Posts by Matt Crawford
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Here is the electorate ad in question - well deserving of more than the 125 odd views it has thus far,
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Well done James, you've genuinely produced the funniest electoral advertisement of the campaign, and you did it deliberately. No mean feat considering ACT set the absurdity bar so high.
Props for your tireless advocacy for your community, especially in light of the tribal blue electorate you're in.
I don't know what the answer to making wider NZ care more about Christchurch -I suspect there is a lot of quake fatigue out there in the wider populace, not just those in the region. I think that's why appealing to NZs self interest over Chch as our only source of near term growth is very smart.
I'll admit that I'm guilty of skipping most news story about the place as every reporter is trained to emphasise the human story - which turns into yet another interminable feature on some unfortunate sod trapped in their personal leaky/flooded/uninsurable/unbuildable hell. 'Whats-er-face is tired of living with 90cm of water in her lounge every weekend: "It's not very nice for my asthmatic grandma to have to swim to the kitchen."'
Chch problems seem to be made of terribly unsexy components like local politics, gov bureaucracy, insurance policies et al. We only seem to get engagement from our leaders with those problems when some local scrapes up the courage to confront on the PM at the shopping mall.
Sorry Christchurch - we've failed to rebuild you, and from what I can work out most of us probably don't care all that much.
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Take note Prime Minister, MSM, and bloggers of the sewers - RB is a man who has been described as 'tribal Labour'* simply and swiftly rejecting some anti-JK speech as beyond the pale.
If only the Minister of Justice and PM had a similar moral compass.
The National-run activist group the Tax Payers' Union of course immediately pumped out a press release about the arts funding HomeBrew have secured over the years. These same partisan pompous prissy turds remain silent on the use of ministerial staff participating in astroturfing Whaleoil - where speech has actually resulted in genuine death threats against innocent parties.
*NZHerald, 2013 -
Sorry for the snark there, I'm sure poor MP doesn't deserve it put quite so meanly. And I know journalists and newsrooms do often try their best.
It was just a head-deskingly awful moment of galling idiocy, and that was before Corko went batshit (dear god wtf was she thinking)
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Hard News: Didn't see that coming, in reply to Damian Christie,
Given the denials already on the record, and the complete lack of any evidence except for a furiously spinning National Party, repeatedly demanding to ask "are you whaledump?" made Parkin look embarrassingly stupid.
Please TV journalists and producers, go do some research. Go google anonymous, find out more about lulzsec. Engage the brain - Kim Dotcom might not be the only person in the country with l337 computer skills and a dislike for JK. Is Parkin really this dumb, or does he just play it up for the TV?
And KDC has already denied being @whaledump, being connected to Hager or hacking Slater, also all confirmed by Hager.
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There's so much dirt in there, it's overwhelming. I am eagerly anticipating many direct probing questions of our PM over the coming weeks.
Beyond that, Hagar's conclusion is brilliant - an acknowledgement that our 4th estate has simply failed to hold the powerful to account. His solution is funded public broadcasting and political parties.
Watching Mike Hosking's "nothing to see here" at 7pm on our state broadcaster just underlines how dire things are - a partisan hocking light-ent masquerading as current affairs. Seven Sharp has even promoted Slater with Heather DPA's long colour piece on Slater. She simply failed to provide any sort of useful function beyond building the Slater brand and misinforming voters about our democracy.
And this, the flagship primetime show on our state broadcaster.
Brighter future, everyone. -
Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Pete George,
Pete, You've managed to piece together quite a conspiracy there.
Seriously, please talk this over with your whanau support and health professional.
You're paranoid, delusional and I'm more than a little embarrassed for Peter Dunne that his party's biggest supporter is such a weird crackpot.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Pete George,
Pete,
Internet-Mana don't need to front up and decry this antisemitic graffiti. Unless you know something we don't?
Otherwise it seems you're just awfully keen to start implying patently stupid and and offensive shit about a political party you oppose.
I mean, if we're talking conspiratorial theories about motives and who is or isn't behind things - how come John Key hasn't denied that National are running a false flag campaign of the PMs office secretly harnessing Whale Oil readers to attack National Party hoardings?
And while we're at it, I'm beginning to wonder how long Peter Dunne can continue to remain silent on the Jimmy Savile case - I for one am appalled over this implicit UF support this pedophile. Dunne's silence on missing MH370 is equally damning.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Rob Stowell,
That point about the current I/P conflict Rob is bang on - none on the antisemitic stuff I've seen featured so prominently on the National-run blog sites so much as touches on the conflict. Meanwhile there is a ton of reporting of international anti-Israel protests turning antisemitic.
The billboard defacement we've seeing seems more akin to the traditional use of Nazi imagery by NZ motorcycle gangs. Using the symbols to offend and as anti-social markers.
That's probably more analysis than the awful shitheads with the spraypaint deserve. But this is rather concerning and I'd hate to see more of it.
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Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to giovanni tiso,
It's a pickle alright Gio.
I don't imagine any LEC that has loyally supported a successful local candidate will take kindly to being asked to please go back and produce someone better. Or quite what the best course for Labour to take when an LEC in a deep blue seat like Rangitata collapses.
I just don't know enough about Labour processes to understand just how things could be improved, if at all.
Back to the Rangitata problem - I think Cunliffe handled it well. Also, I think most New Zealanders don't have the familiarity with The Merchant of Venice or the use of "Shylock" as an antisemitic slur to reject the explanation offered by Steve Gibson.But something is definitely weird when looking at the amount of antisemitism being daubed across National billboards. It wasn't like this last time.