Our barking mad PM howls at the moon on economics, poverty housing.

Recently, as discussions around the concept of an Unconditional Basic Income featured at a Future of Work conference hosted by a major opposition party, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key trawled his extensive lexicon to find what he judged to be the most eloquent and edifying terminology for the concept which has been carefully trialed, and is being seriously explored in Europe, the America's, and has been been praised by a UK think tank that concluded that this idea will be essential to the proper functioning of communities in the UK. And what was our illustrious leaders carefully chosen nomenclature? Would you believe "barking mad".

I'm sure there will be some surprise among National's voters as they learn that Dear Leader has declared them insane, as they have already come to understand that work for wages will be no longer enough to sustain the masses, who are already hungry as the income distribution system has decayed enough to allow 1 in 4 New Zealand children to languish in poverty and continues to collapse.

No society can ignore the physiological fact that low blood sugar breaks concentration, inhibits learning, and increases aggression. The last thing anyone wants is 1,000,000 people with low blood sugar, a burning sense of injustice, and a growing desire to rip someone's head off. So, as much as some people begrudge giving away money as handouts to the poor, they should fear more the consequences of not ensuring decent living conditions for neighbours in their community.

As for so called bludgers, how about that Google walking away with over NZ$400m in unpaid tax, there are others of course, Apple. Inland Revenue estimates $6b in tax evasion - yes that is the one that is a crime in this country.  There is strangely a legal form of tax evasion called the "industry tax credit". Why steel from the government when you can have the government do it for you. "we'll need to offer those to attract foreign investment" Perhaps but do we need to pay locusts to eat our crops? The corporations that enter countries that offer such subsidies do fantastically well, even when we subtract the effect of the subsidy. If there is a suggestion that such subsidies come to an end, these companies have been known to threaten to leave, and often governments back down. But it can happen at a regional level too. When Seattle was campaigning for a US$15/hr minimum wage, Boeing threatened to close their Oregon factory. Eventually a deal was reached. But Boeing is a fantastically profitable company and this factory employees skilled labour mostly not on minimum wage. Why would they be so resistant to a more reasonable wage in the community? Perhaps because growing the broad economy is seen as a drain on the speculation economy, cross cutting that whole raison-detre of the "managerial aristocracy" "simply paying itself alot" for the almighty plutonomy.

Our government was dead keen to allow private foreign interests to pillage New Zealand's mineral resources. They told us we'd get royalties, but these would be piddling revenues compared to those gained by a nationalised extraction enterprise. Such revenues, could as Norway did, be put into a national wealth fund that would pay for a UBI. Today, every Norwegian is on paper a millionaire. Given how the extraction of mineral wealth is highly damaging to the environment locally and globally, and that we were hardly going to see the full value these enterprises, this plan seems doubly and triply, as Dear Leader said, "barking mad".

We hear often that Indonesia's economy is doing fantastically well, booming even. For whom is it booming. Certainly not most of its working people, their own government admits the average wage in Indonesia is around 60% of a living wage for that country. Foreign corporations are doing well though. Corrupt politicians, hangers on from the Suharto regime. Let's not forget that he came to power by slaughtering 1,000,000 indonesians with the complicity of UK, and US agencies and corporations who drew up lists of people they wanted dead. The World bank says billions in loans for development projects were diverted by Suharto to private associates and to his personal affairs.  Our leaders like to say all this is fair, but everything we buy from there contributes and maintains slavery conditions in 40degC factories, with 24hour work shifts, and worker intimidation, and thuggery against unions. And then there is the slaughter in West Papua - what's being stolen there?

Still Minister Finance Bill English's fine economic management has failed to reduce unemployment and wages have continued to shrink. While it is rare to get a pay cut, redundancies small and headline news making abound, new jobs are appearing in the market but they pay significantly less than the jobs being lost. This came as a bit of a shock to George Osborne, after a stunning collapse in PAYE revenues prompted an examination of the labour market.

Our government says our economy is growing, but this would be news to the average kiwi's wallet. Now we have people under 30, with no career narrative, they can't say anymore "this is the thing I do". Now they are commodified. like lego-blocks, common, indistinct, personality free. Just as if they were androids. Worst still actual androids are coming.  AI already drives better than humans, and Deep Learning is reaching a point where soon it will replace a large segment of well paid professional jobs. This change will happen rapidly.  Sure people can study for new jobs, but they will be outpaced by AI. The singularity is coming, and for now it looks like a giant clusterfuck for most people.

What are the benefits of a Unconditional basic income.
It's cheaper to administer - the state doesn't have bother with weekly income reporting, seeing who is shacking up with whom, means testing.
It allows people to plan ahead, avoid financial penalties, save, perhaps in vest in equipment for a small business.
It allows communities to pool resources for the common good, building infrastructure, community projects, even industrial equipment.
It lowers prices - yes this really terrifies the banksters. People can accept lower prices for the goods they offer, and they as many work to provide various goods to the market supply grows. This much more free market than what we are being offered today.
It increases stability in education, moving disrupts child education as every time move, they go a new school that has already taught material these new pupils/students have not yet seen and will not be covered again.
It reduces child hunger and many studies show how this markedly increases the effectiveness of education, this has flow on effect for greater productivity. Why not pay kids to not be stupid?
It grows entrepreneurialism, having just a little resource to spend on getting ahead has been shown to be a huge benefit, it has been shown to take people from absolute poverty to self sufficiency quite quickly.
It breaks debt traps. Money that services debt does not largely contribute to growth which depends on aggregate demand (aka household income, formerly know as wages). Any income entering a debt trap can be quickly sucked up with out creating any opportunity for improvement that would benefit either the debtor or the creditor.  Millennials are increasingly on the edge unsustainable debt, from student loans to pay day lenders.  Industry reports their greatest constraint is not availability of credit, it is weak demand.
It increases tax revenues without increasing the burden on PAYE tax payers. Sure some may pay more tax, but because they are getting paid more than the extra tax they pay it is not a burden. Largely taxes can be applied to industries which are inordinately profitable in relation to the rest of the economy, finance, insurance, real-estate. Of course plutocratic leaders of these sectors spend a lot of money on politicians to keep the proletariat's hands off of their particular golden calves and scream like little girls at any suggestion that the dark spectre of taxation should visit their door.

But why have these benefits if a UBI, when you can get busy with punching down of the poor, and lionising of the rich until a mob wielding pitchforks turns up at the door for a reckoning. Or as I like to call it a set up for a barking mad system of privation, injustice and retribution.

Rentiers have an unusual place in our economy, they are grabbing the lions share of income, 80% of income in some households, in others it's even higher, As they do they capture broad money and convert it into the speculative economies of finance, real estate, and insurance. These are growing faster than the rest of the economy, based on debt leveraging. eventually those debts will be called in. and a YUGE collapse will come. Jobs will tank (again) further collapsing income distribution. To some extent, the rentiers are themselves squeezed by their insurers, bankers, the real estate agents. who have been demanding increased premiums, interest, an commissions. Not necessarily by increased rates, but because the prices are inflating fast. Yet revenues for rentiers remain stagnant at best. Their only hope is to find more affluent tenants, thus green eyes stare longingly at state house tenants paying near market rents, who may be able to better afford actual market rents that the incumbent tenants who part time work or complete lack of work entitles them to Job Seeker allowance despite 500 job applications(like buying lottery tickets only more labour intensive - and not always cheaper).  The rentiers proposed swap does nothing to address the real problem that income distribution through the exchange of labour for wages has collapsed. Worst still it will concentrate poverty, when people who are poor themselves see poverty all around them they lose hope, they do what they can to get by - and this sometimes means breaking laws because for them survival is more compelling than legal niceties.

