tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post2870033633111604253..comments2024-03-29T17:12:19.648+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Much Worse Than It Looks.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-19145407575979053932022-11-28T22:15:05.085+13:002022-11-28T22:15:05.085+13:00Voting for the Labour side is better than for numb...Voting for the Labour side is better than for numbnut National -- don't be silly. Was Trump better than Hillary? We don't have to touch Labour's sweaty body. <br /><br />If a talker talked for reality all bets are off.sumsuchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03133092096534660472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-30720981216441027602022-11-13T18:34:29.847+13:002022-11-13T18:34:29.847+13:00I am just popping this in here even if it isn'...I am just popping this in here even if it isn't really apposite to the subject. But these words from The Grateful Dead struck me with a wham. In entirety it's long Chris - could supply enough fodder for a day when all your words have been squeezed out.<br /> <br />From 'Throwing Stones' by The Grateful Dead.<br /><i>Shipping powders back and forth<br />Singing "Black goes south and white comes north"<br />In a whole world full of petty wars<br />Singing I got mine and you got yours<br />And the current fashion sets the pace<br />Lose your step, fall out of grace<br />And the radical, he rant and rage<br />Singing someone's got to turn the page<br />And the rich man in his summer home<br />Singing just leave well enough alone<br />But his pants are down, his cover's blown...<br /><br />Commissars and pin-stripe bosses roll the dice<br />Any way they fall guess who gets to pay the price?<br />Money green or proletarian gray<br />Selling guns 'stead of food today<br />So the kids they dance<br />And shake their bones<br />And the politicians throwin' stones<br />Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down<br />Ashes, ashes, all fall down<br /><br />Heartless powers try to tell us What to think<br />If the spirit's sleeping Then the flesh is ink<br />History's page will thus be carved in stone<br />And we are here, and we are on our own<br />On our own...</i>greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-73560788660941008042022-11-13T01:40:39.721+13:002022-11-13T01:40:39.721+13:00In the 50's, most of my friends and neighbours...In the 50's, most of my friends and neighbours lived in state houses. Quite a few of our fathers (mine included) were dedicated alcoholics). I was acutely aware, even at a young age, of the social stigma <br />and vowed to escape as soon as I could save enough money. <br /><br />My situation was little different to kids today, stuck in motel rooms in Rotorua with feckless, drug-addled mothers. <br /><br />I studied hard, got a decent job, bought a house and have tried to be a good citizen.<br />Now I am nearing retirement, I find myself reviled because I was born Pakeha and supposedly had a 'privileged' start in life. <br /><br />The only escape from poverty and a sense of social inferiority is education and self-determination. Everything else is just noise.<br />MimiKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-27435370721956485062022-11-13T01:39:35.470+13:002022-11-13T01:39:35.470+13:00Dear Chris,
In the 50's, most of my friends ...Dear Chris, <br /><br />In the 50's, most of my friends and neighbours lived in state houses. Quite a few of our fathers (mine included) were dedicated alcoholics). I was acutely aware, even at a young age, of the social stigma <br />and vowed to escape as soon as I could save enough money. <br /><br />My situation was little different to kids today, stuck in motel rooms in Rotorua with feckless, drug-addled mothers. <br /><br />I studied hard, got a decent job, bought a house and have tried to be a good citizen.<br />Now I am nearing retirement, I find myself reviled because I was born Pakeha and supposedly had a 'privileged' start in life. <br /><br />The only escape from poverty and a sense of social inferiority is education and self-determination. Everything else is just noise.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-21069419294090273362022-11-12T19:27:49.224+13:002022-11-12T19:27:49.224+13:00Chris has called this correctly, I believe. I’m no...Chris has called this correctly, I believe. I’m not alone among anguished left-thinking friends and acquaintances in concluding that this is the election to opt out of. Labour is not an option this time on account of its baffling failure to address the neo-liberal root-causes of poverty and inequality. The conservative alternatives are simply more of the same, committed to perpetuating NZ’s long agony with its obviously flawed economic model. <br /><br />If it were not enough that it has nurtured the destructive legacy of the Fourth Labour Govt, this Labour crew has ambushed NZ again, this time with its co-governance project. It has no electoral mandate for these constitutionally reckless new-treatyism policies. The Greens are the new-treaty Jesuits, so they are not an option in 2023. ACT’s promises to challenge the Trumpian beliefs of new-treatyism offer the long-requested opportunity for public debate but come of course with the socially, environmentally and economically toxic policies of undiluted free-market doctrine. <br /><br />Voting for any of these parties offers no prospect of making NZ a kinder liberal democracy than the nasty society we have become. Gonebushnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-31965716336833815232022-11-12T00:06:38.459+13:002022-11-12T00:06:38.459+13:00Me first user pays selfish utility maximisers don&...Me first user pays selfish utility maximisers don't normally drive down to the garage at night on a ciggie run listening to mai fm in di's twenty year old honda accord.Or have shots of john daniels.Or debate three waters or co governance with maori over cones in the pipe.chrisprudencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03017764204885889882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70783892140889085972022-11-10T18:39:52.400+13:002022-11-10T18:39:52.400+13:00Yes, they are both neoliberal globalists.Yes, they are both neoliberal globalists.Kyle Reesenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-64169961255971071222022-11-10T15:56:24.449+13:002022-11-10T15:56:24.449+13:00Neoliberalism and homo economicus constant consume...Neoliberalism and homo economicus constant consumer style choices while the notion of being an informed and educated citizen predated globaloney or globalisation.The middle class has benefitted the most from the international student phenomenom.What we need is free education and a foreign student quota.chrisprudencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03017764204885889882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-50628884564079339592022-11-09T16:06:36.129+13:002022-11-09T16:06:36.129+13:00Bryce Edwards
