Open mike 05/07/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 5th, 2016 - 69 comments
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69 comments on “Open mike 05/07/2016 ”

  1. Paul 1

    Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
    We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.

    It was 4 degrees in Auckland last night.
    It was 4 degrees in Dunedin last night.

    Not very warm to be sleeping in a car.
    Not very warm to be sleeping in a container.
    Not very warm to be sleeping in a garage.
    Not very warm to be sleeping on the street.

    The New Zealand Herald may think that ‘Chris Evans quits Top Gear’ and ‘Furore over Wimbledon crotch shots’ are news items, but they are not.
    The majority of the media are doing everything they can to support Paula Bennett and move homelessness off the headlines.

    “Try walking in my shoes, it’s not actually that easy.”
    This was the challenge TA set to Prime Minister John Key. But really it’s a challenge for us all.

    • aerobubble 1.1

      Key when pressed said something to the effort of he’ll work harder. A guy sleeping rough ends up dead. He’ll work harder, how so?

      You’re not a winner to walk into WINZ. All spectrum, pathologies, legal histories turnup at winz at their worse. Is there a bonus culture, are managers rewarded to skimp on assistance, how would such a culture be exposed, by their nature the powerless have least assistanced from govt that espouse profit and avoid intervention. But we’d recognize the effects. People turned away, or not even considering it an option, or culturally self denying. A man dies by cardboard. A child dies by babysitter as family prent at star ship. A loose cannn explodes at winz staff with a shotgun. Maori turning to a Maeri to get winz help.

      Yeah what gives. How does a rural community where shotguns are common, access a man, who failed overseas, returned to his hometown, living rough?, with a culture of move to Auckland depopulating them, and not realize, or did but did not act, when a sociopath goes berserk again, this time with a shotgun? wtf, it was the furniture!! Not the manager/s? enacting policies few would know about as there are few votes from people withou homes to goto. but reaaly, the furniture! the fault wathe furnishings. Or worse, they dont have to do anything coz its going to happen eventually, wtf, or worse, that he’d have just waited outside and only killed one and maybe some innocent bystanders … …which as we know he did not. No, really,

  2. Sabine 2

    oh poor thing. fucking up your country is hard work. really really hard work.

    the poor dear wants his life back. Seventeen years on the EU payroll obviously is hard hard work n stuff.

    Words to not describe just how much of a cunt this geezer actually is.

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/04/nigel-farage-resigns-as-ukip-leader?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

    “peaking at a press conference in Westminster, he said it was time to get his life back after successfully campaigning for the UK to vote for Brexit.

    “During the the referendum I said I wanted my country back … now I want my life back,” Farage said on Monday.”

    • miravox 2.1

      Words to not describe just how much of a cunt this geezer actually is.

      The generally genial Euronews isn’t holding back.

      http://beta.euronews.com/bulletin

      Then select

      “Farage legacy one of lies, prejudice, ignorance and political chaos”

      • tc 2.1.1

        Sounds familiar doesn’t it, especially the lies and prejudice.

        • miravox 2.1.1.1

          Lies, prejudice and ignorance seem pretty standard for the far right. It’s the level of political chaos and ignoring what they’ve done that has take Farage and Johnson to a level of bastardry that hasn’t been seen in the western world for a several decades.

          In the wake of the assassination of Jo Cox, I won’t ever forget Farage saying it was a revolution without a shot being fired. The jury is out on whether the unleashed racism will result in more lost lives.

          • Sabine 2.1.1.1.1

            they have essentially sown the seeds for something like ‘civil war’, created a huge divide within the country and now collect their baubles to run away.
            fuckwits that should be tried for high treason.

            • Wayne 2.1.1.1.1.1

              Sabine,

              You seem to have forgotten it was the people who voted for exit.

              Yes, Farange campaigned for exit and in fact to have a referendum, but how is that “high treason”. Presumably in a democracy people are entitled to have a view on such issues without being accused of high treason.

              I personally thought remain was the better option, but I would hardly accuse the other side of high treason.

      • Rodel 2.1.2

        Farage- seagull politics. Fly in sh*t on everyone and fly off as fast as you can to avoid the consequences.

    • aerobubble 2.2

      Farage was just saving taxpayers money on a bielection to election… …or replace him from a party list. Its not about his pay, or that he won, its about how the Conservative Party built a shotgun, then Cameron put the barrel in the mouth of the patry, and begged the Thatcherite children to burn done what wasn’t personally working out for them by pulling the trigger. Brain splatter across the wall, now the press can gloat, its like the British let a global immigrant buy out their media and destroy his favored political party. Global immigrants, live everywhere pay no tax anywhere.

