Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Hello Bari Weiss NYT opinion

Posted 28th January 2019 to the New York Times Newspaper NY NY USA



Hi Bari Weiss,
I have been looking at what goes on with the effect of every one having the ability to comment on our society and interact with it on a personal level using electronics.
Podcaster Joe Rogan pointed out that the average person has no time to follow politics and will simplify all facts to what is important to ones “tribe” of friends & Family.
That being said, there are some hardened old school journalists online who are breaking through to the thinkers with stories and views based on the idea that thinkers are the only audience that matters and that tribes of sheep are a evolutionary dead end for the USA and humanity  I like your Michael Barbaro but The Young Turks are the real groundbreakers if you don’t want the wool pulled over your eyes... So when their Jimmy Dore burns someone you can bet he is on the money  and if Cenk tells us about our right wing Atlas Network destabilising governments you bet you will have to wait a while before “The Daily”  picks that story up because Cenk owns his street cred .

Also BTW Bari, The Jewish People are loved, they sent us Jon Stewart & Bernie Sanders after all.  Plus countess others that are true humanitarians. 




Presidential Infallibility Proclimation

Posted January 2019 to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper Chicago Ill USA



If you study the history of the Christian Church  and the Capitalism Faith in the modern world you can see a reflection of the past in patterns of human struggles with reality.  It is interesting to view our oligarchs as Bishops, the President as their Pope and our progressives representing  Martin Luther, based on the problems of infallibility just as the Church faced in the past.

The older generations of Americans are struggling with faith in the presidency and the capitalist system that fails to live up to it’s infallible greatness that brought us to where we are today.

However the ideals of the Founding Fathers still stand and like scientific theory they hold up to scrutiny. The Neo liberal ideal of every man for themselves is something unworthy of any faith nor are any of it’s Preachers, Cardinals or Popes   

Bernie Sanders has nailed that proclimation to the Senate Door. It
is up to everyone else to decide to stop what is a generational mistake in human genetic programming.  



Monday, January 21, 2019

Fiordland Heli-Hikes Ban 2019

Posted 19th  January 2019 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper  Dunedin NZ



Your recent article on the banning of Heli Hiking on Manapouri’s Amazing Mount Titiroa is a bit concerning.
I love the federated Mountain Club but some how they found a loop hole in the structure of the Department of Conservation that allows them to kick other types of user out of the people’s estate who are not fit young things with lots of time to kill.

When we battle the Department over the right to cycle in National Parks they say clubs like the FMC put in the submission that no bikes should ever be allowed and it takes a political event to change such as a national park review.

Now the FMC also wish to limit tourists from seeing Mount Titiroa.
It may transpire that the FMC also stopped the Department from marking safe tracks up Mount Titiroa
Or upgrading huts which have either been destroyed, or in the case of North Borland, a glorified 2 man garden shed and even restricting local guiding, but that’s another story.

I think day users should have some rights in our parks even though they have not formed a voting block especially on a unique mountain that is only 8 mins flying from our airport that would otherwise take 3 days tramping and a load of logistics.






The Trump Simulation USA

Posted 17th Jan 2019 to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper Chicago Ill USA



So only now are Washington Pundits openly asking what if Donald Trump is being blackmailed into wrecking the country?
Is is not clear why a strong middle class is the best defence against blackmail by subversive agents ?
Oligarchs and rich politicians are wide open to being manipulated into betrayal of their countrymen.
They always have so much to loose which is their great weakness.
You can not blackmail the middle class though you can apparently sedate them. Meanwhile the Working class are inching towards a General Strike for the sake of humanity and common decency while being stoked by Fox News and friends.   

This is not a simulation.



NZ's Tourism Empire Rebrands

Posted 15th January 2019 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ



Thanks for your bumper tourism Issue on Jan 4  And the reorganisation story of the old Fiordland Travel aka Real Journeys into the Wayfare group.  It’s Good the Hutchins Family still hold some of old values from Les Hutchins days, when they use to listen to friends and locals. It was sad when progress sent the company into the high stakes management era and they moved HQ to Queenstown.  
They say good luck is when preparation, ambition by chance strike opportunity. Current CEO Richard Lauder certainly managed to ride that wave, but in a high stakes game the fall can be hard when the wave breaks.
I just hope Mr Lauder takes time to reflect on the history of what was the greatest Fiordland enterprise, forged on old fashioned pride, thrift and service. And by those who believed in it.  


  

Invercargill Lowlands and Sea Level prediction

Posted 13th Jan 2019 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ



It is kind of sad to see what happened to the Invercargill estuary under the human stewardship of public environmental assets that can not be exploited for commercial benefit. I can only think that there was just so much unspoiled nature in the early days of European settlement that the founders just got tired of it. Or perhaps intensification of farming we encourage lead to the final nail.

The next worry is what degradation rising sea levels will take on Southland’s numerous shallow inlets & margins.
Has anyone drawn up any projections of what we have in store in that respect?

