Open Mike 06/02/2019

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, February 6th, 2019 - 180 comments
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180 comments on “Open Mike 06/02/2019 ”

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  1. Gosman 1
    6 February 2019 at 9:53 am

    Interestingly there has been little attention on this.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.rnz.co.nz/article/93c93fe3-9cdf-4d7e-baf7-bb7c0454fe20

    I wonder why?😁

    • Infused 1.1
      6 February 2019 at 10:00 am

      Just like the tppa and loads of other shit.

      The tourism thing is good. I was in New York last year. Chatting to this dude at a bar told mr how he’s coming to nz this Feb yo check out all the hobbit spots. Blew my mind.

      • James 1.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 10:05 am

        You can thank Key and Jackson for that.

        The movies would never have been made under this government. Perhaps in another country

        • Blazer 1.1.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 10:26 am

          ‘ Chatting to this dude at a bar told mr how he’s coming to nz this Feb yo check out all the hobbit spots.

          Thank you John Key and Peter Jackson for inspiring one dude James met at a bar to come to NZ.

          They both should be …knighted for..that. 🤦‍♂️

          • greywarshark 1.1.1.1.1
            6 February 2019 at 9:25 pm

            The Brit bruiser wanted to go and see the Hobbit spots. Probably they wanted to unload some of their litter there. We have to watch what sort of tourist gets attracted here by the films.

        • Stuart Munro 1.1.1.2
          6 February 2019 at 10:54 am

          No, I don’t think we can. Key’s failure to protect local interests can be seen in everything he touched, from SCF to Christchurch – his influence has been an irredeemable blight on our country in every instance.

          The Hobbit was a disgrace – it took one of the most popular works in English fiction and made it into unrecognizable soup. Certainly the fans paid plenty of money, but Jackson destroyed his reputation with it.

          The studios may well have made the movies here without the Hobbit law, the scenery had become part of the LOTR franchise – their attack of the vapors was strategic, designed to squeeze as much as possible out of weak and credulous governments – which was Key in a nutshell. He rolled over because he never gave a toss about New Zealanders anyway.

          • millsy 1.1.1.2.1
            6 February 2019 at 1:52 pm

            I think Jackson was more focused on trying to link the Hobbit into LOTR and it distracted from the plot.

            Those 6 movies make good background noise to fall asleep to though.

            • Stuart Munro 1.1.1.2.1.1
              6 February 2019 at 2:42 pm

              I think you give him too much credit – that was only one of his changes. Radagast was a mess. The elf love interest was not unforgiveable but the crudity of it was. Orcs with Morghul arrows though? Right up there with bringing the undead to Pelenor fields – playing fast and loose with stuff he clearly didn’t understand. The gold trap, and the battle of five armies – pitiful chaotic nonsense. Had as much collapsing masonry in it as 2012 (the film) I gave my Korean friends rings about D War – I had to apologize to them – the Hobbit was as bad or worse.

          • sumsuch 1.1.1.2.2
            6 February 2019 at 9:48 pm

            Three (films) for LOTR and one to rule them all, The Hobbit. A lot more integrity and probably much less Peter Jackson would have helped all these films. It was a lot of people bowing to the (strong) wind of money. Not least the government. If we had a better 4th estate , less a promotional device and more an arm of understanding, we’d know about the side deals.

            ‘If I were in government’ I’d fund investigative journalism, because democracy needs it. And, by the way, also ban caterwauling, sorry, opera, from Concert FM.

            • Stuart Munro 1.1.1.2.2.1
              6 February 2019 at 10:22 pm

              If you like to scratch about online there is a “Tolkien Edit” of the Hobbit, which removes many of the more egregious changes – and brings viewing time down to a mere 41/2 hours. One would expect, in this multimedia age, that such things would become de rigueur somewhat after the theatrical releases, for those who want the authorial vision of the original story as far as possible.

        • Psycho Milt 1.1.1.3
          6 February 2019 at 11:42 am

          You can thank Key and Jackson for that.

          The Lord of the Rings was made in the early 2000s. What hitherto-unknown contribution did John Key make to it that we should thank him for? Was he one of the orcs?

        • Adrian 1.1.1.4
          6 February 2019 at 1:13 pm

          Bullshit. they got underway during a Labour government.

          • Infused 1.1.1.4.1
            6 February 2019 at 6:24 pm

            It’s about keeping movies here and the tourism going

          • greywarshark 1.1.1.4.2
            6 February 2019 at 9:28 pm

            I think there was a sarc somewhere there Adrian. I like the bit about the hair length checker. The beautiful elf maiden’s hair would be a turn-on.

        • Drowsy M. Kram 1.1.1.5
          6 February 2019 at 2:44 pm

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(film_series)

          The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003), was nominated for 30 Academy awards, and won 17. Most of the filming for the first movie, and all of the filming for the second and third movies, took place in NZ during the term of the fifth Labour government (1999-2008).

          https://www.vox.com/2015/9/10/9188517/political-bias

          “The first step is simply acknowledging the possibility that you might not be as objective as you’d like to think“

      • Gabby 1.1.2
        6 February 2019 at 11:14 am

        Had a bit to drink yo?

    • James 1.2
      6 February 2019 at 10:04 am

      Seems like the last government had it right.

      • Tuppence Shrewsbury 1.2.1
        6 February 2019 at 10:08 am

        Nah it was definitely an Aussie union supporting only the most highly paid cast members that had it right

    • Cinny 1.3
      6 February 2019 at 10:40 am

      Hey Gossy, that link was from 2017.

      Do you need an update?

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/381350/businesses-and-unions-clash-over-new-fair-pay-guidelines

      Parliament is back soon…..

      • Gosman 1.3.1
        6 February 2019 at 6:43 pm

        No. That link was from October 2018.

        Did you even read what it stated?

        • Cinny 1.3.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 8:05 pm

          Why yes, yes I did read it. My bad was looking at the date wrong, 17 Oct 2018

          No solution has been found as of yet, recommendations sure, but nothing in concrete.

          Not sure what the issue about this is today, is there new news about it?

          Because I couldn’t find any, apart from the link I posted, which appeared to be a condensed version of the one you first posted.

          • Gosman 1.3.1.1.1
            7 February 2019 at 5:03 am

            No, your post waz about tge proposed changes to industry wide fair pay bargaining. Mine was related to the review of the Hobbit law changes. They are different things.

    • AB 2.1
      6 February 2019 at 8:46 pm

      “The idea of fairness has been promoted in our schools for a very long time”

      The idea of fairness is actually innate in humans – especially children. It takes a pretty massive propaganda effort to drive the idea of fairness out of people’s heads. Or to distort it into its opposite. And to be fair – that propaganda has been wildly successful for the past 35 years or so. But it is an uphill battle and eventually ideas of fairness re-surface in some form or another. The interesting thing is how elites respond when the propaganda fails – do they concede some ground, or go full repressive/fascist in response?

  3. James 3
    6 February 2019 at 10:09 am

    An extremely sobering read.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/02/opinion-dear-jacinda-ardern-my-mother-could-die-because-of-you.html

    “Dear Jacinda Ardern, my mother could die because of you”

    Posted without further comment so you can debate the link not my initial comments.

    • arkie 3.1
      6 February 2019 at 10:18 am

      This article was re-published from Elizabeth White’s blog Love, Elizabeth

      Welcome to the little space I call my blog. It’s a place I come to write about my experiences in a context that others can also relate to. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason

      https://lizziewhite96.wixsite.com/loveelizabeth/about

    • Puckish Rogue 3.2
      6 February 2019 at 10:18 am

      Dang

    • Tony Veitch [not etc.] 3.3
      6 February 2019 at 10:21 am

      Good God, have I strayed onto Kiwiblog or WhaleOil by mistake – or is this a trolls-only day on The Standard?

      • The Fairy Godmother 3.3.1
        6 February 2019 at 1:26 pm

        All the community minded people are only getting back from the Waitangi Day celebrations now. Had a great time at the Manukau ones.

    • millsy 3.4
      6 February 2019 at 10:28 am

      I wonder how many people died because they couldn’t afford their meds when National hiked prescription charges to $5.

      But you seem more concerned about middle class National voting cancer sufferers.

      • alwyn 3.4.1
        6 February 2019 at 11:36 am

        I really don’t think that there are many people who are dying because of a co-payment on prescriptions.
        It is limited to a total of $100/year/family, no matter how large the family.
        There is no charge at all for children under 13.
        It can be totally avoided if you live in Auckland and go to the Chemist Warehouse, or some Countdown shops.
        It is nothing at all like the $60,000/year that the linked article talks about.
        You are, frankly, talking utter rubbish.

