I do want the earth to exist in a pure and pristine condition but the cynical part of me says that will inevitably  happen a few years after the last human takes it’s last breath. Unfortunately for us humans, and the other species that share our environment, we have a tendency to behave more selfishly when we live in larger communities. Now that our society is becoming a global community due to constant advances in electronics and coding we are almost certain to eventually destroy the environments we live in and therefore ourselves due to self interest and individualism. These things just are.  And while I have no psychic powers, or magic crystal balls, or even a decent education, I can guess how long it will take for humanity to achieve extinction. The flame that burns twice as bright can only burn half as long, and we are burning so very, very bright. There is always the possibility that we may yet evolve to adapt to our changed environment but there are no guarantees this would happen and would rely on a relatively slow change in environment. Anything could happen but I’d guess after 100 more generations we would know one way or the other. I believe the end will come from within, a result of social dynamics, rather than of an external origin. Although I’d expect smaller societies, geographically isolated and more self sufficient, to continue on, for a time. Of course anything is possible, but I don’t expect aliens to arrive with gifts of vastly superior technology to help fix our planet. The easiest way to fix our planet would be to get rid of us so perhaps better that doesn’t happen. If I have a point at all it’s this; will voting for the Green party in any way improve the environment I live in? (self-interest) I think the Greens will do better than the polls suggest, but once again Winston Peters will attempt to shut them out of any coalition deal. It is sad but that is exactly how he behaved in the past and there seems to be no change in his attitude. (might be more irascible if that’s possible) So a vote for the smelly hippies probably wont be enough to get them into government so their policies wouldn’t get priority. Although they did put forward the bill that turned into the law banning people from bashing their kids. Something I am honestly personally grateful for. It gave me the courage to intervene, before that law I had watched in helpless horror, to scared to speak up. Or should I vote for a fringe party with no chance of making the 5% threshold, the Party Party Party, or some such thing. Perhaps.

Writing this was supposed to help me decide what to do with my fundamental democratic human right. But I’m conflicted and no matter which party I lean towards my fundamental human right feels fundamentally wrong. And all too human, full of self-interest and hatred of the people vying to represent me. Maybe I’m too difficult to please and nobody could possibly be good enough to represent me.

I don’t expect anybody to read this, except you wankers at the GCSB but if you did keep your criticism and opinions to yourself. I’m not interested.

As election day approaches I still don’t know what or who to vote for. I sometimes think I will just not do it. Refuse to participate. Abstain from voting, on principle, because I hate them all and there is no-one worth voting for. But then I think about the individuals in our prisons that don’t have that option. Banned from participation in the democratic process. Why?  I try to think of valid reasons for this denial of a basic human right. It surely can’t be over fears the prison population could be large enough to swing an election. Polling within prisons would seem to be straight-forward enough. Campaigning would be an interesting experience. As a nation we should recognise the fact that this is wrong. We should be showing the inmates of these institutions that they are part of our society. That they are equally responsible for choosing the representatives that make the rules we are expected to live by. The very same rules that were broken to result in incarceration. Lastly the sorriest group, the wrongly convicted. The possibility of even one innocent person being denied the right to vote is one too many.

As I have previously implied I would like to vote in the Tai Tokerau electorate but I’m denied this basic right because I’m not Maori. Not even a little. Not even a fingernail. As a child growing up I did feel a bit Maori. Our Maori friends and neighbours often said I did things in a Maori way. I would like to be on the Maori roll so I could vote for Kelvin Davis. I’ve said before that although I don’t know him or know much about him, I think he’d do well for Labour. And I want to do something for Labour. After I had been made redundant and been struggling financially. Going from sub-contracting on short term projects to the benefit and back repeatedly. It was Labour’s policies when Helen Clark was in power that gave me a hand up, retrained me for work that was in demand, and helped me find the job I still have now, ten years later. But even though I feel I owe them something  I can’t vote for those losers simply because they are such losers, but voting for Davis may have eased my conscience. Labour’s policies also helped me by providing affordable night classes, enabling me to improve myself and improve my chances of advancement at work. I believe National scrapped both those initiatives soon after coming to power. That reminds me, John Key is talking tax cuts again. Please no. I still remember the disappointment I felt when he was first elected, supposedly borrowing up large overseas to fund tax cuts so we could all be a little better off.  I realised after the first time I got paid that there was less money in the bank, not more. The ACC levy had increased a larger amount than the tax had decreased. I saw then that John Key fiddles with the truth in a similar way to how he fiddles the numbers. I also hear that Winston Peters publicly suggested a coalition with Labour might happen. I think this is a sure sign Winston is leaning towards National and is trying to put them under pressure so they are more likely to agree to his demands. I’d bet some of his demands are pretty outrageous. I wonder what he’s angling for, deputy prime minister? Or foreign minister? I don’t think so. Too much real work and he’s done those before… More likely the justice portfolio. He would love that irony of taking Collins’ old job. I think he dislikes her almost as much as I do.

