Open mike 31/12/2024

15 comments on “Open mike 31/12/2024 ”

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1. Tony Veitch 1

   31 December 2024 at 6:52 am

   What does 2025 hold politically?

   Richard Murphy, who I rate as a commentator, sort of looks forward, from a UK pov, but still relevant to NZ, particularly concerning Trump! 9.20 long.

   Buckle up your seat belts!

   Reply
   • Drowsy M. Kram 1.1

     31 December 2024 at 8:34 am

     

     Neoliberals have run out of road. And this is the crisis for 2025. Neoliberals without any idea how to manage the situation that they themselves have created by focusing upon balanced book politics above all else, and far-right populists trying to destroy that system, but with nothing to put in its place.
     …
     It is going to be a mess. It is going to be difficult.

     
     https://natlib.govt.nz/records/52115413

     Reply
     • Michael Scott 1.1.1

       31 December 2024 at 9:31 am

       It will be interesting to see where the US economy ends up under Trump.

       His electoral success can be seen as a working class rejection of neoliberalism in favour of a more controlling and authoritarian approach

       Reply
       • Drowsy M. Kram 1.1.1.1

         31 December 2024 at 10:30 am

         His electoral success can be seen as a working class rejection of neoliberalism in favour of a more controlling and authoritarian approach

         Imho, Trump's self-serving ‘initiatives’ will continue to benefit "the haves and the have mores" to the detriment of workers – time will tell.

         Trump Will Lower American Workers’ Standard of Living [6 Dec 2024]

         Trump pushes return to office for federal workers, threatens more media lawsuits [16 Dec 2024]

         Impact of a Second Trump Presidency on Biden-Era NLRB Decisions [23 Dec 2024]
         In an unprecedented move on President Biden’s inauguration day (January 20, 2021), he fired the Trump-appointed [National Labor Relations Board; NLRB] GC [General Counsel], Peter Robb, whose four-year term was not set to expire until November 2021. This move allowed Biden’s hand-picked appointee, GC Jennifer Abruzzo, to issue Memos early in Biden’s term with the aim of undoing many of the changes made during the preceding Trump administration. Her goal, which became NLRB implemented policy, was to greatly expand the rights of employees by making unionization much easier and ramping up the protections afforded to “protected concerted activity.” During these past four years, the NLRB has largely operated in line with its current pro-union, worker friendly agency by issuing new rules (a) limiting the types of policies that can be included in employee handbooks, (b) making it easier for independent contractors to qualify as employees, and (c) forcing employers to unionize even without a union election or despite the fact the employees overwhelmingly voted against unionization.

         It is expected that Trump will fire GC Abruzzo on January 20, 2025, just as Biden had fired her predecessor four years prior.

         Reply
2. Incognito 2

   31 December 2024 at 10:12 am

   Bryce Derek Wilkinson – For services to economics ACT and the Regulatory Standards Bill

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/537879/new-year-honours-2025-the-full-list

   Reply
3. adam 3

   31 December 2024 at 10:56 am

   So Reti wants private health care – is he a complete idiot or just a tool?

   Seeing as these vultures rip off the government with their lies.

   Reply
4. Jenny 4

   31 December 2024 at 1:52 pm

   '

   'We're not imperialists. How dare you! That's just propaganda.'

   On September 21 2022 President Joe Biden addressed the UN General Assembly to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and to accuse the Russian Federation of 'shamelessly' violating the UN Charter to 'pursue their imperialist ambitions'.

   https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/biden-aims-rally-world-leaders-ukraine-un-remarks-rcna48355

   I don't believe the dictum, 'Every accusation is an admission'. But in this case Biden's accusation against Russia is also true of America, except for the 'shameless' part, America tries to hide its imperialism.

   How to hide an empire

   An end of year book review by Democracy Now.

   What I found fascinating in this book review was the way that imperialism imposes the language of the imperialist country on its colonies as part of the colonisation process.

   The rehabilitation of the Maori language in this country has been described as part of the de-colonisation process of this country.

   It could be argued that the Luxon administration's roll back of the Maori language and removal of the mention of the treaty in government documents is a form of re-colonisation.

   A symbolic re-statement of Western dominance of this country as we enter deeper into the US imperialist orbit under AUKUS.

   Language is a Virus

   Beginning @13:44 minutes

   ……about the chapter in your book titled 'Language is a Virus'.

   Obviously when countries conquer other peoples who speak different languages, there's an issue of what what happens to the language and the culture of the conquered or absorbed populations, and you talk in in your book, much on the issue of the English language and how the absorption first of the French speakers in Louisiana, of the native peoples, of the Puerto Ricans, and the Philippines. How the language issue began to be dealt with?

   Yeah, it's an important thing to recognize, that one of the things that empires do, is they try to enforce a sort of homogeneity, they try to export the standards of the motherlands on to the colonies, and often that's a violent and difficult process. Certainly that's been true in the United States and its territories, as it sought to export and enforce English.

