Open mike 09/03/2021

26 comments on “Open mike 09/03/2021 ”

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1. Sanctuary 1

   9 March 2021 at 7:23 am

   This Youtube post this morning should explode in Australia. The billions gambled in Aussies next submarine program scandal is beyond belief.
   • woodart 1.1

     9 March 2021 at 1:01 pm

     the billions wasted all round the world, on toys for the boys, is outrageous. the cold war is well over, but many of the old cold warriors are still hanging on, fighting old battles that never happened in the first place. drone technology has bypassed the need for many expensive, manned toys(much to the annoyance of weapons manufacturers), and this tech is now going underwater. sub makers are no different from any business, looking for new uses for their out of date products, but are looking more and more like yesterdays men. the last generation of aussie subs had a reputation for being noisy and leaky and prone to rusting, not exactly what you want to be in if the shooting starts..
     • Morrissey 1.1.1

       9 March 2021 at 4:48 pm

       the billions wasted all round the world, on toys for the boys, is outrageous. the cold war is well over, but many of the old cold warriors are still hanging on…

       There are plenty of commentators who think we should be arming ourselves like those rogue regimes in Canberra and Washington. One of the more obnoxious statements in support of this was delivered on Jim Mora's light chat show in 2018. Mike Rehu, who mouthed this nonsense, is, I am sorry to say, an increasingly regular presence on RNZ National….

       JIM MORA: [inhales loudly to indicate moral seriousness] What do YOU think?

       MIKE REHU: Yeah, I, I, I’m the SAME actually. I, I do feel as though we, [baffled sigh] y’know, the industryyyy, y’know in EVERY industry they HAVE these conferences, they HAVE these exhibitions, this is, and ironically in SOME countries yooouu, you SAY “defense” and it’s not defense, it’s OFFENSE, but I think New Zealand HAS to have a DE-fense, and I, I personally worry that, that we-e-e-e, we don’t. I mean, I was just looking at some numbers earlier today, we spend four hundred and twenty-six dollars a PERSON on our DE-fense compared to Australia’s fifteen HUNDRED, which is over four times, and the U.S.has three point one per cent of their G.D.P. spent on defense, ours is like one point one—

       MORA: Yeah.

       MIKE REHU: So we spend a MINUSCULE amount, and you can TELL in the quality of aircraft, boats, and blah-blah-blah that we have. But in these days of, y’know, what they’re calling the sharp POWER where we saw, y’know, ahhmm, the Saudi Arabian fella get, ahhh, get assassinated pretty much, allegedly, in Turkey, ahhh, we’ve seen the North Koreans come down and hit somebody. We’ve seen the Russian spies come in. Now, w-w-we’re pretty harmless down here but we’ve got a lotta things that people WANT in the world, especially our natural resources like water. And we’ve seen, we’ve played NICELY with people, we’ve almost GIVEN [snickers] away some of our resources. But when, now that we’re wising UP a little bit, what if people WAN’ our resources and things down here and, and what’re we gonna do—

       MORA: Is that—

       MIKE REHU: —if somebody comes in?

       MORA: Is that push ever gonna come to shove though?

       MIKE REHU: Well. I mean, surely we should have some sort of sturdy defense anyway, at least SOME capability, I mean, otherwise we WILL have to turn to bigger powers and, and then we’d, we have to, obviously, sign some kind of compromise deals with people and—-

       MORA: Which is what we do now, don’t we. We, we lend them a frigate, or we lend them a, a batch of the S.A.S. and we play our part among a group of nations.

       MIKE REHU: [inhales loudly to indicate how serious he is] Yeah, and, but even with AUSTRALIA, y’know, the relationship we have with Australia, apparently, y’know, a lot of our kit is massively inFERIOR, and we get by with our good soft skills, our good people skills when we’re overseas representing our country in part of these United Nations, ahhhm, combinations. So, y’know, again, coming back to your first question about the expo, ahhhmm, it IS a worry that there MAY be some weapons of OFFense, ahhhm, being shown at this exhibition, but I think if it’s about DE-fense then we should play a part.

       ad nauseam….

       https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03-11-2018/#comment-1545975
       • woodart 1.1.1.1

         9 March 2021 at 5:11 pm

         thanks. kind of validates my post.
   • McFlock 1.2

     9 March 2021 at 5:17 pm

     I mean, it's a lot of cash, but long term planning is good.

     Skipped the audio, read the slides – there didn't seem to be anything in the presentation to say why the design is flawed or the process was fatally compromised, so I'm not sure they've bought a lemon on the order of the US F35 (particularly the abject failure of its ALIS) or LCS (a good idea that got bloated and lost its main unique advantages).

