Daily review 08/02/2024

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, February 8th, 2024 - 28 comments
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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 …

28 comments on “Daily review 08/02/2024 ”

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  1. Robert Guyton 1
    8 February 2024 at 5:59 pm

    "The right is certainly adept at running these kinds of diversionary campaigns. Look over there at the trans people in your restrooms, or at the kids with cell-phones at school, while we quietly allow agriculture and other polluting industries to continue to poison the waterways and make the climate change impacts even worse."

    Gordon Campbell spells it out.

    http://werewolf.co.nz/2024/02/gordon-campbell-on-the-politics-as-a-morality-play/

    • Incognito 1.1
      8 February 2024 at 7:06 pm

      A good provocative piece that contains a few (short) statements (in fact, assertions) that scream out to me for strong yet constructive criticism. Unfortunately, I don’t have the bandwidth to dedicate a Post to it 🙁

      However, I’ll say this much: as long as people get sucked in and bogged down by polarising divisive ‘culture wars’ and the likes and waste their mental power on reflexive defence and apology it will be BAU and TINA. The recent developments around the Treaty and the resulting unifying forces give me hope that there’s a path forward, one that might come out of left field [pun intended].

      • weka 1.1.1
        8 February 2024 at 7:37 pm

        The recent developments around the Treaty and the resulting unifying forces give me hope that there’s a path forward, one that might come out of left field [pun intended].

        I really hope so. We wasted the opportunity with climate, let's hope we've learned how to work with the potential for change.

        The analysis of politics and morality is interesting. Campbell is right that we need a vision but the left has swapped out that for a purity spiral. The purity spiral is the centre left's version of trans bathroom/cellphones in schools. It distracts from the fact that Labour doubled down on neoliberalism. Here, have a few bones lefties, of identity politics, that way we don't have to think about structural change.

        The best vision I see is coming from the leading edge on climate activism, the people who are saying it's not enough to react, we have to show people that there is a humungous crisis, but also there is this other way of living and managing society that isn't BAU/head in the sand or 'we're all fucked'/collapse.

        I think a lot currently about how hard it is to talk about that other way and how much the left resists it. Māori might be the ones to break us out of the binary.

        • Incognito 1.1.1.1
          8 February 2024 at 8:19 pm

          Māori might be the ones to break us out of the binary.

          QFT and this is my gut feeling too, and the Greens have a lot in common with them and to offer here too.

          The hyper-individualism on steroids of the neo-liberal Right & Left must be replaced by something meaningful, purposeful, and with a very strong value system at its foundation. I’ve always felt that this is possible but now I’m starting to think (and hope) that it’s actually within reach.

          • Robert Guyton 1.1.1.1.1
            8 February 2024 at 8:35 pm

            This guy, Bryan Cadogan.

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/132399790/clutha-mayor-cadogan-tells-stop-co-governance-tour-leader-to-get-out-of-town

            Oldish news, and Bryan has made more since, but he's our poster-boy down South, leading the way, speaking from the heart.

            • gsays 1.1.1.1.1.1
              9 February 2024 at 12:34 pm

              No, not that guy.

              I have no truck with Batchelor and his views.

              Cadogan, from what I read in the article, appeared arrogant and on dodgy ground with cancelling a booking the night before.

              Rather than being above the culture wars, he is the sort keeping them going.

              I get you approve of Cadogan but he is not the sort of person to unite, inspire and lead a fairly disparate group through the challenges we face in pivoting to a way less carbon dense lifestyle.

              • Robert Guyton …
                9 February 2024 at 12:45 pm

                Bryan Cadogan called out Bachelor for what he is.

                • gsays …
                  9 February 2024 at 3:30 pm

                  Kinda my point.

                  A unifying leader doesn't call people out.

                  It's a great permaculture affirmation when dealing with people.

                  Don't ask who or why questions, ask how and when questions.

                  • Robert Guyton …
                    9 February 2024 at 3:56 pm

                    Bryan had the wellbeing of his constituents in mind when he gave Bachelor the bum's rush.

                    Anyone in the rohe still keen to hear the garbage-talk could travel to the next venue.

                    • gsays …
                      9 February 2024 at 4:06 pm

                      I realise now, you are deliberately avoiding my point.

                      Have a good what remains of the afternoon.

