Daily Review 11/08/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 11th, 2015 - 53 comments
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Donald Trump down the drain

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.

53 comments on “Daily Review 11/08/2015 ”

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  1. Rudi Can't Fail 1
    11 August 2015 at 6:10 pm

    Boo hoo. Good look for the Greens tonight. The party of shower heads and no fun.

    • mickysavage 1.1
      11 August 2015 at 6:15 pm

      What not allowing people to drink at 7 in the morning? I could not think of anything worse …

      • Tamati 1.1.1
        11 August 2015 at 8:20 pm

        It’s not compulsory.

      • greywarshark 1.1.2
        11 August 2015 at 9:22 pm

        Aww it’s a special occasion. The line could be stretched. Just as long as it springs back again. I would like to see midnight closing most of the time with special times for special seasons and reasons.

        • aerobubble 1.1.2.1
          12 August 2015 at 10:35 am

          Firstly why isnt there a clause in the law for special events, oh like national killed the party long before the greens.

          Oh wait, nobody did, you can still get drunk and watch the rugby,just do it at home you blithering idiot media made it sound like a crisis.

          Headline, National out of touch with license premises for major sporting events.
          Its mondayisation all over again. Dither because the legistlation was rushed.

    • infused 1.2
      11 August 2015 at 6:48 pm

      Bunch of idiots. Who cares.

    • Stephanie Rodgers 1.3
      11 August 2015 at 7:24 pm

      Boo hoo. Good look for ACT tonight, trying to only-slightly repeal a ban on drinking which their government introduced.

      Such defenders-of-freedom, very not-hypocrites, wow. /doge

    • millsy 1.4
      11 August 2015 at 10:31 pm

      The Greens kinda stuffed up today. They should have supported Seymour’s bill. I have said before that they need to reach out to the hunters and the fishers if they want to get anywhere, but they are doing everything but.

      This wasnt going to be the thin end of the wedge to 24 hour licencing (which, most of the hospitality industry doesnt really support anyway — just a chance for people to have a good time.

  2. Clemgeopin 2
    11 August 2015 at 6:16 pm

    John Key ‘answering’ David Parker’s questions today about the shady Saudi sheep dodgy deal. Watch the video here and see Bill English’s demeanor and body language with his head pointing downwards throughout this Q and A, as if in shame/embarrassment/guilt/fear! Notice also the PM not admitting his serious wrongdoing but turning it around to stupidly lie that it was all the Labour’s fault!

    http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/38714

    • BM 2.1
      11 August 2015 at 6:20 pm

      You do realize this stuff doesn’t help the left at all.

      Beltway boredom.

      • Gangnam Style 2.1.1
        11 August 2015 at 6:31 pm

        You do realise when the truth comes out about the shady Nat/Saudi deal it won’t help ‘the right’ at all.

        Bored with RW trolls.

        • BM 2.1.1.1
          11 August 2015 at 6:36 pm

          Labour has been doing this stuff for the last seven years, seriously why do they think it will be any different this time.

          If labour wants to win, Little needs to get out there and show he’s a good bloke, not the whining, grumpy, negative prick he’s getting shown as.

          Positive, positive ,positive, no one likes negative, he needs to demonstrate why he’s a better choice than Key and he has to do it in a positive way other wise he’s wasting his time.

          • Clemgeopin 2.1.1.1.1
            11 August 2015 at 6:47 pm

            You are trying to talk shit to derail the topic instead of addressing the issue raised. Are you looking to get banned?

          • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1.1.2
            11 August 2015 at 9:29 pm

            Positive, positive ,positive, no one likes negative,

            The RWNJs do – John Key and National lie all the time about Labour and, well, everything and the RWNJs still vote for the psychopaths. Hell, they even defend their immoral actions.

          • ropata 2.1.1.1.3
            11 August 2015 at 10:53 pm

            That’s not a very positive contribution BM. Why aren’t you telling us about how the sun shines out of FJK’s arse or something?

      • Clemgeopin 2.1.2
        11 August 2015 at 6:32 pm

        This is not about the left. It is about a shockingly corrupt deal performed by this government. It is a disgrace. I would not hesitate to say the same if it were a Labour government that had done it. Do you condone what this government has done here? Be honest.

