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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard)

@alans-world.bsky.social

1.2K followers 1.2K following 5.1K posts

James Baldwin —'I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.' Reckons own, Facts immutable. Irish/Scots/Filipino Aotearoan Socialist in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. POLITICAL BLOG (so we're clear AF where I stand!) http://tiny.cc/ncwf001

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · Sep 19

The ultimate "National Security Directive" for any Nation lies not in its ability to pummel people, but to commit to real people-oriented policies that bring a Nation together *meaningfully* to prevent severe mass alienation from each other: health, housing, education, employment.

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 29m

I did enjoy this chat w/ Denise Gough (who plays a fascist in Andor, Imperial Intelligence Officer Dedre Meero - in an unnervingly excellent way) but whose personal politics are... about as far as that as you can get.

They talk about pol commentary in general > Gaza > West Bank > Gaslighting > Hope

‘Andor’ Star Says Israel is ‘Gaslighting’ Us

YouTube video by Zeteo

www.youtube.com

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 2h

"Learn to count" seems to be a running theme with this lot.

Don't know why, surely nothing about the way they've managed things to date could have made me stray into such thoughts...

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

"Much of the increase was because of superannuation and welfare costs..."

Population growth and throwing people out of work tends to do that...

"...partly offset by lower spending in other areas."

Those being... health, education, backing housing, public transport, just "nice to haves" for Cons.

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

#NZpol

Excludes cost of ACC... and ignores the wealth shift from our poorest and most vulnerable to their pockets, a huge reason behind "improvements".

Unfortunately ofc, a lot of govts "improve" things this way, to get that shitty surplus they scream about, *no matter how many bodies it takes*.

RNZ News Feeds @rnzrss.bsky.social · 3h

Government deficit of $9.3b shows 'progress', Finance Minister Nicola Willis says

The deficit - $869 million lower than predicted in May - was based on the government's new formula, which excludes the cost of ACC.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

Some of these politicians have the most unfortunate surnames, just kind of 'straight from central casting' as the saying goes in their looks, and names ripe for satire and searing jabs...

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

I recall reading this earlier today, too (I know, I know - evidence. It's a funny old thing).

But the fact is, we're beholden to laws written so long ago now they certainly don't reflect the world we *are* living in *today*, and the fact also is these laws were often the *starting point* of harm.

Report proposes evidence-based reform to New Zealand’s drug laws

A major new report<br /> proposes evidence-based reform to New Zealand’s drug laws in response to growing drug harm that the Drug Foundation says will worsen without action.

drugfoundation.org.nz

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

#NZpol

DO. IT.

Great page, has links and whatnot to finding YOUR local MP.

𝕯𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖘™ @dallasbarnett.com · 3h

hey #kikorangi

I just emailed my MP (NAT scab, oh well) and you should too ..

full deets in the link

Tell Parliament: Decriminalise — Rua Bioscience

Rua is helping patients and consumers navigate to suitable prescribers to help with clinical, medicinal cannabis therpaies.

www.ruabio.com

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

As for building owners, well many of them here just cannot think beyond a building that may have been once an office jam packed with workers pre-Covid can STILL only be a building jam packed with workers.

Basically lots think they're pretty much just entitled to increasing ground rents.

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

Obvs, based-at-home can't/won't suit everyone, a perfectly understandable thing (lack of sufficient space or something to separate it easily from "home" life, not enough real support by the office for home-based workers...).

But where they ARE as effective as they were "in the office"? Get over it.

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

Being in an office doesn't inherently get more productivity. Office World isn't the be-all and end-all of it, we don't live in the 19th nor even the early 20th century ANY MORE, and if your workers *can* do the same damn task from home effectively why ADD to pollution and *time-wasting* in traffic?!

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 3h

"CBRE surveys from across the US and Asia Pacific regions show New Zealand’s actual office attendance is ahead of Australia’s (2.8 days) and the US (2.9 days), and also exceeds the aspirational targets set by employers in those countries"

Few enforcing cos *getting actual work done* isn't an issue?

Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 4h

More businesses pull staff back from their home offices, though both incentives and consequences for compliance are rare. Alice Peacock reports

NZ bosses push ‘return to office’ mandates – but few are enforcing it

newsroom.co.nz

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

As Slane observes here, accurately, the definition "Far Left" has certainly suffered from mission creep to now include anyone not giving a sage and approving nod of the head to the 'perfectly normal way life just is, all of it purely merit-based you understand' wealth shifts...

Cartoon by Chris Slane showing a graph where the "Far Left" is essentially anyone who doesn't have the increasingly obscene wealth of the "Centre-Right"

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

SNAP!...chat

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

Tinkering around the edges is the formula, never solves anything of course when the fundamental impetus of the system itself remains locked into a paternalistic model of the poors must be directed by "their betters", those who don't comply will be ignored outright. It's so completely f'n pathetic.

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

JFC there's either gonna be a huge rush of personally handed-in ballots or there's a delay in reported by-mail votes, but I would hope to see a rise in who voted... certainly hope it at the very least won't be worse than last time.

LG/Council and who is on it is SO DAMN IMPORTANT to real progress.

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

Luxon prattles on, we want to make it "simple", and "clear".

Here's simple and clear:

"Treating people and families with actual dignity WORKS. Investing properly in people upfront rather than "rescuing" people once they've fallen WORKS. It's both intelligent and financially better for NZ. SIMPLE."

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

#NZpol

One of the most taking-the-piss headlines I've read came across the feed the other day...

"National and Labour spar over beneficiary data"

FFS. You're talking about the same Party and Minister who REJECT ACTUAL DATA, relying on "Well what I hear is"?!
It's clearly not THIS National Party.

D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 6h

Government to starve teens and their parents of resources to meet targets is par for the course, they kicked people out of energency housing onto the street to meet energency housing targets, people are being refused specialist health appointments to meet health targets…the list goes on #NZpol

Govt to meet 9% of Jobseeker target by taking teens off benefit

The design of the new Jobseeker policy incentivises parents of unemployed teenagers to work fewer hours, for fear of the teens losing their benefit.

newsroom.co.nz

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

I'm not keen on ACT you could say.

Whether it was debating their chuds in the Uni quad, the "arguments" remained at often worse-than-3rd-form-essay-submission level, they don't grow as people obviously because *the same shite "arguments" are spewed by their *adult* poli's.

Sadly, THEY have power.

Screenshot of text clipped from my Blogpost

"It really only exists to demand policies that take everything right to the outermost edges of what hardcore conservatives think people should simply tolerate, willingly, or unwillingly. And either will do.

Willingly from dupes (those not familiar enough with the way narratives get spun to benefit the promotion, across all mediums – and particularly the fleeting, utterly unsuited for nuance and real context Social media environment – of the Right’s opinions) and, irony of deepest ironies, their feelings about “things” (that are so often vague and hard to tie down specifically whilst also remaining some kind of utterly existential threat to “right thinking” and “common sense” voters) over the Left’s facts. Of which, there is decades of lived experience (thus real-world evidence) that can be relied on, and literally, thanks to decades of it, globally, literally mountains of data. The same goes for its economic “let the rich play hard and fast” policies.

Thanks to the compact with them, National drags everyone else unwillingly into policies that ACT clearly have the upper hand in directing. Under the MMP environment, even if National is promoting itself as an individual Party, they were always going to be a package deal because, absent a real break (and only because National is so catastrophically bad on its own), they have always needed ACT’s numbers to form government as a whole.

The starkest iterations of a wholly individualist, wealthy-above-responsibility society lie at its core. Championing the very worst end of the Neoliberal wedge.

As a fundamental value system."

ORIGINAL BLOGPOST REF
https://exhalantblog.wordpress.com/2023/06/17/act-ing-on-instincts-that-are-giving-a-serious-headache-to-the-right-as-much-as-the-many/

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 5h

#NZpol

"What's up?" sayeth Bsky.

Andrew Hoggard being an utterly irresponsible person with power that'll affect us for years is what.

This is indeed who ACT are.

Destruction, degradation and decades of cleaning up their mess - if we even get a chance to after they've finished.