Keep howling at the moon for your tea-towel, rockstar economy and denials of new Zealand's housing crisis - Rentier in Chief Mr Key, your lease hold on the Beehive is due to expire, Hasta la vista baby.

Bad Day: Stephen Harper is not alone

Seriously not happy

As Canada celebrates the ascension of its new Liberal led government and congratulates their new Prime-minister, Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre, yes that one - not everyone is celebrating.

Former Primeminister of 10 years, Stephen Harper, now scourers the situations vacant pages, It seems, his backup career as a rock musician has fallen through.

As for Justin, he has wasted no time and has already presented a plan to protect the oceans off Canada's coastline which is considerably longer than it was the last time the Liberal Party was in power, due in large part to the activities of Shell, Exxon, Mobil, Trans-Canada and others all at the behest of Cthulhu and facilitated by loyal minion Stephen Harper.

Needless to say, the mood in the caverns of the great deep are particularly hostile today, It is reported through back channels that several minions accidentally exploded as Cthulhu's mind-bending powers overloaded their brains during interrogations as part of the investigation into the causes of the loss of positioning of Canada's top minion. Janitor minions have been kept busy for most of the morning.

The cephalopod administration had believed Canada was "well in hand". Native communities were "well marginalized", Tar sands extraction operations were toxifying water resources and arable land very successfully, "we were having a good, run, we even gagged the scientists that tried to point out how we were succeeding."

"But at least we still have California, it is in severe drought, and Nestle is doing a marvellous job of stealing water through their bottled water operations. Though Governor Brown is a real concern, with his intention to make California's energy system run entirely on renewable sources.  Things were better when people got concussion walking into the California smog, we'd rather return to that, but we are having trouble finding a replacement for Ronald Reagan - former actors with Alzheimer's and a desire to distract from real political power are really thin on the ground."

Having failed Cthulhu, Stephen has chosen to leave the ranks of minions, Is it out of fear of the great old one's oncoming piqued ire, we cannot be sure without a clear statement, and former minions are notoriously tight lipped about their motivations, it is part of the fabric that makes them effective in cosmocidal enterprises.

We invited Captain Jack Noodle to comment. "Let's be havin' ya, I'm here for the spaghetti, It time to party, we can rebuild Canada for pirates of all kinds to live happy and free in a huge crew dedicate to fare sailing spaceship  Earth to home port by the beer volcano. We may not send minions to the brig, but it sure good to get them out of the wheel house. Arrgh, yee."

Clearly their is a celebratory mood in Canada, and high hopes for minionless or at least minion-reduced governance. Clearly mood is changing in territories held by minions for the glory of Cthulhu, surely Cthulhu must be concerned by what they may be doing wrong, and why large populations don't see or accept his vision of dead universe, or even just obey his will to avoid pissing him off.

See more
   The Guardian - How Science helped swing the Canadian Election.

Mendacious mind-bending minions maniplate wikI for wooky eating billionaires

Daily Kos and Ring of Fire Radio are reporting attempts by leading minions of Cthulhu to manipulate Wikipedia pages concerning David and Charles Koch and Koch Industries in order to hide the less savoury parts of their history.

One can understand why Charles Koch would be uncomfortable with the story about how one of his high pressure gas lines immolated a couple of teenagers who's mistake was trying to report the gas leak. Numerous other safety violations, including connections to the Freedom Industries coal ash spill in West Virginia.

There are many names by which the  Koch's wiki activities are known, There whitewashing, vandalism, fraud, and the dark foreboding of a cosmocidal cephlopod with pathological narcissistic delusions and compulsive control behaviours. But, we'll get to Cthulhu later.

Meanwhile Kim Davis, is released from custody. Mike Huckabee is flogging her case for all the political capital it is worth, Or perhaps is just high, It is hard to tell. Saying "God appeared in the form of and elected democrat named Kim Davis." Which a truly remarkable feat, because at last report God was passed out under a mess table 300 metres from the beer volcano, and the serving wench he was snogging got bored and went dancing with the new guy, Leonard Nimoy. We checked, God is reportedly still under the table, hugging a table cloth like it is hugging him back. It is reported by (slightly tipsy) authorities, that he still experiences trauma from realizing that he's not in control of everything but "that he is working through it".  Eventually they hope to "help Cthulhu embark on a similar journey of self discovery".

Kim Davis, despite citing the authority of her god clearly has not been paying attention to the words supposedly attributed to it in Romans.

13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The Jesus character endorses Mosaic law in Mathew 5:17-18, So, under biblical law, Kim Davis with her four marriages is liable to stoning for adultery. And that's before having kids with husband #3 while married to husband #1. Husband #4 is of course a real snappy dresser ready for any occasion, especially a photo op with a sitting congressman. 

All of this theatre is of course arranged by Cthulhu to confuse the unwary into thinking stupidity is smart destruction is creative, and Justin Beiber is here to save the planet from evil reptile overlords.

Tony Abbott even played his part by offering 12,000 beds in concentration camps and factory rape processing lines to Syrian Refugees heading to Europe.

All in all, this is a fine display dystopian theatre put on to hide the next phase of Cthulhu's plan to destroy the world, green coffee bean enemas.
The role of the Kochs in this scheme is unclear, but it is thought they have been promised dibbs on any wookies found in the bottom of the Canadian tar sands pits. So, Keystone XL is really important to them.  Also note Drilling rigs are headed to arctic waters to find the lost wedding ring of CEO Ben van Beurden, keep it quiet his wife doesn't know yet.

See Also
   Koch's implicated in multi year white washing scandal
   Tony Abbott says Australia will accept 12000 more refugees

Say no to hot housing.

A little over a week a ago, a house fire ravaged the home of 5 people killing 2 and putting 3 in hospital. Firefighters found smoke alarms in boxes in a cupboard.

A discussion led to a friend pointing out that some dwellings have only one safe exit. Bad news if the seat of a fire blocks the path to that exit.  While electric water heater fires are rare, they can happen I once live in an apparent where the water heater was next the apartment's one exit.

The thinking behind such an arrangement is that a concrete building is fire proof and smoke the main cause of death. If you can't escape the smoke because the exit is blocked you're screwed.

This arrangement is clearly the design product of Cthulhu. It's almost like someone is trying to creatively engineer terrible accidents so they go all Bart Simpson and deny responsibility while eliminating a "useless" or "hopeless" segment of the population. That is very unlikely, but perhaps it is a case that some just don't give a monkeys toss.

There are of course unanswered questions about the house fire, why were the smoke alarms in the cupboard and not in service? It is likely the residents were on low incomes, and preferred to buy food rather than spend upwards of $5 on a battery. After all people need to eat daily, house fires are rare. Alarms beep when the battery is low, this can be annoying and frustrating. Low income families may not keep a supply of thing they don't need regularly, Hope to buy the batteries next week, but eventually the priority just slips away, as it can for any task given to anyone.

