Open mike 05/05/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 5th, 2024 - 17 comments
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17 comments on “Open mike 05/05/2024 ”

  1. Stephen D 1

    Now this makes a lot of sense.

    ”In the book, Blakeley asserts that rather than failing, capitalism is working exactly as intended – allowing corporate and political elites to advance their own interests at the expense of the rest of us.”

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515987/nobody-s-coming-to-save-us-how-capitalism-became-a-vulture

    • gsays 1.1

      Great link. Thank you Stephen.

      It is a reminder that we have the power, we have simply forgotten.

      While joining a union is a simple, straight forward gesture, to get real gains we need to experience the uplift gained by direct, organised, community action.

      That is partly why I couldn't pour scorn on the Wellies occupation of Parliament grounds. Two of the folk I know that were involved have been energised. The increase of their mahi and enthusiasm, in the groups they belong to, has been remarkable.

    • mikesh 1.2

      According to Michael Hudson* "free markets" to earlier capitalists meant freedom from rentier interests such as rent and interest rather than markets governed entirely by “market forces”. Rentier interests were taking a slice of the pie without contributing in any way to the production of output.

    • tWig 1.3

      I started reading this book earlier this week: Blakely pulls together key debate floating round in economics circles, but which are not accessible to the general public. Instead we hear ad nauseum the simplistic 'free market, free market, free market', which is a complete misrepresentation of the actual market we have when global corps snaffle the machinery of government and central planning to benefit corporate, vs social, welfare.

  2. Dennis Frank 2

    Feminism update: https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/05/04/a-groundswell-of-women-are-decentering-men-what-does-that-mean/

    “I’m a little cynical about the Decentering Men movement” says Tania Domett, from New Zealand feminist innovation studio Project Gender. “It feels like a throw-back to 1970s feminism with its key messages of self-love and empowerment. There’s nothing wrong with these messages but where we’re at now in the struggle for gender equity needs a more strategic approach.”

    To this point, the gender pay gap is still nudging 10 percent, and the retirement savings gap between men and women is 36 percent. “Bringing about social change requires going to where the power is,” says Domett. “Men still have the power and we need to do the opposite of decentering them, they need to pony up and start sharing power – the patriarchy will not be dismantled by women alone.”

    The basic idea seems to be a riff on planetary gravitation: the woman ought not to feel obliged to orbit the man. Since planetary orbitals are ellipses with 2 focii that makes sense – the man & woman in mutual attraction would orbit each other. Somehow. Bit of a stretch, that analogy. Don't feel bad if you can't see it happening, I can't either. wink

    • Visubversa 2.1

      "Decentering men"! – don't make me laugh – us Lesbians have been doing it most of our lives. It is not hard.

      And this "Project Gender" is about making $$$ while kissing up to the homophobia and misogyny of Gender Ideology. They don't even know what a woman is.

      "PG Innovation takes an intersectional feminist approach when designing and delivering research, campaigns, and product innovation. We work in collaboration with all women, wāhine, trans, intersex and non-binary people and are committed to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi"

      For those who don't know – "Intersectional" these days means the exact opposite of "decentering men"

      • weka 2.1.1

        fucking hell. I'm only a 1/3 of the way through the article and then I detoured to look at Project Gender. I despair.

        Liberal feminism, neoliberalism, no class analysis, probably misapplication of intersectionality, minimising 2nd wave feminism. It's classic 'let's lift some women into equity with men under the patriarchy'. It's got nothing to do with dismantling the patriarch and replacing it with egalitarian systems where women are inherently valued (and children, nature, men).

        • weka 2.1.1.1

          I've been saying to international GCFs online for while now, where is the feminism in NZ? I know who the GCFs are, but where are all the other feminist organisations? I literally don't even know any more. I guess this answers part of that question.

          • Visubversa 2.1.1.1.1

            Unfortunately most – like NCW, are thoroughly "captured" and wave their "intersectionality" around saying how "inclusive" they are.

    • AB 2.2

      I'm delighted to be informed by somebody or other that "[m]en aren’t socialised to have social and emotional skills". Obviously I must be delighted because I lack the emotional skills to be upset by it. In fact, my appalling and brutalist lack of such skills makes me treat worthless, middle-class lifestyle claptrap with hilarity.

  3. joe90 4

    Lozza's having a moment.

    /

    Laurence Fox

    @LozzaFox

    ·

    5h

    The Mayor of London is a Muslim.

    The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim.

    The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim.

    Mayor of Blackburn – Muslim.

    The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim.

    The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim.

    The mayor of Luton is a Muslim.

    The mayor of Oldham is Muslim.

    The mayor of Rochdale is Muslim

    All this was achieved by only 4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England:

    […]

    Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?

    https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1786809682574586151

  4. adam 5

    Captured by a-holes.

    Lets not let this shit roll on.

  5. Drowsy M. Kram 6

    Coalition's dirge of austerity and uncertainty is driving the economy into a deeper recession [28 April 2024]

    Surprise: Landlord Tax Cuts Don’t Trickle Down [30 April 2024]

    Our CoC government is a landLord government.

    This government has taken their inspiration from the U.K. and Liz Truss. If we get a decade of these plonkers we will be basically where the U.K. is now after a decade of stagnant wages and crumbling public services.

    Not sure they gonna need a decade. They skipped right past Cameron and
    potentially even Johnson and May and landed on Truss crossed with Sunak.

    They are speed running 12 years of Tory idiocy

  6. I Feel Love 7

    One of my kids today said she looked at Luxons Tik Tok & the comments are full of comments like "I'm sending this from my phone while at school baldy". Made me chuckle.

  7. Descendant Of Smith 8

    Ahh tourism and holiday homes.

    From my bedroom window, I can see a house that sleeps 10 which sits empty all winter, and two houses which sleep four and sit empty all winter. From my kitchen window, I see five other houses. All of which are second homes. Only one is a short-term let. I’d put money on it that every owner would tell me how much they love Tiree.

    https://www.thenational.scot/comment/24299754.people-love-islands-killing-housing-crisis/

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