MELISSA DISSECTS: Republican greed

This is also the biggest induction that the Sick Phoque Club has ever had - the 233 inductees for August 2019 are:

When Dogs Revolt

It’s the Circle, the Circle of Coffee!

Move over, Limp Bizkit - something much more limp is here!

Never grow up

The most titanic thing anyone can have the guts to do

MELISSA DISSECTS: The ups and downs of 2019-20

Win, then draw, then loss. There are still 35 games to go and they can’t just keep stuffing the season up. WE NEED THE WINS, PEOPLE. WE NEED THE SILVERWARE BACK.

Black’s turn to move

Peeled Coke

Ihumatao and the Universal Basic Income

I’ve been sitting on the fence about the Ihumatao protest until real clarity emerged. Ihumatao is a very tricky and dangerous piece of work placing two powerful energies in direct confrontation and conflict.  There is no perfect answer to this conflict. What is clear is that like taxes, there is no such thing as a ‘fair’ grievance settlement. Some aggrieved persons will always miss out. By catering to the extremists - those leading the grievances charge - the moderates always miss out, which plays perfectly into the government’s ethic of ‘divide and rule’ in order to maintain control. The present standoff destroys any opportunity for real Maori unity, or, the Maori/Pakeha unity needed to restore equal opportunity across all sections of society, bridge the gap between rich and poor, and better share out the fruits of overall economic success.  The longer this dispute goes unresolved, the more likely it is that there will be a violent outcome.

Perhaps both Maori and Pakeha have their eyes on the wrong ball?  It’s true that earlier governments confiscated a lot of Maori land under one excuse or another; many of said excuses lacking any justification in present terms.  And setting aside particular and personal claims by some, the site definitely holds considerable cultural and historical importance to those still supporting Maori cultural values.  Perhaps we SHOULD renegotiate the terms of the alleged settlement, if only to sidestep the consequences of not doing so.

However, the only way that the historical grievances can finally be put to rest, is to ensure that PRESENT AND ONGOING grievances are resolved and laid to rest.  Billions of dollars have already gone to Maori complainants, but rank and file Maori have seen little of the proceeds, and nothing of substance has occurred to redress general Maori complaints of being relegated to being second class citizens.  There is nothing within the settlement debate to address this reality.  Billions more can be poured onto this racial fire which will only further fan the flames of inter-tribal jealousy, and anger the Pakeha backlash even more.  The Hobson’s Pledgers will be viewing this confrontation with glee, asserting this as proof of a racial apartheid system gone mad- and in reverse.

Before the grievance industry can let it go and set its sights on other issues, the underlying causes of widespread poverty, unemployment, inflation, wage servitude, and un-repayable debt must be identified and resolved.  Otherwise, the cancer of long unresolved grievances will continue to plague us like an incurable social cancer that will not heal of itself.

What needs to happen immediately- and time is short- is that a Universal Basic Income must be put in place as a means of reintegrating the poor and working classes back into society.  This is all important not just to Maori, but to all working class persons of whatever race or culture they adhere to.  The UBI will simultaneously provide a guaranteed and transportable basic lifestyle to every person in New Zealand.  Maori will benefit more than most, as the constituents most in need of the UBI.  This will allow all those now unemployed in the urban centres to migrate towards the dying rural areas, with their UBI, to bring new life and new commerce to those depressed areas.  With the UBI, a huge new market constituency is created, creating new consumer demand and more opportunities for commerce in the rural areas.  This will ease infrastructure overload in the urban areas, and transfer a great amount of new opportunity in commerce to those rural areas.  This leads, then, to the next question:  How do we fund the UBI when the present tax take is insufficient to fund existing government ‘services’?

The Association of Sovereignz explains that all taxes are not equal, with some being actually counter-productive, while others bring social benefits.  Income taxes and fuel taxes, for example, force the costs for all goods and services to rise.  The costs of those taxes are added to the costs of all goods and services.  Rising costs are triggers for ongoing inflation, higher interest rates on debt, more unemployment, and a pressure towards lower wages.  Counter-productive income taxes and fuel taxes must simply be dropped from the tax mix before the UBI becomes sustainable and realistically funded.

