Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: The Creepy Party

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  • Sam F,

    Update: Chris Trotter indignantly rebuts Scott Hamilton's claim that he has "pledged his support" to the Coastal Coalition.

    'Twould seem a blog post approving of the CC stance on the Foreshore and Seabed and having writing approvingly hosted on the Coastal Coalition's resources page doesn't mean actual support until Chris says it does. Still seems odd to me though.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • Greg Dawson,

    And -as another extremely disgruntled Vodafone customer - anybody got any suggestions for an laternative ISP? Other locals use Orcon & Telstra Clear...

    Went to Orcon earlier this week after a couple of weeks of zero international connectivity on Vodafone.

    So far the change has resolved all my international lag, and coincidentally doubled the real speed I'm getting on a theoretically identical connection.

    All for much the same money.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 294 posts Report Reply

  • Marcus Turner,

    I'd like to make a Friday contribution, if I may: a good song about cheap flights. Particularly good if you've ever flown Ryanair.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg0lUYHHFc&feature=search

    Since Nov 2006 • 212 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Friday contributions are now being solicited at my rather belated Friday post here

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Mr Mark,

    webweaver

    There's also a poll on the Herald's front page with the question "Who has been most discredited by the Act leadership row ?" - Heather Roy 15% / Rodney Hide 77% / No one has been discredited 8 %. All of which...does not bode well for Mr Hide or the Act party as a whole.

    Actually, that's got me worried now !

    ACT are hoping for 8 % of the party vote and exactly 8 % of respondents believe no one has been discredited !!!

    Wellington • Since Dec 2009 • 128 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    I'll hit this thread.

    The TV3 60minutes on "The Miracle Story" about Alan Smith and H1N1 and Vitamin C injections.

    Sciblogs has a good post and asks some folk who might be able to guess the benefit or oterwise of Vit C injections.

    Given the "communication in Sciece" Media & 'n all.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    ACT truly live in a parallel universe, don't they ?

    No weirder than Helen Clark not only seeing off an assassination attempt, but getting on rather well with the wannabe Brutuses for the next twelve years or so.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Young,

    ACT's parallel universe is rather small and extremely dense, which may result in its contraction and oblivion as soon as 2011. Think about it. If the Nats get into bed with the Maori Party, they end up calving off a large chunk of the vote, as long as Tariana Turia is there. Once she goes, though, watch out.

    Craig Y

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 573 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Young,

    Arggh!!! Have been reading Trotter's blog!!! The pain, the agony, the utter strategic and tactical void, the lame vintage seventies monofocal old leftism that labels any pluralist New Left stance identity politics, regardless of its actual dimensions of distributive justice!

    Oh, I feel so unclean...

    Craig Y ;)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 573 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Craig Y - I've only ventured into Bowally ONCE - and, I keep on asking, when did Chris Trotter actually inhabit the South?
    He visited when he was young? He has no idea whatsoever as to what goes on here.

    He is the kind of really archaic/not truly
    leftist anti-woman anti Maori shitter I hoped had died out-

    he'd be happy with a bunch of taliban types (but insert "Maori" where those vile no-brainers put "Women"-)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Notable how the silly old racists come out to play when they sense 'leaders' who approve of such views.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    when did Chris Trotter actually inhabit the South?

    I think he was a student at Otago University. I retain a vivid memory of him in Dunedin (early 1981?) attending one of the weekly meetings of the Save Aramoana Campaign (re: proposed aluminium smelter desperately needed to use the vast surplus of cheap hydro-electricity Muldoon was ensuring we were soon to have with the urgent construction of the Clyde high dam etc on the upper Clutha).

    But Chris T's mission was to bully the group into writing to Margaret Thatcher or somesuch British overlord to demand something or other in solidarity with the Republican/ Catholic proletariat of Northern Ireland.

    Initial reluctance to divert the focused discipline of of the Save Aramoana Campaign onto unrelated matters however worthy was met with a spray of impassioned rhetoric - it was morally unconscionable that we faffed around on such bourgeois trivia as Aramoana while imperialist oppression continued in Ireland and proletarian blood flowed in the streets!

    His mission failed, theatrical scornful anger, exit stage left muttering darkly.

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Greg Dawson,

    ACT are hoping for 8 % of the party vote and exactly 8 % of respondents believe no one has been discredited !!!

    Charitably, some 5%+ of those could be seeing it impossible to discredit those who are without any credit.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 294 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    exit stage left muttering darkly

    I love that story! Did he have the moustache then? I feel that a man can only truly mutter darkly if he has that moustache.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Young,

    Oh, that really wouldn't surprise me. I remember Trotter when our paths briefly crossed at the inaugural NLP conference in the late eighties. At that point, he was NLP Treasurer before deciding that Anderton was too organised for him, and wandering off.