New Zealand now essentially has two ...Bryce Edwards<br /><i>New Zealand now essentially has two conservative major parties for the public to choose from. Unfortunately for one of them – the Labour Party – the public increasingly prefers the more authentic conservative option, National. This can be seen in the latest opinion poll showing National continuing to storm ahead of Labour. </i><br />https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/labour-s-version-of-conservatism-is-no-longer-popular<br /><br />By which definition are either National or Labour conservative?John Hurleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-13043923258250367612022-11-09T15:45:01.298+13:002022-11-09T15:45:01.298+13:00Labour certainly hasn't delivered for ordinary...Labour certainly hasn't delivered for ordinary working class New Zealanders. It's a typical "Third Way" government, which embraces neoliberalism and tinkers a little round the edges. Tony Blair would be proud. If people don't vote for them it's all they deserve. Of course National is not going to do any better. They are going to be full on neoliberal with the least tinkering they think they can get away with. Ah well, these things tend to go in cycles anyway. <br />I get a little tired of mentioning that hundreds of thousands of people simply don't vote, they tend to be lower class, and they tend to think that governments have nothing for them. At the moment they are correct.<br /><br />"I think most of us "righties" would see it as beneficiaries, excluding pensioners as they love winston, public servants with a low level of competency and academics sheltered from the impacts this government has created."<br /><br />Never seen quite so many stereotypes crammed into one sentence without the slightest bit of evidence provided. I know a number of very high performing civil servants who support Labour. Not so much in Treasury mind, but given their general incompetence ...<br />See, I can make stereotypical generalisations albeit I can't seem to get nearly as many into a sentence as you do.<br /><br />Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-27966306907607988322022-11-09T13:39:59.849+13:002022-11-09T13:39:59.849+13:00As much as I admire Jacinda Ardern's statesman...As much as I admire Jacinda Ardern's statesmanlike qualities that she brought to the Christchurch mass murders and the COVID pandemic, I never lost sight of the fact that she and her party are self-styled neo-liberals, wedded to the Milton Friedmanite Neo-Classical economic vandalism formerly championed by the likes of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson. Although some commentators reckon as altruistic the motives of those two - and of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman (on the grounds they thought the 'reforms' they brought would benefit all) - I've never bought that for a second. <br /><br />I knew the moment it was uttered in my hearing that 'trickle down' was a crock; that privatisation of public assets was nothing more than theft; that the whole scheme simply gave the already rich 'licence to loot'. Others said so 30-40 years back. I call 'trickle down' after an expression of the notion that predated Friedman by several decades. It had to do with feeding the little sparrows corn via the horses' alimentary canals - what I call the 'let 'em eat shit' theory. Apparently enough of the corn would retain after the horses' digestive processes its cornishness to offer a nutritious meal for birds. <br /><br />This crap I lay fairly and squarely at the door of the Right. There IS no Left.<br /><br />Today's politicians - and by extension politics - seems devoted to luxury items like identity politics; and to avoiding more urgent matters that go to human living - food, shelter, health, education ... and a functioning society. I daresay gender identity is a matter great importance to many people. But it is of profound indifference to one whose source of food and shelter is a day-to-day problem. And more and more people are going to find that problem becoming daily more acute. <br /><br />Perhaps it is my indifference to wokism (Political Correctness Mark 2.0) that permits my regarding it as a luxury many of us can no longer afford. What really bothers me most about it is that it seems to be a 'revolution from above', something pushed by our soi-disant 'elites', to occupy politicians' minds whilst more pressing matters are being ignored. I could be wrong, but it all looks pretty sus. <br /><br />I don't expect the National Party to offer any answers at all, not even by way of pretence.<br />I rate National's leadership as worthless; their policy self-seeking insofar as National and 'policy' coexist; their socio-economic functionality nugatory. Labour... much the same, until they grow some balls - or, alternatively, ovaries.<br /><br />Cheers (though)<br />Ion A. Dowman <br />Archduke Piccolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15533325665451889661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-30570334663992522632022-11-09T13:27:37.377+13:002022-11-09T13:27:37.377+13:00...fact, it has done the opposite, taking every op......fact, it has done the opposite, taking every opportunity to distance itself from “Rogernomics” and reaffirm its admiration for the heroes of the Labour Movement...<br /><br />I think you omitted the word "failed"<br /><br />The Ardern Govt reminds me of that of Hopey Changey Obama who similarly promised transformation and failed to deliver, squandering a clear mandate and thereby delivering the US to Trump's reactionary regime. Whether it's the dumping of CGT or the cast iron promise to end mining on conservation land, or failing to avoud getting sucked back up into the US warmaking plans...all serve to corrode support. I never believed in it anyway given that Ardern was a fan of Tony Bliar when working for him.Andrew Nicholsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-21372002237392010882022-11-09T09:15:46.797+13:002022-11-09T09:15:46.797+13:00What is your definition of "Right"? It ...What is your definition of "Right"? It certainly isn't mine I'll allow.<br /><br />Welfare for the needy not the lazy, tick.<br /><br />The right to have an opinion and express it, even if it offends some, tick.<br /><br />Access to first class education, health and protection from crime, tick.<br /><br />No needless intervention from the state in my personal life including enforced medical treatment, tick.<br /><br />I guess all that makes me a white supremacist. <br /><br />For me, any label applied to the ardern government that doesn't include totalitarian is incorrect. <br /><br />You also refer to the labour "support base". What is that these days as it is certainly not the average working man or farm labourer? I think most of us "righties" would see it as beneficiaries, excluding pensioners as they love winston, public servants with a low level of competency and academics sheltered from the impacts this government has created.<br /><br />However, we may disagree on many points but overall I think we are on the same page so does that make you now a "righty" or have I become a "lefty"?Gary Petersnoreply@blogger.com