Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Pretty impressive, Mr Key.
Anybody trying to portray this politician as out of steam is dreaming. This was a very competent performance today from John Key — admittedly, he appeared to be among friends, and was put under no pressure whatsoever by the cuddly host at NewstalkZB, Leighton Smith … but even so — very smooth, Mr Key.
‘Dead man waddling’
This line from an Esquire Politics Blog by Scott Raab, Why Christie Now Has Nothing to Lose, (and the Chris Christie Countdown Clock image) show how personally punishing US political media commentary can be. That’s its nature at times — a whirling clobbering machine, standing ready to attach clichéd labels. As for Christie, he’s a dead man waddling, […]
Judith Collins’ ‘really ugly’ attacks echo Muldoon’s tactics
I can’t help but see Mrs Collins as channelling (imitating?) the abusive, nasty personal attack style that Robert Muldoon used against his political opponents. In the House, Muldoon became friends with other new National MPs, notably Duncan MacIntyre and John Bowie (Peter) Gordon. The three became known as ‘the Young Turks’ because of their criticism […]
Speaking of comparisons to Stasi surveillance …
There’s been a wee fracas as Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (of Netscape Navigator fame) popped a foot in his mouth with what looks like a thoughtless or uninformed defence of the NSA’s illegal spying activities with a suggestion that former East Germans would fail to see similarities between the NSA’s mass surveillance and […]
‘Blackphone’ — Dystopian ‘loss of privacy’ memes are not new. But they seem fashionable now. And possibly commercially viable.
Watch this. It makes me want to try one out. (Except for that line about ‘the Android we’re all familiar with’— er, no not me.) Introduction to Blackphone from BLACKPHONE on Vimeo. But in the comments on that Blackphone promo — posted on Vimeo yesterday — there’s a link to this 4-year-old promo for Else […]
Burglars or Whistle-blowers? Exposing the FBI’s illegal COINTELPRO … precursors to Snowden.
A fascinating piece of history — eight ‘new left’ activists acting in 1971 to protect the citizenry’s right to dissent … by exposing the FBI’s actions to infiltrate protest groups, spy on all sorts of people opposed to the Vietnam war, and, along the way, to ‘enhance paranoia’. Nice work. Well worth watching at NYTimes.com. […]
Converting lies, by repetition, to …
via Banksy
Oh. The NSA ‘owns’ iPhones (but only if it can get its hands on them, for now)
It appears the FBI’s assessment (‘assume that [your communication] will be intercepted and retained’) was based on reality … including the remote control of your phone’s microphone & camera. According to leaked documents, the NSA claims a 100 percent success rate when it comes to implanting iOS devices with spyware. The documents suggest that the […]
On one hand we complain about surveillance …
Dedicated to Martyn Bradbury. – P
Equating internet privacy with apartheid
The UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has compared the uproar in the international community caused by revelations of mass surveillance with the collective response that helped bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. Pillay, the first non-white woman to serve as a high-court judge in South Africa, made the comments in an interview […]
Edward Snowden Christmas message
BBC Channel Channel 4 Alternative Christmas message Praxis films. Audio here: https://m.soundcloud.com/producermatthew/edward-snowden-releases
Deceitful “PR blog” questions worth considering
At the risk of creating a terrible circularity that could collapse the interwebs, let me suggest you read Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup today (available here at The NZ Herald.) Bryce introduces his political topic du jour thus: New Zealand politics is ‘a dirty, disgusting, despicable game. And it involves dirty, disgusting despicable people at all […]
Haere ra, Mandela. RIP.
What a great man. What an inspiration. “The quest for reconciliation was the spur that gave life to our difficult negotiations process and the agreements that emerged from it.” — Nelson Mandela to Parliament, Cape Town, 25 February 1999 – P
Her majesty is not amused
Re-tweeted into my timeline … #teamjudith (in this case) – P UPDATE: Oh, someone else is not amused. Look who weighed in …with whatever-the-opposite-of-an-endorsement-is … via David Fisher
Conservatives’ Colin Craig vows to be ‘less casual’ about conspiracies
In response to this fiasco … Someone on the Conservative Party website asks … What’s the deal with all these ‘conspiracy theories’ that have been touted about in the media of late? The media are having a field day! It must be a low news week for them or something! – Maria “Here’s a response […]
