Open mike 07/04/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 7th, 2016 - 63 comments
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63 comments on “Open mike 07/04/2016 ”

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  1. Jenny 1
    7 April 2016 at 6:14 am

    I am getting sick of reposting all the terrible climate change disasters that come through my inbox. And have generally stopped doing it.

    But Fiji is different, because it gives us a glimpse of the future for all of us.

    With their agricultural areas devastated, many are sheltering in sodden makeshift shelters, all that remains of their dwellings demolished by the last named super storm, Winston, while record breaking rains from an unnamed storm raise water to waist height in public streets, meanwhile another repeat named hurricane, Zena, barrels down on them.

    Under these conditions maintaining the infrastructure that makes civilisation possible are frayed to the point of permanent collapse.

    It has become clear to me that the age of fossil fuel use must come to an end now. Not in twenty years, not in ten years.

    Not in some kick it down the road fantasy, Where politicians announce some nebulous date where some future administration will take action.

    That action needs to be taken now.

    Starting with the planned closure of all coal mines in this country.

  3. Jenny 3
    7 April 2016 at 6:29 am

    Instead of planning the shut down of our fossil fuel infrastructure, our political leaders are planning to ramp it up. The plan is to ramp up fossil fuel production with new coal mines, in both the North and South Island. And deep sea oil drilling off our coasts.

  4. Jenny 4
    7 April 2016 at 6:31 am

    I was recently talking to a Fonterra executive and he told me that they operate under “economic constraints” and will not stop their burning of coal, or their conversions of crop lands to dairying, until they are reined in by government regulation.

    Methane from agriculture is New Zealand’s biggest contribution to climate change.

    Globally coal is the number one cause of climate change.

    Fonterra continue to ramp up both, in an unsustainable and unregulated manner.

  5. Jenny 5
    7 April 2016 at 6:40 am

    Despite brutally laying off hundreds of workers from the underground mining industry, in Greymouth and Huntly. The government and the industry hypocritically claim it is all about jobs.

    Meanwhile opening, less labour intensive, but more environmentally destructive, open cast mines in both the South and North Islands of this country.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/75414769/Open-cast-coal-mine-proposed-for-Westport

  7. Chooky 7
    7 April 2016 at 7:34 am

    Both the Greens and Winston Peters on Morning Report have come out against this and a professor of banking has said that KiwiBank is being sold at 40% less than its market value …and can be sold off down the track

    ‘Banking expert says the Kiwi Group deal below market value’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/businessnews/audio/201796083/banking-expert-says-the-kiwi-group-deal-below-market-value

    ‘ACT says Government should get some guts on Kiwibank’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201796080/act-says-government-should-get-some-guts-on-kiwibank

    ( Goldman Sachs waiting in the shadows )

    • TC 7.1
      7 April 2016 at 7:45 am

      This is another well timed move as panama papers and a prominent nz’er potentially put focus on shonkys crew, cant have that now.

      Step up sir cullen, theres a good boy perhaps another sinecure in it if you do well.

  8. adam 8
    7 April 2016 at 8:47 am

    Clinton shows real face on CNN last night. Let me, let you read the statement yourself then watch the video.

    “The Clinton campaign has been watching these Wisconsin results come in, and the delegate race of course is tight there, but the reality is they’re running out of patience. So they’re going to begin deploying a new strategy, it’s going to be called disqualify him, defeat him and then they can unify the party later.”

    • adam 8.1
      7 April 2016 at 8:51 am

      It seems to me we have seen this from Clinton before with her treatment of Barrack Obama. What was that awful campaign again. Oh that right – she tried to “Make Him UN-American” That was just bloody awful, and showed how much of a reactionary Clinton really is.

    • Bill 8.2
      7 April 2016 at 8:43 pm

      So…Clinton will lose. It’s that simple. She’s following the same tactic (a kind of Project Fear) that was used against the SNP as well as against Jeremy Corbyn…and look how those contests panned out. 🙂

  9. esoteric pineapples 9
    7 April 2016 at 9:59 am

    No seems to be too concerned that a huge amount of the steel mesh made by Steel & Tube and used as concrete re-inforcing over the past few years may not be up to standard and not resilient in earthquakes. I wonder if they are even going to be able to find out given all of it is actually stuck in the middle of concrete blocks of already constructed buildings in Christchurch and elsewhere. If they can’t find out, then I wonder if these buildings will require further reinforcing to insure they are up to scratch or be condemned.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/300799/steel-mesh-found-to-fail-strength-tests

    • Ron 9.1
      7 April 2016 at 3:47 pm

      Oh come on what is the chance of an earthquake in Christchuirch. Wait a minute …..

