Posts by JLM
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Boom. As in housing price inflation, especially Auckland. Also the noise created when that bubble turns to bust. And the sound of melting glaciers crashing ito the sea. And of unprotected trees falling. And of historic buildings being desecrated in Palmyra. And guns going off killing people everywhere. Even the mating call of the kakapo which has just had the private bit of its protection money withdrawn by a poverty-calling aluminium smelter. You get the idea...
I had hopes that 2015 might be the year when most people started to wake up and get enraged. I still think it might be looked back at as a landmark year, from Corbyn to Canada to COP21 starting to pull together. Just not in New Zealand
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Hard News: To defame and deflect, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Thanks very much Rob! Can't stand listening to the man, have to turn off the radio each time he is on.
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I was looking for verification of the " good, hard-working honest, New Zealander" quote without the misery of wading through videos because I wanted to put it on an anti TPPA placard. Can someone verify that those are pretty much the exact words as they don't come up with a google search - except for this site.
signed,
an obsessive
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Well, I have just returned home from a talk by Nicky Hager at the University of Waikato. Despite pathetic attempts by the university administration to limit publicity (dept secretaries were prohibited from distributing news about it), it attracted a crowd of 750 people (two linked lecture theatres). He gave a great speech, answered multiple questions, and got a standing ovation,
There are people listening!I hope Nicky had a good break over the weekend. In Dunedin on Friday night he would pause before the second half of his answer to a question and say, "What was it again, I'm so tired, I've been doing this for two weeks..." Yet he was unfailingly courteous and clear in thought and speech.
The thing he said that stayed with me more than anything else is that political parties use negative campaigning when they know they can't win voters with their policies. That simple statement crystallized a few things for me.
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Hard News: Never mind the quality ..., in reply to Stephen R,
My recollection is that nice Mr Key was saying that David Cunliffe couldn’t be trusted to run the country because he couldn’t remember a letter he wrote in support of Mr Liu 11 years ago, and was therefore shifty and unreliable.
Since Mr Key now appears to be unable to remember a briefing five years ago, does that make him twice as shifty and unreliable?
This is what I would rather the media would focus on, rather than the minuteae of who said what, when.
I also hope that David Cunliffe resists the temptation to drag this out in the leader's debates, by which time most people will be starting to flag. These debates really should be about policy, with a wee bit of trust and leadership on the side.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to ,
For heaven's sake, we don't all have to march in lockstep here!
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to izogi,
Thank you, that's it. Another middle of the night thought that came to me is to wonder how many journalists and general media people are supporting the anti-Hager push because they are compromised in the same way that Slater, Lush and Carrick Graham enable.
Like others I find it distressing to read about such hatred, it always makes me think of ee cummings and "hate is why men breathe". That was in a poem in memory of his father, so here's a bit of it in memory of Jack Shallcrass, another good man.
then let men kill which cannot share,
let blood and flesh be mud and mire,
scheming imagine,passion willed,
freedom a drug that’s bought and soldgiving to steal and cruel kind,
a heart to fear,to doubt a mind,
to differ a disease of same,
conform the pinnacle of amthough dull were all we taste as bright,
bitter all utterly things sweet,
maggoty minus and dumb death
all we inherit,all bequeathand nothing quite so least as truth
—i say though hate were why men breathe—
because my Father lived his soul
love is the whole and more than all -
I'm looking for the Dirty Politics webpage, which I looked at on Wednesday, but it seems to be swamped by all the other stuff in google and I can't find it again. Can someone post a link for me?
I haven't finished my kindle copy yet - have to pace the outrage - but I hope they publish most of the chapter about Carrick Graham in a Sunday paper. Even an overseas one would be good. I think this story is bigger than our little corner.
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Thanks Russell! Sometimes Twitter is just a bit too brief...
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Meanwhile Nick Smith is criticizing the selfishness of rich lifestyle blockers who he says are stopping the subdivisions on the outskirts that could be homes for tragically deprived young families who apparently have access to unlimited petrol.
He doesn't have anything to say about Epsom.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10132013/Rich-people-block-housing-growth