Posts by Alfie
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Having spent most of the weekend glued to the world's press, I'll admit to being Brexit-ed out today. What a godforsaken mess the UK has brought down upon itself.
Putting aside the London vs the rest division, in general it was the better educated and the young who voted strongly for remain, while older people and the poorly educated voted leave. The Sun and the Daily Mail led the charge for leaving the EU, and their demographic followed suit. It's quickly becoming obvious that even Boris and his lot did not expect this outcome.
Those who voted for Brexit believing it would herald a return to some mythical, 1950s Britain where all the faces are white and there's full employment for all are sadly mistaken. That was never a possibility. We now know that these people were blatantly lied to by Farage and Boris.
It's hard to see the result as anything other than a swing to the right for England. Some commentators are suggesting that, freed from the constraints of EU law, the Tory Party will move to a form of "super-Thatcherism". I guess the desirability of that prospect comes down to your own political preferences, but to me, neoliberalism on steroids is the worst possible outcome. The rich will continue to get wealthier, the poor will become even poorer, and everyone will still blame the immigrants.
While there's a certain irony in the fact that Prime Minister Pigfucker inflicted this disaster on his own ruling elite, in terms of political fuckups, this one is off the scale.
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Speaker: A Disorderly Brexit, in reply to Marc C,
What appears to not have been given that much consideration here is the role of the UK press in all this outcome.
Glenn Greenwald tackles that issue nicely.
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Hard News: Starting the cannabis…, in reply to Worik Stanton,
"Police have been practicing selective decriminalisation for years"
I am so in disagreement with this.
The word "selective" is the important bit. Of course people still get busted. It's statistically more likely if you're brown and almost guaranteed if you piss off a cop.
There is no equivalent for tinny houses.
I'm happy to live in a city without any obvious tinny houses, fortressed gang pads or anything which falls into the low rent scum category and has a negative impact on society.
There is no way to score if you are new to town.
Anyone who needs to consult Yellow Pages to score in Otepoti is probably living in the wrong city. But hey... I'm from Dunedin, so what would I know?
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In lieu of the government getting off their arses and actually doing something about the issue, Police have been practicing selective decriminalisation for years, with its attendant unfairness to certain sections of society. In contrast to that approach comes this little gem from today's ODT.
Big decrease in cannabis crime
A combination of good police work and prioritisation has contributed to cannabis-related offences dropping about 50% in Southern courts in the past five years.
Southern district organised crime team leader Detective Senior Sergeant Malcolm Inglis said police had made dealing with cannabis a priority, which, along with people having more choice about what drugs to buy, led to the decrease.
Synthetics and an influx of methamphetamine in Otago and Southland meant buyers needed to decide what drug they would spend their money on, he said.
My interpretation of what must be a reheated press release is that the Southern Police district appears happy to believe that they're pushing dope smokers towards much worse drugs. Ignoring the obvious stupidity of that policy which flies in the face of global trends, I can't think of a single cannabis consumer who'd touch either meth or synthetics with a barge pole.
Southern Police seem to be stuck in some alternate reality where dope smokers want "drugs" at any cost. "Just gimme the stuff, man." I'll bet they use Cheech & Chong videos for training.
What was most ‘‘concerning'' was the 30 modified firearms police had recovered from properties in the past two months where cannabis was found, he said.
Which only confirms that the continuing illegality of cannabis hands a lucrative business to criminal gangs on a plate.
Down this way, the Police really don't get it. Yet.
If streaming is an option for Monday's discussion, I'll be there.
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Here's more evidence of vemod being Swedish with the author's Swedish wife claiming it was probably the "most Swedish" word she knew. It seems to fall somewhere between wistfulness and wishfulness, which doesn't sound like a bad place to be.
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Polity: Custard, in reply to andin,
Those diehard Nact voters arent really engaged in the political process which requires they pay attention to what is happening around them in a wider sense, and making an informed decision based what they read and what they observe.
I'm with Andin. There's a large middle ground in the electorate who think no deeper than wanting to pick a winner. Their mates share the same shallow mindset providing confirmation that they've all backed the right horse. Add some proven manipulation from Crosby/Textor and the impotence of a largely compliant media, and Key gets away with portraying the Nats as "winners" while simultaneously pillaging the country on a grand scale. It's neolib heaven.