Also how is our soil holding out? In parts of the USA the Soil is worn out from over use and is only alive due to heavy use of various nutrient applications and chemicals. Something that is repeating pattern globally with modern agriculture.

Despite low population density and our geographic distance buffer we are not isolated from global problems, or simple physics.  



Governing Without Faith - USA

Posted 10th Jan 2019 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ


How is it that the United States had all the luck and power in the world for the last one hundred years and is now in a perpetual state of crisis ?  I think it’s due to a stubborn faith that it’s democratic process is God Like.
Ask any rational person if an election so corrupted as the US 2016 presidential Election should be valid and the answer is a definite no, however in the USA only the very bravest commentators say they need to run the 2016 election over again from it’s primaries knowing what we all know now.

Seriously, no faith should be this strong that this kind on madness can be left to run wild because of precedent.
The grave crisis that faces the USA is not on it’s boarders but inside them. This administration strikes at the very roots of law and order to keep it’s tentative grip on legitimacy alive.

If that is not a uber crisis than we all need new dictionaries.

As for the Government shutdown show me one billionaire stepping up to pay to keep the county that sustains them...
Not so much as a single Buffet. 


 

Sunday, January 20, 2019

New Survey on Fox News Viewers

Posted 21st Jan 2019 to the Odentroll Internet Blog New Zealand



A source from Cornell University came out with survey info done on FOX NEWS viewers
who are considered the base voters that helped elect the 45th president of the United States

When asked if the election of 2016 was found to be unlawful should it be deemed invalid

The answers where chilling and unpublishable.

The coordinator who wishes to be anonymous said they also unanimously think that climate change is not their problem as they don't expect to be around when it reaches a critical flash point.

Further more they do not appear to deem their "spoiled" offspring robust enough to maintain western civilisation or populate it as leaders.

Surprisingly they also appear to have a great fear of the Lovelock Population Bomb hypothesis.
despite never reading it.



Saturday, January 12, 2019

Last Chance for the Kingston Flyer Train

Posted 27th Dec 2018 to the Otago Daily Times News Paper Dunedin NZ.



I have followed the fortunes of the Kingston Flyer Train since It was dreamed up in the 1970s
I really hope the newest effort gets a break and goes some where, but since the government abandoned the project it has been cursed and time is now at the 11th hour.

The only really hope is if there new people can get the government to make the train a National Monument and give it some high level TLC.  The Idea that our fragile private enterprise sector can take on what is essentially a government project is flawed and leans heavily on donations and volunteer workers. Still if you can round up enough caring, generous Queenstown residents who are also Railway History Buffs I take my hat off to you for your almost wizard-like skills with human resources . 



Silicon Valley Robber Barons - Booking Systems

Posted 27th December 2018 to the Mountain Scene Newspaper Queenstown NZ



I hate to point it out but NZ Tourism has been taken for a ride by Silicon Valley California which is clipping every ticket in the country so to speak, Yes every business that uses ON-LINE BOOKING is giving their hard earned money to modern day Robber Barons.

We had our own home grown Information sites that use to handle the flow of tourists but they did not keep up with technology nor did our feckless government tourism ministry  especially when it was run by our previous alleged Prime Minister.

There are some who refuse to partake in this nonsense money leeching algorithm but one has to take a hit because silicon valley has changed the nature of tourism its self to a point where the Idea of following one nose has become antiquated and human recreation its self is now controlled by some kind of destructive artificial intelligence.

But that is another story.  



Where is Tourism Going in New Zealand ?

Posted 18th December 2018 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ



So when Trump is gone and Brexit is over the Anglo American world will have to regroup and reconfigure to a world that is no longer infinite in opportunities especially for environmental abuse. So NZ should prepare for a shift in tourism.
In the past we where known for preserving the past for economic reasons  and this could pay off in the future as being  place where people can romantically engage the past.  Dunedin is set up well to take advantage of this kind of thing.

At the Moment Air Travel way way cheaper than it should be so this mass scale out of control break neck tourism is going to have to go.  But we will see the return of old school low volume cultural tourism and The Dunedin Cable Car System Restoration and places like Cargill’s Castle and High Street Mornington will pay dividend to the community if preserved  especially if the government is throwing money around at Ideas.



Help our Lost Confused Politicians

Posted 18th December 2018 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ



It’s been 100 years since the end of the Great War of the European & American Bankers that spread a new power across the globe where the Anglo American Work ethic has changed the face of all cultures and all nations but now its looking a bit old and sad and the job of government cheering hard work and growth of industry seems out of date. Maybe it’s time for some progressive politics to blast fresh air on the cobwebs of political complacency.
Garry Tong & Tim Shadbolt have been great cheerleaders for progress but there has been a lot of questionable stuff outside the public mandate that are not the nuts and bolts of maintaining a healthy community.
If I was a mayor I would treat rates as a form of community insurance, also I would be cheerleading whistle blowers and have a reward system for our brightest and best in the community.
There are great changes ahead for us all in the world and the old ways are not going to be appropriate forever.