Open mike 09/08/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 9th, 2016 - 92 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

92 comments on “Open mike 09/08/2016 ”

  1. Paul 1

    This article shows the dire state of journalism in New Zealand in 2016.
    Claire Trevett, hang your head in shame.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11689574

  2. North 2

    Alan Duff – “aspiration” – Huh !

    Let’s not miss either the straw man in this ‘Duffer’ – “Many cultures across the world have suffered horrible cruelties but haven’t all become killers and thieves.”

    So ALL Maori are that bad are they Alan ? Really ?
    What I see is a point of difference wank to rival Henry and Hosking. Not deserving of much respect in my book.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11689621

    • Paul 2.1

      What a rambling and incoherent article.
      The conclusions Duff reaches from a group of girls stealing from a dairy are quite ridiculous.
      The Herald and the establishment needs useful idiots.

    • Garibaldi 2.2

      Alan Duff has always been full of right wing drivel.

    • Sabine 2.3

      oh wow, i can see why the herald would not allow comments.

    • mauī 2.4

      Its funny Duff man wouldn’t be having this dilemma if we got a giant vacuum cleaner and sucked up everyones money in the country. Why would you go and steal tobacco then? Just shows lack of money has massive ramifications through society, and we seem perfectly ok with that.

    • weston 2.5

      You and paul up at sparrows fart hammering away at your keyboards in your undies lol and obviously before your brains were in gear !!!
      alan duffs credentials are secure and he really neednt worry too much about youre silly comparisons with hoskings and henry sayes more about youre own lack of perspective than his .
      I f you wanna believe the same old tired claptrap that the substantive reason for the amount of violence within maori cullture is a direct result of colonization its up to you but shows a slavish dependence on pc pap rather than logical deduction i.m.h.o.
      Perhaps you should consider READING a book north.

      • marty mars 2.5.1

        Funny how colonised peoples end up on the bottom of the head eh brainy. Duff is one dimensional. You appear to be getting up to that level perhaps with more critical thinking application.

      • joe90 2.5.2

        alan duffs credentials are secure

        Damn right they are – as a pre-bankruptcy fugitive who stiffed his creditors, the piece of shit diddled one woman of an age out of $424,000, while living and working in the style he deemed appropriate for himself and his family.

        • weston 2.5.2.1

          Well he wouldnt be the first person to come a cropper from delving into property developement an i doubt he’ll be the last either and so what if he was made bankrupt lots of people have made good after becoming bankrupt and he may do also .
          Alan duff gave us Once were warriors and books in homes thats good enough for me . His personal relationships are none of my business.
          Thanks for the beautiful pics of france from the “working ” link what wonderfull creative souls must have built such special places !!makes nz seem like a hick town .

      • North 2.5.3

        Weston you’re a dick. You have absolutely no knowledge of my educational level……I can tell you however that it did occasion intimate familiarity with ‘books’, over some years. And with far, far better grammar, diction and results I daresay, than you seem capable of.

        Duff is one of those stinking kupapa Maori. Not much better than the white trash I suspect you to be…….if we’re going to address “undies” at dawn.

      • ropata 2.5.4

        [citation needed]

        the academic literature doesn’t support your claim at all.

        • weston 2.5.4.1

          Citation for what ropata ? You got “citation ” for your claim of “academic literature “? Im sure the list is long … very long…but thats part of the problem i.m.h.o.

  3. b waghorn 3

    holy fuck keys lost it he was just on henry saying we don’t need Labours very popular kiwi build because the private sector is going to build 100,000 houses in the next 3 years instead of labours 10. please remind him of this Mr Littlewhen he says labour can’t get it done

    • ropata 3.1

      FJK is going to solve the housing crisis with bullshit? Hasn’t worked yet…

      • b waghorn 3.1.1

        I believe some african villages build houses out of that very thing so maybe keys onto something.

    • RedBaronCV 3.2

      Softening us up for awarding a large contract to China – complete with imported overseas workers to produce the next leaky building crisis?

  4. Gosman 4

    One of the reasons the Union movement is in serious decline around the Western World.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/08/secret-life-trade-union-employee-work-benefits-workers-rights

    • Ooooh, the politics of envy, Gossie! The funny thing is that the writer accurately describes what most TS readers imagine your working day to be. ie coffee, pissing about on the internet, not achieving anything worthwhile … I note this is not written by a union official, so doesn’t actually say anything about the work unions do. Just a disgruntled grunt venting.

    • Muttonbird 4.2

      Anonymous, eh? Seems legit.

