Open mike 04/03/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 4th, 2019 - 177 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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

Step up to the mike …

177 comments on “Open mike 04/03/2019 ”

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  1. James 1
    4 March 2019 at 7:32 am

    Hosking starts the day off well regarding the hypocrisy of James “air miles” Shaw

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12209121

    • Incognito 1.1
      4 March 2019 at 7:38 am

      I agree, Green MPs should only be allowed to travel by lime scooter or not at all.

      • AB 1.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 8:36 am

        There is nothing people like Hosking would like more than for Green MPs to be hobbled and ineffective in order to avoid bogus and shabby accusations of hypocrisy.

    • Bazza64 1.2
      4 March 2019 at 7:41 am

      Couldn’t agree more with Mike on this one. I’m sure when Lucy Lawless protested against Shell in New Plymouth she burnt up a fair bit of fuel driving there. Or did she ride her bike ?

      • Incognito 1.2.1
        4 March 2019 at 7:44 am

        What do you call a Green who’s not hugging a tree at that very moment? A hypocritical eco-socialist.

        • James 1.2.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 7:47 am

          They only hug trees when there is a TV camera there.

          • Incognito 1.2.1.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 7:59 am

            Zen. When a Green hugs a tree and there’s no camera to bear witness to it, does it make a sound?

          • Stuart Munro 1.2.1.1.2
            4 March 2019 at 11:28 am

            I don’t think that’s true – I can think of a Green transport spokesperson who goes out of their way to minimize their carbon footprint.

      • left_forward 1.2.2
        4 March 2019 at 8:09 am

        I wonder how the new ‘stainable party’s gonna cope with this one Baz?

        • cleangreen 1.2.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 9:02 am

          left forward;

          The Sustainable New Zealand Party was on the AM show today saying we need sustainable policies.

          But Vernon Tava of ‘sustainable NZ never spoke a word about sustainable transport?????

          Why didn’t he talk about rail as being the best ‘low emissions’ transport for slowing climate change??

          Does he only support the trucking of freight around NZ, and does this represent “sustainable” policy?????

          The Koch Brothers and big oil will love him for this.

          Rail uses five to eight times LESS oil than trucks USE, to move each tonne each kilometre.

          Now that would be a sustainable policy = to use rail.

          Wake up ‘ex Green Party member’ – Vernon Tava of ‘sustainable NZ’ !!!!!

          Green party is strong on rail, so why aren’t you also Vernon?

          I am a NZ First voter and they have the best rail policy now.

          Funny how political Parties change ‘hats’ isn’t it?i

          • James 1.2.2.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 9:27 am

            Because he had other topics to cover other than your obsession on trains.

            • greywarshark 1.2.2.1.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 10:37 am

              What’s your obsession James? It seems to be to disagree and sneer at any change a leftie may wish to discuss.

          • Sacha 1.2.2.1.2
            4 March 2019 at 1:05 pm

            “The Sustainable New Zealand Party”

            is not even registered yet.

      • Gabby 1.2.3
        4 March 2019 at 8:49 am

        You and Horeskin on the same page on this are you Boozza? Reading from the same script? On message?

        • Bazza64 1.2.3.1
          4 March 2019 at 10:37 am

          Good point, maybe I should change my name, I have been on the piss since 7.00 am this morning

      • Gabby 1.2.4
        4 March 2019 at 9:15 am

        But that’s Shell’s doing Boozza. No Shell, no protest.

      • alwyn 1.2.5
        4 March 2019 at 11:31 am

        Broomstick, actually.

    • Sanctuary 1.3
      4 March 2019 at 7:46 am

      “…Hosking starts the day off well…”

      Oxymoron from a moron.

      An Oxymoronmoron may well be a new word to describe trolls like James.

      • James 1.3.1
        4 March 2019 at 7:49 am

        Ahh first insult of the day from the caring left.

        The petty bullying is pathetic.

        Hosking has a good point here.

        • Incognito 1.3.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 7:59 am

          I agree, again, James. You started OM so well today.

        • Sanctuary 1.3.1.2
          4 March 2019 at 8:01 am

          Wah wah wah! Quick, someone call James a wambulance, someone insulted him and his hero the Hosk, and he ain’t standing for it!

          • James 1.3.1.2.1
            4 March 2019 at 8:07 am

            Just pointing out your behaviour this morning. Own it.

            But I notice you do this when you are unable to discuss a point.

            • left_forward 1.3.1.2.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 8:26 am

              Zen. What is the sound of James discussing a point?
              Oxymoron. James discussing a point.
              Moron. James.

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 March 2019 at 6:23 pm

                Try not to overuse ‘moron’ when replying to James – he owns that word.

            • arkie 1.3.1.2.1.2
              4 March 2019 at 8:29 am

              Be James.
              Get up bright and early and read Hoskings column.
              Think to yourself, those lefties on the Standard will be interested to hear this!
              Post up the link (First!) and wait for the excited responses.
              What’s this? These lefties don’t like this rightwing opinion?! And then someone insults you? This really is the living end! Who could have guessed such terrible behaviour would come from the caring left.
              You let them know you see it and that it obviously this means they can’t discuss a point. The point you posted.
              Did you do it to get this reaction?
              Who cares, you pwned them.
              You smile knowing that you’ve started your day off well.

