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6:00 am, January 4th, 2018 - 99 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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Russia and the PEEOTUS: follow the money trail. It goes back a long long way.
https://www.vox.com/2017/7/18/15983910/donald-trump-russia-putin-fbi-collusion-fusion-gps
The orange one always had a very shady past with a German bank, which gave him loans to avoid his bankruptcies, was fined for money laundering via Russia.
http://www.newsweek.com/2017/12/29/donald-trump-russia-secret-deutsche-bank-753780.html
He’ll get away with it.
The US government is tilting from military +intelligence+business frame to business+military frame with business interests dominant, and will stay there for the remainder of this century.
They’ve always had that frame. It’s where the phrase Military-industrial-complex comes from.
I’m aware of the origin.
It is being rapidly reshaped.
You said that business was becoming dominant while I contend that business has been dominant in the US since the Robber Barons at the minimum.
Our own sir John Key has closer ties to the dodgy and corrupt german Deutshe bank than any other New Zealander or politician that I am aware of ….
According to our New Zealand companies register he was involved in 7 Deutsche bank fronts ….. https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/individual/search?q=John+Key&start=25&limit=25&entitySearch=&addressKeyword=&postalCode=&country=&addressType=&advancedPanel=false&mode=standard&roleType=ALL&indEntityTypes=ALL&indEntityStatusGroups=ALL&indDirStatus=ALL&sf=&sd=
On Jan 9th a book is coming out claiming that Donald Trump himself met with the Russians following meetings with his son and the Russians. Bannon may well have a axe to grind, but you can hardly fault him as an insider source on Trump:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steve-bannon-trump-tower_us_5a4cde0be4b0b0e5a7a9fe93?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Adolf Twitler’s response doesn’t disappoint…
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-steve-bannon_us_5a4d200ce4b0b0e5a7aa6f15?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
If former naval officer Bannon said that to a journalist, imagine what he’s said to Mueller.
Bannon is burning Kushner – and there is every reason for him to do it real slow.
I haven’t seen anything that says Mueller has interviewed Bannon yet, and a quick google turned up nothing. You seen anything?
Maybe it’s happened, but been successfully kept quiet …
Haven’t seen anything myself but I reckon he’s conspicuous because of his absence from any coverage about potential interviewees.
Oh boy.
Most presidential candidates spend their entire careers, if not their lives from adolescence, preparing for the role. They rise up the ladder of elected offices, perfect a public face, and prepare themselves to win and to govern. The Trump calculation, quite a conscious one, was different. The candidate and his top lieutenants believed they could get all the benefits of almost becoming president without having to change their behavior or their worldview one whit. Almost everybody on the Trump team, in fact, came with the kind of messy conflicts bound to bite a president once he was in office. Michael Flynn, the retired general who served as Trump’s opening act at campaign rallies, had been told by his friends that it had not been a good idea to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. “Well, it would only be a problem if we won,” Flynn assured them.
Not only did Trump disregard the potential conflicts of his own business deals and real-estate holdings, he audaciously refused to release his tax returns. Why should he? Once he lost, Trump would be both insanely famous and a martyr to Crooked Hillary. His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared would be international celebrities. Steve Bannon would become the de facto head of the tea-party movement. Kellyanne Conway would be a cable-news star. Melania Trump, who had been assured by her husband that he wouldn’t become president, could return to inconspicuously lunching. Losing would work out for everybody. Losing was winning.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night, when the unexpected trend — Trump might actually win — seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears—and not of joy.
There was, in the space of little more than an hour, in Steve Bannon’s not unamused observation, a befuddled Trump morphing into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump. But still to come was the final transformation: Suddenly, Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be, and was wholly capable of being, the president of the United States.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html
If anything in this is remotely true the entire party should be gone for a generation.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
But probably won’t even if it is true.
Many of those sounding the loudest alarm bells over Russian influence in U.S. politics were curiously silent when far greater concerns were raised about the Clintons.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/03/peter-schweizer-trump-vs-clintons-russia-ties-guess-who-always-got-free-pass.html
“She did it too” isn’t going to get the serial rapist off the hook.
Had Hillary become prez, no doubt the likes of Trey Gowdy and Chuck Grassley would have spent all their time with serial investigations of Hillary. Indeed, there are active Congressional investigations into Hillary going on right now.
But she’s not prez, and it’s very unlikely she will ever be in a position of authority in the future. The person with decision-making power right now is by far the more important one to be interested in.