        • Sabine 3.4.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 1:34 pm

          you are right, they did not die because of co-payments.

          they died because they got kicked of waiting lists, because surgery was not available, because the budget for public healthcare was gutted, because on their min wage tey could not afford private healthcare, because NZ health care staff is underpaid compared to elsehwer thus once educated they leave, or because the nurses, doctors and other health care staff can’t actually afford rent/buying a house where their hospital is located.

          and all that happened under National, the party without mates, conscience and morals.

          • alwyn 3.4.1.1.1
            6 February 2019 at 2:43 pm

            Oh dear.
            Where were you living during the period 2009 – 2017?
            If you experienced the things you listed it clearly wasn’t New Zealand where you resided.
            I don’t think that I can be bothered trying to explain all the things that are wrong with your statements. You are clearly delusional and probably wouldn’t be able to read my responses anyway.

            It is irrelevant anyway. Still, at least you agree that millsy was talking rubbish in his claim about people dying because there was a $5 charge on some prescriptions. That is better than nothing I suppose.

            • Gabby 3.4.1.1.1.1
              6 February 2019 at 4:50 pm

              You saying nobody was moved off a waiting list between 09 and 17 wally? That’s a mighty bold claim there.

              • alwyn …
                6 February 2019 at 5:33 pm

                And it isn’t what I said.
                I know someone who was taken of the waiting list for a knee replacement.
                They had a major heart attack and it wasn’t safe to do the knee Op.
                That doesn’t mean it was the normal thing.

                Under the Clark Government everyone was put on the waiting list for Ops such as hip or knee replacement. They promised that no-one would be on the list for more than 6 months. If you got to the 6 months they simply removed you from the list and sent you back to your GP where the whole thing started again.
                Under National you would get the Op if you were on the waiting list. However if you didn’t qualify they wouldn’t put you on the waiting list. At least you knew whether or not the Op would happen within 6 months and you weren’t just treated like a yo-yo.
                I know which system was better.

    • Herodotus 3.5
      6 February 2019 at 10:56 am

      I made a comment about this a few years ago regarding Intrasurgery Cancer treatment as an alternative. Form the patients/family perspective the experience and reduced stress of this treatment was far superior that the weeks of radiotherapy and what that entails.
      If nothing else think of the “thru put” of patients 1 surgery vs 3-5 weeks of radiotherapy ??
      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/305412/fund-alternative-breast-cancer-treatment,-surgeon-urges
      https://www.breastcancer.org.nz/news/bcac-news-intrabeam-public

    • Muttonbird 3.6
      6 February 2019 at 11:04 am

      I have little internal bets sometimes and so I saw on the side-bar James had commented. Having swept the news sites and having seen the Elizabeth White letter I bet myself that James’ comment this morning would be about this letter.

      That’s how easy James is to read.

      Elizabeth cites other developed countries such as Australia and Britain as having much better outcomes for these types of cancer but both countries have a top tax rate of 45%. Britain is 40% above 70K sterling and Australia 37% above $80K. Both countries also have a CGT.

      Would James and the other RWNJs like to make a correlation between the two?

    • Gabby 3.7
      6 February 2019 at 11:17 am

      Sounds like the cancer might beat Jacinda to it jimbo.

    • Psycho Milt 3.8
      6 February 2019 at 11:46 am

      “Dear Jacinda Ardern, my mother could die because of you”

      Your mother’s dying of cancer. Jacinda Ardern didn’t cause it and can’t cure it, so that’s the most unfair headline I’ve seen in a well-contested field of anti-Ardern headlines. If you weren’t upset because your mother’s dying of an Ardern-unrelated cancer, I’d offer some thoughts on your character while I’m at it.

      • veutoviper 3.8.1
        6 February 2019 at 12:02 pm

        I agree PM, but sadly grief is often not rational. I feel for this mother and family and understand the daughter writing what she did in the grips of grief. What is not acceptable IMO is media (looking at Newshub) picking this up and running it in the way they have.

        • arkie 3.8.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 12:14 pm

          I’m Elizabeth, I’m 21, living in Auckland and working in the media scene

          https://lizziewhite96.wixsite.com/loveelizabeth/about

          • veutoviper 3.8.1.1.1
            6 February 2019 at 12:37 pm

            Thanks for pressing me to read the blog. I missed the link you posted earlier. Uuummm. What crossed my mind after doing so is best left unsaid.

            I found the little bits of revelation re her way of thinking and ambitions in her Twenty-one or a death sentence? post re her 21st birthday in Sept 2017 interesting.

            • millsy 3.8.1.1.1.1
              6 February 2019 at 2:15 pm

              At least she had the good sense to purge her blog of any controversial posts before posting the open letter.

        • Andre 3.8.1.2
          6 February 2019 at 12:19 pm

          At the very least, it would be appropriate to add an editor’s note explaining the role Pharmac has in working out how best to allocate the finite dollars we have for pharmaceuticals.

          • veutoviper 3.8.1.2.1
            6 February 2019 at 1:32 pm

            I agree with that Newsroom should have provided some appropriate notes on such things as the differences in the systems between the countries’ medical systems that have been compared in the letter.

            Having read this young woman’s blog, I decided to google her as she has been upfront on the blog and in the Newshub article as to her real identity.

            Well, well, well. Having expected that there would lots of people in NZ with the same name, the very first entry that came up was to Linked In with a photo identifying it was for the same person and it turns out that she appears to be none other than:

            “Summary
            Foreign News Producer for TVNZ’s Breakfast show. Skilled in Microsoft Excel, Management, Broadcasting, Customer Service, and Television.

            Strong professional with a Bachelor of Broadcasting Communications focused in Broadcast Journalism from New Zealand Broadcasting School.

            —————-
            News Reporter
            MediaWorks NZ
            November 2018 – Present 4 months
            Auckland, New Zealand
            Auckland reporter for the AM Show on TV3

            TVNZ – 2 years 2 months

            Foreign News Producer TVNZ
            October 2017 – Present 1 year 5 months
            Auckland, New Zealand

            Assignments Desk Coordinator TVNZ
            January 2017 – September 2017 9 months
            Auckland, New Zealand … “

            So, as well as not providing anything re the differences in systems between the various countries etc, Newshub also failed to provide any disclosure that the writer is in fact one of their employees, a news reporter.

            Now, just to be clear, I still feel very sorry for her and her family having been through the same with my own mother who died of incurable cancer; but I find the tone of the letter (ie the blame) and the above information that was not disclosed questionable to say the least.

      • Anne 3.8.2
        6 February 2019 at 2:07 pm

        Dear Jacinda Ardern, my mother could die because of you

        Assuming this young woman was writing the letter to JA in her capacity as Prime Minister and she doesn’t even have the courtesy to address her as such is ignorant and lacking the courtesy usually accorded the position. She blames Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern for the health woes when much of the blame lies on the shoulders of the previous govt. That is her level of rationality?

        She’s just turned 21 and Newshub have employed her as a reporter? The standard of reporting has reached an all time low on that TV net-work and I no longer waste time watching it.

        • Tuppence Shrewsbury 3.8.2.1
          6 February 2019 at 4:09 pm

          A typically shrewish comment from an old never was directed at any female younger than Anne who is even slightly critical of The Prime Minister.

          Get off your high horse you old wind bag. Plenty of crappy articles directed at politicians on both sides have appeared in both the herald and the awful stuff user generated sections.

          [Righto. Your next comment needs to include an apology and a commitment to refraining from pointless abuse. No discussion, no other warning. TRP]

          • francesca 3.8.2.1.1
            6 February 2019 at 4:24 pm

            that should get you banned
            A nasty, pointless abusive comment that adds nothing

            • Bazza64 3.8.2.1.1.1
              6 February 2019 at 10:24 pm

              But fun to read. TS knows this which is why they left it in. Back to the Daily Mail ….

          • The Fairy Godmother 3.8.2.1.2
            6 February 2019 at 4:31 pm

            It seems you have no argument whatsoever and are resorting to an ad hominem attack. Shame on yo1 The description seems to say a lot more about you, you cheap, sickly biscuit.

            • Tuppence Shrewsbury 3.8.2.1.2.1
              6 February 2019 at 4:48 pm

              Anne demanding people bow and scrape to the prime ministers position? In New Zealand? I stand by my comment.

              I’ve watched for too long as Anne denegrates any female who dares not be in adoration of any labour leader. First it was Cunliffe, then Little and now Adern.

              Women should only speak up if they are on the same side as Anne, otherwise she thinks they should know their place. It’s so offensive and puerile

              • patricia bremner …
                6 February 2019 at 8:23 pm

                TS every post you abuse some one
                Last time I was in la la land.
                I don’t know you, I do know Jacinda.
                She is everything you are not.
                To make out Anne attacks others compared to your history of personal attacks lays a path of pain for yourself.
                Anne makes thoughtful contributions, and her comments are pertinent and considered . Quote right back at you “You old wind bag”.

