Daily review 03/02/2023

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, February 3rd, 2023 - 43 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

43 comments on “Daily review 03/02/2023 ”

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  1. Kat 1
    3 February 2023 at 6:10 pm

    "Blowing Off The Froth: Why Chris Hipkins Must Ditch Three Waters………..

    So according to our pal over at Bowalley Road, Three Waters is all about the froth on beer that the 'Maori Elite" want to sup exclusively, is totally racist and has nothing to do with poo pipes and water.

    His latest piece has to be a send up…….doesn't it, it almost has that 'Not the Nine Oclock News" vibe about it…….although I am not sure who would be laughing…..

    http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2023/02/blowing-off-froth-why-chris-hipkins.html

    • SPC 1.1
      3 February 2023 at 6:53 pm

      The same former Alliance Party guy said people of his generation did not want a CGT because they owned a house (90% of people who own houses only own one and thus would not be impacted by a CGT on property), so there should not be one because these people decided elections.

      Myself I want the Greens wealth tax, so those who own a $2M house help those who do not own a house (and might never do) have better public health and housing – rather than their seeking more for themselves via adjustment to income tax scales.

      • Bearded Git 1.1.1
        3 February 2023 at 11:25 pm

        Agree with you on the Greens Wealth Tax SPC

      • Maurice 1.1.2
        4 February 2023 at 2:08 am

        There is already a 'wealth' tax on that 2M dollar house called Council Rates – the GST portion of which is in part remitted to the Government.

        'Wealth' is not liquid money so any tax on such wealth would need to be sourced from income (already taxed) or investment (already taxed) or money in the bank (any interest on that is already taxed). Many such owners are asset rich but money poor and would find that to pay such 'wealth' taxes some of the assets they have would need to be sold just to pay that type of tax. So 'wealth' tax simply becomes a sale tax.

        Most do not have great stacks of money under the mattress to pay such 'wealth' taxes.

        • SPC 1.1.2.1
          4 February 2023 at 10:39 am

          Most OECD nations have a CGT on realised income and an estate tax. Your objection does not apply to either, and yet here we are.

          Acquisition of untaxed wealth and then passed on across generations untaxed – leads to a class system (haves and have nots). A wealth tax is all there is left to collect from those who have to assist those who have not.

      • Drowsy M. Kram 1.1.3
        4 February 2023 at 7:57 am

        Myself I want the Greens wealth tax

        yes Me too.

        • Maurice 1.1.3.1
          4 February 2023 at 8:17 am

          I have no doubt that those of us who won't have to pay such a tax want as much as possible of it transferred to us via the Government!

          “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
          Winston Churchill

          • Drowsy M. Kram 1.1.3.1.1
            4 February 2023 at 8:33 am

            I have no doubt that those of us who won't have to pay such a tax want as much as possible of it transferred to us via the Government!

            I've been lucky enough in life that I might pay a piddling amount more if a wealth tax was introduced. And I'm lucky enough to realise that it was largely luck.

            Why poverty in New Zealand is everyone's concern
            Liang describes poverty as a "heritable condition" that perpetuates and amplifies through generations: "It is also not hard to see how individual poverty flows into communities and society, with downstream effects on economics, crime and health, as well as many other systems. Loosen one strand and everything else unravels."

            A Kete Half Empty
            Poverty is your problem, it is everyone's problem, not just those who are in poverty. – Rebecca, a child from Te Puru

            As for dear old Winston, Aotearoa New Zealand is a prosperous nation, just not as heavily taxed as some more prosperous countries.

            https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-08-2022/the-side-eyes-two-new-zealands-the-table

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

          • Patricia Bremner 1.1.3.1.2
            4 February 2023 at 9:21 am

            Those of us who are well off and don't help our neighbour are usually self-agrandizing prats. just saying. ..Peter Thiel etc and their mini- me's who don't value community.

          • KJT 1.1.3.1.3
            5 February 2023 at 8:18 pm

            Funny that the most prosperous, and more importantly, the countries with the highest levels of overall welfare, have had the highest tax rates and proportional Government share of the economy.

            Including the USA during and after WW2. And NZ up until 1984.

            • Macro 1.1.3.1.3.1
              6 February 2023 at 11:56 am

              Funny that the most prosperous, and more importantly, the countries with the highest levels of overall welfare, have had the highest tax rates and proportional Government share of the economy.

              Exactly!

              The rich used to pay taxes. Now they loan money to the US government – at a profit that everyone else pays for

              …

              A half century ago, American’s wealthy helped finance the federal government mainly through their tax payments.

              Tax rates on the wealthy were high. Under Republican president Dwight Eisenhower, they were over 90%. Even after all tax deductions, the wealthy typically paid half of their incomes in taxes.