Main points; votes for inmates, hospital inmates too. Also stamp out racism in our electoral system.  Let anybody choose to be on the Maori roll. How can a pakeha be able to be a candidate in a Maori seat but unable to vote in it. This is not fair.

Next; can I vote for smelly hippies?

I’ll start with the Green Party. As with Labour I hate the Greens, (but not as much as I hate Labour,) because they could have been so much better and so much more than they are now. I am not talking about their current campaign which I think is OK. I mean I despise the weakness and naivety they show in the way they have allowed the media to set the agenda and portray them as politically naive looneys who would seriously threaten the security and economic stability of the country if allowed anywhere near the corridors of power. Neither of the current main players have considered including the Greens in their governments in the past, simply because mainstream N.Z still regards them as a fringe element. And because the other minor parties, N.Z First, A.C.T and United Future all refused to work with them.  Although they did prop up a struggling Labour minority government with a supply and demand agreement so N.Z would retain economic stability.  The Greens are seen by N.Zers as perfect to be in opposition, soothing our collective conscience by drawing attention to, and providing criticism of the worst of our current governments environmental carnage. They had… They still have the potential to be a real positive force in the governance of the country in the future. But not if they carry on like this. I think Russel Norman is probably the only politician in N.Z  that could hold his own against John Key, from a personality perspective. I believe Norman has the goods but he’s getting older, losing his looks, as we all do, and the Greens have no back-up.  Metiria Turei just doesn’t seem to be a credible, viable alternative. She can be great at her job but it wont matter because neither Joe Blow, or his mrs, is going to vote for her. There would be more than a few people enlightened enough to back her but nowhere near enough. They haven’t had a popular public face since Nandor left. They obviously have hopes for Gareth Hughes, but he has shown me nothing to suggest he has the necessary charisma. It’s true that John Key is also ageing, as you do, and will struggle to connect with younger voters. However he is the incumbent and even with the large monkey on his back that is Judith Crush’nBurn Collins, he is expected to win by a comfortable margin. His biggest concern is not Russel Norman, or Cunliffe , he has accounted for them.  It’s the wild-card of Internet/Mana, Dotcom’s revenge, brought on by the frailties of his allies. Peter Dunne is pathetic, he should be dunne and dusted.  A.C.T is an unfunny joke. John Key will need to get down on his knees and beg Epsom to vote for some nobody so his guy can take a dive. Epsom should be ashamed. The Maori party too is under siege. (Not from Labour, even with Kelvin Davis, who is a person Labour should be grooming intensively to front up to the media  as a spokesperson for  Labour at every opportunity. Now! Quickly, before he gets old and fat. If Labour had done that after the last election they might be more than the bad joke they have become.) It’s been Internet/Mana which has been significantly raising its’ profile.  Internet/Mana seems to have a larger number of billboards than the Maori Party, and they are more interesting looking billboards too. The Maori Party needs help but they have distanced themselves from their electorate. John Key may not help them much here. Selling access to John Key at Maori Party fund-raising events shows they treat their main supporters with contempt. They know it’s not Maori business people paying thousands to sit next to John Key at such fund-raising events. I digress. I’m being critical of the Greens today, Maori Party later. So the Greens have been such a disappointment to me because I really wanted there to be a party I could support whole-heartedly. I realise the Green share of the nationwide vote has increased consistently since the introduction of M.M.P and the Greens abandoning the Alliance.  From the point of view of a new political party they have been very successful. From the point of view of me looking for someone to vote for;  I want to be able to express support for their policies and be confident they will fairly accurately represent my beliefs and positions on relevant issues. Which I think gets to the core of the problem I have with the Greens. I wanted them to focus on forming a realistic view of environmental issues, to be open-minded, to create policies which hopefully would be  innovative, and would lead to real progress with some of our key environmental problems. Instead they seem to be thinking that every election more young people get to vote,  and more conservative right wing voting old people die so don’t get to vote. The result should be, more votes for the Greens, less votes for N.Z First. This theory ignores the fact that former supporters and sympathisers are also ageing and becoming more conservative in their outlook. Not conservative enough to vote Conservative I hope. I’ll explain why I can’t stand them later too. Anyway short story is the Greens failed me in respect to all the aspirations I had for them to be a shining beacon that accurately represented my views in parliament. Instead they  just expressed opinions on too many things. Many of them I didn’t agree with. Why couldn’t they stick to the environment and a socially responsible economy? Some of the opinions/policies were ill-informed, others were just a stream of politically correct nonsense. They still don’t seem to get it that they don’t need to have a stated position on every subject. The Green Party website is full of credit worthy policies and ideas but over the last 12 months their people have constantly strayed off message. Only Russel Norman has stuck to the script. The list of candidates is also uninspiring. They are all probably nice, hard-working people, but the party lacks personalities now. They were undoubtedly happy to lose Nandor Tanczos and Sue Bradman so they could portray themselves as a more serious, slightly left of centre party. Luckily for the Greens this year Colin Craig has made enough outrageous statements to overshadow any Green M.P who makes ill-conceived comments. They should attract the younger voters by having more diversity among the candidates. I’m not talking about ethnic , religious or sexual preference diversity. I’m talking about diversity of character, of a range of personalities. Even though the Green candidates come from a much wider range of backgrounds than any other party, a glance at the party list shows a trend that leans toward the bureaucrats. It’s important to have bureaucrats, but it’s also important to have characters that can capture the imagination of the public. People who are self-assured and confident, but also grateful, humble and sincere. People who are larger than life and still just a small part of the team. The refusal to recognise this need and to stick to the real issues are why I lost faith in the Greens, and why I still resent and despise them.