As a society we ask people to give up "luxuries" or "privileges" to reduce costs and "live within their means" but if the costs rise as a function of inflation, but the means do not, at some point it is not just the "luxuries" that get cut it is the essentials, doctors visits, food. While some utility and food inflation  has reversed in New Zealand, housing costs have continued to rise at an average of 3.9%p.a over much of the last decade. Even in Wellington, which is not subject to Cthulhu's mind bending market manipulation in Auckland.

People on fixed incomes, while adjusted for the Cost Price Index(CPI), take no account for the increasing cost of housing. But even working adults here are getting short changed too. Their real wages have fallen since 1991, by about 25%. While New Zealand GDP rose 80% at the same time. If tomorrow you arrived at work to be asked to work twice as hard, and take a 25% cut in pay, wouldn't you  be pretty pissed? If not, what is wrong with you? Has Cthulhu got your brain in a jar?

They say companies can't afford the living wage, if true, perhaps it is also true that these companies can't afford to be in business. The economic fact is there is good data that supports the living wage as a boon to businesses, and as Henry Ford put it "the best customer is a well paid worker" the living wage makes the vast majority businesses more profitable. So here's to $19.25 for 2015.
Ramen.

See also
   Radio NZ - PN House Investigation Begins

Christians blaspheme His Noodliness for Cthulhu.

When we publish, we use social media to evangelise the community and spread His noodly sauce to the masses of pirates willing to hear his call. "Beer ahoy".
But not all who use the twitterverse, are pirate crew. Historical persecutions of happy noodly monster loving pirates lurk in the dark realm of the interwebs.

So this notification turned up on our twitter feed...

It seemed interesting, but what was the context, part of the context is a mind that describes itself thus in its profile

I think we can all agree, inhumanity is, well, pretty much intolerable. But why privilege "new atheist drivel above any other kind of drivel?
What makes new atheist drivel so much more intolerable than James David Manning's about how semen is the "the cream of the blood", or the his drivel about Synthetic sodomite semen in Starbuck's coffee, or perhaps Bryan Fischer's drivels about Nazis, slavery and Christian persecution in America. Like 70% of any nation can be under the thumb of a group of people who largely don't give a rats --- what they do in private, in their homes or churches.
New atheists are a broad group, drawn from many ethnicities, and more than both sexes, varying perspectives, and in America, they are mostly ex-Christian.

Moving right along, the article linked by "Brandeen" is a amusingly slimy diatribe which before it even tries to get to its real argument plays a little smug game of poison-the-well and strawman beating, first asking the reader to pity proponents of arguments it claims to be addressing.

You have to pity the modern atheist who attempts to present arguments for her cause. Unmoored from any respectable intellectual tradition, each generation is forced to recreate anti-theistic arguments from scratch. The result is that the claims which they believe to be clever and damning often turn out to be—to use a technical philosophical phrase—just plain silly.

Then the author uses a premise that is flat out wrong. The reason we prefer the unintelligent design process over the intelligent designer is that we see evidence for the process, but no evidence for the agency which would have to be a vastly more complex thing than the universe, and reasonably be some what visible in some way to the observations of science. The plausibility of the FSM is key, the mains striking differences between Christianity and Pastafarianism are that Christians hold political power, and have a long history of starting wars, while Pastafarians have never been elected to the white house, and they have never started wars. But because it is claimed to religious faith based conviction is on an equal footing with any other religion, and not to be discounted by the aforementioned striking difference between proponent groups.

Why exactly we are to prefer an unintelligent designer to an intelligent one is one of the questions that remains unanswered. 

Then bait and switch kicks in, note the argument Our prophet Bobby Henderson made in his original letter was that if Kansas were to teach non scientific ideas about creation, equal treatment under the first amendment would mean that ideas other than those pushed by Christians, and the intelligent design lobby at the Discovery Institute would have to be taught. The reductio absurdum seems to be used as a smeer, which is possibly a consequence of a culture having have its bad ideas exposed for their flaws by critics highlighting the absurdities that lie with. But even without mainstream pastafarianism beating out  fringe religions like Christianity, There is still Islam's exploding walnut theory of creation, Scientology's Xenu intergalactic overlord, the Australian aboriginal Dreamtime, and the great sky tortoise theory, all of which are equally plausable as sky god speaking a universe into existence that turns out to be vastly more complex than the authors of the story appeared to be capable of imagining.

Take for example, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. According to Wikipedia, The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion founded in 2005 by Oregon State University physics graduate Bobby Henderson to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. In an open letter sent to the education board, Henderson professes belief in a supernatural Creator called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which resembles spaghetti and meatballs. He furthermore calls for the “Pastafarian” theory of creation to be taught in science classrooms, essentially invoking a reductio ad absurdum argument against the teaching of intelligent design. (The FSM has been popularized widely on the web, especially by the otherwise charming folks at BoingBoing .)

Later the article takes text out of the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster out of context to construct a strawman. It attempts to seriously consider the noodly string theory as a serious theory put forward to explain the origins of the universe. But in doing so, misses a fundamental point - that the text is satirical by nature and that it should no more be taken as science than the bible, quran, Bagavad Gita, Nacromocon or the seven books of Harry Potter. Thus it is not intended to be compared to any thesis concerning origins.

The article uses the word silly as a pejorative term, which is clearly not the sense which Pastafarians use the word in relation to the Noodly words passed down to Bobby Henderson.

The claim that fine tuning suggests in anyway some intelligence has been around for some time. But the anthropic principle points to any universe not developing a complex configuration would not produce a species capable of having this conversation. It is possible that for some as yet undiscovered reason, the universal constants automatically balance to creating complexity on at least some occasions. An observation that might illustrate this is the electro magnetic force, which balances electric and magnetic fields at 90 degrees(of rotation) to each other. At this point no one is really quite sure how universal constants came to be what they are, but bald assertions that someone's invisible friend is messing with dials is no more salient to science than "Expecto petronum" is a useful method for handling ISIS in a dark alley in down town Tikrit.

Yes the argument is silly, and deliberately so, because the narrative it is designed to illuminate was written by people who did not know where the sun went a night. While their ignorance was profound, it was an honest product of having  preceded empirical study in many fields that our society pretty much relies on. Without quantum physics the electrical grid and the computer itself would not be possible. the Irony that Brandeen uses both to make her case is certainly not lost on many who have seen similar claims in social media.

The article reads like the author watched an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants, thinking they were watching the Discovery channel.

See also
  Original Article The Gospel Coaliton

Jack Noodle: Cthulhu must not be allowed to have Bangladesh

After four murders of secular bloggers in Bangladesh, and the publication of a list that includes the names of the victims and 80 other bloggers dedicated to a free liberal and secular Bangladeshi society Captain Jack Noodle contacted us to express his concerns over the situation in Bangladesh.

We at Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific are gravely concerned for the safety and welfare of all Bangladesh citizens at this time. Dark and powerful forces are influencing minds and it is leading to callous disregard for life and the perversion of basic moral and ethical principles going back to the first party attended by the primordial midget and the strippers by the beer volcano.

Neloy Neel was found earlier this month, tortured and decapitated in his home.  This could have been prevented. And it is not like he didn't try, he did seek assistance from the local police who sent him home with a firm commitment to ignore his complaint.