              • greywarshark …
                6 February 2019 at 9:16 pm

                What generalisations you use Tuppence as an excuse to have a go at Anne in a particularly vulgar way. Psychopathic really. And we have been watching you for a long time too.

          • Gabby 3.8.2.1.3
            6 February 2019 at 4:47 pm

            Typical tuppy strewthberry griping about how wethers don’t get no fun no more. That’s not your knackers you’re sitting on tuppee, they’re long gone.

            • Anne 3.8.2.1.3.1
              6 February 2019 at 5:28 pm

              Tuppenny bit… he not like strong women who speak their minds. He think strong women scary. He think only men – like him – are allowed to speak minds. Woomen should stay in kitchen and cook da meals.

              Btw, TB its Ardern not Adern.

              • Tuppence Shrewsbury …
                6 February 2019 at 5:49 pm

                Hilarious! Your privileged silencing of a young women for not showing deference to those in power shows how little respect you have strong women speaking out.

                • Anne …
                  6 February 2019 at 6:07 pm

                  From my comment @ 3.8.2:

                  The standard of reporting has reached an all time low on that TV net-work and I no longer waste time watching it.

                  You did your usual didn’t you Tupenny bit. You thought I was referring to the “very young woman”. That was a generalisation about the standard of reporting on Newshub. Its abysmal.

                  Once upon a time it was by far the better of the two main TV channels, TV1 and TV3. Now its just third rate clickbait stuff and on occasion so inaccurate I’m surprised they haven’t been taken to court for defamation or slander. They come perilously close to it sometimes.

          • Tuppence Shrewsbury 3.8.2.1.4
            9 February 2019 at 3:11 pm

            Apologies for the abuse.

          • Tuppence Shrewsbury 3.8.2.1.5
            9 February 2019 at 3:13 pm

            Apologies for the abusive tone. It raises my hackles when journalists get abused for doing their job speaking truth, but that’s no excuse

        • greywarshark 3.8.2.2
          6 February 2019 at 6:08 pm

          The personal emotive tone casts a biased shadow over the whole item. The RW cast themselves as being in the light and thinking right, but in fact they are self-centred, with wizened minds, and authoritarian controlling in nature.

          As for the Prof. he has obviously led a right wing household. A comment below the article contradicts someone who says that being part of the Maxim Institute shows his bias, and quite rightly. His son is said to be in that right wing think tank, but his upbringing connects him to the father.

          It is known that the dedicated groups of people against euthanasia unite to flood letters and submissions into the authority canvassing citizens’ wishes which in theory is a democratic process. This professor is just using an aspect of that technique. It is unheard of for people to have freedom of choice over their own lives and bodies.

          • Anne 3.8.2.2.1
            6 February 2019 at 6:43 pm

            The Climate Change deniers did it too. Even though 97% of the world’s scientists (it’s probably 100% now with a handful of ideological nutbars on the side) knew it was happening… the media for years, here and overseas, gave the deniers equal billing. They did untold damage in the process and have to take their share of the blame for the many delays which could turn out to be catastrophic for the planet.

            Then there are the anti-fluoride and anti-vaccination campaigners… both of whom rely on pseudo scientific nonsense just like the CC deniers.

            All of them come from often irrational ideological perspectives, and I suspect you would find if they’re part of one anti group, they’re also part of all the others.

    • bwaghorn 3.9
      6 February 2019 at 11:52 am

      We obviously need to gather more tax so we can afford a medical system that can supply everyone’s needs.

      • Herodotus 3.9.1
        6 February 2019 at 1:27 pm

        We already do – It is those middle classes with a few $ pay medical insurance. Until they find out, as in many insurance policies. What cover they thought they had was limited and requires top ups to complete any treatment.
        Those at the top end have comprehensive cover as part of their remuneration packages.
        Those not covered “roll” the dice, and are at the mercy of our health system 🤧
        And our govts continue to increase the stress on our infrastructure/health system by increasing the demand/pop.

      • greywarshark 3.9.2
        6 February 2019 at 6:13 pm

        I hope you don’t think that people wanting euthanasia are just being neglected by our health system. This is about people who want to decide when to die, and not having to wait for death with increasing stress, boredom or pain. Committing suicide is a poor quality death and is problematical.

    • greywarshark 4.1
      6 February 2019 at 7:11 pm

      Time to watch (and participate with) the Australian research. Think about Mulloon Natural Farms too.

  5. millsy 5
    6 February 2019 at 10:26 am

    Happy Waitangi Day everyone…

    https://youtu.be/dBej8cZj43Q

  6. WeTheBleeple 6
    6 February 2019 at 10:26 am

    Good to see the Trolls haven’t succumbed to devastating fires or floods yet. I too am deeply concerned about the economy:

    Can I perform comedy shows in blackened ruins? A man deserves to make a living. Under Labour there’d probably be some ninny workplace safety issues; but under National, I could be a private contractor, fully responsible for death and misadventure like the rest of them.

    What happens during a rebuild? If I score some corrugated iron and masonry to build a shanty out of, Labour would stop me with pesky regulations and rules of construction; but National would let it fly no worries.

    National have a plan. Predator Free NZ. They made the words so we know they care. As food chains break down, we can all eat dead rats.

    • greywarshark 6.1
      6 February 2019 at 12:23 pm

      WtB
      Thinking factually. Are there trees that we could plant instead of pinus radiata that would be less flammable? Pinus R are very resiny aren’t they? Could we have less of them, and grow some longer maturing trees that might be exotics, plus natives as well. Perhaps we could grow greener natives that would be less flammable in amongst the pinus R which of course are good for longs being very fast growing here.

      • WeTheBleeple 6.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 3:22 pm

        Suggesting what should have been done might seem a bit off considering the circumstances. The above post was in response to about 8 trolling comments in a row starting the day, I just forgot to link it to the rot posts so it’s kinda out of context.

        Was just me firing back.

        The forestry service would be the people to ask the questions re: flammability of their crops and any alternatives in the pipeline.

        While some plants are a lot less flammable than others, there comes a point where plants lose so much water they’re all tinder, though burn rate and heat will differ.

        There are a few things we might consider. Soil carbon (organic matter) holds on to soil water increasing the water holding capacity of soils. Retention and increasing of soil carbon in forestry will hold off the point at which trees become highly volatile. Ploughing, fertilisers and fungicides are all processes/products that may severely impact soil life and deplete soil carbon. Mulching of prunings on the spot (lay litter out in contact with the ground – not in piles), inoculation of stumps with fungi (crops and animal food), productive crop diversity, and biochar application are all practices that can increase soil carbon in forestry.

        Retaining water in the soil using earthworks is the most important thing that can be done. We’ve looked at how those systems work. Swale systems, keyline systems, small dams, plantings, retain not drain… When one farm has plenty of water, surrounded by neighbors in drought, you know something special has occurred. Not paying attention may lose the farm as weather gets worse and folk are denied water.

        What is what so far as these systems go: Swales vs Yeomans??

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15sngvR38Po

        When all the land is rehydrating via earthworks and plantings, rain becomes more steady for the local climate. I can’t recall offhand but x amount of contiguous forest is sufficient to make rain. The trees take excess and siphon it back to the atmosphere so less flood issues too, not to mention the land covered in earthworks will catch rather than dispatch (to the poor bastards below) most water.

        It’s not about rainfall, so much as rain penetration.

      • Stuart Munro 6.1.2
        6 February 2019 at 3:28 pm

        The maple family (including sycamores and plane trees) are hard to set ablaze – they will make decent firewood if dried though. They’re popular for decorative flooring in some countries,.

  7. marty mars 7
    6 February 2019 at 10:35 am

    Kia kaha to all affected by this fire near wakefield. Stay safe.

    Lots of massive pine forests around Nelson and boy it hasn’t rained for ages and very high temps.

    Still got lots to go on this one…

    • Cinny 7.1
      6 February 2019 at 11:12 am

      +1 Marty.

      On the upside… if there is one, at least the weather is so much cooler today, hopefully making it easier for crews on the ground.

      And… there is a block where the forest had been cleared a little while back, hoping that will slow it down. Marty, you’ll know where I mean, the big forestry block on the inland highway between Redwoods Valley and Upper Moutere, where you can turn off to Mahana.

  8. Adrian Thornton 8
    6 February 2019 at 10:48 am

    While we celebrate Waitangi an unrelenting propaganda war on the national sovereignty of Venezuela is being waged.

    Here is a little balance to the imperialist media..

