Open Mike 04/05/2017

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 4th, 2017 - 46 comments
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46 comments on “Open Mike 04/05/2017 ”

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  1. The decrypter 1
    4 May 2017 at 8:20 am

    picture of sewer cleaner in herald.i dont know how to copy it to here but see it has potential for nicks rivers or similar . help please.

  2. Pete 2
    4 May 2017 at 8:25 am

    I usually listen to zb from 5 to 6.00am. This morning in the brief moments before 6, before I could switch over, Hosking came on and did a little spiel. It was about how brilliantly NZ was doing.

    He said we are a country with full employment. In the streets of Kaitaia today do you think they’ll buy me a coffee when I deliver the good news? And Kaikohe?

    • Draco T Bastard 2.1
      4 May 2017 at 9:08 am

      According to Bill English full employment = six percent plus unemployment.

      • AB 2.1.1
        4 May 2017 at 9:38 am

        Not sure he would describe it as ‘full’ employment but in private would view the optimal level as 5-6% as that is pretty much what National seems to aim for whenever they get into power.
        High enough to suppress wage growth, not so high as to cause widespread unrest.
        Also if you treat beneficiaries appallingly enough you can possibly suppress wage growth with slightly lower levels of unemployment – as everyone is terrified of landing on the doorstep of the sadistic WINZ.
        Rigging the statistics also helps enormously on the PR front – you can claim unemployment of under 5% when effectively it is somewhat higher.
        Throw in the PM claiming that the unemployed are “pretty useless”, the ceaseless work of National Party boosters like Hosking and high net immigration – then you have a pretty powerful package that keeps unemployment where National’s supporters in business want it without creating much fuss.

    • tc 2.2
      4 May 2017 at 9:45 am

      The ZB target market isnt chock full of critical thinking and hoskins isnt a journo hes a dog whilstling shock jock paid big bucks to deliver messages.

      Predictable and effective.

      • Johan 2.2.1
        4 May 2017 at 10:13 am

        He is a mere delivery boy. Ask him to talk about the people who are struggling and Hosking comes across as a total failure, sincerity is not his strength.

    • millsy 2.3
      4 May 2017 at 9:50 am

      So we can quit our jobs and be able to walk into another one then right? Right?

    • North 2.4
      4 May 2017 at 3:40 pm

      I’d like wahanui Hosking to take me on a tiki tour Kaikohe, Kaitaia and around the North. Pop into a few places where he can spiel his spiel in those terms in front of those living completely different lives. Let Hosking dis’ THEM to their faces with his shit……..

  3. dv 3
    4 May 2017 at 9:13 am

    AND isn’t the definition of being employed is working 1 hr per week?

  4. greywarshark 4
    4 May 2017 at 9:40 am

    Another animal going into extinction as we write. Avaaz is encouraging people to vote support for saving a small porpoise that lives in the Gulf of Mexico, the vaquita.
    Here is a Science link from Feb 2017 that informs. They have a complex but workable plan to trap some and take them somewhere to breed safely but can’t start until October.
    http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/world-s-most-endangered-marine-mammal-down-30-individuals

    They get caught in gill nets, that are set for another declining fish, but bans on the nets are either ignored or the new ones are sabotaged. Jobs strapped Mexico is a breeding ground for criminal gangs and they are into these fish. And the lack of modern medicine acceptance or availability in Asia lurks in the background with them paying up to $100,000 for the fish’s swimming bladder.

    There were only about 30 left by estimates early this year. Now? And if anyone likes fables about people and fish I recommend Peter Benchley’s book The Girl of the Sea of Cortez.

    About the Vaquitas? Don’t know if there is still a tale to tell. Obama has been working with the Mexican government who can pass laws but the crims smell money and that’s the principal drive bugger the principle of leaving something for the future.