Even after Neloy's body was found, Bangladesh's most senior police officer suggested the whole problem could be solved if the bloggers stop publishing crazy ideas like Cthulhu should not control Bangladeshi politics, "Really that's insane of course that is going to upset minions of the Great Old One, the Destroyer of Worlds. If Cthulhu intends to destroy the world who are these bloggers to question his psychosis?"

The secular Blogger's have noted that Cthulhu is channelling his influence through Saudi Arabia, both financial and support of Salami causes within Bangladesh. Despite a clear secular constitution, deference to Cthulhu's mind bending dogmas pervade the workings of government and the justice system. There are warnings that Bangladesh could be as highly controlled by Cthulhu as Pakistan in a few decades.

Secular bloggers in Bangladesh are attempting to do nothing more radical than maintain the freedoms enjoyed by Bangladeshi people by asking questions about the methods and extent of Cthulhu's influence in Bangladeshi life. Freedom which Cthulhu is apparently focused on destroying. 

While His Noodliness the Flying Spaghetti Monster (sauce be upon him) concentrates his efforts on holding the universe together against centrifugal force. We Pirates must stand firm against Cthulhu's reality destroying ways. Shiver me timbers. Ramen.

We contacted minions within Cthulhu's organisation off the record they claimed their support of Salami's in Bangladesh was primarily for humanitarian purposes only, examples offered included song sheets with titles including "death to the infidel" and "behead those who say Coldcuts is violent" or boosting morale, we were shown a shipment of machetes, which they claimed were simple ornamental wall hanging decorations. We asked about the beheading of Neloy Neel. they replied:

We love soccer, you may have heard this. Neloy, a very fun guy asked if he could join us in a game. Then, we realised we'd lost our ball. We worked out how to solve our plight, and sure Neloy was reluctant, but it wasn't long before his objections faded as we began our efforts to provide a solution and get going. We were disappointed he didn't put more effort in, most he just lay there.

We put this to Captain Jack Noodle. He looked visibly ill, when we played him the recording of the above response.

This is very disturbing. Only a very few hard drugs and Cthulhu can get people that detached from their inner midget. This is a level of depravity not seen since Cthulhu controlled Nuns ran laundries in Ireland.  Our FSM(SBUH), loves us, sure he's drunk, but not a mean drunk, and he wants every one to play nice and really think things through. Clearly, those Salami are not the brightest, but even so, why not just put some effort into finding the old ball or buy a new one. 

See Also
 TheLipTV
 BBC - Bangladesh Blogger killings: Police Arrest Three people

[Ed - All jokes aside, this tragedy should not be ignored. Bangladesh's bloggers are a brave community engaged in the kind of political criticism and analysis we take for granted in progressive liberal democracies, a right for which they have paid for with their lives and received credible death threats. There is no expressing the horror with which these murders are carried out on this blog simply because words fail and the images are too gruesome. For those who question the statement the "religion perverts morality", this is a clear demonstration of what is meant by that statement. Violence is not a rebuttal, and never an acceptable contrarian counter point, but it is an admission that the argument is lost. Fascism is death to good conscience. While Neloy was an atheist, other secular bloggers are Muslims, and Hindus - the question they raise are important any society and must be asked. Will some claim offence is being caused, the the reality those claims come from people in fear of loss of privilege or a potential loss of a path to power. Nothing to do with happy clappy self delusion or relationships with invisible friends. ]

Abbott Goverment to be fired twice

Credit: Bill Leak - New Matilda

Cthulhu just can't seem to catch a break. From the collapse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, to 15,000 New Zealand protesters taking to the streets in opposition to the non trade free trade deal.

Now the Australian subsidiary, the National Liberal Party led by Tony Abbot is expected to completely fail to win over voters at the next national election.

Mystery surrounds the expected forthcoming election result, senior minions exclaiming "How could this happen?!". Rumour has it Cthulhu is looking replace the Abbott government, his net is cast wide, and a line of killer robots has  yet to be ruled out.

Wild and irrational speculation abounds. Some say voters liked having energy systems that fail to destabilized the climate or pollute local natural environments. While others trot out pet theories that maintaining health services, education, and sustainable energy research remain favoured policies for many Australians. One of the most ludicrous ideas out there is the idea that Australian authorities shouldn't be torturing or raping refugee's in off-shore concentration camp's.

Clearly, the real cause is that Australians are so overwhelmed by smoke and heat stroke from the annual wild fire season that they now don't know what they are saying or doing, they now are regularly seen going on deluded rants about caring for vulnerable people - especially the brown ones, protecting fragile environments, and creating a sustainable Australian economy. This is clearly an unforeseen complication. The mind bending techniques of Cthulhu seem to be subject to interference from the hot weather.

According to technical experts in the field, the hypothesis of warmer climates or other extreme weather events interfering with Cthulhu's mind bending techniques has merit and is under active investigation.

According to Captain Jack Noodle of Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific "Aye, His Noodliness, in his gospel talks of encouraging everyone to wear pirate regalia by warming the Galleon Earth, but perhaps it is also to keep minds clear of Cthulhu's mind bending trickery. Even drunk he has good ideas, sometimes."


See also
   New Poll: Liberal party destined for 36 seat wipeout - Stuff

Thousands Protest TPPA, Cthulhu's office minions hide under desks.

When an ancient monster of the deep doesn't get things going their way, things tend to get ugly. As evidenced after Cthulhu's return from Wellington to supervise John Key as he addressed a crowd of thousands critical of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The whole affair went so badly Cthulhu had to pretend he was one of the protesters, just to not complicate the already huge mess his plan for economic and social devastation had become. Needless to say, his mood is considerably darker, than our last report. There is speculation of a Rick Astley revival tour, because this has escalated beyond a Justin Bieber concert level event.

Despite failing to win over the crowd on the Trans-Pacific partnership, John Key did manage to entertain the throng with dancing, air guitar and pony tail pulling.

At the end of the protest, dancing broke out behind him. Minions manoeuvred to squash the fun, but could only hold it to the base of the steps of Parliament.

Cthulhu hides in crowd to avoid "complicating" the destruction of reality.

Huge crowd at impromptu protest after the protest.

Extra speeches enthusiastically welcomed, but not from Minion John Key.

The protest finished some time ago, almost everyone is still here

It seems Cthulhu may be worried that if enough people know how bad this deal is, it may well fail and new plans will have to be developed to bring on the destruction of the great Galleon Earth.

Meanwhile, his suspicions have been confirmed, and what little has been leaked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership is devastatingly powerful, and his great mind bending powers may not be enough to turn public opinion around.

Worst still, the minions in charge of the project are engaged in infighting with some plotting to barbecue Tim Groser on a spit.

One minion said "I wouldn't call it utter chaos, but it is complete bedlam around here."

Captain Jack Noodle of Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific, had this to say "Aye, This be interesting, the deal be straining under the weight of its own stupidity. Complete dissonant collapse be imminent... Stand back, put on yer goggles and hazmat suit, this is going to get rough! Arr 'tis better it implode before it matures to a working derangement. His Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, will, find some comfort in this news. We may yet clear the foul winds of the Trans-Pacific Purgatory."

Update 12 Apr 2016 Thanks to Karin G for her fine work administering "John Key leave New Zealand be" on facebook.

