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6:00 am, April 2nd, 2016 - 88 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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I saw Key’s grey chariot land at Rongo Tai yesterday – nice wheels – but where was our flag on its tail ?
When will it be possible to have a full accounting of due process and public moneys spent on the Dish Rag project ?
The Herald has been doing some investigative digging, & they came up with this “The text to McCaw had previously been revealed by the Herald but the Prime Minister’s reaching out to both McCaw and Carter shows his incredible range of contacts.” Fawn & yawn.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11615542
Sadly the Herald is Nationals alter ego, the print version of Kiwiblog.
Nats wanted to change the flag, the Herald wanted it on the Harbour Bridge and campaigned for change. Nats want to soften drug laws despite their so-called toughness against any such outrage as recently as 2014, the Herald campaign on it, etc, etc.
They even quote the Taxpayer Union like its some kind of genuine objective organisation, rather than the reality of it being another of Nationals front companies.
Anyway the good it did Key and what does it say about those who went into bat for him. And how many “sports greats” told him to fuck off?
+1
The herald is nothing more than a national party newsletter masked as a news service acting as a conduit for dirty politics and the spin and bs that spews from govt ministers mouths.
As John Campbell would say “Bloody Marvellous!”
Glaxo Marvelously Upends TPP And TTIP With Change In IP Policies For Poor Countries
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/04/01/glaxo-marvelously-upends-tpp-and-ttip-with-change-in-ip-policies-for-poor-countries/#739c41c91a71
Also on BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35933692
It would be great if the forward-thinking action of GlaxoSmithKline to provide a principled and effective proposal to alleviate the huge problems of inequality and health access could spread to more corporations. Win-win solutions are possible if the public good is allowed to be part of the equation.
Ratifying the TPP which entrenches the flawed IP system makes even less sense when the GlaxoSmithKline proposal is considered.
Well done GSK.
How many of you know that this giant pharmaceutical company was started in Bunnythorpe in the Manawatu back in the 1850s (?) making animal remedies.
“Obama’s ‘lame duck’ period best chance for US to ratify trade deal – John Key”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/78447392/obamas-lame-duck-period-best-chance-for-us-to-ratify-trade-deal–john-key
But, but, what if this happens, John?
“House Conservatives Are Trying To Kill The Lame-Duck Session”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/house-conservatives-lame-duck_us_56fad472e4b0143a9b49802f
Yep, used to drive by that old Bunnythorpe site.
amongst other things fibreglass panels for kit-cars were made there, too.
Unbelievable, this is a quote from President Nixon’s domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichmann:
maui – interesting quote, but it is posthumous – and is denied by Ehrlichmann’s family and others
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon
Ok, I probably don’t know the key players in this well enough, Baum, the writer who released this new quote or the ins and outs of Nixon’s government.
It is expected though that the children of Ehrlichmann would deny this horrible quote. If the quote is real and he really was bitter about Nixon, it seems strange to me that he would implicate himself so much by using the word “we”.
A very sensible approach to recreational drugs in sports from across the ditch.
Wonderful response from AFL boss when asked about zero tolerance.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/01/afl-boss-gillon-mclachlan-dismisses-insane-zero-tolerance-drug-zealots
David Cunliffe, Dita de Boni, Chris Trotter and Rachel Stewart wrap the political week in 30 mins on Waatea 5th Estate.
https://youtu.be/G0YV-4F1Gdk
Thanks for that maui. Fascinating to hear opinions uncluttered by spindoctors. David Cunliffe was fluent and informed. Dita sharp and concise and Chris indepth as usual. Rachel Stewart for my first time and down to earth is she. Glad I watched it.
Have a lot of respect for Rachel Stewart.
If you missed this ianmac
http://thestandard.org.nz/rachel-stewart-eviscerates-john-key/
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-image-of-farming/
Thanks Adam. Will watch out for more.
Big tick from me too. Thoroughly enjoyed watching this.
Once again maui , thanks for the link. I think Andrew Little is a good man, someone we need in Government, But David Cunliffe would make a great Prime Minister in this current type of Politics.
Shame the majority of the Labour caucus thought they knew better than the membership and decided to screw him over in 2014.
I’m finding it increasingly hard to understand their attitude, but without trying too cop more flack, their are a number still there that should stand aside or do what the other wreckers did and start their own party. eg: act, disunited etc.