     The presentation seemed more knowledgable than Hanson's idiotic questioning of the same project, though. The admiral is a study in patience.
2. NZJester 2

   9 March 2021 at 7:41 am

   Right wing seam to be upset over PM dumping her regular interview with Hoskings.

   I say good riddance.

   The guy has always been a right wing boot licker. With a lot of his so called thoughts that are supposedly his opinion (Right Wing Talking Points Regurgitated) the PM should not have been giving him a lifeline for his show so long.
3. Adrian 3

   9 March 2021 at 8:58 am

   To all of the Moaning Minnie’s of “ where’s the plan, there is no road map “ detractors the Government has shut them down with a vengeance with the announcement of a further 8.5 million doses of the most effective Covid vaccine having been bought for NZ.

   There has been a plan all along right from the initial 40 million bucks or so of investment in a number of producers and many statements of the intent to make sure we get the most effective one, that is what the elimination tactic was all about, keeping the powder dry and waiting to see the whites of their eyes.

   Brilliant politics and superbly played by the Government and aided hugely by us by behaving ourselves, with the obvious exception of a few arseholes and the notable actions of the chief arsehole, the Apostle of Doom who wanted to shoot a few Bambis.

   Let’s all breathe easier and give ourselves a pat on the back. Well done.

   P.s, I may well be in one of the initial cohorts by right of age but I for one will gladly wait and shuffle in behind Kane and Rossco, Guppy and Ish , Trent and Kyle and the rest of the BCs so they can see to India in June, and also tucked in behind our Olympians, among whom is a young cyclist I know who has been on a personal quest for 16 years. Go all you good things!
4. Pat 4

   9 March 2021 at 9:14 am

   https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/pumped-hydro-already-delayed-a-year

   Headline is concern causing….more can kicking?

   Unfortunately it is paywalled, would be interested if anyone has some detail
5. Adrian Thornton 5

   9 March 2021 at 9:15 am

   Here is an interesting clip with Aaron Mate' unpacking the common knowledge and complicity within the US government that they were directly supporting ISIS and Al-Qaeda in their proxy war in Syria, and even though these statements by various US officials admitting this complicity have been public knowledge throughout the war, US and western media have rarely reported on these US connections with terrorist groups in Syria..instead as usual they only ever seem to encourage western more wars and more western interventions…ask yourself this question, when was the last time you can remember a western MSM source coming out against a western military operation or intervention?
   • Andre 5.1

     9 March 2021 at 11:02 am

     Well, considering the general question of who is the bigger idiot, the belligerent ranter or the one vainly attempting to reason with it, I'm sure I'm making a mistake taking the bait, but anyhoo:

     ask yourself this question, when was the last time you can remember a western MSM source coming out against a western military operation or intervention?

     Errm, just over a week ago, there was quite a lot of criticism of Biden's airstrike in Syria, with a lot of questioning of Biden's authority to order it.

     Going not much further back, there's been plenty of criticism of US involvement with what's going on in Yemen and the US support for the atrocities committed by Saudi Arabia. Even including Congress voting to block arms sales, which the tangelo turdgoblin ignored.

     Then there was plenty of criticism of Papaya Palpatine's provocations of Iran, from missile strikes to outright murder of one of Iran's top military leaders.

     and on and on the list goes …

     It's a pretty long list of mainstream media criticisms of US military adventurism that you seem to have completely missed in your obsession with fringe kooks like Mate and Gabbard. Let alone that the primary function of media is to report facts, with criticism being very much a secondary function of communicating opinions.
     • Adrian Thornton 5.1.1

       9 March 2021 at 11:48 am

       " Let alone that the primary function of media is to report facts, with criticism being very much a secondary function of communicating opinions." …are you serious or taking the piss? or are you really actually saying that you actually believe media has no agenda or political position? …name us one media outlet that is unbiased and neutral.

       When you do a google search up under news, 'Biden strike in Syria', the whole first page just reports it as if it business as usual (which I guess it is), except The Washington Post….it seems any and all US war is good for them..

       'just a few weeks into his term, President Biden has dealt with a heavy burden that comes with office;when and how to use military force.."