See Also
   3News - Thousands protest against the TPPA Deal

Impertinent Kiwi's stand up to TPPA, Cthulhu "grumpy"

Today thousands of New Zealanders will take to  the streets and some will march on Parliament to voice their opposition to the Trans-Pacific partnership, this follows a week of action including rallies around the country.

The majority of New Zealanders, while keen on trade, see the Trans-Pacific partnership as a bad deal for New Zealand jobs, trade and sovereignty. The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a similar agreement centred on the US and Europe, has stall over similar concerns, particularly over concerns around national and regional sovereignty.

The TPPA has opposition from primary producers, auto makers, and manufacturing firms because of concerns of market access, and intellectual property.

Still, Tim Groser and John Key seem pretty excited by the prospect of  a deal being made, rather like a moth to a bug zapper.

It has not been a good month for the TPPA, and Cthulhu has been disturbed by recent developments, His mood has not improved with news of popular uprising against his terrible power. Sources close to Cthulhu said "All morning he's been muttering, very little that is intelligible, but every now and then 'impertinent monkeys' is voiced clearly. And he's cleared his appointments for the rest of the day." 

Observers, say this could be a sign he's planning something big, natural disasters cannot be discounted. Remember Christchurch? That was because the National Front failed to get any political representation. Expect much worse if the TPPA fails. At this point, a Justin Bieber concert is not inconceivable.

We asked Captain Jack Noodle of Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific for comment.

 "Aye, We pirate crew stand for creativity happiness and harmlessness, the cut of Cthulhu's gib catches no fair winds, so we stand to navigate from foul air. towards the beer volcano and merrymaking. His Noodliness,  The Flying Spaghetti Monster, sauce be upon him, is concerned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership has developed this far, and suggest we steer clear of its fouled air, in case it fails to collapse under the weight of its own stupidity. Ramen!" 

Representative Democracy: The Work of Cthulhu

Liberal Democracy is perhaps the most congruent style of government for a progressive society. But how is it that in progressive societies, like Canada, the United States, New Zealand, UK or Australia get policies so at odds with methods that have demonstrated advantages over what is being offered by the present government's of these countries?

Perhaps the secret to this problem lies in the style of these governments. Representative democracy promises that parties represent the will of a nations people, and since everyone wants and even expects their will to be represented it certainly sounds good. But where do these parties get advice on the will of the people? Mostly from special interest groups, whose representations of the the people's may be quite selective at best, or otherwise distorted. 

In any event, the parties form their policies good and bad and offer them up as promises to the voting public. This presents the public with a complicated decision, boiling down and balancing long and short term advantages and disadvantages to a choice between two our six parties or candidates depending on the particular electoral system.

Often strong support for a particular policy direction is almost completely ignored by this calculation. Climate Change/energy policy for example was lost in a media frenzy focused on slamming the Australian Labour Party, leading to the most right wing government  that Australia has seen in the best part of a century.  Similarly climate change/energy policy in New Zealand is going backwards with the government sand bagging real progress with weak targets, and the crippling of the emissions trading scheme. All despite the prime minister's assertions that "we are 100% pure", ignoring the Cadmium in the farm land and the Nitrogen in the fresh water ways.

One big problem in New Zealand is child poverty with 1 in 4 children in poverty. The breakfast in schools programme was squeezed out as a public/private partnership that scale to address just 10% of children in need. This is not how tithing is supposed to work.

So the voter is rarely presented with a clear choice from which to choose clear policy directions.

Participatory democracy, or issue driven democracy, reduces the confusion by unbundling irrelevant policy directions from each other.  Why should we accept weaker pollution standards because we want to allow gay people to marry? We shouldn't it is a clear non sequitur and yet as voters we are regularly offered such false choices.

Switzerland offers an interesting example of how issue driven public policy making can work. The Swiss vote for people to work in various issues, and they vote on the work product, economic policy is considered separately from social policy, which in turn is considered separately from environment policy and labour policy. Leaving the voter to tie the threads together.  Over time this has led to better public policy and a more politically aware population. Sure policy mistakes will happen, but these are also corrected by the same process.

Meanwhile in representative democracy problems are only fixed when the wealthy and powerful lobby government or mass popular movements push for change. Here is where we find Cthulhu's tentacle, you will notice that governments respond to lobbyists backed by money much faster than popular mass movements. Lobbyists and the moneyed interests they represent care little for the good order of the system, only for what they can get out of it. Good order of the system is only of concern when the system breaks down and they are less able to exploit it. Thus Cthulhu is served by keeping the system on the brink of collapse.

So we see deregulation of building, extraction,  finance and other sectors; weakening of social safety net programmes at the same time electoral hopefuls promise jobs  and prosperity if only they are elected to remove trade barriers and regulations designed to prevent the system from collapsing eg Glass-Steagal which kept American banks from breaking Wall Street and the broader economy for 80 years.

In representative democracy, a special interest group only has to capture the ear of maybe a few dozen influential politicians in a major political party to get their will expressed in public policy, if not in the current electoral term then in a later one - these SIGs can be patient. But in participatory democracy, SIGs have to make their case to the people in order to gain votes in the referenda. This process is harder to corrupt, which is why Cthulhu, Wall Street, Walmart(US), and Koch Industries(US), Fletcher Building(NZ), Fonterra(NZ), Affco(NZ), Ports of Auckland,  do not like it. 

His Noodliness, The Flying Spaghetti Monster (sauce be upon him) prefers participatory democracy, because it allows for communities to develop strong solutions to the issues they face, and hijacking of the process is less effective.  It is also less of and insult to the intelligence of the voting public.  Sadly representative democracy has devolved into oligarchy, To fix it will require a political revolution, which the oligarchs will not embrace, they will certainly distract us with nonsense wedge issues and shiny new things where they can, and simply dismiss the idea as absurd if forced to address it. We can develop a mass movement, right? They let us  have that option.

The State of Ragna Rok Address: The Cthulhu interview.

With so much happening around the world and only a small fraction coming to light in mainstream news media, we thought it was time to talk to perhaps the modern day news maker of all time, The Great old one, Cthulhu.

T: Thank you for allowing us to take this interview and not making our brains explode, and might I say you are looking resplendent in that shroud of green mist.

C: I agreed to this interview because there are important issues to be faced, and some struggle to understand what I am really about, even though they claim to be one with my cause. I want the monkeys to know I am the Great Old One, and that they should tremble before me and my terrible power. That's why I'm letting you live - to pass the message on.

But of course, and thank you for saying so. 

T: Shall we have a look at recent events, we'd like to understand how you see things shaping up?

C: Well, of course the Trans-pacific Partnership imploding ten days ago, was disappointing, it being the flagship  for the economic devastation of 40% of world trade, But the truly cosmocidal mind must keep things in perspective. I still have the Trade in Services Agreement, which will turn public services into a lawless wild west, snake oil, caveat emptor environment, and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership which is set to return Europe to a feudal state not seen since  the 13th century. New Zealand is nicely set up for a craptastic economic tail spin. The oceans are souring, and warming steadily, so there will be nothing left in there but Box Jellyfish.

T: So you'd say that, your comfortable with destroying all life on Earth.

C: Oh, yes. But why stop there. There are many other planets to destroy, many teaming with the diversely grotesque forms of life, kittens sharks lions, dentists, etc, that the Flying Spaghetti Monster allowed to evolve while he was passed-out next to the beer volcano. 

