Daily Review 05/08/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 5th, 2015 - 71 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Murray McCully John Key

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other.

71 comments on “Daily Review 05/08/2015 ”

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  1. r0b 1
    5 August 2015 at 6:37 pm

    I’m off line until Monday 17th. Be excellent to each other!

    • lprent 1.1
      5 August 2015 at 6:59 pm

      Bye and have fun in the sunny climates (ie unlike the chilly valleys of Dunedin 😈 )

      • BM 1.1.1
        5 August 2015 at 7:08 pm

        Personally, I’d rather have my balls flogged with barbed wire then live in Dunedin.

        There’s nothing good about the place, terrible climate and every one has 12 fingers

        • r0b 1.1.1.1
          5 August 2015 at 7:33 pm

          I certainly agree that you should never come to Dunedin BM.

          And yes, sunnier climes for a bit!

        • lprent 1.1.1.2
          5 August 2015 at 11:05 pm

          Nah! I had a really good time down there in 1985-1989.

          Problem is that the work was (for me and my partner at the time) back in my hometown.

        • swordfish 1.1.1.3
          6 August 2015 at 12:12 am

          “Personally, I’d rather have my balls flogged with barbed wire then (sic) live in Dunedin”.

          Yeah, but the way I hear it, BM, you’d rather have your balls flogged with barbed wire than almost anything.

          Former Boarding-School Tories and their penchant for BDSM.

          Administered by a Dominatrix to remind them of their first Nanny.

        • David H 1.1.1.4
          6 August 2015 at 10:02 am

          Dunedin is a great place to live. I was there for about 6 years. It’s for normal happy people. Not Grumpy old/young Farts who moan all the time.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      5 August 2015 at 7:44 pm

  2. Anne 2
    5 August 2015 at 6:40 pm

    We’ll try…. 😈

  3. BM 3
    5 August 2015 at 6:47 pm

    McCullys foot work looks terrible.

    Needs to get his front foot moving.

  4. Clemgeopin 4
    5 August 2015 at 7:14 pm

    Susan Devoy the Race Relations Commissioner has refueled the race issue once again today! So dumb! Luckily, so far, the readers’ comments are against her stupid and biased rant ! Take a look.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70854977/labour-says-devoy-out-of-line-for-calling-it-racist-over-chinese-buyers

    • Paul 4.1
      5 August 2015 at 7:19 pm

      A quick at her Wikipedia site shows how abjectly ill-equipped she is to do the job.
      It’s starting to show why she was selected.

    • weka 4.2
      5 August 2015 at 7:34 pm

      “It is a deeply hurtful thing to have your children hear politicians insinuating that their Chinese-sounding surname means they’re foreigners and they don’t belong here,” Devoy said.

      Pretty hard to argue with that.

    • Anne 4.3
      5 August 2015 at 7:44 pm

      Beat me to it Clem.

      Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford said Devoy was either “misunderstanding or wilfully misrepresenting the debate.

      Countries all over the world were having to come to grips with the effect of huge levels of private investment from China overheating their housing markets.

      “New Zealand needs to be able to discuss this in public without these kinds of allegations of racism”.

      Sums it up nicely in my view.

      This woman is not suitable for the position of Human Rights Commissioner. She’s out of her depth and was originally appointed to be a “yes” girl for Judith Collins.

      • Paul 4.3.1
        5 August 2015 at 7:48 pm

        This book is required reading for this subject
        The Land grabbers by Fred Pierce.
        http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/216574/the-land-grabbers-by-fred-pearce/

      • Draco T Bastard 4.3.2
        5 August 2015 at 7:49 pm

        +1

        It does seem that we can’t have an adult conversation about excessive foreign ‘investment’ without the Nats and a few from the left screaming about racism and xenophobia.

        • Paul 4.3.2.1
          5 August 2015 at 7:52 pm

          I understand why the Nats derail the conversation.
          I don’t get the left.

          • Anne 4.3.2.1.1
            5 August 2015 at 8:07 pm

            We have a brain and a heart. The brain covers the logical (read cerebral) reaction to an issue, the heart covers the emotional response. Both are equally important, and the trick is to get the balance right…..

            • sabine 4.3.2.1.1.1
              5 August 2015 at 8:16 pm

              and then you have those that would rather see Labour loose then win, becasue they are not left enough, labour enough, green enough, enough enough enough.
              And while the left plays it away with its need to be holier then thou or thee, the right laughs all the way to the bank.