        • KJT 1.3.1.3
          4 March 2019 at 8:36 am

          Hosking is a right wing parrot.

          Who had an original thought, once, maybe in his life.

          See the similarity, James?

          Note: to self, exercise restraint and don’t call him a lying ignorant arsehole.

        • cleangreen 1.3.1.4
          4 March 2019 at 9:05 am

          Ahh – First insult of the day from the non-caring Natz.

    • left_forward 1.4
      4 March 2019 at 8:17 am

      ‘Except, of course, it isn’t, hasn’t and most likely probably won’t be.’
      Hosk wisdom on global warming.

      • Wensleydale 1.4.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:03 am

        I’m fairly sure Hosking won’t acknowledge global warming until his fabulous house is on fire and his face resembles a melted candle. Actually, with all the hair product he uses, it’ll probably just explode showering anyone nearby in blood and bone fragments.

    • mauī 1.5
      4 March 2019 at 8:28 am

      Yes, a real green party like Sustainable New Zealand would bundle up all their emissions and put them on a rocket to mars. Only if the business case stacked up of course.

    • Gabby 1.6
      4 March 2019 at 8:53 am

      I’m sure the Good James will leap on board the first available solar powered airliner with alacrity jimbo.

    • WeTheBleeple 1.7
      4 March 2019 at 9:12 am

      Hosking is an unmitigated **** for cash.

      To follow his views makes you a puppet of a muppet.

      And truth be told, he doesn’t give a shit what he’s saying he just lubes up on whale oil and delivers his daily bukkake theatre to the masses. No kissing, takes the money from the bedside and leaves.

      [Edited for sweariness. TRP]

    • Sabine 1.8
      4 March 2019 at 10:53 am

      Oh is Hoskins getting his marching orders from the US?

      Cause there they just attached AOC for ‘traveling by UBer’! Gasp, shock, clutches pearls, faints!

      https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1102021054363586561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1102021054363586561&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2019%2F3%2F3%2F1839039%2F-AOC-fires-back-at-report-that-Uber-usage-makes-her-a-hypocrite-says-she-s-living-in-the-world

      I can’t think of a more sad, disheveled person then Mike Hoskins to whinge about other peoples travel. This man, who essentially still lives in the late 90.s the last time he was young (if ever he was ) , who travels by maserati in a country with notoriously bad roads, and a 100 km speed limit is not fit to read the morals to anyone.
      Not on marriage, not on child raising, not on affording children and certainly not on environmentally friendly travel.

      He is slowly but surely turning into that old coot that shakes his limp fist at the sky and yells at kids to stay of the lawn.

      Just goes to show that you can have a good live and still be the most miserable fuck there is.

      • Bruce 1.8.1
        4 March 2019 at 2:08 pm

        i just cant understand why he puts so much effort into emulating the people he despises. holey jeans was grunge last century i think . Maybe he thinks will make him hip.

    • Jimmy 1.9
      4 March 2019 at 11:31 am

      Does it really matter what James Shaw says or does? He is so irrelevant…needs a woman to tell him what to say or do. Openly supports benefit fraud and use of the “C” word in front of children. He lost all credibility a long time ago. Needs to step aside and let Chloe take over as sole leader.
      Mind you …..I think Winston likes toying with him so he probably likes having him there.

  2. Jinx 2
    4 March 2019 at 8:04 am

    Espiner had Bridges on the ropes..

    • Wensleydale 2.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:05 am

      Bridges is on the ropes so often these days, he may as well just stay there and try to make it look as nonchalant as possible.

      • patricia bremner 2.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:21 am

        Wensleydale, lol lol ha ha!! Good one.. Simon, slightly punch drunk… in the wrong division??

      • mac1 2.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 9:29 am

        I believe Simon Bridges is learning from Muhammed Ali with his ‘rope a dope’ ploy. It is defined as “a strategy to appear weak to convince an opponent to attack and fall into a trap.”

        Well, he’s succeeding with the first part of the strategy.

  3. Rosemary McDonald 3
    4 March 2019 at 8:38 am

    Well, sheesh. I cruised past TS on my usual am perambulation and thought whoah!!! All those comment so early…must be something really, really earthshatteringly important.

    Meanwhile…seriously dodgy shit going on up at Richpricksville.

    Boundary pegs???? Hah! We scoff at such restrictions…

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/110998405/us-billionaire-ric-kayne-builds-fence-on-mangawhai-wildlife-reserve

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG6UllZwj9c

    SSDD

    • Jinx 3.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:14 am

      Sadly the UK Labour Party has been hi jacked by Tom Watson and his motley crew.
      Another motley crew derails the Standard daily.
      I miss Bill and Ed.

      Instead we have rwnjs dictating the tenor of this blog.

      • te reo putake 3.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:17 am

        Er, you are Ed, Jinx. Did you forget which sockpuppet you were using this morning?

      • mauī 3.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 9:31 am

        Thank you Jinx, another fine commentator has joined this blog.

        And yes we all miss Ed.

        • Ad 3.1.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 9:34 am

          We really don’t.

          • cleangreen 3.1.2.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 10:13 am

            Ad you may not!!!!- but do miss Ed.

