Open mike 28/05/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 28th, 2011 - 41 comments
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41 comments on “Open mike 28/05/2011 ”

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  1. stever 1
    28 May 2011 at 7:44 am

    Brilliant article!

    For me, the money quote is:

    “Half or more of today’s federal deficits would be gone if we simply taxed the richest US citizens at the rates in effect in the 1950s and 1960s. If we also taxed corporations in relation to individuals as we did in the 1940s, the entire deficit would vanish.

    In summary, shifting the burden of federal taxation from corporations to individuals and from the richest individuals to the rest of us contributed to massive deficits and debts. Instead of correcting and reversing that unjust shift, Republicans and Democrats plan, instead, to deal with deficits and debts by cutting Medicaid and Medicare and threatening social security.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/27/economics-useconomy

    And NZ is following the same track to destruction!

    • ianmac 1.1
      28 May 2011 at 9:29 am

      stever. It does smack of same approach. Key says there will be adjustments to Social Welfare. Clearly it is the Beneficiaries and the Unionists who landed us in this hole, so says John, so let’s suck ’em in to give us a mandate next year to cut deeply so that we rich folk can get richer.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      28 May 2011 at 12:35 pm

      It’s exactly the same approach – at a guess, I’d say that the US admin and the current NZ government are getting their instructions from the same people.

  2. todd 2
    28 May 2011 at 10:48 am

    Police Prepare for Civil Disorder

    http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/05/police-prepare-for-civil-disorder.html

    Despite funding cuts for Woman’s refuges and many other social services, the Police got brand new expensive riot gear this week, which turns your average constable into a protester-bashing machine. Throughout the country, police have been kitted out with the armour to better prepare for public disorder. Police insist that the red bibs have nothing to do with the infamous Red Squad set up to deal with anti-Springbok tour protests.

    • Colonial Viper 2.1
      28 May 2011 at 10:54 am

      I saw youtube footage of UK police on horseback charging protestors.

      It could be dealt with centuries ago and it can be dealt with again now.

  3. Olwyn 3
    28 May 2011 at 10:50 am

    What interests me is why majorities agree to follow this track. Why National manages to remain high in the polls despite high unemployment and the threat of asset sales, for instance. And I am coming to think that this is because people find themselves in a contradictory position, which owes more to wealth disparity than wage disparity, though a little to both. People do not want foreign ownership of NZ, but pressure from overseas buyers keeps land prices high, and allows people to feel reassured that their houses are worth a lot of money. Internal pressure on housing also contributes to this: if it were eased your house might not be worth quite so much. Hence I think people do feel concerned about the growing disparity between rich and poor, but so long as they think that they, by the skin of their teeth, are on the winning side of the divide, they vote for the status quo, and Key’s treading water suits them just fine. This is exacerbated by a “real economy” that is less than vibrant, since it drives people to cling fiercely to what little they have. Of course, if the trend continues they will no longer have even that, which is what seems to be happening in the US. But while they have it they will vote to protect it.

    • todd 3.1
      28 May 2011 at 10:57 am

      I think it’s a bit more sinister than that. The psychology of why people vote National aside, there are discrepancies with the polling we’re seeing. Hopefully this will not translate into too much electoral fraud.

  4. ianmac 4
    28 May 2011 at 11:03 am

    If the only way a dairy farmer can get a good price for selling his land, is to sell for much more to a Chinese buyer, that would surely inflate the value of not just his land but also everyone else’s land. If so, then only rich Chinese will ever own our land, increasingly. The thin end? And where would that leave aspiring young Kiwi farmers?
    And if current dairy farming can get away with polluting our water-ways, what chance of getting action from absentee owners?

    • logie97 4.1
      28 May 2011 at 1:24 pm

      Perhaps all land in New Zealand should become leased from the government and subject to regular inspection to ensure it is being maintained well for future generations. Foreign investment in plant and machinery might be encouraged, provided it meets stringent codes, but ownership of the land is not an option.

      • Drakula 4.1.1
        28 May 2011 at 11:26 pm

        Logie; Interesting that you should raise the lease issue because that is exactly what the Chinese government (and many other Asian governments) are doing.

        • Jim Nald 4.1.1.1
          28 May 2011 at 11:32 pm

          Yup, in some Asian countries .. I read that the general rule for residential real estate is that the land is not for sale but leased from the Government. People can own the house on it but not the land.