       Can't see much push back there, I am know there is some dissent if you search for it, but of course that is not the point, because as I am sure you know, probably more than 80% of people only read the headline of the first news item they see about a subject..that is a fact, and that is what we are talking about…btw did you hear in any NZ news piece any kind of dissent or push back?
     • Siobhan 5.1.2

       9 March 2021 at 12:00 pm

       I guess it depends on your definition of 'quite a bit"…and how strongly worded criticism needs to actually be to meet any sort of threshhold. Looking through the Guardian (which I know is considered quite the legitimate news source round these parts) and I shan't bore you all with cutting and pasting the headlines ..but I assure you ..they were all spectacularly neutral ..the only criticism being one opinion piece by Tita Parsi.

       Google and follow the links for 'Biden Airstikes' and really its all pointedly neutral. Google and follow the links for 'Biden Airstrike Legality"…note the lack of your usual news sources…its just not really a thing…

       For most people who are half engaged with politics and do not have the time to dig deep, there was no criticism or contextualistion to Bidens actions.

       Though to be fair that pretty much sums up all News these days.

       https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/26/biden-iran-deal-diplomacy-syria
     • francesca 5.1.3

       9 March 2021 at 2:19 pm

       On and on the list goes??

       You had to search pretty long and hard to get your mainstream media criticism Andre

       The first 2 pages of Google were very matter of fact and had no criticism of Biden's strikes on Syria

       It's a matter of the preponderance of positive or neutral articles on US actions abroad versus the same for its enemies and rivals

       How much media attention has there been to the Swiss ditching the Browder case in comparison with the positive attention Browder has enjoyed in the western media for years?

       Did you hear about it on RNZ? or CNN?

       We endured weeks if not months of the Russian doping scandal, but very scant attention paid when the majority of the 39 Russian athletes had their doping bans overturned by the CAS and medals reinstated

       I wonder why
       • francesca 5.1.3.1

         9 March 2021 at 2:23 pm

         And this from the Nation concerning the credibility of MacLaren and Radchenko and the whole case was not picked up by any of the mass media, who pretty much all dance to the same tune these days

         https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/congress-not-honor-one-notorious-doping-cheats-time/
     • Brigid 5.1.4

       9 March 2021 at 10:42 pm

       Andre it's obvious you didn't watch the video Adrian offered so I'll fill you in some of whathave you missed.

       Aaron Mate relayed quotes or statements from:

       James F Jeffrey bragging that "United State…crushed the country's (Syria) economy"

       New York Times referring to the Syrian war as "one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the CIA"

       Washington Post describing it as "a CIA program …. with a budget approaching $1 billion a year" "One knowledgeable official estimates that CIA back fighters may have killed or wounded 100,000 Syrian soldiers and their allies over the past four years"

       Robert F Worth New York Time "In the summer of 2015 rebels were closing in on the Latakia city limits and mortars were falling downtown. If the rebels had captured the area, where Alawites are the majority, a result would most certainly have been sectarian mass murder. Many people in the area would have blamed the United States which armed some of the rebels operating in the area"

       In 2014 during an address Biden said

       "Our biggest problem is our allies. Our allies in the region were our biggest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends..The Saudis, the Emirates etc . And what were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war. What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and ten thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad except that the people who were being supplied were El Nusra and Al Aqueda and the extremest elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world" He later apologised, not because he'd make a false statement, or because he'd omitted the US's equal involvement, but because the Turks Saudis et al were offended by this revelation.

       In a leaked email in 2012 from Biden's current National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to Hiliary Clinton "Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria"

       Brett McGurt, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, in 2017 "Idlib province is the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11"

       Rob Malley, lead negotiator on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, in 2018 told Aaron "We were part of what fueled the conflict rather than stopped it"

       etc etc

       I trust you'll be able to view the rest of the video without my assistance Andre.

       Aaron Mate shows Obama massively intervened in Syria primarily through a covert giant CIA program that's led to the chaos that Syria is still recovering from today. And that it is so cynical that the US was willing to use ISIS and Al Qaeda to advance their goals of regime change

       Tulsi Gabbard is the lone voice in the US government in voicing her disgust in the regime change war that the US continues to wage in Syria using Al Qaeda, El Nusra, HTS terrorists as their proxy ground force and who now occupy and control the city of Idlib imposing Sharia law.

       I don't understand why it's necessary to refer to Aaron Mate and Tulsi Gaggard as finge kooks. It is just silly name calling. It's what 10 year olds do.

