One of the interesting parts of the current Dirty Politics scandal in NZ was a plan by a lawyer/pr strategist on the far right of National to borrow the recent US republican dirty politics strategy as well as professionalisation of political organising. One part of that was to develop private funding raising to the extent that rich groups could buy National and outspend Labour by a factor of 3 or 4 times.
He had a 20 year plan to do so and it makes for chilling reading. I'll post extracts
The odd part was that a lot of this came out when he was just thinking about it. He apparently had some thoughts about becoming an academic and was in email correspondence with the Dirty Politics author back several years, where he raised several of the main points.
The NZ National Party is actually the result of our Liberal and Reform parties unifying during the Depression in order to fight the rise of Labour. Quote common I believe
Freedom for the Northern Isles!
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
The Tasmanian government is on course to pass legislation that would tear up the state’s forestry peace deal, with environmentalists claiming the move will open up 1.5m hectares of largely pristine forest to logging.
The state government’s forestry bill has already passed the lower house, which it controls, and is in the process of negotiating the legislative council, the upper house of parliament. Key independent Robert Armstrong has indicated support for the bill, meaning it is likely to pass.
The bill will remove 400,000ha of native forest from reserves set up by the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.
An additional 657,000ha in conservation areas and 454,000ha in regional reserves will also be opened up to “partial logging” for the speciality timber industry.
Sigh.
Oh, and let's ignore the fact that tourism in tasmania is bigger than logging in terms of employment. Afterall, it's the loggers who are big liberal party donors.
And of course, they're also trying to make it illegal in Tasmania to protest if you inconvenience a business in any way:
Protesters may not cause or threaten damage to a business
Police can direct protesters to leave a business or "business access area"
Police can remove any obstructions to a business and people may not prevent them doing so
Inciting any of these acts is an offence
Police can demand proof of identity
Police can arrest without warrant and remove people from a business
Officers can use necessary force to perform these powers
Less than one year in, and the building had a 30m exclusion zone, with police and security guards at every entrance, cops patrolling the campus and eventually, cops on horses to push back the crowd and stomp on at least one student. There is no prime Minister in memory that required this.
News.com.au are going with a story about how everyone is whingers, and don't even know what tough times are.
Latest polls are out and National has taken a hit, albiet whilst still polling around 50%. Labour hasn't benefited but the Greens have, creeping to near 14%. Preferred PM is more interesting as Key has taken his biggest hit in a long time and Cunliffe has gone up. Most people seem to think National's popularity rests upon Key's, so I guess we shall see.
The blogger, Slater has been informed he will face further charges for breach of privacy, already at court for other reasons some months ago. He has also laid a complaint himself over the hacking and leak of emails to Hager.
There also seems to be an official investigation into the SIS 2011 OIA release leak. The retired director and recording from the weekly PM media conference seem to indicate he was aware of the leak or the leaker. He denies and says he will be willing to go under oath.He says now his office was aware but he wasn't.
In his opening remarks, Mr Morrison maintained Labor's policies led to the high number of children in detention and said the former government should also be questioned at the inquiry.
"This is an inquiry into children in detention as you have stated. However it could be more accurately described as an inquiry into children Labor put in detention," he said.
After making everybody not a wealthy conservative detest them, the Liberals are set on alienating the last of their supporters - it's tax increase time.
Either this is a ploy to try and turn public sentiment against the Senate, or they're really committed to making themselves poll as low as they can go.
Christopher Pyne says cuts to research funding as an alternative to the higher education reforms that face being blocked by the Senate could be a “worst-case scenario” and has called on student protesters to “get some perspective” because the government is “not exactly asking for their left kidney”.
Christopher Pyne says cuts to research funding as an alternative to the higher education reforms that face being blocked by the Senate could be a “worst-case scenario” and has called on student protesters to “get some perspective” because the government is “not exactly asking for their left kidney”.
There's also the part where he gave tips on how to set fire to an effigy when some students failed to get one alight at a protest. Because the best way for an education minister to endear himself to those affected by his portfolio is to fucking mock them. The arrogant little prick.
This lot really believe themselves aristocrats lording over the peasant rabble.
Christopher Pyne says cuts to research funding as an alternative to the higher education reforms that face being blocked by the Senate could be a “worst-case scenario” and has called on student protesters to “get some perspective” because the government is “not exactly asking for their left kidney”.
