Boonoo Boonoo River, New South Wales Superthread

[Axver]

I must admit I do wish I'd got that Norway job. Imagine living in Trondheim!

Hell, I may not even be the most pale person there.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

Huh? This is quite the non-sequitur, since I never mentioned Wikileaks - nor do I think the Russians hacked them, though it is hilarious watching Assange rapidly turn from speaker of truth to power into an idol of the alt right. (He's always been pretty loopy though; people were just happy to overlook that six years ago. Look at how hysterically wrong his Australian political party went.) I don't think he's officially working for the Russians or any of those conspiracy theories, but I think this article is an interesting insight into his likely mindset, and he's got a particularly personal axe to grind against Clinton (I do find it suspicious he has shown no interest in leaking against Trump despite the clear public interest in exposing his tax returns): https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/...julian-assange?utm_term=.ivPMzjlDr#.nh0gOMo39

my bad, i misunderstood what you meant. i thought you were referring to everything as a whole, not just the fraud allegations.

it seems like they both have an axe to grind against each other: she wants to drone him, he's hellbent on leaking as much damning evidence as he can on her. i do agree though, i wish wikileaks would release info against trump such as tax returns.

Gotcha, though I think that's somewhat fallacious given that in 1984 Reagan managed to capture all but one state. The US may be polarised but it's clearly possible to swing the other party's heartlands.

agreed, but i think the south is harder to turn blue than new england red. perhaps that's just me being pessimistic, but it seems like even in years where there was a strong republican candidate, one or two new england states might swing red. but good luck trying to get anywhere in the south (florida doesn't count, it's not really the south) to go blue.

...you didn't switch back to the blue? I couldn't do it fast enough.

nah. i might switch back though if i can't figure out how to work the multi-quote feature though. i don't really like the black-on-white (i'm more white-on-black) or the random teal (why teal??) tiled album covers background, but i guess i got so sick of the blue after 15 years.

 

[coolian2]

Well, fucked my back and knee up. But I've successfully moved.

 

[coolian2]

Woo! Go Harbour! Nothing like winning on a last minute field goal.

(Am I adopting the Shore a bit too quickly?)

 

[coolian2]

Went for a walk today (trying to get them into my daily routine).

Discovered a pitfall to moving into an area that you have very little idea about. I am way closer to an ex-girlfriend's house than I had any intention of being. Possibly might look like a stalker.

However it does also mean I'm a lot closer to the fresh strawberries/raspberries guys than it feels like from the bus, so...win?

 

[Axver]

Woo! Go Harbour! Nothing like winning on a last minute field goal.

(Am I adopting the Shore a bit too quickly?)

Ugh I was so disappointed by that result. It's basically the worst possible rugby result not involving Wellington/Kapiti-Horowhenua: my second team, Otago, losing to one of the three Auckland teams (all of whom I loathe, as a good Wellington boy should).

I will have to tune into Canterbury vs Tasman tonight though. Fins up, as they say.

 

[coolian2]

Indeed. What's the term? Fuck Canterbury?

 

[Axver]

my bad, i misunderstood what you meant. i thought you were referring to everything as a whole, not just the fraud allegations.

it seems like they both have an axe to grind against each other: she wants to drone him, he's hellbent on leaking as much damning evidence as he can on her. i do agree though, i wish wikileaks would release info against trump such as tax returns.

I think what this is doing is causing many on the left to re-evaluate Assange, in particular whether or not they are willing to overlook some of his more unsavoury or dodgy personal qualities. His unwillingness to curate his dumps of information has always been problematic simply from the perspective of trying to locate what's actually important, and his conflation of curation with censorship is bizarre. But I certainly think I was too ready to look past the disclosure of some information back during the first major dumps because I took pleasure in the US being on the back foot. Personal information of low-level individuals was outright unnecessary; it contributed literally nothing to his objectives, while actively harming those it exposed.

I also find his failure to actually practice his own ideology of "radical transparency" to be a huge fucking red flag. The man's behaviour in the last four years has increasingly soured me towards him. I have always been profoundly uncomfortable with the rape allegations, which have been so poorly handled by both sides as to compound the situation of the women involved. And it must be said that exposing war crimes is a far cry from releasing data dumps that favour the goals of the more powerful authoritarian rulers of our time and may put in power an actual fascist - whether in active collusion or a happy convergence of objectives (I believe the latter). Putin may not be the most deplorable current dictator but Fuckknob McGee in Small Third World State lacks the global reach of Putin. And I am rather disturbed that some on the left now view Putin's Russia with more sympathy than they do with established Western democratic institutions. Fellow-travelling with the Soviet Union made more sense, and I suspect I would have done so in its early years had I been alive then. But nothing of Putin's Russia bears any resemblance to left-wing ideology.

nah. i might switch back though if i can't figure out how to work the multi-quote feature though. i don't really like the black-on-white (i'm more white-on-black) or the random teal (why teal??) tiled album covers background, but i guess i got so sick of the blue after 15 years.

My biggest critique, besides the unnecessary tiled album covers background, is the failure to maintain some continuity - a nod to the site's traditional blue should have been included.

 

[Axver]

Indeed. What's the term? Fuck Canterbury?

Correct.

Also, it's nice they've introduced some promotion/relegation, but it sucks that teams in the Heartland Championship will never have the chance to return to the top flight. I still remember King Country playing in the first division in the nineties.

 

[coolian2]

Correct.

