Daily Review 22/05/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, May 22nd, 2017 - 22 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

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 …

22 comments on “Daily Review 22/05/2017 ”

  1. Ed 1

    Just watch the New Zealand media not cover this story…..

    “New Zealand navy paid $700,000 to firm mired in ‘Fat Leonard’ sex and bribery scandal.
    The Royal New Zealand Navy paid hundreds of thousands of dollars over four years to a ship services company run by a man now imprisoned in the US for an enormous corruption and sex scandal, the Guardian has learned.

    US prosecutors say Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard for his wide girth, had cheated its navy out of nearly US $34m — mostly through overcharging port services and providing gifts to personnel, including arranging sex parties.

    The New Zealand navy has told the Guardian it paid a total of NZ$710,235.04 (around £370,000) to Francis’ company, Glenn Defence Marine Asia (GDMA), between May 2007 to December 2011 “for specific ship visits in South East Asia.”

    The navy told the Guardian in previous correspondence that it had used a “range of services” in Singapore from bus hire to tug provision.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/22/new-zealand-navy-paid-700000-to-firm-mired-in-fat-leonard-sex-and-bribery-scandal

    Instead, watch it glory war like this.

    ‘SAS sniper kills ISIS terrorist 2.4km away using world’s most powerful rifle.’

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11860893

    Muppets and puppets leading sheep.
    Welcome to the neoliberal cargo cult of New Zealand.

  2. Karen 2

    There is something very strange about the behaviour of our Auditor General in his previous role heading the Ministry of Transport. Makes you wonder about the reasons for his refusal to investigate an obvious fraudster and his suitability for his current position. Good summary here:

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/22-05-2017/is-fraudster-joanne-harrisons-old-boss-really-fit-to-lead-nzs-top-public-watchdog/

    • Anne 2.1

      Yes Karen, there is indeed something very odd about the case.

      My own experience as a former whistle blower some 25 years ago would lead me to suspect that the guilty party – in this case Joanne Harrison – was savvy enough to compromise her superiors in one way or another. It happened in my case and my superiors (involving two related government entities) ran for cover as fast as their legs could carry them.

      Btw at the time, one of those entities also came under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport.

      • greywarshark 2.1.1

        Things have advanced then Anne. Today they would zoom for cover along one of the Min of Transport holiday motorways, moving fast so that the dirt just blows away in the slipstream.

    • Whispering Kate 2.2

      I agree Karen – I commented on this a few days back on this blog site. All I can say is how cooked will be the nation’s books be with him now as Auditor General. It’s difficult as it is believing anything this Government says now – how on earth was this appointment allowed beggars belief. Surely there must be some investigation into this, firstly how he ignored Joanne Harrison’s rorting right under his nose is dodgy at best but to then be selected for this appointment needs a thorough looking into.

  3. bwaghorn 3

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/05/new-zealand-to-spend-14-billion-to-meet-paris-agreement-targets.html

    the stupidity of buying carbon credits carries on , work it out you fucking idiots carbon credits achieve nothing

    • In Vino 3.1

      Agreed. A transparent way of stalling and delaying any effective action.

      • reason 3.1.1

        Also,….. Carbon credits are open to fraud and corruption. …. which New Zealand under John Keys nats was quick to abuse ….. or ‘take advantage of’ as they would describe it. …

        http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405

        “They’ve been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they’re preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.” …..

        but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman ( Sachs), is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and-trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it’s even collected.”

  4. JC 4

    “More than 31 million people – one person every second – were uprooted in their home country in 2016 because of conflicts and disasters, and numbers will grow unless the underlying causes like climate change and political turmoil are tackled, an aid group said on Monday.”

    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/world/one-person-second-displaced-2016

    • reason 4.1

      Wars, resource destruction and exploitation, extreme poverty …… and just about all corrupt power structures are enabled by the ‘tax haven’ networks….

      We have become more complicit and involved with perpetrating these things, by design of National.

      Repealing our John key tax haven status …. would be the most effect thing we could do on a world wide scale.

      Cleaning up the damage and pollution from Nationals cow economic plan….. is what we should work on in the domestic front.

  5. Bill 5

    The loser and no hoper?

    • One Anonymous Bloke 5.1

      Fuck I hope he does it. All the people whose lives would be immeasurably improved.

  6. JC 6

    Of the many things I’d not like in my backyard… (NIBY),…

    “Business development facilitator John Hill said the council had signed a heads of agreement with a New Zealand-based company which was offering a modern, clean technology process to convert rubbish to energy, heat and value-added products.”

    But to be pragmatic this would seem to stack up!

    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/big-projects-bullers-radar

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/282757/buller-keen-on-clean-energy-plant

    Waste unfortunately is a reality… and
    The Coast is renown for utilising commodities…

    http://www.greydc.govt.nz/our-council/consultation/Pages/sustainable-forestry.aspx

    Definitely a way better proposal than damming the waitaha!

    https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/a-tale-of-two-currents/

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.