   One of the more dramatic instances of this is on Guam where we have accounts of a naval officer who went around burning all 'English Tomorrow' dictionaries, as a way to try to extirpate the local language and enforce English.

   And there's all kinds of accounts of, you know, various colonial subjects being forcibly moved to English language only schools, being physically punished if they speak their native language rather than English.

   What's really interesting about that however, is not only the way that the United States has done, as many empires have done, to try to enforce its language is in its colonies, but that the United States has been remarkably successful in enforcing its language outside of its colonies……

   [Time stamps removed and machine generated transcript lightly edited for clarity and ease of reading. J.]

   Reply
5. Jenny 5

   31 December 2024 at 2:40 pm

   Counting Down the New Year

   24/7 365

   One

   Whole

   Year

   of

   Genocide

   Reply
   • Incognito 5.1

     31 December 2024 at 2:52 pm

     366

     Reply
     • Jenny 5.1.1

       31 December 2024 at 9:54 pm

       Incognito @5.1

       31 December 2024 at 2:52 pm

       366

       Personally, I don't think Gazans buried alive under the rubble in Gaza as a result of an Israeli attack, or their surviving family and neighbours desperately trying to dig them out with their bare hands would be worried about the distinction.

       Lowkey is doing his best to make people think.

       Three-Six-Five rhymes with Genocide.

       Three-Six-Six doesn't, so his song wouldn't work.

       There is another rhyming word in Lowkey's song that seems wrong.

       @3:27 minutes

       We're organising silence, making it mundane

       One whole year of genocide, One whole year of rain.

       Now to me, the most obvious word for Lowkey to have chosen to end this rhyme, especially in this context, would be the word 'pain' not 'rain'.

       Then I thought about it. I would find a whole year of rain every day, pretty much unbearable. But at least I could imagine it.

       But what if instead of water falling out of the sky every single day for an entire year, it was death dealing missiles and bombs falling out of the sky for more than 365 days non-stop?

       Maybe that is what Lowkey is trying to impart by choosing the rhyme 'rain' instead of 'pain' to get his point across.

       Reply
6. Bearded Git 6

   31 December 2024 at 5:17 pm

   373,361 attended the Boxing Day test in Melbourne…and it finished during the final hour on the fifth day. Incredible. A letter by John Cocks to The Guardian describes it.

   "A sum of all the parts of Shakespearean tragedies, this Test for the Ages became a towering adventure epic over Five Acts played to a full house, defined by bravura performances from a memorable cast, a surging narrative with jaw-dropping plot twists and comedy relief, overlaid by our own Henry V and his band of baggy-green brothers.

   In Act One, Sam Konstas as brave Puck flitted here there and everywhere, before clashing with the warrior Kohli, but Marnus and Steve, brave soldiers, forged ahead to build a narrative, its momentum halted when Head, like Mercutio, was slain early and Marsh perished as Falstaff under the weight of a surging enemy.

   Act Two gave us more stirring conflict as challenges were met and faced down while Smith’s vigil became a soliloquy of lasting bravura, and Sharma, the ageing warrior was undone by his own mortality at the close.

   Act Three saw a steady build towards the climactic moment, first the heroic king and his forces making inroads into the hordes, before two lesser lights sought successfully to strut and fret their hours upon the stage and thwart the quest of the heroic king and his men.

   In the first scenes of Act Four it was as if Birnam Wood had come to Dunsinane and the castle might fall, but unlike Macbeth’s violent end, the king in baggy green prevailed sufficiently for two bit players – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with a solid forward defense – took centre stage to remind us that the king was not yet dead.

   And now all these acts like some swelling prologue gave pass to the climax of Act Five and its denouement: Sharma, a frail Lear figure, prisoner to his fate, and Kohli – like MacBeth – falling to his own hubris and sword, Jaiswal asking the third umpire ‘to be, or not to be’ and being told the latter and Pant perishing like some rash Romeo, before the king’s men closed ranks and tasted glory.

   This truly was a tale full of sound and fury."

   Reply
   • alwyn 6.1

     31 December 2024 at 11:14 pm

     It was a great game, but I think you left our some of the important words in the last sentence.

     The full quote is " It is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,. Signifying nothing. "

     It is just a game. It is over. Who is going to care tomorrow?

     Reply
7. Sanctuary 7

   31 December 2024 at 7:43 pm

   A happy and prosperous 2025 to all the standard community 🙂

   Reply
   • Tony Veitch 7.1

     31 December 2024 at 7:49 pm

     Ditto.

     Reply
8. greywarshark 8

   31 December 2024 at 7:53 pm

   Hi Lynn and good wishes for 2025 and thank you for all your work in watching the political tug-of-war for us and keeping us aware of the vista. Have a good summer I hope and some cold beverages.

   Reply

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