Random Politics

[Ab]

Public health officials:

SUGARY DRINKS. CRISIS. ALCOHOL. CRISIS. PLAIN PACKAGING. CRISIS.

PS typhoid lol

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/heal...-typhoid-death

[CCS]

Let's ask the Minister about the situation and see if he can instill some calm.

Minister: "Wait, what?"

[Lightspeed]

Forcing renters to pay letting fees 'doesn't make sense'

No, it makes dollars. For people who already have plenty, from those who don't.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Ab

Andrew Little is toast.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11831045

I guess it didn't turn out terribly for Little?

Little 'very pleased' no damages awarded in defamation case

[Ab]

not terribly. is there going to be a retrial?

[Lightspeed]

It looks like it:
Hagamans to continue fighting Little in defamation case

If they push too much, I could see sentiment turning against them. Not that I can really tell which way it's going right now...

[Ab]

I still maintain that this has been a political disaster for Little. First it makes him look like he has bad judgement - attacking private citizens to score political points outside Parliament is fucking stupid. Second, it makes him look petty - an apology would have made this all go away but nooooo big tough men don't apologise for shit. Thus his ego has him tied up in legal action while he should be preparing an election campaign. That's fucking stupid. Third, his response of "I can't afford to pay a $100,000 settlement" while on a $340,000 salary package makes him look like a cock. That's fucking stupid.

[ZoSo]

The rich prick mentality is so ingrained it's hard to see a scenario where the 30% labour supporters and the green voting labour apologists would worry about comments made about anyone donating 100k to national, win or loss in court.

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

I still maintain that this has been a political disaster for Little. First it makes him look like he has bad judgement - attacking private citizens to score political points outside Parliament is fucking stupid. Second, it makes him look petty - an apology would have made this all go away but nooooo big tough men don't apologise for shit. Thus his ego has him tied up in legal action while he should be preparing an election campaign. That's fucking stupid. Third, his response of "I can't afford to pay a $100,000 settlement" while on a $340,000 salary package makes him look like a cock. That's fucking stupid.

All that's true though whether it's a political disaster depends on it not being a beltway issue, which from the minuscule media coverage around the case I'm guessing it was.

[CCS]

Miniscule? Do you watch the news?

[Lightspeed]

I don't watch local news. I get Google News, RNZ news, the reddit, here, Al J for international coverage.

It's come across as news of note, but no real drama. I guess the TV is playing it up?

[Lightspeed]

$500m pay rise for care workers

This might be one of the best things to happen in NZ for a long time.

[fixed_truth]

With age and experience comes wisdom

Bolger: Neoliberalism has failed and Treaty settlements may not be full and final (long video)

Hell, this guy wouldn't be out of place in Labour today!?!

[ZoSo]

Oh yeah, a knifed in the back former leader is par for the course in labour these days.
The beauty is, as the usuals gets their token jollies passing this around giving their new mate Bolger a glow, everyone else is reminded what lying cunts labour were/are.

[fixed_truth]

Heh, maybe everyone will be!!? Or maybe most will see it for what it was i.e, a reflection on and contextual review of economic and Maori relations policy 30 years ago.

[Ab]

Danyl Mclauchlan gives us a new frame, namely the shape of goatse man's anus, after he tears this lefty manifesto a new one:

http://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/22-...ly-depressing/

jesus christ this newer less bloggy and internetty danylmc is savage.

[ZoSo]

Almost posted it myself this morning as "timely".

Most of these conversations are issues on which the progressive left has convinced itself, but no one else. What Harris is really calling for here is for academics and left-wing intellectuals to transform politics by talking about things that they’ve already been talking about, for years and sometimes decades, with little effect, and for everyone else to just embrace all of those values and agree with them about everything. It’s an argument against the broken status quo that perfectly replicates it.

[Ab]

Back in 2004 the US cognitive linguist George Lakoff published a book – cited by Harris in his opening chapter, and obviously a key influence on his entire project – called Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. What left-wing political parties needed to do, Lakoff argued, was change the terms and metaphors used in the public sphere when people discussed politics, to promote left-wing values. So when the right talks about a “free market”, the left is supposed to counter this by arguing for “broader prosperity”; “smaller government” is countered with “effective government”, and so on.

This stuff was very popular in the US until it became more and more apparent that it didn’t work as promised. Or, rather – like a lot of findings in psychology – that it sometimes worked when tested on classes of undergraduate psychology students but often failed replication tests and didn’t work at all in the much more challenging and litigated environment of real-world political communications.

Framing is still a thing among New Zealand’s left-wing political class because one of Lakoff’s disciples, Anat Shenker-Osorio came out here a few years ago and ran workshops at the left-wing parties, unions and other progressive organisations, teaching them to say that the economy is “a broken machine that needs to be fixed”, and leaving behind countless heated arguments over which framing to use on press releases and media statements in her wake.

I'm grateful to that article for finally explaining to me why NZ's left has such a fixation with the concept of "framing". I get in just as many political discussions about Oz politics as NZ politics, and the word just doesn't get used over here. Whereas you can't make it through the first paragraph of a piece from the leftie side of NZ politics without someone shibbolething "framing" into it.

lol I just verbed shibboleth

[Lightspeed]

It sounds smart, but is it right?

I always figured it was more of a situation of what the left could cook up, the right could do just as well, if not better. "Evidence based policy" for instance is an excellent piece of framing by the right in NZ.

[ZoSo]

Seems familiar.

[Lightspeed]

My French work colleague had a nightmare last night about the French presidential election outcome. I joined her relief with the outcome this morning.

That would have been very bad if it went the other way.

[Deadmeat]

Quality insight into Macron's win.
http://www.newstatesman.com/world/eu...macron-country

"Does Marine Le Pen not understand that being French is all about being insouciant, not shouting endlessly about how terrible it is when women wear veils? The only article of clothing a Frenchman should be against is the sock with the sandal." He shudders. "We are not . . . Germans."

[Lightspeed]

This shit is chilling as fuck.

U.S. nears $100 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia: White House official

[Caesar]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

This shit is chilling as fuck.

U.S. nears $100 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia: White House official

The sheik definitely looks happy.
BTW Remove the 2 zz's at the end of the link.

[Lightspeed]

Thanks for spotting that.

Link for the lazy.

[The Edge]

Col'n in court (again).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11856460

[Ab]

I want to set up some complicated squid proxy rules so that I can't see a web page if it contains the words "Colin Craig" or "Cameron Slater".

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Ab

I want to set up some complicated squid proxy rules so that I can't see a web page if it contains the words "Colin Craig" or "Cameron Slater".

Thus ensuring you'll never see this page?

[Ab]

fine by me!

[CCS]

This web page is hidden because Ab has a tiny penis.

[The Edge]

Another day in court...

There's a name here in today's proceedings that might just sound familiar.

[Lightspeed]

Wow, good memory and good spotting.

[Ab]

Jesus, really?

[Ab]

lol just spotted this scroll past on twitter:

[CCS]

Good ol' Mad Flange. How we laughed!

[xor]

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/nation...labour-chances

Reading the facebook comments on RNZ is fucking weird. Labour supporters are doing everything they can to discourage white guys from supporting the labour party itself.

[Lightspeed]

Well, that and an unwillingness to take the long road of becoming part of the establishment. By his own words he agrees with the factors that limit his ability to get ahead in the party.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by xor

[

Reading the facebook comments

i can see your mistake

[The Edge]

Originally Posted by Ab

Jesus, really?

Yes, really. Looks like she might have finally(?) finished that law degree.

[Ab]

Still a dramaqueen attention whore though