Open mike 09/11/2014
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7:30 am, November 9th, 2014 - 57 comments
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The economy shrank 1% this quarter and New Zealand has tumbled into the depths of a recession of Nicola Willis’ making. ...4 days ago
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Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...5 days ago
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Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...5 days ago
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The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...6 days ago
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WTF ???
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11355618
Reminds me of a story about Pat Lam (Samoa coach/captain?) in a tournament here in NZ.
Manu Samoa travel from the airport over the Harbour Bridge to a budget hotel in Devonport. Other national teams go to salubrious accommodations in the CBD. Lam gets off the bus, inspects, gets back on the bus and tells his team they’re not staying there.
Apocryphal ? I don’t know but if it’s not then League in it’s management of the current Four Nations has surely surpassed Union’s gold-standard in gratuitous insult. No wonder my Samoan mates complain bitterly that ‘star-farming’ Polynesia gets ripped-off. In fact I’ve just now spoken to one such – his lament – “Same old same old…….”
Poppy Bullshit a problem in England….
http://noglory.org/index.php/articles/363-this-year-s-poppy-appeal-song-is-a-disgrace-and-should-be-withdrawn
Poppy Bullshit also a problem in New Zealand….
PEACE POPPY
Date Posted: April 16, 2014
https://www.rsa.org.nz/blog/donmciver/peacepoppy
I have been concerned to find that an organization is conducting a White Poppy campaign on or around the RSA Poppy Day. There is little doubt that they are piggy backing both on the poppy and on Anzac Commemorations. I believe that they say they are collecting for peace but I have some difficulty with the suggestion that the iconic red poppy does not do that anyway.
The Flanders Poppy is one of the best known and most iconic lapel brands in New Zealand and the Commonwealth. Its immediate purpose is to show gratitude for donations made to the support and well being of veterans, service people and their families. Its origin lies in the red poppies which appeared in the mud and gore of those battlefields at Flanders after the guns had stopped firing. They are a powerful representation of the return to peace and the stability after those tumultuous years of conflict.
Today the red poppy is more than just a small token of thanks from the RSA. It represents the gratitude we feel for all servicemen and women, in all conflicts, who agreed to put their lives in harm’s way because their country asked it of them. It represents their deep desire to contribute to world peace and stability when our nation had concluded that this could only be achieved through opposing forces for evil or disharmony. It represents the sacrifice they and their families made.
In my view there is no more powerful single image of our nation’s thirst for peace. The Red Poppy is the peace poppy.
DON McIVER
National President, RSA
https://www.rsa.org.nz/blog/donmciver/peacepoppy
I have no problems with the White Poppy just choose a different day…Armistice Day seems a more natural day for them and they’d probably raise more money
You’re objecting to the White Poppy campaign because you’ve heard the RSA objecting to it. The RSA has little or no right to make moral judgements. It still has not apologised for runing poems in its magazine in PRAISE of the murderers and cowards in the Anzac Mounted Rifles, who in December 1918, rounded up more than one hundred boys and men in the Palestinian village of Surafend, then methodically clubbed them to death…..
http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1115959
I beg your pardon? Who do you think you are to tell me where I get my objections from? You know nothing of my background nor my families and my opinions are my own.
The reason you’re objecting to Don McIver is because you’re naive and ignorant
I beg your pardon? Who do you think you are to tell me where I get my objections from? You know nothing of my background nor my families and my opinions are my own.
Which just happen to match, word for word, what the RSA has said ad nauseam since the White Poppy campaign began.
The reason you’re objecting to Don McIver is because you’re naive and ignorant
No, I object to Don McIver because his comments on this matter have been ignorant and hypocritical, and also because he heads the RSA, an organization which has yet to apologize for its printing of doggerel verse praising the rounding up and clubbing to death by Anzac Light Horse “soldiers” of more than one hundred boys and men in the village of Surafend.
I lost all respect for the RSA when they took the poppy making off kiwi”s who needed and wanted the work for cheap Chinese ones . shows they’be become a profiteering racket
Everyone makes mistakes (even really bad ones) but its the putting right that counts
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10201610/Anzac-poppy-contract-returns-home
Not clear if its giving work back to the original makers but at least they are back in Nz. Humble pie doesn’t taste so bad .
Gah on Q&A the commentators have passed comment on how Key’s handling of Pike River was well weighted as was his handling of the contribution to the ISIS war. The comment was made that he had done just enough to be seen to be doing his bit while not enough to put soldiers in the firing line. They also said that the debate about what we are doing off shore will die down.
Please media. Tell us what is going on. Do not tell us what to think.
The NZ media is simply a propaganda tool.
Ain’t gonna happen so work with the new paradigm
How is it that Groser’s Q & A interviewer can blithely question Groser in these terms……”But Mr Groser isn’t it in YOUR interests……..” ?
For God’s Sake ! What are, and how can Groser’s individual interests be legitimately pursued in this context ? He constantly assures us it is ‘steady as she goes…..’ and that the National Party is directed to working in New Zealand’s interests which might even require that the TPPA never results. ‘Steady as she goes…..trust us we’re acting in YOUR interests.’
It’s appalling that the interviewer seems to allow of and be ‘relaxed’ more or less with the fact of individual interest. That of course is the foundation on which the neuter MSM routinely predicates its examination and reporting of the political process. Who best plays the ‘game’ so to speak. It remains extremely alarming nevertheless.
English utterly unconvincing on National Radio this morning about state housing.