Those people aren’t going to stand aside because outside of Parliament they have no other career or job to go back to.
And without the Labour brand name that they have hijacked for their own purposes, few voters would be in the least bit interested in their pale neoliberal politics.
TRUE. That is the achilles heal of an awful lot of humans. consciously or not.
Maybe if we give them a decent UBI they’ll finally go.
Just what do you think Cunliffe could do if he got the push?
He has basically been awarded a DCM in every job he has had.
I’m talking about the useless careerists in the caucus mate. Cunliffe, he’ll just go back to corporate consulting or something.
While I’ve slipped out too do some work alwyn, you have fill a vacuum, have you citations, links or are you prepared to confess to a lie and face the consequences.
I am lead to believe you are retired, that brain of yours lets you down. 👿
Plus 70pc of the electorate
+1
@ left for dead (5.3) Absolutely correct.
David Cunliffe is the best thing Labour has to lead the party and the country towards a progressive future. The lite blue ABC neo libs still infecting the party, are still pulling the strings. They know a much wiser and forceful Cunliffe would have a big cull of the deadwood pulling Labour down, this time if he got the leadership back and the thought scares the bejeezus out of them!
Wake up Labour and look what’s there in Cunliffe!
Totally agree about David Cunliffe! It was a good show on The Daily Blog on Friday!
Hardly balanced, basically a bunch of champaign socialist having a collective…….
Did you mean “champion socialist’s Red, how thoughful. 😉
Edit: as an after thought, is that what you mean by Reddelusion.
RED
Labour are still a lightweight version of National with no direction.
Oh don’t give us faux angst Reddelusion, fair and balanced is a Fox news line…
Hope it’s ok I post here as I thought it might be of interest. Is held tomorrow at Victoria University @1pm and I would assume it’s free.
http://www.rentersunited.org.nz/agenda/
First speaker is Andrew Campbell (Greens) discussing political lobbying.
Ugh. I can hear it already…”Nobody forced them to take that loan….”
Won’t be long before it happens here.
Senior citizens who failed to pay off their student loans are having their Social Security seized. One of these is an 80 year old who due to dementia can no longer read. She took out her loan in the 1980s.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/13326222/1/your-social-security-will-be-seized-if-you-owe-student-loans.html
Pretty ghastly for those in their 70s – 80s.
The length of time between school finishing and retirement means that older people are really dealing with life with the equivalent of an intermediate school level compared to today’s knowledge. We are supposed to be perfectly informed in an individualistic neo liberal-run society. Every over 50year old should be given free tertiary education to ensure understanding. But that wouldn’t suit gummint, they don’t want understanding from the citizens.
And the chirpy PR spreaders in the 1980s and 1990s saying that in this modern fast changing world we might have four careers in our lifetime, and those who were able to adapt would be all right. Oh yeah? The jobs have diminished, extra training has to be paid for, and gummint help is thin and when you grasp it, it breaks and you fall between the cracks. Don’t believe any of them who talk positively about the future, they are either liars, or self-deceivers, neither of whom are authentic people fit to advise anybody.
Some libertarian was trying to argue here the other day that benefits in NZ aren’t entitlements.
That’s because anarco-capitalists are essentially stupid weka.
They have given up critical thinking, and have rejected even their god father, Adam Smith. I think it has dawned on some of them, Adam Smith was very critical of parasitic capitalism, the only type they seem to understand.
Actually in discussions with most of them you get the impression they have never read any of the classical economic theorists, or at the very least, never finished any of the works.
They rely on bullying, diversion and a unnerving belief they are right – to push an agenda of stupid.
They are religious zealots.
I’d be inclined to say cultists – their metaphysics is mighty primitive.
Ok but you realise I’ve not read any classical economics either 🙂
As you don’t espouse economic purity, I never assumed you had.
That said, I also thought you had a reasonable grasp of economics, and when you don’t know something you ask. Which is always, always a sign of an open mind.
Cheers adam. Tbh I don’t know what that guy the other day was. Libertarian seemed the best easy label.
Ok but you realise I’ve not read any classical economics either 🙂
Neither has Adam.
So alwyn what is a market?
Oh dear. You really are starting at a very low level aren’t you?
Why don’t you tell me what, if anything, about Economics you do think you understand and I’ll give you a short reading list.
I knew you were struggling but I didn’t realise that you were quite so deficient in your understanding of the field.