Also, it's nice they've introduced some promotion/relegation, but it sucks that teams in the Heartland Championship will never have the chance to return to the top flight. I still remember King Country playing in the first division in the nineties.

My hope is one of those preseason Ranfurly Shield challenges is a massive upset, watch promotion/relegation come back in a big way.

 

[Axver]

Hahaha wouldn't that be nice. Doubt it's possible now though, with the entrenched division of pro/amateur.

I do find it a bit wild that Marlborough - via Tasman - are contesting for the premiership, since they were a third division team when I left NZ!

And, of course, a quality lower team like Wanganui or North Otago now has no chance to ever replicate that. You need the ability to build, going from third division powerhouse to second division minnow, to gradually building to dominate the second division and make it to the big league. That's what the likes of North Harbour and Southland did.

 

[coolian2]

Mind you towards the end, promotion/relegation wasn't working. Northland would go easily winless all season, then stomp the team trying to be promoted.

Expanding the NPC would help. I remember being at Eden Park watching Auckland run up 100 on Counties not that long ago. Now look at them, with the benefit of professional resources.

 

[Axver]

Oh god I remember those games, when Hawke's Bay were desperately trying to get into the first division. I suspected they would have succeeded had the games been played in Napier or at a neutral venue. Definitely promotion/relegation became more difficult for the promoted team after rugby went professional. But you have to wonder if the NZRFU could have administered resources better. The fact attention shifted very rapidly from the NPC to Super Rugby helped nobody. It's rather interesting how the NPC almost immediately became a poor relation while the Currie Cup remains a massive deal in South Africa.

 

[coolian2]

Even Super Rugby is getting dropped for the All Blacks. NPC is my favourite form of rugby, the higher up it goes the less I'm interested.

 

[Axver]

All Blacks is always what I will be most passionate about, but NPC rugby has a very special place in my heart.

 

[Axver]

There we go, wine in the fridge, dinner is cooking. Hope this is ready in time for the game.

 

[coolian2]

Have my coffee, a lazy ham and mustard sandwich (to be chased by a jam bagel) and I'm good to go.

 

[coolian2]

This new place is great. I don't have to stream or go to a dodgy pub to watch sport.

Plus my flatmates speak English so I can actually have a conversation.

 

[Axver]

Damnit not going to have dinner quite ready in time. But here we go, come on Tasman!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

And I am rather disturbed that some on the left now view Putin's Russia with more sympathy than they do with established Western democratic institutions. Fellow-travelling with the Soviet Union made more sense, and I suspect I would have done so in its early years had I been alive then. But nothing of Putin's Russia bears any resemblance to left-wing ideology.

I always got the impression that the notion that leftists 'support' Putin was mostly constructed through think pieces by liberal-leaning (and I suppose conservative too), and without a grounding in reality. There do exist sections of the left who 'back' Putin in an ill advised 'anti-imperialist' manner, but never really on an ideological level - and those tend to support Assad using the same reasoning (and oddly sticking up their nose at genuine leftist movements in the region). There's a tendency I've noticed among liberal media (see the Daily Beast, for instance, essentially the Irvines of the media pundit world) that relishes red baiting and pushes a 'reds under the bed' Cold War mentality in regards to Russia.

I despise it immensely.

 

[Axver]

That was quick!

 

[Axver]

I mean in the rugby, not Vlad.

 

[coolian2]

That was quick!

No kidding!

 

[Axver]

No kidding!

Awful start but glad to see Tasman fighting back. Gutted they just missed out on a try.

 

[coolian2]

I thought he got there

 

[Axver]

It happened right as I was serving my dinner so I didn't get a good look.

Tasman need to stop making basic errors but geez their scrum is good.

 

[coolian2]

Yehaa Tasman

 

[Kieran McConville]

I always got the impression that the notion that leftists 'support' Putin was mostly constructed through think pieces by liberal-leaning (and I suppose conservative too), and without a grounding in reality. There do exist sections of the left who 'back' Putin in an ill advised 'anti-imperialist' manner, but never really on an ideological level - and those tend to support Assad using the same reasoning (and oddly sticking up their nose at genuine leftist movements in the region). There's a tendency I've noticed among liberal media (see the Daily Beast, for instance, essentially the Irvines of the media pundit world) that relishes red baiting and pushes a 'reds under the bed' Cold War mentality in regards to Russia.

I despise it immensely.

I was thinking about this too. I think that aside from the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' reflex - as if Anglo/American objectives in the world are not corrupt when they aren't incoherent - there is maybe a wariness in some quarters about buying into the whole kit and kaboodle.

Once you embrace Putin's Russia as The Big Bad - as opposed to a, middling to largeish, bad - you're halfway to endorsing the next shooting war. And it's not as though the US and its allies have clean hands here, tearing up the Gorbachev-era assurances and actively seeking to expand NATO as far as they can push it. I don't trust anything I read in the 'quality press', not anymore, not at face value anyway

Of course some do go to the opposite extreme, vis a vis Putin and Assad, and some fall right down the rabbit hole altogether (The Guardian's obscure bete noire 'Off Guardian', springs to mind). Some of that doesn't come from any identifiable left perspective.

 

[Axver]

Haha wow what a try that was. Great stuff and glad to see Tasman in front. But for how long? Canterbury looking good now they have fifteen on the park.

 

[coolian2]

Haha wow what a try that was. Great stuff and glad to see Tasman in front. But for how long? Canterbury looking good now they have fifteen on the park.

That was quick

(Again)