tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post6608943668543157089..comments2024-03-19T22:42:04.062+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: All Changed, Changed Utterly: Thoughts On The Day Of Donald Trump's Inauguration.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-54177340843109190272017-01-26T09:47:31.208+13:002017-01-26T09:47:31.208+13:00Johnathon Haidt and EO Wilson are reopening the ca...Johnathon Haidt and EO Wilson are reopening the case for group selection. Johnathon Haidt also suggests we have had sufficient time for disparate groups of humans to evolve traits which give them advantages or disadvantages over other groups. Anti racists say we are like jelly-babys: soak us in water and we are all gelatine underneath. Our government is supposed to be looking after the best interest of the people of this country (or that country). Does it matter if it takes the locals a bit longer to qualify as doctor, dentist or plumber than group B from across the water?jhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-1108403320351647742017-01-26T08:58:29.232+13:002017-01-26T08:58:29.232+13:00GS
No, the reason is unregulated capitalism and ri...GS<br />No, the reason is unregulated capitalism and right wing greed. <br />......<br />The future of Auckland is the focus of a panel discussion chaired by Bill Ralston at the Auckland Museum. It features Marina Matthews from the law firm Chen Palmer; and Waikare Komene, a young architect from Otara, along with Professor Damon Salesa from the University of Auckland, and business commentator Rod Oram, well-known to RNZ listeners.<br /><br />Bill Ralston: I mean Marina picking up on the Herald thing and based on your massive study. Going back (I think it was 2001) 67%of our island city was pakeha. Now it is down to 54% and falling rapidlyIt wont be long before Pakeha Aucklanders are a minority. Is that necessarliy a good thing or could it be a bad thing?<br /><br />Marina Mathews: I think it could be a good thing. I'll just draw on my experiences working 10 years in the public sector in Wellington. I mean when you look at Wellington it has it's own ethnoburbs as well. Um the population and ethnicity of folk in Eastbourne (across the water) is a bit different to that of Cannons Creek by Porirua . So it is slightly systematic. It 's starting to grow across NZ. Asia NZ did a survey (a 2015 report)on the population of house buyers in Auckland. It was just a little more scientific than Phil Twyford may have ventured about people who had surnames that might have sounded like some foreign word who were house owners. What they did say is that 25% of the population of Pine Hill in NZ are Chinese. Um 10% of the population of house owners in Glenn Innes are Indian and so what is happening as a result is that businesses are having to alter what they are doing, how they are delivering and how they are coping. The number one seller at Pac nSave in Albany is white rice (not white potatoes). Another big seller is chicken feet. And so you are seeng the market (I love the French market in Parrnell) It's a lot different to if I went down to Otara on a saturday.<br /><br />Ralston: It's a lot different to if you went down Sandringham Road where there's a whole pile of medium spice shopsand Restuarants, um and down the back of Dominion Road there is the biggest Chinese Supermarket I've ever seen (bout 2 or 3 football fields in size) and you can buy whatever you want. That's the gift, I suppose, that diversity brings.<br /><br />Rod Oram: Absolutely! That makes Auckland a fabulously interesting city. And obviously the key thing we need to care a lot about about are that people are moving around and are appreciating and taking more interest year round rather than just turning up at Albert Park for a lantern show or Diwhali festival. And of course there are people who just hunker downin their neighbourhood or their community. But I'd like to thinkthere are people particularily amongst the younger generation who are strong in their own identity but are keen to appreciate other identities too.<br />http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/smarttalk/audio/201778519/smart-talk-at-the-auckland-museum-auckland-as-an-islandjhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-24000321720969386112017-01-25T07:25:56.228+13:002017-01-25T07:25:56.228+13:00"How do they get away with it? Part of the re..."How do they get away with it? Part of the reason is that anti-racism has become religion on the left and institutionalised."<br /><br />No, the reason is unregulated capitalism and right wing greed.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70568376562127161082017-01-24T19:11:27.185+13:002017-01-24T19:11:27.185+13:00GS
I doubt you have. I also doubt that you under...GS<br /><br /> I doubt you have. I also doubt that you understand half of what you post. <br />.,,,,,,,,<br />My friend wants to buy a house in Dunedin. He is at his lawyers finalizing his divorce where he reads a Property Investor magazine. A fat blond woman is leading a delegation to China to get them interested in Dunedin property. She says it is too bad if prices go up "it is our turn". <br />How do they get away with it? Part of the reason is that anti-racism has become religion on the left and institutionalised. jhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-47357526887465651712017-01-24T17:50:43.699+13:002017-01-24T17:50:43.699+13:00Trump is certainly not another Hitler. Nor is he ...Trump is certainly not another Hitler. Nor is he a Nazi. But he is clearly and obviously a fascist.