    Venezuela Blitz – Part 1: Tyrants Don’t Have Free Elections
    http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=892:venezuela-blitz-part-1-tyrants-don-t-have-free-elections&catid=57:alerts-2019&Itemid=252

    Open Letter by Over 70 Scholars and Experts Condemns US-Backed Coup Attempt in Venezuela
    -chomsky/open-letter-by-over-70-scholars-and-experts-condemns-us-backed-coup-a

    • TootingPopularFront 8.1
      6 February 2019 at 11:04 am

      Thanks Adrian, reality and the mainstream media at odds again as they attempt to manufacture consent, summed up by the great Glenn Greenwald: ‘I’d have more respect for the foreign policy decrees of US officials if they’d just admit what everyone knows – “we want to change this country’s government to make it better serve our interests” – rather than pretending they give the slightest shit about Freedom & Democracy.’

      • Adrian Thornton 8.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 11:28 am

        @ TootingPopularFront, yes the manufacture consent doctrine has really been operating at 110% over the past few years…the only up side is that the more overt it gets, the more obvious it becomes..even to the casual observer.

        You would have to say that anyone who is interested in politics and/or global news, and pretend not to see the actual mechanics of the manufacture consent doctrine operating in pretty much full view, are in fact purposely not acknowledging it only to suit their own world view.

    • Cinny 8.2
      6 February 2019 at 11:24 am

      Excellent link, thanks for sharing Adrian.

      Did you catch The Listening Post on Al Jazeera in the weekend?

      “The (media) coverage also mostly stayed away from the role successive American administrations – through economic sanctions – have played in handicapping the Venezuelan economy.

      As Iraqis, Iranians, Libyans and others would tell you, this isn’t the first time the US has taken a disproportionate interest in the governance of a country loaded with oil.

      Washington has a playbook for this kind of thing. And so, apparently, do the US media.

      https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2019/02/venezuela-crisis-geopolitics-news-narratives-190202064958794.html

      • Adrian Thornton 8.2.1
        6 February 2019 at 12:46 pm

        @cinny, yes I did catch that Listening Post piece, it is really quite depressing watching a full scale illegal international capitalist intervention, (purely for resources of course) happening in real time, right out in the open…while all our media, and so many (supposedly) good people either support it or say nothing.

        Also interesting watching Liberal media like the Guardian etc attack Trump relentlessly for months on end, but suddenly support his position over this…shows you who their paymasters really are.

    • Adrian Thornton 8.3
      6 February 2019 at 1:07 pm

      ‘I won’t be remembered as a traitor’: Maduro to RT (EXCLUSIVE)

      • Cinny 8.3.1
        6 February 2019 at 8:10 pm

        Cheers Adrian, for the RT link, will have a watch later on.

        Am very pleased that NZ isn’t buying in to it, considering everyone else is picking sides.

    • Morrissey 8.4
      6 February 2019 at 3:00 pm

      Thanks Adrian.

      I had the jarring experience of hearing that weasel Justin “Blair” Trudeau parroting Mike Pompeo’s anti-Venezuela rhetoric on the radio yesterday. Nearly drove the Breenmobile into a tree.

  9. RuralGuy 9
    6 February 2019 at 11:03 am

    11 months ago, the PM and Civil Defence minister were roundly critised for their apathy and sluggish response to the damage caused by cyclone Gita in Golden Bay.

    I’ll be interested to see what lessons have been learnt in the response to the wildfire state of emergency in rural Nelson.

    It’ll be a really interesting exercise to see if a rural mainly white South Island farming community is afforded similar priority and attention as a rural north island mainly Maori community has enjoyed from this government over the past few days.

    • Cinny 9.1
      6 February 2019 at 11:15 am

      Wtf ? Are you attempting to inject racism into an emergency?

      If you are that’s fucken low.

    • Gabby 9.2
      6 February 2019 at 4:11 pm

      Which group do you think would have insurance and an sympathetic ear on the Council Rutalguy?

    • rata 9.3
      6 February 2019 at 8:40 pm

      It will be interesting to see if the rural mainly white community in Nelson Marlborough receive the same massive financial subsidies all white dairy, sheep + fruit farmers have received from the Government these past 150 years.

    • patricia bremner 9.4
      6 February 2019 at 9:11 pm

      Kris Fafoi has been brilliant. He has declared a Civil Emergency, which gives extra powers. This is a large fire which is very dangerous in high winds.

      • greywarshark 9.4.1
        6 February 2019 at 9:21 pm

        Fafoi came across well on the news. A good speaker who seems to have his eye on what’s needed.

    • Muttonbird 9.5
      6 February 2019 at 9:39 pm

      Don’t worry. No rich people’s houses were damaged.

  10. joe90 10
    6 February 2019 at 11:58 am

    Dude has a way with words.

    At this very moment, a small army of White House aides is scrambling, circled around a computer in an office in the West Wing pecking out a State of the Shitshow speech they hope will “capture the voice” of a president more given to grunts and verbal excrescences than the lofty rhetoric of presidents. Here’s a spoiler; their work won’t matter.

    That’s not merely because when the Trump administration sends us their speechwriters, they’re not sending their best. They are sending the indifferently educated, culturally buffoonish, shiftier dregs of authoritarian nationalist fanboys Donald Trump manages to recruit from random bus stations, hobo squats, and TPUSA Trump Young Pioneers camps.

    Some, I assume are good people, but I’m almost certainly wrong.

    https://thebulwark.com/your-guide-to-tonights-trumpian-word-vomit/

  11. Dennis Frank 11
    6 February 2019 at 12:02 pm

    Progressive politics can only proceed at a snail’s pace because multi-tasking is too hard. That seems to be the premise advanced by this clever young man: “Christian Smith is a New Zealand lawyer, student radio host and graduate student in International Relations at King’s College London.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/05-02-2019/what-can-new-zealand-learn-from-the-brexit-omnishambles/

    “With potentially three referendums proposed for New Zealand in 2020 – on cannabis, euthanasia, and MMP thresholds – the Brexit referendum offers crucial lessons on how not to run a modern referendum.”

    He reckons Brexit’s lead-time of four months was too short. People just can’t figure stuff out that fast. Should I stay or should I go? Questions that hard take six months to suss out, apparently. “Post-truth politics is the idea that arguments are not won on the basis of objective facts but on emotional appeal and by reinforcing pre-existing beliefs.”

    “The cannabis and euthanasia referendums provide fertile ground for post-truth politics. The debates for both easily lend themselves to personal anecdotes and emotional appeal. This is not to say that such appeals are a new or a bad thing. People often vote with their hearts rather than their heads. The difference is that in the past it was much easier to sift the truth from the lies.”

    What’s changed? Social media has everyone enmeshed in such a toxic stew they can no longer think straight. And “this toxic dialogue has emerged into the real world and is increasingly apparent in political discourse. Likewise, it’s becoming a cliché that we are living in a polarised world where one must stick to his or her party line, where compromise is a dirty word, and where the opposition’s views are not only wrong but morally repugnant.”

    You see that banality & polarisation here often enough to agree with the diagnosis. But must we allow inadequate commentators to spoil it for everyone? No. He advises “let’s try to keep it civil… because there are valid points on both sides. One of the sad facts about Brexit was that people were so quick to decry and brand those who disagreed with them that they didn’t take the time to understand the reasons behind their point of view.”

    He thinks having the other two referenda simultaneously with the cannabis referendum “would be absurd. The suggestion that in the lead up to the general election next year we will also be able to have a thorough, engaged debate about what are three relatively serious issues is ridiculous. It’s never been done before in New Zealand.”

    Kiwis just cannot multitask. Too thick, apparently. Is he right? The question is really about the extent. What percentage of voters can form their opinions on three or more social issues over a six-month time frame? Most, I reckon.

    • Pat 11.1
      6 February 2019 at 12:19 pm

      the problem with referenda (as they are usually presented) is the lack of detail…whence the devil is.

      • dv 11.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 12:45 pm

        And on buses driving round the country spouting bullshit.

      • greywarshark 11.1.2
        6 February 2019 at 1:10 pm

        Christian Smith – that’s heavily-laden name to give to a baby? The parents had a definite agenda.

        • Gabby 11.1.2.1
          6 February 2019 at 1:51 pm

          Mohammed would’ve been less labelly greysy.

        • alwyn 11.1.2.2
          6 February 2019 at 7:28 pm

          Perhaps they just named him after Christian Cullen?
          If this chap is still a student he may have been born about the time Cullen came to the fore and they got the idea there.
          Who knows why parents pick names. Or perhaps you think that Cullen’s parents had an agenda as well?
          And possibly you think Israel Dagg has strongly Zionist parents?
          What fun we could have with our wild suppositions. Is there anyone else you have suspicions about?

