Phil Goff's Election Time Suicide Gaffe.

What the hell does Phil Goff think he's doing being drawn into engagement with National on the raising of the pension age a month before the election? This is a mid-term issue for an incumbent government- why should anyone vote for a labour party whose policy gurus are so intellectually retarded they invite the electorate to kick them in the teeth on election day by raising it now? John Key knows this is a vote loser and will be totally irrelevent before the timescale the changes are proposed over has even begun. Key knows that in the radically polarised world he anticipates forty years hence, the common herd are unlikely to even have a life-expectancy of sixty-seven years so he can play this issue as as pure piece of electioneering politik. My heart is filled with despair at the ineptitude of the parties of the opposition in the face of this cynical, sinister man and the fawning cronies that surround him.

There was a little gem that came out at the time that Standard and Poor's downgraded New Zealands credit rating that, had National continued with the taxation policies pursued by the previous Labour government, then the credit rating would not have been lowered. Labour could have jumped on this and ridden it all the way to the election. Allied to this is the fact that, by failing to raise enough tax revenue, they have deliberately taken the country into deep sovereign debt in order to create the pre-conditions, as provided in the European economies by bank bale-outs, for future cuts in public services and the sell-off of publicly owned assets. Where did you hear the opposition parties raise this? Nowhere. Instead, Labour are effectively buying-into Nationals vision of the future world by addressing the "affordability" of future pensions in this way.

Tasman District Council declares war on Lifeboaters.

Tasman District Council is on the warpath against lifeboat-builders.

Tonight at a meeting called by the Motueka Valley Association in the tiny settlement of Ngatimoti, 140 residents of the District from as far away as Golden Bay and Rotoiti came together to voice their support for Valley residents caught up in a recent trawling exercise by the TDC to seek out and enforce against property owners who have entered into "irregular" living arrangements on their rural properties. One such owner has allowed individuals and families to live rent-free in yurts and straw-bale buildings that have been erected without consents and building regulations in return for the "tenants" help in creating a self-reliant and resilient community. It seems there has been no complaint at-all from neighbours regarding these "irregularities". prompting one commentor to suggest their be a policy of "no enforcement actioned without a bona-fide complaint", which idea was sniffily dismissed by the council officers present.

One commentor from the floor raised the issue of the world sovereign debt crisis and the likelihood of a "collapse" causing a mass exodus of the urban population into the rural hinterland in search of the means to produce their own food. The concept was lost on the councillors and officials present (and, frankly, on most of the lay-attenders too) who seem unable to view the issue in any other light than that of "lifestyle choice". Personally, I doubt whether many actual "lifestylers" (as opposed to true smallfarmers) would volountarily enter into such arrangements on their "play-farms" with members of the "great unwashed" without coercion or a full-blown crisis prevailing. Instead, the focus seemed to be on suggesting that the council revisit the "Rural Management Plan" to see if those desiring alternative living arrangements could be accommodated.

Guess what? guys- while you are waiting for the sloth that is local government to pontificate (and most likely find against you), the global sovereign debt crisis is going to knock you from arsehole to breakfast-time!

In any case, one of the major issues, which the officials were at pains to emphasise is out of their hands as it is governed by national legislation, is that the building regulations wouldn't allow people to live in these type of structures because they are not "code compliant". Makes you wonder how in the quarter of a million years of human evolution we survived the first 249,950 without these "heroes" to protect us from ourselves! Don't you think?

It will come as no surprise to those familiar with the antics of public officials to know that, having turned a blind-eye to minor irregularities in the valley for years, this new found zeal for detection and enforcement is happening during the time leading up to the proposed but ill-concieved Nelson City / Tasman District amalgamation. With the threat of the loss of 60-70 jobs from a combined council, officers will be running around trying to fill the case-book with anything to keep themselves looking busy and indispensible for the months and years to come. They percieve this issue as a "soft target".

For the time-being, the law is on the side of the council. However, under the present circumstances right, and plain common-sense, are on the side of those building resilient communities.

Credit must be given to TDC's planning policy chief, Steve Markham for his enthusiasm for the ability of the public to initiate change to the Rural Management Plan, although this scarcely helps those already ensnared in the enforcement process, and the process is obviously too slow to help with the effects of the unfolding global crisis.

The deplorable attitude of dinosaur councillor Trevor Norris is also noted. Cllr Norris seems to bristle with self-righteous zeal at the prospect of the enforcement process being used as a blunt instrument to beat down those who don't subscribe to his archaic view of rural land use. Wake Up! Cllr Norris!

A History Lesson on the Absurdity of the Banking System

Sorry to all for the lack of original content at the moment, the time of year demands full attention to farming matters. Please forgive!

Thanks to commentator Lautturi over at The Automatic Earth for this history lesson.

A note from history books:
January 24, 1939, Robert H. Hemphill, credit Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said:

If all the bank loans were paid no one would have a bank deposit and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous: if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It (the banking problem) is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.

Jerry Mataparae is the Wrong Man to be Governor-General

A bit of a worry, really, having this man as Governor-General. I suspected, when Mataparae was made director of GCSB (the government spy agency, effectively, under the ANZUS treaty, a proxy for U.S. intelligence gathering) after retiring as head of the armed forces that this was a man who's ideology was absolutely compatible, although possibly not complicit, with John Key's vision of hegemony to the interests of financial elite of which Key himself is an agent and cadet member, and that has already completely captured the U.S. body politic. Mataparae has already shown lack of understanding of the requirements for the position as demonstrated by his breach of protocol with his comments regarding Nicky Hagar's allegations concerning the role of NZ forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Despite my personal leanings towards devolved autonomy for individuals and communities I have always held a candle for the constitutional monarchy and particularly the role of the Governor-General, as the legal commander-in-chief of the armed forces, police and so-on, as an insurance against the siezure of power by a political faction. Despite the fact that these powers are, by convention, never used they are nevertheless very real and pertinent in times of constitutional crisis. It seems that the present political faction have managed to foist "their man" into the position at just such a critical time. I believe that during the next five years, we will see some kind of "end game" played out and the last thing we need is a Governor-General who is a poodle of the cabal that seeks to destroy the sovereignty of the crown as representative and guardian of the common-wealth of the people.