The Daily Blog Open Mic – Thursday 3rd November 2016

1. NOT the mainstream media…and a look at the Clinton captured mainstream media

   Hillary’s reckoning?

   https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/365048-clinton-scandals-fbi-investigation/

   “Hillary Clinton and her never-ending scandals. The FBI’s decision to continue its investigation into her use of a private email server presents the troubling prospect of a protracted political crisis. Is winning the election now the least of her problems?

   CrossTalking with Mark Crispin Miller, Don DeBar, and Bruce Fein.”

2. From here: http://www.awsm.nz/2016/11/02/vote-for-nobody-nobody-tells-the-truth/

   Vote For Nobody…Nobody Tells The Truth

   The recent local elections have seen a continuation in the decline in the numbers of the people taking time to vote. Along with this comes the usual soul searching and hand wringing among commentators in the media wondering just what is going wrong, and how can it be fixed.

   The usual possible solutions are offered including on-line voting, making voting compulsory, a “none of the above” option being placed on the ballot paper, or a “no-confidence party” being formed for the disaffected. Of course some just consider the electorate to be too distracted by other things, too ignorant, too ungrateful of living in a democracy, or just too lazy.

   From my experience of talking with people who don’t vote there is an instinctive repulsion for our politicians and the system that hands them a nominal position of power, while not really troubling the corporate giants who really hold the reins. They know that their vote is worthless, politicians make promises they have no intention of keeping, and that it doesn’t really matter who you vote for as things will not change. There is a famous anarchist poster that says, “vote for nobody, nobody tells the truth,” and it certainly seems that with each passing local and central government election nobody is getting more and more popular.

   While we’re not against democracy per se, the problem with relying on voting to change things under our parliamentary system is that it still locks the individual into the system that has been reflecting and defending their interests pretty poorly. We need to change our whole thinking of how to look after our interests. Trusting them to politicians is not working.

   As we face a world of climate collapse, poverty in the face of obscene wealth, and permanent war, our representative democracy is in fact part of the problem of a broken system. It endorses and legitimates an unjust political system and makes us look to others to fight our battles for us, while at the same time offering us the illusion that electing parties to office means that people have control over their own lives.

   With the goal of electoral politics being to elect a representative who will act for us, our system blocks constructive self-activity and direct action, and leaves most with a tendency to entrust important matters to the “experts” and “authorities,” when the reality should be the opposite. No one else is suited to know what is best for us than ourselves.

   In fact far from empowering people, electioneering dis-empowers them by creating an expectation of a “leader” figure from which changes are expected to flow. Because of this, instead of building worthwhile alternatives in our communities and workplaces, political participation merely becomes the activity of campaigning and voting. Instead of participating in decisions that affect our lives, we become passive observers as we hand that power over to others who don’t necessarily have our best interests at heart.

   Instead we need to be looking outside of parliament and local authorities to solve our problems. Such extra-parliamentary activity, based around individuals solving their own problems by their own actions, not only can achieve changes, but also builds confidence in people, teaches them how to use their initiative, and helps create solidarity between us all. Most importantly it breeds a sense of individual and collective power, giving a sense of what we do matters and that we can change the world.

   Nothing will ever change unless we ditch our reliance on politicians and act for ourselves. It is only through the use of action that we can force the establishment to respect the wishes of the people. In short, what happens in our communities, workplaces and environment is too important to be left to politicians, or indeed the ruling elite who mostly control governments.

   Abstention from the ballot box allied with vibrant and powerful movements built around extra-parliamentary activity is the only way we can meet the challenges facing us as we face an increasingly uncertain future, and will send a powerful message to the powers that be that we are serious in our desire for change. However, if you must vote, don’t expect too much, and remember that what is really important is what we do every other day of the year to protect our own and our community’s interests.

   • I suspect much of NZ politics has been corrupted by USA politics and the assault on the sovereignty of nations by a global elite

     …things may be changing….there seems to be a behind the scenes revolution going on in the USA

3. This is dynamite – a psychiatrist speaks out …’The Second American Revolution’

   ‘Steve Pieczenik gives you an in depth look at how the military feels and is reacting to Hillary Clinton and her potential presidency.’

   http://www.infowars.com/delta-force-creator-reveals-coup-against-hillary/

4. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/201821350/brace-yourself-for-multimedia-political-persuasion

   PLANET KEY MAY BE BACK AT THE NEXT ELECTION?

   Green light for more comment and satire?

   Last week, the Court of Appeal made a decision which could also change the game during next year’s election campaign. It upheld a High Court decision which overturned a controversial Electoral Commission ruling in 2014 on the now-notorious satirical song and video ‘Planet Key’:

   The Electoral Commission had considered the song “an election programme” which should be subject to the election campaign advertising restrictions.

   Still from the Planet Key video.
   The makers of ‘Planet Key’ challenged a ruling which prevented it from being sold, aired and posted without the endorsement of a political party. Photo: Screenshot

   ‘Planet Key’ could not be played on the radio sold or hosted online without approval and endorsement from a political party attached. Mediawatch even had to ask for Electoral Commission permission to play a snippet of it in a report about the matter at that time.

   Last week’s Appeal Court judgment said ‘Planet Key’ would have been more widely heard in 2014 but for the Electoral Commission’s intervention. The Justice and Electoral Committee’s review of the 2014 election also urged the government to rethink restrictions on “satirical, humorous, and creative” election programmes for broadcast.

   More entertaining elections?

   Professor Andrew Geddis of Otago University’s Law School.

   As things stand, the Broadcasting Act effectively prohibits what are deemed to be “election programmes” unless they are paid for from the funds specifically allocated to political parties by the Electoral Commission.

   That has made TV and radio in New Zealand pretty much “political advert free territory,” Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis said on pundit.co.nz.

   Veteran political journalist Richard Harman said on his website politik.co.nz that: “Coupled with the abolition of the opening and closing addresses, the Appeal Court’s decision will free up broadcasting to offer a more entertaining approach to politics during election campaigns.”

   It could also mean we get floods of politically-inspired satire and comment at election time next year from people operating outside political parties – alongside more ads from the parties themselves across more media.

   “It seems likely we’re going to get a lot more political advertising on our TV and radio stations in 2017,” Professor Geddis concluded.

   Brace yourselves.

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