Posts by Kumara Republic
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Polity: Eleventy billion dollars!, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
How long will it be before computers become smart enough to deliver public relations advice? They can already beat Garry Kasparov at chess and human competitors at Jeopardy.
Rae Sott defined what could be the next PA Word of the year: "guillotine insurance". And if David Cameron grows a pair and revokes the tax-free status of Britain's last vestiges of its overseas empire...
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Hard News: UMR: Medpot and the public, in reply to Russell Brown,
Update: I’ve read the whole column. Sweet Jesus. It’s almost an achievement to be that wildly, consistently wrong.
Larry really is trying a bit too hard to be Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly.
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I’m not going to wade into the debate over whose fault the flag failure was. My views are what you’d expect them to be.
Speaking of the flag, I've called my final judgment on it - it can indeed be worth billions.
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Polity: The Taxpayers' Union rides again!, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Operating one of those little trains that gives rides to kiddies would do wonders for their image, but who’d trust their kids with that lot?
Probably the parents of Auckland Grammar or Kings College?
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Polity: The Taxpayers' Union rides again!, in reply to izogi,
NZ’s mediascape is so shallow that it’s unlikely to go far to discredit itself by questioning a source that’s already been elevated so high. There’s a huge incentive for journos to avoid slagging off their possible future (or current) employers, so it probably just has to be put up with.
Yep, it's a symptom of journalism struggling to remain as a profession, and the corresponding rise of the spin doctor industry. It'll likely take an outsider like Nicky Hager or Jon Stephenson or Brad Ambrose to attempt to pry open the vault of secrecy.
Or quite possibly, we could make them look like crass bullies by punking or trolling them with some more of the Mojo Mathers thing, or into deciding some kind of 'death panel'.
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Polity: The Taxpayers' Union rides again!, in reply to izogi,
In contrast, the Taxpayers’ Union is registered as an Incorporated Society.
So in other words, it's legally a club like Rotary or Lions.
That said, is there any legal avenue to make them tell the whole story, such as the Electoral Finance Act or what passes for it (on the grounds of political collusion), or the SFO? Or otherwise have Matt Nippert extend his probe on tax-dodges to the TPU.
And tellingly, social lobby groups like CPAG and the Sallies haven't been asked for their views on the UBI.
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According to the Lifewise and Auckland City Mission report on homelessness 2015, almost 400 people are sleeping rough within a five 5km radius of Sky City. A higher density of doorway dwellers than New York or London.
The reality for many low and no income earners is a room the size of a hen house for up to 90 per cent of your benefit or daily hustle.
To Generation Rentier: thanks a bloody million. Nothing less than a very loud and sudden deflation of the housing market would be poetic justice.
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Just for a bit of a laugh, I put this (rough draft) pic together. Feel free to suggest further additions.
And one for Graeme Edgeler: what risk of getting sued for this?
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Polity: Home-spun non-truths, in reply to BenWilson,
If Labour do actually make this their policy (given that it's not insane as Farrar asserts, and is coupled with other changes to make it affordable), I will actually vote Labour. This is a big enough issue, and a bold enough move, for me to decisively say that.
I've said it before, but the deal-maker for me would be the digital apprenticeship scheme, which would fix the ICT "skills shortage" a whole lot more than the ICT grad schools.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Alfie,
I've heard MI6 (or is it the SAS?) go a few steps further and drop their HDD's into a grinder.
