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6:00 am, May 18th, 2026 - 18 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Not that anyone in this goodbye pay equity government will care.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361005731/wellington-lose-sexual-harm-service-after-funding-cuts-amid-rising-manosphere
https://spectator.com/article/jess-phillipss-resignation-will-be-particularly-painful-for-keir-starmer/
They promised to buy back power companies in the past. They have not and no longer promise this.
They will not keep this promise either.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361005847/winston-peters-announces-nz-first-policy-buy-back-bnz
The OECD says we should make banks less profitable.
I’d establish a progressive company tax, so those with large profits, such as the banks paid 33%.
The money could be used for development loans (see Development Finance Corporation).
This could include Kiwibank.
OECD says neo-liberalism isn’t working
https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/361005338/10-takeaways-state-competition-nz
30 years of rule by left&rightwingers caused this status quo of chronic failure. Losers will adhere to the solution they favour: yet more of same. Vote as usual.
We await with fascination to see how many losers do actually get out and vote for the same old shit. Fortunately, plenty more interesting stuff is also happening…
40 years actually. Going back to 1984.
I have a track record of agreeing with Patman, so best I try to nitpick his latest:
Unfortunately I must concede that this is useful info. Grounding the US & China in the baddie category is common sense now. It gives us a sound platform for foreign policy.
Excellent triad, Robert, but it does contain 2 nits. Don's admin isn't lawless: his praxis is to finagle the law whenever possible, and he's good at it. Lack of "moral and legal clarity on a key global issue" can't be solely blamed on the govt. Clarifying poor govt performance is what the Opposition is for. When the issues are not clear to you, Robert, share the blame around! No nits in your conclusion though:
From Patman's article:
Well, duh. People who enjoy the luxury of near-complete insulation against war by virtue of geographic isolation find wars waged elsewhere by people who don't share that luxury tiresome? No shit, Sherlock. Other countries' governments are aware we enjoy this unearned privilege, so yes our government does have to be careful not to pontificate at them.
Excellent. The mice will have much easier lives if they just put a bell on the cat so it can't sneak up on them. Perhaps Patman's unfamiliar with this fable, because he doesn't trouble himself to answer the question "But who will put the bell on the cat?"
who will put the bell on the cat?
2 issues here: messaging & enforcement. The UN is still good for assertion of majority opinion by voting formality, so all that's required is managerial orchestrating to send a suitable message. Bureaucrats default to focus on status quo, and acknowledging salience is a geopolitical choice, so a director would need guidance from above instead of winging it. Blend of those would be my preferred option.
So when the UN finally gets around to roping and branding the SC (30/40 years too late) it will have a majority mandate upon which to redefine international law.
It can then amend its Charter to direct the SC to rule in accord with the will of the majority. That imports parliamentary sovereignty into the system as operating principle (bell on cat). So the bell would ring whenever an SC member defied this Charter principle, triggering automatic suspension. I'll leave it to international law experts like Sir G to write suitable rules around that so diplomats can negotiate a way out of the cage when the time is right.
Smuts wrote the book on holism a century ago. Geopolitics has been grounded on this view since he helped run the League of Nations and wrote the preamble to the UN Charter. Just need to close the loophole he left that permits misbehaviour.
I'm still not seeing why the US or China would accept the collective authority of countries like New Zealand, Belize, Comoros etc to impose disadvantage on them. It would mean the end of the UN, basically.
end of the UN
Status quo has shifted the UN into marginal relevance during recent decades, so it gets down to utility. How useful is the thing still? Each nation takes a measure of that, ongoing. Now consider how geopolitics usually plays out: the influence of the primary players in the game creates an operating context in the arena in which threats of salience are rated continually in real time by all players.
The evident scenario is usually based on the concept of severality: several states are salient in each context. Media frame situations accordingly (due to this subliminal cuing of collective thought). When the UN transforms from the traditional state of impotence into a salient moral force, leverage escalates. It then functions as a key player in the game (as it seemed to during 1950/60s).