      • Gosman 4.2.1

        Yes because the Guardian is a rabid anti-worker rag.

        • Sanctuary 4.2.1.1

          The Guardian is the paper of liberal urbanistas who like to think they are progressive whilst quietly being quite happy with winning from neoliberalism.

          The veneer of the Guardian being genuinely left wing has been brutally ripped away by it’s repsonse to two events of actual popular democracy that ran against the comfortable received wisdom of it’s journalists and commentators.

          First, the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader saw the Guardian do a complete melt down. It’s defence of the established Blairite order is hysterical. In fact, it is so OTT that the paper has almost certainly suffered mortal damage to it’s reputation.

          The Guardians extreme position in defence of the 1990s Blairist PLP consensus is actually quite sinister when you couple it with how closely aligned with the anti-Corbyn plotters the Labour Friends of Israel group is, and how the Guardian carefully controls it’s coverage of the middle east. Future historians will surely unravel exactly how active an agent Israel has been in managing to plant such favourable fifth columns of supporters at the very top of democratic parties in the West.

          Secondly, the reaction to the Brexit vote was astonishingly elitist and anti democratic. The line from the Guardian was some kind of mistake had occurred, the chavs and prols were too ignorant to count, that the result should be somehow overturned, and that never again should the popular vote be used to decide anything. If you are a student of history who puzzles over how dictatorships come to pass then it would repay studying just how thin the veneer of respect for democracy actually is in the urban liberal elites when their will is contradicted by their social inferiors, even in a country as supposedly democratic as the UK.

          • Paul 4.2.1.1.1

            The Guardian has also showed its colours over Israel, Scotland and the Ukraine.

            • Colonial Viper 4.2.1.1.1.1

              And in their treatment of Assange, Greenwald, Appelbaum and Poitras.

              • Paul

                At least its veneer has been removed and it’s now been revealed for what it is. Just another pillar of the establishment.
                As a matter of interest, what sources do you use to keep abreast of news from Britain?

  5. Sabine 5

    but but

    we don’t have the resources
    all our builders are stretched thin
    and the councils are not helping
    and and and and

    oh the poor dear, someone quickly help him to a ponytail, he needs some stress relive

  6. ropata 6

    .
    Emmerson nails it with “John Key Pied Piper” Kiwis want to be rid of rats, stoats and pests

  7. Sanctuary 7

    I am staying with my family just now, and they listen to the Edge in the morning. Christ almighty, how do people listen to such puerile, infantile drivel every fucking day of their life?

    • Ad 7.1

      It’ll do you good.

      • Sanctuary 7.1.1

        They had some no name on just now having a blokey chat about who he’d shag amongst our female olympians, it is all humour you understand. So much for feminism.

        • Corokia 7.1.1.1

          Sexism is a bit more subtle on Morning Report. I heard Guyon discussing Trump’s campaign this morning. Apparently Trump is going for the women’s vote with tax deductible child care. Oh right, that must be because child care is just a woman’s responsibility.
          Not in the same league as the misogynist offensive shit on commercial stations, but still showing how ingrained attitudes to women’s roles are, even in some educated men

          • Colonial Viper 7.1.1.1.1

            And can you believe it, despite all this 40% to 45% of College educated American women still refuse to support Hillary in this coming election. Gender traitors and failed feminists all.

            • marty mars 7.1.1.1.1.1

              THAT is a pretty horrible comment – shame on you.

              • Colonial Viper

                Shame on these 40% to 45% of College educated women who still refuse to support Hillary Clinton knowing the stakes if Trump gets in because of their misjudgement.

                Madeline Albright, a woman who helped lead the way into the top levels of US Government said it best earlier this year when she was campaigning for Clinton:

                “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” she said.

                Gloria Steinem, veteran feminist leader, went further and accused young women who did not back Hillary Clinton of being too immature and too interested in chasing men to vote the right (Clinton) way.

                http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/us/politics/gloria-steinem-madeleine-albright-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html?_r=0

                • You have no right on any level to direct that nasty slur upon women you deem failed feminists and gender traitors. Trumpitis is making you stink.

                  • Colonial Viper

                    These are the very sentiments of the Washington glass breaking feminists and Clinton supporters, Albright and Steinem. I’m only repeating them. And I don’t need you to define my rights for me thanks.

                    • McFlock

                      Nobody defined your rights.
                      Marty just described the odour that you emit when you appropriate comments you don’t believe about issues you don’t understand in order to support a presidential candidate you cannot defend without concern-trolling.

