Open mike 06/03/2021

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 6th, 2021 - 38 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step up to the mike …

38 comments on “Open mike 06/03/2021 ”

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  1. Ed1 1
    6 March 2021 at 8:37 am

    From No Right Turn:

    http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2021/03/more-evidence-that-ubis-work.html

    I wondered how such a scheme could work in New Zealand. We have different laws relating to social welfare assistance – would any payments from a charity to trial a guaranteed minimum income just result in abatement of any state welfare payments, whether Working for Families or other? With a three year election cycle, can we count on getting 5 years experience without any trial being closed down for not wanting answers?

  2. Muttonbird 2
    6 March 2021 at 8:49 am

    Australian thinks we should be more like Australia. We heard this from Hosking and co right through last year until the Melbourne outbreak. The result of that was 800 vulnerable people dead.

    No thanks.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124452187/jacinda-arderns-covid-comms-strategy-is-starting-to-look-a-bit-tired

  3. Adrian Thornton 3
    6 March 2021 at 10:39 am

    After listening to Kim Hills interview with Matthew Remski on 'Conspirituality' I sent this email…

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018786402/matthew-remski-conspirituality

    Good morning Kim.

    I see that when you asked your guest Matthew Remski to mention Left Wing conspiracies he immediately gave you and the listeners 'Russiagate' as an example of a contemporary "Left Wing" conspiracy.

    Now that you are now comfortable with a guest calling Russiagate a conspiracy, how about having on a guest who can expand on and unpack this subject for your audience?.

    Could I suggest Aaron Mate' as an expert on this subject, I think you would find him a very considered and polite guest judging from the interviews and talks I have heard from him.

    Best
    Adrian

  4. greywarshark 4
    6 March 2021 at 1:37 pm

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/437782/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-takes-its-first-drive-on-mars Mars? (Can't personally verify.)

    Great, mankind wanting to explore the stars no matter what condition the thrust to space leaves Planet Earth in. Fuck the rest of us, birds and insects and plants and trees – none of these here! Well there were sacred places and things important to the ancient and the living Aborigines.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/30/juukan-gorge-rio-tinto-blasting-of-aboriginal-site-prompts-calls-to-change-antiquated-laws

    The sites were drilled and set with explosives last week. Traditional owners the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) peoples don’t yet know the full extent of the damage.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/437541/rio-tinto-chairman-and-board-director-to-resign-over-sacred-aboriginal-site-destruction

    Juukan Gorge mining site, Northern Australia. (Check it out if you doubt.)

  5. greywarshark 5
    6 March 2021 at 2:26 pm

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018786126/nzme-pulls-racist-article-and-bans-bassett

    An article published in the Northland Age newspaper on Tuesday and on the New Zealand Herald website has been withdrawn after it was condemned as racist – and publisher NZME says it won't publish Dr Michael Bassett's work on its platforms….

    …NZME’s ban on Dr Bassett will disappoint veteran host Leighton Smith, who has had Dr Bassett as a frequent guest on his podcast published by NZME. On the February 17 edition – Leighton Smith Podcast: Michael Bassett returns to talk history changes – Dr Bassett discussed the new history syllabus and debate over "local councils and race-based wards".

    Some 'snippets' about: Dr Michael Bassett –

    He completed BA and MA degrees in history at the University of Auckland before winning a fellowship to Duke University in the United States in 1961. He completed a PhD in American history there, completing a dissertation entitled The Socialist Party of America, 1912–1919: Years of Decline.

    In 1964, Bassett returned to New Zealand and became a senior lecturer in history at the University of Auckland. During this time he was a member of the Princes Street Labour branch. Bassett stood unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in the 1966 election for North Shore and in the 1969 election for Waitemata.

    In 1971 Bassett was elected to the Auckland City Council. In the following year, he was elected as a Labour MP for Waitemata in the 1972 election, and the Labour Party became the government for the first time since 1960. Following the death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk in 1974 the party (and Bassett) were defeated in the following (1975) election. In his account of the Third Labour Government, ]1972 to 1975] Bassett described it as one of "the most active and socially responsible governments of the twentieth century." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bassett

    (Keen to get on wasn't he – trying for political appointments as soon as back in NZ, obviously had standing in Auckland. After giving an accolade to Kirk’s Third Labour Government Bassett perhaps drew on some of his USA thesis on the decline of the socialists in America for his next moves!)

