Open mike 08/10/2011

31 comments on “Open mike 08/10/2011 ”

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1. freedom 1

   8 October 2011 at 6:48 am

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5751962/Countrys-prison-roll-tumbling

   More electioneering in Stuff. I see the predicted figure of a 6.2% future drop in numbers but i do not see any actual figures of a reduction that has National and Fairfax crowing in this article.
   • ianmac 1.1

     8 October 2011 at 9:51 am

     Wonder why there was a need to double bunk and use containers? And the story was mostly about forecasts over the next ten years. However I hope that a real drop happens.
2. Bored 2

   8 October 2011 at 7:09 am

   Yesterday I pondered the nature of the MSM inability to delivery the news without a slant and how we can circumvent them. With regard ot the Wall St occupation the MSM have come back with an insidious “they dont represent anything”. Ilargi at http://www.theautomaticearth.blogspot.com has this to say:

   It’s high time to realize that what is good for the financial system is not just not also good for you, it’s becoming more detrimental by the day. That is your money being given away. That is the money that’s being taken from you that feeds investors, speculators and banks. That money will no longer be available to feed your children. If you see those markets go up, you need to realize that it’s you who pays to make them do that.

   We’ve recently entered the third year of this giant give-away, this wealth transfer that knows no equal, not even close, in world history. And we still let it happen. We even let ourselves be fooled by politicians and media pundits into believing we’re in a recovery. As in: there has been one after the 2008 collapse, and it’s now the recovery that’s threatened. And all we need to do is valiantly, bravely but resolutely restore it.

   Thats at the core of the OWser movement, corporate kleptocracy under our noses that keeps food off our tables.
   • aerobubble 2.1

     8 October 2011 at 9:35 am

     Its funny how the same false argument now hurts those previously who abused it.

     Their taking our money, bloody bennies…

     Money is like blood, too much or too little to the wrong places gets to be a threat
     to the whole organism. This is essentially what is the problem, too much has been
     printed on the projection we had ten legs and arms, and now reality is even the
     projections of three or four arms and legs each is dubious.

     For the invisible hand to work everyone needs access to capital, and of us to
     become a benefit rather than a threat to Gaia we each need to have the ability
     to make the right choices, that means access to capital. So the very nature
     of Thatcherite economics, of hoarding capital in the richest few of the global,
     is essentially at odds with the free market needs.

     Which is it to be, dump neo-liberalism, or listen to the free market signals
     that are screaming to change course.
   • Draco T Bastard 2.2

     8 October 2011 at 11:26 am

     A democratic political system needs to be independent of money, or it will not remain democratic.

     And how you do that is to make it so that everyone can see where the resources are coming from, going to and has a say in how those resources are utilised. Once everyone can see the economy (the real one not the financial BS that the “economists” talk about) then we can end the exploitation and corruption that is inherent within capitalism.

     …and still make obscene amounts of money.

     Bankster may print money but they certainly produce [make] any wealth.
     • Draco T Bastard 2.2.1

       8 October 2011 at 2:30 pm

       Correction:

       Banksters may print money but they certainly don’t produce [make] any wealth.
       • the pink postman 2.2.1.1

         8 October 2011 at 3:54 pm

         The late Nye Bevin once said”if all the rich people left the country nobody would miss them ,but if allthe workers left the country would collapse.
       • the pink postman 2.2.1.2

         8 October 2011 at 3:56 pm

         The late Nye Bevin once said”if all the rich people left the country nobody would miss them ,but if all the workers left the country would collapse.
3. Jenny 3

   8 October 2011 at 7:54 am

   What is wrong with Maritime New Zealand?

   Ronald Winstone, the Technical Director of Lancer Industries manufactures inflatable barges designed specifically to allow oil to be offloaded from ships which have run aground to prevent significant spillage and environmental damage. Lancer barges are owned by many maritime authorities around the world including the US Coast Guard

   Martime New Zealand own two of our barges, and each has a a 100tonne capacity. The two barges are capable of doing two trips a day – so to offload the 1700 tonnes of oil would take around four days.

   Ronald Winstone

   “FOUR DAYS” for all the oil to be removed!

   We are already in the “FOURTH DAY’ of the disaster with the weather predicted to deteriorate and Maritime New Zealand have done nothing.
   • Jenny 3.1

     8 October 2011 at 8:00 am

     There is still time.

