Written By:
notices and features - Date published:
6:00 pm, August 5th, 2015 - 71 comments
Categories: Daily review -
Tags:
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. ...
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
I’m off line until Monday 17th. Be excellent to each other!
Bye and have fun in the sunny climates (ie unlike the chilly valleys of Dunedin 😈 )
Personally, I’d rather have my balls flogged with barbed wire then live in Dunedin.
There’s nothing good about the place, terrible climate and every one has 12 fingers
I certainly agree that you should never come to Dunedin BM.
And yes, sunnier climes for a bit!
ha ha, that’s nicer than how I was going to put it 😉
Have fun, and thanks for all the good posts of recent times.
Cheers Weka.
enjoy yourself and thanks too
Thanks marty, thanks all and goodnight!
Nah! I had a really good time down there in 1985-1989.
Problem is that the work was (for me and my partner at the time) back in my hometown.
“Personally, I’d rather have my balls flogged with barbed wire then (sic) live in Dunedin”.
Yeah, but the way I hear it, BM, you’d rather have your balls flogged with barbed wire than almost anything.
Former Boarding-School Tories and their penchant for BDSM.
Administered by a Dominatrix to remind them of their first Nanny.
Oh well done you win the internet today
I presume, thats if he had any balls. 👿
Dunedin is a great place to live. I was there for about 6 years. It’s for normal happy people. Not Grumpy old/young Farts who moan all the time.
We’ll try…. 😈
That was meant to be a response to rOb. 🙁
Cheers Anne!
McCullys foot work looks terrible.
Needs to get his front foot moving.
Playing and missing outside the off stump.
No wonder he looks so sheepish and guilty!
Key couldn’t catch the ball on time either!
McCully plays cricket just the same way he runs his Ministry – “Hit and miss” Mostly miss.
He occasionally bats a four but rarely hits a sex.
Yep and he is completely through the shot before the ball is even past.
Looks like his judgment was somehow lacking …
Susan Devoy the Race Relations Commissioner has refueled the race issue once again today! So dumb! Luckily, so far, the readers’ comments are against her stupid and biased rant ! Take a look.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70854977/labour-says-devoy-out-of-line-for-calling-it-racist-over-chinese-buyers
A quick at her Wikipedia site shows how abjectly ill-equipped she is to do the job.
It’s starting to show why she was selected.
devoy has made some calls – some I agree with and others I disagree with – but good on her for giving it a go I say.
“It is a deeply hurtful thing to have your children hear politicians insinuating that their Chinese-sounding surname means they’re foreigners and they don’t belong here,” Devoy said.
Pretty hard to argue with that.
Beat me to it Clem.
Sums it up nicely in my view.
This woman is not suitable for the position of Human Rights Commissioner. She’s out of her depth and was originally appointed to be a “yes” girl for Judith Collins.
This book is required reading for this subject
The Land grabbers by Fred Pierce.
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/216574/the-land-grabbers-by-fred-pearce/
+1
It does seem that we can’t have an adult conversation about excessive foreign ‘investment’ without the Nats and a few from the left screaming about racism and xenophobia.
I understand why the Nats derail the conversation.
I don’t get the left.
We have a brain and a heart. The brain covers the logical (read cerebral) reaction to an issue, the heart covers the emotional response. Both are equally important, and the trick is to get the balance right…..
and then you have those that would rather see Labour loose then win, becasue they are not left enough, labour enough, green enough, enough enough enough.
And while the left plays it away with its need to be holier then thou or thee, the right laughs all the way to the bank.
The few in the left camp that are stupidly misinterpreting the non resident investment issue, so dramatically highlighted by Twyford, and are foolishly screaming ‘racism and xenophobia’ are a little more dumb arsed than the nasty RW bull shitting rogues.
wow, way to shit on your allies, people. By all means disagree with we say, but this whole ‘you are all stupid’ thing reflects on you not us.
Ok, may be not stupid, but confused.
I stand by my honest opinion that ‘misinterpreting the non resident investment issue’ as being ‘anti Chinese’ rather than ‘anti-non residents buying off properties’ here is being quite dumb arsed, especially from the left wing PC numpties who should know better, in spite of Twyford starting that he has no problems with the ‘resident Chinese’ buying houses and that he ‘welcomes them with open arms’, but is concerned about the massive foreign investment by ‘non residents’ for houses in Auckland, most of whom appear to be overwhelmingly from China. Just a matter of fact and a very serious issue that needs to be properly and urgently tackled. Devoy is completely wrong in misinterpreting the issue and the small band of PC left wing do-gooders are wrong too. NOTHING racist about that.
See the readers’ comments under that linked article I posted above to understand the issue better….. Pai po
Clem, I understand everything you just said. I don’t need to read anything else in order to comprehend it. Telling me I’m not stupid but confused is just patronising. It’s also ignorant and suggests you haven’t been paying attention. The people I’ve seen naming racism on ts are mostly people with good political awareness including about racism. Sure, there will be some who are just parroting ‘racism’ without thought, but I haven’t seen that at the core of the debate here.
