Posts by Jan Farr
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Aren't the Russians being neocons too in their own way? Seeking to achieve your desired economic / security situation by military bullying would be my definition of a neocon foreign policy.
According to Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine, the Russian's were 'shocked' into neo-con economics when Yeltsin consulted Milton Friedman and then, taking his 'create a crisis' advice, turned his guns on parliament. He seized the opportunity created by this catastrophe to impoverish 72 million Russians and create 17 new Russian billionaires. I don't think it would be safe to assume, however, that Russia is populated with neo-cons.
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Thanks for this topic Russell - it's really informative. No wonder this site wins awards!
John McCain, who yesterday declared "we are all Georgians"...
Another embarrassment to the human race! Where do they find them!
Pity about Obama. Even if he's not standing for President of the World (a position I believe is vacant at the moment) it wouldn't hurt him to read a couple of books by someone who knows where the rest of the world is. Or even to ask someone else to give him a quick breakdown.
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No mention of Roger Douglas or Ruth Richardson? We may all be young - and some of us contemptuous of any idea that wasn't invented in the last ten years - but just because we weren't born when Douglas made his Mont Pellerin speech - forecasting how he would subsequently push his unpopular Chicago School ideas through - this surely doesn't excuse ignorance of recent NZ history.
How can an intelligent analysis of anything that's going on be made if we think that - as one correspondent does - that Clark, Cullen and Bolger instigated free market reforms in this country?
Some of us seem perfectly happy to agree with a right wing analysis of Klein's book without having thoroughly read it - or perhaps not having read it at all.
She is not, for instance, 'incapable of understanding that authoritarianism of the sort represented by Pinochet may be as moved by a lust for power as by a lust for profits.'
She says: 'He took power with unseemly relish, adopting the airs of a monarch and claiming that 'destiny' had given him the job'. She also describes his lack of economic expertise which led him to listen to the 'Chicago Boys', the subsequent economic collapse as a result of their policies and the accompanying social consequences - dreadful poverty, 30% unemployment and all social support stripped away.
Then she describes how Pinochet was forced to renationalise industries that 'the prihanas' the Chicago Boys' policies let in had asset-stripped, Enron style. The move away from Friedman's policies, Klein asserts, is why the country eventually prospered.
Jonathan Chait seems to be an apologist for Milton Friedman, who has attempted to simplify and ridicule Klein's anlysis so that we'll all look the other way, while the neo-cons get on with the job.
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Isn't that an awed silence?
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Yes - I suppose you're right - picking holes almost inevitably backfires.
As for a wide open vote and avoiding major parties, well, that's what MMP is for - and I think it's working rather well.
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Interestingly, there's not so much differentiating Labour and National on that score either.
How fortunate for John Keys that he has an apologist like the NZ Herald.
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Hi James - you said:
Besides, there isn't a huge difference these days between Labor and the Nats in NZ, Labor and the Libs in Aussie...
Tell that to the workers (and a few other vulnerable groups.)
Your view of NZ (and Aussie) politics seems to be approaching the heights of John Key's view of NZ history.
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Of course, while it always starts out nicely it's not long before caring carbon neutral yoof turn to Vespa inspired violence:
What was THAT Nick? I'm old and I'm in shock!
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I'm gobsmacked! This is a fight I thought we'd won hands-down in the 70s. Now pink for girls is in with a vengeance, marriage with all the frills is back and obviously the media's interest in what women wear has moved beyond the descriptive to the psycho-babbular (I just made that word up). Thanks for that Craig - quite depressing really!
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Cheers! Will we see it on tv or film?