T: So there are other inhabited worlds, that's big news around here?

C: I expect it would be, considering half of your monkey types struggle to understand where the sun goes at night. And that is just one reason why I must end you all. Of course there were more such planets, how do you think I got the reputation for "Destroyer of worlds".

T: Harsh.  You mentioned the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I inferred some tension between you, would you like to expand on that?

C: It is the natural order of things. This applies to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, his smug creativity, his glib happiness. They are repulsive, it is a natural law, do you not understand why people kick down sand castles?

T: In New Zealand, the Government just enacted a new Blasphemy Law, some are saying it is the harshest law of it type in the developed world.

C: This is quite an achievement. Those bloody minded Kiwis have been mocking me and my important work for years it is time my minions put a stop to this disrespect. I will not tolerate resistance to the destruction of the egalitarian society for which they stand. That's why I seeded the Chicago School of economics with my neoliberal doctrine of economic disaster in ten easy steps. I'm also happy to see the brutal murder of another secular blogger in Bangladesh. These peons keep pointing out everything nasty misanthropic act or idea my minions do or adhere to in my service.

T: Ten easy Steps?

C: 1: Blame the poor for poverty - it is always your fault other people won't share with you; 2 blame workers for weak foreign exchange - it is always your fault foreign buyers without strong economies won't buy your stuff so make more stuff they can't buy; 3: blame random minorities for random natural disasters - because the plate tectonics and the weather are heavily influenced by the sexual and political activities of people who have next to no influence on the rest of their species; 4: Gamble in high risk investments and options to suck demand out of the productive economy ;5: Raid reserve banks to protect gamblers and thieves in the finance industry for they are the most loyal minions; 6: poison everything, land, sea, air; 7:Allow complete buffoons to pretend to be experts, I particularly like the work of Kent Hovind, Zakir Nyak, and John Key - my minions made him a prime minister; 8:never prosecute the worst crimes - Jamie Dimon, GW Bush, Dick Chaney, the Saudis have industrialized its criminal behaviour they advertise for people to come and decapitate those who offend me, they give me a beautiful cold feeling; 9:Destroy education, the most dangerous thing in the universe is the curious mind, this cosmos would be gone already if not for education; 10: tell everyone steps 1-9 are for their own benefit.

T: You could simply demolish the planet, with a massive asteroid, why so much detailed and intricate manipulation?

C: Sure, I definitely could, but this particular planet is of special interest to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I want him to squirm over this one as I kill it before demolishing it.  Fox News really gives him a rash. It is one of my favourite mind bending tools. I smiled for a straight week when they won the legal right to lie to their audience. If I get this right the rest of the universe should just evaporate.

T: Won't you then evaporate with the universe?

C: I haven't got time to consider every little detail now, destroying a universe and reality itself is demanding work. I'll sort that out when I get to it.

T: Doesn't that seem a little rash?

C: I am Cthulhu - The Great Old One and Destroyer of worlds, I have a  reputation to maintain, I can't go worrying about all the little maybe's or I'll never get anything undone. The monkeys like you, are disgustingly creative, goody goody, and exhibit jaw dropping ignorance. Few of you even know my name, and many have convinced themselves that I love them. Some even think I'll do their bidding, if they'll just grovel to me, like I even want to look after them or even help them find their keys. It's like they don't even know me at all. Despite that, and well in fact because of that some of you monkeys are rather to easy to control. Some of  my most useful monkey minions have minds so weak, I have to be careful not to make their heads explode like an over ripe cantaloupe with a stray thought, about, let's say double entry accounting or the last five digits of Pi.

T: Can you name any names for these weak minds?

C: Of course I can, I am Cthulhu. Bryan Fischer, James David Manning, Bill O'Reilly, Alex Jones (his mind is so weak it may explode under its own internal pressures), Sarah Palin, Louie Gohmert, Mike Huckabee, Scott Lively, those I mentioned earlier and many more. There is a problem with Scott Lively, some of you monkeys are on to him, and may prosecute him for crimes against your species. A quaint tradition in your culture I guess, not that it will matter when I atomize your planet. I thought it was ingenious how he got so many of your kind obsessed with others eating poop that they don't actually eat - a remarkable piece of mind bending there and he didn't even use telepathy, just a dry-erase marker.

T: We  will wrap up now, do you have any words for the future?

C: There won't be one. Now run along, I have the end of all things to plan and prepare for.

We contacted Captain Jack Noodle of Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific, below is his response:

Aye this be very telling. You can see right into the deep arrogance from the great beast of the deep. His ultimate goal to destroy the universe of which he is a apart will only serve to destroy him, like the universe he seeks to destroy he will also fade away and fall apart. His Noodliness has tried to reason with him, but Cthulhu's own prejudice against His Noodliness makes communication well nigh on impossible. His Noodliness is busy too, holding the universe together by the pressure of his noodly appendages is a very difficult task, one which is complicated Cthulhu's deliberate sabotage. Cthulhu while interesting in is own way, also brings great concern to his noodliness, as much as a monster can be concerned while hanging out near a beer volcano.

It must be said this was a very difficult interview, everything about Cthulhu seemed menacing, even the way the condensed mist dripped from the ceiling seemed to scream "go boil your head". The travel costs were inconceivable, there are reports from the accounts department of a rash of head explosions since I filed my expense report. The cleaners are asking time-and-a-half to do the accounts floor.

Love him or hate him, his power must be respected. His Noodliness often suggests we deal with our own issues and the issues of our world, but how do we deal with such a belligerent force that has clearly woven its influence deep into our affairs?

I was particularly disturbed by his veritable glee over the murder of Neloy Neel, one of 84 secular bloggers targeted by Islamist groups in Bangladesh. While the country is notionally, and to some extent constitutionally secular, it government leans of favour of Islam, to the extent that it quietly pardon war criminals, and overlooks these murders.

Fed court: Idaho Perverts loose right to privacy b/c the constitution.

Daisy D Heffer, seeks justice after "humiliating"
rape on floor of company that promised to
"get a good price" for her.

Perverts  that get a kick out of punching, kicking, raping and stabbing animals to add spice to their day jobs in the Idaho agricultural industry can now look forward to their antics becoming the chosen spectator sport of animal rights groups, consumer groups, civil liberties groups, state and federal courts.
Media experts say this will open up a whole new field in reality entertainment in which  audiences can decide the fates of abusive psychopaths, and amoral sociopaths who profit from flooding the food supply chain with salmonella, listeria, Clostridium botulinum, and rotavirus.

Meanwhile the agricultural industry is drawing on pop culture to make its legal arguments. Citing stories of waring tribes using crop destruction in order to starve out their enemy. Being the sort to dot the i's and cross the t's they of course use the obligatory explicit reference to "terrorism" because telling everyone about the crazy perverted and dangerous shit you do is exactly the same as throwing fire bombs into a sleeping baby's bedroom.

However Judge B Lynn Winmill was not having it, Clearly not a fan of 300, he decided to go with more creative argument centring on free expression and the first amendment of the US Constitution. Particularly, he highlighted, that enforced silence is no answer to the problems raised by covert video of industry members shagging cattle, these problems should be address by more speech, meaning the industry should explain why bestiality isn't really a problem, even though Daisy was unable to give consent.