I disagree with what you have just written, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand it. I’m not sure you understand my view though.
Perfectly. You are a good guy/gal. I get a feeling that a number of posters who termed Twyford and Labour as ‘anti-Chinese racists’ seemed to be the green supporters who like to put their boot into Labour for whatever silly motive they have, like trying to seem to be superior in some way. That pisses me off more than the expected RW rants and dirty politics. As I said, that is my perception sometimes about the greenies here. But hey, what do I know!
kia hari
By the way, off topic, I just read an article about a big $1 million dollar donation to protect weka, among other things. I immediately thought of you. Don’t spend it all at once! lol
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/70893135/lizards-inherit-1m-fortune-with-anonymous-bequest-to-conservation-project
no Clem, you really have no idea what the argument is. My criticism has nothing at all to do with it being Labour, and for you to write off the argument based on such ignorance is again a reflection on you. What is being said about racism isn’t what you portrayed above, that’s just how you are seeing it without checking more fully what people are doing. I think your assertion that it’s just Greenies hating on Labour again is a projection. You seem incapable of understanding that people could critique something Labour does without them being down on the party itself. That’s your blind spot.
But worse, the ‘there is no racism here’ argument fairly quickly dropped into slurring the people who were naming racism, and outright denial, without looking at what the actual arguments are. That’s is shameful on a left wing blog like ts.
Labour has done itself a tonne of long term damage with its Chinese ploy, got no polling bump for it, and lost a whole lot of activists.
It’s indicative of the state of the party that the hierarchy seems to think that this is fine.
Two contrasting faces of Labour. Where’s the NZ Labour party sitting? (The links are only for the sake of the photos)
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/cat-boyd-jeremy-corbyn-could-be-best-thing-to-happen-to-english-democracy-in-generations.5936
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/wee-ginger-dug-kezitis-its-a-compulsion-to-blame-it-all-on-the-snp.6010
I thought you two Greenies might pop up just so you could be hating on Labour again.
Interesting photos.
Diehard Labour supporters like Clemgeopin represent everything that’s wrong with the left in NZ today.
Thanks for that clem – a little bit of toy tossing is good every now and then and you have displayed it well.
Thanks. You are welcome, Marty.
Susan the Void
Susan Devoid.
Anne @ 4.3
Apols for error… she’s Race Relations Comm… not Human Rights. Going to bed.
I always thought Devoy was thick, like thick as short plank. You must be, if all your ambition in life is, is to hit a small fucking ball at a wall all day long. That is why she is out of her depth as the Race Relations Commissioner.
so you dont rate 3 dimensional chess on the move?
Two points from the article:
1) Labour are an “it”? (haha) Discuss.
2) “…Addressing a meeting of Auckland city councillors on Wednesday, she said debate on some issues was “deteriorating into racism”…”
Point two is accurate, I’d say: “Deteriorating into racism”. Plenty about the issue was just racism trying to hide behind tired old verbal tricks. There is a way that a hypothetical problem of people not being able to afford homes can be addressed, but it doesn’t need an ethnic/racial label attached to any of it, and no one so far has managed to start from that point because it undermines our existing widely-favoured economic preferences. Both racism and our economic outlook is destructive to a coherent society, and individuals, so it’s no surprise the two stubbornly hold hands on this issue.
That’s Battersea Power Station in London in the background, isn’t it?
Thought I recognised it. I think you’re right.
not unless they relocated the UN lawn 🙂
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11277175
Impressed by your research skills.
Observant folk will notice how the TTIP and the TPPA both contain the same individual phrase in their media materials, that is:
” to create the world’s largest free-trade zone, ”
You might wonder how each agreement can be individually claiming to create the world’s largest free-trade zone? Obviously they can’t. Perhaps someone employed in the journalism profession would be keen to find out these things? They could ask Tim Groser what he means when he says the TPPA will be “the world’s largest free trade zone”? Then follow up by asking him about the TTIP and what its promoters mean by claiming it is going to be “the world’s largest free trade zone”?
Then there are a few questions for him about TISA, the Trade in Services Agreement. Its aim is privatizing the worldwide trade of services. This includes critical infrastructure services such as banking, healthcare and transport. New Zealand is party to these negotiations also, but we never hear about it.
Why not?
While the TTIP, TPPA and TISA are all being hammered out, over in Africa they are working on TFTA, the Tripartite Free Trade Area.
What about Russia I hear someone ask? Well, they already signed their CISFTA Commonwealth of Independent States Free Trade Area and are said to be talking with the EU about a cross-over agreement that might see them as an adjunct to the TTIP and there have been noises that they may be invited to join TISA. Currently the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – have been excluded from the TISA negotiations. Brazil & India both objected to TISA being negotiated outside of the WTO GATS.
