Dirty politics aftermath: Slater

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, October 21st, 2014 - 30 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, blogs - Tags: , ,

The fallout from National’s dirty politics is going to be extensive as it unfolds over this parliamentary term. So many questions, so many inquiries, so many individuals running for cover, so much dirt. It’s a depressing prospect, but we can’t clean up politics without a thorough examination of what has happened, and without its consequences running their course.

One important aspect of the aftermath will be the behaviour of the principal actor of dirty politics, Cameron Slater. As an individual I feel sorry for the man and wish him better health, but as a political actor (in his current state) he represents everything that is worst in NZ politics.

It seems as though Slater is turning on John Key. I don’t read his blog, but Pete George obviously does. So (here’s a first for me!) I refer you to this interesting summary on George’s blog, “Backlash against Whale Oil continues”. With his usual attention to detail, George quotes some recent discussion on Slater’s blog. I’m not going to repeat any of it here – go read George’s blog…

30 comments on “Dirty politics aftermath: Slater ”

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  1. shorts 1
    21 October 2014 at 10:22 am

    I have very little faith that there will be much fallout if any over dirty politics other than what we’ve already seen… whitewashing and the yet to report back gutless enquiries – refer last six years

    Slater is supporting Collins, so there is some backlash towards Key which will dissipate sooner than later as he’s not going to alienate the few actual humans that do visit regularly nor unduly upset his paymasters

    As for Slater…. stuff him! (very polite version of how I really feel)

    • Bill 1.1
      21 October 2014 at 10:31 am

      I reckon you’re probably right there shorts. No-body’s running for cover – no need.

      Major newspapers and TV outlets aren’t going to be giving up their ‘sugar hit’ by blowing the feed pipe.

      • fambo 1.1.1
        21 October 2014 at 10:38 am

        I’m with Bill and Shorts, unless someone does a McCready and forces the police’s hand. Just one whitewash after another.

        As for Slater, I’m with Shorts on that as well.

        • Colonial Rawshark 1.1.1.1
          21 October 2014 at 11:01 am

          Let’s focus on getting the real criminals eh, like that fella Nicky Hager. There’s the real danger to democracy.

    • wekarawshark 1.2
      21 October 2014 at 10:54 am

      The donotlink version of PG’s post http://www.donotlink.com/framed?567002

      • Tracey 1.2.1
        21 October 2014 at 11:26 am

        Thanks weka

        What hypocrites those commenters are… play dirty with people we have decided are bad but dare to touch our demagogue John key and we walk out. I honestly don’;t think they see the irony of such frothing. there are a few examples in Pete’s “article” but this one started it;

        “I have mulled over the latest posts etc this weekend and have come to the decision that I don’t want to stick around to watch Cameron go after John Key like he did Dotcom. John Key is our Prime Minister not some German crook and I for one still rate him. If it goes badly for him further down the track well that’s that but I don’t want to be a part of bringing him down. I have really enjoyed reading this blog and all your comments. Thanks and goodbye.”

        In other words I really enjoyed it when you were smearing and manipulating and lying some more about my enemies but when you turn your methods to those who i like… I pretend I have ethics and so must go.

        • vto 1.2.1.1
          21 October 2014 at 11:32 am

          But you can see Tracey that such malleable morality flies completely over the heads of Keyites …….

          Just like with voting for Key they haven’t got much of a clue about anything

  2. karol 2
    21 October 2014 at 10:49 am

    Is the principal actor of Dirty Politics Slater or John key?

    In my post a couple of days ago, I covered both Dirty Politics and the Murdoch hacking “scandal” in the UK.

    I included a link to an Al Jazeera interview with Nick Davies, author of “Hack Attack” – a book on the Murdoch hacking saga, which Davies broke via the Guardian.

    Davies says that, basically Murdoch was never defeated. I saw this as probably having a sobering parallel with the Dirty Politics saga – a lot of noises and scurrying about by the alleged perps after the stories went public; a couple of middle-level players convicted and/or ousted from cabinet or politics; meanwhile the main perps of the political manipulations and politics of deception walk free.

    Towards the end of the Al Jazeera interview, Davies says that the reason why the Hacking Scandal failed to defeat the Murdoch empire, was because the structure that enables and supports it remains in place: ie the power structure of the Murdoch empire, and the allied political and economic structure. Davies says that even if/when Rupert Murdoch, or his entire empire goes, another person of organisation will take its place.

    Key is still untouched , pretty much, by the Dirty Politics revelations. Slater may go, but others will take his place, DPF seems to have gained in the strength of his explicit support from Key. ede seems to have moved sideways, but to an organisation that has strong Nat Party links.

    And Key still seems to be untouchable, because of the whole corporate-backed political-MSM-blogging complex.

    And this Daily Blog guest post on the proliferation of “left” blogs is a cautionary tale about the possible next move of the politics of deception – right wing manipulators fronting allegedly “left” wing blogs.

    And such an alleged proliferation of “left” blogs has nothing at all to do with the new, and definitely left wing, “On The Left” blog.

  3. vto 3
    21 October 2014 at 11:00 am

    There will be no aftermath… Don’t you get it? A full 29% of the electorate think that by voting for John Key they have disproved all of that stuff …. whatever it was …… plus they got rid of KDC. You know – they were all in together them communist lefties …..
    … well we showed them didn’t we. Yes, we made all of that stuff into bullshit by voting for John Key yes we did …

    … all that dirty politics has been voted out by us, the 29% … we proved it all wrong …

    we showed ’em,… yep …

    (so, yeah, good luck with getting traction with it now)

  4. adam 4
    21 October 2014 at 11:00 am

    Well written piece from Mr George. Worth the read. But, I think we will get shunted along another 24 hour new cycle, and dirty politics will be forgotten – willfully forgotten. Why bite the hand that feeds you? And anyway how can that “nice mr key” (vurp) be involved in dirty politics, he’s a winner!!!

