Daily Review 26/10/2018

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, October 26th, 2018 - 59 comments
Categories: Daily review, uncategorized - 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 …

And because it is the weekend …

 

59 comments on “Daily Review 26/10/2018 ”

    • Draco T Bastard 1.1

      Time to go cashless then.

      • One Two 1.1.1

        No.

        Draco, for someone who has a reasonably strong grasp on what ailes this world, including the financial shortcomings…

        It makes your blindspot for cashless all the more illogical…

        Have a think…

        • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1

          I’ve thought about it. That’s why I wrote it up.

          So far no one has been able to come up with an argument against it.

          • WILD KATIPO 1.1.1.1.1

            OK, – Here’s one… who’s going to be ultimately in charge of that cashless society and going by the latest behavior with the ChiNational party do you really think whoever it will be can be trusted?

            I’d hate to think how the Euros or Americans or Chinese or anyone else would love to have all that economic power over the rest of the world.

            You are better off with individual curreny’s despite all its shortcomings.

            • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.1.1

              who’s going to be ultimately in charge of that cashless society and going by the latest behavior with the ChiNational party do you really think whoever it will be can be trusted?

              Yes, we need to make sure to change it so that we’re the government that parliament is merely the administrators and that foreign influence is removed from our politics.

              That, of course, all needs to happen.

              I’d hate to think how the Euros or Americans or Chinese or anyone else would love to have all that economic power over the rest of the world.

              They already have that power. Only a sovereign money system can remove it.

              You are better off with individual curreny’s despite all its shortcomings.

              You’re advocating that every individual have their own currency?

          • McFlock 1.1.1.1.2

            Beggars can’t afford an eftpos machine.

            • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.2.1

              That makes absolutely no sense.

              • McFlock

                You know, folks with a hat and a sign sitting in the streets like they have nowhere to go.

                Without cash, how do people give them money? Or buskers, for that matter. Or how do they pay for goods if the eftpos goes down because some digger went through a fibre cable??

                • JohnSelway

                  There are no beggars is Draco’s utopia. Everyone wears the same clothes, a silver jumpsuit, wearing one of the two brands of shoes made by the state. Red shoes denote a party member whereas white shoes mean they are a citizen. Everyone has a slightly glowing blue halo surrounding their bodies and everyone smiles in self satisfaction as they ride the “Mini-Tube” (what we’d call a Subway but much faster) to their assigned factories for a day of work.

                  • Dukeofurl

                    Same clothes ?

                    You mean like a 2 piece business suit or overalls with high viz vest ?

                    opps .. too late

                    • Draco T Bastard

                      Yep. The level of conformity for clothing has increased significantly over the last few decades.

                    • JohnSelway

                      “Yep. The level of conformity for clothing has increased significantly over the last few decades.”

                      What bullshit. People wear far less suits and offices go for far more casual these days. You’re talking out ya ass. Even my doctor dresses down.

                      Shit, I’ve been white collar for my entire working life and in 20 years I have had to wear a suit for only two jobs.
                      And high vis vests are for safety reasons, not conformity

                      So…[citation needed]

                  • Draco T Bastard

                    And there you go lying about me again.

                • Draco T Bastard

                  Without cash, how do people give them money?

                  There really shouldn’t be beggars. Yes, I know that they’re structural and part of the present system as it creates ever more poverty. We have to change the system there.

                  That said, under such a system they would have a bank account and so anybody wishing to give them money would be able to make a bank transfer upon the spot using their phone.

                  I’d expect buskers to have applied for and get a Paywave device as part of their business. Supplied, of course, for free by the government.

                  Or how do they pay for goods if the eftpos goes down because some digger went through a fibre cable?

                  Why would you need to? It’s an accident. It happens but infrequently and you should be able to get over the few hours of it being down by simply being a responsible adult.

                  • McFlock

                    Lol
                    Sorry, I thought you might have been suggesting a real-world solution, not something to be implemented after poverty has been eradicated, everyone’s willingly thoroughly documented and computerised, people are patient and never in need of something ASAP (paracetemol, etc), and the government routinely hands out free gadgets to anyone upon request.

                    Once that all happens, I might consider your cashless idea reasonable, rather than just something convenient for you being spouted as good for everyone.

                    • Draco T Bastard

                      There are many parts – not just one.

                      And considering that ~70% and increasing of transactions are already cashless we’re already well on our way. Of course, ATM, the entire financial system is owned and controlled by faceless, unelected dictators in the form of the private banking system.