          • gsays 1.1.1.1.2
            9 February 2024 at 12:39 pm

            "must be replaced by something meaningful, purposeful, and with a very strong value system at its foundation."

            Something like Organic Aotearoa 2050?

            A shift in politics where the country becomes more independent and resilient by manufacturing the majority of its pharmaceuticals, reinvest in local production of clothing, footwear and textiles.

            Where a family can be raised and a mortgage paid by one adult working.

    • weka 1.2
      8 February 2024 at 7:57 pm

      “The right is certainly adept at running these kinds of diversionary campaigns. Look over there at the trans people in your restrooms, or at the kids with cell-phones at school, while we quietly allow agriculture and other polluting industries to continue to poison the waterways and make the climate change impacts even worse.”

      I think this was a kind of sidebar in Campbell’s piece, but it bears teasing out.

      Smart phones are central in inhibiting and undermining imagination in humans. They should definitely not be in schools. But! says the lefties, you are missing the point weka, which is that the right are using this to distract people from the real issues of climate and such.

      No, I’m not missing the point, I’m closing the loop and pointing to the larger dynamic. Of course the right are using that issue. But that doesn’t mean they are wrong. The fact that they are right about cell phones in schools is why the strategy works. People get intuitively that the cells phones are a serious problem, so respect to the party that wants to ban them, in the absence of the left doing anything useful about it. The left sits on its hands and fails to take a both/and approach and then comes across as stupid for not taking the issue seriously and trying to paint it as only a diversion.

      And again, smart phones rot our brains, they are a driver of the diminishment of imagination, and it is exactly imagination that we need to see, understand, and develop the pathways out of the climate/ecology crises we face. If the left won on this, kept cell phones in schools and got one of our neoliberal governments to act on climate, we would fail because of lack of imagination. This is what happened with the open door opportunity that come with the pandemic. We handed money and power to the people with little imagination and here we are now.

      Same with the gender/sex issue. It’s not trans people in bathrooms, it’s males in women’s spaces. And most women and many men (who would also support trans people’s human rights and wellbeing) understand that this is just plain wrong and dangerous. Of course the right is going to make hay with the issue. And all the left can do is double down on telling people they’re morally wrong, but it’s too late, they already left the room.

      Campbell gets 3/4 of the way there and then falters. I think this is why there are no solutions in the piece.

      • Robert Guyton 1.2.1
        8 February 2024 at 8:07 pm

        No, weka 🙂

        What "bears teasing out" is this bit:

        "while we quietly allow agriculture and other polluting industries to continue to poison the waterways and make the climate change impacts even worse.”"

        Those are the big issues.

        And that's the point Campbell was making.

        Also, I don't believe "Māori will break us out of the binary" – this is the opportunity for all of us to realise that it's the gestalt of 2 or more parties, the dynamic that is created between agencies, that is the force needed for positive change and progress. Imo.

        • weka 1.2.1.1
          8 February 2024 at 9:28 pm

          Those are the big issues.

          Yes. That is exactly what I just said. What I would like to know is how you read my comment and apparently missed that.

          Also, I don't believe "Māori will break us out of the binary" – this is the opportunity for all of us to realise that it's the gestalt of 2 or more parties, the dynamic that is created between agencies, that is the force needed for positive change and progress. Imo.

          Yes. The issue is whether enough people will see/understand/take the opportunity. Understand what is needed is the first thing. Understanding how we can achieve that is the next thing. This is what is missing from much leftist analysis (not speaking about you here). Lots of people have good ideas on what should be happening. Knowing how to get there is a different thing.

    • weka 2.1
      8 February 2024 at 7:19 pm

      now, now, the memo that went out is that Atlas don't donate appreciable sums to ACT (or TPU), therefore nothing to see here.

      There's a whole thread on it here from our resident RW troll, who somehow couldn't understand why it would be intentional, smart strategy for AN to not donate directly.

      https://thestandard.org.nz/toitu-te-tiriti/#comment-1988400

      Seymour used to work for orgs that were part of the Atlas Network, but he doesn't any more. No ties now. He's not really lying. And so on.

      • Incognito 2.1.1
        8 February 2024 at 7:30 pm

        You got me at “our resident RW troll” and I had to click on the link to find out whom (or rather, which one) you meant surprise

        Of course, Seymour is the link, one of many in a whole chain of links.