    Bassett is a third cousin of late Prime Minister David Lange….

    Lange's father, who was a doctor, had delivered Bassett. Lange wrote (presumably jokingly referring to Bassett's appointment to Cabinet and their later disagreements): "My father had delivered him, and it became plain in later days that he must have dropped him …." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bassett#Personal_life

    • woodart 5.1
      6 March 2021 at 2:52 pm

      basset comes across as yet another increasingly bitter, old white man. desparate to retain some sort of relevancy, he cherrypicks parts of the past to suit his version of history. the article in spinoff, about how basset has taken parts of the past, is an excellent read.

      • Treetop 5.1.1
        6 March 2021 at 4:58 pm

        What a good description of Bassett. I have found him to be unconvincing as he does not challenge the evidence enough by presenting the facts.

    • joe90 5.2
      6 March 2021 at 6:31 pm

      Scott Hamilton has words.

      https://twitter.com/SikotiHamiltonR/status/1367963594042732544

      I think that Bassett’s article is unacceptable, not because his skin is white or because he is a political conservative, but because he makes a series of demonstrably false claims about the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Sometimes Bassett cherry picks an event from the past and tries to make it mean something it doesn’t. In other places in his text he says things that simply aren’t backed by evidence. Bassett used to teach history at the University of Auckland. He has written a series of competent, if rather dull, books about the history of politics and government in this country. But his latest effort wouldn’t be acceptable if it came from a first year undergraduate student.

      https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-03-2021/all-the-things-michael-bassett-got-wrong-in-his-terrible-article/

      • AB 5.2.1
        6 March 2021 at 8:11 pm

        Thanks. Scott Hamilton is consistently good. A shame he does not have a much larger platform. He is effectively ‘pre-cancelled’, not merely cancelled.

  6. lprent 6
    6 March 2021 at 4:11 pm

    Had a problem with changing the automated certificate rollover this afternoon. The certbot wanted to rewrite my virtual host file.

    Incidentally, Damien Grant is a incompetent dickhead. His certificate problems are a bit more severe than mine. I guess that lack of competency is why he is prevalent like a bedbug on twitter…

    • Sacha 6.1
      6 March 2021 at 7:00 pm

      Don't you love the way writing political media columns is regarded by his lawyer as a testament to his character. 🙂

      • Muttonbird 6.1.1
        6 March 2021 at 7:10 pm

        He seems more anarchist than libertarian. His criminal past certainly points to that.

        But then perhaps libertarianism is simply anarchy wearing a tie…

  7. greywarshark 7
    6 March 2021 at 5:14 pm

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/437794/it-s-just-awful-principal-s-home-burgled-while-helping-students-evacuate-during-tsunami-alert

    During their time sheltering out of harm's way, Hata said children were comfortable, safe and well-fed by Ōpōtiki College, who delivered food straight to them.
    On their way back into town after the all-clear was given, Hata said their principal, Raewyn Clark, popped by her house.

    "The principal just dropped into her house on the way back to school, and found that people had broken in, and made a terrible mess, and stolen things.

    "We're pretty gutted – she's a very community-minded principal, does a lot of good in this community, and to be treated like that, it's just horrendous.

    A 28-year-old has been charged over the break-in.

    I know how to treat this guy? Make him sit for a useful subject/s in the NCEA, every day, for eight hours until he passes.l That'd larn him!

    The Mikado – Let the punishment fit the crime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHozXngnwKU

    By the way the New Inquisitors have complained enough about The Mikado for performances to be cancelled, wiped from acceptable performances, in the USA.

    But the cultural assumption is increasingly that a white actor playing a Japanese character, with or without makeup, is always unacceptable. And even if The Mikado had an all-Japanese cast, as it does when it’s performed (successfully) in Japan, it would still be a work of 19th-century exoticism, or at least a gentle parody of such works. If this is considered an unambiguously bad thing, and increasingly it is, then there is no way to do The Mikado outside of a revisionist production (and even there, some would argue that white people writing about Japan is just unsalvageable in any way). Those who have enjoyed the show as an allegory for England, and a satire of the universal tendency to imagine that all cultures are just like us, are out of luck. https://www.macleans.ca/culture/arts/the-mikados-punishment-doesnt-fit-the-crime/

  8. greywarshark 8
    6 March 2021 at 5:52 pm

    RNZ – RadioNZ actually. Chief Exec. Paul Thompson used to work for Fairfax so just the person for public broadcasting serving all the citizens – not.