    • prism 4.2
      28 May 2011 at 2:13 pm

      ianmac Good point. I wondered if the West Coast business trust invested in the recent farm deal because it might otherwise open up to Chinese interests coming into the area with a likelihood of Coasters gradually being squeezed out anything but the development properties. All this farm amalgamation in nz over decades using leverage finance is coming back to bite farmers, and us, in the bum as they farming ventures go down in spectacular ways.

    • ianmac 5.1
      28 May 2011 at 4:21 pm

      Do you wonder Zorr if that is the thinking of our resident conservatives who gobble up the fat-lazy-bene bludger in NZ?
      (Actually I will win Lotto tonight and thumb my nose at all those peasants as they touch their fore-locks to me in envy.)

  6. todd 6
    28 May 2011 at 12:13 pm

    25 Rules of Disinformation

    http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/05/25-rules-of-disinformation.html

    This note provides a handy reference to most of the games used by spin-doctors and other assorted disinformation artists. Knowledge of these tricks enables us to spot their handiwork where ever they might appear. Those who’ve been on the receiving end of an injustice by Government or a Corporate will be familiar with many of these rules.

  7. ZeeBop 7
    28 May 2011 at 1:12 pm

    The right to fail. Free markets hold that failure makes them stronger. But we all know, if we’re being honest, that poverty costs us more. Yet a free marketeers may suggest that the failure of a market, that creates poverty, would be an opportunity for markets to get stronger. So free marketeers don’t like charity because charity hides the problem of poorly functioning markets, or worse like Haiti leads to a full market failure. So free markets do not that allow failure do not make them stronger. I believe free markets are the best but only when the market plays function rationally, only when the individuals reward good and punish bad. So when Brash and Key fail to address punishment of the fiscal failure, even the discuss the failure, they set the pace of the free market, and that is towards full melt down. And its not willful neglect, its incompetence and in-expertise, since these people were chosen, selected, and rewarded because they fail to address, fail to reward good outcomes (income equality) and punish the bad.

    On willful neglect, many of the Jews willful neglected to see what was happening to them on the way to the gas chambers, they had a gun to their head and suffered because a man came to power who used willful neglect of the masses to get his way, knew how to kill them. To argue the victim deserves their fate, that the wife beaten to an inch should have left long ago, all miss the point. You are not instantly guilt, or undeserving of remedy or compensation (or life, liberty and freedom), because you are willful neglecting,
    when you have no power to change, the gun is to your head, the society willful neglects to create function free markets by ever actor in that market being above reproach. Loads of Money should have been immediately sacked in a functioning free market.

    Many have brought into willful neglect are discovering their house are overpriced, and their debt unsustainable, even hard to repay outright this century. How much should we blame them as victims and how much as makers of their own fate. Well that depends really, are they still supporting the politics of digging harder, that Key, English, National, Brash, Hide, ACT, all do. Do they still buy the 100% pure but milk will cost to much if we protect the environment contradictions?

    On welfare, the right to fail has it place in discussion about welfare, but not when the elite, those in power are keen to neglect their responsibilities. Its a basic debating flaw when one party, or both, have no integrity in their position or person. Welfare protections are there because of market failure, and can be removed only when the market produces jobs, movement towards income equality rather than away (now), and an
    leadership that punish bad rather than reward bad. So does a discussion of the right to fail in welfare emblematic of the failure of free markets, since a functioning free market would not need welfare, charity, or structural dogooders???

  8. Brett 8
    28 May 2011 at 1:29 pm

    Not a good effort Clare Curran.
    If you’re going to start a thread and ask questions at least stick around and answer the replies.
    http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Messages.aspx?id=711187&topic=5

  9. Samuel Hill 9
    28 May 2011 at 1:40 pm

    Great speech. Winston Peters is going to cause a lot of trouble for Mr. Key.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1105/S00452/winston-peters-speech-the-thin-edge-of-a-disastrous-wedge.htm

    • Morrissey 9.1
      28 May 2011 at 2:51 pm

      Peters may lose some of his brash self-confidence if someone asks him why he supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from the late 1970s.

      • ianmac 9.1.1
        28 May 2011 at 4:29 pm

        I am sure that is in the realm of Todd’s 25 Rules of Disinformation Morrissey.

        • Morrissey 9.1.1.1
          29 May 2011 at 1:33 pm

          Actually, it is not disinformation, it’s a fact. Peters was a National MP when the National government obediently changed the name of Cambodia to Kampuchea, in line with the Khmer Rouge directive. The National government (including Winston Peters) decided to obey Washington and recognize the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime as “legitimate representatives of Kampuchea.”

          Before you accuse me of indulging in the same sort of thing Peters does, which is lying, please read the following article from the New Zealand Journal of History….

          http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1999/NZJH_33_2_05.pdf

          Then you may have a go at explaining precisely how my calling Winston Peters (and the National government) a supporter of Pol Pot is “disinformation.”

