Donald Trump (whom I don’t follow on Twitter), clearly displeased by something Jonathan Chait wrote, has a crack at him and the excellent New York magazine.
Which Chait (whom I do follow) immediately re-tweeted.
Visit the tweet online to see how it backfired on The Donald. (He may not see it that way.)
When public figures criticise media in this way, it just makes them appear wounded.
- P
Commander Chris Hadfield has been a brilliant ambassador for Space exploration on board the International Space Station. His personality and engagement has shone through. This ‘cover’ of David Bowie’s song Space Oddity is wonderful.
Millions have seen it and enjoyed it. I put it here as a tribute to Hadfield and Bowie.
- P
Microsoft ‘internal’ video.
Read the background at The Verge: Leaked Scroogled video sees Microsoft parody Google’s Chrome ad
- P
image: thewaronwar.com (click)
The internet giant Google was today branded “devious, calculating and unethical” by MPs who accused the company deliberately subverting its motto ‘do no evil’ in order to pay less tax.
Infuriated members of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) lashed out at the company as one of its most senior executives insisted that it was not “selling” advertising in the UK – but in low-tax Ireland instead.
The move allowed Google to pay just £6 million in corporation tax in 2011 despite generating more than £3 billion in advertising revenues in this country.
“You are a company that says you do no evil,” said Margaret Hodge the committee’s chair. “I think that you do do evil. You use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax.”
This evening the Labour leader Ed Miliband increased pressure on the company accusing it of operating a culture of “corporate irresponsibility” and going “to extraordinary lengths” to avoid paying tax.
from The Independent.
Google bases its European operation in Dublin Irelend, and holds out a fiction that the ‘sales’ of its European (including UK) advertising business are conducted there.
That fiction is unwinding as a ‘stream’ of former employees turned whistleblower is providing evidence of sales operations, complete with invoicing, pay slips and sales commissions payable, which are indeed happening in the UK, with Google’s feeble argument that the ‘intellectual property’ of the sales transaction is based in Dublin. (Yeah, right.) Continue reading →
During his final speech/personal explanation on resigning from Parliament yesterday disgraced National MP Aaron Gilmore paid tribute to his leader in these terms:
I wish to thank the prime minister and the National Party as a whole for providing such strong leadership in challenging times.
I was first elected to parliament almost five years ago, but more importantly I value the dignity of my party, the leadership of John Key, and those here who have worked hard to have a John Key-led government.
Parliament TV cut away from Mr Gilmore’s tribute for a brief reaction shot from Mr Key — who appeared to be engaged with his mobile phone.
Must have been a really important text. Or tweet. Or Facebook status update. Or …
He could have listened for five minutes, it seems to me.
- P
Boom! MBIE releases embarrassing Gilmore e-mails … right on cue.
I’m clearly not the first nor only observer to be struck by the extraordinary alacrity with which the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) fulfilled recent Official Information Act (OIA) requests for dirt on Aaron Gilmore.
Is anyone asking how political reporters came to ask for details of the disgraced National MP Aaron Gilmore’s departure from the public service at the end of last year prior to replacing Lockwood Smith (in numbers only) in the government caucus? And who it might serve to ratchet the pressure up on the rogue MP by spilling his semi-literate bully-boy emails (PDF)?
It seems pretty self-evident that members of the news media — the Parliamentary press gallery in particular — were tipped off that there might be ‘skeletons’ in Mr Gilmore’s time at MBIE. As discussed when we considered the veracity of the ‘Russian hackers access Murray McCully’s gmail account’ fable (see: Every source leaks for a reason, Patrick) reporters in the galllery sometimes get played like a cheap violin. Like a greyhound chasing the appearance of a bunny, they competitively pursue a scoop, inadvertently doing other people’s dirty work or creating distractions for shadowy figures whose motivations are multi-layered (to put it kindly).
Certainly, in this case it seems clear that Mr Gilmore is being ‘thrown under a bus’ or ‘hung out to dry’ or [insert crucification/execution metaphor of your choice here] by his former colleagues. An OIA request fulfilled with such speed is a rarity. The last one I can recall was when the then boss of the SIS Warren Tucker apparenty wanted to land a punch on then Opposition leader Phil Goff and fast-tracked an OIA response to a request by right wing lapblogger, activist and National Party mouthpiece Cameron Slater. (see: SIS boss’s slow resignation letter + Slater says enuf!)
The newshounds of the poltiical press, by skirting around their information sources for the Gilmore skeletons (i.e. not telling us it was the Prime Minister’s Office or the National Party whips ‘feeding the chooks’) risk being seen as little better than, in effect, the same pliant political tools as Whaleoil and his fellow propagandist David Farrar.
I’d love to see some reporting of the double-dealing and poltiical discpline being brought to bear on the errant list MP by his ‘boss’ John Key, and how it’s being managed. Has there been such reporting? Point me to it, if you see it, please.
In the meantime, I offer the above image as a replacement avatar for some of those humming the government’s line.