        • BM 2.1.2.1
          11 August 2015 at 6:39 pm

          Haven’t followed it at all, not a bean of interest.
          Boring beltway schlock.

          I guess, I’m just completely jaded from all the endless left inspired hysteria that I’ve tuned out.

          • Gangnam Style 2.1.2.1.1
            11 August 2015 at 7:05 pm

            The fact you are telling ‘the left’ to ‘move on’ just means there is something in this, maybe if you followed your own advice & ‘moved on’ it would peter out, but hey, you are here, failing at diversion trolling & fueling the fire, FAIL!

          • Stephanie Rodgers 2.1.2.1.2
            11 August 2015 at 7:26 pm

            “Not a bean of interest” = three comments desperately trying to convince us there’s no story here.

      • Clemgeopin 2.1.3
        11 August 2015 at 8:05 pm

        Today Labour has published documents obtained under the Official Information Act.

        It is now clear:

        * Mr Al Khalaf had been disaffected for over six years. He had never issued any proceeding against the New Zealand Government. It seems clear he had no legal cause of action.

        * There is no evidence in any of the papers released that the Minister or MFAT had any legal advice from their own department or Crown Law to the contrary.

        * Mr Al Khalaf was influential in Saudi Arabia, linked to the Saudi Minister of Agriculture, and frustrating progress on the Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Agreement.

        * Mr McCully wanted to advance the trade agreement by obtaining the cooperation of Mr Al Khalaf.

        * The papers released this week record that McCully said “he would not want any (financial) contributions to be treated as compensation as this would involve a plethora of lawyers and bureaucrats”.

        * Mr McCully deliberately misrepresented the payments made to the Al Khalaf group.

        * The contract dated 19 February 2013 was drafted so as to pretend the $4 million cash payment was for good value for services and intellectual property. It was not.

        * Mr McCully did not obtain Cabinet approval for the $4 million payment, despite Treasury advice that he should have. Cabinet was only asked to note the payment.

        * Mr McCully then hid the $4 million payment from New Zealanders for over two years.

        * The true nature of the $6 million demonstration farm was also misrepresented. In reality this was primarily to buy the co-operation of the Al Khalaf group, not to demonstrate New Zealand technology.

        * The same is true of the $1.5 million spent on flying sheep.

        Read lots more here under the heading, ‘The Saudi Sheep Files’
        by David Parker on August 11, 2015

        http://campaign.labour.org.nz/saudi_sheep

        • Macro 2.1.3.1
          11 August 2015 at 9:10 pm

          Come on BM 1, 2, 3,
          All together now.. “Labour did it too…”
          “Nothing to see here…”

          BM – if you were to tell someone to write an invoice to you for $4m but say it was for something that it clearly was not – and subsequently an employer, or the IRD, or whoever found out… Do you think the SFO might be coming to ask you a few questions?

      • McFlock 2.1.4
        11 August 2015 at 9:44 pm

        thanks for your concern

  4. les 4
    11 August 2015 at 6:40 pm

    the National party plumbs new depths of puerile excuses…waiting for the ‘dog ate the papers’…we’ve had everything else.

  6. Incognito 6
    11 August 2015 at 8:41 pm

    Bryan Gould has written another piece in the NZ Herald NZ a ‘virtual economic trade prisoner of China’.

    He writes:

    ”Low dairy prices will force the sale of a number of farms to foreign owners.”

    I think this might be a little presumptuous. The NZ/Ozzie banks have much more to gain from continuing their current mortgage/debt contracts with farmers than selling to the highest bidder if this bidder is/comes from overseas with his own cheap(er) funds. IMO the banks are in it for medium-to-long-term game and not after short-term ‘profits’. The exception might be businesses that are going to cost the banks money, in the long run, in which case they’ll pull the pin and ‘count their losses’, i.e. force a mortgagee sale.

    Another factor is that the local banks here in NZ are highly competitive and do not want to gamble away their goodwill with the general public; they’ve worked hard to get to this level of goodwill.