          • Shadrach 11.1.2.2.1
            6 February 2019 at 7:45 pm

            What were Clarke Gaylord’s parents thinking? Perhaps they were part of some evil shoe cult!

      • gsays 11.1.3
        6 February 2019 at 4:10 pm

        I agree Pat, the lack of detail is a bugger.

        Most of the commentary I have read implies that the question will be about legalising weed – handing the whole shooting box to the corporations.
        I am keen on the law changing, as I believe the most damaging aspect of pot is its status in law.
        I would prefer decriminilising as it allows help to be sought if a habit causes issues.
        It would also take money away from gangs and other n’erdowells.

        I will most probably vote no if the question is around legalisation.

  12. CHCoff 12
    6 February 2019 at 1:00 pm

    Compressed Air Foam Fire Protection System could be the go in future perhaps to keep in mind:

    • Cinny 12.1
      6 February 2019 at 8:20 pm

      Now that’s very cool, I heard there are aircraft at the fire today using a fire suppressant, wonder if it’s the same stuff as in the clip you posted.

  13. Dennis Frank 13
    6 February 2019 at 1:04 pm

    Stuff’s Editorial: Let’s go back to the future considers “the New Zealand Curriculum. It’s the blueprint for how we teach our children and future leaders, from year 1 all the way to year 13. On the contents page you’ll find references to “learning areas”. The usual subjects are there: English, maths and science; there’s also mention of the arts, physical education and technology. But not one reference to history.”

    Interesting, I thought. History was one of the five standard subjects when I went to school. When was it eliminated?? Whodunnit? National or Labour? Both??

    “Further on, each learning area is explored in a little more depth; there’s even a reference to social sciences. But again, not one mention of history. As expected, there are plenty of pedagogical nods to the Treaty of Waitangi, our founding document, but nothing in the framework – “important for a broad, general education” – that would provide context to the historic meeting of two great cultures on February 6, 179 years ago.”

    Ah, that would be because ritualised acknowledgement of the ToW is politically-correct. If there’s one thing teachers and bureaucrats know they must do, it’s exhibit a convincing performance of being a pc-drone. Actually teaching students about it would be a can of worms. Students might start thinking for themselves! That would create an intolerable situation.

    Looks like a cabal of bureaucrats and teachers are entrenched in the citadel of the education establishment, cowering under their desks with hands over their ears to block out the baying of the barbarians at the gate. Leader of those barbarians: “Graeme Ball, who chairs the History Teachers’ Association, is a passionate educator”. His grievance is “the national curriculum. The ministry describes it as a flexible “framework” in which teachers are given resources to teach some elements of history but are not necessarily required to do so. History as a subject does not even make an appearance until year 11, when it is merely an option.”

    Stuff warns that the establishment cabal may “find itself on the wrong side of history.” That won’t scare them! They’ll all be safely retired on a pension.

    • Pat 13.1
      6 February 2019 at 1:41 pm

      My recollection of schooling in NZ was that ‘History; per se was never a subject until the fifth form (year 11 in contemporary schooling) and was generally covered under projects and social studies (60s and 70s)…so if the deed was done it was before then

      • Dennis Frank 13.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 1:54 pm

        My memory is dim with age, but I suspect you are right, and history was included under the label social studies rather than separately. Probably blurred for me due to reading my grandad’s 500-page History of the British Empire at age 7 as a formative experience (I still own it).

        I noticed Barry Soper in the Herald writing that kids ought to be educated about the ToW – perhaps evidence that it could get bipartisan support. However I doubt teachers have sufficient intellectual capacity to teach it. The concept of sovereignty is hard enough for most adults. Trying to explain the additional dimension of local sovereignty, which Te Tiriti grants to chiefs, would be harder still. Evasion of the topic by all other commentators here proves that!

        • Pat 13.1.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 2:04 pm

          If there was some form of civics taught in schopol, perhaps from around year 8/9 then it may well be a suitable area to include NZ history….then the only problem would be which version

          • Dennis Frank 13.1.1.1.1
            6 February 2019 at 2:28 pm

            I’d apply both/and logic: include both sides. Students then get the opportunity to integrate. All a teacher need to do is explain that zero-sum thinking suggests that one side is right and the other wrong. Holism requires acknowledging merit in both perspectives. Ask the kids to brainstorm what seems worthwhile nowadays, so they can form a view of how relevant the history actually is.

            • Pat 13.1.1.1.1.1
              6 February 2019 at 3:02 pm

              except there are more than two versions …and differ by time and place

              • greywarshark …
                6 February 2019 at 6:50 pm

                Minds are flexible, particularly kids’.

                • Pat …
                  6 February 2019 at 6:55 pm

                  yes they are….but it wont be kids deciding which is the appropriate version….nor call out the correctness of that which selected.

                  It should be taught but be prepared for a moveable feast….and dissent

            • sumsuch 13.1.1.1.1.2
              6 February 2019 at 10:15 pm

              Absolutely vital, NZ history, and how democracy works and critical thinking and evolutionary biology, especially male/female relations . The people are the leaders in a democracy, we’ve tried different since 84 so we know.

        • greywarshark 13.1.1.2
          6 February 2019 at 6:55 pm

          Better real teachers than stand-in ones. There are a mixed group of older people who would teach their version of everything historical, all their pet theories, and the kids would be worse off. It seems that sex eduation and religion might be the same. It is amazing what the school board decision-makers can think is satisfactory. I find that opinionated confident figures from the neighbourhood come a poor second to a more informed and objective figure in the Education Department setting reasonable standards that schools must apply for these specialist teaching roles.

  14. Dennis Frank 14
    6 February 2019 at 1:31 pm

    Xi Jinping “who, at age 65, remains healthy and vigorous – could remain president for perhaps another 20 years. His eponymous doctrine will therefore shape China’s development and global engagement for decades to come, and perhaps longer.” Thus opines Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
    https://www.interest.co.nz/business/97995/xis-goal-shore-authority-party-state-within-his-country-including-ensuring-chinese

    “Xi sees no place for political experimentation or liberal values in China, and regards democratisation, civil society, and universal human rights as anathema. Deepening reform means solidifying control over the CPC, via his “anti-corruption campaign,” and over the population, including through the use of advanced technologies enabled by artificial intelligence. Such digital authoritarianism will, Xi hopes, prevent liberal or democratic ideas from taking root and spreading, even as China remains connected to the rest of the world. Chinese citizens may enjoy freedom as consumers and investors, but not as participants in civil society or civic discourse.”

    This exercise of social control by the regime will succeed if the Chinese hive mind permits. Has evolution really made them a different type of human? Can freedom of choice as consumers operate concurrently with none as citizens? Too much of a paradox? Communist theory suggests not, if culture is sufficiently conformist. A matrix is formed in the psyche, in which the official version of social reality shapes the perception of participants. As long as all evidence of the surrounding world is filtered out, the scenario in the movie Matrix plays out – only a few dissidents see through the sham. When their behaviour becomes evident they can be eliminated.

    • Gabby 14.1
      6 February 2019 at 1:53 pm

      They’ve been beaten into submission by the praxis of totalitarian government franxie.

      • Dennis Frank 14.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 2:00 pm

        So it seems. I like the hive mind theory though, and wonder how long I have to wait until someone calls it racist. Nothing lasts forever, and perhaps Xi will prosper only until the critical mass of those become affluent in China is overwhelmed by the increasing resentment of those who haven’t. Slowing growth will increase a general perception of missing out, so their me-too expectations will evaporate…

        • OnceWasTim 14.1.1.1
          7 February 2019 at 4:55 am

          XI is working on the idea that Praxis makes Perfix and that His ideological cleanliness is nexus to Godliness

    • greywarshark 14.2
      6 February 2019 at 6:49 pm

      It seems to me that this concept can be applied to the USA. They are not thought of as authoritarian, motions are gone through to give the appearance of a democracy. The dropping of this or that precept is excused, there is a line in the sand but it gets washed away, and then it is democracy in tatters. USA has used propaganda for ages, the hand on heart when the USA is invoked in public meetings.

      • Dennis Frank 14.2.1
        6 February 2019 at 7:39 pm

        Yes, I’ve long felt that way. I did hope that Jimmy Carter would be a good president, but he had merely good intentions – no competence as a political leader.

        I do see a qualitative difference in regard to China however. The American sham isn’t blatant enough to be a valid comparison. It’s sufficiently sophisticated to ensure that most Americans believe they live in a democracy.

    • sumsuch 14.3
      6 February 2019 at 10:30 pm

      The Chinese have no dogma, just energetic disbelief. If Xi Jinpeng wants to try to build something on that good luck to him. Super-observe all, y’tit.

      He’s basing it on Singapore. If he doesn’t produce like Lee Kuan Yew he’ll fall. No one is going to worship his carbuncled arse like Mao ever again.

