This, from Rod Emmerson in the NZ Herald, is one of those cartoons with plenty of subtlety* … it rewards scrutiny.
– P
*Like, for instance, the ‘speciality’, the puddle under Banks, and, is Slater junior wearing pants?
I think it’s OUTRAGEOUS that poor Simon Lusk’s name gets dragged into these dirty, shabby, venal, nasty political schemes time and time again. How must he be feeling?
Like this uncalled-for example, for instance, from this morning’s NZ Herald Who is Luigi Wewege?:
John Palino man’s links to the National Party’s youth wing
The political organiser who asked Len Brown’s mistress to reveal their affair belongs to the National Party youth wing.
The Herald revealed yesterday that Luigi Wewege, a key member of right-winger John Palino’s mayoral campaign, was in a relationship with Bevan Chuang and wanted her to expose the Auckland mayor’s infidelity.
Mr Wewege had also been involved in the campaign for Simon O’Connor, the National MP for Tamaki.
Others described him as an acolyte of Simon Lusk, a campaign strategist for right-wing political candidates, saying he had attended several of Mr Lusk’s summer camp training sessions.
Oh, poor Simon Lusk.
It’s not like he has form for behind-the-scenes political manipulation and ‘dark arts’ negative campaigning or anything, like that odious Matthew Hooton. (Oh, wait …)
Funny, I mentioned on Twitter Wednesday evening …
For me, some of Simon’s best work is his self-promotion — for instance, the implicit guarantee-but-not-really provided here …
In 2014 and 2017 there will be retirements of many longstanding National MPs who hold safe blue seats. The successful candidates at selection will have long political careers. Candidates should decide whether professional advice is a worthwhile investment for the chance of a lifetime, or if they should rely on well meaning amateurs who may not bring the same experience and professionalism to the campaign.
Professional Fees
Simon charges fixed fees with incentives for winning. These are discussed with clients and agreed on before undertaking the campaign, and an initial part payment is sought before taking on a client.
Simon can provide an hourly rate for clients but prefers to operate on a fixed fee.
With marketing copy like that, I can see why people of the calibre of Luigi Wewege (frontrunner for ‘Love Rat of the Year’ according to The Listener‘s Jane Clifton) would be, … um, … be … um, … attracted to the likes of Simon Lusk and Slater & Son (‘Putting the sleaze back into oil’).
And yes, despite John Key standing by his ‘minus 1 out of 10’ rating for Simon Lusk, and the unfortunately-documented Simon Lusk stigma, it seems Simon is still a ‘factor’ on the rural hard right rump of the National Party. (A furuncle, Michael Woodhouse might say.)
Boy oh boy, failed ‘centre right’ (cough) mayoral candidate John Palino must be wondering what else his campaign manager, former National Party President John Slater knows NOTHING about. And what else his social media manager Mr Luigi Wewege didn’t tell him. (There’s a team you can trust. Not.)
‘Emotional abuse’, ‘bullying for political gain’
I must say I’m relieved to see some sensible pushback from an ethical person (judging solely by these comments, I don’t know her) in the Young Nationals …
Continue reading →
The same post-election vindictiveness we’re seeing in Washington DC? Probably.
Which is the greater scandal? No, seriously. Which?
If one loses an election (or the candidate/Party one was hoping would win loses it) there are a number of options for dealing with that.
This is all I need to know about the political machinations behind a recent public humiliation … accompanied by a sworn affidavit.
Ms Chuang was unable to be reached for comment last night, but issued a statement through blogger Cam Slater, …
… Mr Slater’s father, John Slater – a former National Party president and president of the Citizens and Ratepayers’ council ticket – acted as Mr Palino’s campaign manager in the election.
While I may be a hypocrite (I’m accused of it enough), I’ve made discussion of Cameron Slater’s adultery a topic that’s not entertained on this website. So it’s intriguing, given Cameron Slater’s hot and on-going expressions of vitriolic personal animosity toward the NZ Herald and the reporter who published the (very dull) facts of his extra-marital affair after they were exposed in a court judgement, to see him drooling vibrating at such volume about another married man’s infidelity.
We know the true-blue Slaters, er … dislike lefty Len Brown* and are, as a family, great friends of John Banks, whom Mr Brown so robustly defeated for the first Auckland ‘super city’ mayoralty three years ago (and who, it was announced today, will stand trial on charges of [allegedly] filing a false electoral return. Tsk.)
Continue reading →
How would the locals have dealt with a dead whale a hundred years ago?
I saw this online at the time Couple make whale of a catch from beach, and today came across it again, wondering: How would on earth would people have treated a whale carcass in days gone by? I don’t know.
I suspect they would have taken more from the dead whale than a few ‘samples’ for analysis. Maybe tried to extract some whale oil, do you think? Or some bones? They wouldn’t let a little stench put them off.
