Thought for the weekend
In keeping with our tradition of bringing you a "Thought for the Weekend", here are several:
1. Sue Pepperell is quoted in the Chron as saying she'll prop up Mickey's regime because she's "committed". On present evidence, that's precisely what ought to occur.
2. The Chron clearly has no understanding of irony. After publishing Pepperells carefully-crafted defence of her absence it notes:
Ironically she will miss the next community development meeting because of work commitments in Auckland.Irony, Mr Maslin, is the incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. Ms Pepperell's absence is to be expected and thus not at all ironic. Much like the Chron "investigating" any issue involving Michael Laws and publishing only his view and that of anyone who supports his position.
3. Pepperell (or more likely her Guyton St ghostwriter, one M Laws), makes liberal use of a favourite technique known as "lying by omission" in her absence defence. Pepperell's claim of having missed only "a single council meeting" is absolutely true. But of course most people, who couldn't give a rat's about the difference between full council and a committee, will assume this means all meetings. No mention is made of her committee attendance record - and of course the Chron never thought to ask.
"Among other common lies, we have the silent lie - the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth-mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not at all" -- Mark Twain, from his essay: "On the Decay of the Art of Lying".4. And last, another game of "Who am I"?:
- Upon being elected, embarked on a "neoliberal austerity" program.
- Began using referenda to advance his own power and influence.
- Has endeavoured to restrict press reporting of his administration, which critics have accused of being "too insecure" to be able to defend itself in an open debate.
- Won a subsequent election claiming this "represented the free will of the people" despite a low turn-out and the fact that more people voted against him than for him.
- Has emerged as one of the area's most controversial leaders and, whilst widely criticised, has many fierce defenders.
- Has attempted to drive those who oppose him out of the area he controls.
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48 comments:
It's been interesting to see people here defending Sue P and she especially won brownie points by going on the frontpage to say sorry for Mickey's abuse of artists. But that just goes to show how pernicious his influence is. Now she's not just standing by her man, but lying for him and cheating the ratepayers.
Friends in Hawkes Bay warned about this before he was elected. Otherwise good people will turn feral under his malign influence, they said.
How right. How sad.
Psychopathy and the Characteristics of a Cult Leader http://www.fwselijah.com/psychopa.htm
(some excerpts that Sue P and her fellow devotees may relate to):
… it is the psychopathology of the leader, not his charisma, that causes the systematic manipulative abuse and exploitation found in cults.
Cult leaders have an outstanding ability to charm and win over followers. They beguile and seduce. .. These are "individuals whose narcissism is so extreme and grandiose that they exist in a land of splendid isolation in which the creation of the grandiose self takes precedence over legal, moral or interpersonal commitments."
Paranoia may be evident in simple or elaborate delusions of persecution …. beneath the surface gloss of intelligence, charm, and professed humility seethes an inner world of rage, depression, and fear.
We present the checklist as a tool to help you label and demystify traits you may have noticed in your leader.
1.Glibness/Superficial charm
Glibness is a hallmark of psychopaths. They are able to use language effortlessly to beguile, confuse, and convince. … Frequently they have the capacity to destroy their critics verbally or disarm them emotionally.
2.Manipulative and Conning
Cult leaders do not recognize the individuality or rights of others, which makes all self-serving behaviors permissible…. The Psychopath divides the world into suckers, sinners, and himself. He discharges powerful feelings of terror and rage by dominating and humiliating his victims.
3. Grandiose Sense of Self
The cult leader enjoys tremendous feelings of entitlement. He believes everything is owed to him as a right. .. He has an insatiable need for adulation and attendance ... In this way, he creates an us-versus-them mentality.
4.Pathological Lying
Psychopaths lie coolly and easily, even when it is obvious they are being untruthful. They lie for no apparent reason, even when it would seem easier and safer to tell the truth. This is sometimes called "crazy lying."
