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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, July 21st, 2020 - 57 comments
Categories: Daily review -
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As I keenly observe our political landscape I have to say it's totally depressing.
I'm sure that it takes more energy to be an arsehole.
Than to just behave like a decent human being.
Yup.
It takes less words to tell the truth than to cover up a lie. So less time used more energy.
19 September no longer feels too far away.
No-one's going to get anything done in Parliament now with the government parties fully at each other.
Ah to be a tv reporter at National Party campaign headquarters when we take them back down to the 25% range, and take out solid blue seats.
25%? Very unlikely. And be careful what you wish for.
I want National to lose big, but unlike many (most?) on the left I don't want a 2002 meltdown. It was ACT, NZF and UF who benefited most from that, not Labour. That brought in some really terrible right wing MPs on their 3 lists. Worse than mediocre Nats, as it turned out.
Number 30 or 40 on National's list will still be better than nos 6 or 7 on ACT's list. Or NZF surviving thanks to Nat voters.
Took them 2 more terms to recover. I'll take that.
In 2020 Act will pull in about 4 seats, NZF will get nothing, Greens will get about 7-9.
Time to crush National so bad we destroy the old guard like it's 1935.
It's that kind of moment.
Your numbers don't add up.
Also, it was 2 terms relying on UF/NZF. Hardly transformational.
Yes MMP existed. It still does. Get over it. National were out for 3 terms.
I'm amazed you have so little political or policy ambition.
The opposite. I want and expect a Labour-Green majority. I certainly want the Greens' share of that majority to be higher than it is now. There will be less "ambition" if they don't have it.
In 2002 Parliament missed out on those oh-so-terrible Tories like Chester Borrows and replaced them with ultra-right horrors like Muriel Newman and Paul Adams (UF)
Not a swap that I'd take again, thanks. They obstructed social reform for those 2 terms. It took over a decade to catch up.
If ACT get across the threshold that's 6 seats minimum and with the ongoing meltdown of National that's entirely possible.
Yeah, get the feeling this may be the end of NZF. Winston definitely.
Greens at 7 to 9 percent would be good. More would be better.
1936 when National formed on the remnants of the old Reform and Liberal parties after they were struck by fear that, as Don Brash named the people, the punters out in punterland may actually have a say in running their country.
Act won't get over the threshold but Epsom will drag in a couple. That soft 12% of swinging Nat vote is ours this time.
Possibly but I won't be surprised to see enough of National's more liberal members vote ACT pushing it over threshold.
With a centrist like Muller as leader, pretty much assured that ACT would be over 5%, but at National's expense.
With Collins at the front, well that's going to drag the ACT leaning voter right back into National.
Muller failed because National was loosing too many votes (and MP's jobs) to ACT, Collins is there to save as many jobs as they can.
"Time to crush National so bad we destroy the old guard…"
Aggressive language; have you been chatting with Jacinda?
Time to "CRUSH KILL DESTROY" the Crusher.
Well that is nice.
The quoted sentence (in comment 2.1.1) contains aggressive language, IMHO.
The Lost in Space clip is OTT fun, and that episode had a happy ending for the "Instant Destroyer and Killer" super android! I don’t favour a "Crush Kill Destroy" style of politics or political campaigning – it’s a real turn-off.
I wish I could share your optimism, Ad. I really do.
Its not over till its over. I wont be celebrating till midnight on 19th September. (the day after my 40th birthday…..)
worse than medicore Nats?…perhaps but at least they were up front…it appears to me that the likes of ACT, (although I oppose them with a passion) are at least honest with their agenda….the Nats, less so
Watching the response from some of the electors in Faloons electorate gives you the impression they don't care who the MP representing them is, as long as they're National.
No real expectation of any morality or anything else, just as long as they're a National person.
This may be part of the problem, if electors aren't concerned, it gives the party member a lot of leeway to do whatever they like, as long as they're National.
It is entirely possible that some don’t view the Nat Party as a moral vacuum or wasteland at all and that the Party replacing one bad apple with a good one is the right and natural thing to do. In fact, that shows to them that the Party is functioning with a moral compass despite some people jumping up & down and popping blood vessels in the white of their eyes arguing the exact opposite. Wishing (!!) does it make it so.
