Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
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My second reason for ditching politics from across the ditch |
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First off, happy anniversary day Nelson! It's our once a year regional day off. I'm shopping in Wellington, what else would I be doing, really on Nelson Anniversary Day than leaving Nelson!!?? Now, onto my blog.
I'm ejecting from being an informed follower of the American political system. I've pulled the rip cord, I'm outta here, I'm done with it. Mostly, anyway, I still love Real Time with Bill Maher and The Daily Show. They make me laugh, and that's about the only emotion I'm going to give American politics anymore. No more blood, sweat, or tears.
Of course this is a practice in its early stages at the moment, it is yet to be determined if I can keep it up, if I can keep out of it to the extent I want to. I'm withdrawing slowly, stopping a few podcasts and stopping my daily dose of CNN. Slowly, in time, I hope to withdraw about 90 percent, with only the few bits and bobs I've mentioned.
I don't consider it a surrender, I consider it a strategic fallback to a more secure and safe position for my mental health.
A couple of weeks ago was excruciatingly tough to get through. Two bombshells. First, Massachusetts elected little-known truck driving politician Scott Brown to the Senate to take the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. I could care less about Scott Brown winning the seat, he won, scoreboard. All's fair in elections, right? Except when the Supreme Court annoints winners, but who's still bitter about that? I digress. The reason I was so angered is for some reason I simply cannot fathom, Scott Brown's election has put in serious jeopardy a year's worth of work to reform health care. Reform is, by all accounts, dead.
Second bombshell: the Supreme Court ruled last week that corporations could function like individuals during political campaigns and donate unlimited amounts of money to candidates. Yeah, that's going to work really well.
I can see the logic to this one: an individual can write a check for a few hundred bucks or even a few thousan. A corporation is really a collection of individuals spending the money of other individuals (investors) without asking them and can spend millions and billions, unfettered and without monitoring. Apples and apples, right?
Way to go John Roberts (chief justice), you waited and waited and you got what you wanted. Last year you tip toed around decisions on corporate power, but you were waiting for this one, the big one. And then BOOM, you dropped the bomb. Isn't the Supreme Court supposed to uphold the constitution where the rights of the minority are meant to be protected? I guess corporations are a minority class now.
Honestly, I can't take it anymore. I thought last year was depressing. All the fighting about health care, people unfathomably turning against it, teabaggers, racism, general overall hatred of fellow human beings. Explaining to people how America works to people I live with is becoming more and more difficult. No one understands.
Now corporations just won this massive battle, can you just imagine what each election cycle, every two years, is going to be like? The person with the most money wins. The person with the corporation with the most money wins. The person who can buy the most TV time already wins, so now the person with the corporation with the most money to buy more TV time to run the most negative ads will win. I am so relieved I don't have to watch those campaign ads, altho Tivo should get a boost in orders.
How is the individual to compete? How is the minority protected? Will everything have its price? Is there no one willing to just do something because it's the right thing, not because there's profit to be had? All the Machiavellian moves one can think of that will come from this single ruling ... I despair!!
Next time, hear more about the election of the no name senator from Massachusetts which is the more important reason I'm ejecting.
You'll want to read above for the refresher. Reason No 2.
Truck driver Scott Brown got elected to the Senate in Massachusetts.
Not that anyone in America wants it anymore, because apparently the longer it took to flesh out the health care bill, which I agree was not a great bill, the more the country turned on it. I guess if you can't get anything done quickly, why bother.
Of course, the fact that it wasn't done quickly now has jeopardised more universal health care from happening at all, since Scott Brown has declared he will be the 41st opponent in the Senate. But here's what I don't get. I'm pretty good at math and I think the Democrats still have a 59-41 majority, why on f*^&%$ing earth can't they pass any legislation???????? I remember the Clinton years when people breathed heavy sighs of relief to get something passed with 51 votes, we have 59 now!!!
