Daily Review 17/06/2015

29 comments on “Daily Review 17/06/2015 ”

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1. Hateatea 1

   17 June 2015 at 7:05 pm

   Am I the only person who feels sometimes, like today, that I am watching the Titanic approaching the iceberg while the band keeps on playing?

   The country that I was born in, grew up in, worked in, and for, is being changed, and not for the better, by the whims and fancies of the 1%.

   I felt betrayed by the actions of the Lange government, was angered by Bolger’s Ruthanasia and Jennycide but the Key led government have found me despairing for the future of my son and granddaughter.

   I feel powerless, frustrated and very, very angry. I don’t expect to feel any different tomorrow.
   • Karen 1.1

     17 June 2015 at 7:16 pm

     You are not alone. I am in despair at what this government is doing to this country.
     • weka 1.1.1

       17 June 2015 at 7:35 pm

       Me too. For some reason it’s particularly bad at the moment, so much is going on and so much of it is blatant. Worse, I look around at NZ and think why aren’t we doing something? I was in my late teens/early 20s in the 80s. I wasn’t focussed on national politics so I don’t remember the disillusionment and despair directly, but I think what we are going through now is worse. Worse because we never recovered from Rogernomics so what is happening now is compounding, and worse because NACT have taken it to a whole new level and they have such a desensitised population to work with.

       On a brighter note, we are probably seeing the demise of this National govt in progress. It’s just going to take some time. Although the MSM is worse, we have the internet now, which changes many things. Although thinking about something Bill said earlier, if the MSM outlets fall over, people will congregate together to get real news. In the early 90s, I got my political nurturance from activist groups and there was a lot of protest, some of them big. We’re missing that now, we really need to get back out on the streets.
       • Lanthanide 1.1.1.1

         17 June 2015 at 7:59 pm

         I have a take on this that might be interesting for some here.

         If it weren’t for the inevitability of peak oil and climate change, I probably wouldn’t have that bad a long-term outlook. Everything ends – this National government will eventually be replaced, and they probably haven’t done too much permanent damage to the country as a whole (certainly to many families, they will have).

         But I come from a solid middle-class left-wing family. Everyone in my extended family (that I’ve had anything to do with) is smart and educated, and about three quarters would be university educated. I don’t have any relations with ill health or special needs, and no family feuds or anything like that. No one lost their job during the GFC and no one has spent any significant time unemployed or on benefits.

         So given my background, if it weren’t for peak oil / climate change, while I certainly wouldn’t be a fan of the current government, I probably wouldn’t be despairing for the future because of what they’re doing. I suspect a large chunk of the population who don’t know anything about, or flat out reject peak oil / climate change, probably have similar opinions about this government.
     • Jenny Kirk 1.1.2

       17 June 2015 at 9:38 pm

       Me too – and I’m getting a bit long in the tooth (in fact, the teeth are breaking up!) and you’d think you go into your older age with serenity ? ? ? Nup ! more like an anger which has never died down over the last 30 years …… it seems never-ending – the only consolation is I’m not the only one feeling this.

       Edit – this was in answer to Weka and the above comments
   • Paul 1.2

     17 June 2015 at 7:43 pm

     I feel the same.
   • Ffloyd 1.3

     17 June 2015 at 8:17 pm

     You are not the only one. It’s like we are being swamped by a tsunami of evil lies, mistrust and obfuscation with no hope of surviving without the support of 100% totally honest and unbiased media. How do we counteract this?
   • maui 1.4

     17 June 2015 at 9:48 pm

     Same here, I’ve only been closely following politics over the last year or two, but it’s hard for me to see a Government that could be more corrupt and blatant than this one. It’s also disheartening to see the general public passive in what’s going on. As people have talked about on here we’ve become more individualised and self-centred and that must play a part in the damage being done on our society. One of the good things I think is that things have become so bad that some people are awakening to politics and activism more.
2. weka 2

   17 June 2015 at 7:26 pm

   Just in case anyone wants to buy 20,000 m3 of swamp kauri logs. Get it while you can.

   http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-Zealand-Ancient-Kauri-Logs_50012552102.html

   http://nzforests.co.nz/swamp-kauri/
   • Lanthanide 2.1

     17 June 2015 at 7:28 pm

     Wow, you really can buy any (legal) thing on alibaba.
     • Hateatea 2.1.1

       17 June 2015 at 7:38 pm

       Is it legal to export swamp kauri that has not been manufactured? If it isn’t, then you seem to be able to sell illegally on AliBaba!
       • weka 2.1.1.1

         17 June 2015 at 7:47 pm

         according to the MPI, the logs aren’t for sale, the company instead makes things from them before they’re exported.

         In other news, did you see those pigs flying over parliament today?
         • Hateatea 2.1.1.1.1

           17 June 2015 at 7:55 pm

           ROFLMAO, yes, flying pigs are much in demand these days.
           • Jenny Kirk 2.1.1.1.1.1

             17 June 2015 at 9:39 pm

             oh yes – and I saw the pigs flying again when the PM was answering questions in the House on housing ………
         • Clemgeopin 2.1.1.1.2

           17 June 2015 at 8:15 pm

           “according to the MPI, the logs aren’t for sale, the company instead makes things from them before they’re exported”

           I suppose they could just carve a flying pig on it, call it art and export away?
           Or may just draw a fancy fern and olala, they ‘have made something!’

