Emmerson on privacy
Politics
activism
‘The Pursuit of Loneliness’: death of a dream
US social critic, Phillip E Slater (1927-2013), lived anti-materialistic, anti-individualistic, community-based ideals: 60s-70s, middle-class, US-based counter-culture values, with limited political activism and focus. Admirable cultural values, lacking the politics to challenge global “neoliberal” elites. What can the NZ left learn from this today?
Privacy tools
It looks like privacy is going to be an increasingly rare commodity in the brave new world. Want to protect yours? Here are some tools.
GCSB Bill scaring off investors
One of National’s favourite lines of attack on any significant lefty policy is that it will “scare off investors”. So how now do they respond to Google’s threat that global telecommunications companies may well abandon New Zealand because of the compliance costs of the new GCSB legislation?
Kim Dotcom vs John Key
This afternoon Kim Dotcom is making a submission to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee, which is chaired by John Key (starting 3:30pm). 3 News is livestreaming the session.
John Key’s disdain for democracy
Norman criticises John Key for showing complete disdain for democracy at yesterday’s public hearing on the GCSB Bill. Kim Dotcom is expected to provide a challenge today. Paul Buchanan is critical and argues for a full inquiry. Gordon Campbell proposes some questions. [update]: TV3 Livestream 3.30 pm [update] Dotcom -Key knew about him prior to GCSB spying on him TV3.
Dame Anne Salmond on NZ
Distinguished Professor, noted historian and author, and New Zealander of the Year Dame Anne Salmond had a powerful piece in The Herald yesterday. Here are some extracts, but you should go and read the full article.
ImperatorFish: An apology from the Law Society to John Key
Dear Prime Minister, It appears that we may have made a terrible mistake. We made a detailed submission outlining our concerns about your government’s plans to increase the powers of the GCSB. But it looks like we were wrong. You have told Parliament and the media that you disagree with us. You haven’t said why, but we now accept that you know better than us. What use is all our combined wisdom when arrayed against your everyman common-sense?
If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear
Yesterday Key actually ran the classic justification for “police state” surveillance: if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. This argument is bollocks. Here’s why…
GCSB Bill – for shame
The Law Society is not exactly a hotbed of leftie activism. So the supporters of this appallingly arrogant government should sit up and take notice when they speak out as clearly as this against the GCSB spying bill. Two faced Key is simultaneously claiming that the current law is both unclear and “very clear”. He needs to be called out on it.
Why enhanced spying powers are bad
If one needs any more reason to worry about the government’s GCSB bill, here is the latest news from the UK: police there […]
Sunday Reading
My semi-regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere. This week: mastery of the internet means mastery of us by the NSA, feminist statistics, some interesting people and popularity lists.
Who benefits?
The leaderless uprising in Brazil exposes unbearable inequalities in a dysfunctional post-growth world. Extravagant sports events and expensive stadium contrast with anti-public service austerity measures. Home building lags in Christchurch, while Key looks to asset sales to fund a stadium.
NRT: The problem of SOEs
A second repost (with thanks) from I/S at No Right Turn. This time on SOEs.
Protest at sea
Workers’ rights under attack
Key’s government is continuing its attack on workers’ rights, pay, conditions & collective bargaining with Jami-Lee Ross’s ‘Strike Breaking’ Bill. Darien Fenton, the CTU & EPMU say why it is wrong. All parties and MPs should oppose this and other proposed changes to employment law.
Networks of influence: Key, Peter Thiel & the GCSB
We don’t know how often John Key has met with Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir which developes cyber-intell systems like PRISM, & is now operating in NZ. Thiel’s involvement in NZ is extensive. He has been pursuing his “utopian” libertarian, cyber-focused agenda in NZ for a few years.
Spies and lies – can anyone trust Key?
The angles and implications of the GCSB / PRISM / Palantir story are multiplying at a frightening rate, and only a mug would trust anything coming out from the government about it. Key is openly contradicting himself on the GCSB law, it’s farcical.
The corruption of democracy
Similar neoliberal, corporate-friendly, beneficiary-bashing, anti-worker, anti-democratic & big-brotherish measures favoured by the US & UK governments have been adopted by Key’s government. Prism, Thin Thread and Kim Dotcom documents, show the GCSB & SIS need to be reigned in. How to ensure a fair, just & democratic society?