            Please don’t use ‘we’ !!!!

            As that assumes I am part of your ‘we and I am not..

          • adam 3.1.2.1.2
            4 March 2019 at 12:15 pm

            Another royal ‘we’ from Ad.

        • WeTheBleeple 3.1.2.2
          4 March 2019 at 10:47 am

          I miss Bill where is the cantankerous old Scot? Is he OK?

          • greywarshark 3.1.2.2.1
            4 March 2019 at 9:25 pm

            I miss felix. And thank r0b for dropping by now and then.

            But Rosemary’s story about the millionaire and the commons is educational. How to appear to be concerned about the rules, but watch that they don’t get the inkling of implicit agreement to the plans of the squatter when you think you are making a small concession. Note the comment from the Environment Court Judge. I think we need the process tightened up. These wealthy types are running rings around us.

            “To protect that native planting from users of the Wildlife Refuge, including those employing motorised vehicles, a standard rural post and batten fence was installed. This was agreed with and supported by DOC. That standard farm fence sits within the edge of the planting and is now largely hidden within it.”

            HOW THE FENCE GOT THERE

            Among the many resource consents the developers applied for was for the earthworks and water required to turn a sandy pine forest into a grassed golf course.

            Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith noted in his ruling several resource consent applications had been made: “The piecemeal approach of the applicant seems to be designed to avoid making an application which requires notification, and therefore the prospect of the entire consent being subject to scrutiny.”

            Among the conditions in the decision was requirement, subject to agreement with DoC, for a fence to be placed on the northern boundary of the property and for a 60m-wide strip of planting to be a corridor between a wetland and the beach.
            The ruling said the planting could take place on either side of the boundary.

            Initially the discussion between Tara Iti Holdings and a community liaison group discussed whether a fence could be used to control predators, said Rogan. As a representative of the Fairy Tern Charitable Trust, she was keen the endangered fairy tern in the reserve would get as much protection as possible.

            “The plan we jointly agreed with the developers was for an ordinary fence, but the lower parts of it would have a kind of a mesh that would corral predators to certain places where you put traps and would stop them getting to the wildlife refuge.”
            The fence built to stop people walking over planted and weeded areas. There are no signs on the fence indicating it’s not a boundary, or suggesting people don’t walk in the area.
            Photo:
            The fence built to stop people walking over planted and weeded areas. There are no signs on the fence indicating it’s not a boundary, or suggesting people don’t walk in the area.

            According to Rogan and others at the meeting there was talk about the placement of the fence, and the possibility of the fence deviating from the actual boundary line due to topography. Its final placement came as a shock.

            “If it was just a little bit of a wave here and there, sure. You would obviously put a fence in the best position but it’s quite a long way inside the wildlife refuge.”

            Rogan is also disappointed at the lack of the predator mesh on the bottom half of the fence.

            The chap should have to take the fence down, now.

        • Jinx 3.1.2.3
          4 March 2019 at 2:31 pm

          The radical socialist left and ecological activists are being silenced on this site.

        • solkta 3.1.2.4
          4 March 2019 at 3:03 pm

          And yes we all miss Ed.

          I guess like in the sense that i “miss” the wart i had on my thumb when a child.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.2.4.1
            4 March 2019 at 6:42 pm

            Was Ed any more of a ‘loss leader’ than James @1 ?

            Many of Ed’s viewpoints seemed progressive (to me), and they posted links of interest (to me.)

            In time, perhaps I’ll come to recognise James’ redeeming features, although tbh there’s probably about as much chance of that as there is that I’ll understand why Ed attracted so much ridicule left and right.

            • Sacha 3.1.2.4.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 6:58 pm

              Never much love for sockpuppeteers (save for some mutual admiration prehaps).

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 March 2019 at 7:49 pm

                Prehaps, prehaps (sic)…

                Thanks Sacha, I had to Google ‘sockpuppet'(eers). Assumed that it was a simple term of abuse used by the usual suspects, so had never bothered to pursue it further, but now I see I was wrong. Would love to know the back story, but maybe too much like “washing your dirty linen in public”?

            • solkta 3.1.2.4.1.2
              4 March 2019 at 7:59 pm

              Wanting to have people sent to labour camps because they deny climate change is not progressive.

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 March 2019 at 9:45 pm

                Fair enough – my impression was that often Ed’s heart was in the right place (not sure the same can be said for James, who seems mostly to be out to cause as much ‘damage’ as possible).

                Sometimes Ed presented views on climate change and other topics they were ‘passionate’ about in stark terms, more starkly for sure than climate change being (in Ardern’s words) “my generation’s nuclear-free moment“.

                Maybe Ed’s extreme points of view do more harm than good in the cause to slow the global warming juggernaut. With any luck history will be the judge of that.

                • Milly …
                  4 March 2019 at 9:48 pm

                  I think we should be very concerned about climate change.
                  Scientists are now telling us we’ve 12 years left.
                  Shouldn’t we all be passionate about that?
                  Indeed, is there an issue more important?

                • solkta …
                  4 March 2019 at 10:03 pm

                  Ed is an authoritarian pure and simple. It was not just CC that he held such views about. That doesn’t put his heart in the right place, it makes him an arsehole.