  3. Paul 3

    Homeless people in cars doesn’t seem to stir the conscience of the government.
    Working people struggling to pay their rent doesn’t seem to stir the conscience of the government.

    Maybe these stories of the Auckland housing crisis failing the middle class will prompt some action.
    And if not, will ensure this regime will be turfed out at the next election.

    Capital-bound family say Auckland too dear on $120k
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11668669

    Auckland’s housing crisis creating brain drain
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11668578

    • ropata 3.1

      but retires baby boomers in their huge empty million dollar houses DESERVE the pension on top of all time heir rrntal income

      • Gangnam Style 3.1.1

        “You can’t compete in the auctions. What you think is the maximum you can go to is where the auctions start – which is about 20 per cent over the CV.” – That’s what my brother tells me up there.

        I don’t care about blaming the baby boomers for all our ills but I am thinking they might be fucking things up for themselves & they may want to think about that.

      • ropata 3.1.2

        excuse spelling. typed from the bus while crossing the akl harbour bridge in the morning

  4. Nck 4

    Listening to ShonKey, idiot Smith on RNZ, about land bankers. You just know they are lying. They say yes, no, maybe, maybe not all in one sentence.

    • save nz 4.1

      Did RNZ bother to point out there is plenty of land, show us the affordable houses?

      Or even better Why are you selling state houses when we have a homelessness crisis and Key lied about no more asset sales?

      • Chooky 4.1.1

        +100 save nz…

        1.)the first thing they should do is repair existing State houses …NOT sell them off ( unless to existing tenants at an affordable price)!

        2.) the second thing they should do is put a capital gains tax on all Auckland houses bought in the last 5 years

        3.) the the third thing they should do is ban foreign owned housing in NZ until all NZers are housed

        4.) the fourth thing they should do is give squatter rights to empty houses

        5.) the fifth thing they should do is put a freeze on rental properties rents down to an affordable level for NZers to live in for life ( like they do in European cities)

  5. save nz 5

    Jeremy Corbyn pledges to veto TTIP if he becomes PM, calling it ‘irreversible’ privatization

    https://www.rt.com/uk/345198-corbyn-ttip-veto-pledge/

    No wonder he is the people’s hero and revitalised Labour membership in the UK.

    • ianmac 5.1

      Ruthless people out there who will disappear Jeremy. For the greater good of course.

    • aerobubble 5.2

      The party will return him and the rump of MPs will turn on a dime and support him because everyone can see the tories imploding and getting press, getting compared with tories and coming out as not parliaments choice… …now how to get press attention, pick at the festering scab that is Israel…

      • Wayne 5.2.1

        Or alternatively Labour splits into two. It has happened before with the SDP, in the 1981, in similar circumstances, with Militant Tendency instead of Momentum. They merged with the Liberals 1988 which was strengthened as a result, though in 2015 the tide turned against the Liberals.

        Is there a mood for a moderate centrist party, especially with a strong green and social aspect in the UK? I guess people are already polling on that point.

        But it is hard to start and sustain a new party especially in a FFP situation, unless there is a specific regional strength, which the Liberals used to have in the west of England. The traditional parties have great reservoirs of strength that has lasted for 100 years. All that strengthens Corbyn’s situation.

        • Stuart Munro 5.2.1.1

          Though that might be the only scheme that could (briefly) save the failed far-right neoliberal governments of the world, there is no credible left cleavage point. If the Blairates candidly abandon the traditional left they won’t take a voter base with them large enough to support much of a rump – they’d be like Peter Dunne – a harrumphing non-entity with negligible support.

        • aerobubble 5.2.1.2

          Politician seek attention. The tories implosion takes burns of the oxygen. So ask the question what would Labour be like if they were not having rumbles, and then add that if there were a time to shake the leader and create a stronger party then when the tories are headless running around the coup.

          Split in the tories along the EU fissure got us here, they were never in th EU so its not like Ffrance exiting.

    • Chooky 5.3

      GO Jeremy Corbyn!

  6. Ad 6

    Avert your eyes all you moistie save the planet types, the rest of you welcome to the great world of America again. I give you: the rise of competitive hot dog eating.

    http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/competitive-hot-dog-eaters-have-made-america-great-again/

    Beer Pong. Hot Dogs. Yoyo Champs. Competitive breakdancing. Dressage.