        • Clemgeopin 4.3.2.2
          5 August 2015 at 8:36 pm

          The few in the left camp that are stupidly misinterpreting the non resident investment issue, so dramatically highlighted by Twyford, and are foolishly screaming ‘racism and xenophobia’ are a little more dumb arsed than the nasty RW bull shitting rogues.

          • weka 4.3.2.2.1
            5 August 2015 at 9:51 pm

            wow, way to shit on your allies, people. By all means disagree with we say, but this whole ‘you are all stupid’ thing reflects on you not us.

            • Clemgeopin 4.3.2.2.1.1
              6 August 2015 at 12:26 am

              Ok, may be not stupid, but confused.

              I stand by my honest opinion that ‘misinterpreting the non resident investment issue’ as being ‘anti Chinese’ rather than ‘anti-non residents buying off properties’ here is being quite dumb arsed, especially from the left wing PC numpties who should know better, in spite of Twyford starting that he has no problems with the ‘resident Chinese’ buying houses and that he ‘welcomes them with open arms’, but is concerned about the massive foreign investment by ‘non residents’ for houses in Auckland, most of whom appear to be overwhelmingly from China. Just a matter of fact and a very serious issue that needs to be properly and urgently tackled. Devoy is completely wrong in misinterpreting the issue and the small band of PC left wing do-gooders are wrong too. NOTHING racist about that.

              See the readers’ comments under that linked article I posted above to understand the issue better….. Pai po

              • weka …
                6 August 2015 at 2:25 pm

                Clem, I understand everything you just said. I don’t need to read anything else in order to comprehend it. Telling me I’m not stupid but confused is just patronising. It’s also ignorant and suggests you haven’t been paying attention. The people I’ve seen naming racism on ts are mostly people with good political awareness including about racism. Sure, there will be some who are just parroting ‘racism’ without thought, but I haven’t seen that at the core of the debate here.

                I disagree with what you have just written, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand it. I’m not sure you understand my view though.

                • Clemgeopin …
                  6 August 2015 at 4:12 pm

                  Perfectly. You are a good guy/gal. I get a feeling that a number of posters who termed Twyford and Labour as ‘anti-Chinese racists’ seemed to be the green supporters who like to put their boot into Labour for whatever silly motive they have, like trying to seem to be superior in some way. That pisses me off more than the expected RW rants and dirty politics. As I said, that is my perception sometimes about the greenies here. But hey, what do I know!

                  kia hari

                  By the way, off topic, I just read an article about a big $1 million dollar donation to protect weka, among other things. I immediately thought of you. Don’t spend it all at once! lol

                  http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/70893135/lizards-inherit-1m-fortune-with-anonymous-bequest-to-conservation-project

                  • weka …
                    6 August 2015 at 7:27 pm

                    no Clem, you really have no idea what the argument is. My criticism has nothing at all to do with it being Labour, and for you to write off the argument based on such ignorance is again a reflection on you. What is being said about racism isn’t what you portrayed above, that’s just how you are seeing it without checking more fully what people are doing. I think your assertion that it’s just Greenies hating on Labour again is a projection. You seem incapable of understanding that people could critique something Labour does without them being down on the party itself. That’s your blind spot.

                    But worse, the ‘there is no racism here’ argument fairly quickly dropped into slurring the people who were naming racism, and outright denial, without looking at what the actual arguments are. That’s is shameful on a left wing blog like ts.

                • Chris …
                  6 August 2015 at 4:50 pm

                  Diehard Labour supporters like Clemgeopin represent everything that’s wrong with the left in NZ today.

          • marty mars 4.3.2.2.2
            5 August 2015 at 10:20 pm

            Thanks for that clem – a little bit of toy tossing is good every now and then and you have displayed it well.

      • AmaKiwi 4.3.3
        5 August 2015 at 8:53 pm

        Susan the Void

      • Anne 4.3.4
        5 August 2015 at 9:34 pm

        Anne @ 4.3
        Apols for error… she’s Race Relations Comm… not Human Rights. Going to bed.

    • half crown 4.4
      5 August 2015 at 8:27 pm

      I always thought Devoy was thick, like thick as short plank. You must be, if all your ambition in life is, is to hit a small fucking ball at a wall all day long. That is why she is out of her depth as the Race Relations Commissioner.

    • Charles 4.5
      6 August 2015 at 8:03 am

      Two points from the article:

      1) Labour are an “it”? (haha) Discuss.