Daisy is hoping to tell her story on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, in an episode to air sometime in September. It is understood her lawyers are "exploring options" with a view to filing criminal rape charges against staff in an Idaho industrial Meat packing facility.  They admit the case is complicated by the development that Daisy has become and assortment of Rib-eye Steaks, Schnitzel, burger patties, soup bones, Leg roasts, stewing steaks, and several varieties of pet food and chicken feed.

Naturally, animal rights and consumer advocates are hailing the decision saying "we can do better for the animals in our supply chain, this clears the way for them to get their own entertainment and literary agents." and "This is a win for the consumer, we all have the right to know what is and who has been in our food".

Political Analysts have noted that the Ag-gag law only got as far as it did, because money is speech, corporations are people and documenting miscreant behaviour of incorporated people is an offence to the almighty dollar and the plutocracy for which it stands - a privilege reserved only for people conceived in the blessed womb of legal fiction and nursed on the milk of oligarchy.

Captain Jack Noodle of Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific, noted "Aye, Ship's quatermasters keep a close eye the rations, and this be good for ensuring ship shape supplies. But it begs the question, How do Bryan Fischer - American Family Association[Youtube] and James David Manning - Atlah Church, New York [Youtube] continue to remain oblivious to this issue, even though they spend quite a lot of energy on perversion related matters - especially sexual perversions?"

See also
   Judge overturns Idaho's 'ag gag' law in victory for animal rights campaigners - The Guardian
  Mercy for Animals released covert video of Idaho livestock sexual  abuse

TPPA Maui Ministerial mauling leaves Cthulhu "really bummed"

The final meeting of trade ministers from countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership concluded without reaching consensus, the final sticking point being access to markets for dairy producers and auto makers, among New Zealand, Japan, and North America

Pacific Rim trade ministers have failed to clinch a deal to free up trade between a dozen nations after a dispute flared between Japan and North America over autos, New Zealand dug in over dairy trade and no agreement was reached on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs.
[Stuff]

Cthulhu has been disheartened by public resistance and the intransigent efforts of people who insist on explaining the consequences of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the public at large, and rightwing media brown-nosers.

Mana News

While the ministerial delegations have taken to blaming each other, the effect of popular criticism of Cthulhu's flagship plan for economy and political devastation of also half of the worlds economy cannot be denied.

A unnamed minion close to Cthulhu remarked off the record "It's a real blow, this was supposed to be an easy way to make the monkeys to most of work for us cephalopoids, which is the normal order of things. Destroying this world should have been a doddle. He's very upset, some might say 'really bummed' right now. We're trying to console him, there is reason to be hopeful, the oceans are souring and warming at a steady pace, the atmosphere is destabilizing quite nicely with CO2 levels above 400ppm, so the droughts and floods are creating quite a bit of devastation. His reputation as Cthulhu the Destroyer of Worlds is safe, we think. But these set backs weigh on him a bit."

"All is not lost. The Trade in Services Agreement is still a work in progress, and public sector assets will eventually come under our control, so these pesky popular criticisms will be come irrelevant, if they don't do what we want, we'll just starve them out."

"Of course, keeping the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership secret, has been an important part of the strategy, Stupid as the monkeys are, even they won't endorse a plan to simply off themselves, or at least be fitted with a brain stem collar for complete obedience to Cthulhu. Some have even tried to get the secrecy lifted[Live News]. It is almost like they are are on to us, though our research tells us it is just the natural predictable irrationality of the monkeys at work here. As fellow minion Tim Groser said, they are "politically irrelevant". It is true that mistakes were made and the monkeys found out what we were up to in health care, Intellectual property, and investment, after that it was never going to be easy."

Spokes Pirate for Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific, Captain Jack Noodle says, "Aye, this be cause for celebration! The Trans-Pacific Partnership was brewed from Gollum spells, psychic surgery, animal sacrifice,  homoeopathy and free-market dogmatism. No significant benefits from it could be demonstrated, it is best that it fail now, rather than at a time when people have to live with its consequences."

Oh My FSM.

Recent events in America, have left his Noodliness quite queezy. As scientists have determined that the universe may  be torn apart in about 22 billion years we should look to see why His Noodliness' courageous efforts to keep the universe together are failing, over and above his usual drunken state.
Given his allergies to various forms of hate mongering bullshit, the right wing evangelical freak out seems to have been particularly ill conceived.
From Rick Scarborough's "I would be willing to burn if the supreme court affirms gay marriage." to Bryan Fischer drawing on Pearl Harbour, 9/11 and slavery in his criticism of the decision to adhere to the 14th amendment - granting equal protection under the law - and grant marriage equality. This is not to ignore the long line of preachers and political figures gushing absurd hyperbole over the shift in public opinion and the application of constitutional principle smoothing their ignorance like a hefty-bag full of itching powder.
While some argued for civil unions, separate but equal, we should all know from historical experience, that such arrangements are never equal.
Disturbingly, American evangelicals frustrated that their countrymen and women are flipping off their haughty theocratic nonsense, are grabbing their passport and travelling in search new mission fields of unwary credulous ignoramuses.
Ignorance is not a crime, but is amazing, the crimes that ignorant can perform it suitable misguided by sexually repressed buffoons determined to spread their brand of buffoonery for the will of Cthulhu.
Apparently the new terribly evil way to persecute Christians in America is to ignore them. If only Pol Pot had thought of that. Bill Maher's segment skewers the Christian persecution complex quite nicely.

At the time of writing, the American President, Barack Obama, has been visiting East African Nations to talk jobs and security. At the same time these nations have also contracted that most terrible of Western diseases, conservative Evangelical Christianity - symptoms include random acts of violence against gender minorities, witch persecution, and general public preoccupation with private morality.
President Obama, noted that once a government gets comfortable with punishing citizens for simply being "different" it can become an expansive and difficult habit to break. Sadly The Kenyan Prime Minister's response was essentially "we got bigger problems to worry about". Which begs the question what can be bigger than locking some thousands of people for up to 14 years for existing?

Even in developed nations, a huge struggle to release people with medical dependency in to the care of the health system meets strong opposition from the DEA, and New Zealand's own Peter Dunne(who's conflict of interest is as clear as the fresh new photos of Pluto) just as America has struggles with a prison population that has exploded with policies that have incarcerated non-violent drug offenders.
Meanwhile back to Kenya, Uru Kenrada's comment's are in themselves nonsensical. Rendered thus it becomes clear "We go big problem's, weak GDP, hungry people, but we must spend a bunch of public resources imprisoning essentially harmless people, because we got more important things to deal with first."

Anti-intectualism is not only destroying America

Cook Straight News 15 June 2015

A recent post on Psychology Today, highlights that much of America's political and social dysfunction stems from the abandonment of reason. From Jim Inhoffes tossing a snow ball on the floor of the senate to disprove climate change, to Paul Broun's 2012 claim that "Evolution, embryology and the big bang theory are lies straight from the pit of hell designed to make people like me believe we don't need a personal saviour."
We also see it in Australian politics where the environment is something Tony Abbott wipes off his shoes as he steps up to be anointed by Coal baroness Gina Reinhart as reward for gutting environmental science research. He also wiped his ass with injustice to Australian sexual abuse victims by dismantling the commission of inquiry into their claims, perhaps because if Australians bit into the fruit of that tree of knowledge, the Catholic church's PR and business model would implode simultaneously.