That’s long before you even get to considering the merits of the cases against each person. But to address your citation, the opinions published by Schweizer and Fox News against Clinton over the uranium deal have already been thoroughly debunked.
https://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/facts-uranium-one/
What, they denied it and have all the facts on their side?
Lock her up! 🙄
I don’t know why they bother trying to hokey up some reason that sounds plausible for locking her up. They should just be honest and say they want to lock her up coz it will make them feel good. Just because.
I think it more likely that they are gullible fuckwits who believe the last thing they were told.
They should lock her up over Libya ….. or better yet make her go and live there with Obama .,…..
They should enjoy the fruits of their creation …
Removing Te Mata Peak track ‘not a cheap thing to do’
Well Craggy Range you should have consulted first.
Pay up.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/347432/removing-te-mata-peak-track-not-a-cheap-thing-to-do
The Hawke’s Bay tribe that sought to have a track on Te Mata Peak removed is disappointed the path is proving popular with locals.
Ngāti Kahungunu Trust chair Ngahiwi Tomoana
“ Just because it is popular does not make it right.”
Wise words.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/347134/iwi-frustrated-as-locals-take-to-te-mata-peak-track
Would have been a whole bunch better to dedicate a cycle lane on the existing road up to the peak. – which Council could have done as the road controlling authority without too much fuss.
Was it arrogance or ignorance that meant Craggy Range did not consult with iwi?
I’m not familiar enough with the landowner or the Council on iwi relationships (although it generally doesn’t stop me 😉 )
There was and is no requirement to do so. It’s their land.
And the Christchurch Cathedral is owned by the church, so Cantabrians can piss off too because they don’t own that either?
Indeed.
Don’t be too hard on Craggy Range. As a local I understand they did what they were told they had to do. I believe the Hastings District Council staff judged the application was non-notifiable and if the finger gets pointed at anyone it should be at them.
After the initial blowback Craggy Range’s reponse was to say they would remove the track and remediate it (good luck with that).
Since then a counter “keep the track” petition has soundly passed the initial “the desecration of Te Mata Peak must be removed” petition.
Latest word is that there will be talks involving the local iwi organisation and possibly the track will stay. I hope it will.
Yes the process was flawed. No it wasn’t Craggy Range’s fault. The initial reaction was knee-jerk. And hopefully we retain a community asset.
That’s why I asked was it ignorance.
New Zealandees should be aware of Maori values.
Pay up why?
It’s on private land. And they obtained resource consent:
“The Hastings District Council approved resource consent for the track in October, pointing out that the track would not include any cuts with overall vertical extent more than 1m, and adding that all cuts would be battered back and regrassed.
The council also pointed out that no trees or significant vegetation would be removed, and there were no known archaeological sites. Nor did the area of work contain a District Plan-mapped waahi tapu site.”
[if you are going to cut and paste, please link to your source. – weka]
The resource consent checklist must have missed:
Does your work involve vandalising (or hey let’s just say.. any modification) of the most significant regional landmark that is extremely important to local Maori and for local tourism?
James has no concern for Maori values.
I wouldn’t waste your time with him.
Like Trump, he continues to hit new lows.
I love the way you project.
The owners did everything right. Its their land. They sought and obtained permission.
But little the green eyed monster comes out looking for them to “pay up” – based on, well nothing as per usual.
No they didn’t (They should have consulted iwi) and no it’s not (it’s lease-simple and not ownership).
“The owners did everything right.”
Like offend local iwi? Deface the local landmark? Upset many locals? Cause a national controversy?
If it was their land and could do what they liked then why would they need resource consent?
As I’ve said Maori don’t count in James’s world.
Nor do women. ( see Rhythm and Vines thread)
Nor do animals.
Only James counts in James’s world.
He is an Ayn Rand devotee.
This may come as a shock in your tiny mind – but just because you say something it does not make it so.
Thats a 7 on the Ed scale this morning.
Right there Ed,
Doesn’t care about climate change, or future of our rail, community public environmental health, we have seen either Ed.
It is best to always ignore the nonsense he writes
and many locals are very happy with it – seems very popular.
There are multiple failings in a system created haphazardly to deal with connections of local iwi to land.
Case in point. Auckland Council has inherited the existing waahi tapu sites all former district councils. Our local one, Franklin District Council, had no comprehensive list of sites. Local iwi were given a short window of opportunity – but no resources – to submit new sites before the amalgamation.
