BLACK LIVES MATTER (BLM) just got serious about political change. Casting aside the Occupy Wall Street model of structureless confusion, it has announced its intention to become a nationwide movement presenting a coherent political agenda for the radical transformation of American society.
The “Bernie-or-Bust” faction was not content with the “next best” choice imposed upon them by the primary voting system. That the organisers of the Convention might take this refusal to accept the democratic verdict of their party amiss does not seem to have occurred to the die-hard Sanders delegates
“Political Revolutions” are bigger than individuals. At their core are a set of principles which, in turn, spawn a set of policies. This was the battle that Bernie won. As he told the Convention: “This is the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party!” Yes, he endorsed Hillary, but in doing so he took care to bind her to that progressive platform with chains of rhetorical steel.
THE COINCIDENCE of the Republican National Convention being broadcast alongside the re-make of “Roots” is fortuitous. Alex Hayley’s famous novel laid bare the blood at the root of the American Republic.
On Sunday’s Q+A (17/7/16) Corin Dann interviewed Stephen Jennings, the former Treasury official and New Zealand investment banker who took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union to make himself a billionaire.
1. Grandpa was a strict sergeant-major, And daddy a man of the cloth. As for me, Tessa May, Well, I…
WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be a radical in the 21st Century? Listening to RNZ’s “Nine To Noon” this morning, I realised it may mean subscribing to the views of Matthew Hooton.
Malcolm Turnbull, the Aussie patrician
Considered himself a magician
But the up-himself prick
Hadn’t mastered his trick
Now Australia needs a physician.
MATT HEATH’S SATIRICAL THRUST at the over-65s in Monday’s NZ Herald has caused considerable angst. Depriving the elderly of the right to vote is one of those suggestions that stops people in their tracks. Not so much because it’s a good idea (which it obviously isn’t) but because somebody’s had the bare-faced cheek to put such a subversive thought into words.
HEAR FOR YOURSELF the voice of the invincibly self-interested business class. Proclaiming Australia’s inconclusive election result as “bad for business”, Christopher Niesche, consoles his readers with the observation that “it doesn’t look as if Labor will be able to form a government.”