    Unless some major eruption happens, it will be business as usual.

  5. wekarawshark 5
    21 October 2014 at 11:05 am

    Is PG banned at WO at the moment? I can’t remember.

    • felix 5.1
      21 October 2014 at 11:35 am

      Careful weka, if you say his name two more times he crosses into this dimension.

      • wekarawshark 5.1.1
        21 October 2014 at 12:00 pm

        True, but I figured that once a ts author puts a post up about a post of his that takes it seriously, we’re jaunted into the ** twilight zone anyway.

        Besides, there is a shiny new left wing blog for him to derail, so we might get lucky here.

        • lprent 5.1.1.1
          21 October 2014 at 2:08 pm

          You have to admit that PG isn’t particularly discriminating. He tends to bore the crap out of the commenters on right wing blog comment streams as well.

          Reminds me of the way that robinsod or d4j or a few other commenters went 5 or 6 years back. Eventually banned by all blogs right and left. Left in a high dudgeon to ‘entertain’ elsewhere.

          But I guess he has more free time than most people. He should use it more productively and go and help out as an author or a as a moderator on Whaleoil. I’ve been having a look at the drivel on their comments recently and with moderation it has been hitting truly PG standards.

    • Lanthanide 5.2
      21 October 2014 at 11:46 am

      I believe he is not banned at present, just sulking about what big meanies we are, etc.

      [lprent: Correct. He isn’t on my list of bans. ]

  6. dave brown 6
    21 October 2014 at 11:07 am

    Pessimism prevails for a reason.
    Hager isolated one symptom of dirty politics only.
    DP is generic as Karol says because politics and the media are dominated by corporate ownership.
    I would add capitalist ownership is expressed in the class nature of the capitalist state.
    Therefore it permeates all state institutions, and quasi-state apparatuses like corporate media.
    It has infected oppositions as prospective governments too.
    Just look at the ABC.
    Imagine them in Cabinet.
    Think Tony Bliar.
    What is the alternative?
    Not pessimism, even of the intellect!
    We have to turn our backs on the corporate media as the class enemy.
    We need an independent media, sufficiently rooted in working class culture as to be able to survive corporate spying and sabotage.
    Let Generation Zero get working on that.

    • shorts 6.1
      21 October 2014 at 11:38 am

      there is an independant media – we’re on a part of it… thing is the masses ain’t here there or anywhere near it. They are still spouting the headlines from the MSM as gospel – hell even the left continue to think the media is the message

      we could be two generations away from kiwis not instinctively trusting the (mainstream) media (in all its various guises)… until then progressives and the left will be marginalised and vilified by a better resourced PR machine

      • dave brown 6.1.1
        21 October 2014 at 3:38 pm

        “we could be two generations away from kiwis not instinctively trusting the (mainstream) media (in all its various guises)… until then progressives and the left will be marginalised and vilified by a better resourced PR machine”

        Shorts, we don’t have two generations.

        Climate change will overtake us in within one generation.

        The independent media is only as independent as the internet and power supply.

        And in the event of a blackout the alternative will be handbills and leaflets.

        We don’t have that independence yet.

        But when it comes to the crunch we don’t give up.

        Manning and Snowden didn’t.

        The Kurds fighting the IS aren’t…

  7. infused 7
    21 October 2014 at 1:00 pm

    I’m banned here. Maybe you can let this one though.

    I visit whaleoil once in awhile. His recent post on Judith, about how John Key should have not taken away honorable was pure bs.

    I called him out on it, basically saying that Judith was a moron and needed to up her game.

    Banned. Seems like a perm ban as well, as I attempted to comment on a youtube video the other night to see if it was a one off or not.

  8. amiriterawshark 8
    21 October 2014 at 2:14 pm

    What I’d like to know is who these people were? “… most of my calls for support and checking on my health and well beings while under the cosh from a politically motivated criminal conspiracy were from members of the opposition.”

    Ugh. I want to know who these people are so I can avoid them.

    • boldsirbrian 8.1
      21 October 2014 at 9:15 pm

      True friends and people who care about people may see it a bit differently. There is a difference between “Supporting the person” (eg concerns about mental health) and supporting the actions of a person (perhaps the delusions).

      Such ‘support’ may be crucial in coming to a (hard) realisation that changes need to be made.

      The people that you refer to may just be the people who are doing Slater and us all a favour. He refers to people “checking on his health and well being” Sounds compassionate.

      They may of course be people encouraging his behaviour – and if so I heartily agree with you!

      Mr. Botany (B.)

    • Murray Rawshark 8.2
      22 October 2014 at 12:28 am

      My guess would be Nash, Davis, and Mallard.

  9. Dave Thomas 9
    27 October 2014 at 1:32 am

    The ability of the right wing PR firms to utilise the low brow road by attacking critics rather than engaging in political debate with those which don’t agree with them is not good. Mr Brown’s public image in tatters, perhaps due plainly to not being a right-wing fawning fan-boy – see anything wrong with the idea of central over-riding local political dominion over the area they were elected to serve? The fiasco created by the perfect storm of prurient public mores and a media hungry for sex scandals to garner interest is a topic summed up well in the song lyrics ‘Dirty Laundry’ by Don Henley. An Eagles cover of that pertinent tune on the topic is found here, with the performance dedicated to Rupert Murdoch. Yay!

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