              Since then – courtesy of tax cuts under Ronald Reagan, George W Bush and Donald Trump – the effective tax rate on wealthy Americans has plummeted
              …
              By 2018, the 400 wealthiest American households paid a lower total tax rate – including federal, state and local taxes – than any other income group. Their overall tax rate was only 23%. It had been 70% in 1950.

      • Stuart Munro 1.1.4
        6 February 2023 at 9:38 am

        With you on the wealth tax.

    • Kat 2.1
      3 February 2023 at 7:48 pm

      National have already said on many occasions they would either scrap or repeal everything Labour has put in place. That a fair proportion of the electorate (according to polls) supports this madness just shows to go how divided a nation we are. The media are happy to promote and wax lyrical about this madness because it would be too boring if the election wasn't a close contest. Just ask Jessica.

      • SPC 2.1.1
        4 February 2023 at 4:52 pm

        People decide in the first year of economics – if they will serve mammon, or not. People decide in their first year of politics – if they believe in the equal value of citizens or not. And in sociology, if their life will be about feathering their own nest, or not. There is something essentially psychopathic about the middle class regime, who bow down to mammon because they are deemed not the class to be oppressed the most by it.

        And in religion, one can note the concept of dividing the world between those to receive the blessing and those to receive the curse – as if implying a sanctioned order of God origin to injustice on earth. Some for the rise, such as Mr Air above the Jordan New Zealand of the 1% property mammon capital wealth accumulation rapture, are yet greedy for even more. And seeking it by tax cuts guarantees it comes from the sick and homeless. More blessings for the haves, more curses for the have nots.

        White men and their God and mammon imperialism. What a sad patriarchy it has become. And being as frightened of a Maori minority having indigenous rights and guarantees of taonga being managed well, as Boers of a black majority, or the GOP south of the end of a white majority ruled America (the great replacement theory arrives in the new world) is taking male insecurity over the loss of hegemony over women to the next level.

    • Patricia Bremner 2.2
      4 February 2023 at 9:25 am

      Well their Cultural war balloon got pricked… so now its "Must do..!!"

  3. SPC 3
    3 February 2023 at 7:05 pm

    Kainga Ora buys up a new property development to provide for those in motels/those on waiting lists.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131135304/unique-purchase-sees-kinga-ora-buy-20m-27unit-property-in-north-hamilton

    Either buying existing property, or new builds, or building on land they own are the three ways to get from 69,000 to 100,000 income related rent properties.

  4. aj 4
    3 February 2023 at 9:06 pm

    Today's top story in western media really takes a world already flooded with propaganda to a new level. In this case, against China.

    The scaremongering is beyond belief when they focus on a unidentified balloon, the Pentagon talking point "suspected Chinese spy balloon" but never in this article questioned with common sense, for example such as "why would China use a 19th century technology to spy on us"?

    The whole article is full of 'probably' and 'likely' and 'what appears'

    An $800B military budget and they can't intercept a floating balloon to prove their claims?

    And changing altitude by what, release gas to go down, then of course there is a bottle of helium attached as well so they can reload to raise the balloon in flight?

    Spy balloons are not directly steered, but they can be roughly guided to a target area by changing their altitude so they catch different wind currents,

    What we know about the 'provocative' balloon spotted in the sky above the US

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-03/spy-balloon-spotted-above-the-united-states-provocative/101928432

  6. mikesh 6
    4 February 2023 at 12:08 am

    Anyone who can spot an atrocity gets a chocolate fish.

    • UncookedSelachimorpha 6.1
      4 February 2023 at 1:00 am

      You're pretty comfortable with murder and atrocity it seems, mikesh.

      • In Vino 6.1.1
        4 February 2023 at 11:29 pm

        More like cynical about the truth of it, I would think.

        As I think any intelligent person should be.

        • joe90 6.1.1.1
          5 February 2023 at 7:37 am

          As I think any intelligent person should be.

          Intelligent people don't deny atrocities and war crimes nor do they apologise for Russian fascism.

          /

          • In Vino 6.1.1.1.1
            5 February 2023 at 6:29 pm

            I find your over-confidence and naivety a little off-putting. In earlier times, I suspect you would have made a great religious zealot.

            • joe90 6.1.1.1.1.1
              5 February 2023 at 7:49 pm

              Decent people align themselves with the victims of Poots' and Assad's war crimes.

              Your failure to do so is despicable.

              • In Vino …
                5 February 2023 at 10:08 pm

                That merely confirms what I just wrote. I think you have a simplistic understanding of history. You yearn to be adamant for what you see as the 'goodies' side, but you are naive when it comes to assessing the veracity of either information or misinformation.