I'm sure that they're are some moral National voters. Unfortunately, they wouldn't know what corruption was if it slapped them with a lawsuit.
An in-law was a policy advisor for National over decades. A story he likes to tell everybody goes like this:
When Shipley was PM he approached her and asked what she was going to do about Death Taxes. She responded that if he couldn’t avoid them then he probably shouldn’t be in the National Party.
Weak explanation. Shipley is not representative of all past, present, and future Nat MPs or its staffers. Shipley is most definitely not representative of Nat voters; in 2017 over one million people voted for National. They have been one of the two major parties in NZ for decades. All that because their supporters/voters don’t know the meaning or can’t recognise corruption? I expected something a little more compelling from you 😉
The person I was talking to was a policy advisor for decades and he really didn't seem to understand that the cheating he was talking about was corruption.
Things, there are many who are the same. The people who pay cash for jobs so that they can get it cheaper because the tradesman isn’t paying taxes. The business person who go to Maccas with his wife and kids and gets receipt so that he can put it on the business (seen it done).
They’re little and so people don’t see it as the theft and corruption that it is.
Your premise is totally dependent on this though
"the Party replacing one bad apple with a good one"
You asume the replacement is "better" than the one just removed.
You could also argue, and this does apply to National, that the replacement is equally bad, sometimes, even worse.
I'd also argue that the last 2 or 3 weeks have proven that theory, not mentioning any names..
I was talking from the PoV of a hypothetical (imaginary, if you like) Nat supporter. You know, those people who sometimes prefer to vote for National. They do exist, you know. Do they suffer from major cognitive dissonance and can only people who vote for, say, Labour see the truth? Why would anybody vote for a bunch of ‘bad apples’? Self-interest only goes so far. I look forward to your explanation.
There are 3 weeks left in this parliamentary sitting before the House rises on August 6 and the GG drops the writ on August 16, effectively firing the starting gun on the campaign. Given that neither the PM or Leader of the Opposition usually attend the House on a Thursday that means that Collins has 6 Questions Times left to take the fight to Ardern. Going by today’s rather lacklustre effort she’s going to need all of them.
Alison Mau is not impressed by Falloon or Collins.
"https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300061996/national-mp-andrew-falloon-scandal-lets-not-forget-the-women-affected-by-this"
great article. I attempted to raise the issue on another post that grief and drinking are separate issues from sending inappropriate text to women.
Mau expresses it well
Alison wrote about what Collins could do now to prove her sincerity:
Fat hope!
The biggest reason she would also be unlikely to release it is that I bet both she and her deputy could possibly feature heavily in it.
Robert, it's been quite interesting watching some of the media cohorts squirming as they have to report and present news articles about their favoured party and there's no way of presenting it in a favourable light
We know who they are, it's blatantly obvious.
Not that it is a big deal, the problem with trying to argue with post on here like your Mau's ends up getting you banned for a week,
[Really? I’ll tell what does get you banned here and that is making up shit about moderation here. A lying troll is as bad as a lying MP and moderation/banning is just the perfect anti-dote – Incognito]
Actually, it is a big deal. Such immoral behaviour needs to be recognised and punished – not swept under the rug as, apparently, Judith Collins tried to do.
See my Moderation note @ 12:29 AM.
My local dinosaur Nat MP targets the Greens' energy policy: https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/122187375/a-labourgreen-government-would-see-the-end-of-taranaki-as-we-know-it-says-jonathan-young
So extricating ourselves from fossil fuel dependency is boosting our contribution to global warming. Is he right about this paradox??
Dunno about the yeah bit. If he is actually correct. Wouldn't surprise me if our leftists are trying to get away with a smoke & mirrors scam. It's what lefists do. Equally, it wouldn't surprise me if he's making false claims. It's what the Nats do. Is there anything actually real about energy policy??
No, really, they don't. That would be National and other right-whingers.