    Last thing the banks want to avoid is panic setting in! The farming community is relatively close-knit.

    Obviously, some (‘jittery’?) farmers may think that now is a good time to sell to the highest bidder, foreign or not, in which case they hold the future of NZ farming in their own hands.

    Interesting times ahead …

    • Colonial Viper 6.1
      11 August 2015 at 10:08 pm

      You’ve weaved a very complex and nuanced tale. But farm mortgagee sales are already happening.

      The NZ/Ozzie banks have much more to gain from continuing their current mortgage/debt contracts with farmers than selling to the highest bidder if this bidder is/comes from overseas with his own cheap(er) funds.

      Banks can only tolerate a certain level of NPLs. And the biggest risk they take is if farm prices start to fall under what the bank is owed, when the farm business goes insolvent. At that point anyone willing to hand over good hard cash to the bank wins the farm.

      Another factor is that the local banks here in NZ are highly competitive and do not want to gamble away their goodwill with the general public; they’ve worked hard to get to this level of goodwill.

      You’re smoking things.

  7. Ad 7
    11 August 2015 at 8:53 pm

    Greece and EU agree to the deal.

    86billion Euro in fresh loans, and aiming for budget surpluses every year.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/greece-bailout-deal_55c9b278e4b0923c12be0634?kvcommref=mostpopular

    It it the patriotic duty of every poster who supported Syriza to take a holiday in Greece.

    Thatnkfully, Greece sinking the Euro and China sinking its own currency are also sinking NZ’s kiwi, which in turn is a great downward signal for the NZ Reserve Bank to lower interest rates, which is great for all those investors in Auckland on floating rates.

    So it all works out.

    See you at the Parthenon.

    • millsy 7.1
      11 August 2015 at 10:35 pm

      Sure — just hang on while I shit out $15,000 or so.

      Oops, looks like I dont shit money out after all.

      Shame 🙂

  8. Incognito 8
    11 August 2015 at 8:57 pm

    As usual, this Government leaves it to the RBNZ to do all the heavy lifting with the only power-tool it has: the OCR NZ Finance Minister Bill English says ‘plenty of room’ for interest rate cuts. Obviously, as stated in the article, the surreal surplus is more important to Bill English and his mates than stimulating the economy.

    Fortunately, for Bill English, the surprise Chinese devaluation today is likely to force Graeme Wheeler’s hand in September; a cut of 0.50% on the cards?

  9. Clemgeopin 9
    11 August 2015 at 9:22 pm

    “When I finally convinced her that I wasn’t joking, she just burst into tears. Then we dreamed about all the ways our lives would change and all the good we could do with the winnings. It was a really special moment.”

    Within minutes of winning, the lucky couple were already planning how to spend the winnings – and giving back to their community is at the top of the list.

    “We’re part of a really tight-knit community and we want to use some of our winnings to make life easier for those around us as well.

    “We already have a big list of things we want to do over the coming months – it’s really exciting!

    “We want to organise 500 food hampers that we’ll deliver to families in our area come Christmas time and we have a list of charities and groups we want to help.

    “It’s something we always said we’d do if we won and it’s so exciting to be able to make those dreams a reality.”
    ——————

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/71016531/hamilton-mans-gut-instinct-leaves-him-93m-richer

    P.S:
    What a lovely couple.
    And well done to the journalist, ‘PHILLIPA YALDEN’ for such lovely writing.

    • whateva next? 9.1
      11 August 2015 at 9:23 pm

      heartwarming on a cold day

    • greywarshark 9.2
      11 August 2015 at 9:35 pm

      And what about this for an idea. Use the money to buy some suitable land and build some good three storey social housing units, properly designed., fenced. Have a trust and rent them out at reasonable rent, enough to cover costs, maintenance, administration, and have a few at rent to buy so that people could pay more and the extra adds up to their deposit to purchase. A gift that keeps on giving that would be. It would be the best thing they could do, and they could borrow some of the money, wouldn’t have to use all of their own. They would still have enough left for a lifestyle block for themselves or whatever.