The GST, and a proposed 30% Capital Exit Tax, on the other hand, have an opposite effect, discouraging luxury consumption, and encouraging more productive uses of discretionary income.  The $30 B of ‘saved’ income and fuel taxes will grow the economy by that much, allowing debt reduction, new savings, new investments, and a huge new consumer market.  This is all very deflationary, requiring the govt. to begin creating and issuing billions in new interest-free money, just to counter that deflation and stabilize the value of our money.  This eliminates most speculative opportunities, driving investment towards real production of goods and services rather than fraudulent and speculative investments that better no one but the speculators.  It is this new money that can fund the Universal Basic Income without taking a single dollar from existing services.

Ihumatao creates an explosive confrontation pitting an unfair historical grievance industry against an equally unfair modern status quo, in which a very small portion of society- the rich- continue to garner most opportunity and nearly all profit from the proceeds of labour.  It is of huge importance that the government renegotiate a new settlement including all the original land holders of the Ihumatao estate.

But it is even more important that they simultaneously introduce the Universal Basic Income of $200 per person per week making everyone a real stakeholder in New Zealand Inc.  Otherwise the grievance industry cancer will continue to divide New Zealand between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, leading to a never ending chain of new treaty claims by disenfranchised Maori.

Had every treaty settlement dollar already paid out been otherwise channelled towards a Universal Basic Income, there would be no more social or racial grievances, as everyone would be empowered to live the life of their dreams, work how and where they chose, and benefit from/with a new equal bargaining power between labour and with capital.  

Unfortunately, this ideal scenario can unfold only in the absence of all income and energy taxes wherein the economy must realize deflationary growth caused by the ‘saved’ $30 B in taxes.

Amazon Is Burning

Drawn with the Wolves

Well she's a guy, so...

MELISSA DISSECTS: Woodstock

Today is the 50th anniversary of the final set of arguably the greatest concert of all time. The singer in question: Jimi Hendrix, and his set was pushed out by rain delays, with him not taking the stage until 8:30am local time on the Monday. People started leaving during the set, as those who stayed on this late only stayed to get a glimpse of the performer. I would have stayed for his set, especially because part-way through the set, he performed Star-Spangled Banner on the guitar. But I would be awaking an already relatively woke crowd by kneeling for the anthem. Don’t just take my word for it - 43 photos from the weekend are just a click of the mouse away: https://celebspulse.com/woodstock-photos/.

Help a brother out, peeps

The link to his GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/9jg36-help-tyler-go-to-school?pc=tw_co_share_m&rcid=r01-156545690559-934812795d574dd1.

America needs to #rockthevote next year

Don’t be a dick around Google

Look no further, here’s the skinny:

30 Years a Console

It’s raining sugar, hallelujah it’s raining sugar, asugar!

Reds’ 2019-20 campaign off to flying start

But it won’t last the whole season. There are 37 games to go, and if the last 6 years are anything to go by, there is a long window during which form can slip. But I know that they can pull it together and one day become a side that former manager Sir Alex Ferguson can be proud of. Here’s the results:

MELISSA DISSECTS: Suicide

Especially as it has been five years since this comedic genius hung himself with a belt. We still miss you, Robin.

Success throughout the ages

I can no longer refrain from saying how I feel

If there is any part of you that thinks that the type of trauma this is causing these babies is justifiable for political or ideological reasons, I rebuke you. 

At judgment day, if you support this in any way, I will be there to testify against you before god. I’m not kidding. 

This is monstrous to a degree you might not understand. But when I see these kids, or hear of them in camps, I immediately see the future adults they will become because of this—the ones that will be broken. Homeless. Addicted. Wounded in the most terrible way humans can be wounded: the damaging of attachment bonds (aka the ripping apart of families). I see them grown up, broken, in my therapy office because of the severe attachment wounds they received that will haunt them their entire lives—and those would be the lucky ones that make it through alive, that make it INTO my office.

Make no mistake, if you voted for Trump, you had your hand in causing this and I rebuke you. You had your hand in LITERALLY ruining thousands of human lives. Justify it however you want: that little girl right there should have left school to go home to her parents. Instead she is in an actual nightmare she may well never recover from. Look at her crying, ignoring that pizza. I can just feel her gnawing terror as her parents don’t pick her up from school, slowly understanding her life is forever altered. I ache for her heartbreak. And she is one on thousands. THOUSANDS. Real lives. Real humans. Real deaths. Thousands and thousands in actual camps. Right now. Happening.

This is real.

