Sam J Stephens

[samjstephens]

From a Post article on employment law reforms:

Teachers who refuse to take voluntary sporting or cultural activities, or any union member ‘working to rule’ or refusing to do overtime as part of industrial action, could lose up to 10% of their pay if new legislation introduced by the Coalition Government is passed.

This is a revolting attack on workers. Working to rule is literally doing your work as defined in the contract both you and your employer signed, and refusing to do extra. The government is willing to penalise employees who do their agreed duties for their agreed pay. It's clear this government only respects a contract when it empowers the powerful.

[samjstephens]

"[The government] have specifically excluded the best expertise available to them. And they will make whatever decision they choose to make with no oversight and apparently no requirement to be guided by evidence. "This process is discriminatory, already doing harm, and has the potential to do massive and irreversible damage to a generation of trans children."

[samjstephens]

Curia exited RANZ because Family First are unbalanced

David Farrar’s company Curia abruptly exited the Research Association of New Zealand (RANZ) in August. It was triggered by a complaint about

This one's for New Zealand politics tragics. I've wondered about just why Curia left RANZ for a while now. Here's why. Because they ran a poll about gender affirming care with biased questions for Family First. Because of course they did. Can the press please stop treating Curia polls as credible now?

[samjstephens]

Official concerns about haste and dearth of evidence in Govt’s first year

Newsroom analysis of official advice to ministers shows that fast, ambitious lawmaking comes at a cost. Fox Meyer and Laura Walters report.

"New analysis of officials’ advice has found the majority of new laws and regulations introduced in the Government’s first year have been affected by time constraints and a lack of evidence, or evidence that does not support legislative changes."

[samjstephens]

"The opposition to [Modern Monetary Theory] is not about theory: it is about control, and who controls what. MMT recognizes that money is a creature, and monopoly of the state - not the private sector. Above all, MMT is not a policy prescription. It is not saying “we should try doing it this way.” MMT is a different, and arguably more accurate way of modelling the economy and financial system we have right now. It is “we should try seeing the economy this way, and when you do, you’ll see that we have different options.”"

[samjstephens]

The Billionaires Won: The 50-Year War on Democracy That Built Trump's Oligarchy and Killed the American Dream

Bought politicians, and a court on their side—they’ve seized control...

"We just watched the final fulfillment of a 50 year plan. Louis Powell laid it out in 1971, and every step along the way Republicans have followed it. It was a plan to turn America over to the richest men and the largest corporations. It was a plan to replace democracy with oligarchy. A large handful of America’s richest people invested billions in this plan, and its tax breaks and fossil fuel subsidies have made them trillions. More will soon come to them."

[samjstephens]

We need a minister for big tech, and we need one now

When we have ministers for racing and for space, it's indefensible that there's no one to stare down the tech giants that govern our digital

"It’s unserious to pretend that the biggest problem in scams is banks, not Facebook. The government should be demanding action under threat of huge fines (or prosecution – maybe when the Commerce Commission is done with One NZ), rather than meekly hoping they might come to a meeting. Otherwise, are we even a sovereign state any more?"

[samjstephens]

Consumerism and the climate crisis threaten equitable future for humanity, report says

The Earth Commission says hope lies in sustainable lifestyles, a radical transformation of global politics and fair distribution of resource

All of humanity could share a prosperous, equitable future but the space for development is rapidly shrinking under pressure from a wealthy minority of ultra-consumers, a groundbreaking study has shown.

[samjstephens]

Israel's Short-Lived Glory Celebrated by Kneejerk Polemicists, + Ukraine War Updates

Israel finally succeeded in killing the Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah to almost orgiastic ecstasies in the West.

"This might sound like nothing but this is one of the most extraordinary revealing things Israel has said. In the words of Israeli officials themselves Nasrallah literally died because he refused a side deal that abandoned the Palestinians. In effect this man labelled "terrorist" died because he refused to yield on what all UN resolutions and the immense majority of the international community have been calling for ceaselessly. Except he, unlike those others, had teeth. So, unlike what so many people are saying, the real reason for his death isn't because "Hezbollah are terrorists and they're bad" but so Israel can pursue its land grab and ethnic cleansing unimpeded. He was one of the only ones actually willing to make them face accountability for it and, in their own words, that's why he had to die."

[samjstephens]

The real reason behind Act’s push to redefine the Treaty principles

It's a calculated move to remove a significant barrier to the party's privatisation and deregulation agenda.

It's nice to see the idea that Act are attacking the Treaty because it stands in opposition to privatisation and deregulation put into words so well.

[samjstephens]

The things that are unaffordable and the things that aren’t

$3 billion for a new hospital? Unaffordable. $3 billion for a new motorway? Now we’re talking.

This is an absolutely savage burn on the coalition and their spending priorities. It lays out clearly the lies being told about what we can and cannot afford, and makes it clear they are simply choosing what to spend on and what not to; what matters to them (roads, landlords) and what does not (public health, child poverty).

[samjstephens]

Secretive legal advice argues charter school rules likely to breach FTA, labour rules

Previously confidential legal advice on the school changes has been revealed.

For all their bluster about law and order, the coalition are quite happy to ignore the country's contractual obligations when it suits them.

"A select committee report has revealed previously confidential legal advice that charter school rules will likely breach international labour and free trade agreements. The advice was sent to MPs and sector groups in a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), but they were later told it was a legally privileged draft. Another version was then released with some of the advice redacted."

[samjstephens]

Lurching towards constitutional impropriety

Opinion: Constitutional law expert and former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer takes a deep, concerned look at the risks this Government is ta

[samjstephens]

A reminder that the energy production we needed in New Zealand to avoid the energy crisis and outrageous electricity prices has already been consented.

A reminder that the energy production we needed in New Zealand to avoid the energy crisis and outrageous electricity prices has already been consented.

The same generation companies that have the consents are those currently making sky-high profits. Adding generation capacity pushes the price per unit down. So they are incentivised not to add capacity.

The problem is market structure, and any other proposed solution is nothing but a distraction from that.

https://www.windenergy.org.nz/consented-likely-wind-farms

[samjstephens]

The Man Who Killed Google Search

Wanna listen to this story instead? Check out this week's Better Offline podcast, "The Man That Destroyed Google Search," available on Apple

The astounding, compelling story of how the dude who ruined Yahoo search has made Google search worse so that people do more searches and therefore see more ads, deposing one of Google's best loved long standing engineers in the process. Everything that's wrong with the tech industry today.

[samjstephens]

If Labour had any guts, they'd make it clear that projects consented under the coalition's Fast Track Approval bill are illegitimate, and that under a Labour government consents will be revoked without compensation. This would appeal to large blocks of the public, such as those across the political spectrum who have fought against seabed mining here in South Taranaki. And hopefully serve to blunt the damage the bill will do by making it risky to operate under fast tracked consents.

[samjstephens]

It’s a great day to be a bad guy: Reflecting on the end of Sunday and Fair Go

Newshub collapses, and two of the most important news brands at TVNZ follow a week later. Duncan Greive assesses what we lose, and the miser

"This shows the pure ignorance at the heart of the shrugging response of our prime minister – there is not a demand problem, simply a revenue problem for media. What he is saying here shouldn’t be missed – the “leave it to the market” idea was not considered acceptable for Air NZ, the airline he once ran. It has repeatedly been bailed out by the government, because it was considered unacceptable for a country to lack a national carrier. We are staring down the loss of almost 20% of the country’s news media jobs in a little over a week – but this is not considered important enough for any kind of intervention. News – the chief way we find out what is happening in our country – is fine to just vanish."