      • greywarshark 4.1.1
        5 May 2017 at 10:39 am

        Kevin
        This raises the point as to whether as high-functioning beings who are potentially very intelligent, and competent with abstract thinking and mobile but tending to destruction, we suffer more from our own attainments, being ‘hoist with our own petard’ than amphibians who do not have many alternative behaviours available to them, and so are limited in their understanding of their own, or the vastness of the destruction looming and apparently inescapable.

        In other words perhaps I would be better off, in the long run, if I was an amphibian and facing unrealised destruction because it is bloody hard watching it virtually helplessly as a human knowing it is happening.

  5. joe90 5
    4 May 2017 at 10:17 am

    Priorities.

    .

    It is hard to believe this is happening, but it’s real: The US Department of Justice is literally prosecuting a woman for laughing at now–Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year.

    According to Ryan Reilly at HuffPost, Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz was arrested in January after she laughed at a claim from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) that Sessions’s history of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented.”

    Sessions, in fact, has a long history of opposing the equal treatment of all Americans under the law. He has repeatedly criticized the historic Voting Rights Act. He voted against hate crime legislation that protected LGBTQ people, arguing, “Today, I’m not sure women or people with different sexual orientations face that kind of discrimination. I just don’t see it.” And his nomination for a position as a federal judge was rejected in the 1980s after he was accused of making racist remarks, including a supposed joke that he thought the Ku Klux Klan “was okay until I found out they smoked pot.”

    Given this history, Fairooz laughed at Shelby’s claim.

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/2/15518574/desiree-fairooz-justice-department

  6. joe90 6
    4 May 2017 at 10:53 am

    Linda Tirado puts the slipper into Ivanka’s new book.

    And I am drinking free gin and tonic, and we are ready to commence The Introduction. It opens with Ivanka's journey through Patagonia.— Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) May 2, 2017

    Ivanka, it turns out, was worried in Patagonia. She was thinking of going to work for the Trumps and what if she wasn't, like, a Trump?— Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) May 2, 2017

    […]

    Ivanka believes "every woman should thoughtfully architect a life she'll love" which I 100% agree with but at $7.25 architecture ain't it.— Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) May 3, 2017

    https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/859586391969329152

    https://thestandard.org.nz/tag/linda-tirado/

  7. Gosman 7
    4 May 2017 at 11:42 am

    If people want to see the dramatic turn around in economic performance of NZ over the past 8 years look at the graphs at the start of this document

    https://www.nzdmo.govt.nz/sites/default/files/media/media_attachment/Investor%20presentation%20-%20June%202016.pdf

    • Psycho Milt 7.1
      4 May 2017 at 12:11 pm

      Turnaround from what? The GFC? Well, you’d hope so, wouldn’t you? There doesn’t seem to be any other dramatic turnaround to show there.

      I did notice that under “Economic Performance,” they credit increased performance under Labour to a “housing boom,” while no similar mention of a housing boom occurs for increased performance under National, despite the rather-frequently-mentioned housing boom of the last six years. I guess he who pays the piper calls the tune.

    • McFlock 7.2
      4 May 2017 at 12:19 pm

      Where’s the measure of homelessness or poverty? Oh, right…

      • Gosman 7.2.1
        4 May 2017 at 9:06 pm

        Have you got statistics for those?

        • McFlock 7.2.1.1
          4 May 2017 at 9:17 pm

          yup. Via statsnz and msd, as you well know.

          Apparently allocation of the scarce housing resource isn’t relevant to the economy, though. Otherwise the tory jerk who links to powerpoints from NZDMO would have linked to them to persuade us the nactoid future really is “brighter”.

    • Johan 7.3
      4 May 2017 at 12:29 pm

      …and the trickle-down concept is still working? Yeah Right. Let’s borrow some more overseas money, bring in cheap labour, manipulate the figures and National will pretend to look like the best gov’t in history.

    • Cinny 8.1
      4 May 2017 at 3:12 pm

      Aussies won’t change their mind, maybe NZ should follow their example towards ‘cousins’.

      Wondering how many $ p/a ‘perks’ aussies have here compared to us there.