                  • Drowsy M. Kram …
                    4 March 2019 at 10:24 pm

                    Strongly support your view that authoritarians are (generally) arseholes. But (for your own safety) softly softly, aye – there may be some closet authoritarians reading.

                • greywarshark …
                  4 March 2019 at 10:18 pm

                  Ed regularly swamped post with his pronouncements. It’s not his soapbox. But he tended to want to dominate it. And put up short sharp comments too often, when it is meant to be a place of discussion. And was pushing out NZ stuff with foreign muck. I treasure TS for a place to discuss mostly, NZ muck and pass on some high points that are positive when I see them. I don’t want somebody taking over the whole discussion and filling up people’s brains and time with what he has decided will rule. It ain’t democratic. You just get left with a tic. I am surprised other people haven’t noticed his pushy ways.

              • mauī …
                4 March 2019 at 10:52 pm

                “Wanting to have people sent to labour camps because they deny climate change is not progressive.”

                It’s ironic how easy the centre-left labels anyone they don’t like hearing from as a “fascist” and then do their utmost to make sure those people are silenced.

                • solkta …
                  4 March 2019 at 11:06 pm

                  I haven’t labelled him fascist. I’ve just said what he said.

                  So ironic you saying this given how many times Ed called me a Neoliberal.

        • Milly 3.1.2.5
          4 March 2019 at 8:05 pm

          At least you continue to connect us to George Galloway and other brave, independent spokespeople from the left.
          Thanks Maui.

          • greywarshark 3.1.2.5.1
            4 March 2019 at 9:06 pm

            Can you not access George Galloway yourself Milly? It doesn’t pay to be too dependent on others – the spirit of enquiry can take a person away into that place where you don’t know what you don’t know. There are more bits of info than there are galaxies in space. Fascinating, have a dig and pass on the link and tell us about it.

          • Bewildered 3.1.2.5.2
            4 March 2019 at 9:12 pm

            Also as a cat loving country Ed also introduces us to other cat lovers in the Uk

        • Incognito 3.1.2.6
          4 March 2019 at 9:14 pm

          We all miss us. The missus misses us. We are miserable missing the missus missing us. It gives us misty eyes and near misses.

          Nailed it?

      • alwyn 3.1.3
        4 March 2019 at 11:43 am

        The commentator I miss most from those of the past is Lanthanide. His comments were always worth reading and you could always hold a civil debate with him.
        Did he just give up in the end as the debate became ever more polarized or was he banned?

        • te reo putake 3.1.3.1
          4 March 2019 at 12:41 pm

          No ban that I’m aware of. People do come and go (you wanna see the authors list!).

        • Andre 3.1.3.2
          4 March 2019 at 12:42 pm

          Lanthanide never came back after getting a one week ban that I thought was OTT. It was in the midst of a mod-fight and the temperature was pretty raised…

    • WeTheBleeple 3.2
      4 March 2019 at 9:15 am

      We can hope for tidal inundation in some cases…

      • Rosemary McDonald 3.2.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:53 am

        Thank you WTB.

        For addressing the content of my post, and offering a perfectly acceptable potential solution ….in the absence of any action from local or central government.

        SSDD

        • adam 3.2.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 12:13 pm

          We could just eat Kayne, although I’m sure he would taste smug – which would leave your tongue with that furry feeling.

    • KJT 3.3
      4 March 2019 at 9:45 am

      Shades of Mr pulp and paper repaying all our tax payer subsidies, by out lawyering the Waiheke council, over access to a public road.

    • cleangreen 3.4
      4 March 2019 at 10:33 am

      Rosemary,

      Typical that these rich foreign pricks are still coming in in droves’ to tread all over our “natural environment’ as I in 1993 saw the same thing from Atlantic beach in Virginia to the Florida cost line as i drove south.

      The whole coastline has virtually been fenced to keep others out now!!!!!

      So Tangata whenua; – you had better guard the coastline here, as the yanks are coming with their roughshod rules on taking over sensitive coastal areas. .

      • KJT 3.4.1
        4 March 2019 at 12:33 pm

        I’ve had personal experience of that.

        Never been stopped from going on Maori land, you just have to ask.
        Same with most Kiwi farmers.

        However I’ve had dogs set on us, using a public beach below the HWL, by the German owner.

        And had an officious representative of a rich yank trying to tell me i couldn’t land on their beach. Despite there being a public ROW, to said beach.

      • Herodotus 3.4.2
        4 March 2019 at 12:52 pm

        Interesting the timing of your post and this today, with public land being lost to protect the privacy of Ric Kayne, an American Billionaires house.
        “Go for a stroll in the reserve and it’s unlikely you’ll realise you could get within eyeballing distance of a bathing billionaire. A sturdy, eight-string fence built by Tara Iti Holdings, extends – in places – up to 90m into the public reserve.”
        Also the ability of planners to circumnavigate “the system”
        “Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith noted in his ruling several resource consent applications had been made: “The piecemeal approach of the applicant seems to be designed to avoid making an application which requires notification, and therefore the prospect of the entire consent being subject to scrutiny.”
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/110998405/us-billionaire-ric-kayne-builds-fence-on-mangawhai-wildlife-reserve

        • patricia bremner 3.4.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 4:22 pm

          He sure didn’t sneak it past you Rosemary. Thank you for that. Do we comment to the Mangawhai Council/ Eugene/ others??