Now onto Judith Crush’nBurn Collins. She is such a bad liar I don’t know why she even bothers. She and Slater had obviously decided the way to deal with the latest incriminating communications between them that has been made public is to deny everything and accuse the whistle blower of fabricating the conversation. Crybaby Collins immediately exposed her untruth by admitting to the N.Z Herald that she knew it was a discussion on Facebook that had been released. Even though the Herald had not passed on that information to her and was trying to assert that the conversation via Facebook had never happened. If it never happened how did she know it happened using Facebook? Then she tried to lie her way out of this admission by saying it had to be Facebook because that’s all she used… And Twitter. Why didn’t she assume the supposed forgery was via Twitter? She couldn’t think of another lie. She obviously knew it was via Facebook because that’s where she had the conversation. He tries to wriggle out of it by saying he has no record of that discussion. Duhh He probably deleted it just so he could use that line without technically telling a lie. They have both lost whatever credibility they had. Which was none in the first place if you ask me. Scum of the earth. Both of them.

Let me be clear on one issue I believe to be an obvious fact  but others disagree. N.Z First is Winston Peters and Winston Peters is N.Z First. Without Winston N.Z First would rapidly fade away. It may have been possible for Andrew Williams to be his appointed successor, but petty personality politics within N.Z First have put an end to that idea. Since Winston had his messy, public split with Brendan Horan, there has been no obvious choice to take over the leadership of N.Z First. To successfully lead a political party a person needs at least some charisma and public recognition factor.  (Something ACT seems to have struggled with now that John Banks is political history.) Winston Peters has these qualities in bucket-loads and very few others and has been a successful career politician. I don’t have any insight into how N.Z First operates internally but I would guess that Winston is the boss and what he says goes. I assume Winston gave the thumbs-up to blind-siding  Andrew Williams. Williams obviously believed his previous experience in politics, his high ranking on the party list at the last election, and his public profile would safeguard him. Winston probably saw all those things as reasons to get rid of him. Williams has now been completely exorcised from N.Z First, no mention of him at all on the N.Z First website. Winston considers his public tantrum after being demoted out of parliament proves he’s not a team player. True I guess. But you can imagine the public tantrum Peters himself would resort to in similar circumstances. It has always been all about him. Now with Horan and Williams out, Winston drags another bunch of names with no public recognition factor into parliament with him.  He doesn’t care. He knows it’s all about him. To make it worse both National and Labour are fluttering their eyelashes at him as a potential coalition partner. As the major parties attack the fine details of each others economic policy, they seem relaxed about N.Z First having no details at all to explain the costs of their policies. They try to unravel the complicated money-go-round each of the main players uses to explain how they intend to pay for the promises they made to the electorate. Winston doesn’t bother with that stuff. He knows he doesn’t need to. Human beings vote with the heart, not the head. Winston doesn’t need to explain anything to anybody. He knows that the people that will vote for him don’t care about fiscal realities, they prefer blind faith. He knows he just needs to get peoples attention and then say something borderline offensive, most