I have. Smith, Ricardo and a few others would be disgusted by how capitalism has turned out. All of them would recognise the feudalism that it is.
The nutbars still don’t understand that Theory of Moral Sentiments was (and is) much more important to a prosperous society than Wealth of Nations.
Interesting that the US geological society now recognise Fracking as a basis of man made earthquakes.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/225753-united-states-geological-survey-confirms-it-fracking-causes-earthquake
A link to the research if you need it, it is a lot. Also a complex web site, be warned.
http://www.usgs.gov/
This end us leaving me with more questions than answers.
Was/is there not Fracking happening up and down this country?
What does that mean for our future, if Fracking earthquakes are going to keep happening?
What does it mean when we already prone to earthquakes?
And what would it mean for insurance claims and the EQC?
Would the companies who do/did this practice be liable?
What about ministers and local governments who still let this to happen?
Is anyone responsible for deaths and injuries when a man made earthquake occurs?
Well adam we will just have to try and bring our skills doing the best with what we have and know, and be like these clever musicians chugging along and try to have a laugh and keep our spirits up while we work.
Loved the music and that clever tractor keeping in time with the guitars.
Thanx ianmac. Yes very good isn’t it and they are enjoying themselves too. I think it is essential when times are grim to take a moment for pure enjoyment or humour.
Gas drilling can also cause earthquakes just like fracking. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/10/shell-exxon-gas-drilling-sets-off-earthquakes-wrecks-homes
A rather lengthy but interesting transcript of an interview with Yanis Varoufakis, by Jeremy Cliffe, for The Economist: http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2016/04/01/interview-with-the-economist-full-transcript/
A few gems from it:
On Germany’s establishment left: They sold themselves to Mephisto, and then at some point even he didn’t care for them.
On current politics more generally: Politics attracts the least well-meaning and least talented people because the political sphere has been devalued.
On the need for basic incomes: But we, the Left, must not be fearful. I gave a talk some time ago in the United States and said: yes, surfers in California must be fed by the rest of us. We may not like that, we may feel they are bums, but they deserve a basic income too.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/01/central-banks-unconventional-monetary-policy
meanwhile out in the wider world…..
That’s not the wider world – that’s the financialised world. Where central banks are a tool of the financial elite used to bail out big banks, inflate the asset portfolio value of capitalists, and give free money to billionaire speculators.
As for everyone else suffering from austerity imposed from above – they can eat cake.
Yep, still trying to make the present failed system work rather than accept the simple fact that it doesn’t and put in place another system.
You mean parasitic capitalism is a abject failure, and no one wants to talk about the fact capitalism has eaten itself.
Where are the factories, fields and workers? Where is the great capitalist investments in anything real?
Capitalism is always parasitic. That’s the big lesson that we should be learning from 5000 years of recorded history. It should be no surprise that the two main religions that came out of the birth place of Western Civilisation have bans on usury.
Capitalism is inherently usurious.
Inequality in New Zealand will get worse if the government follows United States policies, film maker Michael Moore says.
In his latest documentary Where to Invade Next, Moore compares social welfare and justice policies in Europe with the United States.
He told Saturday Morning that New Zealand should learn from mistakes in the US.
“Your government over the past decade or two has often tried to emulate the American way with neo-liberal policies that are not in the best interests of the people of New Zealand and you need to take a look at what those policies have done in the US.
“I would not try to emulate us in this way because you will have more income inequality – you already do, but it can be worse and you want to stop that.
“You want to preserve the good things you’ve had over the years, the belief system that you have, the values what you have and not allow conservative politicians to manipulate people into believing it we would be so much better if we did things the way the Americans did it.”
Moore visited Finland, Italy, France, and Portugal to look at those countries’ ways of dealing with social and economic problems experienced in the United States.
He said Americans were oblivious to what life was like elsewhere.
“They don’t know what it would be like if we paid just a little bit more in taxes, how many more services we would have, how much easier it would be to go to university, how there would be day care, how if they got pregnant you actually get to take a few weeks off – how about a few months – Americans don’t know you get these things in these other countries and so it’s been a very big eye opener for people in this country.”
His first film in six years, Where To Invade Next, will screen at the New Zealand Film Festival Autumn Events programme in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, during April and May.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201795481
Thanks for the warning, will make sure to avoid
You’re good at avoid any meaningful debate reddelusion, so no real need to comment on your part.