       Why are you so threatened by these people?
6. Anker 6

   9 March 2021 at 10:39 am

   Yes Adrian,,,,me too, happy to wait so the BCs are vacinated for trip to India.
7. Bearded Git 7

   9 March 2021 at 12:21 pm

   https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/109393/whether-it-be-defeating-fascist-disease-or-eliminating-coronavirus-history-teaches-us

   In the above article Chris Trotter says:

   "Multiple Ministry and DHB failures, from the unavailability of PPE, to failings at the border, and serious deficiencies in communicating clear and accurate information to the public, have all contributed to the feeling that New Zealand’s indisputable success at beating the virus has, all-too-often, been more a matter of good luck than good management."

   What a load of proverbial. Has he forgotten the marvellous communication and management skills the government, in conjunction the Ministry of Health, have exhibited in relation to Covid starting a year ago? Has he not noticed that Britain, an island similar in size to NZ, has had 124,000 covid deaths where NZ has had 26?

   Trotter says:

   "The instinct of the Ministry of Health (as well as the DHBs it relied upon to deliver on the ground) was to hold onto power at all costs. Certainly, it seemed extraordinarily reluctant to allow any outside players into the game. Nowhere was this dog-in-the-manger attitude more evident than in the Ministry’s refusal to allow the roll-out of the “smart” Covid Card developed by Trade Me founder, Sam Morgan, and the talented team of digital wizards he had assembled. Obstacle after bureaucratic obstacle was placed in front of these experts from the private sector until Morgan, his patience exhausted, simply threw up his hands in frustration and walked away."

   Has Trotter not noticed that the UK has wasted NZ$74 billion (yes seventy four billion dollars) on a private sector driven track and trace system that has failed miserably-see article below. Trotter seems to be in thrall to Sam Morgan simply because he has made a lot of money. Meanwhile the NZ government's simple and easy to use cellphone-based tracer ap works well.

   https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1406035/how-much-has-test-and-trace-cost-budget-nhs-contact-tracing-cost-evg
   • woodart 7.1

     9 March 2021 at 12:44 pm

     trotter is sounding more and more like yet another sad old git, desperately trying to remain slightly relevant . perhaps he should start a club with don brash.. oh wait, he already has….
     • Sanctuary 7.1.1

       9 March 2021 at 1:27 pm

       The whole magical thinking around Sam Morgan's COVID card is emblematic of the lack of sophistication that certain boomers have when it comes to discussing IT.

       Chris Trotter doesn't understand that we've moved on from IT versions of Magnus Pike who are impossibly smarter than the rest of us and peculiar men in Hawaiian shirts who use the command line in UNIX.
   • RedBaronCV 7.2

     9 March 2021 at 1:10 pm

     He thinks we should rely on a bunch of business leaders who grabbed every subsidy going and only paid it back after public shaming in many cases and who continued to haul down multi million salaries at the same time? Spare me.

     Most are simply generic managers with superior backstabbing skills to get to where they are. Beaverbrook they are not.
   • aj 7.3

     9 March 2021 at 1:18 pm

     NZ government's simple and easy to use cellphone-based tracer ap works well.

     Only if you have a cellphone it works on.
     • Bearded Git 7.3.1

       9 March 2021 at 2:42 pm

       2.7 million people are using the track and trace ap according to the last figure I heard….probably 3 million by now. That must be a high proportion of cell-phone users in NZ given the population is 5 million and many of them are children.
8. RedBaronCV 8

   9 March 2021 at 1:05 pm

   The source of those pamphlets discussed yesterday appears to be an overseas based religious group?

   Are the deliverers being asked to carry too heavy a load? They look like reasonably big booklets.

   And all those people who have a letterbox sign about unwanted deliveries? Keep a stock of large envelopes- put the excess material in it – address to Ovato (companies office site will have addresses and directors addresses) – never a post shop when you need one?- maybe skip that step then- put in mail.

   https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124465378/mother-disgusted-11yearold-daughter-being-asked-to-deliver-extreme-religious-publication-on-paper-round
9. Ad 9

   9 March 2021 at 3:02 pm

   First day of America's Cup 36 finals tomorrow.

   Breathless techno-sporting nationalism awaits.

   A suitably restrained event this year though.
10. satty 10

    9 March 2021 at 5:17 pm

    Good to hear:

    Charge more for flights to deter tourists and help the planet, says Air New Zealand adviser
    • Graeme 10.1

      10 March 2021 at 6:27 am

      The pre-covid levels of international travel weren't only trashing the planet.

      Going by how the New Zealand economy is currently preforming, it was a large brake on our economy due to all the money spent on outbound, and a very large proportion of inbound spend leaving the economy.

      Hopefully this government will follow Simon Upton's advice and institute a stiff departure tax to cover the carbon emissions of travel and put New Zealand tourism on a sounder environmental and fiscal footing.

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