- P
Pablo, at Kiwipolitico, offers his own theory for the Gilmore circus and barbecue. See: Happy for Gilmore …
National has to be delighted about the coverage of their drunken bully boy last on the list MP, Aaron Gilmore. Coalition partner John Banks is in court on issues of political corruption. National is trying to ram through under urgency a gross expansion of domestic espionage courtesy of the amendments to the GCSB Act. What does the media focus on? Not-so-happy Gilmore. If I were the PM, I would milk the Gilmore story for all its worth, always looking chagrined.
Update: And, I’ve just seen Lew at Kiwipolitico has written a humdinger of a post, Gilmore’s ghosts which includes this nugget …
If the Aaron Gilmore affair haunts the National party — and the other parties — such that they see a strong downside risk to appointing cronies, selecting megalomaniacs for their lists, and generally swaggering around as if they own the place, we’ll all be better off. If parties are forced to accept responsibility for their bad decisions, and as a consequence to select better people and implement better systems of accountability and conduct, cultures of power-abuse will abate. …. But for this sort of change to occur, we need media coverage to develop those real critiques of the exercise of power, rather than critiques of an obnoxious individual who is ultimately just a product of larger cultural systems. That would make this sort of wall-to-wall coverage worthwhile.
Wonderful video based on part of David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College.
Featuring the lovely Jaycie Dotin.
More background on the DFW speech and the video from producers The Glossary available here.
- P
via John Gruber
I don’t agree with every word, but Chris Trotter’s analysis of today’s Mighty River Power sharemarket float and the implications of the National Government’s ‘partial privatisation’ agenda and hoped-for flow-on effects is well worth a read at The Daily Blog.
The last line about Christchurch is a real kicker, too.
Chris Trotter at ‘The Daily Blog’ (click)
John Key in happier times. (Perhaps the happiest.)
I heard the NZ Prime Minister John Key (right) waxing lyrical about the (according to him) ‘rort’ that was the Opposition’s Stop Asset Sales petition. If I hadn’t known better I’d have said Mr Key was a glass or two off being refused wine service himself.
His response seemed a politically desperate overreaction to news that about a quarter of the 393,000 signatures on the petition were found to be illegible or duplicates or unqualified for some other reason, leaving the petition 16,500 signatures short of what’s required to trigger a referendum, and that the petition organisers had two months to gather them.
As I listened to Mr Key’s spin on the topic to reporters at Parliament on Radio NZ’s Morning Report yesterday, I noticed how LOADED TO THE GUNWALES his [Crosby-Textor-scripted?] performance was: It was dripping with invective and allegations of dishonesty and ill-motivation against the Greens and Labour, using words like ‘rort’, ‘bogus’, ‘mislead’, ‘rip-off’, ‘fake’, ‘false’, and notably, twice: ‘con the NZ public’.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” I muttered, unoriginally. Have a listen for yourself below.
John Key packed a lot of mud-slinging at his political opponents into 1’39″. Each red line marks an allegation or aspersion on their honesty and integrity. (Ironic, given the loss of public confidence Mr Key himself faced recently.)
Laying it on thick. John Key spinning his opponents as deliberately dishonest — audio via Radio NZ ‘Morning Report’ 8 May 2013
A professional politician (for that’s what Barbecue John has become) surely must be aware of glass house rules.
By any reasonable standards it’s ‘Brain fade’ Key who is seen as a ‘con artist’ by a number of his political opponents and other observers, given his many false attempts to be up-front about the GCSB and the Kim Dotcom affair (see Matthew Hooton on John Key’s GCSB ‘recall problems’ and repeated failures to ‘come clean’), not to mention his transparently slippery non-explanations for keeping fellow amnesiac John Banks in his job.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman is one of Mr Key’s harshest critics. It seems to me his disrespect for the National Party leader is sincere and performance-based (arising from Mr Key’s performance, I mean).
Clearly pissed off by Mr Key’s extraordinary allegations that the Stop Asset Sales petition was knowingly/deliberately presented with non-conforming signatures — and Mr Key’s dishonourable and (probably) unparliamentary smear that his political opponents are somehow less sincere and honest than his own National Party cabal, viz; “Labour and the Greens’ modus operandi is that they haven’t really cared about the rules” and “They actually tried to mislead the NZ public” — Russel Norman wasted no time in responding.
When it emerged that only one in four of those who pre-registered for the soon-to-be-partially-privatised Mighty River Power actually became share buyers, Norman threw the ‘conned the NZ public’ line back in John Key’s face. See: Continue reading →
Political activism is carried out for all sorts of reasons, by all sorts of people, in a variety of guises.
The 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour divided families, households, workplaces … and the nation. Our current Prime Minister John Key “can’t even remember” whether he was for or against the tour, or the anti-Apartheid civil disobedience protests which sought to frustrate it.