      Brownlee and Bishop? She will dominate that relationship every single day of the week.

      • Chris 8.1.1
        8 May 2017 at 12:48 am

        I agree that the Australian government won’t change its mind. We just need to accept that and get on with things. That includes treating Aussies in NZ and those who want to come here exactly the same as we’re being treated over there. Stuff the economics of it. It’s not until we reciprocate will Australia see the silliness in what they’ve being doing. It’s undoubtedly going to take a few tragic stories about Aussies in NZ, Aussie families ripped apart and so on, before Australians (followed by their government) to get the message. And if they don’t, whether that’s because there isn’t enough of them or whatever, then so be it – the ‘special relationship’ is over, simple. We just have to accept that. And any political party that adopts Brownlee’s ‘bend over and ask for more’ approach will pay the political price. Beware, fat Gerry, beware, you filthy and gutless and spineless piece of bullying scum, beware. And add hypocritical scum to that, Gerry, because you ain’t so bullying now, you coward.

  9. Robert Guyton 9
    4 May 2017 at 1:38 pm

    “Knowing thathuman beings have, basically, remained unchanged for at least 40,000 years,how can we say that our remote ancestors could not observe the subtle celestial shifting ofprecession? Our concept of how difficult this might be is tempered by the problems of ourown age, when the skies are obscured by smog and light pollution, when basic math skills arethe property of the few, and no one has the time or inclination to read and explore the obscure depths of human history. If we can admit that our remote ancestors were intelligent enough to conceive of this majestic and complex doctrine of World Ages, we might allow ourselves to be smart enough to let go of destructive tendencies and move into a healthier new era”

    Heard of Hamlet’s Mill?

    Here’s an intro:

    https://www.scribd.com/doc/852437/Hamlet-s-Mill

  10. Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster 10
    4 May 2017 at 1:43 pm

    @ greywarshark

    Your brilliant idea of a ‘book society’ of a month or so ago, doesn’t seem to have been followed through with – which is a pity.

    I know its just been published and therefore is probably quite expensive, but could I suggest Kate Raworth’s book Doughnut Economics.

    I’ve just listened to an interview of her by Thom Hartman on RT (yes, the dreaded propaganda mouthpiece of Putin!) and her book seems very pertinent – so much so that I may buy a copy.

    The interview is here: well worth a watch – 12 minutes or so.

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

    Also relevant to Wild Katipo’s New Right links!

  11. AsleepWhileWalking 11
    4 May 2017 at 3:00 pm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O520GohyDqw

    “France will be led by a woman, either me or Mrs Merkle” – Le Pen declares.

  12. The Other Mike 12
    4 May 2017 at 3:34 pm

    Poorest Kiwi households face much larger cost of living increases than big spenders

    A recent jump in the cost of living hit the lowest paid Kiwis much harder than the big spenders, new figures show.

    In the first three months of the year, inflation for all households jumped one per cent, bringing annual inflation to 2.2 per cent, the highest since 2011.

    On Thursday Statistics New Zealand released the household living-costs price indexes, giving a breakdown of how price increases hit different groups.

    The figures showed that the rise hit the lowest earners the hardest. Beneficiaries saw their overall costs rise by 1.4 per cent, almost three times the increase faced by the 20 per cent of households with the highest spending.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/92220976/poorest-kiwi-households-face-much-larger-cost-of-living-increases-than-big-spenders

    Beware the usual Stuff rednecks in the comments.

  13. adam 13
    4 May 2017 at 3:36 pm

    “There are no homosexuals in Chechnya. You cannot detain and persecute those who do not exist,” Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Interfax news agency.