  15. mauī 15
    6 February 2019 at 2:12 pm

    There should be no surprise that the elitist New Zealand cricket organisation treats Waitangi day like a token exercise. I mean really your best effort is to print “Aotearoa” on the bottom of the existing players shirts where it’s barely visible.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/110389159/black-caps-white-ferns-to-wear-aotearoa-shirts-for-t20s

  16. Puckish Rogue 16
    6 February 2019 at 2:29 pm

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12180373

    ‘He says he now also enjoys “working with a high-performing team who have each other’s backs”.’

    Wonder what that’s a reference to… 😉

  17. Puckish Rogue 17
    6 February 2019 at 2:34 pm

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12178750

    “Put that another way, there’s a fan base for Collins out there, but it’s not nearly a majority and there’s nobody in the middle. You love her or hate her, and that’s that.”

    You either worship her or you’re a big, dumb stupid head is what I think he meant to say

    • Andre 17.1
      6 February 2019 at 3:28 pm

      Oddly enough, I ran it through my between-the-lines translator and got: You worship her and you’re a big, dumb stupid head.

      • Puckish Rogue 17.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 3:46 pm

        Hope you kept the receipt because it sounds like it’s a bit defective

        • Andre 17.1.1.1
          6 February 2019 at 3:54 pm

          You could be right. It is a bit anodyne and wishy-washy in the wording it chooses. Definitely needs to express itself more strongly and clearly.

  19. Observer Tokoroa 19
    6 February 2019 at 4:04 pm

    Troll Incitement

    I notice that one of our sick and filthy Trolls has been promoting the idea that our Prime Minister is causing a particular person death by Cancer.

    I feel that is allowing Right Wing pro National media far too much leeway.

    It is true that Australia has some Cancer Radiation treatments that may ease but do not cure Cancer. The Treatments are expensive.

    It is also true that Cancer may at times go into remission, whether here in New Zealand or in Australia.

    But for Radio Programs via dodgy TV3 personnel to blame the Prime Minister for a Cancer death that has not occurred is not credible or excusable.

    • rod 19.1
      6 February 2019 at 4:47 pm

      Spot on OT. 100%. they are utter tory scum.

      • James 19.1.1
        6 February 2019 at 8:11 pm

        Says the leftie scum.

        See – not nice is it ?

      • Bewildered 19.1.2
        6 February 2019 at 8:16 pm

        Get over yourself newshub played the same game on national govt re Keytruda and labour was happy to play along, take your eye patches off Newsub are equal opportunity trolls

    • James 19.2
      6 February 2019 at 8:11 pm

      Oh really? Who and where.

      Or is your comprehension so limited that we need to explain it to you ?

      • Drowsy M. Kram 19.2.1
        7 February 2019 at 12:21 am

        Did John Key or Dr Coleman receive letters similar to the one James linked to @3?

        I can’t recall any – or at least none that made it into the media. Now why might that be – after all Key was PM for 8 years whereas Ardern has been PM barely 15 months.

        A daughter’s grief/anger is understandable, but any ‘Tory’ trying to make political capital out of the situation deserves the ‘sick and filthy Tory scum‘ epithet.

        To be clear, I’m not calling James and Bewildered ‘sick and filthy Tory scum’, at least not by name. And neither did OT or ‘rod’.

  21. Jenny - How to get there? 21
    6 February 2019 at 7:46 pm

    Germany, Germany, Germany…..

    Now you know how it was done.

    I can’t believe that I spent a good part of my Waitangi day listening to Donald Trump….

    So what was my take-away?

    Donald Trump will not allow an investigation into his affairs that (according to him), will derail his (alleged) economic miracle.

    Donald Trump will get his wall built.

    The Democrats will buckle and agree to fund his wall.

    The Democrats will call off the investigations into the President’s links to Russia.

    Or Else….

    The President will declare a State o National Emergency

    • Sabine 21.1
      6 February 2019 at 9:25 pm

      still waiting on the last time he did declare his emergency.
      Oh, yeah, right, he did not.

    • Jenny - How to get there? 21.2
      6 February 2019 at 10:03 pm

      President Trump’s State Of The Union address.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt17VX6qm6E

      I have watched the whole thing. I recommend everyone do the same.

      It is extremely well crafted. Hidden behind calls for unity are thinly veiled threats against the Democrats and the Mueller Investigation. Donald Trump demands that the Democrats give up their “resistance” to him, claiming that it is fueled by, “the politics of revenge”, and “retribution.”

      Painting the Democrats this way, will play well to his support base.

      In the same vein the President labeled the Mueller investigation “ridiculous” and “partisan”.

      Under his call for unity the President gives his version of George Bush’s maxim, “If you are not with us, you are against us.”

      “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,”

      I believe that the choice of the word “war” is not an accident, neither is conflating war with the investigation into his affairs.

      With this statement Donald Trump has virtually declared war against the Democrats, the Mueller Investigation, and even the rule of law itself.

  22. Dennis Frank 22
    6 February 2019 at 8:58 pm

    Newshub ran a British report on 3News tonight, but haven’t put it on their website. The Maduro regime’s death squads are still just doing selective targeting of protestors. I saw the video of the young guy recorded yesterday as he danced in the street wrapped in a Venezuelan flag before heading off to the protest.

    The video went viral, according to the reporter. He was recognised by regime supporters and someone told the death squad where he lived. Later they showed up at his home. The reporter did not give further details about what happened after that, but the report showed his body lying in a street, covered with a blood-stained cloth.

    This Guardian report describes another selective targeting of a protestor, and a local group has counted 43 such instances thus far: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/06/venezuela-faes-special-forces-nicolas-maduro-barrios

    “Faes – the special action force – has earned notoriety since the uprising against Maduro began last month. Graffiti artists have daubed Caracas’ walls with messages denouncing its operatives as “murderers of the people”… Venezuelan human rights group Provea said Faes was created by Maduro in 2017 to fight “organized crime and terrorism” and was part of Venezuela’s national police force, although some stories in state-run media outlets describe it as being under the command of the Venezuelan military. By last year it boasted almost 1,300 agents.”

    Further plausible deniability is provided to the regime by use of other “pro-government paramilitary groups known as colectivos.” Practical stalinism: operate the sham as long as possible to defer mass rebellion. “Asked about alleged killings by the group on Venezuelan television last week, the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, said the criminal responsibility for such acts was “individual. Those who commit violations … will be prosecuted, whichever part of the police they are from.”

    I doubt the stalinist expects any viewer to believe him, but the method requires continued use of the charade regardless. Sad to see some commentators here still try to blame Trump instead of the perpetrators. Such delusional thinking need not become a permanent affliction.

    • In Vino 22.1
      6 February 2019 at 9:22 pm

      Sorry Dennis, but I think you may be placing an awful lot of confidence in the impartiality of Western news media. I remain unconvinced by the Guardian and Newshub. I remember how we were similarly conned over the Tonkin Gulf Incident.

      • Dennis Frank 22.1.1
        7 February 2019 at 5:46 am

        Yeah, LBJ got away with that easily. Different world now tho. Folks are less easily conned by a sham. I take your point that it is still possible, but doubt that attempts will succeed. Think the Newshub story came from ITV but was unable to confirm.

        I share scepticism re Guardian, but only in respect of their editorialising and spin. I believe the journalistic ethos still prevails in regard to reporting the facts. The Venezuelan human rights group Provea told them 43 protestors had been selectively eliminated. We can’t verify that, obviously. I choose to believe them.

    • Cinny 22.2
      6 February 2019 at 9:51 pm

      Thanks for that info Dennis.

      Maduro’s behaviour could be compared to that of Sisi in Egypt, especially in regards to media or anyone that speaks out. Or Erdogan in Turkey for that matter.

      USA appears to pay a disproportionate amount of attention to any country that has oil reserves, especially when such countries governments become unstable.

      Will the USA military intervene and if they do will they ever leave once peace has been restored? If USA send military….. will China and Russia come to the aid of Maduro?

      Must be terrifying for those living there at present.

      And with Maduro shutting down the net whenever it suits him to try and curb the uprising, it makes it hard for the real stories from the people on the ground to reach the rest of the world.

      Edit…
      Maduro has said he would be happy to go to elections early (next election was supposed to be in 2020). Will the USA support a new election, or will they send in their military to assist the opposition instead ?

      • sumsuch 22.2.1
        7 February 2019 at 12:03 am

        Just by the way, is Ahmet Ertegun, godfather of much bloody good Black music in America, a relative of Tayib Recife Erdogan, dictatorish type in Turkey ?