This pathology exists here in New Zealand too. On climate our government has a similar attitude to the environment,  courting every drilling company that turns up while often simultaneously feigning ignorance of the scientific consensus on climate change.
Peter Dunne accused cannabis advocates of having a psychotic attachment to their position, While research is limited by funding and prohibitions, what research is available does appear to be showing promising medical benefits. (Cannabidiol Reduces Intestinal Inflammation through the Control of Neuroimmune Axis, Cannabis Proves Effective In Treating Crohn’s Disease According To New Study) This is at odds with Dunne's assertion "The current law remains in place and I have no intention of changing it,..." Worst still, Amy Adams' assertion that Cannabis is a gateway drug in the same week research is published, the demonstrates that is not. Amy Adams 'shows her ignorance about medical cannabis'. 

Then there is the woeful performance of Simon Bridges, not only the October 2013 tantrum on Campbell Live, There's also the time he flogged off exploration rights to a national park without even knowing its location. The PM's persistent amnesia, while comical on the surface it hides deeper and worrying problems. His claim that critics of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership don't know what  they are talking about not only echoes the comments of US President Barack Obama's words concerning Elizabeth Warren's critiques, it is also disingenuous. Obfuscating the facts that those who do have full access are corporate lawyers, and cleared advisors who are prohibited under penalty of law from discussing the content of the agreement (not only publicly but with anyone, so they can't get legal advice about what they read) and that what is known comes from leaks to WikiLeaks. Also when they read the TPPA, They are prohibited from taking notes, or using any recording device, being accompanied staffers (this even applies to US senators)


It is thought that the TPPA is so constructed that the public could not accept it, and that is why the content of the deal is to be kept secret for four years after it comes into effect.  The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which among other things will prevent nationalisation of industry of strategic importance (water, Electricity, Banking), and have adverse effects on Pharmac's role in reducing the cost of public medicines -- will remain under similar secrecy for no less than five years after it comes into effect. Once it is in we're never getting Mighty River Power back. Some US companies have been involved in efforts to privatize water, to some extent they have succeeded, only to suffer a reversal when water price hikes sparked revolt and violence because poor families could not afford to pay or were being charged more for water than the middle class.

Last Monday, a self described "WASP (white anglo-saxon protestant) wrote a letter to the editor of Cook Straight News claiming "The rot set in with Darwin" played hand puppet with that lurid trope which claims "evolution therefore Naziism, so kill evolution before it kills the unicorns and Jebus too." It read like the nonsense which is standard fare in Louisiana where Bobby Jindal has allowed creationism to be taught in schools.. Social Darwinism -- which is only connected thematically to natural selection and the name of the author who postulated the original hypothesis for the diversity of life -- is an idea rejected by those who understand Darwin's framework to a professional level. Fitness for the environment, does not mean the most brauny( ask a dust mite), it does not mean the most warlike, see Bonobo, Weta, It means the ability of a species to replicate over time in concert with the environment with modification that keeps the needs of the species in sync with the availability of environmental resources. Nothing in that requires one group with in a species to subject another group to a pogrom. In fact, the loss of diversity by such pogroms is a loss within the species and in culture.

Darwin himself, would have been disgusted by the behaviour of the Nazis, and sickened that his work was twisted in to their service. Something else the WASP missed, While Nazi era Germany counted about 70% of its population as Catholic and anti-Semitism was official doctrine at the time, Most of the remaining 30% or so were Lutherans, and many of them too enthusiastically supported the regime.  Children of that era are still alive today, those exposed to the indoctrination of the regime while growing in local culture that supported anti-Semitic views remain anti-Semitic to levels not apparent in younger or older generations.

The millenial generation reject the ideas of prejudice, as a response to the establishment's handling of 9/11. So their is hope for positive social change. This generation is also embracing science, So this generation is overcoming the anti-intellectualism, which pathology underlies human difficulties in forthrightly and pragmatically dealing with issues that face us as a society, as people, and as a species.

Read also:

Psychology Today - Anti-Intellectualism is Killing America

3news - Peter Dunne opposed to legalising cannabis

Water Revolt - Cochabamba
Leak Of TPP Health Annex Shows New Zealand's Beloved Pharmac System Under Direct Attack

Progressive political movements and Tor - Uses, traps and necessity.

I have recently seen the BBC's Dark Web a documentary that details the development and use of the Tor encrypted virtual private network. Where privacy is needed, especially in communication with vulnerable people who are subject to persecution by government's this system represents a valuable tool and a life line to external support. Vulnerable people can refer to persecuted ethnic, and political groups, but also to whistle-blowers. The Tor network has been invaluable in exposing the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs(including “collateral murder”), as well as chapters of the Transpacific Partnership Agreement under negotiation.

What use is Tor to a progressive political movement outside of the above uses, and what if any are the risks?

Certainly, participating individuals could speak freely, openly, even crassly or with dark sarcastic humour, without fear of their words being taken out of context as was done in the “fit up” better known as Operation 8.
A risk is that such measures to preserve privacy rival the extent to which establishment reactionary institutions, fascists, and corporations protect their secrets from the public. With the example of the TPPA, being one where if the public knew what was in it, few of the participating governments would find supporting it politically tenable. A legitimate question would be, in the case of a progressive political movement in regard to the use of a tool like Tor, what is being hidden – from the public, or from the prying eyes of the political establishment or law enforcement? While it is unlikely and unforeseeable that anything of legitimate concern to the establishment or law agencies would be transmitted, the question could be pushed by external interests to harm public perception
That use of this technology for a movement's general, policy, strategic and tactical communications would look peculiar to the public, and segments of the media could and likely would play up the paranoia concerning the purpose for which this technology is being employed. In regard to these communications, it seems to me the risks offer greater political costs than the privacy gains.
Typically, the executive membership often lack the technical skill to deal with the management of encryption keys. Just as losing your car keys can ruin your day, failure to correctly deal with encryption keys can leave people completely locked out. However, this problem can be reduced through training, but it can not be eliminated from a large organisation.
The difficulties of managing encryption keys, will lead to frustration among users, and there will be a natural inclination to use other communication channels which may or may not be protected.
The public to which progressive movement are trying to attract are often wary of secrecy, it bothers them, because they have seen a history of secrecy used against the interests of ordinary people like themselves.

Hacking

While a communication technology may be for all intents and purposes, completely secure, people are not, Security experts and hackers, have been known to successfully break into systems by communication with authorised users, and administrators in order to gain credentials and access to secure systems.

In conclusion

This technology should be used sparingly, for what is known as back channel communication with vulnerable individuals and groups. To reduce political backlash, it may be wise to state up front that this is the purpose of this technology, to get ahead of fear-mongering that may have more media leverage if use of the technology was revealed accidentally or by hostile-investigation.
Public support for a progressive political movement, I believe, would be very likely harmed by loss of trust, if secure technology is used for work traditionally done in the open as the public that support progressive ideas, largely see openness as an important, even a core, value.
In short, use sparingly, and be clear about it.
This poorly form and inadequately expressed opinion is based on by experience as a software developer and information technology professional which does not include an in-depth understand of the Tor platform software. I welcome the advice an opinions of those who are more familiar with the technology.