Comments Off on The predictable unsavoury and racist kerfuffle that greets Waitangi Day
This, from local Twitter luminaries @ColeyTangerina and @Megapope, is a wonderfully world-weary and efficient summary of the tripe that’s scooped out of the racist bucket in New Zealand around Waitangi Day and spread around thick like the ugly goop that it is.
Waitangi Day Racist Bingo Card (@ColeyTangerina and @Megapope) - click to enlarge
In many cases these tired tropes are trotted out as ‘debate’ or ‘talking about’ or ‘re-thinking’ the issues. As if.
Trocar Ventilation Tube (TVT) - Heinz Kurz GmbH Medizintechnik (click)
This evil-looking device (right) is a Trocar self-piercing ventilation tube, used in medical procedures where inserting one of these into a patient’s infected body will help save their life through ‘aeration’ or by helping with ‘drainage of secretions’.
I bet inserting one of these hurts like hell. But it beats suffocating … or festering in toxic septicity.
The reply is a bit fraught so I’ll summarise and paraphrase it:
Ouch! Stop that. You are so HORRIBLE! I’m warning you: Cut it out.
— reader ‘Russell Beaumont’ (paraphrased)
The full Ode to The Paepae comes complete with bonus personal insults (some apparently his and some he claims are from Cameron Slater). Parts of it resemble a peeing competition.
We’ve talked about sock puppets before, most recently in the context of someone maliciously impersonating journalist David Fisher on Twitter. In my limited experience, often such bogus people have commercial reasons for not disclosing their identities, or pretending to be someone else in ‘discussion’ (cough) on the internet.
In addition to last month’s David Fisher impostor, I recently engaged in conversation with another sock puppet, this one calling himself/herself/themselves Barnsley Bill. ‘Bill’ muddies the waters even further … by simultaneously claiming he’s never hidden his identity (?) as someone called Russell Beaumont and also asserting joint/rotating authorship. How novel.
Before I’m accused of it, let me disclaim any ‘anguish’ about this. Yes, in my personal opinion, he/she/they seem to be being less than honest. I don’t find such behaviour endearing. In fact, it’s typical of the kind of phantom social media profile, fake grassroots, psy-op dark arts bullshit people who fancy themselves as political geniuses or ‘back room operators’. Legends in their own lunchbox, most of them.
Oh, you’re a ‘cabal’? How droll.
Mainly for their own amusement, it seems such adolescents engage in time-wasting smokescreens.
I’ve talked before about the presence of Apple computers in the Obama White House (see: Talk about product placement! and iPad penetration) … today I was browsing the White House Flickr photostream (gee is that one word now?) having followed a link to Pete Souza’a excellent action shot from August last year of President Obama shooting clay targets at Camp David …
President Barack Obama shoots clay targets on the range at Camp David, Md., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) click to view original at Flickr
Now, I know the rules of using White House photos specify the photo ‘may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House’ — and I’m NOT setting out to do that, but I couldn’t help notice all the Apple gear being used:
President Barack Obama participates in a live Twitter question and answer session in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 3, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) - labels added - click to enlarge
There’s also another phone I don’t recognise partly obscured by a Presidential Seal/White House coffee cup … anyone recognise it? (Is it another Blackberry?)
Anyway, I find this stuff interesting. So here it is.
– P
PS I have one of those Logitech ultra thin keyboards for my iPad. It’s excellent. Makes me wonder why Microsoft is making such a big fuss of their keyboards for tablets (‘click’).
David Bain has filed a High Court claim against Justice Minister Judith Collins seeking a judicial review of her actions since she received the Justice Binnie report last August.
The claim includes allegations Ms Collins has breached Mr Bain’s rights to natural justice and his rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, acted in bad faith, abused her power, and acted in a biased, unreasonable and predetermined manner. …
It is my personal view that Mrs Collins has demeaned herself, her office and NZ’s international reputation by her actions in this matter, however well-intentioned. As I said earlier, I regret reaching that conclusion.
