Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan

  • Hard News: Behind those Herald…,

    Do those stories drive much traffic? I see them more as native content from the newspaper's last major advertising revenue stream.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: No, there isn’t a popular…,

    No idea if this is right but the point is Clinton lost because of what a few hundred thousand people decided in the last few days not because of some global megatrend.

    There’s a lot of truth to this. It was close. Coulda’ gone the other way. Shame it didn’t, because the stakes were really fucking high.

    My question is this: why was it close? This was, in so many ways, the dream election that the left desperately wanted to fight. Clinton was going to be the first woman president! Bernie dragged her to the left! She had Beyonce and Michelle Obama backing her! And her opponent was Trump. A monster! A joke! He couldn't even run a campaign! His staff were losers and morons! And the horrible things he said! Trump let the left say everything it wanted to say about sexism and racism and privilege and rape culture and economic inequality, for an entire year. It got to point out that Trump’s core supporters were actual fucking nazis! And it got to do so on a mainstream media platform that was just overwhelmingly biased against Trump, and overwhelmingly supporting Clinton.

    We will never, in our lifetimes, see another election like that which is more favourable to the core values and concerns of the contemporary left. And it still lost. You can make arguments like ‘it was close’, and ‘Clinton won the popular vote’ and ‘in hindsight maybe she was too close to Wall Street and maybe that affected turnout?’. But you’re never going to have a perfect candidate. This was as good as it gets, and the left lost, and the consequences will be catastrophic, so for me the questions run a bit deeper.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Meth houses and stigma,

    The ministry claimed yesterday that it had repeatedly warned Housing New Zealand it was misusing its 2010 lab guidelines to evict tenants. And yet when I approached the ministry with questions about this selfsame misapprehension of its advice, the response was to insist that the guidelines were ”self-explanatory” and no further action was necessary. So there’s a pretty high stench of bullshit here.

    I don't know if you can blame the Ministry. They probably were warning Housing New Zealand. But they'd have had to run their response to your query past their Minister's office, who would never, in a million years, have let them admit to that.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: What we think and how we vote,

    Great work David. Thanks.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: DNC 2016: Beyond weird, most…,

    Because nothing I think or say affects the outcome in any way whatsoever, I've decided to back the Bernie supporters. Fight the power dudes!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: What you lookin' at?,

    I had Netflix and liked it until it mysteriously stopped working on my smart TV and their support guys couldn't fix it so I was forced to cancel my subscription. Also, I liked the first couple episodes of 11.22.63; more than I liked King's book.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Poll Soup,

    Mainly because Labour has many fewer non-voters despising it than National has. Excluding the Don't Knows and Didn't Answers, the median Labour liking is 6 while the median National liking is 5.

    Just checked this and you're right. Thanks. It does still, I think, point to the complexity of the 'missing million' as a panacea for the left.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Poll Soup,

    Attachment

    Sorry for late reply to questions about 'the missing million'. Here's the 2011 NZES data on non-voters and how they responded to the question about whether they liked the National Party. They like Labour/the Greens quite a lot less.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Poll Soup,

    Does the one-in-twelve equation factor in the missing million? Between them, Labour and the Greens failed to inspire their marginal constituents.

    The bad news: about half the missing million are probably National-leaning voters.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Protesting too much: responses…,

    Labour’s ability to deliver a bold social programme relies on broad public acceptance of Labour’s credibility on the economy, on personal security, and so on.

    'Personal security'? Sounds like it'll be a fun day on twitter when that policy comes out.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

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