There's also the part where he gave tips on how to set fire to an effigy when some students failed to get one alight at a protest. Because the best way for an education minister to endear himself to those affected by his portfolio is to fucking mock them. The arrogant little prick.
This lot really believe themselves aristocrats lording over the peasant rabble.
Christopher Pyne has always been an unrepetent douchebag.
He seems to basically the refined tip of the tower of assholishness that runs through the Liberal party (i.e. that guy who was on the NBN joint committee and basically showed up drunk and yelling at people all the time).
A multi-technology mix NBN would cost $24.9 billion to launch from 2015 compared with $35.3 billion for fibre to the premises (FTTP), the report finds.
A multi-technology mix would deliver download and upload speeds of 20-100 megabits a second, while FTTP would deliver speeds above 100Mbps.
The report finds the most cost-effective option would be an unsubsidised launch in which the free market delivers high-speed broadband to 93 per cent of homes. This would have a net economic benefit of $24 billion, but would leave 7 per cent of premises in regional and rural areas without fast broadband.
This literally makes no sense to me. And I am betting the terms of reference for this were carefully engineered to ensure they'd get the desired outcome. Which almost certainly means that built in somewhere are some very optimistic assumptions about what the free market will and won't do, that in no way mirror reality.
EDIT: In fact paging through this thing it seems obvious that there's a lot of the usual crap in here. "Fiber to the node provides high speeds". No, it doesn't. Got ADSL2? That's as good as it ever gets. You will never see quadruple bonded VDSL or whatever, it's just never going to happen. Where its available it'll just be completely prohibitively priced.
Are they still using models that take the cost of using the existing telstra owned copper network as being $0?
The report finds a multi-technology mix is more "future proof" because it can be upgraded to fibre to the premises later if demand for fast broadband booms.
So mixed is more future proof, because you can upgrade it later to the other option? I do not think they are using the same definition of future proof as most people.
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
The report was staffed by former Turnbull advisors and staffers, and anti- NBN types.
It assumes that in 2023 most households will require up to 15Mbps connections with the top 5 requiring 43Mbps connections.
It assumes the cost of delivery for FTTH is increasing while as Turnbull admits the opposite is true.
But that is really irrelevant as it's nonsensical bullshit and the manner by which it is reported makes no sense. Who cares about a limited tern cost benefit analysis?
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
In other news, Brandis has lashed out at the ABC and Fairfax for undermining religious liberty when giving a speech covered only by the ABC and the catholic specific press.
Are they still using models that take the cost of using the existing telstra owned copper network as being $0?
The report finds a multi-technology mix is more "future proof" because it can be upgraded to fibre to the premises later if demand for fast broadband booms.
What.
And there goes any hope that their might even be a grain of truth or logic to this report.
This is what I fundamentally do not understand about the mind set involved here. In the long run, you are inevitably going to have to upgrade to fibre (barring some as yet unforeseen and unlikely technological leap). The total cost after the upgrade will be far more then just doing it right the first time. So why the fuck do you insist on half assing it?
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited August 2014
There is actually a new type of fibre optic developed in recent years that has solved the hollow optic not being able to turn corners problem. Instead of the 31% loss of speed in silicate fibres light travels down these literal tubes at 99% of the speed of light.
However this is so expensive it's really not a consideration. Normal silicate would be more than enough of a jump over what we have now. And the end user probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway.
There is actually a new type of fibre optic developed in recent years that has solved the hollow optic not being able to turn corners problem. Instead of the 31% loss of speed in silicate fibres light travels down these literal tubes at 99% of the speed of light.
However this is so expensive it's really not a consideration. Normal silicate would be more than enough of a jump over what we have now. And the end user probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway.
Or to go another way: in regular fiber optics we've been at something like 10+ Terabits per fiber (being super, super conservative). There's so much capacity that provided you have a fiber running to customer premises you can provide functionally unlimited bandwidth at a consumer level by upgrading the nodes.
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I like how Abbott leads a government dedicated to attacking the poor on welfare, while claiming entitlements by half-assing in a visit to a cancer hospital before going to parliament.
I decided to take a look at the NBN CBA and yes indeed it appears to intentionally remove any transfers or payments to other companies for use of existing assets (ie telstra copper network) from the figures.