    Stories by Paul Thompson – RNZ http://www.rnz.co.nz › authors › paul-thompson

    Opinion – The commercial media world is an increasingly tough business, in case you haven't noticed, writes RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson.

    (That is an indication of his perspective and direction.)

    Tom Frewen is very concerned about the loss of Radio New Zealand which seems doomed under Labour who are adopting the ostrich posture – unbelievable.

    This on Scoop – in 5 parts. Part 5. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2103/S00022/concert-bungle-the-sequel-part-5.htm

    (Click on Tom Frewen on the page to get the first parts of the saga.)

    • Pat 8.1
      6 March 2021 at 7:51 pm

      What a sorry saga….God knows how Minister Faafoi kept the portfolio and Thompson kept his job.

      • greywarshark 8.1.1
        6 March 2021 at 8:33 pm

        I think we should ask Him/Her. We seem to have tried every other option.

        • Pat 8.1.1.1
          6 March 2021 at 11:58 pm

          And were paying over half a mill a year for such incompetence…a monkey could do better.

  9. mac1 9
    6 March 2021 at 6:52 pm

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124069747/jamilee-ross-behind-anti5g-supplement-business

    Such nutbars as this became high-ranking National politicians; yet, the National party seems to not be willing to acknowledge, and act upon, the faulty selection procedures which promoted flawed candidates.

    • Muttonbird 9.1
      6 March 2021 at 7:05 pm

      Like the procedures which selected Barbara Kuriger and Simon O'Conner. Both getting all muddled up and paranoid about the reason some Dr Seuss titles have been discontinued.

      New Zealand is so very lucky National is not in power. It would be a disaster.

      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/03/national-mp-defends-dr-suess-after-books-pulled-due-to-racist-imagery.html

      • mac1 9.1.1
        6 March 2021 at 8:09 pm

        There are others, too. There will be a time again when National gets back into power, and some of these deficient MPs will be with them. Were their like always there even in the days of Holland, Holyoake and Muldoon (excluding himself of course)? Is this a new phenomenon, am I too generous with earlier Tory governments, or are the shortcomings of our recent recruits just more obvious and annotated than their predecessors?

      • greywarshark 9.1.2
        6 March 2021 at 8:31 pm

        Dr Seuss author was not even fond of children so I've read. Perhaps that is why he resonates with National politicians. However his story about keeping promises and being there for the vulnerable in Horton Hatches the Egg should be bedtime reading when tucking up Labour politicians for the night, every night and not just when earthquakes occur.

    • Anne 9.2
      6 March 2021 at 9:06 pm

      Iirc, Jami Lee Ross entered parliament courtesy of Simon Lusk and Cameron Slater. I don't know how much it cost him in monetary terms but that is my understanding what happened. There were several of them who entered this way.

      • Incognito 9.2.1
        6 March 2021 at 9:19 pm

        Too many passed through the Merv-filter. These are evidential proof for the trickle-down theory.

  11. Muttonbird 11
    6 March 2021 at 10:40 pm

    Rimmer is desperate to be in the news again. He's upset his local bakery wasn't open today.

    He claims staying at L3 on Saturday costs $45million. I can't see how. It might mean some businesses don't receive $45million but the money has not been lost because consumers still have it to be spent another day!

    The only time there is actual loss is when goods have to be destroyed which might be the case when a lockdown is introduced at short notice. What is a simple restauranteur to do with 300 oysters, etc. The simple restauranteur and Rimmer alike can blame Case L for that.

    And businesses themselves have limited losses because of wage subsidies and resurgence payment support.

    Stupid Rimmer. We are not very we served by our student politician opposition right now.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/03/covid-19-act-says-there-s-no-rhyme-nor-reason-to-keep-auckland-at-alert-level-3-on-saturday.html