Posts by Steve Withers
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The only really secure way to do this would appear to be to physically copy emails to some kind of storage media...and decrypt them on a second system that isn't EVER connected to any network of any kind. Then write the replies and encrypt them on this offline system....and then convey the replies back to the online system and send them. Your private key is never on any PC connected to any network. Unfortunately, this mean private keys can only ever be physically transported.....and we saw what happened to Glen Greenwald's partner when they tried that: He was searched and everything electronic was confiscated.
Privacy is illegal.
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The so-called conservatives in the National Party today are just as nutty in their own way as the GOP in the US. The values our democracy is founded on appear to mean nothing to them.....even as they claim to be defending them by defiling them.
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OnPoint: What Andrew Geddis Said, But…, in reply to Sacha,
Sacha: National's voters don't pay attention to any of this. A vast proportion of them wouldn't understand the constitutional issues here if you explained it slowly with few words and short sentences. They don't care.
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This is why I have never voted for National. They don’t understand democracy and never have. They talk about limiting state power…and then massively expand it. They are irrational, incoherent…and therefore incompetent.
To be fair…so are their voters.
It might be worth talking this up in Epsom and Ohariu-Belmont. I assume Peter Dunne and John Banks voted for it, too.
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It’s a guaranteed fail in politics telling stupid people they are stupid. They don’t think they are….however much the evidence may indicate they are in error.
Politics is about showing respect, bringing people together, focusing on the goal and being positive….and persuading people any vision you might be touting is a good one. I completely understand how it should be done.
Can I do it? Not very well. Most of us can’t. We tend to lack the emotional discipline to keep calm and carry on in the face of……..it all.
Len Brown can do it. Plus I like his vision. Cameron Brewer can’t do it. He comes across like a raging party hack. People sniff that. No one I know on that side of the fence can…..and I doubt the Herald can push them over the top via propaganda. We’ll find out in any case.
Michael Goudie is a rare guy. He and Wayne Walker won in Albany Ward despite neither of them getting even 10% of the votes. Albany Ward got the worst of it last time around with 80.5% of all votes cast electing no one at all thanks to First Past the Post. We should have been using STV.
The outcome of the coming Council election will probably be affected more by the composition of the field of candidates than the actual votes cast. The ‘side’ best able to concentrate its support in any / all wards will win the day….even if it is with only 20% of the vote.
Last election, 13 of the 20 on Council didn’t even get 30% of the vote in their ward. North Shore Ward saw George Wood elected on about 16% and Anne Hartley on about 14.5%.
Hardly a ringing endorsement of any of them.
“Our Auckland” saw 62.5% of all Council votes in 2010 elect no one at all last time round. I doubt this time will be any different. But I’ll vote anyway.
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Trains tend to be publicly owned while buses tend to be privately owned. Therefore…ideologically…National and ACT can be relied upon to support the private solution.
Never mind doesn’t work and won’t scale. Outcomes don’t matter to the faithful. The believing is all that matters.
A thousand buses / hour into the CBD should be a hazard to avoided……for any sane person or planner.
Oh……right.
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I suspect many of the things people now credit Thatcher with in hindsight may actually have been realised during Tony Blair’s time as PM. Thatcher did not govern “Cool Britannia”. Looking back, it can be difficult to peel back the layers of later memes.
A local example would be the weeks it used to take the old Post Office to provide a new customer with a phone….all fixed by privatisation…..except it wasn’t. Peter Troughton fixed it pre-sale as CEO while Telecom was an SOE. Then it was sold. But revisionists like to claim that service improved after Telecom was sold.
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Good points and well made.
I’m not too worried about it. It could be seen as minor redress of the situation that pertained when the Maori seats were established: only 4 seats for what was then half the population of the country. If they get an extra seat now……no biggie.
The decision would also have been filtered through all the various ‘levels’ within the governments of the day. Over the years I’ve learned there aren’t really any independent bodies free of Ministerial interference….as Ministers are typically up to their eyeballs in any appointment (or re-appointment) process……ethically sound or not.
I’m more worried about the erosion of lists seats over time by increases in the number of local seats. I see local MPs as – generally – being party hacks who are only accountable to a relatively small number of people, whereas list MPs have to stand before the entire country.
I'd get rid of the local seats entirely if it were up to me....and the Maori seats would go along with the others.
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It's shame that the present government is actively hostile to the only major media left in NZ ownership: TVNZ and Radio NZ. It is even worse that these are media assets we have entrusted to the government to be stewards of on our behalf. They have responded to that task by running them down (or shutting them down - TVNZ 7) in favour of private broadcasting interests in which we taxpayers have NO direct financial, cultural or social interest in at all.
I flatly consider this be dereliction of duty at the very least...and active sabotage at worst.
If we want public broadcasting, we will have to vote for it...and National has proven over and over that can't be on that menu of electoral options.
Of course the same applies to public tranport vs private transport and public health versus private health...and public education vs private education.
The trend is absolutely clear: This government is running down or undermining our assets in favour of their private business cronies....and giving these same people greater access to taxpayer cash as current policy settings mean any other source of economic activity / growth is being steadily moved offshore. I don't think it is an accident that local business people are seeking a greater role in providing state services. The destruction of manufacturing and the dominant role of multi-nationals in almost every sector leaves precious little breathing room for local business.
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…, in reply to Stewart,
Me, too.