Given the vast area of land that had been confiscated, this burden fell to a few to try and cover the historical aspects of land that had been out of iwi ownership for many years.
I attended a resource consent hearing regarding a local landmark that was taken from local iwi in the 1860s, and has since been subdivided a few times. We were not there in the capacity of local tangata whenua, but did have with us an archived map of the site that showed the land in question was part of a Native Reserve, including urupa. While interest from the panel was shown, the fact that this had not been recorded on the waahi tapu register meant that this consideration was not going to be taken into account.
The original tribe and iwi had scattered and their history – over a century later after their land – is thus removed.
Neighbouring local iwi are burdened with the task of uncovering evidence such as these archives, and even those are not considered evidence enough.
You have a confidence in the system working, but it does not do so. Honest consultation with iwi – whether or not it is required – is at least a step in acknowledging those systematic failures in a genuine way.
moderation note for you to attend to.
done – thanks.,
Thanks James
Sorry – please find link following: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11957991
There is an economic storm coming in 2018.
Here are some of the first drops.
‘The most notable change was in Auckland, where for the first time since February 2011 it was now a “buyer’s market”, realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11969056
Just ‘conditioning’ ,because sellers expectations are too high.Propert ponzi is the real bitcoin.
Crash coming this year.
That will be good for labour. In government for a year and then allowing a housing crash to happen.
Lots of unhappy voters come next election time.
I don’t think the electorate are all as stupid as you.
Oh Im sure that the many many many homeowners will be ecstatic that Labour oversaw their house values and equity slashed.
Thats bound to be a vote winner.
Its not being stupid – its that it impacts people and their lives for the worse – might be good for people who are envious, but in the real world it will cost votes.
In the real world it’s a Ponzi Scheme that National engineered to make a few people richer and everybody else worse off.
Yes Draco,
Tory tactics again there we see with the usual ‘property price slump scare’ from them again eh?
Our home price has ‘slumped after all those increased trucks National Party have ‘encouraged’ to carry freight through our residential communities ruining our health & wellbeing as property values have slumped now.
Because who wants 24/7 hour truck noise vibration & pollution in their lives as living near these horrible “truck roads now”?
Whereas normal political analysis has the electorate perfectly capable of realising that it takes more than one term to repair the things the National Party does.
So while I sympathise somewhat with your need to believe you’re going be returned to government at the next election, in the end, derision wins.
why is it Labours fault when people buy things on credit they actually can’t afford, especially if you were to have another global financial crisis like we had in 2007/8?
Oh because Phil – Housing Allowance Fraud – English would said so?
Question: Leading up to the overheating of the market, what has National done to prevent the market from crashing in the future during their reign of power?
What about all the people who would then be able to buy a house (or upgrade to a more suitable one)? Surely the 10-15% of people who lose out big (because they weren’t smart enough to catch on to the trend early enough) will be overshadowed by the 50-60% who then benefit?
Or do you think everyone has 5 houses, a boat and 5 luxury cars all based on the increasing value of their home they brought in 1960?
50-60% wont benefit – because when the values drop too much they will either hold on to them – or rent them out to cover the cost.
So the current land owners don’t lose out then… you can’t have it both ways you know
If it happens then it was a crash engineered by National.
perhaps – but overseen by Labour. And guess who the owners will blame come election time ?
You may be right. Depends upon how well it’s framed and the fact that many on the left have been calling property a bubble for a long time.
They won’t let a housing crash happen in Auckland. They’ll buy every house coming on the market for HousingNZ which would see the demand (and so prices) stay high.
So before that happens James, what should they do to prevent a housing crash in Auckland? What should they do not have it a “buyers market” or are those things mutually exclusive?
> They won’t let a housing crash happen in Auckland. They’ll buy every house coming on the market for HousingNZ which would see the demand (and so prices) stay high.
TBH that sounds like a long shot.
A.
The crash is a global crash.
And they’ll have that as Ms Ardern’s fault too!
Hey guys, before we all get too excited, let’s think this through… We all know that a huge problem in recent times has been rising house prices (esp in Auckland). If there was a drop in prices that would actually be a good thing for buyers, especially those who are struggling to cover the extremely inflated costs. (And, btw, buyers vote, too, as do parents and others who care about people trying to buy.)
