Written By:
Incognito - Date published:
3:52 pm, August 17th, 2020 - 16 comments
Categories: uncategorized -
Tags: rant
An ambulance is racing down the motorway to an emergency call-out of a person with potentially life-threatening disease symptoms** and a ragtag of wannabe drivers are trying to wrestle the steering wheel from the highly experienced driver who has to keep all her attention on the road and traffic. They don’t want to get to the call-out ASAP but just desire to have a go at the wheel and play with the flashing lights, siren, and tooting device. At the back of the speeding ambulance, a bunch of dimwits is trying to force open the door, get into the ambulance, and push out the existing crewmembers so that they can play with the laughing gas AKA shit for giggles.
Does this scene raise your adrenaline, heart rate, and blood pressure? Or just a shoulder shrug – meh?
The politicking of a bunch of self-serving politicians is gobsmacking. The Election Day date has been postponed by four weeks. Supposedly, this makes it fairer and is a victory of common sense. Yeah, right! Is Winston Peters channelling Peter Dunne?
As long as we have Covid to deal with, it is likely that the PM and Labour Ministers will receive much of the Media attention. An extra four weeks is unlikely to change this and it has only created a perception of being fairer. Perception is everything and the Media know this well because they are one of the main if not major source of creating and influencing public perception. In other words, and in my view, it was a cosmetic act, a natural glow with thousands of luminous spheres and hallucinatory perfume put on a run-away pesky political porker and turning it into pulled pork with applesauce.
The politicians who haven’t yet jumped should now get their A into G and campaign their arses off. And I demand to see policies, hard, detailed, costed policies. Preferably original ones and no me-too variations of a theme that all look remarkably similar. And don’t rip off artists either for your campaigns. You lot get enough Taxpayers’ money to fund your campaigns and if you can’t be honest with your donations than you cannot be honest with our money either and you can piss right off.
Oh, and be kind to your opponents and treat them with the respect they deserve. Thank you in advance.
*or is it from Death Wish (the original one, with Charles Bronson)?
**the NZ population under threat from the virus
Disclaimer: this is entirely my personal opinion and should in no way be seen as representative of The Standard. It may contain factually incorrect matter and nothing has been verified for accuracy. In other words, this is a rant, hence the single tag of the post.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Once again it has made Jacinda look like the mature sensible leader and even Winston and Collins have had to back track and follow.
How I laughed when they both nodded, agreed and said thank you Jacinda.
Eek, Incognito, did you intend the Thelma and Louise '…rather drive our car into the canyon than surrender to the cops' theme?
No, I did not, but that was one of the most appropriate images I could find in a hurry in the TS Media Library. However, in some ways, it is a good metaphor because we are in free-fall and we don’t know when, where, or how we will land (or crash).
“The politicians who haven’t yet jumped should now get their A into G and campaign their arses off."
Some Aversion Therapy is needed in addressing Seymour's hurt feelings of lack of campaign exposure time.
Race Relations commissioner Meng Foon said, "I do believe that you can still have robust, rigorous and provocative, political debate without vilifying or targeting people or groups.” So Mr.Foon does your view include subversive malintent hiding in Policies?
So here it is- : ACT campaigning on- (we hate minorities and the poor.)
Some of the delights on offer from ACT this election at-
https://policy.nz/ (NB. On this accumulated policy site, tapping on the summary item opens the explanation )
" VOnce off your cattle car, line up at zee gates… Zwei lines vill be decided.. Zee first line , für eine kleine Gruppe von Privilegierten.
——————–
On Community and Inclusion issues
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/race-relations-commissioner-describes-stuffs-seymour-cartoon-as-bad-taste/#ath
• On disability issues – blank no policy found
• On women's issues- no policy found
• Stop prioritising Māori and Pasifika for elective surgeries
• On ' rainbow community ' issues – blank
• On young people- blank
——————-
• On Free expression and hate speech issues –Abolish the Human Rights Commission. Repeal all hate speech laws. Limit complaints about online harm to people under 18. Require universities to protect freedom of expression.
https://kapitiindependentnews.net.nz/acting-the-fool/
————————-
On issues connected to Te Ao Maori
• On Wellbeing and services across multiple needs is – Stop prioritising Māori and Pasifika for elective surgeries.
