The third ever impeachment trial of a US President is about to commence. Here’s some key aspects:

• House on Thursday (NZT) approved sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate by 228 to 193
• The prosecution will be led by seven managers from the House. They are Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Jerrold Nadler, head of the House judiciary committee; Hakeem Jeffries of New York; Zoe Lofgren of California; Jason Crow of Colorado; Val Demings of Florida; and Sylvia Garcia of Texas.
• Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, will preside over the trial, instead of the Vice-President who normally presides over the Senate. He will be sworn in on Friday
• Trial will begin Wednesday (NZT)
• Trial will last at least a week, possibly several
• 51 votes will decide if any witnesses will be called, and unclear at this side which way that would go
• A two thirds majority needed to convict and remove from office, which is 67 out of 100

The Guardian reports:

Qassem Suleimani’s wrecked car was still smouldering when the predicted consequences of his death started to rebound across the Middle East. There would be chaos, outrage, instability – maybe even war.

What has happened though?

Yet the aftermath of the most significant assassination of modern times has not created the turmoil that many had predicted. If anything, the heartland areas of the Iranian general’s extraordinary sphere of influence are, thus far, eerily calm.

The opposite. It’s like when the experts all said the UK voting for Brexit would lead to a massive economic recession. Instead record low unemployment.

His home front, on the other hand, remains unsettled and reeling – not so much as a result of his death, but because of those of 176 passengers onboard a Ukrainian airliner shot from the sky in the panicked days that followed.

Having lost its most formidable general, then its collective face in a muted counterstrike partly choreographed with Washington, Iran’s vaunted military had lost its nerve.

Trump’s gambled and won, it seems.

Graeme Edgeler writes:

With some changes to the Human Rights Act already signalled, the Government response may see some further restrictions on speech, but in one area it should actively seek to change to the law to expand freedom of speech: the outdated, restrictive defamation laws applying in New Zealand.

Yes, totally agree.

Defamation proceedings are commonly thought to be about protecting people’s reputation. That’s close, but not quite: there is not requirement that the claimant’s reputation is harmed and it is no defence to a defamation claim if an author proves that none of the people who read the publication believed it, or that none of them thought any less of the person supposedly defamed. A publication is defamatory if it has the tendency to unjustifiably harm someone’s reputation, even when it actually didn’t.

In theory it is defamatory to call a politician a liar. But does anyone actually change their opinion of an MP just because say another MP has said they are a liar?

Defamation should also not concern itself with name-calling. If your reputation can be harmed by someone calling you a name, your reputation may not have been as good as you thought it was. Without specific allegations, a simple assertion that someone is a racist or is corrupt is likely to have much less effect on someone’s reputation than a claim that someone fired you because of your ethnicity, or that they bribed a council manager to secure a contract. Simple opinions, even unreasonably held ones, are not nearly harmful enough that the law should be concerned with them.

Again agree.

The Guardian reports:

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seeking to register the “Sussex Royal” brand as a global trademark for a range of items and activities including clothing, stationery and the running of “emotional support groups”, international filings suggest.

The application covering Australia, Canada, the EU and US was filed in December with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the name of their new foundation, according to details online.

As well as the application to register Sussex Royal – which the couple have been using on their Instagram account and on a website launched last week as they announced they were “stepping back” as senior royals – one was also made to register “Sussex Royal the Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.

Six classes were listed in the applications, covering printed matter such as magazines and greeting cards, clothing ranging from footwear to pyjamas, charitable fundraising and management, as well as education and social care services including the organising and conducting of emotional support groups.

They were made Duke and Duchess of Sussex by the Queen because he will be the son and then brother of the next two Kings. To take a royal title and turn it into a trademarked commercial enterprise is very tacky.

I guess the next step after that will be appearing in reality TV shows.

NewstalkZB reports:

Late last night, Morrison’s approval ratings were sent tumbling as the Coalition fell behind Labor in The Australian’s latest Newspoll survey.

The poll showed Morrison’s approval rating fell eight points from 45 per cent to 37 per cent while those dissatisfied rose 11 points from 48 per cent to 59 per cent.

Gone from net -3% to net -22%. Ouch.

The Coalition also went from 4% ahead of Labour on a TPP basis to 2% behind.

The Herald reports:

A popular Kawerau campground has been closed after campers were intimidated and threatened by Mob members on dirt bikes, allegedly led by the camp manager himself.