  10. Whistlerspa 10
    28 May 2011 at 1:49 pm

    As a provincial dweller I find it really annoying when another airline carrier starts competing with Air NZ on the primary national routes, how they fund their price war by raising fares on the lesser flights where they still have a monopoly. e.g. Ansett in the 90’s and now Jetstar

    As a point in fact cheapest flights from Napier to Auckland are now something like 70% dearer than 12 months ago from my recent attempts to find one.

  11. RedLogix 11
    28 May 2011 at 5:44 pm

    Recently announced from the East Taupo Land Trust:

    Finally some definite advice for everyone that has been in email contact with us over the last few months about access on the private land administered by the East Taupo Lands Trust within the Kaimanawa Ranges. Area Manager Dave Lumley attended an East Taupo Lands Trust meeting this morning. The position is not positive for general public access. ETLT are only allowing public use of their land via aerial access and this aerial access being through their lessee Tongariro Aviation. This means no public tramping/hunting unless flown there by their licence holder. There will be no permit system such as run by the previous lessee Air Charter. This effects the track sections between Ngapuketurua and Cascade Hut,between Ngapuketura and Junction Tops (ie Waipakihi Hut), and from Oamaru Hut out to the end of the Poronui Poled Access Route, and the many ‘wilderness’ routes outside of the Kaimanawa Forest Park boundaries. The DOC website is being updated as soon as possible to convey this information. DOC track entrance and boundary signs will be updated asand when we are able to be areas as part of routine operations. ETLT do not intend promoting this widely such as through the media.

    http://www.tramper.co.nz/?6867

    The land affected is mapped here.

    This essentially cuts a great hole through almost all the popular tramping routes in this very popular and well loved NI park. In years past I’ve done numerous trips in this area, some of them very memorable…. but no longer possible anymore.

    The logic of this is inevitable…. the same fate awaits the beaches and foreshore.

  12. Draco T Bastard 12
    28 May 2011 at 7:11 pm

    This is a general rant:

    WTF can’t NZers produce a good web presence? Seemingly all our commercial/government websites suck. It so bad it’s almost as if they don’t want to do business. Go looking for a SIM card reader, found a few but that’s not the focus of this rant. What I also found was a website that allowed me to directly purchase from the Chinese manufacturers. They did currency conversion, gave several options for delivery (Guaranteed by them) and several options for bulk purchasing discounts. Yep, to become an importer of Chinese goods requires only to sign up to a web page and either a CC or Paypal account. Think I can find anything like that for NZ manufacturers or businesses at all?

    The above DOC site was another reminder that, seemingly, we suck on the net. General map of the park but it’s not active, doesn’t show the tracks available and further information is in PDF format.

    /headdesk

    We have got to lift our game if we’re going to continue with this Free-Market BS.

  13. calltoaccount 13
    28 May 2011 at 7:35 pm

    You couldn’t make this stuff up…

    Hillary Calvert’s eyes are the advert on top of the massage parlor she is the landlord for down in Dunedin. Yep, there she is, eyes only, right across the top of the building!

    They certainly push the limits, I mean why not just a regular sign, rather than risk the laughter??

    http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/162508/mps-eyes-used-promote-dunedin-massage-parlour

    Click the photo for the close up, and look deep into her eyes! Maybe you’ll get the chance to meet the lady of your dreams? Pay at the door…

    • Anne 13.1
      28 May 2011 at 7:46 pm

      What’s more, they’re not even ‘come hither’ eyes. In fact they look remarkably vacant which matches nicely with her apparent personna.

    • Carol 13.2
      28 May 2011 at 7:50 pm

      Is it me, or is each of her eyes looking in a slightly differnt direction?

      • Jim Nald 13.2.1
        28 May 2011 at 8:00 pm

        Surely not cockeye !

        • Anne 13.2.1.1
          28 May 2011 at 8:30 pm

          Yep Carol you’re right. The left eye is looking to the right and the right eye is looking straight ahead.

          Cockeyed to be sure Jim Nald.

    • Draco T Bastard 13.3
      29 May 2011 at 1:35 am

      “Your own image belongs to you, and the only person whose image safely belongs to me is mine.”

      And she’s a lawyer?

      Remind me to never hire her as she obviously sux at her job.

      • calltoaccount 13.3.1
        29 May 2011 at 2:11 pm

        DTB, what actually is the law on ownership of your personal image? Written permission I believe is all that is needed? Do you have a link??

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