As it happens, your report of a “buyers’ market” is actually just based on a slight increase in stock and longer time on the market – prices are still up 2.7% in Auckland, with many sellers seemingly having waited for new council valuations before putting their properties on the market. Read past the headline…🙄
Hardly an economic meltdown! And we have to accept that if we want a more equitable, accessible housing market, some people are going to see their houses drop in value. That may be a problem for those people, especially if they’ve been using their property as a proxy superannuation plan, but it’s not armageddon. Plus, the government is trying to be careful about this stuff. Increasing the stock of reasonably priced housing will slow down growth in value, but the market won’t tank because of it.
I do hope we are shielded from the worst of the 2018 economic meltdown. Our dependence on China could cause businesses to fail.
The World Bank are pretty damn confident about China’s prospects for 2018. Do you know something they don’t?
Ken RingMax Keiser predicted it so it must be true.The symptoms have been present for 12-18 months, Horncastle Homes closing up
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/97089754/horncastle-homes-wraps-up-after-40-years
I have had to implement the winding up of 3 builders for failure to pay debts for building supplies, and there are many others that are on limited supplies as they are on agreements to reduce debt.
Building material inflation well above CPI and pay rate increases. This building inflation excludes land
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11789263
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=11683028
The timing of when this happens has alot to do with what economic conditions from the recent past.
Very interesting.
I have a sense the banks are doing everything they can to reduce their exposure to bad debt before the oncoming storm.
‘Iran – Early U.S. Support For Rioters Hints At A Larger Plan
In Iran – Regime Change Agents Hijack Economic Protests we looked at the developing U.S.-Israeli operation to instigate a revolt in Iran. What follows are a few more background points and a view on the developments since. A color revolution or revolt in Iran have only little chances of success. But even as the fail they can be used as pretext for additional sanctions and other anti-Iranian measures. The current incidents are thus only one part of a much larger plan.
The “western” democracies are used to distinguish political parties as left or right with fixed combinations of economic and cultural policies. The “left” is seen as preferring a social economy that benefits the larger population and as cultural liberal or progressive. The right is seen as cultural conservative with a preference for a free market economy that favors the richer segments of a nation.
The political camps in Iran are different.
The simplified version: The conservatives, or “principalists”, are cultural conservative but favor economic programs that benefit the poor. Their support base are the rural people as well as the poorer segments of the city dwellers. The last Iranian president near to them was Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. One of his major policies was the implementation of cash payments to the needy as replacement of general and expensive subsidies on oil products and foodstuff. The current Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is a member of the “reformist” camp. His support base are the merchants and the richer parts of the society. He is culturally (relative) progressive but his economic polices are neoliberal. The new budget he introduced for the next year cuts back on the subsidies for the poor Ahmedinejad had introduced. It will increase prices for fuel and basic food stuff up to 30-40%.
The protests on December 28 and 29 were about these and other economic issues. Such protests have regularly occurred in Iran throughout the decades. But the current ones were soon hijacked by small groups which chanted slogans against the Iranian system and against the strong Iranian engagement in Syria and Palestine. These are not majority positions of the 80 million inhabitants of Iran:
According to the poll, 67.9% say Iran should increase backing for anti-IS groups, up from 59.8% a year ago. Meanwhile, a majority of 64.9% backs the deployment of Iranian military personnel to Syria to help the regime of Bashar al-Assad, up slightly from 62.7% a year ago.
The small groups that hijacked the protests against Rouhani’s economic polices were heavily promoted by the usual suspects of U.S. influence operations. Avaaz, the RAND cooperation, Human Rights Watch and others immediately jumped onto the bandwagon…..
Read more here.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/12/iran-early-us-support-for-rioters-hints-at-a-larger-plan.html
Is that a whole cut ‘n’ paste job from the linked article with no original content from you, and no formatting for clarity? Again?
Fucking rude.
Cannot remember the selfish posters name on here who happily states to driving on the wrong side of the road in a major gorge “in case a rock falls”.
Thiught of them this morning when I read this
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/100316172/driver-caught-on-camera-in-coromandel-on-wrong-side-of-road
Eco likes Prince Philip he has been around for a while and he knows the big picture I know he is laughing at the charade that is going on in OUR WORLD.Many thanks to the Prince.
Ka pai
Prince Philip is not a nice person.
http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/opinion/2017/08/priceless-racism-duke-edinburgh-170810082226234.html
http://mashable.com/2017/05/04/prince-philip-gaffes-list.amp
“This is who he is – and the long panoply of his racist, sexist, elitist, misogynistic, class-privileged and unhinged prejudices is a mobile museum of European bigotry on display.”