          • One Two 1.1.1.1.3

            Draco, good on you for authoring that document

            You have thought it through…in what reads like a bubble…seemingly without an understanding of what you’ve written…certainly with no reference to the controllers of the worlds banking and finance markets…

            ‘They’ will not be handing over the control, of their control…

            What you’ve described and advocated for, repeatedly, is a fully trackable and auditable financial prison system…

            Are you even remotely aware of the technical developments in peer to peer untrackable payment technologies? Not bitcoin

            Human beings should not be trapped within digital prisons…which is what your article and comments are describing and suggesting as a positive…

            Each point in your article has a valid counter point, which easily exposes your position and why it should not happen…

            You’ve not thought it through appropriately…if you had… you couldn’t claim ‘no arguments against’…not with a straight face…

            I’ll have a full debate with you on this topic, as soon as you publish an updated version, highlighting the constraints and risks with your ‘system’…

            • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.3.1

              ‘They’ will not be handing over the control, of their control…

              Whinging about that isn’t how we get that control back. We have to take it.

              What you’ve described and advocated for, repeatedly, is a fully trackable and auditable financial prison system…

              Human beings should not be trapped within digital prisons

              It’s not a prison system at all.

              Are you even remotely aware of the technical developments in peer to peer untrackable payment technologies?

              Yes and am fully against them as they allow ever more corruption and disconnect the financial system even more from reality than it already is.

              Each point in your article has a valid counter point, which easily exposes your position and why it should not happen…

              Then you’ll be able to list them and provide arguments.

              You’ve not thought it through appropriately…if you had… you couldn’t claim ‘no arguments against’…not with a straight face…

              I have never claimed that and never will.

              I’ll have a full debate with you on this topic, as soon as you publish an updated version, highlighting the constraints and risks with your ‘system’…

              Translation: I have absolutely no arguments against what you said so I’ll wait until you provide them.

              • One Two

                Financial Prison System…

                Did you deliberately leave out the word, FINANCIAL?

                That you don’t see what you’ve described is the barriers you have to understanding why ‘cashless’ the way you fantasize about it…can’t happen…won’t happen…

                So you’re ‘aware’ of the P2P technologies but you ‘ignore’ them…being against it will not stop it…I’ll take P2P cashless over your version all day…but I’ll take cash and barter over all others…

                so far no ones been able to come up with an argument against…

                So you didn’t make that claim then…perhaps you can clarify it more clearly…because you’ve made that claim…perhaps you don’t read widely enough or live in la la land…seems that is the case…

                List the arguments you have and haven’t heard then…before you tell me I’ve got no arguments..

                You made that claim…back it up!

                • Draco T Bastard

                  That you don’t see what you’ve described is the barriers you have to understanding why ‘cashless’ the way you fantasize about it…can’t happen…won’t happen…

                  It’s already happening it’s just being done by the private dictators in the banks rather than by government.

                  So you didn’t make that claim then…

                  I made that claim – it just doesn’t match your assertion of it:

                  you couldn’t claim ‘no arguments against’

                  You either need reading and comprehension lessons or you’re lying.

                  And what I describe is not a prison system financial or otherwise. It’s a means to help get the financial system reconnected to physical reality. It goes hand in hand with a sovereign monetary system.

                  • One Two

                    I asked for you to clarify what you meant in your comments, and suggested how you may do so by providing the arguments you have and have not heard…

                    Thus giving some credence to YOUR comment, which you are now trying to project away from with childish insults and accusations…

                    Why is it you are unwilling to provide substance to YOUR claim…regarding a document which YOU authored…

                    Why would you not ?

                    • JohnSelway

                      Speaking of assertions I’d like the citation for Draco’s “clothes are much more conformist now”

          • James 1.1.1.1.4

            More likely they read that and think your not worth arguing with.

  1. SPC 2

    The Fisk take on journalists and ME government.

    I knew just what Jamal Khashoggi’s murder really meant in the context of the Middle East last week when I realised just who I’d have to call to explain it to me. Whom would I telephone to learn what was going on? Why, of course, I’d call Jamal Khashoggi. And that’s why his murder is so important. Because he was, as he knew, a lone and important Arab journalist who did not listen – not any more — to His Master’s Voice. And that, of course, was his problem.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/khashoggi-latest-saudi-arabia-murder-yemen-consulate-istanbul-turkey-mecca-a8600886.html

    • RedLogix 2.1

      Robert Fisk is a man to admire and learn from. Not every word he types will be gospel rectitude, we can argue his information and logic. But we must learn from his courage, tenacity and desire for truth.