<br /><br />Let me stress that I’m not using the “f’ word as a blanket form of abuse for just about anyone on the right wing of the political spectrum. Margaret Thatcher was not, to my mind, a fascist, nor was Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Enoch Powell, Ronald Reagan or George W Bush, exorable though they all were in many ways. Nor, for that matter, would I use the term to describe old-fashioned military despots such as Pinochet, Suharto or Mobutu. <br /> <br />Trump is a fascist because his ideology, prejudices, strategies, tactics and attractiveness to many voters (who should all know better) resemble in extraordinary detail those of European regimes and movements from between approximately 1922 and 1945, with which the term fascist has been conventionally associated and which often claimed that label as their own.<br /><br />Moreover, Trumpism has emerged in circumstances that are extremely similar to those that fuelled the previous fascist surge , viz a period of great economic uncertainty, associated with the apparent collapse of a once deeply entrenched liberal hegemony and the inability of the democratic left to make a sufficiently coherent or compelling counter-appeal to voters. <br /><br />In addition, of course, Trump’s victory is part of a global wave that may very soon sweep even more clearly fascistic parties to power in a number of other western nations, including, perhaps most notably, France. <br /> <br />As a centre-left European immigrant to New Zealand of more than thirty years standing, I must say that I’m struck and a mite disappointed by the apparent failure of the New Zealand left (as evidenced by contributors to threads on this subject on Bowally Road) to recognise fascism when it’s staring them in the face. And I’m certainly appalled by those making excuses for it.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-8688503921610922222017-01-24T15:54:07.748+13:002017-01-24T15:54:07.748+13:00Well done anonymous 11:41. Your cogent reply cuts ...Well done anonymous 11:41. Your cogent reply cuts to the heart of the matter. I have completely changed my mind – thank you./Sarc, because you never know.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-17733974446404099862017-01-24T13:55:44.824+13:002017-01-24T13:55:44.824+13:00Jesus wept, the cut-and-pastes just keep coming do...Jesus wept, the cut-and-pastes just keep coming don't they. At least I've actually read Ta-Nehesi Coates. I doubt you have. I also doubt that you understand half of what you post. Just stop. My crap alarm keeps going off and it's keeping me awake.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-38995822380247414242017-01-24T11:41:58.869+13:002017-01-24T11:41:58.869+13:00Just another hater of Trump, along with all the le...Just another hater of Trump, along with all the leftie media.<br />ha ha, Trump won, Marxism lost, the tide is turning, and about time.<br />Our little socialist PM must be cringing - he has shown his true colours, no better than the slippery Key!!<br />Go Trump, and hurrah for democracy!! We are saved.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-57673622393362529482017-01-24T07:54:36.445+13:002017-01-24T07:54:36.445+13:00 Aristotle often evaluated a thing with respect... Aristotle often evaluated a thing with respect to its “telos” – its purpose, end, or goal. The telos of a knife is to cut. The telos of a physician is health or healing. What is the telos of university?…<br /><br /> “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” –Karl Marx, 1845<br /><br /> “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…” –John Stuart Mill, 1859<br /><br /> Marx is the patron saint of what I’ll call “Social Justice U,” which is oriented around changing the world in part by overthrowing power structures and privilege. It sees political diversity as an obstacle to action. Mill is the patron saint of what I’ll call “Truth U,” which sees truth as a process in which flawed individuals challenge each other’s biased and incomplete reasoning…<br /><br /> no university can have Truth and Social Justice as dual teloses. Each university must pick one. I show that Brown University has staked out the leadership position for SJU, and the University of Chicago has staked out the leadership position for Truth U…<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gatn5ameRr8jhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-35931888848268412102017-01-24T07:23:08.965+13:002017-01-24T07:23:08.965+13:00Of course, most consider antiracism a position, or... <i> Of course, most consider antiracism a position, or evidence of morality. However, in 2015, among educated Americans especially, Antiracism … is now what any naïve, unbiased anthropologist would describe as a new and increasingly dominant religion. It is what we worship, as sincerely and fervently as many worship God and Jesus and, among most Blue State Americans, more so …<br /><br /> For example, Ta-Nehisi Coates … is formally classified as a celebrated writer. However, the particulars of his reception in our moment reveal that Coates is … a priest. Coates is ‘revered,’ as New York magazine aptly puts it, as someone gifted at phrasing, repeating, and crafting artful variations upon points that are considered crucial — that is, scripture …<br /><br /> This became especially clear last year with the rapturous reception of Coates’s essay, ‘The Case for Reparations’ … People loved Coates’s article not as politics, since almost no one thinks reparations are actually going to happen … People were receiving ‘The Case for Reparations’ as, quite simply, a sermon. Its audience sought not counsel, but proclamation. Coates does not write with this formal intention, but for his readers, he is a preacher …<br /><br /> The Antiracism religion, then, has clergy, creed, and also even a conception of Original Sin. Note the current idea that the enlightened white person is to, I assume regularly (ritually?), ‘acknowledge’ that they possess White Privilege. Classes, seminars, teach-ins are devoted to making whites understand the need for this …<br /><br /> The call for people to soberly ‘acknowledge’ their White Privilege as a self-standing, totemic act is based on the same justification as acknowledging one’s fundamental sinfulness is as a Christian. One is born marked by original sin; to be white is to be born with the stain of unearned privilege. </i><br /><br />http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion.htmljhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-40310766334037060692017-01-24T07:00:07.319+13:002017-01-24T07:00:07.319+13:00I see the Pope is on your side Chris. Not that tha...I see the Pope is on your side Chris. Not that that would be any great consolation to me but who knows.