      2) “…Addressing a meeting of Auckland city councillors on Wednesday, she said debate on some issues was “deteriorating into racism”…”

      Point two is accurate, I’d say: “Deteriorating into racism”. Plenty about the issue was just racism trying to hide behind tired old verbal tricks. There is a way that a hypothetical problem of people not being able to afford homes can be addressed, but it doesn’t need an ethnic/racial label attached to any of it, and no one so far has managed to start from that point because it undermines our existing widely-favoured economic preferences. Both racism and our economic outlook is destructive to a coherent society, and individuals, so it’s no surprise the two stubbornly hold hands on this issue.

  5. Paul 5
    5 August 2015 at 7:15 pm

    That’s Battersea Power Station in London in the background, isn’t it?

  6. freedom 6
    5 August 2015 at 7:22 pm

    Observant folk will notice how the TTIP and the TPPA both contain the same individual phrase in their media materials, that is:

    ” to create the world’s largest free-trade zone, ”

    You might wonder how each agreement can be individually claiming to create the world’s largest free-trade zone? Obviously they can’t. Perhaps someone employed in the journalism profession would be keen to find out these things? They could ask Tim Groser what he means when he says the TPPA will be “the world’s largest free trade zone”? Then follow up by asking him about the TTIP and what its promoters mean by claiming it is going to be “the world’s largest free trade zone”?

    Then there are a few questions for him about TISA, the Trade in Services Agreement. Its aim is privatizing the worldwide trade of services. This includes critical infrastructure services such as banking, healthcare and transport. New Zealand is party to these negotiations also, but we never hear about it.

    Why not?

    While the TTIP, TPPA and TISA are all being hammered out, over in Africa they are working on TFTA, the Tripartite Free Trade Area.

    What about Russia I hear someone ask? Well, they already signed their CISFTA Commonwealth of Independent States Free Trade Area and are said to be talking with the EU about a cross-over agreement that might see them as an adjunct to the TTIP and there have been noises that they may be invited to join TISA. Currently the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – have been excluded from the TISA negotiations. Brazil & India both objected to TISA being negotiated outside of the WTO GATS.

    So what about China?
    They have asked to join the TISA talks, the EU is reported to support its application because it wants as many countries as possible to join the agreement but on the flip side, reports of US pressure suggests they are unlikely to be invited to join the TPPA any time soon.

    Brazil & India by the way, whilst not currently party to any of the major agreements, are working on several trade agreements of their own with countries who are involved with the TTIP and the TPPA and are both listed as potential prospects. When and if they join TISA probably depends on the WTO GATS decision about the final form of TISA

    Apart from resembling a bowl of alphabetti spaghetti, what could it all mean? The only logical conclusion is they are stepping stones towards a global trade agreement. One super massive free-trade zone of privatised public services and corporate controlled commerce. In other words, “the world’s largest free trade zone”. A trade zone so big it will be seen from space, seeing as Earth, you know, is visible from space.

    • Paul 6.1
      5 August 2015 at 7:24 pm

      What a nightmare.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.2
      5 August 2015 at 7:54 pm

      And it will have nothing to do with ‘free-trade’ and everything to do with keeping the corporations and the rich in power.

      • Clemgeopin 6.2.1
        5 August 2015 at 8:59 pm

        “everything to do with keeping the corporations and the rich in power”

        …and lots to do with ultimately controlling governments, the people, their laws, independence, freedom, democracy and sovereignty. Think about that. Very big corporates and the very wealthy entities controlling everything everywhere! We have a set of non-far-thinking dumb-arsed politicians.

        The safest and the best way to go is bilateral country to country governmental agreements where we have better control and not these non-multi-party secret agreements primarily controlled by the corporates.

        The real losers will be all our future generations.

        • Clemgeopin 6.2.1.1
          5 August 2015 at 9:16 pm

          Whoops….

          The penultimate paragraph should read:

          ‘The safest and the best way to go are bilateral country to country governmental agreements where we have better say, safety and control, and not these multi-country secret agreements which are primarily controlled by the big global corporates.’

    • ianmac 6.3
      5 August 2015 at 9:14 pm

      Decades ago there were science fiction predictions of the World being divided into large multi-national States. Say Eastern Zone and Western Zone with each having a central Governing Body/Security/Financial Controls. Perhaps this Zones are becoming realities?

      • maui 6.3.1
        5 August 2015 at 9:44 pm

        I’m not sure about that, Greece almost left the Euro and would have ruptured the whole continent. Then there’s Scotland.. and I heard something about Texas wanting to break away. So I think we’re heading in the opposite direction. These global agreements are the final straw for global domination, hopefully.

