The View from Right Field

New Zealand: The Lucky Country in Politics – Follow-Up

A follow-up on yesterday’s post: With New Zealand now under lockdown, the New Zealand Parliament cannot meet for the next four-plus weeks.  So, the Parliament, which has a Labour-led majority, is setting up a special select committee to follow and examine the government’s performance while Parliament cannot meet.  It is expected the committee will meet by video conference three times a week.  The committee will be chaired by – the leader of the opposition National Party.  With a national election scheduled for September.  A lucky country, indeed.
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Note: Once again, I am simultaneously posting this on both of my blogs.

Once Again, New Zealand is The Lucky Country – In Politics

[This is being simultaneously posted on my other website, too: A Different New Zealand]

In December 2016, I wrote a post entitled “New Zealand: The Lucky Country – In Politics”.¹  Well, it is still true.  New Zealand has closed its borders and will be instituting a shelter-at-home order Wednesday at 11:59 pm, New Zealand time.  But what makes them a “lucky country” is two things.

One, the Labour-led government’s plan seems pretty decent, and they now seem to be doing it reasonably well.^2,3  Two, in the words of The Spinoff, a New Zealand website:

Inequality, Social Mobility, and a “Fair Go”

A new post on the New Zealand idea of a “fair go” is up on my other blog, “A Different New Zealand.”  You can find it here.

Mass Shootings: After We “Do Something,” Let’s Try to Do Something That Actually Works

With two more mass shootings, in El Paso and Dayton, we are told we must “do something.”  Generally, that means gun control, though it now also seems to include “red flag” laws, as well as more spending for mental health and doing something about violent video games. Okay, let’s do it, subject of course to the Constitution.  Not only the Second Amendment, but also the other ones: the First, Fourth, Fifth, etc.

But after we “do something,” let’s also try to do something that works.  Megan McArdle, at The Washington Post, has a couple of ideas on this subject (here and here).  Aggressive stop-and-frisk policing has seemed to reduce murder rates in places like New York City, but many people don’t like what they see as police harassment of minorities.  Also, given the distrust of the police by many people in places like Chicago, you wonder how it would work there.  Plus, these kinds of tactics wouldn’t stop mass shootings, though reducing day-to-day murders might save more lives than reducing mass shootings over a whole year.

Banning Semi-Automatic Weapons Doesn’t Solve the Problem (Even If It’s a Good Idea)

After the murder of 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a white nationalist will not be named in this blog, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern immediately called for a new strict gun law, which will be passed next month because all of the major parties in New Zealand support it.  Also, by issuing a new interpretation of what kind of a license is required to possess a semi-automatic weapon, the New Zealand government effectively banned the possession of semi-automatic weapons right away.

Gun-control fans praised Prime Minister Ardern and asked why we can’t do that here.  I already talked about that a little bit back in July of 2014, after another summer weekend of violence in Chicago.¹

But the most important response to people who want to “solve” the problem of gun violence in the United States by outlawing semi-automatic weapons or instituting some other kind of strict gun control is: Okay, fine.  But what we do with all the semi-automatic weapons, and other guns, already out there once we outlaw semi-automatic weapons (or institute some other kind of strict gun control)?

#MedicareForAll – How It Will Really Work

While New Zealand has been in the news for other reasons lately, a hearing before the health select committee of the New Zealand Parliament last week should be of interest to those who think “Medicare for All,” or some other form of government-run single-payer health plan, is the answer to our problems with health care.

At the hearing, women with advanced breast cancer asked for pressure to be brought on Pharmac, the government-run drug-buying agency, to fully fund two additional drugs for breast cancer, Kadcyla and Palbociclib (also known as Ibrance).

The pleas of the women were very moving.  One of the women said that Ibrance was a “game-changer” in other countries for conditions like hers.  She asked why women in New Zealand had to travel to Malaysia or move to England or Australia to get access to cheaper life-extending drugs.  Another woman said that she was alive only because she had paid for the drug herself.  “This would … be impossible if I had to rely on Pharmac.” 

Jacinda Ardern Gets It Right

In the New Zealand parliament today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern got it right with respect to how to respond to the murderer and terrorist who killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday.  This is from the New Zealand Herald:

“Ardern told Parliament the Australian man accused of carrying out the atrocity was seeking notoriety.

‘That is why you will never hear me mention his name.  He is a terrorist.  He is a criminal.  He is an extremist.  But he will, when I speak, be nameless. 

A Tragedy in Christchurch

You can find my most recent post on my other blog, “A Different New Zealand,” here.

Who Is Going to Cause More Problems for New Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker? His Opponents – Or His Supporters?

The question for new Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is who is going to cause him more trouble in the upcoming legislative session: the people who supported him last November or those who didn’t.  While it may not be logical, I’m going to go with the former: the people who supported him. 

Lots of state programs, state agencies, and groups funded by the state have had a tough four years.  The fighting, during the last four years, between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democrats in the state legislature, especially House Speaker Michael Madigan, resulted in long periods with no budget and other periods with limited funding.  Many of the people affected by these cutbacks supported J.B. Pritzker last November, and now they are looking for him to deliver the things they supported him for.

“An American Appreciation of Bill English”

This is the title of a new post in my other blog, “A Different New Zealand.”  I have written about Bill English and his “social investment” approach before (see, inter alia, here and here).  This post is about his retiring from the New Zealand Parliament.