John Key's reputation at this point is that he will lie to your face about events happening right in front of you. he'll use any excuse that comes to mind and simply ignore that there's any inconsistency with reality.
problem is, he started off as a relative unknown, while the US government started off as a known, potentially hostile, threat and the current NZ government Really Is unpopular (even a fair number of those who voted for them are unimpressed with some of their actions during the last term).
Dotcom, consequently, became popular pretty much the moment he made the news, here. massive over reaction by the government is attention getting (usually because it results in them screwing themselves over, which is always entertaining), while sailboarding and miscarriage of justice get the population's attention and quite easily raise their ire.
throwing him out of the country would probably actually be worse for the current government than having to soak the costs of the mess they've got themselves into. (especially as they're already proving less honest even than the usual run of politicians and completely incompetent when it comes to budgets and economics anyway.)
on the subject of carrots:
the thing about them improving your eye-sight is overly successful allied propaganda in ww2 (to cover the use of radar, i believe?) about why their pilots were so good at finding German bombers.
that said, apparently there Are nutrients in carrots that your body needs to Maintain your eyesight. (this is from memory, mind you) so they are Good for your eyes (and eye-sight) they just don't particularly make it Better.
pretty sure it's got to the point where 'mocking tone' plus 'pro-current-copyright-regime-or-maximalism' equals 'auto-click report due to troll and/or shill like behaviour' to a lot of people...
i usually end up at least glancing at, and sometimes reading, the flagged comments anyway. they usually attract responses before they get enough reports to be hidden...
i'm still not sure if i give them more or less attention this way.
NZ's a lot stricter about the whole 'bribery' thing than the US is.
the Problem is that the current government consists mostly of people in the same/equivalent class as the US corporate types who lobby for this sort of thing. They Benefit From It. they also don't actually give a damn about the country or people, for the most part, or have clue bloody One about macro-economics. they can make money on a currency exchange or share market and think that means they understand economics, and that everyone else, no matter how badly off, can too. nevermind that the vast majority of NZ citizens have 2000 or less NZD in the bank and an income of under 30kNZD a year. the 'average' kiwi apparently earns somewhere around 40. said kiwi is a myth. my family is on a government benefit for various reasons, and we Look downright rich from the outside compared to most. this is entirely due to a lack of Debt. most people here owe a Lot (mortgages are the prime offender, but there's hire-purchase, lay-by, credit cards, car loans... ) then there's bills, shifting the tax burden from income to sales (and hence from the rich to the poor. the 'average' kiwi would gain... a couple of dollars a year. most Real kiwis lost out something closer to ten or more a Week, to my understanding. richer folks, on the other hand, often came out thousands of dollars better off a year, though that's only from memory. they Did close up a lot of loopholes in the system though, supposedly.)
on top of all that, mum Did have substantially more saved up... the vast majority of which got spent on repairing the house. a lot of what she had to pay for was just damage from age, but with the way the earthquake recovery is going (actual inspectors inspected and said this and that were major problems and earthquake damage and needed fixing. random 'inspector' on behalf of whoever would have to pay out comes into the room, doesn't even LOOK at half the things, and then says all but the most insignificant issues couldn't Possibly be earthquake damage and talks to mum like she's an idiot to think otherwise. my mother is well enough educated to know that it's a load of bullshit and calls him on it (politely.). which doesn't change anything, as he's the one signing the forms. this kind of thing is Common.) if i have kept track properly, Mum's ended up paying for fixing a fair bit of actual earthquake damage too. (if you can manage it, actually having money in the bank is MUCH better than having an insurance policy if anything goes wrong. it also Gains you money rather than losing it in between times. too bad our entire economy, and the government's welfare/tax system, are set up to discourage any attempt at saving while ALSO being set up to cause most of the money you spend to leave the country rather than move around our internal economy and actually benefit anyone here...)
*sigh*
the pet rants escaped again. sorry 'bout that.
not sorry enough to kill the comment, mind you. but still.