Young could do worse than continue hammering Labour on electricity prices, policy, and regulation. Ain't no-one buying that hydrogen crap this government is preaching in Taranaki.
"Ain't no-one buying that hydrogen crap this government is preaching in Taranaki."
Hydrogen = magic fairy dust.
Got that ole broad brush out there again eh. In praxis how aligned are you with your local dinosaur?
😀
We're all getting older, so readers may benefit from learning how old folk incorporate resilience lifestyles to age well.
This apparently is for real, Tova O’Brien knocked on door of Andrew Falloon’s mother. Can someone who saw it please give some context, because I can't see any valid reason for this. However annoying O'Brien's terrier approach is to politicians, family are a different matter entirely.
It isn't for real. A reporter did, Tova didn't.
It's disheartening how often people watch the 6 pm news and don't pay attention, or don't understand editing, and leap to conclusions (where do they think Tova spent the day? Timaru or Parliament?). It's a fair gripe, but not against O'Brien.
Either way, whoever did it and whoever included it in their "news" report, it was a lazy and sleazy act.
Yes it was.
But now we have a huge social media pile-on, an audience that thinks she interviewed Nat MPs in the morning and reported on Parliament in the afternoon and somehow flew down to Rangitata in her lunch break. And you wouldn't want any of them as eyewitnesses to a crime, because the clip clearly shows it is not her.
But far more importantly … Nobody seems capable of looking past a face on a screen, as the target. Nobody seems aware that bulletin producers and heads of news departments make the bigger decisions about what reporters do. They are anonymous suits in Auckland, so who cares. (Anybody who wants better news, that's who).
Instead of tracing the tabloid television back to the demands of corporate owners, we have Tova-hate, which used to be Paddy-hate or Guyon-hate or whoever it was.
If we're that shallow and stupid, maybe we get the telly we deserve.
Maybe coz she's capable of such action, and it was a Newshub thing, I certainly don't consider her a journalist anymore, I figure she's after a Hosking or Garner type role.
And if she fell under a bus tomorrow, her replacement would be Ed Murrow? Woodward and Bernstein?
No. It would be the next Tova. It's Mediaworks.
Forty three to go.
/
https://twitter.com/ibeblackgirl/status/1285304744727187457
As of March 2020, six U.S. states have prohibited discrimination based on hair texture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_based_on_hair_texture_in_the_United_States
Hell of a country.
Wow! History has been made here in New Plymouth tonight! Looks like there's been a sea-change out there in white supremacy land:
And the current mayor turned out to be so gutless that he parked himself on the sidelines:
Hard fought.
Now they just need to vote to give back Waitara.
I appreciate it's been a bit hard being a National supporter lately. The old saying 'when the going gets tough' came to mind today while I was checking out Kiwiblog.
When the going gets tough the tough get going? Or engage the brain and rationalise the situation? No, you come up with whatever angle you can to blame or implicate J Ardern or Labour.
The sad bastards deserve their mob to disintegrate and be humbled in the election.
Or the Newshub poll, a man sends unsolicited porn to women, who's fault is it? Jacindas or Judiths?
I'm popping this here – I can't get action from my system otherwise.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/421702/green-party-candidate-steve-abel-arrested-during-tree-felling-protest-in-avondale
Beautiful trees, down in a trice. Those who protest are heroes and heroines. Yes the Protections need to be put back. This RMA has not been suitable for citizens purpose I think, speculators maybe.
+100!
Went and took a peek 🕵️♀️ at kw, as you do when something big politically goes down.
An apologist post grasping at straws, linking the 'young' age and lack of offspring, of certain disgraced MP's… falloon, barclay, walker and JLR, as the newest excuse.
dpf, of dirty politics fame 🚽, lamenting he's more responsible now he has a daughter ….
But the real kicker…..a large advert …'meet tender girls nearby'… with a photo of a young girl.
What an actual fucktard.
The Farrar thing about becoming a parent caught my attention too.
"I'm an arsehole, I'm an arsehole, I'm an arsehole … oops, I've become a parent… I'm not an arsehole…
Well, only when I go to work.