Together, side by side, Becky and I descended into what appeared to be very wide and expansive valley. The path, well flagged, appeared cemented in place, reminding me of a village road one might expect to find in Europe. It was easy to walk upon and we moved quickly. Looking back behind us, we saw that the fireworks from the dais intensified in ferocity the further we got from the place; the booming, cracking sound of thunder echoed out along the valley before us, hurting our ears. Years ago, I had once witnessed a transformer explosion; the brilliance of the Crystalson’s arrival was much the same: vital, intense, and stupendous. Whoever He was, Crystalson knew how to make an entrance, and I was thankful for it, because His brimstone helped us to navigate our way along the stone path in the darkening night with ease.
On either side of our stone path, we could see the crisscrossing of skeleton pathways about us. They ran up, down, and across the valley walls. None seemed to parallel our little pathway; their deep, dark color shone pale in Crystalson’s light, and they looked to be real bones as they cast their own eerie, off yellow light into the air about us. And I supposed they were bones of a sort: clutching, growing, and holding Wormwood all together in their bloody embrace. It made my shudder just to think of them; so I did not.
Lilith had been right. The air was colder now. Becky leaned closer to me and I felt her warmth. Occasionally, our paved path narrowed and we reluctantly let go of each other’s hands. But as soon as the pathway widened again, our hands found their way back to the others. Continue reading →
A regular commenter here at ThePaepae.com, Ivan the Terrible, wants to discuss cats and the ‘sadistic psycho killers’ and ‘Cats to go’ national conversation Gareth Morgan is trying to float. OK.
Let’s start with Ivan’s opening comment, relocated from another thread …
“After crowing to others that “my cat never kills birds” – the little bumhole went and aced a dove out of a group that keeps hanging around my aviary hoovering up the pickings that fall out from my tame birds.
However – he didnt kill for fun – he ate the whole damn thing leaving only the feet and the beak. We do have tuis and bellbirds that are in the surrounding trees – he never bothers them and he does have a lot of noisy bling round his neck.
However – he does stalk and occasionally ace very tame blackbirds, thrushes and now doves (who i think must have escaped from an aviary and hence are too trusting)who get drawn in by the aviary birds etc.”
and
“Do you like cats?”
Well, yes. Yes, actually. Depending on the cat, I do. But they are killers — whether for ‘fun’ or just instinct, I don’t know.
I have a young cat, a neutered SPCA special my daughter picked out. The first I knew of it, we had a kitten (with stitches) and instructions to keep it inside for a couple of weeks. This is a photo of her asleep on my lap — judging by the frequency of that occurrence (her choice) that’s one of her preferred pastimes. And I quite like it too.
I find her a calming influence. She slows me down. (Except when she gets in a cat-fight in the middle of the night.)
This cat of mine does bring lizards and wetas and cicadas from the surrounding area into the house. She certainly does appear to ‘play’ with them, just as Gareth Morgan says. I ‘rescue’ as many lizards as I can from her and repatriate them to the garden.
She has also, judging by feathers, knocked off at least one small grey bird. I don’t know what it was, but its plumage was scattered underfoot on the landing at the top of our stairs.The tinkly bell on her collar does not seem to have inhibited her much.
I’ve received a number of kind and gratifying comments about my brief presentation at the Howick Local Board public forum last night (see Bunfight at Howick Local Board). Thank you.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but Cameron Slater was live-tweeting the event, and these popped up on my phone after I spoke …
*Chuckle*
For those interested, below are the notes I prepared for my (3 minute!) talk, complete with scribbles I made while listening to other speakers.
Some of what I planned to say became redundant. As I noted, there was substantial support, and effusive character testimonials for Adele White were delivered by the speakers before me, which I didn’t need to repeat except by implication. Given the mood of the evening, I also decided not to directly address the drink-driving charges Michael Williams reportedly is facing — they were in the public domain, with the Board members and public attending well aware of the issue.
My planned comments about Mr Williams’ & Mr Donald’s participation in what I regard (then and now) as a racist stunt in the Garden of Memories on the day of the blessing for the whare and sod-turning likewise felt off-point. Continue reading →
"Where people matter." Nice slogan, Howick. Now let's live up to it.