        • greywarshark 3.4.2.2
          4 March 2019 at 10:24 pm

          Rosemary put that link up at 3 before we wandered off about Ed, and I replied up there so have put the same thing you have done Herodotus. I didn’t know you were down here.

  4. Robert Guyton 4
    4 March 2019 at 9:08 am

    Nandor Tanzcos wrote about climate change and the political response from Whakatane.
    https://nandor.net.nz/2019/03/03/responding-to-climate-change-in-whakatane/

    • WeTheBleeple 4.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:23 am

      Outstanding to see such comprehensive thought entertained by (local) government bodies.

      It annoys that all the community groups are based in facebook. A lot of people wont go to them including me. It is a lazy cheap ass way to make a website and feeds into a highly corrupt tax-dodging business.

      • KJT 4.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:47 am

        Unfortunately, they have to be on Facebook to reach people.

        Not all community groups can afford a website, advertising it, and hosting fees.

        • WeTheBleeple 4.1.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 10:12 am

          Yeah. FB is like oil to me in some regards: we’ve become dependant on a thing that is bad for us. The attraction of both is not lost on me. The problems with both clearly apparent.

          Like oil, we need to wean ourselves off FB. An artificial social construct posing as (and replacing) real community. It’s not the model so much as the management. TS works, FB is corporate, not community, it is a poser. Divide into groups, polarise, manipulate, sell…. what a shitty place to hold a community meeting, or any meeting really.

          The insidious nature of it made my skin crawl. talk about a thing in a pm, get a targeted ad or political meme… arrrrgh!

          Not a fan, one might say.

          • Sabine 4.1.1.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 11:01 am

            This bullshit aobut facebook seriously ist getting tired.

            You can use facebook, you can put up as much or as little information you want, you can give as much or as little informaiton you want, and that is that.

            It is a tool. If you use a W. T. Bleeple as your name it will be accepted, if you give no information i.e. birth day, town etc it will be accepted, yo udon’t have to read stuff you don’t like, you don’t have to like stuff you dont’ like . Etc etc etc.

            essentially it is a tool. Use it for your purposes and ignore the rest.

            • WeTheBleeple 4.1.1.1.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 11:54 am

              Thanks for the confirmation FB is a tool. A tool of corporate design.

              Congressional hearings… nothing to see here.

              FB had nothing to do with Trump, and besides, hasn’t he improved the world anyway.

              This BS where people wont support huge corporations all because they’re inhuman assholes is getting tired. Especially picking on poor tax dodging billionaire sack of shit corporations.

              Fuck FB and everything they stand for.

              Shill.

              • Sabine …
                4 March 2019 at 12:20 pm

                Shill? seriously?
                A hammer is always only a hammer. No matter if you use it for a nail or to bash someones head in. The tool is simply that a tool.

                Facebook is a tool. For people to connect. For people like me that have a lof of friends oversees to chat. For people with small businesses to sell their wares. For people who live away from family to easily update etc.

                It is a tool for these guys here, Community Fruit Harvesting – a local non profit that collects surplus fruit and makes it into Jams, Cordial, Fruit leather etc that then gets distributed among NZ Food banks, schools, old folks homes etc. It is a tool for Community Fruit n Vegetable stands -local stands on private grounds for people to drop of surplus from their gardens and jams/chutneys, seedlings, tins of food for those that don’t have enough – Motto, leave what you can, take what you need.
                It is a tool for gardeners to meet, discuss growing of produce, advice new comers, swap seeds, share recipes etc – NZ Veggie Growers.
                I know, nefarious businesses all of them and I am happily shilling for these guys, each and everyone of them.

                Short it is a tool, and it is up to you as to how much you use it, how you use it, how much information you give or not, it is not the demon personified, no more then is Apply, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and the likes.

                I mean, personally i prefer Carrier Pigeons, i am however being told that it was not a viable way of connecting in our days.

                • greywarshark …
                  4 March 2019 at 10:33 pm

                  Actually Facebook is apparently all you say Sabine and when I get it
                  sorted and know how to work it well I am sure I will find it useful.
                  But it keeps wanting to get my photo, my details etc. very annoying. And in the absence of getting information it puts up things picked up from my family. Most of the profile is false but I didn’t put that up. Don’t believe everything you read on Fbook. But because it is up and in public if people like one’s employer saw stuff on it they might think it had been put up deliberately to deceive.

                  Don’t diss carrier pigeons will you. They may be the in thing at the end of the day.

        • Molly 4.1.1.2
          4 March 2019 at 10:57 am

          There are plenty of free online tools that allow you to communicate with others, including blogging sites that can be customised with a fairly cheap domain name.

          The problem is not the availability of alternatives, it is just that many are familiar with Facebook and go with the tool they know.

  5. Gabby 5
    4 March 2019 at 9:18 am

    Pretty mean of Frontbum Tamihere to accuse Gfoffoloffle of only just discovering he’d like to be mayor. Is he willing to sell his soul for the job?

  6. Sanctuary 6
    4 March 2019 at 9:24 am

    Question. Why does John Tamihere have to be such a dick?