A disaster zone.

Clipped from my Blogpost on ACT:

"Whether fuming about the place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, criticising the Human Rights commission (calling for its total abolishment because it is a “Far Left” organisation), riding the “law and order” outrage platform the hardest of any Party, all of these politically charged complaints ignoring the wider socioeconomic conditions of the country, a more complex understanding of gangs (comparing Ōpōtiki to Somalia is the latest utterance of Seymour), all the very tensions we are seeing that they would do much to exacerbate, before positioning themselves as “victim” of their very own, destructively myopic views, rolling back safeguards on the environment and letting the always failed, fictional safeguards of “letting the market decide” when market-led “solutions” are a lot of why we’re in the strife we are in the first place, and that may even disrupt our relations with trading partners if we’re bluntly honest…

ACT is essentially a distressingly successful Right-wing grievance movement acting on behalf of the rage of the hyper-privileged of this country, all packaged up and masquerading as a political Party."

ORIGINAL BLOGPOST REF
https://exhalantblog.wordpress.com/2023/06/17/act-ing-on-instincts-that-are-giving-a-serious-headache-to-the-right-as-much-as-the-many/

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 8h

"The increase predominantly reflects the additional funding requirement to cover the cash shortfall in the year"

Not only fucked up tax cuts and tobacco handouts, Seymour and his Ministry were suddenly OK to take in huge salaries while they sacked 1000's for "excess", f'n etc.

Utter incompetence.

Foxy @foxylustygrover.bsky.social · 8h

It's unbelievable that this article

"Government’s books show finance minister borrowing billions to keep the lights on"

does not once mention the $12to$14Billion tax cut cost they are borrowing to cover, nor the Billions they stole from Pay Equity Fund #NZPol

Government’s books show finance minister borrowing billions to keep the lights on

Treasury has revealed the state of the Government’s finances and it shows we’re borrowing just to keep the lights on.

www.stuff.co.nz

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 8h

#NZpol

No matter how many times the extractive profit at the expense of attending to the basics first policy goes, these New / Old Right market fundamentalists never give up.

That just means WE don't give up smashing their narrative - it's just that, a set of *beliefs", not some "natural order".

Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 9h

Because it’s going so well and all

www.nzherald.co.nz/business/com...

Richard Prebble: Govt must get out of electricity and let market deliver security

OPINION: Repaying debt would be better for taxpayers and the market.

www.nzherald.co.nz

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Reposted by Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard)

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 20h

Palestinian held without charge dies in Israeli custody - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/death-toll-palestinian-detainees-rises-78-two-years-after-start-genocide

Palestinian held without charge dies in Israeli custody

Ahmad Hatem Muhammad Khdeirat becomes the 78th prisoner to die in Israeli custody in two years

www.middleeasteye.net

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 21h

#NZpol

Great article, lots of crossover points to ponder on how our own environment is getting warped, the usual suspects are able to amplify their popularity even in the midst of openly disparaging attacks (with little accountability), how media institutions might reclaim trust again, much more...

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 21h

"Dr. Hattotuwa at the forum stressed further that the question is not whether AI can be fully controlled, but whether journalism can adapt rapidly enough to preserve its economic foundations while maintaining its role as a check on power." ceylontoday.lk/2025/10/04/w...

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 21h

Wouldn't want to forget Lindsey Graham begging for total annihilation - clearly not enough killing had been done by this point (already 1 yr in) to satisfy the level of his own bloodlust.

Long before this Drs were *already* having to amputate kids *without anesthetic*.

STILL not enough for Graham!

Shot of a CNN broadcast featuring US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, giving his perspective on the Gaza GENOCIDE:

Screen ticker reads

"ISRAEL AT WAR
GRAHAM: NO, SHOULDN'T BE LIMIT TO CIVILIAN CASUALTIES"

Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 22h

Luxon also tried to throw in a little worker discord by saying "Remember, some of these Senior Drs are some of the sighest paid people in the country...", fundamentally ignoring the point of *solidarity between workers* which is kind of fundamental to a Union. Luxon's bag instead: divide & conquer.