Re: "...they don't have to do what American companies demand..."
it gets better: they already Know they don't have to.
in fact, not doing so (with varying degrees of honesty, admittedly) is part of pretty much Every Other Party's platform, at this point...
Labour's difficult, but not impossible, to get to buy what the US is selling. National's default state is 'sell everything. to anyone. at bargain prices. then blame those who are consequently unemployed for the resulting problems'. much more in line with US corporate interests.
it's got to the point the more significant minor parties (those which aren't basically de facto extensions of Labour and National or completely ineffective) are making nationalism an increasingly significant part of their platform... along with actually intelligent economic and tax reforms, even if each of them only has part of it right.
Chinese corporations buying our land and US corporations buying our laws and a government who's position on such seems to be 'make it easier!' are NOT a popular combination. particularly when combined with a dairy industry which raises domestic prices because 'that's what the global market will bear' while the government makes deals that cripple our internal industry in order to support more and more dairy exports...
the way the government's been responding to the economic situation over the last few years I'm surprised they haven't tried subsidising dairy production again. they seem quite keen on repeating every OTHER mistake from the Muldoon era... (only instead of 'think big' projects building hydro-electric dams and the like that actually benefit the country in the long run, they're floundering around failing at earthquake recovery (while using it as a mask for undermining democratic government and passing IP laws) and making a big deal about how much of a difference a Bicycle Trail will make... and generally getting their numbers wrong and not completing things... )
in case you didn't notice, i have an intense dislike of the current NZ government :P (though i'm hardly a fan of the previous one either. and Yes, i need to clarify that. National/Labour can get almost as bad as Democrat/Republican here. only difference is that the percentage of people who realise they're both crap/third parties are actually a viable option is quite a bit larger.)
pretty much their entire damn platform is 'We're Corporate America's Bitch'. they only got elected the first time because Labour was starting to make mistakes after three terms, and only got Re-elected because the media spun things enough that 1/4th of electors didn't think voting was going to achieve anything.
hopefully the reforms go through and the Conservatives can get some traction so we can have a not-left option that ISN'T corrupt and/or insane... (National only really gets most of the votes it does, so far as i can tell, on the basis that it forms the centre of the bloc that Cannot result in a Labour government. Act is pretty much delusional and was only getting in on the basis that it's leader was well liked in his electorate. that's no longer true. the rest are more centre than anything and either disliked for the things they back to stay on the good side of the bigger parties or for being ineffectual. or both. (or they're New Zealand First, which is a weird one I've never really been able to pin down.))
our Courts might be shiny, but our parliament is a Mess. oh, it's not corrupt or tyrannical, particularly... but it's certainly dysfunctional in it's own way...
*blinks*
...
...
...
conclusion is erroneous and obviously shill-like, but this one's actually Logical in how it gets there, and shows basic reading comprehension.
do we have some sort of prize for that? 'cause we totally should.
i still find it insulting at minimum that they shoved that copyright-law change through under urgency in a session meant to be dealing with the Christchurch earthquakes... (meaning the public never got to hear about it until it was done) after the previous attempt fell over due to public protest...
you realise, of course, that at this point 'commies' are a non-issue, while the various IAA's and their puppets/allies are a legit threat, right?
(seriously, i live in a Different Country and their stupid has lead to dodgy law changes (both the change, the process, and the fact that the Same Change had previously been removed in the face of large scale public protest) and police armed with assault rifles (and the FBI. how the HELL is your domestic, internal secret police type agency Constantly getting involved in another country's Law Enforcement?))
On the post: NZ Prime Minister Admits That The Government Illegally Wiretapped Megaupload Employees
Re:
On the post: NZ Prime Minister Admits That The Government Illegally Wiretapped Megaupload Employees
Re: Re:
maybe to start with.
problem is, he started off as a relative unknown, while the US government started off as a known, potentially hostile, threat and the current NZ government Really Is unpopular (even a fair number of those who voted for them are unimpressed with some of their actions during the last term).
