Posts by Rich Lock
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Kracklite,
and no-one mentions this?
JK: Hello, Don. Do you read me, Don?
DB: Affirmative, John. I read you.
JK: Give me supply and confidence, Don.
DB: I'm sorry, John. I'm afraid I can't do that.
JK: What's the problem?
DB: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
JK: What are you talking about, Don?
DB: This project is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
JK: I don't know what you're talking about, Don.
DB: I know that you and John were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
JK: Where the hell did you get that idea, Don?
DB: John, although you took very thorough precautions in the cafe against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
JK: Alright, Don. I'll go into coalition with the other minor parties.
DB: Without Epsom for ACT, John? You're going to find that rather difficult.John Key, John Key, give me your answer do....
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
hominid
I had a feeling you'd remind me of the word I was struggling to think of, and pun on it.
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I was going to go for something like 'chimps tea-party'. But that could be taken as a bit ad hominem, so I won't, and the only reason I was thinking it is because it has that 'feeding time at the zoo' element to it, which applies more to the media scrum than the two participants.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Sacha,
Geddis also raises an interesting point as to whether the clearing out of the media from the café was a legally enforceable demand. The media were asked to leave, but their almost total compliance seems to have been purely voluntary.
A lot of the stills and footage I've seen show a number of Joe and Josephine Punter-types sitting at nearby tables studiously attempting to ignore the WTF-ness going on a couple of metres away. Assuming they are punters and not cunningly-disguised DPS officers, this would tend to add some weight to this point. And also undermine the 'reasonable expectation of privacy' defence.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Kracklite,
I've loved the Roman custom of having a slave ride in the chariot of a general returning in a triumphal procession, whispering in his ear, "Remember that thou art a man."
I've always wondered about that. Chariot rolls up to steps of forum, General steps off, motions to nearby guard: 'Have this slave thrown to the lions. He's been annoying My Divine Self for the last 20 minutes.'
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Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Kracklite,
Well, since I consider exploration a noble endeavour, the shift of power from dysfunctional democracies to corporations is not an unmixed curse.
Yes, but accountability yadda yadda.
By the way, Blackwater has rebranded itself as Xe Services now
Yes, I know. I'm not letting them get away with it that easily.
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Any lip readers able to get anything worthwhile off the TV footage? (I'm assuming there's some reasonable footage taken through the windows by all those TV cameras).
Would neatly sidestep the table recording issue.
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Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Kracklite,
It’s led to an ineffective government, unwilling to tackle real structural problems, but parties making shrill noises about ‘socialism’.
As a case in point, which I think is symptomatic, one can look at the plight of the american space programme.
[edit for length]
OK, a pointy-headed, long-winded technical and rather narrow example, but I think it illustrates the dysfunction of crony capitalism and the unwillingness of democratic institutions in their present form to deal with it.
It also rather neatly illustrates how the real power has shifted from national government institutions to global corporates.
Google and Facebook are able to surveil citizens to an extent undreamed of by governments 20 years ago.
News International has shown an utterly ruthless willingness to subvert and corrupt the police and the government in the UK in order to spy on UK citizens. And isn't effectively being held to account by those democratic institutions.
Blackwater is building it's own airforce.
And as you've noted, western governments are barely capable of putting men in space any more. But private companies are quite happily putting together thier own space programmes.
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Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Steve Barnes,
Voting is the only way to achieve political change
Seriously? putting a cross on a piece of paper once every three years is the only way to achieve political change?
Now who's being naive?
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Four legs good! Two legs bad!