  10. happynz 10
    7 April 2016 at 10:11 am

    There was this exchange on 60 Minutes back in 2008.

    Kroft: You said you’d take Obama at his word that he’s not…a Muslim. You don’t believe that he’s…
    Clinton: No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know.
    Kroft: It’s just scurrilous…?
    Clinton: Look, I have been the target of so many ridiculous rumors, that I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, gets smeared with the kinds of rumors that go on all the time.

    ..as far as I know. Weasel-worded accusation that our ridiculous PM would be proud to use.

  11. Rosie 11
    7 April 2016 at 10:19 am

    On the theme of the world view of the wealthy. (Think Panama Papers)

    From “Starlight Peninsula” by Charlotte Grimshaw. pg. 206. 2015

    The author is speaking of the residents of a fictional Remuera. (I think it’s Remuera going by the geographical description).

    “This is where the affluent lived and and rejoiced in the gap – the gap between the rich and the poor. Because what would be the point of being rich if everyone else was rich too? Look how far away the poor were! The further away they got, the more enjoyable everything was. And it was clearer once you’d arrived. Obv”.

    Good explanation. The author goes on to discuss the “hilarity and tolerant mirth that ideas like wealth distribution and fairness were met with around these parts”

    These kinds of observations of the attitudes of the super wealthy seem to be covered in the tv drama “Filthy Rich” too.

    You might not see the attitudes of the super wealthy examined in the msm but you do see it examined in NZ music, literature and drama.

    Charlotte Grimshaw always has a canny way of bringing current social and political issues into her characters lives. The blurb on “Starlight Peninsula”

    http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/books/charlotte-grimshaw/starlight-peninsula-9781775538226.aspx

    Anyone who followed Kim Dot Com’s story would be interested in her Kim Dot Com character – Kurt Hartmann. Quite amusing.

    • Draco T Bastard 12.1
      7 April 2016 at 11:12 am

      Sure, she’s an idiot for supporting Israel but that is going too far.

    • swordfish 12.2
      7 April 2016 at 9:29 pm

      You’re sooooooo predictable, Puckers. That story comes direct from one of today’s Kiwiblog Posts. No need for independent thought – just let Mr Farrar provide the day’s attack lines for you.

      The ever-shrinking Israel lobby on University campuses has a long history of making highly-dubious “Anti-Semitism” smears and claims of marginalisation and oppression by other students. Whenever analysts look into the claims, they almost always turn out to be either peripheral or complete nonsense. Usually part of yet another pre-planned PR campaign to close down growing criticism of Israel’s brutal 50 year Occupation and Annexation of Palestinian land. But you can always be sure those sort of spurious claims make the front page of the dear old Daily Telegraph.

      • Colonial Viper 12.2.1
        7 April 2016 at 9:36 pm

        Zionism is an aggressive militant political nationalism. Nothing to do with religion, although that is what it hides behind. As a European sourced militant political nationalism, Zionism has plenty of parallels with another European sourced militant political nationalism which also developed around the 1920s and 1930s.

        Hence the familiar sounding and fierce moral justification of the ghettoisation and semi-regular mass slaughter of Palestinians and their children in Gaza.

  14. Bearded Git 14
    7 April 2016 at 10:48 am

    The way the Kiwibank sale works is like this (using simple numbers):

    Now:
    Cullen Fund/ACC assets now: $20,000m
    Kiwibank Value owned by government now:$1,000m

    Government forces Cullen Fund/ACC to buy 45% of Kiwibank

    Cullen Fund/ACC sells shares worth $450m in order to buy $450m of Kiwibank

    Result:
    Cullen Fund/ACC assets $20,000m
    Kiwibank owned by government $550m
    Money available for tax cuts $450m

    The effect is that National is reducing state-owned capital assets in order to finance a short-term tax cut bribe.

    Of course they are denying that the Cullen Fund/ACC are being forced to buy Kiwibank, but that is yet another big lie for the BLiP list. Questions should be asked about this as these funds are supposed to be independent.

    • weka 14.1
      7 April 2016 at 6:33 pm

      who is buying the Superfund/ACC shares?

    • Colonial Viper 14.2
      7 April 2016 at 9:43 pm

      David Parker says Michael Cullen has come up with a briliant idea. These two are the top, most highly experienced, Labour Party finance brains in the country.