Dotcom, consequently, became popular pretty much the moment he made the news, here. massive over reaction by the government is attention getting (usually because it results in them screwing themselves over, which is always entertaining), while sailboarding and miscarriage of justice get the population's attention and quite easily raise their ire.
throwing him out of the country would probably actually be worse for the current government than having to soak the costs of the mess they've got themselves into. (especially as they're already proving less honest even than the usual run of politicians and completely incompetent when it comes to budgets and economics anyway.)
or so it seems to me, at least.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re:
the annihilation reaction could well destroy the solar system.
On the post: Yet Another Study Says First Person Shooters Are Good For Your Eyesight
the thing about them improving your eye-sight is overly successful allied propaganda in ww2 (to cover the use of radar, i believe?) about why their pilots were so good at finding German bombers.
that said, apparently there Are nutrients in carrots that your body needs to Maintain your eyesight. (this is from memory, mind you) so they are Good for your eyes (and eye-sight) they just don't particularly make it Better.
On the post: Authors Guild Continues To Battle The Present; Attacks Another Legal Service As 'Infringing'
Re:
On the post: Authors Guild Continues To Battle The Present; Attacks Another Legal Service As 'Infringing'
Re:
also, the apparently not-all-that-representative Authors Guild.
On the post: Authors Guild Continues To Battle The Present; Attacks Another Legal Service As 'Infringing'
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
they mostly post under snowflake icons...
On the post: Authors Guild Continues To Battle The Present; Attacks Another Legal Service As 'Infringing'
Re: Re:
On the post: Authors Guild Continues To Battle The Present; Attacks Another Legal Service As 'Infringing'
Re: Re:
On the post: Piracy Is A Cultural Opportunity; Embrace It
Re: Re: Re: Re:
i'm still not sure if i give them more or less attention this way.
On the post: Piracy Is A Cultural Opportunity; Embrace It
Re:
On the post: Two Years Later, Lobbying By Microsoft & IBM Creates Loophole In New Zealand To Allow Software Patents
Re: Demand???
kind of.
NZ's a lot stricter about the whole 'bribery' thing than the US is.
the Problem is that the current government consists mostly of people in the same/equivalent class as the US corporate types who lobby for this sort of thing. They Benefit From It. they also don't actually give a damn about the country or people, for the most part, or have clue bloody One about macro-economics. they can make money on a currency exchange or share market and think that means they understand economics, and that everyone else, no matter how badly off, can too. nevermind that the vast majority of NZ citizens have 2000 or less NZD in the bank and an income of under 30kNZD a year. the 'average' kiwi apparently earns somewhere around 40. said kiwi is a myth. my family is on a government benefit for various reasons, and we Look downright rich from the outside compared to most. this is entirely due to a lack of Debt. most people here owe a Lot (mortgages are the prime offender, but there's hire-purchase, lay-by, credit cards, car loans... ) then there's bills, shifting the tax burden from income to sales (and hence from the rich to the poor. the 'average' kiwi would gain... a couple of dollars a year. most Real kiwis lost out something closer to ten or more a Week, to my understanding. richer folks, on the other hand, often came out thousands of dollars better off a year, though that's only from memory. they Did close up a lot of loopholes in the system though, supposedly.)
on top of all that, mum Did have substantially more saved up... the vast majority of which got spent on repairing the house. a lot of what she had to pay for was just damage from age, but with the way the earthquake recovery is going (actual inspectors inspected and said this and that were major problems and earthquake damage and needed fixing. random 'inspector' on behalf of whoever would have to pay out comes into the room, doesn't even LOOK at half the things, and then says all but the most insignificant issues couldn't Possibly be earthquake damage and talks to mum like she's an idiot to think otherwise. my mother is well enough educated to know that it's a load of bullshit and calls him on it (politely.). which doesn't change anything, as he's the one signing the forms. this kind of thing is Common.) if i have kept track properly, Mum's ended up paying for fixing a fair bit of actual earthquake damage too. (if you can manage it, actually having money in the bank is MUCH better than having an insurance policy if anything goes wrong. it also Gains you money rather than losing it in between times. too bad our entire economy, and the government's welfare/tax system, are set up to discourage any attempt at saving while ALSO being set up to cause most of the money you spend to leave the country rather than move around our internal economy and actually benefit anyone here...)