5. Lack of Remorse, Shame, or Guilt
Whatever the emotional or psychological source, psychopaths see those around them as objects, targets, or opportunities, not as people. They do not have friends, they have victims and accomplices-and the latter frequently end as victims.
6. Shallow Emotions
7. Incapacity for Love
8. Need for Stimulation
9. Callousness/lack of empathy
10 . Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature
11. Early Behavior Problems/juvenile delinquency
12. Irresponsibility/Unreliability
13. Promiscuous Sexual behavior/infidelity
14. Lack of realistic life plan/parasitic lifestyle
15. Criminal or entrepreneurial versatility
What boring old place your town must be to get into such a frenetic fit over a councilor spending time out of town. Who do you want as councilors in your little town, just the retired and independently wealthy? Surely your councilors are allowed a life.
You always have the next election to make your call on their true worth
Hey, while we're on the subject of councillors spending time out of town, i know one other councilor, non diVision, who spend three nights a week in taupo.
I used my name so that I could be identified from all the 'anons' said something positive about ML and bingo I am called mickey. I am not mickey and I am happy with ML as mayor. There are a few of us out here you know, we far outnumber the dissatisfied ones. In future I will call myself 'anon' like everyone else but how paranoid that you think everyone who likes ML is mickey. Sad.
Let's not lose sight of the very disturbing numbers raised in the previous post here, in the analysis of the LTCCP.
It’s clear this has hit a nerve as Mickey had to leave it to Muzza to write that incomprehensible piece of shite in the chron today in Rob’s letter.
And the mayor has spent the last few days in this blog spraying incontinently in defence of his missing councillor but hasn’t attempted to defend the shonking book-keeping.
Isn’t it time someone from the Chron who can add and subtract sat down with the CEO and asked some hard questions about just how many days of swimming pool running costs will be plundered from the corporate account?
Norman said...
I used my name
___________________________________
Relax, Norman, you're nobody on LW until you've been accused of being Mickey.
Since you can string two words together without abusing anyone, and you support the mayor, perhaps you'd like to tell us what you find particularly admirable about a man who yells foul abuse about female staff at Council so loud that the whole building can hear it.
Then you could get onto this LTCCP rort, and tell us what you admire about that.
The floor is yours, Norman. Incidently, if your arguments don't hold water, will you reconsider, or are you one of the "Mickey is a living god who can do no wrong and everyone one else is a loser" supporters?
Bored?
Mayoral duties getting you down?
Try new! Improved!!
Red Herring O Matic!!!
with "autoBloke" name change
ABSOLUTELY FREE
For the second week in a row, Mickey Mayor is behind the times on the news. Last week he had Telecom destroying all the evidence (they'd destroyed the copies they'd made). This week he writes:
"Sure, Ryan did a stupid thing. But Garty's actions are truly inexcusable. You don't expose your mate of 20 years to the full blast of an outraged government, when he was trying to do you the favour."
Favour? Uh huh - "Hey mate, let's do something unethical together" - some mate. Then there's the reality of Ryan's property portfolio - the man's loaded!
So two weeks in a row the incompetent mayor proves himself an incompetent columnist too, and for pretty much the same reasons.
And Vision (first Dotty now Mickey) are still trying to exploit the Tasmanian miners for political advantage. Dotty on about "community" - all four syllables and everything - and Mickey on about "mateship" - like he has any.
The real lesson of the Anzac day roof collapse is that if you cut corners and bend the rules people die. Now the mining company is starting to twist and turn like Mickey caught lying - and the similarities don't end there.
That's just my 2c worth.
Bet John Maslin's ears went read if he was listening to Geoff Bayliss on radio this morning:
“Every time an editor or reporter fails to ask the questions that need to be asked and every time an editor runs a press release without checking it critically, they’ve failed in their duty.”
Laws Watch wrote:
"tell us what you find particularly admirable about a man who yells foul abuse about female staff at Council so loud that the whole building can hear it."