      What’s your problem with it. Get in behind and support the team.

  15. joe90 15
    7 April 2016 at 12:11 pm

    Two years in the making, the Hillsborough inquest jurors have retired to consider their verdict.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11618191

    https://twitter.com/hboroinquests

    http://hillsboroughinquests.independent.gov.uk/

    Previously on TS –

    joe90 40
    9 April 2013 at 5:25 pm

    Perhaps now that Thatcher is dead there’ll be a little light shed on her role in the Hillsborough cover up.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19584313

    Cracker obit too.

    http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_death_of_a_class_warrior_margaret_thatcher_1925_2013

    joe90 30
    5 September 2013 at 7:01 pm

    Hillsborough’s dead and dying were pickpocketed. By the police.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hillsborough-police-paid-money-found-among-the-dead-into-forces-coffers-8793702.html

  16. joe90 16
    7 April 2016 at 12:54 pm

    Pike River chair John Dow and co-defendants walked away.

    Four months after former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was found guilty for his role in a 2010 mining disaster that killed 29 miners, he has been sentenced to the maximum one year in prison and another year of supervised release.

    Judge Irene Berger also imposed a maximum $250,000 fine, which is due immediately, West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Dave Mistich reports for NPR’s Newscast unit.

    “Blankenship was convicted in December of conspiring to violate federal mine safety laws — a misdemeanor,” Mistich said. “The charge stemmed from an investigation into the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine near Montcoal [W.Va.] that killed 29 men.”

    http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/06/473256648/former-coal-executive-don-blankenship-sentenced-to-1-year-in-prison

  17. Whispering Kate 17
    7 April 2016 at 4:46 pm

    I see in the Herald Nick Smith has announced a further 36 Special Housing Areas in Auckland, glancing down the list I see that the areas are mostly around the periphery of Auckland with the exception of an area of Manukau Road in Epsom. Odd how there isn’t one listed in the “leafy” suburbs. Bloody typical really of how there is one law for one lot of us and another for the wealthy. Would be too much to suggest that maybe people on lower incomes might welcome living closer to the city to save on petrol or public transport fares. Seems logical and sensible to me. But then, what would I know.

  18. Smilin 18
    7 April 2016 at 5:09 pm

    John Key when asked about the Panama Papers
    “Has anyone seen my hat ” then he left and there was a gunshot ,no not John Key, John Doe ,Yep that quick vanished .

  19. Jenny 19
    7 April 2016 at 6:49 pm

    Act-shully – It’s not that bad –

    The new face of climate change denial:

    “I’ve seen a lot of leaders get up and say that this is potentially the biggest threat to mankind. Well that may be true, but my point really would be it’s not going to get there.” JOHN KEY

    http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/pm-doubts-international-climate-change-predictions/.VwWLz5nIPys.facebook

  20. Jenny 20
    7 April 2016 at 8:12 pm

    If I say it is not happening. It’s Not Happening! John Key

    Kiritimati is where El Nino, along with global warming, has done the most damage to corals in the past two years, experts said. While dramatic images of unprecedented total bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are stunning the world, thousands of miles to the east conditions are somehow even worse.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11618221

    • Bill 20.1
      7 April 2016 at 8:52 pm

      Really fucking sad that the article is misleadingly headed “Scientists blame El Nino, warming for ‘gruesome’ coral death.”

      I know there’s a comma in there, but seriously, how many people are going to read that as scientists blaming El Nino and warming, rather than El Nino warming?

      And that’s ignoring the fact that scientists are actually saying El Nino is only exacerbating global warming. So if the article heading was aiming to be even half way accurate, it would be saying something like “Scientists blame global warming and El Nino for ‘gruesome’ coral death”

      • Jenny 20.1.1
        8 April 2016 at 6:03 am

        It is sad Bill, in fact it is more than sad, it’s tragic and criminal, because it is just this sort of obfuscation and downplaying of climate change, and its current and future consequences, that is common right throughout the establishment media and both the main establishment parties.

        It is like people know what to say and what not to say.

        And what you are not allowed to say, is anything that will upset the current status quo of business as usual.

        Opening new coal mining operations, supporting deep sea oil prospecting and drilling, spending $billions on new motorways, while starving public transport of funding.
        The sort of practices that would be challenged if the mainstream media, including social media pundits and commentators started taking climate change seriously.