    Well this is becasue they have done this

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/02/chechen-police-rounded-up-100-gay-men-report-russian-newspaper-chechnya

    Now we have this

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4470166/Chechen-parents-told-Kill-gay-children.html

    And were the quote is from.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/tortured-electricity-chechen-gay-men-recount-days-abuse-n753796

    So much fun, how great it is to have a disorganized left, being destroyed by liberalism. So next it will be the lesbians, then….

    oh wait already happening — it’s the JW’s

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/world/europe/merkel-putin-russia.html

    Thank God for a free Catholic press.

    http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/05/01/russian-catholic-official-criticises-ban-on-jehovahs-witnesses/

  14. Ad 14
    4 May 2017 at 3:36 pm

    Prosaic though the language is, I think English’s pre-budget speech yesterday has taken lessons from Theresa May on how to sound more like a Labour government than Labour:

    “As well as a growing economy, we have an increasingly diversified one.
    Between 2014 and 2016, global dairy prices fell markedly, and as a result annual dairy exports fell by $3.3 billion.
    Once, that would have thrown our economy into decline.
    But in fact over that same period non-dairy exports grew by $5.9 billion.
    IT exports have more than doubled since 2008.
    Tourism is at record levels and the construction sector is booming, with over 30,000 new houses being built a year, compared with just 13,000 six years ago.”
    (…)

    “At the core of it, surpluses mean choices.
    They mean we can help people through difficult times – like in Christchurch, Kaikoura and Edgecumbe – without having to cut public services elsewhere.
    They mean we can increase wages for 55,000 low-paid health care workers through a $2 billion pay equity settlement, as we announced last month.
    And they mean we can invest in new infrastructure, like the $800 million to rebuild State Highway One through Kaikoura, as Simon Bridges announced last week.
    We know that to keep growing we need to invest in infrastructure to support that growth.
    In 2007 John Key stood in the 35,000-seat Westpac stadium and said the number of New Zealanders heading offshore every year was enough to fill it.
    Nine years later that 35,000 is down to almost zero.
    In fact, in the 12 months to March the net outward migration of Kiwis was at its lowest level for any March year since 1964.
    That’s a vote of confidence in New Zealand.”
    (…)

    “We’ve made improvements across the board:

    Over 50,000 fewer people are now on a benefit than in 2011.
    We’ve reduced rheumatic fever by 23 per cent.
    94 per cent of 8 month olds are now fully immunised.
    Crime is down 14 per cent, with youth crime down by a third.
    And 85 per cent of 18 year olds now have NCEA Level 2, meaning 6000 more young New Zealanders each year are getting the start they need to move into a job or further training.
    These targets were deliberately meant to be challenging, so although not everyone has been met yet, I’m proud of what we have achieved, alongside New Zealand families.

    Each of these statistics represents tangible improvements for real people, with a flow on effect to their families and communities.

    Their success inspires me, and my ministers, because we’re achieving results that only a few years ago seemed impossible – and we now know we can be even more ambitious.”

    (…)

    “Today the Government is publishing the specific, measurable targets we want to achieve in each of these 10 areas. Most targets are new while some build on existing achievements.

    We are persisting with our existing targets to reduce welfare dependency and serious crime because we want to achieve more alongside the New Zealanders and their communities whose lives are blighted by these issues.

    Every six months we will publish an update on our progress, so you can see exactly how your money is making a difference.”

    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/pre-budget-speech-0

  15. joe90 15
    4 May 2017 at 3:38 pm

    Pre-existing conditions in the draft of Trump’s scheme to replace the ACA.

    – domestic violence
    – sexual assault
    – C-section
    – postpartum depression

    But hey, bringing down liberalism.
    /

    https://mic.com/articles/176092/under-the-gop-s-health-plan-sexual-assault-would-be-considered-a-preexisting-condition#.Bp69IVp8v

  16. greywarshark 16
    4 May 2017 at 9:11 pm

    Of course we all know about quantum theory. Do we?
    Quantum theory is used in a huge variety of applications in everyday life, including lasers, CDs, DVDs, solar cells, fibre-optics, digital cameras, photocopiers, bar-code readers, fluorescent lights, LED lights, computer screens, transistors, semi-conductors, super-conductors, spectroscopy, MRI scanners, etc, etc.

