for a capital gains tax anyone has in years, saying the Government wouldn’t deserve to be re-elected if they didn’t implement one.
That was a big play from Shaw, mostly to his party wanting more reform from Government.
The election is next year, and the Greens are getting ready by staking out positions on the left. At the same time, some in the party are daring to look forward to a world without Winston Peters.
Fixing this requires not just talking up wins in Government but very clearly pushing left on tax – an issue likely to dominate through this year and into the next thanks to the tax working group – as well as balancing the books. These might seem like small bore issues but they are very important to that core of committed supporters.
NZ First are likely to try to distance themselves from relying on Labour next year to try to fool voters and Labour negotiators into thinking they could go either way.
So Labour+Green will be an important consideration for voters.
Many Greens see Peters and NZ First as the reactionary laggard keeping this Government from truly transforming the country. But it has long been useful for centrist Labour MPs to blame NZ First for their own conservatism. Labour will be extremely conscious of how scared the wider public might feel about a radical Labour-Green government in 2020.
Keeping the budget deal in place might well be Ardern’s plan to placate those fears.
For Labour, yes. And possibly for Shaw. But what about green supporters disappointed with the lack of progress leftwards this term, and impatient for more radical reforms?
Possibly one of the most significant decisions for the next election will be what the Green party decides to do about the Rules, that some see as a brick wall in front of progress and real progressivism.
One thing that may make it easier for Greens pulling Labour left is the conservatism of Simon Bridges pulling National further right.
Unless the Sustainability Party gets some support in the centre.
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/greens-versus-nz-first-and-labour-conservatism/
Media watch – Sunday
17 February 2019
Media Watch is a focus on New Zealand media, blogs and social media. You can post any items of interested related to media.
A primary aim here is to hold media to account in the political arena. A credible and questioning media is an essential part of a healthy democracy.
A general guideline – post opinion on or excerpts from and links to blog posts or comments of interest, whether they are praise, criticism, pointing out issues or sharing useful information.
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/media-watch-sunday-145/
Open Forum – Sunday
17 February 2019
This post is open to anyone to comment on any topic that isn’t spam, illegal or offensive. All Your NZ posts are open but this one is for you to raise topics that interest you, or you think may interest others..
If providing opinions on or summaries of other information also provide a link to that information. Bloggers are welcome to summarise and link to their posts. Comments worth more exposure may be repeated as posts. Comments from other forums can be repeated here, cut and paste is fine.
Your NZ is a mostly political and social issues blog but not limited to that, and views from anywhere on the political spectrum are welcome. Some ground rules:
- If possible support arguments, news, points or opinions with links to sources and facts.
- Please don’t post anything illegal, potentially defamatory or abusive.
FIRST TIME COMMENTERS: Due to abuse by a few, first comments under any ID will park in moderation until released (as soon as possible but it can sometimes take a while).
Sometimes comments will go into moderation or spam automatically due to mistyped ID, too many links (>4), or trigger text or other at risk criteria. If they pass muster they will be released as soon as possible (it can sometimes take hours).
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/open-forum-sunday-220/
World view – Sunday
Saturday GMT
For posting on events, news, opinions and anything of interest from around the world.
Posted by Pete George on February 17, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/02/17/world-view-sunday-36/