  7. Peter 7
    4 March 2019 at 9:25 am

    Some of the comments about Mike Hosking are a tad unfair. I saw his headline which said “full of hot air.”

    It’s clearly his field of expertise, for goodness sake, leave the man alone!

    • ankerawshark 7.1
      4 March 2019 at 12:19 pm

      Ha, ha ha Peter.

      I loved that Jacinda said she wanted to hear from people about the tax payers working group who weren’t Herald columnists…………………….Yes, yes yes. We’ve heard from Barry, Heather and Mikey to name but a few. Why their opinions are elevated to being worthy of publication is beyond me.

  8. Kat 8
    4 March 2019 at 9:26 am

    The fish wraps front page with two articles one on Bennett with a photo that looks like it was taken at a Tupperware party being “happy, healthy and proud” the other on Bridges being a “dirty little street fighter” posing with his family. Then an attack on the Greens co leader by the Hosk. No wonder Nationals little poodles get exited.

  9. KJT 9
    4 March 2019 at 9:29 am

    While we are being nice to each other, i think it will be useful, to remind everyone about dishonest debating tactics.

    Usually used by those whose argument is weak.

    Like Hosking quoted above.
    Needling. Repetition and False equivalence, spring to mind

    http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html

  10. cleangreen 10
    4 March 2019 at 9:30 am

    Robert – Thanks for the link to Nandor’s blogspot.

    I may contribute to it now also. It has a “old green Party feel” of ‘common sense’ about it as NZ First has.

    So Nandor may do well here.

  11. cleangreen 11
    4 March 2019 at 9:36 am

    KJT.

    Hoskings is an agent of the elitists; – nothing more.

    • Gosman 11.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:54 am

      Except he probably has more support from “mainstream” NZers than many Politicians claiming to speak for them.

      • KJT 11.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:58 am

        No. We think he is an arse.

        • cleangreen 11.1.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 10:15 am

          KJT Ageed 100%.

          • alwyn 11.1.1.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 11:53 am

            I suppose I should simply quote back to you your own reply to Ad at 3.1.2.1.

            “‘KJT’ you may not!!!!- but do miss ‘Hoskings’
            Please don’t use ‘we’ !!!!
            As that assumes I am part of your ‘we and I am not..

            Or is it different when everybody is assumed to agree with you?

            • KJT 11.1.1.1.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 12:15 pm

              Congratulations.

              I should have added quotes around the “we” to make it even clearer what Gosman was doing.

              However, many people, i talk to, think Hoskings is an arse. Even the ones that often agree with him.

              • alwyn …
                4 March 2019 at 12:28 pm

                I really wasn’t complaining about you by the way.
                It was Cleangreen being inconsistent in his complaining.
                Personally I think that people get far to precious about the word. It doesn’t imply complete inclusion of the whole population.

      • patricia bremner 11.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 4:36 pm

        The 25000 who signed the petition did not like Mike H at all.

  12. soddenleaf 12
    4 March 2019 at 10:01 am

    q. Employers cry out for more staff. Why? It’s the market, the employees would rather work in oz than here. Why? Well neolibs are lazy and stupid, coz they won’t stop big govt interference in the market. Seems your average employee would rather get paid more, also pay less income taxand pay a CGT in OZ. Seems the media can’t explain that to kiwis, that the reasons for high OZ Bank profits out of NZ, the risk premium on interest, the low productivity, the sad selling of companies early so we don’t grow more medium to big companies that shrinks the stock market offerings… …the list is extensive. 0% CGT means kiwi employees pay higher income taxes to fund employer CGT contrabutions, whereas Oz employers do. So kiwi employers are advantaged against their competitors and are carried by their employees. Now you’d think that given how many employees their are compared to owners, you’d expect the masses to be kick up holy dirt, but no.

    Yet strangely there is a way to rectify matters, employers could offer employees a share in the business. In fact, govt should legally force all business to provide 10% of their company shareholding to their employees. No need for a CGT. Balance the books.

  13. greywarshark 13
    4 March 2019 at 11:18 am

    Repetitive trolling by James. Predictable. If change can’t happen to assist the flow of intelligent, probing, quality discussion on this blog, then its value to thinking and preparedness for our future is compromised. At present change is happening fast outside in the world and keeping up with it difficult.

    The tenets that TS was set up on seem to allow and even enable timewasters like James to come here. It results in that people argue on behalf of their presence them because they are amusing, they put up something worthwhile, they try to argue their points; these attitudes are so laid-back last century stuff.

    Spare a fellow feeling for sloths – like all of us they are under threat from change and depredation. In NZ we should be able to understand them, our traits being so close to theirs. But we don’t want to look at us, rather the US, Venezuela; or the menu showing the troubled Country du Jour gets wise opinionated know-alls on their case. It is so sad that wise people are wasting away here when international calls should be made begging them to come and bring their Dr Strangelove superior intellects to assist.

    Here, an opinionated person on NZ from past Labour is Phil Quin. I can’t work out whether he is mired in past century thinking and trying to roast Labour for where they have failed, or is looking at the NZ situation objectively and just stating the facts. His latest piece points out that local government can’t keep up with infrastructure from growth, and rates are rising fast. Who ya gonna call, ghostbusters? Or call out the Labour Coalition?