        • weka 2.1.1.1
          8 February 2024 at 7:43 pm

          Heh. I think the clue was in resident. He’s been doing it a long time. The others are just upstarts.

          very good naming DS as being the link!

          • Robert Guyton 2.1.1.1.1
            8 February 2024 at 8:17 pm

            Seymour has been, if I recall correctly, portrayed as the court jester, free to say whatever he wants without censure. You might have noticed, however, that the jester is often pictured, holding a puppet made in his own likeness, on a stick. That's Seymour. That's why he was able to remain largely unaffected by the furious wero at Waitangi and how he was able to rant on and on, despite the waiata on the paepae directing him to sit down, where Peters did as he was bid very smartly. Seymour's neurodivergence, coupled with his ideology, makes him immune to regular pressures. Anyone hoping to shame him, or frighten him, will be disappointed. Stick-puppets don't have the same feelings.

            • Muttonbird 2.1.1.1.1.1
              8 February 2024 at 8:25 pm

              Bravo. Seymour is a hologram which the wealthy, racist right coalesce around. He's a tool, their tool.

              • Incognito …
                8 February 2024 at 8:34 pm

                The Hologram is quite a sophisticated cunning tool and like an AI that hallucinates occasionally. As with recent AI (GPT) apps, many people cannot tell when they hallucinate and they fail to check.

            • SPC 2.1.1.1.1.2
              8 February 2024 at 8:26 pm

              The Atlantis Network creates ideologues or media infuencers (both individuals and groups), to support/protect established (wealth) privilege from popular social democracy.

              Once recognised they serve as approved agents (sock puppets of the organ grinder) as per Epsom – the tea party.

              Libertarians are the suited SA who think they are destined to be SS (some of course remember what happened to Rohm in the bathroom and those grifters will have an exit plan).

            • weka 2.1.1.1.1.3
              8 February 2024 at 9:32 pm

              very good analysis here, thanks.

    • Anne 2.2
      8 February 2024 at 7:26 pm

      From the link:

      It's worth noting that Debbi Gibbs, the Atlas Network chair that Seymour references, is the daughter of Alan Gibbs, who was a long-time member of Atlas Network member organisation, the Business Roundtable (now the New Zealand Initiative). Alan Gibbs is also a founding member of the ACT Party, and has frequently donated large sums of money to the party.

      Alan Gibbs was more than just a donor. He was responsible for setting up ACT in the first place. He ruled the party with an iron rod behind the scene for years. The chances are, he had a hand in setting up Seymour as leader in the first place.

      And here's another 'topical' tidbit:

      Back in the early days ACT had a Maori section in their lavish headquarters in Auckland which was staffed with Maori from the Hawkes Bay – Donna Awatere Huata's stomping ground. When he discovered it's presence Gibbs had it immediately closed down and the staff sacked on the spot.

  3. SPC 3
    8 February 2024 at 7:40 pm

    Gangs use supply of marijuana and E to get customers for the more addictive meth, cut their link to the market.

    Allow low THC and E sales, people to grow their own and isolate gang supply of meth.

    In Mexico they are now cutting cocaine with fentanyl to addict people more quickly.

    The fewer links in the chain to addictive drug slavery the better.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/02/08/significant-quantities-of-meth-mdma-seized-from-imported-vans/

  5. Robert Guyton 5
    8 February 2024 at 8:27 pm

    This looks interesting.

    "The film thus poses thoughtfully the concern that perhaps true community doesn’t mean withdrawal. It means reconnection. Despite everything, Comer’s character turns back to the world. To what end? To stay with the trouble and help build a future in it for her child, along with her neighbours. "

    Catastrophic sea-level rise and what to do when your city is inundated.

    The end we start from.

    https://dark-mountain.net/the-end-of-the-beginning/

  6. SPC 6
    8 February 2024 at 10:50 pm

    The Michael Cullen and Grant Robertson Fund is now worth over $70B – these two men placed $25B into it.

    Bill English could have added $18B to that, but chose not to – a conservative estimate is that our national wealth is $10B less because of his decision.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/super-funds-returns-back-in-black-after-stellar-year-for-stocks/7C5YVNQNN5FU7OPWCA4KR7HOCU/