F*&&%$#$ing Democrats in Congress. I think what pisses me off most is that all they seem to care about is doing whatever it takes to keep their seat in Congress, voting just to keep their job. IT'S NOT A JOB, IT'S PUBLIC SERVICE, you are in Congress to GET SH*T DONE, no go and bleeping do it already! The Republicans are in this boat too, but you can't really blame them, can you? They are in the minority in both houses. When they were in charge, they knew how to get sh*t done. No, the fault lies pretty much with Dems in Congress.
James Fallows recent piece in The Atlantic, How America Can Rise Again, goes into what is wrong with the country - it's not the economy or the people or the educational system, it's the political system. In addition to the House gerrymandering the system to create career political seats, which was never intended, the system we have today has not evolved in its 225+ years. He says,
"When the U.S. Senate was created, the most populous state, Virginia, had 10 times as many people as the least populous, Delaware. Giving them the same two votes in the Senate was part of the intricate compromise over regional, economic, and slave-state/free-state interests that went into the Constitution. Now the most populous state, California, has 69 times as many people as the least populous, Wyoming, yet they have the same two votes in the Senate. A similarly inflexible business organization would still have a major Whale Oil Division; a military unit would be mainly fusiliers and cavalry. No one would propose such a system in a constitution written today, but without a revolution, it’s unchangeable. Similarly, since it takes 60 votes in the Senate to break a filibuster on controversial legislation, 41 votes is in effect a blocking minority. States that together hold about 12 percent of the U.S. population can provide that many Senate votes...
The Senate’s then-famous “Gang of Six,” which controlled crucial aspects of last year’s proposed health-care legislation, came from states that together held about 3 percent of the total U.S. population; 97 percent of the public lives in states not included in that group. (Just to round this out, more than half of all Americans live in the 10 most populous states—which together account for 20 of the Senate’s 100 votes.)"
This is why sh*t's not getting done. Fallows makes comparisons to parliamentary democracies, siting former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm as saying that America chose the wrong form of democracy all those years ago. Parliamentary democracies, as in New Zealand, elect parties and then the party forms a coalition and does stuff. Stuff gets done, people get helped. I know I'm making this sound simple, but it's been a total eye opener to live here and see stuff get done!! And in part it could be because we don't have two houses of government that still have to fight and bicker and get their way and ensure reelection before they get stuff done for people who live in this country.
I don't understand what these so called public servants expect to do each day. All I ever see them do is work to get re-elected. But then to do what? What is the draw, why is a position in Congress so powerful that people seek it out over and over?? Because approval ratings are super low and people's opinions of members of Congress are super low, what is the draw? What is the appeal?
I don't know why we put our stock in those people, it makes me feel glad that I've moved to a small town because all politics - all effective politics for the people - is local politics. I believed Obama would change things. Regardless of how he's gone about it, he's not been able to do anything with a 10-vote majority. Ten votes, he had 60 votes. Just remarkable. Why does anyone aspire to be a congressperson.
James Fallows writes:
“ 'I often think about how we would make decisions if we knew we would wake up the next day and it would be 75 years later,' Cullen Murphy, author of Are We Rome?, told me. 'It would make a huge difference if we could train ourselves to make decisions that way.' It would. Of course, our system can’t be engineered toward that perspective. Politicians will inevitably look not 75 years into the future but one election cycle ahead, or perhaps only one news cycle. Corporations live by the quarter; cable-news outlets by the minute."
Making any changing to the American democracy ain't gonna happen. Fallows suggests, and you have to just laugh to make it through the thought,
"In principle, the United States could call for a new constitutional convention, to reconsider all the rules. That would be my cue to move back to China for good—pollution, Great Firewall, and all. As a simple thought exercise, imagine the fights over evolution, an 'official' language, and countless other 'social' questions. 'I am perpetually disappointed by our structural resistance to change,' Gary Hart told me, 'but can you imagine what would be put into a drafting session for a constitution today?' Kevin Starr [a California historian] said, “You would need a coherent political culture for such a session to occur'—and the lack of such coherence is exactly the problem—'otherwise it would turn into a food fight from Animal House.' ”
So see, although Fallows' overarching argument is that America will be fine, it's in a declining path on a up-and-down cycle it's always been on, I have no hope because citizens rely on politicians to do the right thing. There is no hope for becoming positive, no good news on the horizon, no reason to pay attention. Rather than being a negative person for feeling this way, I see myself becoming more positive overall by not being dragged down by America's awful, horrible political news. Eject! Gladly.