        Although in saying that China and Russia are working closer together now, talking about a combined currency.

      • freedom 6.3.2
        5 August 2015 at 10:53 pm

        “Zones are becoming realities?”
        At a corporate level they have been very real for a long time. 🙁

        A good example of how an industry goes ahead and carves up a nation for monopolistic endeavours is telecommunications.
        The whole vid linked below is worth watching if you haven’t seen it, but the information specifically relevant to the point above starts at 7:15 (and runs to 8:25) It is just one minor example but few examples have the boss saying it quite so openly.

  7. ropata 7
    5 August 2015 at 8:17 pm

    Chris Hedges writes of how Marx predicted correctly our current state of affairs.

    The final stages of capitalism, Marx wrote, would be marked by developments that are intimately familiar to most of us. Unable to expand and generate profits at past levels, the capitalist system would begin to consume the structures that sustained it. It would prey upon, in the name of austerity, the working class and the poor, driving them ever deeper into debt and poverty and diminishing the capacity of the state to serve the needs of ordinary citizens. It would, as it has, increasingly relocate jobs, including both manufacturing and professional positions, to countries with cheap pools of laborers. Industries would mechanize their workplaces.

    Certainly bankster fraud, corporate welfare, never ending war, and hoarding of capital has created ever increasing poverty, global instability leading to governmental crises, and the pillaging of the middle class.

    Marx warned that in the later stages of capitalism huge corporations would exercise a monopoly on global markets. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe,” he wrote.”It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.”

    Hedge’s essay savages corporations, and rightfully so in my opinion.

    They would fix prices to maximize profit. They would, as they [have been doing], push through trade deals such as the TPP and CAFTA to further weaken the nation-state’s ability to impede exploitation by imposing environmental regulations or monitoring working conditions. And in the end these corporate monopolies would obliterate free market competition.

  8. Gangnam Style 8
    6 August 2015 at 5:36 am

    I just read the latest John Armstrong, its all Labours fault, & anyway, it wasn’t a bribe because the Govt got no benefit from it, & isn’t John Key so masterful etc….ugh!

    • Charles 8.1
      6 August 2015 at 8:07 am

      “No benefit? No bribe.” hahaha. Jesus.

      In Amstrong’s World, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, it makes no sound. Furthermore, back in the city, the tree is imagined to still be standing – the ledger says so – and the forest thrives, ripe for harvesting!

    • half crown 8.2
      6 August 2015 at 9:16 am

      How can you jeopardise your eyesight by reading shit written by Armstrong.?
      I suppose someone has to do the tough jobs to keep us informed what crap that prat writes.

    • Clemgeopin 8.3
      6 August 2015 at 10:26 am

      I like reading what the readers below an article are saying. The first comment below that article under ‘most liked’ with 122 likes, by one ‘wiseacre’, shows how out of touch, dumb arsed and idiotic Armstrong has become in his thinking about this corrupt and dodgy sheep episode: Here is the comment:

      “One reason was that the Prime Minister outmaneuvered Opposition parties. John Key had a simple line and he stuck to it whatever question was asked.”

      So, blatant lying is *outmaneuvering* now is it?

      John Key knows that if he sticks to a line the media will repeat it without challenge, and that is the message that will stick in the public’s consciousness. Who cares if it’s complete rubbish, right?

      None of the official documents support National’s version of events. Quite the contrary.

      National bribed a Saudi billionaire in the hope of getting a trade deal that has never eventuated, the Auditor-General had serious reservations about the deal, Treasury objected to the deal, and everything National has said about it – including trying to blame Labour – have been abject lies.

      If only the media held John Key as accountable for his claims as they do the Opposition.

      John Key provides false and evasive disinformation. Every. Single. Day. And it gets shrugged away. The mainstream media is failing in its fourth estate duty to hold the government to account over its lies and deceit.

      Heads need to roll, with charges of corruption and bribery laid against the relevant Ministers.”

      • Draco T Bastard 8.3.1
        6 August 2015 at 11:25 am

        Heads need to roll, with charges of corruption and bribery laid against the relevant Ministers

        QFT

      • freedom 8.3.2
        6 August 2015 at 11:38 am

        In Vernon Small’s piece over at Fluff he makes a purposeful statement detailing how David Carter was telling the public how live animal exports would not resume under his watch! but Vernon Small then completely fails to mention how at the same time, David Carter was also involved with behind the scene discussions on resuming live exports.