    By some estimates, over 25% of the GDP of developed countries is directly based on quantum physics. It even explains the nuclear fusion processes taking place inside stars.

    How much of NZ GDP is based on quantum theory, and how much on taking water, turning it into milk, taking energy and turning liquid into powder? And like Jesus, we can also turn water into wine. So quantum theory, bunkum we don’t need you.

    • Incognito 16.1
      4 May 2017 at 10:27 pm

      Quantum Mechanics does offer very useful explanations for many things.

      I’m sure you’ve heard of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle which states:

      If you know exactly where the turd is you won’t know exactly how fast the shit hits the fan

      • greywarshark 16.1.1
        5 May 2017 at 10:27 am

        Incognito
        You have a unique definition there I think. Is it the approved explanation of the theory?

        • Incognito 16.1.1.1
          5 May 2017 at 10:16 pm

          No, I’m afraid this is just one high school version of it and not one you’ll find in the textbooks.

          As I said, QM is good at explaining many observations but it is much harder to explain QM. In fact, uncertainty is intrinsic to QM because of the dual nature of matter.

          A turd, for example, can be seen as a particle but it also is and behaves like a wave, a ‘wavicle’. This why you get the characteristic (interference) pattern when shit hits the fan.

          For some reason this type of experiment is not popular with Physics teachers; they prefer electron beams and other such esoteric methods. I favour the more hands-on approach that involves all the senses.

  17. greywarshark 17
    4 May 2017 at 9:44 pm

    Over in Oz the pollies have perfected the art of getting out of difficult political positions by grinning like the Cheshire cat as the galahs do their sleight of hand, and then as people reach out to shake or grab their hands, they gradually recede till all that is left is beamish teeth floating in the air. False, of course.

    Their housing policy has the good old Aussie fairness to the bloke in the street, wait on reading further….
    The introduction of negative gearing in 1985 by the Hawke/Keating government and the introduction of the capital gains tax discount by the Howard government in 1999 were the most significant changes that shifted the policy settings for housing. It went from a principally public good to a commodity that could deliver handsome returns for those already in the property market.

    Labor justified the scheme at the time by arguing that negative gearing would stimulate the economy via the construction industry and drastically reduce the need for governments to supply housing stock.
    The reality is that vested interests and property speculators have had a field day at the expense of those seeking a home.
    https://newmatilda.com/2017/04/21/scott-morrisons-claytons-housing-affordability-plan/
    and

    https://newmatilda.com/2017/03/21/10-years-on-the-northern-territory-intervention-continues-to-cause-harm/
    21/3/17
    Howard and his ilk, produced a grand putsch whereby they put the Army into aborigine lives and lands and at the same time introduced a card they could use that almost replaced cash. This meant that most of their purchasing had to go through business and the ability to buy things from locals, trade with others, give their kids money for school lunches even, has been nearly impossible. Yet with subterfuge, the Federals have found it pleasing, and extended it. Some see this a backdoor to the cashless society altogether.

    In the comments Roslyn says:“If we allow this to continue people won’t have to imagine how it would feel – they will find out starting with different groups of welfare recipients then it will be expanded to aged pensioners and I wouldn’t be surpised if the ultimate agenda would be to find a way to have working peoples wages paid onto a card, They would start with criminals then it would be expanded to include peole with a history of drug or alcohol abuse or gambling.

    But that would just be the excuse. The goal would to control peoples purchasing decisions – keeping money in the hands of big businesses and killing off micro businesses handmade and second hand and farmers direct selling markets. Another wealth transfer scheme. Trickle up economics. People need to realise how a government treats the most vulnerable and disavantaged ultimately becomes how they treat everyone except the very wealthy.”

    The New Matilda say they are not a popular rag and ask for subscribers. As we don’t have a feisty NZ there with a NZ flag tattooed somewhere out of sight, perhaps in John Clarke’s memory (Fred Dagg) we should help this worthy cause.

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  • Anzac commemorations, Türkiye relationship focus of visit
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