    The man is the right's tame leftoid. He pursues ridiculously sectarian politics and has no sense of tactics or strategy. Witness his latest silly remarks about David Cunliffe, while studiously ignoring what the ALP's byzantine factionalism is doing to their re-election chances.

    Craig Y
    ;(

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 573 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Young,

    Shouldn't that be

    exit stage left, then starts wandering all over the place, then finally falls off the stage...???

    Craig Y
    ;)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 573 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    ...vast surplus of cheap hydro-electricity Muldoon was ensuring we were soon to have with the urgent construction of the Clyde high dam etc on the upper Clutha

    Muldoon was a dick, but without him, we'd have way less renewable electricity than we do. Funny how it works.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    Muldoon was a dick, but without him, we'd have way less renewable electricity than we do. Funny how it works.

    Yeah, I think it's almost time for a reevaluation of that government. There are plenty who rightly and wrongly had a lot invested in saying it was an awful government in every respect. Much to despise and hate, but there were some genuinely useful things it did.

    If we invest heavily in efficiency and network improvements and shut down Tiwai Point (leeches subsidised by you and I), we can be pretty much zero emissions in power generation within a few years.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Muldoon was a dick, but..

    True, and one of the reasons I do not discount Winnie the poo. For all the faults people found with him, I know my parents ( and some others) think their gold card is a little bit of lolly. It has helped many pensioners to get out and about and stay active in the community. Something they richly deserve.
    Mr Hide however...

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    Did he have the moustache then? I feel that a man can only truly mutter darkly if he has that moustache.

    Assuredly yes, that moustache played its part well in projecting the persona then as now. But additionally (too much information perhaps) it intercepted sufficient of the the 'spray' part of the rhetoric to reduce the hazard of its projection onto us other players/ audience. This part of my stored image meant I had to write 'impassioned' rhetoric rather than the more obvious 'fiery' - any fire would have been quenched at source.

    For all that I bought, read, enjoyed and continue to appreciate his book "No Left Turn".

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • HORansome,

    I've been saying for a while now that Trotter seems to have found himself a niche; he's a social conservative that the Right like to point at and say "Look, some people on the Left do share our prejudices." The worrying thing is that people who claim to be leftish and you would think could know better, think that Trotter is, somehow, the voice of reasonable debate on the Left.

    I'm genuinely curious as to whether Chris really does think his straight male Pakeha-priviliging brand of social conservatism really is what the Left should be about. As far as I can see, in Aotearoa/Te Wai Pounamu, straight Pakeha males are doing really well and don't really need any advocacy whatsoever.

    Tāmaki Makaurau • Since Sep 2008 • 441 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    ...vast surplus of cheap hydro-electricity Muldoon was ensuring we were soon to have with the urgent construction of the Clyde high dam etc on the upper Clutha

    Muldoon was a dick, but without him, we'd have way less renewable electricity than we do. Funny how it works.

    Muldoon's one relevant decision was to go against technical advice and choose the option of one high dam at Clyde (rather than two low dams) on the farcical grounds that the power was needed urgently (hint: it takes a lot less time to build a modest sized dam than a big one, especially when the site investigations haven't been done thoroughly yet and the dam-site's a bit dubious).

    Result - greatly more environmental impact and loss of special productive land in the Cromwell Gorge, vast cost overruns in designing and building a large dam on a problematic site and then mitigating the greatly enhanced landslide risk owing to the higher lake level, and so expensive power delivered 8-9 years after scheduled completion.

    The vast surplus of hydro-electric power was a illusion in Muldoon's mind created by power planners who projected something like 8% p.a. growth in demand continuing ad infinitum and magicked up the power stations in a plan to deliver the necessary, then when demand-growth showed signs of slowing, voila, there was going to be a power surplus from all these (as yet unbuilt) power stations - how shall we use it?

    I do not think Muldoon's decision-making made a positive contribution to renewable electricity generation then or now.

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Update from the Act Zone: the message has now settled on "It was the rogue staffer!"

    I've been emailed a Word document by Hide's press secretary Allan Swan that turns out to be a Whaleoil blog post.

    I suppose I'll have to read it properly at some point. But when both sides of a party squabble are using Cameron Slater to communicate you really do have to conclude that things are right down the shitter.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    the message has now settled on "It was the rogue staffer!"

    Oh great, so easily solved, get rid of Roy. Intelligence all round with that lot, not!
    I guess Whalespoil is the "ex" blogger, the Harold has been mentioning.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    I've been emailed a Word document by Hide's press secretary Allan Swan that turns out to be a Whaleoil blog post.

    Oh dear. Now that's just silly.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

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