Sums the matter well.
They show him up to be a cruel father and an unfaithful husband on the Crown as well.
Phil the Greek is a great bloke, funniest great grandad on the planet.
Where to begin!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-04/israel-offers-to-pay-african-migrants-to-leave-threatens-jail/9302960
Aren’t the Royal Family such lovely ordinary people?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/03/windsor-council-calls-removal-homeless-people-before-royal-wedding
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/670975/prince-harry-meghan-markle-monaco-new-year-celebration-party-france-royal/amp
LOL – you quote the Daily star.
that’s hilarious. But then again – its more reliable that some of the other links he proves.
and just to help you with your comprehension – the first link is somebody else requesting it – The royal family have nothing to do with it at all.
Ed
Sour cream goes with baked potatoes and chives nicely.
This is what you get after 35 years of neoliberalism.
Selfish people.
ME people, not WE people.
People who don’t care about society.
People who don’t care about Maori values.
‘A request from local iwi for visitors to stay away from Auckland’s Waitākere Ranges to stop the spread of kauri dieback appears to be falling on deaf ears.
Hundreds of people are continuing to walk in the ranges, despite Te Kawerau-ā-Maki placing a rāhui over them to try and stop visitors flocking there in the summer months.
At least 500 people are estimated to be walking the popular Kitekite Falls track near Piha every day.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/347455/they-re-just-making-their-job-more-difficult-and-more-expensive
Often these people claim to care about their families – but even then they show by their actions they don’t care about their children and grandchildren, as they refuse to make any sacrifices to their lifestyles to mitigate climate change.
In extreme case, they deny climate change.
Burn the witches !
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/religion-clergy-popes-bishop-stake-burning-bron2676_low.jpg
In your opinion obviously. Just because you don’t like or agree with their actions does not mean that they do not care about their children.
For example – I think if you imposed your ideological eating disorder (vegan) on kids – does that make you uncaring not giving them a full healthy diet ?
Or do you let them grow and make their own mind up (or is that uncaring also)?
“Selfish people.
ME people, not WE people.
People who don’t care about society.
People who don’t care about Maori values.”
That’s the perception I have of you. Nice to see you come out and admit it.
NZ Is a country being destroyed by the food industry.
The solution is the way we are dealing with big tobacco.
This article shows how we can deal with this disgraceful and disgusting industry and its pimps like Katherine Rich.
Ban advertising
Tax unhealthy food for its externalities
Limit its sale points
‘Dan Parker, who was a successful advertising executive earning his living promoting Coca Cola and McDonalds, told the Guardian in his first interview that the food industry is behaving like Big Tobacco. “I think what the food industry does now will define where it lands. If it behaves like tobacco it will end up being treated like tobacco. And I think it is behaving like tobacco,” said the former industry insider.
“There are an awful lot of people not very interested in seeing the size of the packaged food industry drop by those kind of figures. The amount of money involved is billions of pounds.” That includes the food industry, the supermarkets, the exchequer and also the media. “Parts are almost entirely propped up by advertising for those unhealthy products. Early Saturday night TV, for example, would struggle without pizzas and fishfingers.”‘
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/02/former-advertising-executive-reveals-big-foods-junk-food-pushing-tactics
“NZ Is a country being destroyed by the food industry”
You have anything to back that up? No thought not.
And no – the daily star or vegan news blogs are not reputable links.
You’re doing well hitting the mental ignore button Ed, keep it up. I just wish more would do the same. He brings a sour note to The Standard.
4 days.
And it’s great just scrolling past 😎
How is your chocolate fast going?
No chocolate fast for me. You must be confusing me with another poster.
I am enjoying a James-free fast though. So far I feel so cleansed. And being a BM-free zone helps as well.
Speaking of cleansing after much humid foreboding the forecast rain had arrived. It will be interesting to see how it pans out. I have a saying about HB weather – it is normally better than predicted and very rarely worse.
Grey for short but not for long. We both get Grey but I am greywarshark. And the chocolate fast is biting me the more that I’m not biting. This is a good test on my eating habits. It won’t last but each New Year it might be a good move.
And good to limit the James-mosquito. The whining is annoying and subverts the blog.
Good on you for keeping off the chocolate!
Agreed
4 days and no mosquito shall bother me..
Scrolling past.