  2. Ed 3

    More connections between Chinese money and the National Party.

    “National president named chairman of Chinese conference by alleged donor Zhang.
    National president Peter Goodfellow says he and two MPs have been made honorary chairmen of a major Chinese conference organised by a businessman at the centre the party’s political donation scandal.
    MP Jami-Lee Ross Ross alleged last week National Party leader Simon Bridges had broken the law by not correctly declaring a $100,000 donation he claimed was made by Yikun Zhang, his business partner, and associate Colin Zheng.
    Goodfellow also has close connections with Zhang, and he accepted his invitation in 2017 to become an honorary chairman of the 20th International Teochew Conference in Auckland.
    The conference, to be held over three days in September next year at SkyCity, will attract more than 1000 high-powered Chinese business people.
    It is being organised by Chao Shan General Association of New Zealand, which Zhang established in 2014 for New Zealander-Chinese who share the same hometown of Chaoshan, a region in the coastal city of Guangdong in China.
    Zhang is chairman of the Chao Shan General Association of New Zealand and Zheng is executive chairman of the 20th Teochew International Conference.”

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/108124777/national-president-named-chairman-of-chinese-conference-by-alleged-donor-zhang

    • BM 3.1

      Chinese Money

      An influential United States Congress hearing has been told “one of the major fundraisers for Jacinda Ardern’s party” is linked to the Chinese Communist Party and it showed China had penetrated New Zealand’s political networks.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12058818

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924169

      • Dukeofurl 3.1.1

        The major funder part is a beat up by Fisher…who’s interviewed his computer for the story. No sums are mentioned but later stories seem to indicate it referred to a hugely expensive bottle of wine…a line that was debunked… Which Fisher knew about and was in collusion with national over

        • Anne 3.1.1.1

          You mean that bottle of wine at a Labour fund-raising event in Hawkes Bay? The one that was auctioned off for… wasn’t it $200? Later Liu tried to claim he payed much more for it but if my memory serves me correctly it was proven he lied.

          • Ad 3.1.1.1.1

            Our own annual Labour electorate wine auction is coming up this weekend and there are plenty that hit the $200 mark. Gotta keep those Party dues going somehow!

        • BM 3.1.1.2

          I’m not a my side vs your side sort of guy.

          Personally, I don’t have an issue with Chinese people donating to NZ political parties.

          China is just one huge company all they’re interested in is getting work and making money for China.

          • WILD KATIPO 3.1.1.2.1

            Yes, – one that wants to make NZ Inc part of their corporate.

            No thanks,… we’ve already seen how that functions under the ChiNational party. We don’t want anymore of it , either.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.1.2.2

            “I’m not a my side vs your side sort of guy.” No, NO – please stop – I’ve split my sides!

      • patricia bremner 3.1.2

        Keep beating the drum BM… I’d give more credence to you feigned anxiety, if you had querried National’s contacts!!!

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.3

        Yes, Chinese money in NZ politics is bad – no matter who gets it.

        And I don’t actually believe the CIA or pretty much anything that comes out of the US. They’ve spent too much time fucking around in everybody else’s politics for the gain of their rich.

    • Dukeofurl 3.2

      Isn’t Chaoshan a sub region of Guangdong province.
      It’s supposed to be the ‘home region’ of almost all the overseas Chinese in S E Asia.
      The NZ Chinese from goldrush days mostly came from the adjacent Fuijian province. I hope I got that right

  3. JohnSelway 4

    Gawd – The Kings Of Leon?

    Fucking atrocious band

  4. Incognito 5

    26 Oct 2017 – 26 Oct 2018

    • Rosemary McDonald 5.1

      Yes.

      And it seems that the reach of kindness has a limit, and those dependent on benefits and especially those on the Supported Living Payment are still outside the circle of warmth.

      Still wedged in the margins.

      Kay commented earlier on this….https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-10-2018/#comment-1542552

      …and it seems a topic undeserving of the attention of other Standardistas.

      However…to the rescue comes Bomber…who gives the COL a well deserved D fucking minus for welfare reforms.

      “Once upon a time in New Zealand, the agencies of state welfare were constructed as an instrumental and direct means to ensure our egalitarian values.

      Social welfare was seen as a way to redistribute back to the most vulnerable amongst us and these agencies were critical in carrying out that redistribution.

      There was a pride involved in this public service, our compassion made us unique and it built the values from which we as New Zealanders have benefitted from.

      That simply is no longer the case.