    Here you get to some of the great human impulses about the human desire for sport itself:
    – The more crowds it draws, the more it draws us.
    – There’s a little self-loathing in every sports fan. Some sports more than others.
    – It appears to have nothing to do with politics or policy; it appears to be a realm of freedom from the machines of the world
    – You get to see a body rail against language
    – You get to see them beat the other guy
    – You get to see losers, and find an ethical way to cheers for or against the loser
    – You see the results in minutes, unlike life
    -You revel in common ecstatic impulse, without all the emotional baggage of sex or intimacy

    Welcome to the anti-HungerGames!

    • Gangnam Style 6.1

      “You get to see them beat the other guy” – Very funny Ad, sums up sport brilliantly.

  7. Sabine 7

    suicide bombings in Medina, Jeddah and Quatif.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36706761

  8. Puckish Rogue 8

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11668677

    An interesting article but is what he says a possibility or has he just had an idea and formed a decent argument around it?

    • s y d 8.1

      My reading is that he is saying labour should ditch all that old fashioned socialist, “applied christianity” shit and try to muscle in on on some of that National Party buzz.

      • weka 8.1.1

        It’s hard to imagine National Party members prostrating themselves before images of Sid Holland or Rob Muldoon at a party anniversary, longing for a revival of those “good old days”.

        Probably because National have already ditched their traditional values, are no longer old school conservatives, and instead have adopted neoliberalism.

        • Draco T Bastard 8.1.1.1

          National are hard-core followers.

          Labour led into Keynesianism and National both followed and doubled down on it until we got to Muldoon with massive subsidies to sheep farmers and debt.
          Labour led into neo-liberalism and National both followed and doubled down on it until we got to Key with massive subsidies to multinational corporations, huge increases in poverty and homelessness and massive debt.

    • DoublePlusGood 8.2

      He spends the article outlining how amazing Savage was, and then the last three paragraphs trying to justify not following Savage’s principles.
      Doesn’t seem like he logically thought through the article – it reads like the first third of an article, then one paragraph each out of the last two thirds of the article. Maybe he was heavily paraphrased by some editor. That’s the charitable explanation, at least.

      • Puckish Rogue 8.2.1

        Yeah true, I guess re-reading it sounds like hes not sure what Labour should do or was that what he was trying to say?

        Maybe trying to say that Labour should either go back to what Labour was like under Savage or stop paying lip service to Labours history, one or the other maybe but not both?

        • b waghorn 8.2.1.1

          Maybe the whole object of the article is to keep portraying Labour as a party in turmoil , you know the standard dirty politics that has been going on for fucking ages.

          • McFlock 8.2.1.1.1

            nah, puckish wouldn’t link to just any old muckraking, surely. There’s genuine concern behind pr’s faithful linking of every slight rumour about Labour… /sarc

        • Stuart Munro 8.2.1.2

          Meh – just another ‘not about McCully or the other floating turds who comprise the Key kleptocracy’ story.

  9. save nz 9

    When we hear about Key’s new plans to forcibly take land ‘for housing’ Ha ha (read private developers of his choosing), let us look at how the practise of privatising public land has been in the USA…. extract

    “The land heist, which is being masterminded by the American Lands Council as well as Koch brothers-funded groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Americans for Prosperity, has two basic fronts: 1) Lobby Republicans to pass bills, often written directly by ALEC, that make the corporate land grab possible, 2) Propagandize to the public about how their rights are supposedly being violated by having publicly accessible land that is owned by the American people.

    The lobbying efforts are fairly straightforward. Here, for instance, is a photo of AFP staffers visiting Alaska Rep. Don Young’s office on June 10. A few days later, Young, who gets hefty amounts of campaign funding from oil/gas and fishery interests, kickstarted his efforts to pass a bill to transfer 2 million acres of national forests from federal to state hands, where it can then be sold off to corporate interests.

    The amount of sleaze and dishonesty in the propaganda effort is truly stunning. Witness, for instance, this excerpt from an AFP brochure on federal land management, which a wonderland of doublespeak.

    afp

    This is the kind of propaganda that snakes its way down to people like the Bundys and their supporters, convincing them that the existence of national forests is somehow hurting them.

    But nearly every word in that paragraph is a lie. The land is already owned by We the People, and AFP is agitating to take it from us and sell it off to private interests. And it is not sitting idle or inaccessible. National forests and other lands are used for hiking, camping, rafting, fishing or just sitting in to enjoy the bounty of nature. By “inactive,” they obviously mean that the land is not being strip-mined for corporate profit, but it’s a small mind that thinks that the only value nature can provide is squeezing every penny you can get out of it.”

    http://www.salon.com/2016/07/04/its_political_sleight_of_hand_for_their_next_trick_republican_magicians_will_make_your_federal_land_disappear/

  10. save nz 10

    More bad news for those clinging onto neoliberalism….