I couldn't find out much of the specifics of the assumptions by the CBA as once you get into hard facts or figures you run into a wall of redacted black bars.
Latest polls came out today I think. National is down a little, Labour too, the minor parties, excluding Maori, Act and UF picking up. Radio NZ analysis posted below. Usual caveat, 4 polling companies only.
National's polling average was steady at 50.2% up to early August after two more polls, Colmar Brunton for TV1 and Reid Research for TV3, released on Sunday. Labour's average dropped to 26.4%.
These figures include the poll by Ipsos for Fairfax Media published last Friday. That poll stands out with a much higher score for National (55.1%) and a much lower score for Labour (22.5%) than the other three in the latest four-poll rolling average. Those three registered 48.2%, 47.5% and 50% for National and 27.9%, 29.0% and 26% for Labour.
The Greens have held their average at 12.2%.
Internet-Mana has been picking up support: its average to early August was 2.7%. New Zealand First remained within striking distance of the 5% hurdle, with 4.0%. The Conservatives were 2.5%, the Maori Party 0.9%, ACT 0.5% and United Future 0.1%.
Oh I seem to have quoted the older results from last week! More recent below, updated poll of polls from RNZ.
Big story is that the Conservatives have got within a gasp of the magic 5% Party Vote, which if not outlier puts them very close to parliament. The non governmental Minor Parties have seemingly banked the gains this round.
The latest 3News-Reid Research poll shows National recorded 45 percent and Labour 26.4 percent, while the Conservative and New Zealand First have gained support.
The Conservatives' support jumped from 2.5 to 4.6 percent in this poll.
New Zealand First was up to 6.3 and the Green Party rose marginally to 13.5 percent.
None of the other parties polled anywhere near 5 percent.
National 48.3%
Labour 26.3%
Greens 12.4%
NZ First 5.6%
Conservatives 2.7%
Internet Mana 2.7%
Maori 0.8%
Act 0.5%
United Future 0.4%
Posts
I haven't actually.
I read some of their earlier opinion pieces about the election/politics and they were pretty bad.
But I'll take a look at the interview ones.
So far I'm probably going to vote Labour, so those might be interesting to read.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
God I fucking hate these assholes.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
He had a 20 year plan to do so and it makes for chilling reading. I'll post extracts
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
The odd part was that a lot of this came out when he was just thinking about it. He apparently had some thoughts about becoming an academic and was in email correspondence with the Dirty Politics author back several years, where he raised several of the main points.
Not the least of which, ruining the word "Republican".
Also the Liberal Party ruining the word "Liberal"
Stop ruining words.
They went beyond moustache twirling months ago. Now they're in 'build a hidden base on the moon' mode.
Sigh.
Oh, and let's ignore the fact that tourism in tasmania is bigger than logging in terms of employment. Afterall, it's the loggers who are big liberal party donors.
And of course, they're also trying to make it illegal in Tasmania to protest if you inconvenience a business in any way:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/protesters-rally-against-prime-minister-tony-abbotts-appearance-at-adelaide-university/story-fni6uo1m-1227032303490
PS DON'T READ THE COMMENTS, IT'S A MURDOCH RAG.
Less than one year in, and the building had a 30m exclusion zone, with police and security guards at every entrance, cops patrolling the campus and eventually, cops on horses to push back the crowd and stomp on at least one student. There is no prime Minister in memory that required this.
News.com.au are going with a story about how everyone is whingers, and don't even know what tough times are.
Because of course they are.
The blogger, Slater has been informed he will face further charges for breach of privacy, already at court for other reasons some months ago. He has also laid a complaint himself over the hacking and leak of emails to Hager.
There also seems to be an official investigation into the SIS 2011 OIA release leak. The retired director and recording from the weekly PM media conference seem to indicate he was aware of the leak or the leaker. He denies and says he will be willing to go under oath.He says now his office was aware but he wasn't.
http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/voters-dont-want-another-election-tony-abbott-hoses-down-claims-of-a-poor-budget-sales-job-20140822-1073fu.html
"Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that the last thing voters want is another election"
HA HA HA HA HA
Though I guess, he does vote and does not want an election so he is technically correct.
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
CAWWWWWW BUCK BUCK BUCK BUCK BUCK *pecks at ground*
He can claim that, but we all know the reason he won't is because he's well aware the Liberals will get utterly wiped out.