<br />http://www.salon.com/2017/01/23/pope-francis-warns-against-populist-leaders-like-hitler-in-interview-given-during-donald-trumps-inauguration/Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-78961119288778336502017-01-24T06:58:51.923+13:002017-01-24T06:58:51.923+13:00JH.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/2...JH.<br />https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/22/trump-inauguration-crowd-sean-spicers-claims-versus-the-evidence<br />The inauguration crowd comparison. I think comparisons were also made with the number of subway rides taken on that day. In which case Trump comes out pretty low. You into "alternative facts" now? Oh sorry, you always were.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-90339889705952098812017-01-24T06:56:16.578+13:002017-01-24T06:56:16.578+13:00JH. I don't need trigger warnings for Bullshit...JH. I don't need trigger warnings for Bullshit. My Bullshit monitor works quite well thank you. Amazing how you can always find a rogue academic to backup your Bullshit though. Have you not once wondered why they are considered rogue academics? Quite possibly because they spout Bullshit. Perhaps you should retreat your safe space snowflake.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-66135049103029117002017-01-23T17:35:07.284+13:002017-01-23T17:35:07.284+13:00GS
So these things should be negotiable? Equality?...GS<br />So these things should be negotiable? Equality? If they are negotiable, in what way should they be negotiated? Where do you draw the line on equality? Do women get three quarters of the status of a man? Sounds a little bit like the old three fifths of a man for a black person in slave owning America. Jesus this is Bullshit. What sort of a person are you?<br />........<br />Sorry i should have issued a trigger warning<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQNaT52QYYAjhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-36498159634694018602017-01-23T17:30:17.617+13:002017-01-23T17:30:17.617+13:00GS
The Crowd size at the inauguration
http://edit...GS<br /> The Crowd size at the inauguration<br />http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/01/politics/trump-inauguration-gigapixel/jhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-16020210517953789092017-01-23T16:46:26.099+13:002017-01-23T16:46:26.099+13:00For the record, Chris, while we're on fascism ...For the record, Chris, while we're on fascism and silencing (and extreme, absurd comparisons, as Wayne Mapp points out), you silenced by initial post, and, no doubt, this one.Mark Hubbardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02541153163041831880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-61976624379238896432017-01-23T11:31:16.654+13:002017-01-23T11:31:16.654+13:00Trumpy has surrounded himself with a loose affilia...Trumpy has surrounded himself with a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires who have never set foot outside of their gated communities. Example;Betsy De Vos as Education Secretary. She hates Public Schools and has never even walked passed one! She married into the family who started Amway and made millions out of it. Her brother Erik is the boss of Blackwater, the soldiers for hire company.<br /><br />A good description of Trumpy is here: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/psychological-condition-best-explains-donald-trumps-twisted-worldviewBushbaptisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09657695593141243969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-84880437739067094112017-01-23T11:05:42.978+13:002017-01-23T11:05:42.978+13:00"Progressives have sacrilised equality (gende..."Progressives have sacrilised equality (gender, race etc) and these have become non-negotiable. "<br /><br />So these things should be negotiable? Equality? If they are negotiable, in what way should they be negotiated? Where do you draw the line on equality? Do women get three quarters of the status of a man? Sounds a little bit like the old three fifths of a man for a black person in slave owning America. Jesus this is Bullshit. What sort of a person are you? (Well actually I think we know.)<br /><br />Also there has been a massive shift in the make up of tertiary institutions in humanities and social sciences (liberal in proportion to conservative).<br /><br />Funnily enough I know the figures for the US. Thirty years ago 60% of HARD SCIENTISTS identified as Conservative/Republican. Now it's down to below 20%. That's because as the Americans say, "Facts have a liberal bias."<br />Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-73327160923140177452017-01-23T08:49:35.624+13:002017-01-23T08:49:35.624+13:00Writing after all of the post inauguration protest...Writing after all of the post inauguration protests by women in particular I remain bemused by this very evident suspension of the ability to percieve reality. <br /><br />Chris replies to Wayne that he is too comfortably ensconsed in the status quo to see Hitler in Trump. Watch and learn says Chris.