      For the last 30+ years, the neoliberal experiment has turned our once egalitarian welfare state into a neoliberal welfare state. The branches of social welfare, the MoD, CYFS, Corrections, Parole Services, Housing NZ, WINZ and Mental health have all been warped and mutated into weapons to punish the poor for being vulnerable.

      In a culture of selfish consumerism where success is private and failure is personal , we see the poor as victims of their own circumstance rather than as a result of the hegemonic structures of power.

      The poor, the vulnerable, the weak, the sick and the disabled do everything in their power now not to be needing assistance from these Government agencies, because these Government agencies don’t help, they only punish.

      Labour have done sweet fuck all to change this toxic culture other than asking for a second sign off to ending welfare. Yay, Labour are only slightly less cruel than National, what a victory for human decency.

      Suicide rates continue to soar, our mental health system is as dysfunctional as ever before and lip service is given to the politics of kindness.”

      https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/10/26/one-year-of-the-new-government-the-faded-hope-of-a-hollow-promise-grading-the-issues/

      I don’t always see eye to eye with the Brad…but this time he’s nailed it.

      So, Happy Bloody Birthday, COL…you betcha, we’re all feeling the love.

      • Carolyn_Nth 5.1.1

        Yep. This is a major fail. Ditto for the home care workers featured on Checkpoint tonight, who can’t afford the petrol to do their jobs.

        It seems to me that the current Labour-led government is focused on appealing to the middle classes. What ever happened to Savage’s Labour and the large number of Kiwis that supported it?

        • Rosemary McDonald 5.1.1.1

          ” What ever happened to Savage’s Labour and the large number of Kiwis that supported it?”

          Those Kiwis who supported Savage’s Labour are still there..but they’re mostly rural/remote(in my experience), and far from the trendy political sophistication of the city folk.

          But…since most Kiwis are now city folk…

      • WeTheBleeple 5.1.2

        As a student, and a subscriber to ‘student hardship’ (what you get in between school years) I can attest to the punitive suspicious and outright hostile environment that is WINZ.

        You know in phone calls they’ll tell you it is being recorded for training… You know, that knowledge they think will force you to be docile. Doesn’t work. Turn the tables and they squirm like the proverbial worm.

        Hot tip. Tell them you record everything. Tell them your phone is on record when they start their BS. Watch them freak out, pupils dilate, sweat on brow.. then put on a fake smile, and do their fucking job.

        Every company or department I deal with now believes they are being recorded. No more BS. The only thing they seem to understand is profit and fear of being exposed as the inhuman shits they can be.

        Zero tolerance for assholes. Take no prisoners.

        • Rosemary McDonald 5.1.2.1

          “Tell them you record everything. Tell them your phone is on record when they start their BS. Watch them freak out, pupils dilate, sweat on brow.. then put on a fake smile, and do their fucking job.

          Every company or department I deal with now believes they are being recorded. No more BS. The only thing they seem to understand is profit and fear of being exposed as the inhuman shits they can be.

          Zero tolerance for assholes. Take no prisoners.”

          Actual happening….

          Walk/wheel into meeting room at local DHB for meeting with three managers associated with older people and rehabilitation services and the NASC to discuss complaint about said NASC.

          You have an advocate from the Health and Disability Commission with you.

          You place the voice recorder on the table and inform them of its existence…hoping this will encourage them to put aside the obfuscating bs, answer your questions and address your concerns and help devise a path for the future.

          Next hour is more bs (from them). Total and absolute refusal to address any of our issues. Non reaction at calling one of them a liar. They had come up with the strategy to turn it back on us and imply that we had not cooperated with assessments and they hinted at dire consequences if we (again) ‘declined services’ even if the services offered are so unfit for purpose it would be dangerous to use them.

          Long story short….we fully cooperated with their full on assessment, which arrived at a higher allocation of care hours than already offered.
          This was cut back to the existing level and two out of the three designated care providers were horrifyingly inappropriate.
          We have all of this in writing and in the voice record.
          Like us….it counts for nothing.

  5. JC 6

    “Wonderful to have @jacindaardern drop in on our @NZGreens Caucus Planning Day to talk about a year in Government with @nzlabour & #NZFirst.”

    https://twitter.com/EugenieSage/status/1055643410068004864

    And ; PM reflects on a coalition government one year on.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018668367/pm-reflects-on-a-coalition-government-one-year-on

  6. Ad 7

    Anyone else go to Rhian Sheehan tonight at Auckland’s Q Theatre?

    What magic!

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