  10. Draco T Bastard 10
    11 August 2015 at 9:43 pm

    To truly grasp what we’re doing to the planet, you need to understand this gigantic measurement

    All of which further underscores that the gigaton is the unit that really explains to you how we’re altering the planet — changing its atmosphere, and changing its oceans, at a scale that’s hard for humans to conceive of. Net gigatons of CO2 are going into the atmosphere and net gigatons of H2O are going into the ocean. And if you wanted to reshape a planet, it’s hard to think of a better recipe than that.

  11. greywarshark 11
    11 August 2015 at 9:46 pm

    Just heard Brian Easton on radionz with Barry Crump. He is going to return in a fortnight – so that is Tuesday 25th August.
    8:40 Economics
    Is there no such thing as a free lunch – with independent scholar Brian Easton. Is the New Zealand economy heading into a recession? No audio.
    He was good like Rod Oram. Must keep an ear out for him.
    His own blog has some interesting reading.
    http://pundit.co.nz/blogs/brian-easton

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/windowsontheworld
    And BBC Windows on the World have produced some riveting investigations.
    Tonight I was listening to the story behind the polonium poisoning of the Russian dissident. Yesterday it was the story of a young physicist? Moseley who worked at the same time as Rutherford who gave him space to develop his ideas which he did brilliantly until he signed up for the war and got killed.

    This is the list for this week.
    Monday 10 August 2015: Death of a Physicist
    On August 10 1915, while on his first action in World War One, the most talented physicist of his generation was felled by a bullet. He was Henry Moseley, and in a career that lasted just four years, he had confirmed the modern picture of the atom, and explained the underlying principles of the periodic table of the elements, the ‘map’ used by all chemists to this day. A Nobel prize and a glittering future was guaranteed. Instead his death was called a “national tragedy”. Roland Pease looks at the lasting impact of this rarely remembered physicist.

    Tuesday 11 August 2015: The Polonium Trail
    The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital in 2006, after drinking tea poisoned with the highly radioactive material – polonium. But who wanted him dead, and why? And where did his killers get the polonium from? As a British judicial Inquiry ends its public hearings, BBC correspondent Richard Watson investigates the murky story surrounding Alexander Litvinenko’s death.

    Wednesday 12 August 2015: The Killing of Farkhunda
    A 28-year-old woman called Farkhunda was beaten to death in the streets of Kabul in March this year after she was accused of burning a copy of the Koran. The Killing of Farkhunda puts together a picture of who she was, what actually happened and asks what it says about Afghan society. The murder sparked unprecedented protests in Kabul about the treatment of women. In a speedy judicial process four men were convicted of her killing and sentenced to death but these sentences were later quashed. The Killing of Farkhunda tells the story of what happened to Farkhunda on that day, told through the voices of those closest to her and through those who became caught up in the case.

    Thursday 13 August 2015: China’s Ketamine Fortress
    Celia Hatton goes undercover to The Fortress, the Chinese village at the centre of the world’s illicit ketamine problem. She hears how China is a top maker and taker of the drug.

    • Colonial Viper 11.1
      11 August 2015 at 10:13 pm

      On August 10 1915, while on his first action in World War One, the most talented physicist of his generation was felled by a bullet. He was Henry Moseley,

      If he had lived he would probably have helped bring about the nuclear bomb for WW2.

    • millsy 11.2
      11 August 2015 at 10:37 pm

      “ust heard Brian Easton on radionz with Barry Crump. He is going to return in a fortnight – so that is Tuesday 25th August.”

      Dont you mean Bryan Crump?

      Unless Radio NZ has found out how to resurrect people…

      • maui 11.2.1
        12 August 2015 at 12:19 am

        You could have Barry Crump audio on RNZ for a fortnight no trouble. There’s all those toyota ads you could play for a start.. except they don’t play ads do they, whoops.

        • greywarshark 11.2.1.1
          12 August 2015 at 4:34 pm

          Thanks you all. I do mean the esteemed Bryan Crump. But sometimes I wonder if anyone reads what I put up so after this unplanned experiment I shall include a deliberate mistake to draw out the closet watchers!