Meanwhile Labour is still shooting itself in the foot with unwanted headlines like Andrew Little: 'I was wrong'.
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Polity: Custard, in reply to izogi,
If the point is meant to be that a Labour-led alternative would be better, then I wish there were more in here about what Labour would be doing, why Labour’s people are superior, would make highly competent and better Ministers who are less prone to screwing up, and how it’d overall be better.
Otherwise it’s just asking people to vote for the least worst instead of the best.
This.
One of the main reasons the Nats are enjoying such a run of unfettered power is the lack of a credible opposition. I'm sure that if National gets another two or three terms in government, they'll eventually screw up our ecology and fry our democracy to such an extent that Labour might... just might get another shot. But is that really the best option we can hope for?
Unlike Sanders in the US and Corbyn in the UK, the NZ Labour Party has for years aspired to be National-Lite. It's still neoliberalism, just slightly and almost imperceptibly softer.
Will Labour chuck out the TPP? Like fuck they will. They supported the bill, despite its ISDS provisions ceding control to multinationals. Ditto the erosion of our labour laws.
What will Labour do to encourage green energy? Who knows, because they seem to avoid having any strong policies in this area.
How about the accelerating degradation of our waterways from overfarming? The undemocratic takeover of Ecan? The sacrifice of our rail network to the trucking lobby?
National's divisive politics promoting inequality and extreme greed should be an easy target for a modern party of the left. But only if that party embraces genuine left-wing values. There's never been a better time for Labour to offer New Zealanders a real alternative instead of a watered down more of the same.
The slogan "Vote Labour... because we're not National" will never be a vote winner.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to John Farrell,
One could construct all sorts of conspiracy theories...
I think it's a little more serious than that, John. While I normally balk at using them as a source, the Daily Mail reports one Georgia gun dealer as saying, "We normally sell two (AR-15s) a day, today we are selling up to 15 an hour."
Parents of some of the 26 children killed in the Newtown masacre are suing the Remington Arms Company on the basis that their product is directly responsible for their children's deaths, and that they market their AR-15 as a military grade weapon “engineered to deliver maximum carnage with extreme efficiency.”
Incidentally, it wasn't an AR-15 used by Mateen in Orlando. It was actually one of these Sig Sauers -- equally deadly but still sold to civillians, regardless of their mental state.
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On the subject of America’s crazed gun culture…
The share prices of US gun manufacturers have surged since the Florida shootings. Apparently this happens after every US gun massacre as the good ol’ boys stockpile weapons in anticipation of a crackdown on gun sales.
Further to my earlier post about this incident being quickly forgotten, someone has used Google Trends to predict how long before the US forgets about the Orlando massacre and concludes that, based on previous trends, this will be a non-issue by early August, at the latest.
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Stuff’s business section is currently leading (see screengrab) with what could be an important story for NZ media. The headline on the corresponding story adds validity, shouting – "Merger mania steps up a notch with report TVNZ, MediaWorks in talks".
My bullshit detector suddenly started making loud whooping noises, so I poked around for confirmation. The report/rumour is credited to The Australian but that’s locked behind a paywall, so here’s the cached version. The original story focuses primarily on the chaotic bomb-site that is Mediaworks today, with just a single line relating to TVNZ.
Sources said the group had held merger talks with state-owned broadcaster TVNZ, although a deal would spark competition concerns.
Apparently “unnamed sources” are behind the rumour. Someone in Paula Benefit’s office perhaps? Or some dude who changed his name to Unnamed Sources by deed poll? The only comment from TVNZ so far has been “no comment”. The rumour is being repeated by the Herald, the ODT and NewstalkZB, adding yet further credibility.
Meanwhile TVNZ continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel in its quest for ratings. While a merger would provide total dominance of free-to-air broadcasting in this country, TVNZ already outrates TV3 across the board and it’s hard to see them wanting to further dilute their product or pour more money into what is quickly becoming a sunset industry.
