Posts by Kumara Republic
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Polity: The overconfidence man, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Bridges bribe was cream for Winston. Either Winston forced National to give 10 new bridges in 10 days or if not it proved they were dirty liars as has been seen now. And he made National pledge them even if they lost. So ,now Northlanders see more lies from National. Up here it felt like old NZ in action not a slick PR machine success.
According to The Economist, ‘infrastructure and pipelines’ is one of the top 10 industries for rent-seeking and crony capitalism. The current lot in power have close ties to at least 7 of these industries.
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Polity: The overconfidence man, in reply to Sacha,
People who can afford lawyers. Since forever.
It does seem to have company town strong-arming written all over it.
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Polity: The overconfidence man, in reply to simon g,
With Helen Clark and Jim Bolger, “having a beer” with the PM seemed an unlikely thing, but an insignificant thing. Now it seems to be the only thing.
Sometimes I wonder if it's the most successful astroturf job ever pulled off in NZ. Or has Tall Poppy Syndrome cashed up and mutated into the Nouveau Riche?
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Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Russell Brown,
The Herald summarises the Press Council decision but appears to make no apology to Bailey.
I think it’s pretty clear that would be the decent thing to do now.
If this happened in Scandinavia, the Herald would find its wallet a fair bit lighter.
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Envirologue: Swamp Monsters – the…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Don’t know but can imagine.
I hear there were also questions in parliament today. Slowly knowledge and then outrage is spreading.
Doesn't it have the whiff of a company town atmosphere?
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Hard News: Potency and purity, in reply to Russell Brown,
In the US, the story is even starker. Drug laws there were essentially born out of racism – against immigrant Chinese, blacks and Mexicans – and their impact still falls sharply along racial lines.
Indeed, the War on Drugs has become a “new Jim Crow” of sorts. Especially when the arrest and sentencing stats are broken down by ethnicity and class.
Whereas *everyone* in America drank, and Prohibition proved to be an unenforceable nightmare. In any case, it's glaringly hypocritical for people to shout down booze and tobacco regulations as 'nanny statism', while also shouting just as loudly for weed to stay illegal.
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With the SCOTUS ruling on same sex marriage, it's only fitting to drag this back out.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Jack Harrison,
Who has the fucking time to listen to talkback, only well off ZB listeners apparently, if you base their demographic off their advertorial content.
Advertorial content like this?
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One change that needs to go ahead is to convert the existing FPP electorate system to PV or STV. That would eliminate vote cannibalising, especially the infamous Eden-Albert debacle in 2001.
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Hard News: Happy Days, in reply to Jack Harrison,
The most painful read of all time, job ads. Patronising, unfocused drivel written by Robots to employ mythical superhuman people who never complain and show a real passion for whatever fucking task is awarded them in order to obtain cash to pay rent and food bills. Stepford employees wanted.
And if they’re worthless to the average job applicant, they’re even more worthless to jobseekers with disabilities and mental illness who have difficulty building meaningful work connections. Especially those on the autistic spectrum, who find the job interview process inherently discriminatory towards them. The result is that people who often have Mensa-grade IQs waste their intellect on dead end jobs or no job at all.
I’ve worked out that the best approach for such people is some kind of apprenticeship or on-the-job approach – perhaps like the Mainstream Programme – but such an approach is basically a social contract, and social contracts often need big investment to make them happen. As it stands, it’s far less hassle to hire someone already with the skills who’s just stepped off a jumbo jet, than to spare the expense of getting those on the bottom rung up to speed. Proposals like the ICT apprenticeship scheme would have addressed such an unmet need.