And I don’t know how we would deal with it if such a thing washed up at my local beach. Call the Department of Conservation, like the Himitangi couple, I guess. While it’s still around.
– P
The challenge of dealing with a whistle-blower
I referred in this post: Please read this NY Times column — ‘The Banality of Systematic Evil’ to the discomfort that ‘management’ can experience — and the poor decisions they can make as a result — when someone in their organisation highlights wrongdoing.
Remember?:
“… an accountant was dismissed because he insisted on reporting “irregular payments, doctored invoices, and shuffling numbers. ” The complaint against the accountant by the other managers of his company was that “by insisting on his own moral purity … he eroded the fundamental trust and understanding that makes cooperative managerial work possible.
The NZ Herald reported last month …
click to read at NZ Herald
The detective who blew the whistle on his alleged drug-dealing boss was removed from his squad and investigated before senior police took his concerns seriously.
… the Weekend Herald can reveal the officer was removed from Blowers’ organised crime squad and put under strict supervision after he gave senior police management a report on his boss’ movements.
Disappointed colleagues say the disciplinary action undermines police attempts to encourage a culture where inappropriate conduct is reported to management without fear of reprisal.
The detective became suspicious of Blowers’ behaviour and tailed his visits to the home of a Whangarei woman before handing a dossier – which included covert photographs – to senior CIB management.
But instead of immediately probing Blowers’ movements, police management removed the whistleblower from the organised crime squad and placed him under strict supervision.
He was also subjected to an internal code of conduct inquiry which centred on his use of the National Intelligence Application computer system, which is supposed to be used only on official police business.
Several weeks passed until the detective was cleared of any breaches and attention later switched to Blowers, who became the subject of an internal inquiry.
That’s disheartening, isn’t it? I’m sure this sort of thing happens all the time, in organisations and businesses large and small.
Shooting the messenger
Facebook. le sigh.
Facebook is getting rid of a privacy feature that let users limit who can find them on the social network.
Facebook Inc said on Thursday (local time) that it was removing a setting that controlled whether users could be found when people type their name into the website’s search bar.
Facebook said only a single-digit percentage of the nearly 1.2 billion people on its network were using the setting. — ‘Facebook won’t let you hide any more‘ stuff.co.nz
Yeah, I was one of them …
click to enlarge
No surprise there.
– P
You may also be interested in reading: Facebook. Brought to you by the letters ‘F’ and ‘O’.
This mortgage graphic bears looking at closer
I spotted this entertaining graphic on the NZ Home Loans website. If you understand mortgages, you’ll know the bank doesn’t own ANY of your home (as owner, you merely offer the property as security to the lender for your loan) but it can be good to have a sense of consciousness of your outstanding debt. It may help motivate you to pay it off, if that seems like a good idea to you.
Still, I like the imagery, especially the skeletal chairman and the grizzled old geezer holding up a banknote to the light. Amusing. Clichéd, unfair even, but amusing.
View larger image
– P
Rihanna at Vector Arena in Auckland last night
I went to this concert last night — and really enjoyed it.
Read a review in the NZ Herald Concert review: Rihanna in Auckland (+photos).
Here’s one of Sarah Ivey’s pics of this talented (and let’s face it, gorgeous) performer, Rihanna:
Well worth going, if you get the chance. – P
The ‘values’ & ‘goals’ of immoral political deceivers
This, from a (typically) excellent politics column by Charles P. Pierce goes some way to explaining why I feel such disdain for the dishonest political ‘operators’ whose activities I observe and highlight here now and then, and whose reptilian coarsening of political ‘debate’ I have come to see as so irredeemably negative.
The second basic philosophical tenet of ratfucking is that it is essentially bullying. It is essentially about ridicule and deceit as ends in themselves. Segretti’s activities were meant to bring embarrassment and public scorn upon his targets. They were not aimed at proving to voters that the opposition was wrong. They were aimed at making it look ridiculous.
Like this:
An example of National Party attack-blogger Cameron Slater’s fixated, serial name-calling and abuse of those he sees as his tribe’s opponents. “Bullying … ridicule and deceit as ends in themselves.”