<br /><br />I would challenge both Chris and Wayne with the same charges in terms of the bigger picture. We do have a crisis of the age and nobody in the mainstream cares to name it. Former British diplomat Crooke sums it up here https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2017/01/what-is-this-crisis-of-modernity/<br /><br />In short our current model of economy, finance and energy, resource and environmental exploitation are terminal. Our woes derive from this. The inability of our current orthodoxy to respond gave usamong other joys the Don. <br /><br />How this plays out politically who knows but a repeat of the 1930s which occurred in a growing industrial world of adequately available resources is possible as availability winds down. Grab and defend what you can. Whatever happens all of us, Chris and Wayne inclusive can say farewell to our "certainties " and status quo.Nick Jnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-49677485183592042712017-01-23T08:33:10.721+13:002017-01-23T08:33:10.721+13:00I could also say – no I've seen the news this ...I could also say – no I've seen the news this morning – that Trump's administration is similar to the Nazis and that they lie a lot. And they are now lying about something that is easily verifiable one way or the other. And I might add utterly unimportant. The crowd size at the inauguration. FFS there are photographs, there are witnesses, and they are still claiming that it is the biggest ever. Well, they are trying – but I think they have a little bit to learn from Joseph Goebbels yet.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-58134543134326385062017-01-22T17:44:36.264+13:002017-01-22T17:44:36.264+13:00Trumpy is not Hitler much as we would like to desc...Trumpy is not Hitler much as we would like to describe him as such. He is not intelligent enough to ever be another Hitler. He's more of a Putinist. <br /><br />What his election has shown us is what we already knew -- the US IS America Inc.<br /><br />Contrary to the rants of rightwingers, the Left has been decimated but is still there. Bernie showed just how many Yanks believe in a better and fairer society. They simply have no voice in the US because their ingrained two party system. The traditional Left there was the Democrat Party but the Clintons turned that into a Nixonian ( Centre right) Republican Party. The pushed the Republicans out into the arms of the religious fringes. So the US has two right wing political parties. Democans and Republicrats.Bushbaptisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09657695593141243969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-48206673352319675462017-01-22T17:15:56.453+13:002017-01-22T17:15:56.453+13:00This morning CNN had extensive coverage of the pro...This morning CNN had extensive coverage of the protests against Trump. One woman claimed "we are the people", an actress was calling for a doubling down of efforts saying we need younger people to lead the fight; "we cannot go back - we must always go forward".<br />Johnathon Haidt talks about sacrilisation as a way of bonding human societies. Progressives have sacrilised equality (gender, race etc) and these have become non-negotiable. Also there has been a massive shift in the make up of tertiary institutions in humanities and social sciences (liberal in proportion to conservative). The result is opposing points of view are blasphemous and no one dare raise them. This translates to government and media. The treatment of Dr Greg Clydesdale ("New Zealand's most racist academic") is our own best example. Trump was a reaction to this "political correctness". jhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-61559404198253569042017-01-22T15:01:20.851+13:002017-01-22T15:01:20.851+13:00"a column about the success of Venezuela perh..."a column about the success of Venezuela perhaps of what a great man Castro was......"<br /><br />And after that, columns about the Somoza regime, the Salvadorian junta, the Banza dictatorship and the Stroessner "government". All great men, particularly good at killing off their enemies and dismembering them with chainsaws. All supported by that bastion of democracy the USA.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-84088011409149239072017-01-22T12:27:11.773+13:002017-01-22T12:27:11.773+13:00Goodness!
This is me in complete agreement wi...Goodness!<br /><br /> This is me in complete agreement with Wayne Mapp! .... Some weird shit going down here!<br /><br /> Maybe you'r right Chris and nothing will ever be the same again.<br />Cheers D J SDavid Stonenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-90884404644668504742017-01-22T12:21:00.914+13:002017-01-22T12:21:00.914+13:00Chris,
i agree Trump is no FDR, my question on th...Chris,<br /><br />i agree Trump is no FDR, my question on that point was entirely rhetorical.<br /><br />But neither do I think Trump is remotely like Hitler or any sort of analogy thereof.<br /><br />It is true that I can't really imagine the icons of my world being smashed beyond repair. By that I mean the end of liberal democracy. <br /><br />Trump may be troublesome, but I am pretty sure he won't bring about the end of the West. Because that is what a Hitler analogy is supposed to imply.<br /><br />Otherwise why would you not just refer to him as a populist. Instead you invoke a much more dread fear. Populists have well trodden paths (in NZ Muldoon being an example), but they operate within democratic parameters. The election of populists does not forecast the end of democracy.<br /><br />But your article seems to imply that. That the election of Trump is basically the end of the 250 year American experiment with democracy. <br /><br />Well I guess that is your view, or perhaps you are simply being provocative.<br /><br />Wayne Mapphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12906396523791648270noreply@blogger.com