    In the absence of bold reforms that empower communities and overcome this financial crunch, councils will be forced to pursue yet more cost-cutting and corporatisation – as we’re seeing with water reforms.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/110954401/undemocratic-and-uneconomic-local-government-is-in-a-bind

    He goes on to quote Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta fom a recent Cabinet paper, that rates are rising faster than inflation with the greatest likely to occur in the next three years. The Minister refers to “optimal services and achieving good outcomes”. But isn’t that BAU for NZ at present, no surprise. He sounds as if he is waiting for the Financial Tooth Fairy to collect its austerity teeth and leave a gold coin under our pillow. The Labour Coalition as a magical be-ing.

    This is a piece he wrote at the time of the last elections. Is he pro-Labour or contra? Is he objective, or inclined to put his boot in if National would like that?
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/97185921/phil-quinn-inside-the-nationallabour-chasm

  14. indiana 14
    4 March 2019 at 11:18 am

    “For former prisoner Awatea Mita, the Electoral Strengthening Democracy member’s bill is a welcome addition to the political debate, and any change can not come soon enough.

    Not being able to participate in shaping a better future for herself and her family was humiliating and dehumanising, she said.”

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110934374/greens-want-prisoners-voting-ban-overturned-to-strengthen-democracy

    How was it not dehumanising and humiliating for being convicted and sentanced for committing a crime? Was the future better shaped for herself and family by conducting the act of committing a crime?

    • Gabby 14.1
      4 March 2019 at 12:01 pm

      indinana do prisoners still pay taxes?

      • greywarshark 14.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 12:18 pm

        She is a former prisoner. The object should be to include all people in a society that acts in a fair way from cradle to grave. We don’t have that and some people have to make tremendous adjustments trying to cope in this situation.
        There are people in prison who would be better dealt with in other ways, there are people outside prison who should be in there even for short periods, and there are people outside who haven’t been caught yet who deserve a good prison sentence. So life isn’t black and white as your simple-minded questions imply
        indi-anna.

      • Naki man 14.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 12:33 pm

        That would be no Gobby. They cost 100k per year to keep the bastards.
        It’s funny how these poor wee petals feel hurt but don’t give a fat rats arse about their victims.

        • Gabby 14.1.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 1:17 pm

          You mean they don’t buy stuff Nastiman? How about the ones on parole? Are they exempt from income tax if they’re working?

          • Naki man 14.1.2.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 1:37 pm

            I assumed that you meant people who are locked up when you said prisoners,
            not the few that are working just before being released.

        • greywarshark 14.1.2.2
          4 March 2019 at 1:47 pm

          Naki man
          What do you do for the victims? And what do you do for the criminals to help turn their ideas and get a moral outlook on life so they feel empathy for others in society. Oh they are all just bastards says thoughtful Naki man.

    • KJT 14.2
      4 March 2019 at 12:12 pm

      If you look at the background of the majority of prisoners, it is society that failed them. In the first instance.

    • bwaghorn 14.3
      4 March 2019 at 12:13 pm

      My guess is most people in prison never voted prior to going to prison .
      So one would think that getting them enrolled and voting and teaching them about their civic duty would be part of the rehabilitation.
      Making them feel they have a voice might just help .
      But na your type would rather just hate and punish a??

  15. adam 15
    4 March 2019 at 12:08 pm

    God Bless Jackie Walker

    • greywarshark 15.1
      4 March 2019 at 12:25 pm

      Looked up Jackie Walker – might be a large part of the constant cry of anti-semitism around Corbyn.

      Here’s something about it.
      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/labour-expulsion-hearing-set-anti-zionist-jackie-walker
      “I’m so pleased to have a date for my hearing,” Walker told The Electronic Intifada.
      “Whatever the outcome, it’s been amazing to be part of an anti-racist, anti-Zionist left that has refused to be silenced by what has been the worst political witch hunt of our generation.”

      Since Jeremy Corbyn first ran for the Labour leadership in the summer of 2015, the party has faced an unrelenting witch hunt targeting the left and Palestine solidarity activists.

      The NCC* functions as the party’s internal trial court, sending accused members charge sheets and legalistic bundles of documents. But it is a highly politicized body.
      Up until September, it was still controlled by Maggie Cosin, a member of Labour’s right wing once described as the party’s “witchfinder general.”

      The new chair, Anna Dyer, has promised to bring change, after a pro-Corbyn majority was elected to the NCC at the Labour Party conference in September.
      * National Constitutional Committee, or NCC, Labour’s disciplinary body.

      I looked further on the site and came up weith this interesting summary of an apparently implacable Corbyn hater, Joan Ryan. This from 20 February 2019.
      Lawmaker Joan Ryan quit Labour on Tuesday, citing party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed “demonization and delegitimization” of Israel.

      Ryan is the leading member of Parliament in Labour Friends of Israel – an Israeli embassy front group.

      She notoriously fabricated a charge of anti-Semitism against Labour member Jean Fitzpatrick at the UK opposition party’s 2016 annual conference.

      Labour Friends of Israel was defiant on Tuesday night, insisting that Ryan would “remain in her position as our parliamentary chair” despite her departure from the Labour Party.