So what about China?
They have asked to join the TISA talks, the EU is reported to support its application because it wants as many countries as possible to join the agreement but on the flip side, reports of US pressure suggests they are unlikely to be invited to join the TPPA any time soon.
Brazil & India by the way, whilst not currently party to any of the major agreements, are working on several trade agreements of their own with countries who are involved with the TTIP and the TPPA and are both listed as potential prospects. When and if they join TISA probably depends on the WTO GATS decision about the final form of TISA
Apart from resembling a bowl of alphabetti spaghetti, what could it all mean? The only logical conclusion is they are stepping stones towards a global trade agreement. One super massive free-trade zone of privatised public services and corporate controlled commerce. In other words, “the world’s largest free trade zone”. A trade zone so big it will be seen from space, seeing as Earth, you know, is visible from space.
What a nightmare.
And it will have nothing to do with ‘free-trade’ and everything to do with keeping the corporations and the rich in power.
“everything to do with keeping the corporations and the rich in power”
…and lots to do with ultimately controlling governments, the people, their laws, independence, freedom, democracy and sovereignty. Think about that. Very big corporates and the very wealthy entities controlling everything everywhere! We have a set of non-far-thinking dumb-arsed politicians.
The safest and the best way to go is bilateral country to country governmental agreements where we have better control and not these non-multi-party secret agreements primarily controlled by the corporates.
The real losers will be all our future generations.
Whoops….
The penultimate paragraph should read:
‘The safest and the best way to go are bilateral country to country governmental agreements where we have better say, safety and control, and not these multi-country secret agreements which are primarily controlled by the big global corporates.’
Decades ago there were science fiction predictions of the World being divided into large multi-national States. Say Eastern Zone and Western Zone with each having a central Governing Body/Security/Financial Controls. Perhaps this Zones are becoming realities?
I’m not sure about that, Greece almost left the Euro and would have ruptured the whole continent. Then there’s Scotland.. and I heard something about Texas wanting to break away. So I think we’re heading in the opposite direction. These global agreements are the final straw for global domination, hopefully.
Although in saying that China and Russia are working closer together now, talking about a combined currency.
“Zones are becoming realities?”
At a corporate level they have been very real for a long time. 🙁
A good example of how an industry goes ahead and carves up a nation for monopolistic endeavours is telecommunications.
The whole vid linked below is worth watching if you haven’t seen it, but the information specifically relevant to the point above starts at 7:15 (and runs to 8:25) It is just one minor example but few examples have the boss saying it quite so openly.
Chris Hedges writes of how Marx predicted correctly our current state of affairs.
Certainly bankster fraud, corporate welfare, never ending war, and hoarding of capital has created ever increasing poverty, global instability leading to governmental crises, and the pillaging of the middle class.
Hedge’s essay savages corporations, and rightfully so in my opinion.
And people wonder why I’m an libertarian-communist.
I just read the latest John Armstrong, its all Labours fault, & anyway, it wasn’t a bribe because the Govt got no benefit from it, & isn’t John Key so masterful etc….ugh!
“No benefit? No bribe.” hahaha. Jesus.
In Amstrong’s World, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, it makes no sound. Furthermore, back in the city, the tree is imagined to still be standing – the ledger says so – and the forest thrives, ripe for harvesting!
How can you jeopardise your eyesight by reading shit written by Armstrong.?
I suppose someone has to do the tough jobs to keep us informed what crap that prat writes.
I like reading what the readers below an article are saying. The first comment below that article under ‘most liked’ with 122 likes, by one ‘wiseacre’, shows how out of touch, dumb arsed and idiotic Armstrong has become in his thinking about this corrupt and dodgy sheep episode: Here is the comment:
“One reason was that the Prime Minister outmaneuvered Opposition parties. John Key had a simple line and he stuck to it whatever question was asked.”
So, blatant lying is *outmaneuvering* now is it?
John Key knows that if he sticks to a line the media will repeat it without challenge, and that is the message that will stick in the public’s consciousness. Who cares if it’s complete rubbish, right?
None of the official documents support National’s version of events. Quite the contrary.
National bribed a Saudi billionaire in the hope of getting a trade deal that has never eventuated, the Auditor-General had serious reservations about the deal, Treasury objected to the deal, and everything National has said about it – including trying to blame Labour – have been abject lies.
If only the media held John Key as accountable for his claims as they do the Opposition.
John Key provides false and evasive disinformation. Every. Single. Day. And it gets shrugged away. The mainstream media is failing in its fourth estate duty to hold the government to account over its lies and deceit.
Heads need to roll, with charges of corruption and bribery laid against the relevant Ministers.”
QFT
In Vernon Small’s piece over at Fluff he makes a purposeful statement detailing how David Carter was telling the public how live animal exports would not resume under his watch! but Vernon Small then completely fails to mention how at the same time, David Carter was also involved with behind the scene discussions on resuming live exports.