    “Millennials are ripe for socialism: A generation is rising up against neoliberal oppression
    Gallup finds up to 70 percent of young Americans favor wealth redistribution. Elites have only themselves to blame”

    http://www.salon.com/2016/07/04/millennials_are_ripe_for_socialism_a_generation_is_rising_up_again_partner/

    • vto 10.1

      All talk of “wealth redistribution” typically frames it as something which doesn’t currently exist, as if the current system is some sort of natural order..

      .. as does this above “Gallup finds up to 70 percent of young Americans favor wealth redistribution”

      This framing must be resisted at all costs and at every opportunity because the implication that there is currently no wealth redistribution is not true.

      Currently wealth is redistributed towards certain groups in society and away from other groups in society. This is done by way of subsidies, tax rates, tax groupings, regulations, legislation, tax loopholes, welfare, minimum wage rates, import export tariffs, the list goes on and on and on …

      .. this issue must be framed as..

      “a new model of wealth redistribution”

      or

      “change away from the current wealth redistribution”

      Imo this is very important. Currently many people seem to think the current settings are some sort of natural order ….

      resist
      resist

      • s y d 10.1.1

        ageed. Language is a powerful tool.

        “re-distribution” itself is a loaded term. IMO It’s current meaning is something akin to ‘taking the hard earned income of the self made and giving freebies and handout to losers, wasters and the undeserving poor’.
        Really this argument should be about getting fair shares and fair rewards.

        Even the way the rich and privileged now term themselves ‘elites’ is telling.

        • save nz 10.1.1.1

          “a new model of wealth redistribution” – that used to be called fairness or social democracy!

          As for the use of language, I don’t have a problem with wealth or elites – it is how they are using it!!

          ie Edmund Hillary – elite – but in a good way! Not due to money or privilege but his personal actions!

          And wealth, a word that means different things to different people – is wealth a safety net? Is wealth ability to retire early, Is wealth ability to rest and do what you have always wanted to do with your life, Is wealth having a healthy happy family and society, is wealth having a low crime rate?

          Wealth to me, is not a $ amount and sometimes when I see people hating the idea of ‘wealth’ I feel it is counter productive in terms of gaining traction and votes for the left to the centre and right.

      • Draco T Bastard 10.1.2

        +1111

    • Chooky 10.2

      +100 save nz…great news!

  11. rhinocrates 11

    Dunne is NZ’s “most successful politician” according to this analysis. That is, he epitomises politics as a purely self-serving career.

    http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2016/07/peter-dunne-new-zealand-most-successful-politician/

    According to staffers, he is “a good minister”, which I read as “acquiescent” and indeed the writer damns Dunne as a facilitator for hire in contrast with “an avatar of greed” like Collins or a showman like Peters.

    Interesting read, though I still consider Dunne to be something I’d scrape off the sole of my boot.

    • save nz 11.1

      If Dunne was hit by a bus tomorrow nobody would notice apart from his vote to prop up the Natz and hopefully his salary could be better utilised…

    • Puckish Rogue 11.2

      Yet if the polls get closer Labour may end up needing his seat (I personally think that if either National or Labour get enough seats to win with out Dunne then he should be ditched)

    • swordfish 11.3

      Dunne is the only Party leader currently receiving net Negative ratings in UMR Research Leader Favourability polling. Last Poll – Dunne on minus 12

      In contrast to other leaders, he’s been down in negative territory for more than 5 years. (Winston – previously seen negatively by voters – has found himself in positive territory since 2014 and everyone else has enjoyed positive ratings for quite some time – albeit Key down to a mere + 2 rating a few months ago).

  12. Rosie 12

    Helen Kelly, bless her tenacious yet tender self, will never be honoured or acknowledged by this heartless nat govt but we can now honour her at the portrait gallery.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/81776416/wellington-honours-helen-kelly-with-portrait-in-national-gallery

  13. save nz 13

    I hope Labour/Green does not take the bait, like last election where the talk about crashing property was met by Natz winning the election and decimating our country.

    For those that think crashing house prices 40% will be positive and somehow redistribute wealth, have a look at the fall out from the crashed property prices from the GFC in the USA. Did it somehow make poorer, working and middle class people better off, or did it make them lose everything and be worse off than before? Likewise the Greece crash – are the poor better off?