          And about ads – those like the Toyota one have become a classic, transcending the mundane realms of vegetable prices today or whatever. I have bought two Kiwiana CDs and they have a number of radio ads that take me back to when I was knee high to a grasshopper. Funny how affectionate one can feel about an advert. Who would have thought it.

  12. joe90 12
    11 August 2015 at 10:02 pm

    As white men armed with assault rifles stalk the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, police arrest black protestors because they might be armed,

    A group of men who call themselves the “Oath Keepers” arrived in Ferguson, Missouri, late Monday night, armed with assault rifles and decked out in military fatigues.

    http://mashable.com/2015/08/11/oath-keepers-ferguson/

  13. ropata 13
    11 August 2015 at 11:36 pm

    To all those RWNJ critics of “hip hop tours” : suck it you racist snobs

    @HelenClarkUNDP Big thanks to Helen & Labour for backing NZ Hip Hop – The Bradas Hip Hop Crew from NZ just won the world Hip Hop Champs!!!— Minder (@ArbyHyde) August 11, 2015

  14. ropata 14
    12 August 2015 at 12:01 am

    Rachel Smalley: Burden of student loans a kick in the teeth to whole generation

    Will Hutton’s Guardian piece made me re-think the issue of student debt and what we load on to the shoulders of the next generation. He says we need to look at the long-term social implications of large student debt. He says, for example, It’s putting people off marriage for many years, until they’re mid or late 30s and then the birthrate falls too.

    In the UK, just as is the case here, home ownership among the under 40s has absolutely plummeted … many people emerge from university and spend their entire life renting and trying to pay off their student loan… and they’ll do that well into their 50s.

    Of course, the idea that we are trying to educate our youth to improve their prospects … but when you consider the level of debt our students are shouldering, it begs the question whether the system is actually self-defeating.

    Will Hutton says Britain is the process of creating the most stratified, least socially mobile and cruelly unfair society because of the way it is treating its young.

    And he says the student loan system saves the government between 1 and 1.5 percent of GDP- but the end result is that they are enslaving a generation to debt, and what it cost is that to an economy on the long term?

    He ends his piece by saying this issue is often politicised – it’s often marginalised as an issue of the left. But it’s much bigger than that.

    Exactly right, student debt is a huge anchor on economic growth as well as people’s lives. Why the f*ck are we not investing *more* in the next generation? But instead we are ripping them off and then expecting them to pay for our retirement too? This is not only unjust, it’s economically infeasible.

    • Molly 14.1
      12 August 2015 at 9:51 am

      Agree with the sentiments regarding student loans.

      But does it strike anyone else that too many of our commentators have articles and opinions that are only created after they read someone else’s work?

      In fact, most of Smalley’s article is a repeat of his except for a small personal anecdote. There is a referral to the average amount of a loan, (for a UK student – taken from the Guardian article) but how hard can it be to make this NZ Herald article relevant?

      • ropata 14.1.1
        12 August 2015 at 11:08 pm

        So what? She attributed and summarised, and Smalley’s version is a lot more punchy and readable for that. The message was stated effectively.

    • greywarshark 14.2
      12 August 2015 at 4:26 pm

      The idea of building capacity in a country with education for future smart jobs and the people to fill them from THIS country, and also the idea of investing in your own citizens and knowledge and a wider outlook for our young people for a more advanced society has been demolished.

      Now the idea of higher education is that it will give a better higher paying job than otherwise, is useful to the individual as a money earner, and therefore is a private good. So education must be charged for on the basis of that idea. Education is a type of business, where the government pays a limited amount of the cost and charges the student what the market will bear.

      But getting a good paying job after successful higher education is only an idea which has become a dream for many because of another neo lib idea, that it is right to bring in laws and practices that crush existing businesses because better newer more efficient ones will grow up in their wake. Not.

      This is an apposite news item today. that illustrates what I am saying.
      http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/new-zealander-david-hyde-lands-plum-job-at-un-in-geneva-but-is-forced-to-live-in-a-tent/story-fnkgbb6w-1227480058311

      So there is no excuse for charging high prices for education and using it as a barrier that people have to jump before they can get to the grassy knoll with all the assassins of our once progressive society with opportunities for advancement and a happy life .