Yes, you can’t let facts get in else you might have to change your beliefs.
Saint Helen, keeps fighting the good fight.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/helen-kelly-why-take-illegal-dose-marijuana-every-night
Interesting discussion over on Public Address where Rob Salmond takes Hooton to task over his NBR column on UBR, and Hooton responds point by point.
Hooton points out the little know fact that Lockwood Smith spent 7 years working on a policy vaguely like UBI, but didn’t publish because it was feared that it would be thought to be National Policy, and it wasn’t. Irony?
“Lockwood, “Not many would know that I put 7 years’ work into a project to redevelop New Zealand’s income tax, benefit, and tax credit systems. The work started on trying to find a way round the massive churning involved in employers deducting PAYE, only for the Government to pay it all back to some employees in family tax credits. My research unravelling that interface soon got into the challenging area of effective marginal tax rates. At the time, a single parent with three dependent children seeking to work their way off the domestic purposes benefit and trying to get from $10,000 of earned income a year to $25,000 would have had to work an extra 20 hours a week at, say, $15 an hour. The problem was the effective tax on that extra $15,000 of earned income was about $13,300, meaning that even though the parent was paid $15 an hour, their take-home pay would have been little over $1.50 an hour….”
“….to prepare a paper for it to publish. At the last minute it was pulled, for fear it might be seen as official National Party policy, and it was not. ”
About 3/4 way down:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/debates/50HansD_20130213_00000032/valedictory-statements
And Public Address:
http://publicaddress.net/polity/eleventy-billion-dollars/
Salmond nailed it. I saw a bit of Hooton’s spin, but basically they need to get over themselves. They’re naysaying because it’s an opportunity to bash Labour and because a UBI would help poor people and they can’t tolerate the idea. Fuck em, we should just carry on with the discussion and name the lies and the liars as they appear.
Prominent New Zealander charged with indecent assault keeps name suppression
A prominent New Zealander facing indecent assault charges will keep the name suppression protecting his identity until the end of his trial.
The trial is due to begin on Monday. The man has denied the charges against him.
There are heavy suppression orders over the case, meaning the man cannot be identified, nor can his alleged victims or their ages.
The man is facing 12 charges of indecent assault against two people including two representative charges.
The charges, which include allegations of touching the complainants on the breast, buttocks, groin and thigh, are punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11615353
What’s a Representative charge?
When several instances of the same type of offence are alleged they can be replaced with a representative charge.
thanks.
Does anyone know how long the trial is expected to last?
does anyone know WHERE the trial is being held ?
Any bets the trial of the prominent NZer, and/or its appeals, will be dragged out until after the next election?
As a moderator I’m going to ask everyone to consider very carefully whether their contribution on this topic is useful, or even necessary.
I do not want The Standard to hash over this for the prurient joy of it.
There is reason to consider discussion around wider concerns of name suppression, but for the time being I would advise all regular commenters to have a long hard think before adding more to this.
Someone may have already supplied this link from today’s The Nation, but it’s one of the best local interviews I have seen in recent years:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/turei-key-misled-public-over-jihadi-brides-2016040210#axzz44YMlTnJx
Meteria Turei plainly calls Key a liar.
Here’s a better link without the ad plus a good write up:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/greens-slam-pm-for-lying-about-jihadi-brides-2016040211#axzz44YMlTnJx
Where they left from is the most important point. While nothing can be claimed for certain – because all the facts have not been made available – the balance of probability is they were radicalised in Australia. If that was the case then it is an Aussie problem. We don’t even know if they were ‘radicalised’ but left for a different purpose.
Good on her. He is.
Any bets that the trial of the prominent NZer, or at least its appeals, will drag on, under suppression, until after the next election?
The above comment did not post at first for some reason so I did it again as a reply a bit farther up. Please delete if this is annoying (it is a bit, to me).
Brian Eno’s suggestion – Start cooking, recipe to follow.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXVoMMaa14I
Yanis Varoufakis follows suggesting that all of Greece’s debt is to German banks not to the state of Germany. It is the banks that have taken the risk, they need to accept the full effect of business practice and lose some money.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjrjO0d7fvI
water. who really needs it?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/77868433/Christchurchs-streams-are-dying-city-wide
Bella Caledonia has an article up about the Yes campaign that took place in 2014.
(Full Report here
Might be of interest to those who want to see a grassroots campaign here in NZ.