After being savaged by New Zealand prices for over two weeks, I purchased a magazine (North and South, $9.00NZ, $6.75US) with a cover article, Why Prices are so Bloody High, by Chris Barton. It’s long and mostly anecdotal, but a key paragraph follows:

” It is estimated New Zealand’s economic growth rate would have been 15.5 percentage points higher between 1990 and 2010 if income inequality had not surged in the Rogernomics and Ruthanasia years after 1985,” said business commenter Bernard Hickey. “the report essentially argues the ‘trickle down’ theory used for much of the last half century by most developed countries does not work and the best method of improving economic growth is to reduce income inequality.”

I assume that Roger and Ruth were former government officials here. I don’t follow these things.

At another point Barton cites social historian Gordon McLauchlan, so says “You have to take power away from those people who make $4 million a year and think they are worth it.”

I see the simmering resentment in McLauchlan’s remark. I don’t see any way that one person is worth a hundred, much less a thousand times more than another. Luck has a lot to do with wealth, as does scaling, exploitation of other humans, subsidy and choice of birth canal. I also do not understand how anyone can think a human being unworthy of food, shelter and health care.

I take it one step further however. Every powerful person has the ability to buy pet economists, train and feed them and teach them to speak in a given manner. It should not be surprising that the Chicago School is more properly called the Rockefeller School of economics. These social pariah will parrot any idea that pays well, and plays it out in the future to be for the good of all.

But the paymasters know better. Neoliberalism was not meant to “succeed” in the sense that all would enjoy its benefits. Rather, it was a stalking horse for those who do benefit, the haves who want more. So in that sense, it has not failed, but rather succeeded, wildly.

The food here in New Zealand has not been to my liking, so I’ve taken to ordering ‘entrees.’ That word means something entirely different from in the U.S., where they would likely be known as “appetizers.” We are in a seaport, Akaroa, and just about everything they offer is fish of some variety. My palate does not harmonize with fish (which is only considered good if it tastes like what it isn’t).

I ordered beef carpaccio two nights ago, and was served five raw cold medallions with some sort of greenish dressing on them. I’ve checked the menu and that dish is no longer offered. I am also now given to understand that “carpaccio” describes various dishes served raw.

I’ve been paying the price ever since, and it is amazing how stomach and intestinal distress taxes joie de vivre – no desire to drink coffee (which is excellent here) or eat even modest quantities of food of any kind. Beer or wine – forget it. Nothing seems remotely interesting, no desire to write or read or hike or even just sit and people-watch. My quest right now is to find a bottle of sparking water to keep fluids moving through me so that this nasty business is soon over.

Yes, too much information. But I was thinking of John Cleese’s appearance on The Daily Show a while back when he was asked about politics and the world situation, and he said “I don’t give a fuck.” He’s in his late seventies now, and I think he’s assumed the proper attitude, which is mine right now as I make the best of this situation and the after effects of that awful meal.

In our travels around the south island of New Zealand, we’ve come across small local memorials to men who lost their lives in World War I, specifically at Gallipoli and at the Battle of Passchendaele. The number of casualties the country suffered, 16,300 dead and 40,400 wounded, far exceeds any stake that the country had in the outcome of that war by exactly this: 16,300 dead and 40,400 wounded.

It is said that New Zealand and Australia came of age, seized their identities as unique countries at that time. They apparently took hold of the fact that Old Europe was none of their concern.

I have looked through memorials to Winston Churchill now, and find there are none in New Zealand – no streets or squares or ball parks or schools named after the bloody bastard. But there are an oddball number of such things in Canada, I have found.

From this I conclude that New Zealanders are better at naming things than Canadians. I happen to like the name “Christchurch” for a city, for instance, and am none too fond of “Edmonton.” That is just one example. I have others.

This sculpture is the 2015 driftwood art winner in the annual contest here in Hokitika, New Zealand.

This is Savannah Guthrie. She is being considered as a replacement host for Brian Williams, on leave of absence for being caught in a lie, considered a “gaffe.” In news, a gaffe is getting caught lying about something inconsequential. Lying convincingly about important things is the job description. (In politics, a “gaffe” is accidentally saying something that is true.)