                    • As usual you know best eh – repeating them to bait and offer snideness – such meager fair.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      Everyone can read the New York Times link for themselves and see what Clinton supporters Albright and Steinem think about those women who refuse to vote Hillary.

                    • McFlock nailed it – you’ve got nothing.

                    • One Two []

                      That’s a strange statement laeced with helpings of agenda bias of its own

                      The comments posted by Colonial Viper are perfectly relevant in context

                      Choosing to not see the relevance doesn’t make it disappear

                      So many ostriches

                • Garibaldi

                  On ya CV. I don’t give any credence to anyone who says you have to vote for Hillary because she is a woman. To all you others I despise Trump too.

                  • North

                    But CV doesn’t despise Trump. He loves Trump. Trump’s an ‘opportunity’ for CV. To flaunt his bitter weirdness about the NZLP. Which is making TS (where CV figures) quite unreadable frankly. Do you have the slightest idea of how risibly playschool and infantile you make look your vaunted, pure, impeccable, omnipresent leftness CV ? Obviously not. You continue to lather, self righteously. Pain in the arse who adds nothing I’m sorry. In contrast to the person who always added heaps when he wasn’t obssessed and bitter.

                • weka

                  “Shame on these 40% to 45% of College educated women who still refuse to support Hillary Clinton knowing the stakes if Trump gets in because of their misjudgement.”

                  Citation for all of that please.

            • Corokia 7.1.1.1.1.2

              WTF have your anti-Clinton feelings got to do with my comment about a New Zealand male journalist/presenter expressing the view that child care is a women’s issue?
              Excuse me, but child care is an issue for PARENTS, you know mothers AND fathers.
              But no, you can’t let a chance go by to make yourself heard.
              Thanks CV (sarc)
              Just another example of shouting women down when we speak up against sexism.

            • Rodel 7.1.1.1.1.3

              CV You ask,,” Can you believe it?”
              Answer- No! Why would we?
              Come up with raw data..not manicured percentages.

  8. Sanctuary 8

    So the UK PLP and the NEC have lost again in the courts, and Corbyn supporters have swept the ticket on elections for the NEC

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/08/labour-must-allow-all-members-leadership-vote-court-rules

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/high-court-rules-new-labour-members-can-vote-in-leadership-contest-a7178791.html

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-to-appeal-high-court-ruling-that-new-members-should-have-right-to-vote-in-leadership-election-a7179066.html

    Everytime they go to court they lose. Of course, the PLP and the NEC refuse to allow reality to intrude, and they plan to appeal, despite being more or less told it will be pointless.

    Given the attitude of utter delusional denial and complete arrogance from the Blairites, I fully expect they’ll actually go for the nuclear option and split the party, and probably try and seize the party assets and name in yet another long and damaging legal process they will lose. The Blairites really are a Tory fifth column.

    • Bearded Git 8.1

      Who would trust the Blairites to lead the UK after these fiascos?

      They were always going to lose this case and the previous one brought by the Blairite donor. Incompetent, and no conception of fairness or democracy.

      • ropata 8.1.1

        the blairites are just following orders from their financial backers. seems like the current plan is to blow themselves up and take the whole Labour Party with them

    • ianmac 8.2

      Sanctuary: No Right Turn reports that:
      “Labour has decided to appeal a High Court ruling, passed down on Monday which suggested the party’s governing body had illegally barred 130,000 people from voting in the leadership election.”

      Incredible. I suppose like our Government shopping around until they get the answer that they want, so are the UK Labour Party shopping for a sympathetic Court.

    • Thanks Scott. This fits with cv’s view. I am not in agreement because I just don’t think trump will do much of what he has promised once the realities of the seat hit home.

      • McFlock 9.1.1

        Like most “Trump good” analyses, it relies on omitting Trump policies that the author disagrees with.

        In this case, the author talks about Trump wanting to lower US expenditure on NATO and pivot/withdraw away from Asian deployments. The author does not mention that Trump was the NATO expenditure to be made up by the 28 or so NATO states that are currently not spending 4% of their GDP on defense, as mandated during the Cold War. He still sees increasing numbers of US-made tanks on Russia’s borders, just with different flags painted on them.

        More concerning is his solution to withdrawing from Korea and Japan while ensuring that they are still under a nuclear umbrella: ditching the non-proliferation treaty and pressuring Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear weapons. This will simply result in a quid-pro-quo by the Russians and Chinese, who will export nuclear weapon technology as a means of gaining especially favoured allies in Africa, Asia and maybe South America. Only Russia and China will do it to expand their influence, while little-fingers-on-little-hands would be doing it to try to reduce its influence.