Every now and then I feel the urge to participate in local politics, sadly usually from a sense of disquiet about how some of our elected officials are running the borough. (See: Why do you think we call it a struggle? for some background.)
Tonight was a special meeting of the Howick Local Board (costing $20,000 it was said) requisitioned by the chairman Michael Williams (of whom I wrote about here: Politics is a full contact sport) and a handful of his supporters seeking to ‘remove’ Deputy chair Adele White … on pretty flimsy grounds. One of those grounds being that she was sometimes ‘diametrically opposed’ to Williams on the important (my word) Maori Affairs portfolio.
Michael Williams hatched a scheme to sack his deputy chair and replace her with someone more sympathetic (to Williams, not to Maori): Jim Donald. Here’s Michael Williams’ somewhat shabby letter (PDF) seeking the meeting, and laying out his plan to axe Adele White.
Howick Local Board Deputy Chair Adele White talking with Chairman Michael Williams tonight after she stared down his shabby attempt to force her out of the job. (Yes, that's an EXIT sign above him. Pfft!) Click to enlarge.
The idea that Mr Williams should be able to sweep his deputy Adele White aside on such flimsy grounds struck me as unfair. (Not just me, obviously.) To replace her with Jim Donald — whom I personally regard as having anachronistic prejudice against Maori — was even more appalling.
Just an indicator: When local MP Jami-Lee Ross presented an 800+ signature petition to the Board tonight representing locals seeking to keep Adele White in her deputy chair role, Jim Donald asked a question something like this: “Is your full name Jami-Lee Matenga Ross?” (Matenga being a Maori name.) Jami-Lee said ‘Yes, that is my name.’
Disgraceful.
In the public forum, a number of us were given a chance to speak to the board for 3 minutes each. There was a great deal of support for Adele White.
Here’s what I said:
Peter Aranyi, comments to Howick Local Board — 21 Jan 2013 (MP3 file here)
Anyway, I’m happy to report it was a rout. Michael Williams and Jim Donald withdrew their motion seeking to remove Adele White as deputy chair. (Her own speech was wonderful, I wish I could have recorded it.)
Some malicious drongo with too much time on their hands is pretending to be NZ Herald reporter David Fisher on Twitter, closely mimicking his real Twitter account @Fish_NZH, which is one I follow. (UPDATE: As you’ll observe in the comments below, David Fisher renamed his Twitter account to @DFisherJourno … And the deceitful impostor renamed his/her/its to @FisherJourno. Spot the pattern.)
Someone deceitful has gone to a little effort to impersonate David Fisher on Twitter.
Now, this is No Big Deal. I’m all for parody and satire. Laugh it up. Nobody thinks Steve Braunias’ ‘Secret Diary of …’ columns are real. But impersonation crosses the line, as I have said before (Anonymous comment vs IMPERSONATION). It is a step too far, in my view, and is an indicator of a level of personal dishonesty which disqualifies the user from being taken seriously in a debate, or it should.
Nasty piece of work from the NRA. An abusive, half-thought-out propaganda hatchet job on President Obama disgracefully using the spectre of someone attacking his daughters. The idiocy of calling the first black man elected as president of the USA ‘just another elitist hypocrite’ is breath-taking — even for racist RWNJs like them:
(See UPDATE below.)
Rachel Maddow called it out as trolling, and her ‘word of the day’ segment (below) is nicely put together, even if some might call it a touch long-winded and earnest. I say good on her. Maddow makes the point that this kind of stuff is a wail for attention, akin to ‘Please notice me! Puh-leeeeeease be offended by me’.
As Maddow says
Trolling is a key part of the conservative entertainment/media business model. These guys say stuff all the time that they do not intend to be persuasive. They’re not trying to explain something or to bring people along to their way of thinking. They’re doing something to attract attention and hopefully condemnation and outrage from the mainstream and particularly liberals.
They want to offend you, They seek to offend you. That is the point. They want the attention and they really want the condemnation because, hey, attention is attention and clicks are clicks on the website. Bad publicity is still publicity. But more importantly, the key part of their base audience — that they are trying to monetize — likes anyone who gets condemned by the mainstream … it’s a shtick that pays.