The Department of Conservation managed Lake Tarawera Outlet campsite has been closed until further notice after claims it had been taken over, and campers forced out, by Mongrel Mob members.

DoC operations director Central North Island Damian Coutts said DoC had been made aware of the allegations and was supporting police in their inquiries and is also doing its own investigations given the seriousness of the incidents described.

“Because of the nature of the allegations, the campground has been closed,” Coutts said.

Why have the Police not moved in and evicted the Mongel Mob from the campground?

“My son said the campground manager was wearing a Mongrel Mob patch underneath his DoC vest,” said the man.

“Red-shirt wearing people were driving around in DoC vehicles on site, and I’ve been told by other people camping there that they have also been harassed and intimidated by Mongrel Mob there. The Mob is basically running the place and apparently there is more methamphetamine up there than anything else.

“It’s a bloody shambles for a DoC campground.”

So DOC hired a gang member to run their campsite, and he turned it into a Mob hangout and a drug operation.

Will anyone at DOC be held accountable for this?

Been a great year of delivery hasn’t it. The number of people on the priority A waiting list for social housing has tripled since September 2017.

Nothing at all of course to do with increasing costs on landlords and thern of course tenants.

One News reports:

Iran’s only female Olympic medallist said she defected from the Islamic Republic in a blistering online letter that describes herself as “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran.”

Taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh posted the letter on Instagram as Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency said she had fled to the Netherlands. She criticised wearing the mandatory hijab headscarf and accused officials in Iran of sexism and mistreatment.

“Whatever they said, I wore,” Alizadeh wrote in the letter posted Saturday. “Every sentence they ordered, I repeated.”

She described the decision to leave Iran as difficult, but necessary.

Good on her. Most Iranians are wonderful people. They just have a theocratic authoritarian Government that imposes its will on them, rather than serves them.

Hopefully one day Iran will be free. The backlash to the shooting down of the plane may play a part.

Five Thirty Eight now has a model to predict the likely Democratic nominee. It is based not just on the polls, but also on events such as the typical bump you get from winning Iowa, California etc.

It will of course change over time.

At this stage the odds of a candidate winning the majority of pledged delegates is:

1. Joe Biden 38%
2. Bernie Sanders 24%
3. No-one 14%
4. Elizabeth Warren 13%
5. Pete Buttigieg 10%
6. Other 1%

The projected delegates are:

1. Joe Biden 1,434
2. Bernie Sanders 1,074
3. Elizabeth Warren 677
4. Pete Buttigieg 532

You need 1,990 for a majority.

Also of note is Sanders has now taken the lead in the highly respected Selzer poll in Iowa.

The Star Observer reports:

The president of the University of Queensland branch of the Liberal National Club (UQLNC), Wilson Gavin, who led a protest yesterday against a Drag Queen story reading, has died by suicide. 

Gavin was found dead at Chelmer Railway Station this morning at 7:07am. Ambulance officers who attended say he died from critical injuries, but have provided no further details.

Gavin and a group of protesters from the UQ LNC interrupted a Drag Queen Story Time event yesterday morning in a Brisbane Library. Video of the incident went viral. (See our earlier story)

He also caused controversy when he opposed Same Sex Marriage in 2017. The then 19-year old openly gay Gavin led a “You Can Say No” rally and appeared on national television. 

I thought the protest against the drag queens was very ill judged. You don’t disrupt an event with children present (whose families had decided to attend) as part of a political protest. It was quite legitimate to criticise the actions of those who took part, including Gavin.

But that backlash on social media from some was basically a virtual lynch mob, with many saying Wilson Gavin was homophobic etc, probably unaware he was openly gay himself. They called for his ostracism.

And he killed himself.

It should serve as a reminder (as should Charlotte Dawson) that social media pile ons occur to actual real people who have different levels of mental health.

Stuff reports:

A Charities Service investigation into the Neurological Foundation and its former boss found evidence of “gross mismanagement” as it uncovered its outgoing executive director was paid to spend hundreds of days on the golf course. 

The investigation found Max Ritchie spent 271 paid working days over four years playing golf, according to documents obtained through the Official Information Act by the New Zealand Herald. This was in addition to the standard 20 days of paid annual leave.

Incredible.

The 2015 investigation was launched following complaints from employees, and found although there was evidence of gross mismanagement, the charity, which was founded in 1971 and funds research and education, had “not committed serious wrongdoing in respect of unlawful use of funds” regarding Ritchie’s agreed-upon additional annual leave arrangement.

