Daily review 18/12/2023

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, December 18th, 2023 - 21 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 …

21 comments on “Daily review 18/12/2023 ”

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  1. Adrian 1
    18 December 2023 at 6:51 pm

    Where has the idea come from that this is Peters last stand, l have heard hints of speculation but don’t recall him actually saying anything himself. Can anyone confirm the rumours please?

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    18 December 2023 at 7:15 pm

    Pablo does not like it.

    "There is something profoundly ugly about this, yet it is an approach to governing that is celebrated by rightwing groups like the Tax Payers and Free Speech “Unions,” assorted rightwing bloggers and, now that Elon Mush has opened the lid on the septic tank, a bunch of reactionary, racist, misogynistic and gay- and trans-phobic social media trolls, to say nothing of the reactionaries on platforms like Counterspin, The Platform and Reality Check Radio. It as if NACT1st has ripped a scab off the NZ body politic and out has oozed the pustulence of rightwing authoritarian-minded intolerance, greed and bigotry."

    https://www.kiwipolitico.com/2023/12/turn-to-nasty/

    • weka 2.1
      18 December 2023 at 8:01 pm

      Trump did that. He normalised that kind of politics and behaviour, and increasing numbers of people have been pushing the edge and figuring out how far they can go. National and ACT have been building on that since 2016. Social media feeds it steroids.

      • weka 2.1.1
        18 December 2023 at 8:04 pm

        and this btw, is why my fundamental position is that we have to build bridges with people that think differently from us. I'm not talking about Luxon and Seymour, but the ordinary blokes and blokesses who voted for them and don't think they're that bad. We desperately need to offer them a place to belong that doesn't include reactionary politics and getting to express the worst of humanity. The great crises are scaring people and acting out makes people feel better and like they have some control. Best we offer an alternative to that while we still can.

      • joe90 2.1.2
        18 December 2023 at 9:48 pm

        The rise of once-left opportunists jumping on the far right gravy train.

        .

        How to name the rude currents eroding the Left, those which have claimed the hearts, minds and Substacks of so many former friends and fellow travelers? There are the journalist-provocateurs and the readers who have followed them rightward, the Trumpers-come-lately marching on to Glenn Greenwald’s Rumble or vanishing into Max Blumenthal’s Grayzone.

        […]

        These left-to-right sliders (or at least left-ish-to-right) — themselves migrants across the political divide — find themselves in strange constellation with those they might once have disdained. Pop feminist icon Naomi Wolf now conferences with hard-right student organizer Charlie Kirk over the prospect of ​“capital punishment” for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. YouTuber Jimmy Dore, another once-left comedian who lost hold of the joke, now marvels over his meeting of the minds with Tucker Carlson: ​“We should do a show together!” Call it The Horseshoe Hour.

        Except ​“horseshoe theory,” which imagines a political spectrum bending to meet at its extremes, doesn’t describe this drift. It goes in one direction.

        It’s easy to dismiss many of these high-profile defectors as crackpots or spotlight-seekers, as never truly serious in their political principles or as plain grifters. Because of course there is money to be made by saying, ​“Once I was blind, but now I see.” It permits the Steve Bannons of the world to affirm their political faith not as an argument, but just the truth. But, in some ways, the peculiarities of the celebrity drifters are beside the point.

        The point is who they bring along.

        https://inthesetimes.com/article/former-left-right-fascism-capitalism-horseshoe-theory

        • Morrissey 2.1.2.1
          19 December 2023 at 7:32 am

          "It’s easy to dismiss many of these high-profile defectors as crackpots or spotlight-seekers, as never truly serious in their political principles or as plain grifters."

          So Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal and Jimmy Dore have "defected", have they? You mean, they have refused to endorse the Democratic Party's war-mongering against Russia (it started long before the U.S.-backed Maidan coup and the now totally discredited Russiagate hysteria) and they have refused to endorse the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.

          Why shouldn't one of those outstanding journalists go on Tucker Carlson's show? On the issue of Russiagate, he was, and is, completely skeptical—and completely correct.

          Greenwald, Blumenthal, Dore appear on right wing shows occasionally and push a message of tolerance and humanitarianism. They are almost completely blocked from MSNBC and CNN, which have chosen as their go-to commentators a line-up of war criminals and moral monsters like Karl Rove, John Brennan, Condoleezza Rice–hilariously, she railed against Russia for invading another country—and a regular cast of old army generals.