     The government should immediately order that all resources necessary, be they human or material be mobilised to avert this disaster.
     • Colonial Viper 3.1.1

       8 October 2011 at 8:21 am

       Too bad they fired all those DoC staff.
       • aerobubble 3.1.1.1

         8 October 2011 at 9:43 am

         Its necessary to get National reelected.
       • felix 3.1.1.2

         8 October 2011 at 9:55 am

         Surely the market will sort it out. No need for all those bumbling bureaucrats and their red tape.
   • Lanthanide 3.2

     8 October 2011 at 9:35 am

     Or we can just do nothing and the oil will offload itself, saving us the hassle. That seems to be their current plan.
   • KJT 3.3

     8 October 2011 at 12:04 pm

     For starters.

     Having been involved with the New Zealand Maritime industry or having maritime qualifications is a definite obstacle to advancement in Maritime New Zealand.

     The last director, Government appointed, was notable for her ignorance. The new one is also from outside the maritime field.

     Their accident investigators are now all, ex cops!

     I did not make myself popular, some years ago, for saying their oil spill response capability was a joke.
4. Arthur 4

   8 October 2011 at 8:58 am

   We must now be due to get the locusts.
5. Chris 5

   8 October 2011 at 9:16 am

   Hey posting in today’s one but continued from yesterday. Pollywog I’ve yet to see anyone explain how Nigel Owens was biased. He penalised the Springboks more in the game – sure he made a couple of bad calls but that went against both teams and is normal in a game of rugby.

   The harshest call he made in the game was sinbinning John Smit for going for an intercept sure should’ve been a penalty but a sinbinning for that was ridiculous.

   So please explain to me how he was racist and biased because to say that it must’ve been something pretty bad.
6. ianmac 6

   8 October 2011 at 10:05 am

   Wish I had heaps of money to invest – safely.
   “Provost talks about one finance company where deposits swelled from $800,000 to $8.3 million after its deposits were guaranteed.
   At Allan Hubbard’s South Canterbury Finance the deposits grew by 25 per cent after the guarantee was put in place. It also continued to expand its loans book in a risky fashion.” -Fran O’Sullivan

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10757386
7. Lanthanide 7

   8 October 2011 at 11:23 am

   This actually ends up looking like a rather negative piece against the government:
   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5753064/The-defining-political-issues-of-2011

   “John Key Goes To The White House
   Thirty minutes in the Oval Office with Barack Obama isn’t to be sneezed at, but White House handshakes don’t carry the significance they used to now that relationships have returned to normal.”

   “Worst Judgment Calls
   Phil Goff – trying to keep the police investigation into Darren Hughes secret and not standing him down immediately. Dyeing his hair.

   John Key – blaming everyone else for the purchase of flash new BMWs for government ministers. If you don’t want them, send them back. Promising to get the bodies out of Pike River mine.”
   • ianmac 7.1

     8 October 2011 at 1:26 pm

     “Dyeing his hair.” Couldn’t find that in the text. If that was the worst we are very lucky.
     • Jim Nald 7.1.1

       8 October 2011 at 7:09 pm

       Oh halwo, Tracy Watkins and Vernon Small are both fans of grey hair!
       I say – colour as you like!
8. joe90 8

   8 October 2011 at 12:16 pm

   William H. Gross, founder of PIMCO and manager of the $242.7 billion Total Return Fund writes:

   Six Pac(k)in’

   Long-term profits cannot ultimately grow unless they are partnered with near equal benefits for labor.

   There is only a New Normal economy at best and a global recession at worst to look forward to in future years.

   If global policymakers could focus on structural as opposed to cyclical financial solutions, New Normal growth as opposed to recession might be possible.

   ……

   Yet to return to my initial criticism of cyclically finance-based as opposed to structural policy solutions, almost all remedies proposed by global authorities to date have approached the problem from the standpoint of favoring capital as opposed to labor. If the banks could just be stabilized, if the “markets” could just be elevated back in the direction of peak 401(k) levels, if interest rates could just be lower so that borrowers would inevitably take the bait, then labor – job creation – would inevitably follow. It has not. The explanation for why not must at least include the rationale that Wall Street and Main Street are symbiotically connected and if one benefits at the expense of the other, then both ultimately can falter.

   (authors bold)
9. Cloaca 9

   8 October 2011 at 2:03 pm

   Still NO Red Alert again today ?
   • Draco T Bastard 9.1

     8 October 2011 at 2:08 pm

     Working fine for me. Was yesterday to. Not that there’s a lot happening there.
10. Jum 10

    8 October 2011 at 2:32 pm

    http://paper.li/occupymanhattan/1317517749

    The Occupy Wall Street protesters got ‘it’ very quickly. Why didn’t the Left in New Zealand?
    ‘Occupy Wall Street’ produced a physical paper supporting their point of view.

    There is still time for the Left to do that before the election.

    The rightwing is already doing it, disguised in many towns around New Zealand as cutesy local lifestyle magazines, but are in fact visual vehicles for printing free photo-ops of the NAct candidates and getting NAct views in without any charge on campaign funds. It’s disgraceful behaviour but only the usual cunning tricks of the rightwing.