The escape of exnzpat, Part 15
Three of Time and One of Space
“Becky, do you know what a Magus is?” I asked as we walked. We crested the little ridge that set the interior of the island apart from its beach and the river. My mood was calm and the strange dusk of the apparent evening helped keep me that way. The assault by the tree and the subsequent healing by Adam and his wife, Eve, had rounded off the anxious edge to my confused emotions between Becky and Lilith. The island, the river, and the soft, thatched ground beneath our feet were in themselves restful things and instead of running from them, I now embraced them. Even the Muppet trees did not worry me, though I was not fool enough to approach them. About us, they were silent and still; their floppy leaves seemed dulled in the diminishing light of the pendulum moon, for it was clearly on its upward swing, and as it rose, its light became weaker. Fall had come fast to Wormwood and the colorful shag of the murderous Muppet trees looked as if they had been dipped in saltwater and then left like an abandoned car in a hot sun, so wilted and so rusty did they look they barely appeared to be trees at all. They had all the look of a forlorn, forgotten heap of sackcloth that I almost forgave the tree that attacked me, almost, but not quite, for all of me felt fine but for my left hand. It burned like fire, and while the barb that had penetrated it had not left a mark as far as I could see, I wondered if there was some undetected poison in there that Adam had missed.
Becky held that sorry hand as we went and hers felt warm and dry in mine, and I felt happy beside her and because of her, I ignored the throbbing pain it was causing me.
Lincoln rushed about us in a dog’s typical zigzag pattern of sniffing and nose-poking. He was into everything. Any rustle in the bushes or any scuttle upon the ground seemed to interest him. He raced about us like a mad thing, so intent was he he barely noticed us. Like me, he knew well enough to keep away from the Muppet trees, giving them a wide berth in his endeavor to chase the little creatures that hid in the great Lavender-like bushes that grew in patchwork regularity along the beachhead. This bush had a high-topped flowery stem that indeed smelled of lavender and so perhaps that’s what it was. And Lincoln, intent on his chase of whatever little thing he found there dove recklessly in amongst this lavender. Their waving, flowery tops easily exposed his presence.
Lincoln held, I reflected, a bizarre position within the realm of Universal Celestials; for in Heaven, Hell, or anywhere else that may or may not be out there, he remained to me, an ordinary dog. And I shook my head in the wonder of it as he romped carelessly in the bushes about us. Continue reading →
Exhibiting one’s nature. Not always pretty.
Imperfect (apparently) but well worth reading. I recommend it.
Jobs sometimes avoided the truth. Helmut Sonnenfeldt once said of Henry Kissinger, “He lies not because it’s in his interest, he lies because it’s in his nature.”
From Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson p 287
I’m reading this book at present and really enjoying it.
I’ve learned when dealing with some people that this phenomenon is observable. For no good reason — except their ‘nature’ — they can, do and will act in a certain way. It doesn’t just apply to politicians.
We deny this at our peril.
– P
Echo chamber? Or seeing the world as one wants it to be?
I like receiving Bryce Edwards’ NZ Politics Daily newsletter. It’s a valuable digest of political issues seen through the filter of media coverage, including the blogosphere, and Bryce’s commentary is always worth a read. (Material from The Paepae features now and then too, which I also appreciate.)
Yesterday’s missive reflected the theme of the Thorndon Bubble/Beltway zeitgeist: ‘National is doomed!’, although Bryce’s coverage was, naturally, more muted. It’s fascinating to see the ebullience generated in some quarters (and grim stiffening of features in other quarters) by a smidgen of opinion poll movement. More about that another time.* Politics, like sport, can often come down to a gain or loss of momentum.
Bruce Edwards’ NZ Politics Daily — click to read Pattrick Smellie’s ‘must read’ article cited.
Personally, I think there’s a lot of water yet to flow under the bridge before the next election, but people — insiders and outside observers — are free to speculate and enthuse, as they will, until the cows come home.
I agree with Bryce, Pattrick’s piece Tricky issues could haunt Nats is interesting reading.
– P
*Briefly, my view: Don’t believe the hype.
Alastair Campbell demolishes the Daily Mail’s deputy editor Jon Steafel (video)
A master class on BBC Newsnight.
“The Daily Mail is the worst of British values, posing as the best”.
The self-parody of calling someone ELSE ‘sanctimonious’
Look, let me be very clear about this, as I have said in another context:
‘The left are so sanctimonious’ — is virtually a self-parodying remark, if you possess the self-awareness to perceive it.
God knows, there are plenty of times I’ve been accused of being sanctimonious* and of ‘pontificating’ (amazingly, usually by people who disagree with me. Whowouldathunkit?). But criticism, its side-effects and its pitfalls is, for better or worse, one of the running themes of this blog.
How else would I get to quote, in agreement, such classic lines as Whitney Balliett’s definition:
A critic is a bundle of biases
held loosely together
by good taste.
That said, let me acknowledge up-front that there is something vaguely self-parodying and roomful of mirrors-esque about me pointing this (below) out — critically:
The NZ Herald ‘Gossip’ column reports celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton ‘hyping a feud’. Jeez, Morgan. Really?
Oh boy.
– P
* You may also be interested in: A small update: now I am ‘a sanctimonious twat’, too, apparently.