This is not true. I observed the incident and he abused no staff. He was upset at a staffer not carrying out his instructions but he ABUSED no-one. Surely those making the accusations should have the integrity to attach their names? If it was true then where are the PGs or official complaints?
Poor Mickey. No wonder he’s bleating in the Sunday paper about Dancing with the Stars. Spruned again, just like last year when he had to suffer while Tim Shadbolt got the limelight and the sheila.
“Pick me, pick me,” cried the little boy from the back of the class. “I promise not to use dirty words when the camera’s in the dressing room or to tell Wombats Weakly that I shared my hotel bed with my dance partner. Or to throw a public tantrum and put nasty stories on the Wanganui District Council website when I get kicked off after the first episode.”
‘No Michael, sorry but we’re not looking for a ninety pound weakling with a potty mouth. And that eye-liner and your pouting would just confuse the punters trying to distinguish you from your dance partner. And finally, your genetic conditions absolutely rule you out because it’s impossible to dance with foot-in-mouth and head-up-arse syndromes.
‘You’ll have to make do with trying to be a rugby jock on that silly footy show of yours and holding Holmesy’s hand on that quiz show. And it might be nice, Michael, if you didn’t turn your bitterness at being told to bugger off by us into more nastiness in those pathetic columns you get paid to write.’
‘But … but …’
‘No Michael, that’s final. Now go back to that pretty little town you’re trying to wreck and think up some new reality tv game like your little gangbusters number. That’ll get you more tv exposure than being kicked off Stars after one episode.’
...This is not true....
Yes it is. I was there and your account is nonsense. "F..k R...H..." is abuse. End of story.
anonymickey said
I observed the incident and he abused no staff.... blah blah blah blah...
&&&&&
Mickey, this is not an appropriate forum for your desperate arse-covering. Take it up with the CEO or the lawyers for the person concerned.
CORRESPONDENCE CLOSED, eh LawsWatch?
Let's see. It was only a couple of weeks ago that this extraordinarily well placed Guyton St "insider" was claiming to have witnessed the mayoral abuse of teh Spin Fairy anddefending Mickey after he'd called HL a Useless C--t:
(9:32 PM, April 27):
Dollars to donuts LW that there's no PG.
Now he's back, our eternal fly on the wall at calculated mayoral frothings. Yet another outburst of mayoral abuse at a Guyton St female staffer and again our man is on the spot and full of denial/justification.
"... If it was true then where are the PGs or official complaints?
1:31 PM, May 21, 2006"
It seems Laws Watch has its very own Forrest Gump, constant companion and constant apologist for the mayor. And terrific fodder for the laughing machine at Guyton St and throughout the CBD.
Anon 3.59pm
You're talking as if ML would want to go on the dancing show. I doubt it. Has anyone checked that or just another case of verbal diarrhorea on this blog.
Laws Watch wrote:
"tell us what you find particularly admirable...
No, we didn't. One of the many anonymii did. For heaven's sake, LW is about the only comments which are by an identifiable commenter!! It's confusing enough as it is, anon @ 1.31, without you mixing us up with your anonymous brothers and sisters.
And by the way... Norman, the (misquoted) anonymous referred to by the other anonymous (don't worry, we're confused too) is right. It's not so much "you're nobody till somebody loves you" round here as "You're nobody till somebody thinks you're Mickey". So do, please, keep using a name, any name, so we can know who's saying what.
if ML would want to go on the dancing show. I doubt it.
___________________________________
Then you're living in cloud cuckoo land. Mickey, pass up a chance to make a dick of himself? You must have him confused with some other Mickey.
I've given scant respect to the people who tell me Michael Laws is a psychopath, but when you take five minutes and read that list he certainly has all the traits. Ok, so nowadays the word "psychopath" doesn't really fit into neurobiology and so on; Mickey's trickcyclist would blather on about chemical inbalances and neural handicaps, but when the shoe fits...