So not illegal, just greedy.

The Charities Service report shows investigators looked into claims that Ritchie would “very frequently come into the office for an hour or two in the morning to check his emails and then would leave the office for the rest of the day to play golf”. Staff members had to make excuses to people who phoned for him, one complainant claimed. 

An informant provided records from Ritchie’s favourite club to corroborate his whereabouts. “After receiving these, Charities Services analysed this information which shows consistent and frequent golf playing,” the report said. 

A failure in governance that he was allowed to get away with this.

UPDATE: To his credit Mr Ritchie has responded with his views in the comments. Worth reading to get a complete picture.

Stuff reports:

The man who raped and murdered an Invercargill girl almost 28 years ago will remain in prison after being denied parole.

Peter George Davis, aged 68, was considered undue risk by the parole board after a hearing last month.

However, the board wants to revisit the matter by the end of May, when it expects to have more information about what support would be provided for him in the community upon release.

Good they denied parole this time, but looks like they are gearing up to release him.

His background:

Davis is serving a life sentence with preventive detention for the rape and murder of Sarah Curry, who was eight years old at the time. …

A decision released by the parole board on Thursday says “he [Davis] has a very worrying past series of convictions including sexual crimes and an attempted murder conviction in the 1980s”.

This guy ain’t changing.

Matthew Hooton writes:

movie stars and other performers have always been the world’s most ludicrous virtue signallers.

Comedian Ricky Gervais calling them all out made this week’s Golden Globes the most splendid awards ceremony in the industry’s history.

Was definitely the highlight.

The more important target of Gervais’ remarks were the companies that have disingenuously put virtue at the heart of their brands. He named Apple, Amazon and Disney but his list could be expanded to most of the corporate world, including surely the majority of New Zealand’s so-called Climate Leaders Coalition.

The reality is that companies all too often sign up to such initiatives not because their pledges reflect their activity but as a substitute for action.

Spot on – pledges being a substitute for action.

The same is true politically.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the leaders of the National, Green and NZ First parties boast about the world-historical nature of their Zero Carbon Act but the country’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters have been happy to go along with it knowing it does little more than set up a perpetual working group in the form of a toothless Climate Commission.

So too Ardern’s Poverty Reduction Act, which is entirely about overpaid bureaucrats writing reports rather than overworked social workers helping the marginalised.

Likewise, not a single new project will go ahead because the Government has set up a new Infrastructure Commission. Its political purpose is to provide an excuse for inaction.

Few people realise all the zero carbon act does is set up a fancy working group who will write reports on what NZ could do.

Next Big Future reports:

France’s nuclear energy spending was 60% of what Germany spent on renewables. France gets about 400 Terawatt hour per year from nuclear but Germany gets 226 Terawatt-hours each year. 45 Terawatt-hours of Germany’s renewable power comes from burning biomass which generates air pollution.

Germany’s solar farms will have to be rebuilt every 15-25 years. The wind farms will need to be rebuilt every 20-25 years. Nuclear plants can last 40-80+ years. This means that it guaranteed that the solar and wind farms will have to be rebuilt in 15-25 years. The maintenance costs will increase as wind turbines or solar panels are replaced. The old turbines and solar panels will need to be replaced.

So France using nuclear gets twice as much power for around half the cost of Germany using renewable.

And the plants last three to four times as long.

French electricity costs are just 59% of German electricity prices. France produces one-tenth the carbon pollution from electricity compared to Germany.

So here’s how you can tell if a climate activist is sincere. Do they support nuclear power or not.

The Herald reports:

A UK cabinet minister fears a no-deal Brexit could lead to a rise in “dogging” by truck drivers on the side of British motorways.

According to Wikipedia, dogging is a “British English slang term for engaging in sexual acts in a public or semi-public place or watching others doing so”.

The government minister believes a no-deal Brexit could lead to a surge in “lewd liaisons” sparked by traffic jams.

At last week’s conservative party conference, The Sunday Times reports the cabinet minister is said to have expressed his concerns for Kent’s lay-bys and quiet car parks in the wake of a potential no-deal Brexit.

The minister fears truck drivers will get bored and engage in lewd behaviour.

“One of the things we talk about in these no-deal meetings concerns hauliers and their activities,” the minister said.

“The main thing is whether they will turn up at the Channel ports with the right paperwork. But there are also dogging hotspots all over the place.”