        The third world is a hell, more distinguishable by goodish or baddish warlords. Though Turkey is better than that. Having Read a bio of Duterte of the 100,000,000 of The Phillippines. 70-80 % approval rating of a crass, murderous git, yet Filipinos strangely sometimes still do the right thing.

      • Dennis Frank 22.2.2
        7 February 2019 at 5:57 am

        Yes Cinny, I agree re Sisi & Erdogan. Trump’s grandstanding need not be a basis for concern. Any direct military intervention by the USA would need a Security Council mandate, eh? The problem with regard to another election is that it would not be credible while Maduro’s agents still control the electoral commission. They’d just do the same thing they did when he got defeated – declare sufficient opposition winners invalid to overturn his defeat.

  23. greywarshark 23
    6 February 2019 at 9:55 pm

    Droughts and fear of wildfires would have a killing effect on activity on farms and on outdoor sports. We can’t afford to have people haring around tinder dry areas and end up with emergencies as in Nelson region.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110411175/nelson-bush-fire-farming-equipment-believed-to-have-sparked-fire

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/110408577/international-mountainbike-race-called-due-nelson-bush-fire?rm=a

    And other stuff headlines.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110402408/never-mind-don-brashs-views-on-maoridom-here-are-5-maori-thinkers-to-listen-to-this-waitangi-day
    stuff has chosen:
    Dr David Tipene-Leach
    Myles Ferriss
    Katie Paul
    Sir Kim Workman
    Khylee Quince

    This seems malicious poke at Ardern:
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110405894/jacinda-ardern-has-pulled-off-a-second-successful-waitangi-a-third-will-be-much-harder
    (Henry Cooke)

    They’re malicious about females in Australia too:
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/110405911/working-70-hours-a-week-australian-surgeon-was-called-emotional-female

  24. Eco Maori 24
    7 February 2019 at 8:10 am

    Kia ora The AM Show its about time the topic is on one that is in reality the most important topic of OUR TIME . Climate change is the biggest challenge this generation and the rest of humanity will ever face.
    That
    Of course it is logical to support the regions I wonder why the last government did not support all the rural regions. The rural economy is what Aotearoa was built on. Drive around NZ and see all the big flash cars and boats in some suburbs and in the rural East Coast and North land one see 20 years old cars and rundown house. Transport is the most important tool to produce $$$$ in any civilisation that’s a fact Its good to see that the fools that have been running our NZTA New Zealand transport agency have been sacked as there has been some sculldugery going on in that agency and who was in charge of it.
    Lloyd Tusk is correct with his words brexit is a big mess and a big distraction from the EUROPEAN UNION and the World from combating the real threat to humanity Green House Warming.
    The education reform are a big topic to we need to grasp the new technologies and train our tamariki on how to get the best out of the technology. We also need to use the information technology to teach the tamariki about our true historical facts and not just the facts that suit the 00.1 %. A computer and projector does not cost much. You know what they say a picture is worth more than a thousand so video is a very good teaching tool and one can choose the factual one off the 21 century communications device and you have 30 tamariki learning OUR HISTORY or any topic with minimal cost and management needs to be streamlined .
    duncan promoting alcohol and gambling at this time of day gome on.
    There you go it’s cool to be a nice person Chris that is. neanderthal are uncool.
    No one can not turn climate change around but we can minimise the bad effects that green house warming has on our future generations by cutting the use of green gas producing fuels off as soon as possible.
    That was a good move investergating the hotel booking sites on the Internet and finding the ways that they are cheating and booking the hotels that give them the biggest commissions instead of giving one the cheaper options like the sites are sold on. I say all Internet sites need to be regulated so they are fair and provide a un minupulated service. I seen a good opinion on the speach ACTION COUNTs words don’t and the rules that have been put in place to protect OUR future generations
    well-being have been scrapped all for $$$$$$$$$$ by that administration . That’s all I’m saying because nothing nice will come from my next words while I get our Mokopunas ready for school. Ka kite ano P.S what’s the poll at climbing I guess

  25. Eco Maori 25
    7 February 2019 at 8:23 am

    Typical duncan neanderthal grab a minority subject and KICK the shit out of it just to lift your profile Ana to kai Ka kite ano

  26. Eco Maori 26
    7 February 2019 at 10:13 am

    Here you go te tangata te tangata te tangata rings true hundreds of years after our tipuna made this GREAT statement. The tipping point on Green House warming human caused climate change is now. The truth is getting out passed the oil barrons cloak of $$$$ that flogges there lies about climate change. Just a couple of years ago ALOT in the media were deniers.
    It gives ECO MAORI A sore face to see we have reached the tipping point on this subject. But that doesn’t mean that we can relax. I no the oil barron won’t give up so easily and we need to push REAL hard to get all the change in the World society so everything can have a healthy happy life KIA KAHA.
    A leader in climate change action needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed, says Z Energy boss Mike Bennetts.
    DAVID WHITE/STUFF
    A leader in climate change action needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed, says Z Energy boss Mike Bennetts.
    OPINION: There’s an old TED Talk from 2010 about how to start a movement, illustrated by a video of a “lone nut” dancing at a music festival.

    It stuck with me, not just because of the lone nut’s unique sense of rhythm, but because it’s much the same way I view the movement of business leaders taking voluntary action on climate change.

    Like the lone nut, a leader needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed. And a lone nut remains a lone nut unless there are other leaders who show how to follow. Those first followers are also showing guts and are at risk of being ridiculed.

    I recognise that as a chief executive of a company that sells fossil fuels, taking a public stand on climate change invokes scepticism about greenwashing and PR stunts.

    I welcome that, but six months on from the launch of the Climate Leaders Coalition – now a group of 76 organisations that contribute about half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions – it’s clear that momentum is growing around business taking climate change seriously.

    * The year in which climate change gained momentum
    * KiwiRail: We can’t be complacent on climate change
    * Businesses band together to tackle climate change

    There are a few different reasons behind this.

    First, there is growing recognition that the consequences of climate change are one of the biggest long-term risks facing business.

    Secondly, businesses are increasingly seeing the opportunities associated with climate action. Mitigating and adapting to climate change doesn’t automatically mean costing jobs and money. There are genuine opportunities for businesses to respond to changing consumer preferences, at the same time as making their businesses run more efficiently. There will be challenges, especially at the start, but the risk of inaction is greater risk because the old saying is if one doesn’t keep up with the new times AGE you will go broke. Ka kite ano P.S The new age also includes being respectful to mother nature and all humans link below.

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/110402311/how-to-start-a-climate-change-movement

  27. Eco maori 27
    8 February 2019 at 7:48 am

    Kia ora the Am Show You full of —– whom ever made that statement capital gains tax is need so wealth people like you 2 who use your accountants to cheat out of paying .
    Will be paying your fare shear of taxes that you have made from NZ.
    Most other country’s have a capital gains tax.
    So what brilliance policy did national implement in the last 9 years that made Aotearoa great was it I WILL NOT RAISE GST was it billions splashed on bills M8.
    I think the refugees being sent to the small towns is a good move to help the small community’s grow.
    I wonder who advised Laim Neeson to tell that stupid story .
    How did yesterday’s poll go on climate change I see you did not give the final results. The only green thing you like is money flowing into your pockets the bribes from the wealthy manipulators of our society to try and Conn us into believing that’s it ok for the 00.1 % to have more money than they need.
    Let hope the fire in Nelson is not going to get to big .
    Hope just said that the majority wants a capital gains tax .
    judy that’s what your lot did funnel all the money wealthy and starved the poor.
    It was the land stolen off maori that made the wealthy in this country so rich that’s a fact follow the money and these wealthy family’s money will go back to huge land holders of the past. That’s all ways you’re way kick Maori anytime you can duncan the land has heaps of value just fools like you and your rich M8 can not see it the land will be easy to turn into a organics farming operations with no poisons been poured on it in the last few years .
    I could give a analysis of your last pat on the back but this is not personal you would turn red again Ka kite ano P.S I have figure out another phenomenon I will use it to my advantage. Don,t bring God into this Mark who is coaching you

  28. Eco Maori 28
    8 February 2019 at 10:02 am

    Here you go tangata this is what some of the greedy people did to Maori .
    The lieing stealing and cheating the minuplation of the public still is going on TODAY
    For well over 25 years, Vincent O’Malley, a Pākehā historian, has been uncovering and recounting many of the rich and often discomforting stories about how Māori and Pākehā have got along since they began sharing Aotearoa 200 or so years ago.
    His most substantial book has been The Great War for New Zealand, where he explains what went on in the Waikato, especially in the wake of the New Zealand Settlements Act in 1863.
    But here he focuses on the significance of that legislation — and the need for us to understand and remember it.