  3. Anne 3
    18 December 2023 at 7:40 pm

    Thanks for the heads up Robert.

    Paul Buchanan is always a must read. Also like the subsequent paragraph giving his view on the new government:

    The good news is that the combination of narcissistic egos and incompetence that is the hallmark of the new government may well be their undoing. They are simply too stupid, too myopic, too crass, craven and venal to understand the subtitles and nuances involved in crafting lasting policy for the betterment of the commonweal. Or perhaps that has never been their intention.

    Talking of Argentina, Ruth Richardson spent a lot of time in Argentina talking up the new neo-liberal philosophy and she assisted them to set it up in the 1990s and 2000s – possibly beyond.

  4. Ad 4
    18 December 2023 at 7:56 pm

    Brutal day for Labour tomorrow.

    They've gone through worse.

    But it's 9 years ago.

  6. Muttonbird 6
    18 December 2023 at 9:29 pm

    The one and only thing which has made a material difference to me in post Wayne Brown world is the stupid, unusable foodscrap bin.

    Woke nonsense from the walking skeleton.

    • Anne 6.1
      18 December 2023 at 9:41 pm

      It means you have to have two scrap bins – one for food and another for sloppy food wrappings and other gooey things. Sorry Mr. Brown but its joined the other discarded odds and ends in the garage.

      • Muttonbird 6.1.1
        18 December 2023 at 9:48 pm

        Gnome-sized unless food scrap bins will be this idiot's legacy.

        I assume he will fight the waterfront football stadium for some strange reason.

      • Visubversa 6.1.2
        19 December 2023 at 8:53 am

        We have no problem with the food scrap bin. The little bucket just sits on the bench by the sink. We use the pink plastic bags and put anything that meets the criteria straight into it. If one gets a bit whiffy – we tie off the bag and pop it in the freezer until collection time. We have a compost bin for garden waste but we don't put meat scraps etc into it.

        This saves space in our "kitchen tidy" bin inside, and our "red top" bin which is outside.

        It also stops this sort of compostable material going to landfill.

        • Anne 6.1.2.1
          19 December 2023 at 9:25 am

          "… we tie off the bag and pop it in the freezer until collection time. "

          Never thought of doing that. blush

          I will have to do a major re-arrangement of kitchen bench but will have a go after Xmas. 🙂

  7. roblogic 7
    18 December 2023 at 9:42 pm

    Is this real? I am afraid for our people

    While in Opposition, @NZNationalParty @chrisluxonmp et al. complained unrelentingly that @nzlabour had not built enough houses.

    Now, tho, we find that the Nats are VERY interested in the 40Bil asset base, and want to sell it to the highest bidder, to pay for their tax cuts.

    https://x.com/jandal_it/status/1736627770950918637?s=46&t=YQYWab08lrynsGdyx3LLKg

  8. Joe90 8
    19 December 2023 at 12:55 am

    Craig Renney did the sums.

    Nominally, the Interisland Resilient Connection would cost an average $19.55 per person, per year, over its 50-year lifetime. After adjusting for inflation over the 50 years, this would fall to an average $11.12 per person, per year, in 2025 dollars. The landlord tax cut costs an average of $232 per person, per year, before inflation adjustment. After inflation adjustment, each New Zealander would be paying an average of $139 per person, per year, in 2025 dollars.

    Simply put: the landlord tax cuts are around 12 times the cost of the Interislander project. Given the size of the fiscal difference between the two policies, cancelling those tax cuts would also free up billions more for new projects that would reduce New Zealand’s infrastructure gap and help deliver a more sustainable economy. Do you believe that you are getting 12 times the value from that policy?

    https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350132969/kiwirail-ferry-costs-prioritise-new-zealand-or-prioritise-landlords

    • Drowsy M. Kram 8.1
      19 December 2023 at 11:03 am

      Do you believe that you are getting 12 times the value from that policy?

      Willis could honestly answer 'yes' – Luxon too, if he’s honest.

      On National’s Tax Cuts [31 August 2023]
      Here's how Willis reacted when asked about how much she stood to personally receive from her party’s tax cut proposals:

      ’In our family of two incomes we’d get $80 a fortnight. And kids, that means instead of movie night meaning DVDs and Tip Top at home, we might go out to the movies.”

      Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. – Einstein