Now all the senate has to do is do it's job and completely block the budget.
Either this is a ploy to try and turn public sentiment against the Senate, or they're really committed to making themselves poll as low as they can go.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/24/christopher-pyne-no-university-reform-could-mean-research-funding-cuts
There's also the part where he gave tips on how to set fire to an effigy when some students failed to get one alight at a protest. Because the best way for an education minister to endear himself to those affected by his portfolio is to fucking mock them. The arrogant little prick.
This lot really believe themselves aristocrats lording over the peasant rabble.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Christopher Pyne has always been an unrepetent douchebag.
He seems to basically the refined tip of the tower of assholishness that runs through the Liberal party (i.e. that guy who was on the NBN joint committee and basically showed up drunk and yelling at people all the time).
This literally makes no sense to me. And I am betting the terms of reference for this were carefully engineered to ensure they'd get the desired outcome. Which almost certainly means that built in somewhere are some very optimistic assumptions about what the free market will and won't do, that in no way mirror reality.
EDIT: In fact paging through this thing it seems obvious that there's a lot of the usual crap in here. "Fiber to the node provides high speeds". No, it doesn't. Got ADSL2? That's as good as it ever gets. You will never see quadruple bonded VDSL or whatever, it's just never going to happen. Where its available it'll just be completely prohibitively priced.
What.
It assumes that in 2023 most households will require up to 15Mbps connections with the top 5 requiring 43Mbps connections.
It assumes the cost of delivery for FTTH is increasing while as Turnbull admits the opposite is true.
But that is really irrelevant as it's nonsensical bullshit and the manner by which it is reported makes no sense. Who cares about a limited tern cost benefit analysis?
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/religion-and-ethics-report-religious-freedom/5699194
What in the f-
And there goes any hope that their might even be a grain of truth or logic to this report.
This is what I fundamentally do not understand about the mind set involved here. In the long run, you are inevitably going to have to upgrade to fibre (barring some as yet unforeseen and unlikely technological leap). The total cost after the upgrade will be far more then just doing it right the first time. So why the fuck do you insist on half assing it?
However this is so expensive it's really not a consideration. Normal silicate would be more than enough of a jump over what we have now. And the end user probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway.
http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v7/n4/full/nphoton.2013.45.html
Or to go another way: in regular fiber optics we've been at something like 10+ Terabits per fiber (being super, super conservative). There's so much capacity that provided you have a fiber running to customer premises you can provide functionally unlimited bandwidth at a consumer level by upgrading the nodes.
Good going sport.
I couldn't find out much of the specifics of the assumptions by the CBA as once you get into hard facts or figures you run into a wall of redacted black bars.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/252411/poll-of-polls-with-colin-james
National's polling average was steady at 50.2% up to early August after two more polls, Colmar Brunton for TV1 and Reid Research for TV3, released on Sunday. Labour's average dropped to 26.4%.
These figures include the poll by Ipsos for Fairfax Media published last Friday. That poll stands out with a much higher score for National (55.1%) and a much lower score for Labour (22.5%) than the other three in the latest four-poll rolling average. Those three registered 48.2%, 47.5% and 50% for National and 27.9%, 29.0% and 26% for Labour.
The Greens have held their average at 12.2%.
Internet-Mana has been picking up support: its average to early August was 2.7%. New Zealand First remained within striking distance of the 5% hurdle, with 4.0%. The Conservatives were 2.5%, the Maori Party 0.9%, ACT 0.5% and United Future 0.1%.
Big story is that the Conservatives have got within a gasp of the magic 5% Party Vote, which if not outlier puts them very close to parliament. The non governmental Minor Parties have seemingly banked the gains this round.
The latest 3News-Reid Research poll shows National recorded 45 percent and Labour 26.4 percent, while the Conservative and New Zealand First have gained support.
The Conservatives' support jumped from 2.5 to 4.6 percent in this poll.
New Zealand First was up to 6.3 and the Green Party rose marginally to 13.5 percent.
None of the other parties polled anywhere near 5 percent.
National 48.3%
Labour 26.3%
Greens 12.4%
NZ First 5.6%
Conservatives 2.7%
Internet Mana 2.7%
Maori 0.8%
Act 0.5%
United Future 0.4%