They obviously need to set up a “dogging” working group.

Dieuwe de Boer writes at the BFD:

I was just finishing up dinner with my two oldest kids. My wife was feeling unwell and feeding our four-week-old baby in bed. I had just gotten the icecream out for the kids when the doorbell rang.

I opened the door to see a number of police officers outside. They served me with a search warrant under Section 6 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012. Half a dozen armed police officers swarmed in the front door (holstered sidearms only) as several more ran around the sides of the house.

So a dozen armed officers raid the house of this dad. Why?

The warrant claimed they had reason to believe I was in possession of a prohibited magazine fitted to a “.22RL lever-action rifle. Blued metal, brown wooden stock.” The officer told me I had posted about it online, which I had—in my public written submission against the Firearms Amendment Act passed last year.

So on the basis of a select committee submission, they send a dozen armed officers to his place.

It was no longer in my possession when the police raided my house. They departed empty-handed after turning the place inside out for ninety minutes and left me with my firearms and a visibly shaken wife who broke down in tears.

The Police could have phoned him up and asked if he still had it. They could have done many many things short of a dozen armed officers raiding him.

This is for a lever-action .22LR that’s designed to hit paper or be used to hunt bunnies. What happened to going after the “weapons designed to kill people” as the police minister Stuart Nash has claimed?

The Police really have a warped priority. And was he targeted due to the fact he has been a critic of the law change?

Graeme Edgeler points out the Police may be in trouble if they acted on the basis of a privileged select committee submission. They deny it was on the basis of that, but it seems hardly credible that it wasn’t.

Students of history may be interested in this 2006 letter from the Fijian Commissioner of Police to the NZ Commission of Police, asking him to reconsider arresting Commodore Frank Bainimarama, when he visited NZ, before he launched his coup.

I wonder if Howard Broad consulted Ministers before he made his decision not to act.

Chris Trotter writes:

It says much about the health of our democracy that such a thing should come to pass. That two men holding radically divergent views were able to meet and drink coffee together without descending into loud and rancorous disagreement. That one of those men was Sir Roger Douglas says even more.

To say I was surprised that the architect of the economic changes which transformed New Zealand between 1984 and 1990 wanted to meet with me would be to understate the case considerably. For most of my adult life I have, one way or another, fought and criticised what came to be called “Rogernomics”. Not just privately, down at the pub with my lefty mates, but publicly, in print and on the airwaves. I even helped to form, and stood as a candidate for, NewLabour – the political party whose whole raison d’être was to roll Rogernomics back. And yet, here was Sir Roger Douglas on the other end of the line, inviting me to assess his latest ideas for improving New Zealand – kanohi ki te kanohi – over coffee.

I think it says a lot about New Zealand, and about both men, that two people with such radically different views can talk political ideas over coffee.

That ideas still matter to this spry 81-year-old was obvious from the moment we settled into a quiet corner of the Orvieto Café on Auckland’s Mt Eden Road. He had brought with him an impressive stack of papers – each containing page-after-page of carefully calculated figures. And the way he argued from those figures swept me back more than 30 years to the “Great Economic Debate” initiated by Labour Party president, Margaret Wilson. That debate had become an urgent necessity as it began to dawn on Labour’s membership that the government of David Lange and his frenetic Finance Minister was going to be remembered for something more than declaring New Zealand nuclear-free.

This is how I described Sir Roger’s defence of his new Goods & Services Tax at the Otago-Southland regional conference of the Labour Party in April 1985:

“Douglas is messianic. He scrawls figures on the blackboard with violent energy, barking out his arguments like a Parade Sergeant. There is an aura of absolute conviction about the man that is taking its toll on the waverers. Will they hold?”

Well, we all know the answer to that question. Labour’s GST is internationally famous for being the only value-added tax that left the government responsible for its introduction as – if not more – popular after its implementation than before.

Sir Roger’s clean GST is one of his best legacies.

It is precisely in this area that the present government is so woefully deficient. Neither in Labour’s ranks, nor NZ First’s, nor the Greens, is there a “policy aggressor” remotely equal to Sir Roger. Jacinda Ardern is every bit as effective as David Lange at conveying emotion – better even. But, just ask Jacinda to set forth a compelling case for “transformational” change in any of the policy areas dear to her heart: child poverty; affordable housing; climate change; and she is reduced to ums and ahs and buzzwords. It’s embarrassing.

Harsh but true.