Whistleblowers and services to journalism
Two leakers (one a true whistleblower), are in the news right now, both focused on the US-led surveillance society, operating in the interests of corporate power. And today, in relation to this, 2 journalists show the importance of the fourth estate to democracy. Kim Hill & Glenn Greenwald take a bow.
And the leaker is…
Peter Dunne – still denying it but cannot be ruled out.
Update: Breaking news – Peter Dunne has resigned as a minister.
NSA pwns the internet
The NSA has direct access to servers at Google, Apple, Facebook, and other Internet giants, and they collect pretty much whatever data they like. We shouldn’t be surprised. The Guardian has the story.
Campaign heroics or hubris?
I was impressed by this press statement from the Mana Party on the ground in the Ikaroa Rawhiti by-election reporting that they door-knocked […]
The policing of women’s bodies
(Socialist) feminism seems to be on the rise internationally, exposing how threats to “old boys” corporate-aligned power are countered by policing women’s bodies. Sue Bradford highlights the contradiction between Owen Glenn’s paternalistic corporate capitalism and the feminist-aligned participants in his Inquiry. Jan Logie addresses the gender pay gap.
Images of our time: ‘shock’ capitalism
As Naomi Klein said in the Shock Doctrine documentary, disorienting natural and economic shocks result in the wealth being shifted from “public hands” to the wealthiest. The wealth gap, and extent of poverty in NZ is increasingly & devastatingly marginalising good Kiwis. Meanwhile, Peter Jackson is flying high.
The ThinThread of GCSB surveillance
A surveillance device, Thin Thread, was probably sent from the US to NZ’s GCSB in 2000-2001 for testing. ThinThread collects local meta data, and can pass it on to foreign agencies. This raises fresh calls for an inquiry into GCSB activities.
Saving the world
How to spot fascism
This. This is fascism. Giving spies the powers that they have in the States could prevent the kind of terrorism that just happened … in the States. The fascist author of this piece that the Herald disgracefully published even wrote: “if you have nothing to hide from the GCSB, then you have nothing to fear.” Do people actually say that and mean it? Yes, fascists do.
The rule of law
In the 50s and 60s, two eminent jurists,Hart and Fuller, debated what makes a legal system. Hart said a legal system is a legal system if people call it one and act like it. Fuller said you need the rule of law to have a legal system. Otherwise, you’ve just got a bunch of bullies doing what they want and saying its OK. Do we have the rule of law in New Zealand?
‘Cleared’
So, Neazor’s written his report into the 88 New Zealanders that the GCSB spied on. In the spirit of open government, National’s suppressing it. But we’re told it find that the GCSB ‘arguably’ didn’t break the law. That’s coming from the guy who excused them in the Dotcom case, too, remember. And, it’s hardly ‘clearing’ the GCSB as the Nats claims.
Digital democracy: Fair Deal goes global
NZ’s Fair Deal Coalition launched a new website, ourfairdeal.org, networking globally with others concerned about intellectual property & the TTPA. The FDC includes those supporting global “neoliberal” commerce, & others supporting community & public sector activities, democratic freedoms and privacy rights.
Swivel-eyed loons
Why do right-wing leaders have such low opinions of their activist supporters?
GCSB is watching you? Won’t ‘confirm or deny’
The GCSB won’t “confirm or deny” if they spied on individual Kiwis. Concerned citizens might contact the Privacy Commissioner or start a class action. John Key’s rushed GCSB Bill won’t prevent mission creep, surveillance to support international corporate interests or inadequate oversight of the GCSB. [Update]: link to Waitakere News
This is what corporate dictatorship looks like
The compensation part of Joyce’s and Key’s dirty, undemocratic SkyCity deal, could legally be over-turned by a future government, as proposed by the Greens. However, the TPPA could weaken NZ’s parliamentary sovereignty and open the government to claims by secret private offshore tribunals. Opposition needs to step up!
Dim-Post on two comparisons
Danyl at Dim-Post on the strangely muted media response to the GCSB spying legislation, the witch-hunt against NZ Power, and more. Plus – check out Danyl’s (first) book – looks like a treat in store…
Pot and Kettle
Key on Gilmore on front page of today’s DomPost: “In the end, to make a contribution, you have to have integrity, and to have integrity there has to be a directness and fullness in your answers.” That’s why Key has no integrity about GCSB – there was no directness and fulness in his answers about it, either in Parliament or to the “knucklehead” media.