Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
Last nights Auckland Mayoral, Councilor inauguration gig was interesting.
“Jokers to the left of me
Clowns to my right…”
And there I was …having a beer with the Mayor!
What a crack up!
There is only climate change now. That it is a ‘silent’ crisis doesn’t clear these immediate sillinesses of your blog. None of your stories would be printed during WW ll.
The Left is about reality, it’s not a stamp-swop club. You face it more but both you and Trotter prefer the sellable immediate you understand to reality — or, as it’s known, the fucken end of the species in our lifetimes.
We have to go forward from where we are sumsuch. We have a system that needs some people who are committed, well-educated, workmanlike, skilled, wise, practical and humane to make sensible applications in the right place at the right time. But where, when and how. You paint the scenario, but don’t dismiss those trying, with your negative comments, because then you are not trying yourself. Better to stay shtum, or think of small, doable projects to put forward and encourage yourself and others to act – you might make a great deal of difference in one pocket of land, and people.
I remember hearing about a hapu that had a business selling some of its resources which they had a market for; they did well but didn’t properly maintain their trucks and gear, and then the daughter of one of the leaders decided she should have an overseas trip paid for out of the income. They drew on the business and ran it down and then I think it was sold though they should have retained it in their hands earning for them if they had run it well. No doubt once it was sold they did the work and earned that way, but lost their ownership, control and decision-making agency. But they did not want to set their own rules and keep to them with modest drawings after proper maintenance of the works and material.
I think this is a true story. But an analogy for NZ as a whole. Not content with living modestly and well, our smart aleks over-reached themselves encouraged by money trickling down from the fists of the world’s 10% – that’s the trickle down we hear about – not to the poor, they are extraneous matter to the ambitious. But the wealthy have put themselves in a position of having access to the rich things of life. Devil take the hindmost though. And the hindmost is having its small access to the largesse of wealth, the cornucopia and opportunity available to the top level, made narrower, lesser, fewer and more niggardly provided to the ‘lower orders’ which is most of us who are lied to about the provision. Eventually only ugly phrases seem applicable such as ‘There’s more than one way to skin a cat’ or such grim sayings.
This is the last ten years, Grey, to do anything. Refer to Chomsky. The commenters here are congenital letter-writers, not forces for ‘the right’.
Minto and Hager are closer to the truth. Reality matters, that we don’t believe that is so much pain.
For me , for my youngers. So many idiots who don’t understand reality.
I feel what you are on about sumsuch when I read you and feel the truth of it. But when you read me suggesting positives – I recognise that we need to go beyond Chomsky et al, pick up what they say. disseminate it and at the same time put a seed of practical positivity in it.
If we are in the end years, let’s be noble and brave, thoughtful and active, doing what we can against the sludge of our decomposing mores and practices, and occasionally laugh at ourselves in the face of our looming problems; trip, fall, and find a way to rise, go forward supporting each other in the group and trying to also aid the needy who can’t manage at all. That would be self-help too, as the others will become destructive or obstructive yet have no ideas that would be beneficial to all, even themselves.
Helping each other is needful, even if just to as good an end as possible for us and our affected animal companions. Facing the end game; I think it must be ever present in our minds, but not dominating our screen if possible.
PSST! ‘World War III has already effectively begun’.
So fuck off with the petty gender politics and buckle up Dorothy! Its gunna be a doozy!
https://fortune.com/2022/10/28/wall-street-dr-doom-world-war-nouriel-roubini-china-taiwan-ukraine-recession/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018864528/not-just-for-old-stuffy-white-males-trevor-mallard-on-parliament
Old politicians never die they just…. away.
Choose from – waste. shrivel, puff out, demagnetise, deflate, engorge, debark, develop urban myth, reminisce. or sink into purple prose and bliss.
They are just so sickening – have we no defence against this stuff?
Maori holding onto people-based historic culture being encouraged to embrace robotics? This is madness.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mapuna/audio/2018864658/steve-saunders-culture-eats-strategy-any-day-of-the-week
Why are American food producers choosing to work with a robotics company based in Tauranga?
Partly because of a strong company culture founded in Māori values like manakitanga [hospitality] and kaitiakitanga [guardianship of the environment], says Steve Saunders (Ngāi Te Ahi and Ngāti Ranginui).
The co-founder and CEO of Robotics Plus was named ‘Outstanding Business Leader’ at this week’s Māori Business Leaders Awards.
This thinking is an echo of that encouraging wealthy people to buy into NZ and get its benefits for money.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/477687/new-millionaire-migrants-visa-category-attracts-only-one-wealthy-foreigner
Only one wealthy foreigner has applied for residency since the government overhauled the rules for investor visas nearly six weeks ago.
The Active Investor Plus visa replaced two investor visa categories on 19 September.
Immigration’s general manager of border and visa operations Nicola Hogg said the one application received under the new category was being processed…
Govt considered $25m minimum
A Cabinet paper from August showed the government originally planned to set the minimum investment for the Active Investor Plus visa at $25m, which it recognised was “a high threshold by international standards and that investing in active asset classes in an unfamiliar market is risky”.
“We anticipate that uptake of the new Active Investor Plus visa may be lower than the levels of interest that we have been experiencing in the Investor 1 and Investor 2 visa categories as investment in bonds is now only allowed for one year as a part of a transition,” the paper said.
“Uptake is likely to drop initially as a natural reaction to changing visa requirements and the increase in the minimum investment threshold is also likely to reduce the number of applicants.”
Laurent said bringing the investment level down to $15m was the right call, and dropping it further would likely not make a difference to application numbers.
Iran’s protests: a different view from the ground
https://youtu.be/oUucX0FcBBg