        As for NZ having an independent foreign policy, international politics are schoolyard rules: the weak kid with no big friends gets bullied. With a Trump presidency, we’re fucked in trade and regional influence.

        • One Two 9.1.1.1

          With a Trump presidency, we’re fucked in trade and regional influence

          As Trump has no history in politics at any level, your statement is completely baseless

          Which is why I assume posters such as CV might be prepared to take the chance of the ‘unknown’

          • McFlock 9.1.1.1.1

            Without a track record of action, all we have are his words.

            My point was that this means one has to examine all his words, even the stupid ones. Especially the stupid ones.

            The man is a foreign policy minnow, as you admit, and sharks swim in those global waters.

          • joe90 9.1.1.1.2

            As Trump has no history in politics at any level,

            Well, none other than the numerous expressions of interest and that one time he was considered as a running mate and that other time when he actually had a tilt at the Presidency.

            But chin up, chump, I’m sure you’ll do better next time.
            //

            Involvement in politics, 1988–2015

            Trump first expressed interest in running for office in 1987, when he spent $100,000 to place full page ads critiquing U.S. defense policy in several newspapers.[230][231]

            Trump floated the idea of running for president in 1988, 2004, and 2012, and for Governor of New York in 2006 and 2014, but did not enter those races.[232][233] He was considered as a potential running mate for George H. W. Bush on the Republican Party’s 1988 presidential ticket but lost out to future Vice President Dan Quayle. There is dispute over whether Trump or the Bush camp made the initial pitch.[234]

            In 1999, Trump filed an exploratory committee to seek the presidential nomination of the Reform Party in 2000.[235][236] A July 1999 poll matching him against likely Republican nominee George W. Bush and likely Democratic nominee Al Gore showed Trump with seven percent support.[237] Trump eventually dropped out of the race due to party infighting, but still won the party’s California and Michigan primaries after doing so.[238][239][240][241]

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump#Involvement_in_politics.2C_1988.E2.80.932015

  9. ianmac 10

    Not sure if details already given last night but:
    The full poll results are: Labour 32.7% + Greens 11.5% = 44.2%. National 45.1%. New Zealand First 8.1%

  10. ianmac 11

    Women’s Rugby 7 win Silver loosing to Australia in Final. Pretty good! Congratulations.

  11. Poission 12

    NZ hits > then 90 % of renewable electricity generation feb to july.

    Mostly due to hydro levels being 140% of capacity.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1608/S00257/new-zealand-heads-towards-90-renewable-generation.htm

  12. xanthe 13

    Now this looks interesting for the Auckland mayoralty
    https://twitter.com/_chloeswarbrick

  13. xanthe 14

    Or maby no so
    http://www.chloeforauckland.co.nz/#/housing-rates-policy/

    “I propose a rates calculation based on one thing alone:
    Land Value”

  14. adam 16

    Ajamu Baraka – I like this guy. Glad he is VP for the Greens. Talks about people’s agency and alternative power.

  15. Paul 17

    Uber.
    So dodgy even Simon Bridges criticises them.
    This tax evading multinational needs to be shown the door.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/310512/uber-'mocking'-nz-laws-transport-minister

  16. adam 18

    I have the utmost respect for Cornel West

    http://www.cornelwest.com

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West

    Great interview, looks like the Greens convention is going well. Lots of ideas being discussed and lots of really good people involved.

  17. mary_a 19

    From Aljazeera …

    Israel’s dirty, shameful little secret. Abducting, selling and giving away Arab babies to Israeli Jews in the 1950s! Sickening!

    Yet to criticize Israel for anything, invites accusations of antisemitism! The rest of the world needs to wake up to exactly what Israel is … a rogue nation, rotten to its core!

    This one is about as disgraceful as it gets.

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/shocking-story-israel-disappeared-babies-160803081117881.html

    • adam 19.1

      mary_a one way to fight zionism, and not get sucked into a debate about anti semitism is to use good language.

      For example: You could have said “Abducting, selling and giving away Arab babies to Israeli citizens in the 1950s! Sickening!”

      Thereby making it squarely about the state of Israel and the nature of zionism as a failed project on so many levels. Instead you opened yourself up to a anti-semitic criticism by saying “Israeli Jews”.

      Zionism is not Judaism, and to criticize an ideology is not criticising a people. No matter how much these zealots want that to be the case.

      • McFlock 19.1.1

        Well said.