           Is there a restriction on what can or can not be ‘made’ out of it?

           I doubt if our brilliant Minister for Primary Industries knows or not, or even cares or not!

           Something is grey in the land of the long white clouds!
         • Ffloyd 2.1.1.1.3

           17 June 2015 at 8:19 pm

           Umm, yeah, but they were apparently beautifully carved according to their photograph.
3. Lanthanide 3

   17 June 2015 at 8:03 pm

   Missed a chance to put Cherry Lazar artwork on the walls.
4. mickysavage 4

   17 June 2015 at 8:10 pm

   Thanks to #Foxycartoons for the cartoon today. On this day when Fairfax is sacking its cartoonists I hope that Foxy and others of their quality appear to take up the slack. Shame they are not paid tho …
5. Draco T Bastard 5

   17 June 2015 at 9:52 pm

   A maverick currency scheme from the 1930s could save the Greek economy
   

   He put up the town’s tiny remaining fund as collateral against the same value of stamp scrip, and used it to pay for a building project. The workers then passed on the currency as quickly as they could. Like the magic pudding, this little pot of money kept circulating, enabling Wörgl to repave the streets, rebuild the water system, construct houses, a bridge and even a ski jump. In the 13 months of the experiment, the 5,500 scrip schillings in circulation were spent 416 times, creating between 12 and 14 times as much employment as the standard currency would have done. Unemployment vanished, and the stamp fees paid for a soup kitchen feeding 220 families.

   The governments of Germany and Austria, profoundly threatened by the success of these projects, shut them down and employment collapsed once more. When the US economist Irving Fisher examined these experiments he concluded that “the correct application of stamp scrip would solve the depression crisis in the US in three weeks!”. Roosevelt’s government, aware that such currencies could invoke a massive loss of federal power, promptly banned it.

   And now you should know why the government creating its own money is, essentially, banned and is denigrated by those in power. It works and the people in power can’t have that as it would remove a society’s dependence upon the rich and the banks.
   • Colonial Rawshark 5.1

     17 June 2015 at 10:10 pm

     +100

     interesting how Lanth can’t see it…hundreds of billions of NZD magicked into existence – more than the GDP of the entire country – and yet creating a little but more to fund critical social and sustainability projects is verboten. Fascinating mental blockage.
     • Lanthanide 5.1.1

       17 June 2015 at 10:52 pm

       Magicked into existence as debt, with a fundamental threat behind it that if you don’t pay it back your life is ruined. This helps to moderate the rate of money creation so it doesn’t get too out of hand; of course the Auckland housing bubble proves that it’s far from perfect, but that bubble is really a consequence of government screwups when it comes to housing policy in Auckland.

       Not the same as magicked into existence with nothing to moderate the rate of inflation except for “trust the government experts because they never fuck these sorts of things up, not ever”.

       Would you trust Bill double-dipton tax-cuts-for-the-rich lets-not-save-for-a-rainy-day seven-years-of-deficits English not to fuck it up?
       • Colonial Rawshark 5.1.1.1

         17 June 2015 at 11:08 pm

         So if your concern is enforcing limits in the creation of money then lets discuss how those limits can be set up.

         BTW the US and the large investment banks have no limits on how much debt based money they create or access. Outfits like GOldman Sachs will be bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions if they ever run into trouble. And have been.

         So again, it is one rule for the elite and one rule for the rest of us. Max Keiser describes it as interest rate apartheid. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs can access infinite funds at 0% interest rate, while most other people can get fuck all and its at up to 20% interest rate.
         • Lanthanide 5.1.1.1.1

           17 June 2015 at 11:41 pm

           “JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs can access infinite funds at 0% interest rate”

           So why haven’t they borrowed 100 trillion dollars so far?
       • Draco T Bastard 5.1.1.2

         18 June 2015 at 12:20 am

         of course the Auckland housing bubble proves that it’s far from perfect, but that bubble is really a consequence of government screwups when it comes to housing policy in Auckland.

         Nope. As Steve Keen has proved such is a direct result of the private banks incentivised to create too much money.

         Not the same as magicked into existence with nothing to moderate the rate of inflation except for “trust the government experts because they never fuck these sorts of things up, not ever”.

         Good job nobody’s suggesting that then isn’t it?
6. Sable 6

   17 June 2015 at 10:35 pm

   This is interesting:

   http://rt.com/news/267592-pirate-party-falkvinge-news/
   • ianmac 6.1

     17 June 2015 at 11:31 pm

     Maybe SCOOP is setting out to do this do you think Sable?
7. Rudi Can't Fail 7

   18 June 2015 at 9:26 am

   Don’t be in despair, 50% of the voting public think this govt is doing a great job.
   Smile and get on with been productive. 🙂
   • maui 7.1

     18 June 2015 at 10:09 am

     Or you could look at it as 2 out of three 3 possible voters did not vote for this government.
8. Rudi Can't Fail 8

   18 June 2015 at 1:47 pm

   Could I apply the same math to the other parties then?

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