Someone who obviously has no grasp of logic said:
"...where are the PGs or official complaints..."
and if it was Mickey who wrote this no wonder he got kicked off the debating society, because as a logical excersize we can drive a fleet of useless Cuncil trucks through it.
But first, let's remind ourselves that our anonymous well-placed source in Cuncil started his dedicated litany of comments by denying that any incident ever occurred at all. Now the story goes that he witnessed the whole thing.
I can feel another Vision spelling b coming on.
Accepted Laws Watch - accepted. You're not responsible for the posters but if they provide some scuttlebutt would nt it be good for them to provide some facts?
this morning's story on Sam Hoyle in the Chronicle would suggest that LawsWatch has much egg on its face this morning. Your reply?
Since when has the Police oath included lying in public for your partner's boss?
So, Sam Hoyle is waiting to see if he gets a job in Wellington, and he "might be back in Wanganui next month."
What, to get the Pep's stuff out of storage and down to Thorndon?
...LawsWatch has much egg on its face this morning. Your reply?
The only egg that's come anywhere near our faces have been the lightly boiled ones which constituted breakfast in the Cave this morning.
As diVision scrambles to cover their backside after LW and various letter writers to the Chron raised the issue of their missing councillor, Inspector Hoyle has taken a leaf from the Mayoress's book and stood by his (wo)man. And good on him.
But that doesn't alter the facts as we've reported them, which are:
- They're so ensconced in Wellington they're listed in the phone book.
- Sue Pepperell's employers claim she's living in Wellington (check the link in the previous post).
- Her attendance record at committees is, understandably, appalling as a result of her living in Wellington.
That Mr Hoyle may, or may not, return to Wanganui is neither here nor there. Do you really expect that, if he's offered a better opportunity there, he'd decline? Of course not, and nor should he. Nor should GK Taylor, as Marty Lindsay correctly notes in the Chron. And we even agree with Cr Lindsay that both Taylor and Pepperell made valuable contributions.
But personal circumstances mean that's no longer possible. This isn't about Sue Pepperell or her effectiveness as a councillor. It's about whether anyone can effectively serve on a Council when living miles from the area over which it presides. We say no.
My oh my, anon at 6:35 - who gets up that early on a Monday morning just to misread the Chron? The story clearly says that Hoyle is hoping to score a job in Wellington, and you interpret that as LW having egg on face. Missed out on basic reasoning at school, did you? Or are you just engaging in suicidal lying?
Anonymous said...
My oh my, anon at 6:35 - who gets up that early on a Monday morning just to misread the Chron?
###########
Mayoress said ...
He collects the enwspaper from our mailbox with Lucy every morning.
LawsWatch
It's about whether anyone can effectively serve on a Council when living miles from the area over which it presides. We say no.
*****
Who cares where she lives. Why don't they set up a teleconference system so people like Peperell can just call in their vote as required by Mickey. Or better still she could just give him her proxy. IN fact, they all could, eh Marty?
Would anyone notice the difference?
Any police officer who applies for the position of inspector is a political animal. Trust me on this, once you get north of Senior sergeant, you're not interested in day-to-day policing, you're into political theory and therefore likely to head for Wellington and the Office of the Commissioner, usually to polish your CV and look good for a few years in the hope of being spotted as potential commissioner one day. After all, police commissioner is the highest paid civil servant in the land and quite powerful. Do you honestly think that SH will not be looking around the OOC and thinking "Hmm, this fits me quite nicely"? Do you think he wants to return to Wanganui? Get a grip. And yes, I know whereof I speak....
And further to my earlier comments, might I point out that the story clearly says that SH is applying for the job. "I could be back in Wanganui as early as next month" he says. Yes, Sam, if you don't get the job, you could....
Oh dear LW perhaps they have had their mail redirected as well, there is another job for your intrepid investigator.
Perhaps they only in the phone book cause they needed the phone on while staying in their Wellington flat?