People from nuns and clergymen, students and teachers, sportsmen and women, superannuitants, and others massed for the most violently repressed public protests this country has ever seen. But Mr Key was “sort of somewhat ambivalent about it” although he says he “was always interested in politics”. Hmmm.
What would get YOU marching in the streets? If not state asset sales, benefit cuts, land confiscation, how about expanded powers for state spying and surveillance of computer and telephone communications? How about corruption in our electoral system?
Danyl McLauchlan’s post at the Dim Post, comparing media reactions to left wing policy versus right wing policy is worth reading. So are the comments. It made me think.
‘Economic saboteurs’ graphic: Joe Wylie via DimPost.wordpress.com. Photo (ex scoop.co.nz): National Party political activist and manipulator David Farrar inflaming a mob (of reporters, mainly) about the Electoral Finance Act limiting corporate donations to political parties. Quelle horreur! See below.
The Electoral Finance Act placed restrictions on the amounts people could donate to political parties and to the amounts ‘third parties’ – groups that are not political parties but that try to influence an election – could spend during an election campaign. The act also tightened up the rules around anonymous donations and the authorisation of election advertisements. It was repealed in 2009.
- P
Unreliable National MP Aaron Gilmore (pic: Lloyd Burr 3News)
Some of the most-viewed posts, in order, at ThePaepae.com in April …
graphic: logicalagent.com
These monthly round-ups are always interesting (well, to me) … from the look of things, it was quite a political month with the GCSB and Mr Key’s reputation in the news. Several of April’s posts were picked up by Bryce Edwards and mentioned in his NZ Political Daily newsletter and news website columns.
That Cactus Kate tag is a mystery. This month there’s been a surge in searches for Cathy Odgers/Cactus Kate (which is interesting) … and subsequent visits to The Paepae. I wonder what’s up?
Property spruiker Sean Wood is actively marketing himself and fellow Richmastery alumni Steve Goodey again, so it’s understandable that searches on their names and … er, operation lead people to read about their reputation and track records. Due diligence, we call that.
- P
via @CateOwen
National list MP Aaron Gilmore’s arrogance demeans all MPs.
People get drunk and obnoxious, some every weekend. But thrusting your freshly-printed Parliamentary business card in the face of a waiter who has judged you to be too intoxicated for continued wine service, then proving it by threatening the have the Prime Minister’s Office (!) terminate the “dickhead” waiter’s employment — that’s a special level of dickheadedeness.*
Still, the affair has provoked some fun in the media. My nominations for the inaugural Aaron Gilmore ‘Who’s the dickhead?’ awards are as follows :
Best headline: Andrea Vance DomPost:
(Sadly muted in the online version to PM facing calls to deal to MP)
Best opening line: Matthew Hooton, NBR Why Aaron Gilmore should resign, but won’t
“I am the last person to criticise someone for getting rolling drunk. …”
Most revealing open mockery: Rebecca Wright Campbell Live Inside the mind of Aaron Gilmore
Most succinct analysis: Colin Espiner, Stuff.co.nz:
‘Happy’ Gilmore’s political career likely to be brief
“The trouble for National is that Gilmore has played up to exactly the sort of born-to-rule Tory, I’m-more-important-than-you stereotype that John Key has worked so hard to dismantle. What makes it even worse is that Gilmore is a political nobody …”
How one lives a public life is a test of character.
FAIL.
- P
PS Other nominations and suggestions welcome in comments.
* Read lawyer Andrew Riches’s extremely plausible account of the evening’s events (PDF)
image: macgasm (click)
Yesterday I caught up with the news American Airlines pilots given green light to use the iPad during take-off.
Which is funny, because last week I talked with an Air NZ pilot who told me our national carrier is still leery of officially using iPads although plenty of pilots use them on the flight deck. He told me something a lot of pilots use iPads for is navigating to the correct terminal gate in big (big!) airports — the built-in GPS helps the co-pilot ‘see’ where the plane is on a virtual map of the airport.
Of course, anyone who’s used a GPS knows they sometimes steer you wrong (like, in my experience, “Turn left now” … Errr, you mean into that paddock???) and sure enough, the pilot I was talking to indicated similar errors occasionally happen to them. And, he said, sometimes the terminal map app (poetry!) loaded in the iPad isn’t the latest version — which of course is even more likely to be a problem with printed maps, huh?
What struck me about the American Airlines announcement was this:
The iPad replaces 40 pound kit bags with over 3,000 pages that include terminal charts and flight manuals that can now be updated digitally. It’s little surprise then that the change is being welcomed on all sides.
“We’ve reduced the single biggest source of pilot injuries, carrying those packs,” said Patrick O’Keeffe, VP of Airline Operations Technology at American during his Tablet Strategy keynote. “And we are now able to save $1 million in fuel costs and stop printing all the page revisions.”
Saving your pilots’ backs, and $1 million dollars in fuel? Wow. Good deal.
Next questions: So if pilots can use their iPads during take-off (actually, during ‘all phases of the flight’) when can we?
- P
