If you ask a NZer to put their lives in danger for our ‘National Interest’, it better be for honourable and just reasons, not as the price we pay for being inside the 5 eyes club. We have obligations as a global citizen, but do those obligations extend to cleaning up America’s latest failed adventure?
“We’re not insulated from the sort of thing that we saw in Orlando.” – Gerry Brownlee, re NZ extension of troop deployment in Iraq
We sow the seeds of the next monster with every intervention. This is America’s mess, America cleans it up, we shouldn’t give them the pretence of support for their perverse sense of National Interest which always seems to end up being for Corporate benefit.
We report political polls like we report sports results in this country. The MoU forces the media to report on them as a block, this goes in the voters mind from Labour 28-National 49 to Labour-Green 42.5 to National 43. See the impact that makes?
Nothing sums up the denial of our homelessness crisis quite like the panel on The Nation last weekend. Political Editor of the terribly elitist Spinoff blog Toby Manhire and some Rich Prick from the Rich Prick association sat next to Sue Bradford debating homelessness.
For them, it was all about enabling their privilege as employers, their right to sack anyone they like who doesn’t fit in, who is a bit too lippy, who isn’t a trembling broken frightened worker who will do everything they are told.
What ‘stop the hate’ is really about is the privilege that has been eroded in gatekeepers like the NZ Herald, suddenly their pundits and mouth pieces of the powerful have to face the derision and anger of the people their policies and news narratives impact
The fear Hone has caused by just announcing he is back is a reminder of how terrified the establishment are that the poor could gain genuine political representation. It’s a reminder of just how damaged our current political system is.
Tip line is running hot with intense power struggles occurring behind the scenes within National.
We are seeing a complete break down of our crucial social services. The spiteful harvest of National’s draconian welfare reforms are coming home to roost and NZers should feel ashamed of what it says about us as a country.