So although your point re big-power opt-outs remains valid, operational salience will be transformed by the system upgrade (just like for computers as tools).
The government will say …
Well they would say … wouldn't they.
They like it that we are the only nation in the OCED with no CGT, stamp duty, estate/inheritance tax or gift duty. Little wonder floating the idea of a wealth tax places has them in the sort of frightened sweat as a young Barry Crump
https://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/1946-in-endless-fear/
The boss will say, the economy, so no pay increase. But if you ask again, we might lobby government so we can lay you off and employ a migrant for less.
It is government and the public and the boss and the worker have a similar sort of power dynamic.
Calling it patriarchy is simplistic, because it is also about class – but the decision about pay equity says the intersection is class with patriarchy. One could say race as well but Shane and Winston have been earning over $150K for so long their neighbours see them as privileged too.
Thus like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 SCOTUS decision this year returning the USA to Jim Crow law era gerrymandering, its time to remove reference to the Treaty in legislation.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360979435/verity-johnson-nz-does-not-have-maxed-out-credit-card
Verity does a nostalgia riff: https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360979435/verity-johnson-nz-does-not-have-maxed-out-credit-card
Photo of the hobgoblin in thoughtful mode attached (wondering which poison to use on which parts of the electorate).
Yet the generation that matured into the '80s when life on credit became normal aren't averse to the notion and are now running the show. Right-wing politicians unable to read the room are headed for the dustbin of history. Nobody is going to argue – either here or on the global stage – that credit doesn't work. It obviously does, all the time.
Globally, have you noticed a trend of state basket cases being declared bankrupt? I haven't. Bankruptcies have been part of capitalism since they were invented. Trump proved they are not a real problem. Other rightwingers oughta get in behind.
Verity gets the crux of the issue. Clearly left & right govts have been too slack for too long already. Pointy-headed intellectuals in Treasury must be compelled to agree on the right number. Trump's `rope 'em & brand 'em' cowboy stance could work here.
Law is insufficiently recognised as a spectator sport. Lawyers have hitherto mistakenly assumed it is best to be serious. People get bored with that stance though.
The thrill of seeing the law at play is only being shared by a roomful. Photoshoot the thing & put it online, you get a sharing by millions What part of influence opportunity do lawyers & judges still not get??
All you need is an ace commentator backed up by a live panel of experts. Biodiversity will do the rest, scaling up the thing into a media event where dimensions of interest become salient and all comment on each as it flows by.
The analogy with military analysts in warfare will be evident. Folks love heavyweight team play-offs like this. Think of it as bread & circuses: court is circus, media income streams provide the bread. Even neolibs will like the ensuing social darwinism.
As always, AOC sums up the problem with corporate money in politics – in her case in the USA but equally applicable in NZ.
We need to radically revise the electoral system in this country to level the playing field.
I'd like to see Labour take reform into the election as a major policy platform. I know the Greens are on board.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?hl=en#inbox/FMfcgzQgLrvDXRcZKtSnjNZqtnvMFmhW
Did you know warfare has become systematic? As ever, Israel shows how:
Conspiracists long-addicted to the notion that jews are set on global domination have acquired a cool new tech way to advance their theorising. Next up? Kushner as antichrist?
I can see the international headlines now: NZ Aotearoa becomes one of the first nations to legislatively outlaw climate-based tort claims – onya CoC.
A 19th century mindset indeed – think, Gold$mith – thank God for the gift of laughter.
https://www.greens.org.nz/luxon_protects_polluters_profits_in_sweeping_rushed_climate_change_law_amendment
The 3 Squirts.
Gather up the three amigos in a real high Cummer-Bund, and lock the gate until they realise their proper role, not being hactors. (n. Der Bund trifft Entscheidungen, die das gesamte Land betreffen. The federal government makes decisions which affect the entire country.) We should have federal which leaves local areas to their own jurisdiction.