    Labour/Progressive/Greens and associated left leaning parties should be combining funds with outside donations to produce a newspaper Now.

    There is so much we can tell the voters before the election:

    ‘You wanted a Labour-lite change to John Key, in some cases because he was a male and also he promised not to change anything like GST rates or WFF or KiwiSaver or KiwiBank except give you at least $50/wk tax cuts – in your hand. You got some stuff done that you wanted under NActMU, but now the no-change Key has developed a few plot twists of his own.

    – He reneged on stopping the GST increase
    – He altered the KiwiSaver so that the benefits were not so appealing
    – Etc
    – Etc (this should fill a few sides of newsprint)

    But, now more frighteningly, he’s asking for your mandate to let him start selling off half chunks of your most valuable assets – back to you. Yes! I couldn’t believe his gall either! Just a few power companies, so that he can save 6% on interest, but (and this is really odd accounting) lose 17% on dividends – your dividends.

    And that’s not all. Once he has your mandate, he will be able to say with a straight face, that you New Zealand people must like the idea of selling off assets, which you already own, back to you, because you’ve voted for him in your zillions.

    The sad thing is my ‘preciousses’, there will be few of you able to afford to buy them back. Never mind. Perhaps you’ll be able to buy some cheap asset from amongst the remainder of the $220 billion of assets you already own, now that Key knows how much you like asset sell-offs.

    That will be very sad of course for Phil Goff who realised in the last couple of decades that Roger Douglas (who is now in NAct helping Key to finger the remaining assets in the State and Local Government treasure chests) was wrong to sell assets.

    Part sold assets never stay only ‘part sold’ – Fact of life my cherubs.

    Even NAct’s own finance minister, Bill English, is admitting our many sold off assets already owned by foreigners/business rotundtable are leaching profits out of New Zealand and hurting our grading.

    *****I think it’s time we changed back to Labour, now, don’t you – before Key stops smiling…*****
    • Bored 10.1

      8 October 2011 at 3:25 pm

      The OWSers (Occupy Wall St) are putting their statement on T Shirts calling themselves 99%ers.

      What this refers to is that they belong to the 99% of us who DONT own the 99% of wealth. The 99% who are NOT part of that 1% who control our financial, economic and political entities.

      They are us. Who cares how fractured their demands, they are us, NOT them.
    • Draco T Bastard 10.2

      8 October 2011 at 6:23 pm

      The rightwing is already doing it, disguised in many towns around New Zealand as cutesy local lifestyle magazines, but are in fact visual vehicles for printing free photo-ops of the NAct candidates and getting NAct views in without any charge on campaign funds.

      If they’re doing that and it seems a fairly obvious election ad then report it to the electoral commission as it sounds like it breeching the law.
      • KJT 10.2.1

        8 October 2011 at 8:28 pm

        The local real estate magazine also has a spiel from Newman.

        The usual crud about not “punishing” the wealthy.
11. dave brown 11

    8 October 2011 at 3:29 pm

    US Revolutionary Socialists on OWS and beyond

    To win this fight for once and for all, we need to develop the Occupy Wall Street movement into a nationwide set of popular/worker/labor assemblies that meet to plan and prepare for a nationwide indefinite general strike, including the physical occupation and defense of factories, offices, and other workplaces. Local assemblies of workers, supported by youth, the unemployed, and the oppressed communities, should delegate strike committees of the activists in the ranks to go to all worksites to organize meetings, help establish rank-and-file committees, caucuses, and networks, and enlist support for turning the occupations into something much more effective: a nationwide political general strike with the aim of taking power into the hands of working people and their allies. Strikes alone are not a panacea, but organizational developments like this can lay the foundations needed for the formation of a mass workers’ party – not an electoral party, but a unified body that fights for a workers’ government that can seize the fixed and finance capital and put labor to work under workers’ self-management, workers’ planning for human needs, and workers’ democratic control.

    http://redrave.blogspot.com/2011/10/dont-just-occupy-wall-street-shut-it.html
12. Jum 12

    8 October 2011 at 4:20 pm

    Mr Kut-throat time

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2499454/tune-your-engine-psychopaths

    for your listening pleasure…
13. Tigger 13

    8 October 2011 at 6:41 pm

    Just ugh…http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5753064/The-defining-political-issues-of-2011

    Goff dyeing his hair is a ‘bad call’? I call bs on anyone mentioning Goff’s hair given that Key (a) has less hair which is regularly combed to cover his bald patch, (b) looks like he dyes it (I said looks RWNJs) and (c) is a fuckwit.

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