Gramsci wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:03 pm$40 a pack of 20 Marlboros

lol what is even the point

To fund tax cuts for multi-millionaires, of course. The old plan was supposed to gradually reduce the nicotine levels, but now that's all on the fire, they're going to keep increasing the tax while NOT reducing the nicotine levels. That way, poor people can stay addicted, the government can extract their meagre earnings, and give the money to the struggling rich.

Governments can put "sin taxes" on alcohol, tobacco, etc. with impunity, but capital gains taxes immediately stick in the craw of their oligarch benefactors.

I don't smoke, but I can imagine that country is rife with black market cigarettes.

It's not rife with black market cigarettes, just lots of vaping. There is no black market for tobacco that I'm aware of. I know where I can get cannabis, MDMA, meth and cocaine if I want it, but I never heard of anyone selling black market cigs. [I should add: it must exist, since people ram raid cigarette outlets, but I don't think that many people are getting their cigs that way]

JFV you asked about the environment - I always like to see what the international media are saying about us: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... akes-power

Anthony Flack wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 2:48 pm JFV you asked about the environment - I always like to see what the international media are saying about us: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... akes-power

Thanks for the link. Disappointing. I imagine if they no longer give a shit about invasive deer that they probably also don't give a shit about stoats that prey on parrot nests. Fuck.

I wish you all well down there and hope for a quick turnaround. NZ is/was one of my favorite places on Earth.

The deer thing is baffling, but like everything this government does, there must be some malicious reason for it. Anyway, there are many people here who have dedicated their lives to protecting our alpine parrots (and the rest of our 7,500 endangered native species) who aren't just going to say "oh well, we tried, never mind".

I'll be disgusted if this government gets a second term and I'm rather hoping the coalition will fall apart before they complete a single term. A lot of people are angry. National have traditionally been a somewhat-pragmatic centre-right party, always giving backhanders to business and shafting the poor, but never going full-blown wingnut culture warriors. By handing the reins of power to the radical right, hopefully that will hollow out National's support from the centre. Fingers crossed that the first post-election opinion poll of the new government is bad enough to wipe the smirks off Luxon and Willis' smug fucking faces.

Meanwhile...

Ole Scranton Joe opines, “were there no Israel, there would not be a Jew in the world who is safe”. Which is interesting. So Jews in the United States aren't safe. Jews in New Zealand aren't safe. Every country in the world which doesn't have a Jewish majority could go Holocaust Boogaloo at any time. If only there was something that could protect them, like a Constitution or Bill of Rights or something, but unfortunately such a thing is unheard of.

"I am a Zionist", says Joe. Well, maybe we should go Zionist for everybody. Gay people are persecuted all around the world. I know, let's annex part of Saudi Arabia and make that the gay country. Let's not protect the rights of gay people in our own countries, because safeguarding the rights of minorities is beyond us. Let's just send them off to Gayrabia; job done.

I think the just desserts for gay Zion would be to seize control of Texas and boot the bigots out, but then we'd have to find another place for the libertarian reservation, and we'd have a substantial problem with where to put the bigots (although we could deport them to the libertarian reservation).

This post was sarcasm, in case it wasn't obvious. Obviously, strong civil rights are a better solution than petty nationalism, but sarcasm is usually lost on most of the forum members in these kinds of threads.

We've already got Lesbos...and Saugatuck.

The more I think about a seceded Texas the more it looks like the North American/Christian version of one of the politically and culturally conservative middle eastern oil nations.

Anthony Flack wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:42 pm Fingers crossed that the first post-election opinion poll of the new government is bad enough to wipe the smirks off Luxon and Willis' smug fucking faces.

Their support dropped by a measly 2%. I forgot that most people are completely pigshit ignorant. Well, we'll keep plugging away...