likely an incitement to the instinctive urge to distrust that which is different to yourself. Every election year Winston plays the race card. I don’t believe he dislikes Asian people. He should love them. The more Chinese people settling in N.Z, the easier it is for him to stir up discontent about them. If they show they have more wealth than their neighbours, it becomes easier still. When Winston Peters thought gratitude for the Super Gold Card would get him over the line in 2008 he didn’t bother doing  much immigrant bashing. He has learnt his lesson. Mention the Super Gold Card, (really crappy name for a pensioners I.D) and the oldies say “But what have you done for us lately?”  Criticise Asian immigration and they’ll form an orderly queue to join the mob to demonstrate their agreement. Not just Asians, I think Winston Peters will have a go at anyone if he thinks there’s a few votes to be gained. The idea of Winston and his nameless cronies holding the balance of power should terrify New Zealanders. Have we forgotten last time? Or the time before that? He was such a jerk, playing off Labour against National and seeing which would offer him the most, while soaking up the attention of the same media he so resents when it reports his foul ups. It would be three years of ecstasy for the media. Winston loves to blame the media and have a go at them every time he mucks up, and as Foreign Minister, (I know, it’s unbelievable) he had many opportunities to muck up and pretty much took them all. The media loves his tirades against the media and reports them diligently. I don’t dislike Winston, but I don’t believe his brand of political opportunism is good for New Zealand. Winston Peters is all about himself. I think our representatives should be all about all of us. The thought of Winston back in government almost makes me hope National get an outright majority. God help me. Still, the good news is he can’t go on forever, and he has made sure his party will go when he does.

First of all I will say that I think Kim Dotcom is the victim of a politically and economically inspired witch hunt. What he did is no more than what you tube does constantly. The case against him is driven by Hollywood producers and money men who think they need more millions of dollars to cover the expense of producing their mega budget flops. The way I see it is it’s as if they want to prosecute the postal service because someone posted something that they own the copyright on.  Forget for a moment the obvious fact that when they sell a dvd of something they own, they themselves are putting it in the public domain. Instead wonder what sort of storage or delivery company could or would examine the contents of packages they are storing and delivering. Any company that violated the privacy of it’s customers in such a way would soon have no customers.  They would probably also have many lawsuits. If what Dotcom did was illegal in N.Z and he was here when he did it he should be prosecuted here. The F.B.I and Hollywood don’t want that because they know he might get a fair trial here. Well, slightly fairer than in the U.S anyway. It comes down to this. If mega-upload’s customers violated their agreed terms and conditions by distributing copyrighted material, they should be prosecuted, not the company.

So why does this matter to us and our election? It matters because Kim Dotcom is financing Hone Harawira’s Mana Party election campaign on the understanding that if he holds onto his Te Tai Tokerau electorate and if they get enough support in the party vote Mana may be able to take an Internet Party representative into parliament with him. Of course Hone Harawira might not get re-elected in Te Tai Tokerau, which is easily the best sounding electorate name. Or Mana /Internet might get 5% of the party vote, so might not need Harawira’s to hold his seat.