If you voted for Trump and you are not actively doing something to correct your mistake, I rebuke you. I will stand before god and bear witness to your cruelty. And any defense you imagine for yourself at that day will fall flat, and children’s deaths (of soul and of body) will cry out against you. 

May this post go down in its tiny place in history as the demarcated day in which I have spoke out against anyone within my reach, anyone I know and love, who has supported this monstrosity against an entire race and culture, against real men and women, and against children. 

And if you voted for Donald Trump and thus helped usher in this nightmare for our LatinX brothers and sisters (documented or not, this affects the entire LatinX community), may you do all in your power to correct your mistake and make amends to these people you have harmed. May you donate money to charities trying to help, or the ACLU. May you vote for WHOEVER runs against Trump in 2020 in order to rectify this grave, undeniable wrong against humanity that you participated in. 

If you do not, I rebuke you. By the spirit of God within me—within us all—I call you to repentance. 

Let it be known I will stand in advocacy of the people you are harming so that you can justify your cheap feelings of “security” or political gain. 

And let it be known I will stand as witness against you at the judgment bar of God. And he will not be moved by whatever weak, tribal political or ideological justifications you use to defend yourself, or whatever pathetic blame you try to cast on others, including the victims themselves. 

The tears and pains and deaths of these children will cry out loudly and plainly against you, and will drown out your paltry protests, and you will be swallowed by your immense, undeniable

guilt, and I and many many others will witness against you, and you will wish to hide your immense shame, you will wish to be swallowed up by the Earth itself. 

But in that day, there will be nowhere to hide.

So let it be written.

(photo is a screenshot of Shaun King's Instagram page)

No, I totally arrived by 10

Modern problems require modern solutions

Savage pigs

When an EV needs diesel to run

MELISSA DISSECTS: Hate

Today marks 75 years since Anne Frank was captured and taken to a concentration camp along with seven other Jews that were hiding at 263 Prinsengracht. Her father Otto was the only one of the group that survived the camps. 75 years on, the same story is playing out along the southern border of the United States. There are immigrant children in cages, all because the Cheeto-in-Chief is acting like the 73-year-old toddler he is. Think about it, guys: the cruelty is the point.

It’s all in the interview

Du, du hast, du hast mich, du hast mich du fag

In a pointed protest of Russia's anti-LGBTQ policies, two members of the German metal band Rammstein shared a kiss during their concert in Moscow on Tuesday. As The Independent reported, guitarists Paul Landers and Richard Kruspe kissed while playing Auslander, a 2019 single that takes its name from the German word for foreigner. The moment was widely praised for its defiance of Russia's "gay propaganda" law, which prohibits "the promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships" to minors. Human rights advocates say the broad law, adopted in 2013, is harmful to LGBTQ youths, preventing them from accessing educational information and resources including mental health services. In 2017, a European court called the law discriminatory, noting that it "had reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia." The public kiss took place days after Yelena Grigorieva, a prominent LGBTQ activist, was found dead with stab wounds and signs that she had been strangled. And unlike another of their songs claims, America ist NICHT wunderbar at the moment either, and will never be until the Donald, his covfefe, and his imaginary bone-spurs have all left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Earth Overshoot Day is upon us already

As is August, so now we have a new member of the Sick Phoque Club to induct - July 2019's the time for humanity and its attitude towards the environment. And here's why: the world has already used up humanity’s allotment of natural resources for 2019, environmental campaigners warned last night as they emphasised the urgent need for action. As of the 30th, the world’s population had consumed more resources than the planet can sustainably regenerate for the rest of the year, according to the Global Footprint Network (GFN). It branded the day “Earth Overshoot Day” and said in a grim warning that it was the earliest the annual marker has ever occurred, as it has moved up by two months over the past 20 years. And at current consumption rates, GFN said the equivalent of 1.75 planets would be required to produce enough to meet humanity’s needs. Mathis Wackernagel, founder of the California-based organisation said: “We have only got one Earth - this is the ultimate defining context for human existence. We can’t use 1.75 Earths without destructive consequences. Our current economies are running a Ponzi scheme with our planet. We are borrowing the Earth’s future resources to operate our economies in the present. Like any Ponzi scheme, this works for some time. But as nations, companies, or households dig themselves deeper and deeper into debt, they eventually fall apart.” JUST STOP IT, EVERONE. ESPECIALLY YOU, BIG OIL.