      In her resignation statement, Ryan claimed Corbyn is responsible for a “culture of anti-Jewish racism and hatred for Israel” and a government led by him “would be an existential threat” to the Jewish community.

      Ryan has been a leading voice in the manufactured “Labour anti-Semitism” smear campaign over the last few years.
      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/joan-ryan-mp-who-fabricated-anti-semitism-quits-labour

      With friends like this in the same Party, who needs enemies? Incidentally I think I saw that the Friends of Israel are getting behind the Independents from Brexit.
      On the same blog.

  16. WeTheBleeple 16
    4 March 2019 at 1:38 pm

    I have talked about water a bit. How to drought and flood proof landscapes using earthworks and swale systems. I have presented evidence for the drought proofing ability of such systems but until now have not seen a ‘100 year flood’ hit one.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gytyQS6cyjA

    Sweet as.

    • greywarshark 16.1
      4 March 2019 at 3:22 pm

      Great WtB. That Geoff Lawton is good.

      And if you watch the one about Greening the Desert – it’s not just about trees.
      This is providing humans with gardens in the driest conditions, and it shows how we all could utilise this clever management. Water is for conserving, not for giving away to $-balls for them to get money from so they can afford a seat on a rocket to space or a harem of poor young women for pleasure.

      Too much money is bad for us apparently – it doesn’t turn us into comfortable, better, generous people. I’d settle for reliable enough with a bit extra for funsies.

  17. Andre 17
    4 March 2019 at 1:47 pm

    It appears there’s now 4 Repug senators ready to vote against Donny Diaper’s wall emergency tantrum.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/senate-emergency-declaration-rand-paul.html?via=homepage_recirc_recent

    By itself, it won’t matter if the Senate votes that there’s no emergency. Because it needs the satsuma stubbyfingers to sign it, but he’ll just veto it. And there’s not enough votes in either the senate or the house for a veto over-ride.

    Where it will make a big difference is in the courts. The Constitution gives the power of the purse entirely to Congress. So if a majority of both the House and the Senate votes to say no to spending money on a wall, that should hold a lot of weight in any argument the prez is illegally violating the constitution by trying to spend on something that Congress has explicitly told him “no”.

    • Ad 17.1
      4 March 2019 at 3:03 pm

      Trump’s tactic of reallocating from a variety of DoD workstreams should protect him from Congress investigating Federal law budgetary breaches, so long as he doesnt cut too hard against the Antideficiency Act.

      Its his best funding shot.

      But then comes detailed design and procurement. Coupla years.

      • Andre 17.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 3:12 pm

        Big picture to keep in mind through all this is Don of the Deadbrains doesn’t actually care about a wall, he just wants to keep his wallnuts onside. A long drawn out fight is just as good for that as actually building anything. Maybe better.

        • Ad 17.1.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 3:24 pm

          Wallnut base will shrink as each commentator – like Coulter – sees through its gaming.

          2020 not even a wheelbarrow moving: I cant see base growth in that.

          He needs a fresh source of hate.

  18. Ad 18
    4 March 2019 at 1:56 pm

    I can see test Rugby going the way of test Cricket if the US broadcasters pick up on the growing superiority of the US Sevens Rugby team:

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12209181

    Only five years ago were mortified if we lost to Fiji in a Sevens final.

    Now we lose to the US in a semi-final, more often than not. We don’t even get to the finals as much, let alone win.

  19. joe90 19
    4 March 2019 at 2:01 pm

    Mark Taylor spent five years with IS.

    One of his regrets? Not being able to afford a Yazidi slave.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/383879/new-zealand-jihadist-mark-taylor-captured-in-syria-and-jailed-in-kurdish-prison

    • Ad 19.1
      4 March 2019 at 2:43 pm

      I believe there are positions going to help clear rats from the Auckland Islands.

      He can enslave and behead as many rats as he likes, as well as doing good for New Zealand and the world.

    • Jimmy 19.2
      4 March 2019 at 5:07 pm

      I guess society failed him in the first instance too

      • greywarshark 19.2.1
        4 March 2019 at 10:43 pm

        Society failed you, they must have run out of empathy shots when you came along.

  20. WILD KATIPO 20
    4 March 2019 at 3:02 pm

    Big Read: Miners ready to re-enter Pike River mine to try … – NZ Herald
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12208132

  21. greywarshark 21
    4 March 2019 at 3:16 pm

    Any Red Dwarf fans out there.? And Timothy Spall? Found this wee clip. Good.
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qIkXfxyB-8

    Just throwing it into the mix for the fans.

  22. Cinny 22
    4 March 2019 at 4:57 pm

    BREAKING….
    Just heard via the wireless that ‘the ship’ is resigning from the board of the China Construction Bank.

    I think she should resign her title of dame as well.

  23. greywarshark 23
    4 March 2019 at 9:01 pm

    Scientists of NZ – stars for gazing at and learning from:

    On Innovation in NZ –
    http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/browse-books/all-books/books-2013/Get-off-the-Grass-Kickstarting-New-Zealands-Innovation-Economy.html

    Sir Paul Callaghan and Professor Shaun Hendy 2013 (Sir Paul died in 2012)

    What we should be doing instead of low cost retailing (at least the Warehouse is NZ owned I think.)