I sincerely hope neither of those things happens. Let’s go back a few years to before the shit hit the fan for Kim Dotcom. He was driving round Auckland in very expensive cars with personalised plates proclaiming that he was god, the devil, and every stomach turning thing in between. He spent a small fortune on a fireworks display for Auckland celebrating himself and his bought and paid for N.Z residency. He also made sure everybody knew who was paying for it, and why. Which makes John Key’s claim that he didn’t know of Dotcom or his residency as farcical. He behaved like rich, German, self obsessed  wanker, which shoudn’t surprise anyone, because that is what he is. Then when things went bad for him, he turned to John Banks, the mega-rat for help. He thought the $50k he had given John Banks would buy him some loyalty. Fat chance, John Banks screwed the people of Auckland for much more than that, but we knew he was a rat and we weren’t surprised at his running for cover and trying to cover his own arse because we knew he didn’t give a crap about anything but himself . Dotcom showed an outstanding lack common sense by having faith in John Banks in the first place. Other things about Dotcom also raise questions about his judgement and astounding lack of self awareness. He publicly proclaims he owns a signed copy of Adolph Hitler’s book, but tries to tell us he’s not a Nazi. In my opinion if you are an adult German and you think it’s acceptable to invest in Nazi memorabilia you have got serious judgement issues. It would make much more sense if he was a Nazi, which also wouldn’t surprise me.  A toothbrush moustache and wehrmacht helmet and he would be the spitting image of Sgt. Shultz. Look at the friends he made when he first arrived in Auckland. Now he goes to Mana party gatherings and tries to convince people he was under-privileged. Look at him, it’s extremely hard to believe he was ever malnourished. He has exactly as much credibility as his ex-friend John Banks, none.

His new friend Hone Harawira also is severely lacking in credibility. Dotcom should expect exactly the same loyalty he got from John Banks, none. Hone Harawira will take Dotcom’s money, spend it, and then blame Dotcom for the poor showing in the election. Blaming others is the thing Harawira does best. Nothing is ever his fault. Colonialism is to blame for everything, from high crime rates among Maori, to Harawira’s own character flaws. I think he is the most overtly racist individual in parliament. He is a clown who just repeats the same unfunny rubbish endlessly. It makes me sad.

Next time I will talk about another clown in parliament that repeats himself like a stuck record. He would have us believe he is racist because it gets him votes. That makes me even sadder.

I think I despise Labour even more than I hate National. They somehow failed to realise the method to overcome a populist, nationalist, politician who is overly popular is to show the voters that he is not a man they should have faith in, he is not an honest trader, that he is not a man who values the truth,  and he sure as sugar doesn’t give a crap about them.

As I see it. Here is how things developed.

John Key is so obviously dodgier than a front-yard used car salesman. His face has a twisted grin that appears whenever he is twisting the truth or trying to divert media attention.

So Labour looks at all the negative aspects of John Keys character and decides David Cunliffe has all those same faults in his character too. And in abundance. Since the positive aspects of John Key’s character were considered phoney anyway, they thought David Cunliffe could fake them too. Make everyone think he was a normal bloke too.  It seemed as if he was trying to be a light-red version of John Key. It looks like he’s trying position himself as a coalition partner for National.  I’m sorry to be so blunt but as I see things his bad haircut plus weak chin equals lack of charisma.  Less votes for Labour.

Labour seems to avoid being too critical of John Key, maybe they think it will make them look bad if they upset John Key’s fans.

They are trying to ride his coattails as flunky parties,  ACT, United Future, and Maori. Not forgetting wannabe flunkies, the Conservatives. Labour may as well have a John Key picture on their billboards.

Labour deserves all our contempt. They have already surrendered.

Only Mana/Internet is interested in showing voters the real John Key. They are being paid to do it too. It would be beneficial for obese German rich guy Kim Dotcom and his businesses if the voters could see that John Key had been complicit in the illegal raid on his mansion and then lied to try to cover up his involvement. I don’t know why he’s bothering. I would guess that when he’s confronted by evidence that he didn’t tell the truth, John  Key will use his wry, crooked grin and question the validity of the evidence, then, start to talk about human recall not being perfect, and the importance of strong U.S ties. All the while sending out the message “So What, what can you do about it? Nothing”. John Key has changed the law in the past to get his own way. With the help of his flunkies of course. So no chance he will let himself be held accountable for telling porkies to  people.  Next time. Why I really can’t Stand Mana/Internet..or is that Internet/Mana