Jeez I don't know where the last two weeks have gone, but apologies for leaving you with nothing to read. I know you've been running to your computers each and every night, breath in mouth, anticipation heightened ... only to find nothing on our blog.
All kidding aside, we've not been doing anything other than being busy is all. But I'll catch you up on a few events nonetheless. The TV season here started in earnest with everything and the kitchen sink debuting (thankfully we record on DVR). In combination with the Winter Olympics joining in the fray, in the last week all we've been doing is DVR space management and watching as much Olympics as we can manage.
We've been without hockey (known here incorrectly as ice hockey) for nearly four years and to make up the difference in a small way, we're watching every hockey game we can these two weeks. As I type, we've had an unusually cool night/morning so I'm bundled up in front of the TV watching Russia v Latvia. It feels like October in Colorado watching the Detroit lose to Colorado. Only Latvia just lost 2-8, poo.
Parties and partying has been on the calendar, hosting friends for barbecues (tonight we've got a group of 10 coming, I need to start cooking!!) and socialising at movies and over drinks, and hosting friends from out of town. Throw in my favourite Olympics, the winter ones, and life's been breezing through a still, humid summer.
A few weeks ago we went to the annual kite festival and a cloudy day still held enough wind for the kites to fly, but it cleared later on as we were leaving and was, as usual, an incredible site in the sky.
I've been worried about swimming in the ocean with all the stingrays, or whatever variation of them exists around Nelson, because they come out this time of year. But this one in the sky wasn't scary at all.
The colossal squid captured in a display case in Wellington has nothing on this massive creature.
Still, the eyes on this one are creepy!!
Finally the skies cleared and we have a great panorama of all the flying kites.
Last weekend we spent a long one at Kaiteriteri beach in the downstairs apartment of one of those massive houses on the hill looking down onto Little Kaiteriteri.
We made time for the beach on each of the days we were there, although it started out cloudy and we were thinking we'd have a bad weather holiday. Turned out just perfect each day, with Don going on a nice ride over Takaka hill toward Takaka and I did a mega walk around Kaiteriteri and then we were lazy the rest of the time. Had a great lunch at Up the Garden Path in Motueka - highly recommended if you pass through there. The seafood chowder was the best I've ever had aside from Fleur's Place near Dunedin. Incredible! Don wolfed down a massive burger and cooed about it all the rest of the day.
One morning we camped out at the beach early for a few hours sun and swim when a whole raft of kayakers came through across the beach, obviously a tour group paddling around the area. We'd done that on a prior trip to Kaiteri, but recommend it when it's not high season and there are so many tourists. The number in the photo left was about a quarter of the whole group. A great site to see, but a huge group to actually be kayaking with.
And of course Don loves his sunsets, and this was Saturday night from the deck of the apartment we rented.
Thanks for this beautiful blog--takes us back a bit to our time there. Loved the kites--ocean life better up in the air than under the sea for me.
~
Joe & Deanna, Mom & Dad
As you may have read in recent posts, we've gotten back to the beach this year after a so-so January that promised only cold water and rainy days. February has been wonderful and we're heading to the beach more frequently. But not without reservation, and a hour's drive west to a neighbouring beach far enough away from a new visitor to town...
Our very own beach here in Nelson, Tahunanui Beach, has been playing home to a visitor making his presence more than well known:
HOLY F**KING CHRISTMAS BATMAN, that's a SHARK!
You may recognise the picture if you read this article from The Nelson Mail that was in the paper last week, giving you the full story of this approx 4 metre long SHARKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! Don's teammate at work was there with his wife when the picture was taken.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/3363995/Shark-that-goes-bump-in-the-water/
We're going back to Kaiteriteri this weekend!!!