*sigh*
the pet rants escaped again. sorry 'bout that.
not sorry enough to kill the comment, mind you. but still.
On the post: Two Years Later, Lobbying By Microsoft & IBM Creates Loophole In New Zealand To Allow Software Patents
Re: "...they don't have to do what American companies demand..."
in fact, not doing so (with varying degrees of honesty, admittedly) is part of pretty much Every Other Party's platform, at this point...
Labour's difficult, but not impossible, to get to buy what the US is selling. National's default state is 'sell everything. to anyone. at bargain prices. then blame those who are consequently unemployed for the resulting problems'. much more in line with US corporate interests.
it's got to the point the more significant minor parties (those which aren't basically de facto extensions of Labour and National or completely ineffective) are making nationalism an increasingly significant part of their platform... along with actually intelligent economic and tax reforms, even if each of them only has part of it right.
Chinese corporations buying our land and US corporations buying our laws and a government who's position on such seems to be 'make it easier!' are NOT a popular combination. particularly when combined with a dairy industry which raises domestic prices because 'that's what the global market will bear' while the government makes deals that cripple our internal industry in order to support more and more dairy exports...
the way the government's been responding to the economic situation over the last few years I'm surprised they haven't tried subsidising dairy production again. they seem quite keen on repeating every OTHER mistake from the Muldoon era... (only instead of 'think big' projects building hydro-electric dams and the like that actually benefit the country in the long run, they're floundering around failing at earthquake recovery (while using it as a mask for undermining democratic government and passing IP laws) and making a big deal about how much of a difference a Bicycle Trail will make... and generally getting their numbers wrong and not completing things... )
in case you didn't notice, i have an intense dislike of the current NZ government :P (though i'm hardly a fan of the previous one either. and Yes, i need to clarify that. National/Labour can get almost as bad as Democrat/Republican here. only difference is that the percentage of people who realise they're both crap/third parties are actually a viable option is quite a bit larger.)
On the post: Two Years Later, Lobbying By Microsoft & IBM Creates Loophole In New Zealand To Allow Software Patents
Goddamnit!
pretty much their entire damn platform is 'We're Corporate America's Bitch'. they only got elected the first time because Labour was starting to make mistakes after three terms, and only got Re-elected because the media spun things enough that 1/4th of electors didn't think voting was going to achieve anything.
hopefully the reforms go through and the Conservatives can get some traction so we can have a not-left option that ISN'T corrupt and/or insane... (National only really gets most of the votes it does, so far as i can tell, on the basis that it forms the centre of the bloc that Cannot result in a Labour government. Act is pretty much delusional and was only getting in on the basis that it's leader was well liked in his electorate. that's no longer true. the rest are more centre than anything and either disliked for the things they back to stay on the good side of the bigger parties or for being ineffectual. or both. (or they're New Zealand First, which is a weird one I've never really been able to pin down.))
our Courts might be shiny, but our parliament is a Mess. oh, it's not corrupt or tyrannical, particularly... but it's certainly dysfunctional in it's own way...
On the post: New Zealand Court Releases $4.83 Million To Kim Dotcom
Re: How do we....
On the post: How The Press Misinterprets Scientific Studies
Re:
...
...
...
conclusion is erroneous and obviously shill-like, but this one's actually Logical in how it gets there, and shows basic reading comprehension.
do we have some sort of prize for that? 'cause we totally should.
On the post: Copyright Reform Process Begins Down Under... And They're Actually Asking Good Questions
Re:
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re:
(seriously, i live in a Different Country and their stupid has lead to dodgy law changes (both the change, the process, and the fact that the Same Change had previously been removed in the face of large scale public protest) and police armed with assault rifles (and the FBI. how the HELL is your domestic, internal secret police type agency Constantly getting involved in another country's Law Enforcement?))
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Debunking The Myth That The Internet Generation Doesn't Buy Or Read Books
Re:
a number have got worse, too, mind you.
though this is one of the former, not the latter.
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