• On Te reo Māori and culture- blank.
• On Maori representation- Abolish Maori seats in Parliament
https://mobile.twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/1030272482693984256/photo/1• On Te Tiriti o Waitangi and governance- Prevent government buying Ihumātao.
• On Land and resources- Prevent government buying Ihumātao
Environment Issues
• On climate adaption – No policies found
• On water and climate Reverse agricultural methane and freshwater reforms.
Housing
• On Social and public housing – no policy found.
• On housing quality- Replace council building inspections with compulsory building insurance
Incomes and employment
• Benefits- insurance again. Establish an employment insurance scheme. Reduce benefits and impose stricter conditions for claiming them. Control what most benefits can be spent on using electronic income management. End the winter energy payment.
Wages and working conditions-
• Reduce the minimum wage to $17.70 an hour. Freeze the minimum wage for three years. And a DUH one ! Use apps to help small businesses implement safety programmes. Introduce voluntary 12-month trial periods for new employees ( Act's covid19 plan is extension of 90 day policy so new employees can be sacked for a whole year for no reason).
Tax and income support and Superannuation
• End weekly payment for families with young children
• End government KiwiSaver contributions
Borders and Migration
• Refugees – blank
• Immigration – Require new citizens to commit to the values of freedom, property rights and the rule of law- require new citizens to explicitly sign up to the values of freedom, property rights and the rule of law. ( whose values not stated)
https://liberation.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451d75d69e201b7c89f49be970b-pi
Education ( making education great again for the elite, policy)
• Allow state schools to become charter schools.
• Remove the cap on fees for tertiary institutions.
• Reintroduce fees on first year of study and first two years of training. Reintroduce interest on student loans. End the student allowance payment.
• Require universities to protect freedom of expression
Thanks, I know I never liked ACT, but their policies have convinced me they really don't deserve to be in Parliament, ever.
They will only ever represent a relatively small voter base.
Reminds me of the brilliant Guy Body cartoon
https://twitter.com/GuyKeverneBody/status/1252372933634211845?s=20
Every damn word.
Where the hell are the damn policies, we better not have to wait another month for them.
I'm disgusted in NZF I used to defend them but threatening to bring down the govt to give yourself a few more months is the most disgusting thing I've seen in absolutely disgusting election year. I honestly wouldn't mind if we had a Waka jumping bill that meant if parties ditch coalitions it means we have to go to and this should be called the Winston bill.
Policies policies policies. I want to see a plan for the recovery not business as usual and if you don't have a recovery and plan for future you should be ridiculed for it and that so far means every party except the greens and act. Pull finger.
I like it: a waka-burning Bill. Of course, this is obsolete under current Parliamentary rules; a Coalition is as strong as the bond between Coalition partners and how much they share values & policies and direction for the future. At present, it seems the coalition glue is pulverising and the powder and Winston’s puffs of hot air are blown away by the pandemic wind. The Government is only held together by the inertia of the framework. The Election cannot come soon enough, IMO.
Good rant Incognito. Having to deal with politics at a time like this is doing my head in and must be creating all sorts of headaches for the PM. We need their attention on the issue at hand, not fighting off dim witted attention seeking behaviour.
Righteous.
I'm not especially bothered by the delay, to put some distance between L3 and voting (hopefully). But the politicking has been disgusting. Not that it's a surprise, more like what will they come up with next. Tricky though, because it's getting harder to now slam them without being partisan. What's going on is beyond partisan.
The Opposition and Act are actually demonstrating virtue-signalling – to their own group of fans.
Great metaphor Incognito. Sums up a lot of the weakness of some politicians.
Will Act policies include some of their partners policies?
" And I demand to see policies, hard, detailed, costed policies. Preferably original ones and no me-too variations of a theme that all look remarkably similar. "
During a time of crisis, any policy has to be subject to what may happen next week – it must be very difficult to 'stabilise' a PREFU when another infection in the community the day before publication could alter some very large numbers. Policies and priorities in broad form yes – the description of ACT polices above may well be enough for most voters to decide whether they want to vote for that party . . . For other parties, Trust based on descriptive (uncosted) policies may also have to be enough.