                Remember – in any war, truth is the first casualty.

                You are right not to trust Russia's propaganda. But you are foolish to trust the crap we are being fed.

              • mikesh …
                6 February 2023 at 8:10 pm

                Decent people?

                Rather begs the question, wouldn't you say. What support are you able to supply that these people are "decent". And people can still hold wrong opinions even if they are "decent".

                And what if people have died in Ukraine. We'll all be dead sooner or later, or do you consider yourself immortal? You need to consider the broader issues rather than get bogged down with trying to count the dead.

      • mikesh 6.1.2
        5 February 2023 at 11:06 am

        I cannot see anyone being murdered in the videos, though of course there may have been some deaths. However, you seem to be unaware that there is a war going on.

        • Macro 6.1.2.1
          5 February 2023 at 9:35 pm

          However, you seem to be unaware that there is a war going on.

          Careful what you say! Some people might get the wrong impression. It's a "Special military operation".

          • In Vino 6.1.2.1.1
            5 February 2023 at 10:13 pm

            'Special Military Operation' seems pretty innocent when USA and its Military Industrial Complex pretend to have played no part in it at all.

            • Macro 6.1.2.1.1.1
              6 February 2023 at 9:38 am

              USA and its Military Industrial Complex pretend to have played no part in it at all.

              F*** Me! Are you saying that the US are supplying the Russian Military?? News to me! Please supply a link.

              • mikesh …
                6 February 2023 at 9:47 am

                Disingenuous, I think. Still, I wouldn't put it past the Yanks to supply both sides. Anything for a profit.

                • Macro …
                  6 February 2023 at 10:11 am

                  Yes there are a lot of disingenuous comments on this thread. People steadfastly refuse to recognise the true perpetuators of this aggression. The war (as you now recognise it) could stop tomorrow where Russia to withdraw its troops and mercenaries from the sovereign state of Ukraine.

                  This idiotic war, instigated by Russia, has been a complete disaster strategically and politically as far as Russia is concerned. It has turned practically the whole of Europe and the Western world against it, increased, rather than reduced, participation in NATO, and seen increased production of military material rather than a reduction. It will not cease until such time as Putin either comes to his senses (Unlikely), the Russians are kicked out of Ukraine (eventually), or the Russian people overthrow the current dictatorial regime and restore some sensibility to their lives – not completely unthinkable – it has happened in the past.

                  • Brigid …
                    6 February 2023 at 6:16 pm

                    In 2014 when full scale bombing of the Donbass region began, Russia was no where to be seen. And no, Ukraine forces were not bombing Russian forces, but Ukrainians who wanted independence from greater Ukraine.

                    This war has been instigated by Ukraine with NATO and US support and has been ongoing since 2014.

                    Rather than listening to the msm, who say only what you want to hear, talk to people from the Donbass region. See what they say about this damned war.

                    • Macro …
                      6 February 2023 at 9:05 pm

                      I have friends whose parents are still trapped in the Crimea. You should hear what they have to say about the Russians. Yes, there are some in the Donbass who are alined with Russia – but there are even more who are not; and after the way those poor folk have been treated over the past year most would wish these invaders gone. And no! Don't quote the bullshit "referendum" to prove your false assertions. Such "referenda" at the point of a gun have no validity whatsoever.

              • In Vino …
                6 February 2023 at 5:50 pm

                I said no such thing. How on Earth did you mis-leap to that conclusion?

                They deny any part in provoking the whole thing. That is a far greater lie than the Russians calling it a 'SMO' for reasons of legal technicalities.

                • Macro …
                  6 February 2023 at 7:00 pm

                  Those were your words I quoted are they not?

                  • In Vino …
                    6 February 2023 at 7:18 pm

                    Yes, but a total non sequitur from you.

                    Please explain how you worked your non-sequitur out.

                    • In Vino …
                      6 February 2023 at 8:11 pm

                      OK Macro

                      I think I have worked out your difficulty. You made your facile point about the Russians calling it an SMO at 6.2.1.1

                      I responded by saying that this was a pretty minor offence considering that the American military industrial complex was denying any involvement or guilt in provoking the whole thing in the first place.

                      You responded by claiming that I said that the American military industrial complex were funding the Russians.

                      What?? Where did I say any such thing?

                      Stop embarrassing yourself.

                    • Macro …
                      6 February 2023 at 8:55 pm

                      I responded by saying that this was a pretty minor offence considering that the American military industrial complex was denying any involvement or guilt in provoking the whole thing in the first place.

                      And that is when I asked you to provide evidence for you outlandish claim. It is you who should be embarrassed for you have none.