        Especially as this appears to be good old fashioned colonial racism – the babies were taken from Jewish families who were Arab and given to Jewish couples who were European, by a state led by Europeans. Another Stolen Generation.

        • joe90 19.1.1.1

          Especially as this appears to be good old fashioned colonial racism

          They were pretty damn good at good old fashioned xenophobia, too.

          “Soaps”

          A nickname coined by the Sabras during the 1948 War of Independence, a relic of the soap industry that developed in the death camps (a tale that probably has no grounding in reality). The nickname portrayed the “Holocaust Remnants” as pale, cowardly and weak, as compared to the tanned, brawny and heroic Sabras. They called the survivors cakes of soap.

          But during WWII, the tanned Sabras evaded service and even digging ditches. Being citizens of the British Mandate, they were not obligated to enlist. There were indeed some who volunteered and enlisted for combat duty in the British army, but the vast majority found ways to evade combat. Some did so in a “Zionist” manner, others just shirked the responsibility and acted for their own benefit.

          The fallen soldiers of the 1948 War of Independence were: 3000 of the original settlement, which consisted of 600,000 individuals, and 3000 “soap” soldiers, derived from a population of 60,000 men and women who immigrated to Israel in 1941-1948. These “cakes of soap” comprised 5% of the population, while the figure of those in service from the old settlement was 0.5%.

          http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/15/the-holocaust-and-zionisms-broken-oath/

    • joe90 19.2

      This one is about as disgraceful as it gets.

      Nah, they’re doing way worse shit.

      A few months ago, I reported here on the case of Baby Adele, the Palestinian infant who was essentially stolen by the Israeli welfare ministry from her biological mother and father. To recap the sad tale, Daniela Vaknin, who was raised in a troubled Jewish home, married a Palestinian man. Together they had a baby they named Adele.

      But they had a problem. Or I should say they were a problem. Israel officially disapproves of miscegenation. The idea of a Jewish woman marrying an Arab is a social phenomenon that Israeli racialists like Bentzi Gopstein and his terror group, Lehava, rail against.

      […]

      The welfare ministry awarded Adele to an ultra-Orthodox couple as foster parents, with the intent of moving to adoption as soon as possible. But there was a minor fly in the ointment. The foster couple divorced. Then officials had a quandary: you cannot award a child to a single parent. But they fixed that quick by finding a new woman for him to marry. Now the new couple has resumed the adoption process and it is close to finalized.

      But Daniela still believes she has a chance to redeem Adele from the social welfare system. Before she gave birth, she went before a Sharia court (an officially-recognized Israeli State body) and attested to judges that she had converted to Islam. As far as Israeli law is concerned, after their approval she was officially recognized as Muslim.

      http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/05/26/baby-adele-stolen-by-israeli-welfare-ministry-from-israeli-palestinian-couple-placed-for-orthodox-adoption/

      • North 19.2.1

        Who doesn’t think Netanyahu and the upper echelon Zionists are but Nazis ? And who doesn’t think that callow Israeli teenagers who viciously define Palestinians as “not even human”, saying they deserve death, are but followers of Zionist Nazis ?

  18. The Chairman 20

    Households went through $4 million of extra power over the weekend.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/82945808/wintry-blast-could-prove-expensive-for-businesses-households

  19. Chooky 21

    Who is spying on who?…and why?

    ‘One bug to rule them all: ‘State-supported’ Project Sauron malware attacks world’s top PCs’

    https://www.rt.com/news/355165-sauron-malware-cyber-espionage/

    “Two top electronic security firms have discovered a new powerful malware suite being used to target just dozens of high-value targets around the world. The research shows that it was likely developed on the orders of a government engaging in cyber espionage.
    The California-based Symantec has labeled the group behind the attack Strider, while Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs dubbed it ProjectSauron. Both are references to J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, a nod to the fact that the original malware code contained the word “Sauron.”…

    https://www.rt.com/news/353990-russia-cyber-attack-hackers/

    https://www.rt.com/usa/353840-us-intelligence-hyperventilation-dnc-hack/

  20. A patient story regarding Medical Cannabis, this time from one of your own readership here at the standard.
    http://mcawarenessnz.org/2016/08/09/chronic-pain-edge-society/

  21. Rodel 23

    Commented the other day on Trump’s mental instability.
    Now he’s saying Clinton is mentally unstable, complete with his idiotic artificial TV induced hand gestures and insincere body language.
    Pots and kettles abound. He really is a raving loony. God save America! …God.. are you bloody listening?