It’s so horrible, every morning I’m driving past large images of politicians. Every National billboard has a picture of John Key alongside whoever is trying to be the National M.P for that area. I think this is probably because all the other National people have public images that are either naturally easy to dislike, or they are so bland and lacking in charisma it’s easy instantly forget them. So National builds their image around John Key, I guess his popularity is used to get voters to accept the other repugnant and boring individuals running for office from his party. Personally I think Brownlee is almost impossible to beat for a public persona that is totally repugnant. It goes to show how popular John Key is. He can even get voters to accept such a reprehensible character as Brownlee. I wasn’t surprised to hear of his recent breaching of airport security, and then him publicly trying to justify it, with what came across as him saying that he was important and powerful enough that the rules don’t apply to him. It is another example of people behaving selfishly and arrogantly once they are in a position of power. It’s the same mindset that led to that other National M.P, Gilmore resigning after trying to use his political position to get his own way after being refused more alcohol. That John Key said he didn’t think this latest abuse of power was serious, is typical of him. If you or I did exactly the same thing we would be charged, and probably locked up for a day or two. I really don’t get it that people like him. His pretend charm is so fake. Of course there are risks for a political party relying on a cult of personality to hold on to power.

Enough about Nats.  Next I’ll tell you why I despise Labour so much.

Just returning to the billboards for a moment. The best ones I’ve seen so far were Mana/Internet, Dotcom dollars seem to have paid for some flashy billboards for Te Tai Tokerau.

If the title of this blog is something you didn’t know, then this is for you, and me too. Don’t panic, we still have over 3 months before election day. During the next 3 months we will hear a little more about N.Z politics each day until it finally becomes a sickening overload. That will be election day.

It’s tempting to try to ignore the whole bloody thing. It’s so boring and my vote never achieved anything before so why would I expect my vote to make a difference this year? Truth is, it wont. So why would I bother? Thinking about politics is just a waste of my time and my brain energy. (Thinking burns up calories but I never heard  of it as a substitute for exercise). I think I know why I will waste my time and my precious brain energy. It’s because it’s my democratic right. If people like us don’t vote the government pretends we don’t exist and treats us like  we don’t exist. Zero votes equals zero interest minus zero consideration.

I don’t pretend to be unbiased. I have my own political opinions. They are fairly shallow and extremely self centred opinions but if I don’t vote for what I like and what I believe in, who will? I might be biased but I am sort of fair.  I have an extreme dislike of the leaders of both the main parties. The only 2 guys that could possibly end up running the country and they both make me ashamed to be a Kiwi man. So I am hassling you to make sure you are registered to vote. You don’t have to vote if you are registered, you can choose not to. If not registered you have no choice. I’m very lazy and if I did it anyone can. Except prison inmates which is pointless and unfair.  This probably makes it easier for politicians to not think about them at all. Zero consideration.

I hope that by the time election day arrives I will have decided what I’m going to do with my votes. I say votes because we all get 2 votes each. There’s the party vote, which sounds like a fun time but it’s not really. Unless ticking a piece of paper while you stand net to a big cardboard box is what you do for fun. I think the fun is in the build up to making the decision, it all goes downhill pretty quick after that. We also get a vote to decide which person represents our area. The area we live in is called our electorate. The electorate is not like a town or a suburb which everybody who lives there knows. It’s more like a school zone with whatever side of the train tracks or road your house is on controls which school your kids go to. Boundaries change over time to suit whoever has political power. Governments change the boundaries if they think it will help them win elections and hold on to power and influence. They also change the names of the electorates. I don’t even know what mine is called. I will find out. I suggest you find out which electorate you are registered in too. If you are not registered you can’t vote so make sure you are registered, or not. Whatever. If you are planning on voting National, they will probably win easy without your vote so don’t worry about it, sit down, put your feet up and pour a glass of that drink you really like. If you were planning a vote for Labour, they’ve got no chance with or without your vote. So relax, put your feet up and think about 2017.

Next time, hear why I think the Greens are a bit too kooky, mana/internet way too kooky, and the Conservatives on another kooky planet (or maybe faking it from a sound stage in Henderson Valley), also what I think of the N.Z First youth wing, the young winnies.

Welcome to Blogtown NZ. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!