    When dates were being considered for the first Rā Maumahara commemorating the New Zealand Wars, one suggestion was December 3. That day doesn’t mark the anniversary of any particular battle or conflict. Instead, it’s the day in 1863 that Governor George Grey signed into law the New Zealand Settlements Act.
    It’s an innocuous-sounding piece of legislation but it had devastating consequences for many Māori communities. The Settlements Act provided the primary legislative mechanism for raupatu — sweeping land confiscations that were supposedly intended to punish acts of “rebellion” while also recouping the costs of fighting the wars.
    {It declared that where “any Native Tribe or Section of a Tribe or any considerable number thereof” had committed acts of “rebellion against Her Majesty’s authority” since January 1, 1863, their lands could be declared subject to the Act and seized for the purposes of settlement.
    It was part of a package of measures passed by the all-Pākehā parliament to crush Māori independence.}

    Governor George Grey
    Grey and his ministers had drawn up these confiscation plans before invading Waikato in July 1863 and, by August, had begun recruiting military settlers who were to be offered a portion of the seized lands in return for their services.
    Confiscation wasn’t an afterthought or a response to Māori actions, but an integral part of the overall invasion plans
    {The presence of military settlers on a portion of the seized lands would ensure the conquest of these was made permanent, while the sale of the remainder on the open market would pay for the whole scheme. Māori would effectively underwrite the costs of their own suppression.}
    Victims of imperialism in this way became its perpetrators.
    Former Chief Justice Sir William Martin also pointed to the example of Ireland in predicting that “a brooding sense of wrong” passed down from one generation to the next would be exactly the same outcome if confiscation was employed in New Zealand.
    That,{ Henry Sewell privately thought, was exactly what the architects of the policy wanted. It was to drive even more Māori to offer resistance so that their lands could also be seized and sold as punishment for these acts of “rebellion”.}
    Within parliament itself, James FitzGerald was one of few MPs to offer anything like unequivocal opposition to the Settlements Act, which he described as an “enormous crime” and “contrary to the Treaty of Waitangi”.
    As Native Minister two years later, FitzGerald was personally responsible for some of the largest land confiscations under the Act. In another case of poacher turned gamekeeper, Sewell underwent a similar conversion. Few Pākehā in positions of power came out of the story unsullied.
    {In all, more than 3.4 million acres of land was confiscated under the Settlements Act across many districts — in Waikato, Taranaki, Tauranga, eastern Bay of Plenty, and Mohaka-Waikare.}
    Further lands were “ceded” to the Crown at Tūranga, Wairoa, and Waikaremoana under a distinct confiscation regime covering the East Coast region.
    Despite repeated and unambiguous promises that Māori who didn’t take up arms against the Crown would have their lands guaranteed to them in full, confiscation was applied
    {indiscriminately. And it even took in areas owned by those who had fought on the government side}.

    The New Zealand Settlements Act 1863.
    “Loyal” Māori could apply for compensation for their losses — initially in money but later including lands. But the Compensation Court process that followed returned only a fraction of what was lost, often in completely different areas and always under a new legal form of title that meant many of these lands were quickly lost to their owners.
    Māori deemed to have rebelled, or even to have aided or abetted others who had done so, were ineligible to receive compensation at all. In one case, officials tried (but failed) to block compensation being given to an Anglican priest of Tainui ancestry who had conducted burial services for those slain during the Waikato invasion.
    Fearing that sweeping and excessive confiscations would prolong Māori resistance and thereby increase the military and financial burdens on British taxpayers, the British government sought to impose a range of restrictions on how the Settlements Act would be implemented.
    Most of these were ignored. Rather than intervening to stop what they knew was a gross injustice, ministers in London washed their hands of the matter, concerned only with how soon they could withdraw their troops from New Zealand.
    Many of those soldiers, including their commander, Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron, had become increasingly disillusioned with what they were being asked to do, and began to query why they should fight a war of conquest and dispossession for the exclusive benefit of New Zealand
    {A few Pākehā got very rich and many of the lands later became lynchpins of New Zealand’s booming pastoral economy. But, for Māori on the receiving end, the results were shattering.}
    {Through the two decades after 1840, Māori were in many ways the leading drivers of New Zealand’s economy, producing much of its export income, while also feeding hungry settlers in Auckland and other towns.}
    {{{{{{That economic infrastructure was destroyed almost literally overnight as cattle and crops were seized or destroyed, flour mills and homes in many cases torched, and the lands that had been key to this wealth confiscated. The Māori economy was delivered a near fatal blow.}}}}}}}
    That was not something that could be easily or quickly overcome. Generations of Māori were condemned to lives of landlessness and poverty. In many ways, we still live with the legacy of the New Zealand Settlements Act today. It is there in the negative socio-economic statistics of many Māori communities in those regions subject to raupatu.
    Treaty settlements have helped to recapitalise many iwi, and allowed them to again become major players in the New Zealand economy. But, given that these settlements typically represent no more than about one or two percent of the unimproved value of the lands that were taken, they are never going to fully compensate for all that was lost.
    Many Pākehā have little idea of this history or how it continues to reverberate. That’s hardly surprising, given how few people learn anything about it at school.
    It’s time to do something about that. It’s time we as a nation owned up to our past. Ka kite ano links below

    https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/a-dark-tale-of-dispossession-and-greed/

  29. Eco Maori 29
    8 February 2019 at 11:07 am

    I see some is using this person tech to attack other people names .
    Thats the STONE number one rule book Lie Lie ATTACK
    Peter Thiel’s secretive spook outfit Palantir has financials leaked
    A rare light has been shone on the finances of Peter Thiel’s secretive data-mining firm Palantir – which makes software used by US intelligence agencies and corporates trying to sniff out threats.
    The German-born, US entrepreneur received a fast-tracked NZ citizenship in 2011, despite spending just 11 days in the country.
    A 2018 Herald investigation uncovered that the NZ Defence Force has spent around $7.2m with Palantir since 2012.
    There are also strong indications that the GCSB and SIS (who won’t officially comment) are customers.
    Citing sources familiar with the figures, the Wall Street Journal says the privately-held Palantir’s revenue jumped from US$600 million to US$880m ($1.3 billion) last year, well ahead of the US$750m that investors had been told to expect.
    Central to the revenue lift was a US$42m contract signed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the controversial US government border protection agency.
    Thiel has been a financial supporter and advisor to President Trump and, the Journal reports, “Some Palantir staffers and civil rights advocates have criticised Palantir’s ICE ties.” Links below

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12201876

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files

  30. Eco Maori 30
    8 February 2019 at 12:27 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute

  31. Eco Maori 31
    8 February 2019 at 1:17 pm

    Here’s Tangata a good video that gives the facts on global warming and climate change

  32. Eco Maori 32
    8 February 2019 at 6:41 pm

    Kia ora Newshub if a billionaire like Jeff Bazo can have his personal data mined well known ones privacy is safe.
    There you go national dirty tactics leaks about their planed attack on The Hounreable Winston Peters. They are crying in their big box of tissue blaming Winston for there loss not the dumb moves they had made before the election Ana to kai I say simon is just trying the cast nationals hurting and focus off him and onto Winston.
    I Back 100 % The Green Party for advocateing sugary drinks to be banned from SCHOOLS. I have read reviews that sugar is one of the most addictive substance on Papatuanukue its in the top 5 Substances for addiction. Put it in the gas tanks.
    I read it was a one and 2000 years event the flooding in Queensland Townsville.
    When you have neanderthals in charge that are denying climate change we’ll a lot of people believe them and don’t have the correct plans in place to minimise and mitergate the extreme weather conditions that have been forecast by our scientists. I also read that 350000 cattle have died as well condolences to the poor farmers and other who have been badly affected by the flooding in Australia.
    Restrictions are need for the Ngaruroro river the farmers and the council don’t care about the AWA river they just want to bleed all the money they can get from the river even if they stuff it up turn to organic farming and the soil will hold the water longer that is dropped from Tawhirirmate Eco has had many good times swimming in that river in Hawkesbay. Ka kite ano

  33. greywarshark 33
    8 February 2019 at 7:18 pm

    cleangreen
    Ports; this time its Napier feeling the brunt. Perhaps you can get together with them and jointly put pressure on the government to do their job.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=12201629

    Traffic going to and from Napier Port is set to increase 187 per cent over the next eight years, prompting residents to threaten to take it to the Environment Court….

    “We asked them [Napier Port] what are you doing to mitigate for all the people who live on affected roads.
    “The port said, in their report, they don’t have to care, it’s not their responsibility.

    Who said that we don’t need a working, decision-making Government providing
    ‘governance’?

    Actually isn’t that a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi? It was agreed that NZ Government should be in governance with Maori, not sub-contract their role to some KPMG, ABCD or XYZ. I seem to remember kawanatanga being referred to.