    “Former Reserve Bank economist Arthur Grimes suggests a radical solution to the housing crisis: crash the house price by 40% by building 150,000 houses in six years:
    In March 2016, the REINZ Auckland median house price reached $820,000. Four years previously, it was $495,000 – that’s a 66% increase in 4 years. What’s more alarming is that in 2012, many people considered that house prices were already getting out of reach for most people. That was particularly the case for young people and low income earners.”

    We have had left wing economists talking about this crash for 20 years but because they refused to take account the growing immigration levels, their forecasting falls short. I have personally had a lot of friends listening to these experts and refusing to buy years ago thinking prices would come down, now they can’t afford to!

    I notice Arthur Grimes does not mention halting immigration. So the idea seems to be, crash property 40% so that families with mortgages go into negative equity (like the 1980’s).

    Sounds popular to middle NZ (sarc).

  14. adam 14

    Why African Americans should be dubious about the 4th of July.

    Great wee read – totally with the 2nd of July be a day of celebration!

    http://90sloverboy.tumblr.com/search/4TH+OF+JULY

  15. Why the Irish should be dubious about St Patrick’s day – ’cause the ‘snakes’ he rid the country of, were the Old People with their non-Christian ways.

  16. dv 16

    Here are some ideas I put up couple of mths ago to help the housing market

    Introduce transaction tax about the same size as cc charge on all financial transitions
    Differentional interest rate- ie 1% surcharge as tax to council
    Increased deposit e.g. 40%
    Only sell existing to residents
    Only allow over seas resident new builds.

    Add interest free loans for infrastructure

    WE NEED a joined up plan.

  17. Rodel 17

    Interesting to hear Winston advocating a major port in Northland instead of growing the port in Auckland.
    Maybe just what the north needs and more importantly what Auckland needs- taking off the pressure.

  18. Chooky 18

    ‘WikiLeaks rolls out archive of over 1,200 ‘Clinton Iraq War’ emails’

    https://www.rt.com/usa/349492-wikileaks-iraq-clinton-emails/

    “The now-infamous whistleblowing website has published an archive of what is said to be over 1,200 of Hillary Clinton’s private emails pertaining to the Iraq War. Julian Assange previously said that the release would be “enough to indict her.”…

    ..”.In March, WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive consisting of 30,322 emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server that she used while serving as Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents cover Clinton’s correspondence from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. Out of that number, 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton…

    The use of private email for state-run business has become a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. With Democratic convention just weeks away, the public eye is following a close watch of a potential grand jury indictment…

    • Cheers, chooky. Could make for interesting reading, however it may add nothing to what is already known. As it stands, this isn’t looking like the knock out blow an increasingly desperate right needs. Trump’s a busted flush and Hillary Clinton’s going to be president in a few months. Which is super exciting, y’know?

      I’m with Assange on this one:

      “We could proceed to an indictment, but if Loretta Lynch is the head of the DOJ in the United States, she’s not going to indict Hillary Clinton,” “That’s not possible that could happen.”

      The link to the latest emails is here.

      • Colonial Viper 18.1.1

        Man your political radar is way off calibration. Easy win for Trump over Killary come November.

      • joe90 18.1.2

        As it stands, this isn’t looking like the knock out blow an increasingly desperate right needs.

        Their desperation could well see HRC off the hook.

        But before that happened, according to LawNewz, the conservative activists at Judicial Watch inserted themselves into the Clinton email controversy earlier this year in the hopes they might find something to destroy Clinton’s White House hopes.

        With that in mind, the legal watchdog group filed multiple FOIA lawsuits against the State Department in regard to the issue of the personal server. Agreeing with their demands, federal judge Emmet Sullivan allowed Judicial Watch to depose several of Clinton’s top aides, including Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Patrick Kennedy.

        […]

        At this late date in the game, as the FBI is reportedly wrapping up, investigators are likely following up on any questions still outstanding and making sure there are no discrepancies between Clinton and her advisors that might raise red flags.

        Armed with hundreds of pages of testimony, Clinton may well have been aware of her aides’ answers to the same lines of questioning that both the FBI and Judicial Watch were pursuing.

        As attorney Elkan Abramowitz explained to LawNewz, a well-prepared Clinton would have been in a good position to make sure that she and her team had their story straight — thereby helping to bring the investigation to a more rapid close.

        http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/did-a-clinton-hounding-conservative-group-accidentally-help-hillary-with-her-fbi-interview/

        • te reo putake 18.1.2.1

          Crikey! It’s kinda like being slipped the exam answers the night before the big test.

          • joe90 18.1.2.1.1

            Treating the consummate professional HRC as political naif who came down in the last shower really isn’t a winning strategy.

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