Logic would suggest that Peps waits until she knows what hoyle is doing with his job no point resigning tomorrow and moving back home next month, that would be a bloody pointless by-election wouldn't it
Anonymous said...
My oh my, anon at 6:35 - who gets up that early on a Monday morning just to misread the Chron?
*******
Mayoress said ...
He collects the newspaper from our mailbox every morning
Sarten for Mayor ... now that's got a nice ring to it!
WRONG, WRONG LAWSWATCY!!! WRONG AGAIN!! BET YOU'VE GOT EGG ALL OVER YOUR FACE NOW!!
What I ghost-wrote for my lovely Leo was:
He collects the newspaper from our mailbox with Lucy every morning.
I feel a little sorry for our Mayor. He's taking such a bashing on this blog.
Should we compose a list of nice things about Michael
1... He's in good shape for a man of 50
2... 1.6 percent is more than 1.5
3.. When he gets fired from his job at the radio station he will be able to enjoy more family time.
Who care where they live what a narrow minded bunch for goodness sake.
The world is no longer flat you can read papers on line use your phone email snail mail even.
Where should our politicians live would Turakina be too far for you? What about Bulls?
LW time you moved on to a subject that may have some bearing on what is happening in our fair city
Mickey (or his ghostwriter) wrote:
"I will be posting the plans on this and the council's website later today. My preference? The $1.6 million alternative. Do it once, and do it right "
___________________________________
Well, Mickey, what are you waiting for? Post the plans. Or can't you even do that simple thing right?
Word is that ML and vision keep running this city and have it reinforced by by-elections. That is SO unfair.
Terry Sarten stod for the district health board in 2001. He polled 28th out of 30.
The mayoress' letter was fairly puke making I thought until everywhere today people were saying "good on her".
I'm reminded of Hilary Clinton and it worked for Bill. We underestimate her at our peril and let's not forget she beat Bob walker, Rob Vinsen, john Blaikie and a number of others for that Horizons MW seat.
"Who care where they live"
_________________________________
Well duh, their constituents.
The further they live from their constituency, the less connected they are to local issues. That's why it's called Local Government, see?
If you're going to consider yourself truly representative of your electorate, anywhere outside the free calling area is probably too far away.
(That's so that people on fixed incomes (who let's face it usually have more need of government services than others) can afford to contact their rep.)
Jeez, some people really need things spelling out don't they?
1... He's in good shape for a man of 50
__________________________________
He looks pretty haggard on the front page today. Like an aging roue. The years of hate are starting to tell.
Yes it is. I was there and your account is nonsense. "F..k R...H..." is abuse. End of story.
4:00 PM, May 21, 2006
No, you weren't.
Love the riverfront project. Brilliant and abut time!
So I see Mickey got his wish and the council ahs voted for reducing the number of councillors by 2. This means that effectively each councillor will represent 3933 people, as opposed to 3328. Yahoo! Another victory for democracy! More proof of Mental Mickey's absolute commitment to democratic principles: reduce the amount of representation on the say so of 27.8 percent of the electorate.
That letter from the Mayoress had the Mayors wierd manerisms in it...
" a fiction..."
a bit like his classic " put to rout"
the man is living his own fiction.
Maybe the Mayor is the ghost who writes?
I want a Mayor less involved with his own importance. More effective wouldn't it be ?
So I see Mickey got his wish and the council ahs voted for reducing the number of councillors by 2
********************************
Shouldnt that read "So I see Wanganui ratepayers got their wish...." We clearly voted for this in the referendum.
Anonymous said...
The mayoress' letter was fairly puke making I thought until everywhere today people were saying "good on her".
9:59 PM, May 22, 2006
********
Trouble is, Mickey, the letter raised more questions than it answered. Like, what is it that she puts in your tea each evening that makes you think you're invisible as the hand behind the nightly spate of LawsWatch comments like this piece of garbage?
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