Guthrie appears to have all of Brian’s qualifications. She’s pretty, has a nice smile. She might be able to fill in slots on shows like 30 Rock and be really funny on Fallon. She could lie to me every night. I’d believe her.

Brian Williams is a community college dropout. As it is pretty well conceded that college degrees are mostly useless anymore, that was no blotch on his record, and I like that he forged ahead in the acting profession without training. He’s a natural.

But I did watch him in an interview one time where he claimed to write his own lines in real time for nightly news as the show went on. Nobody flinched. That was pretty good lying, probably why he thought the helicopter story would fly. People were eating his stuff up.

It’s not about truth. American news is lies. It’s about believability.

We are sitting in Queenstown Airport and have a long wait for our flight to board, but it was better than sitting in a motel room or again experiencing downtown Queenstown, where they use $20 bills as napkins. It is like Aspen in that regard, or any resort town. They know you are passing through but once, and so have no compunctions about vacuuming your pockets as you leave any establishment. Our first day here last week I paid $38 for two pair of ordinary socks (about $30 U.S.) and was embarrassed to have done so. That was not unusual. A short ride from our motel resort to the airport was $20. $15 U.S.

Internet here at the airport is free and the signal is strong. That’s something. At Novatel, a hotel we stayed at last week on return from Milford Track, I inquired at the desk why our Internet had petered out that morning. They said they we had exceeded usage allowance. We had indeed listened to podcasts and done some email the night before, nothing more. They said we owed an additional $49.50 in addition to the $15 we had paid at the outset. It was taken from our credit card.

“Put it back,” I said.

She then retreated to a back room and emerged with three sheets of paper detailing our every move on the Internet. She said that the allowance was 5Mb or something like that.

“Nobody knows what that means. Nobody,” I said. “Give the money back.”

She retreated again, this time to speak with her supervisor. People here are very nice, so I assume her supervisor was too, and a wimp to boot. He or she did not emerge, and the clerk did and said they would drop the $49.50 charge. ($37.50 U.S.)

As they should. If they don’t warn us about such things, they should back off. But it is interesting. The coffee shop next to the hotel has wifi and it is a strong signal and they allow all customers unlimited usage. It’s a cost of being in business these days, like electricity. I downloaded podcasts there as we drank our coffee so as to avoid more Novatel charges. But broadband is a utility these days. We all use it, need it, expect it. Novatel has got the old capitalist enclosure thing going. Once inside their gate, everything costs extra.

OK. I did ask her if they also charged for electricity delivered to the room. She picked up my sarcasm.

But this is classic rent seeking behavior, to take something that already exists, make no improvements or add any value, and convert it to a profit center. That’s all Verizon or anyone does, rent seeking. They need monopoly-like environs to get away with it, which is why everything in our economy these days is sold by some virtual monopoly somewhere.

If enough assholes like me come through Novatel, they’ll stop doing that. My wife says I should be nicer to clerks and such, and that’s true except that part of their job is to deflect heat from those who make decisions like reaming people’s asses for mere bandwidth. So part of her job to is to endure the heat that rightly belonged to her cowardly supervisor.

The American FCC recently classified Internet service as a utility, which has elicited howls of protest from the stuck pigs of the broadband industry. Their bought legions in Congress will work to overturn that decision. It ain’t over by any stretch. But there is that small victory, like mine.

NBC stays silent, but privately stands behind news anchor Brian Williams

Only in America do they lie about the reasons for a war, the violence committed during the war, including casualties and refugees, torture committed and innocent deaths, but then get after a news reader for embelleshing a story about personal danger while flying to be close to boom booms while he reads his lines.

Bryan Williams is an actor, paid to sound trustworthy as he lies about everything he happens to be reading, probably unknowingly. He’s not that bright. Leave him alone. He’s just doing his job, lying convincingly. He had a bad day. OK? One of the lies got away from him.
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PS: Tom Brokaw, extremely arrogant paid professional liar also capable of writing complete sentences, thinks Williams ought to be fired. The crime, I assume, must be ‘getting caught in a lie.’