There was never any sense he gave a damn about families needing a house – it was policy tinkering language.
A good chunk of Double Dipton’s Karori house is from the state’s purse. Good for him for getting his share of state housing. Can we all haz some.
Bill has never been convincing.
Since 2002 and the knives from key etc he comes across like a corporate cull consultant yawning his way through another restructure.
He makes sure him and his own do very nicely and soon as they lose he will shoot through.
Bill English has talked about waiting lists before. Here he is….
Quote from Ali Ikram
‘Who will be the one to tell the PM the All Blacks are all members of a union and get a mandatory 10 minute break every 40 minutes?’
A bit like us:
Pregnant, and No Civil Rights
I doubt if the judge was then booked for murder.
Thing is, these same things will happen in NZ if we keep going down the same RWNJ path that National has us on.
Thanks, that’s some serious shit. And yesterday we had that discussion about foetal alcohol syndrome in NZ, with the implication of criminal liability for women that drink during pregnancy.
There’s a couple of other things here. One is that the historical high caesarian rate in the US is partly a consequence of their mix of litigation culture with medical practitioner entitlement i.e. obstetricians needing to perform caesarians in case something goes wrong with the labour and they get sued. Women have been forced into birth surgery for reasons other than foetus rights.
The abortion issue and the litigation/medico-entitlement issue overlap and highlight that gains that women have made are allowed gains and can be taken away again (ditto other people too). We don’t have human rights. This is why so called identity politics are so crucial. The dynamics reported in the article aren’t a result of an unfair economic system. Ending capitalism won’t change the inherent moral imperative that says women don’t have sovereignty over their bodies. As long as the patriarchy/kyriarchy/domination system prevails at the expense of egalitarianism, there will always be a battle to stop women’s politics and needs being subsumed for the greater good of the culture (be it foetal rights, or left wing agendas).
Those who deny Climate Change and their use of the media…..is the feature of Colin Peacocks Media Watch
…and Mathew Hooton the right wing spinner and expert on Ninetonoon, arch critic of the Greens and who advocates the Greens joining with Nactional !…..receives a mention! ( OMG!…would he rewrite Green policy to deny Climate Change?…his nerve knows no bounds!)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20156538
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/20156538/mediawatch-for-9-november-2014
Mediawatch for 9 November 2014 ( 30′ )
09:09 A conversation that wound up climate change campaigners and skeptics – and other contrary climate claims in the media; the complex deals done to get local shows on commercial TV; one man’s mission to revive a long-lost quiz.
Wallace Chapman runs a great programme. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
http://www.prosperity.com/#!/ranking
The 2014 Legatum Prosperity Index ranks 142 nations on their “wealth and wellbeing” in eight categories, including health, education, safety and security, and economy.
– This is what you get after six years of National, shocking eh
“Data” from a right wing
think tanklie factory supports right wing politics. Are you the Legatum Institute’s pimp?Yep keep telling yourself that also the polls don’t matter either 🙂
Right wing lie factory succeeds in manipulating public opinion after spending millions of dollars on lies. Are you their cheerleader as well as their pimp?
Let me put it this way: National can put through whatever bill or law it wants whereas parties on the left can’t
Its really that simple and nothing else matters
Keep telling yourself that.
Hows Metireas bill going?
It’s going to demonstrate what a pack of murderous low life scum you are.
Actually its going to prove that being power is better then being out of power but I wouldn’t worry it as Keys going to do something about it which will be a lot more successful then some half-cocked rubbish thought up by Hone and carried on by the Greens
Key is going to fail (in fact he isn’t even going to try), then lie about the statistics, and you will help him kill more children.
So how did throwing out mindless, over the top statements help the left this election
Lets see Labour had its worst result in over 90 years and the Greens went backwards
I’m surprised you didn’t finish off with a stanza or two of The Red Flag though in Labours case they may want to change it to The White Flag
🙂
And I’m not surprised that you are ignoring the list of deaths from preventable poverty related diseases.
“Mortality with a social gradient” the professionals call it.
When you’re not denying it you’re busy telling everyone it’s the deceased’s fault.
Keys track record is success whereas Hones is failure and the Greens well 25 years and still not in government says it all
So like crime, unemployment, the economy Key will make significant improvements here and the left can…well the lefts irrelevant at the moment so it doesn’t really matter what the left do
🙂
There are plenty of things the Left can do, Treasury benches or not.
Meanwhile, don’t forget what Dirty John said about arrogance, chump.
There are plenty of things the Left can do, Treasury benches or not.
– Like what? A protest no one cares about or going on strike which most people view as an inconvenience
Meanwhile, don’t forget what Dirty John said about arrogance, chump
– Good thing hes the leader then isn’t it…well not so good for left of course
🙂
Well, Key’s and the right-wing’s use of them successfully kept the Left out of government.
Only if you consider having more of them an improvement.
Well Draco myself and over million voters are going to have to disagree with you on this
Can someone please remind me what function is served by allowing right-wing fuckwits to spout National Party propaganda all over what is supposed to be a left-wing blog?
@ felix.
Completely. Fucking. Agree.
Ignore the tr***
“National can put through whatever bill or law it wants whereas parties on the left can’t”
and right there is where you dishonestly shift the goalposts
you started with dodgy stats, moved to popularity and now your starting in with house majorities.
Google Legatum
They are based in Dubai.
I think you know this.
Andrea Vance isn’t mincing her words.
Here s a laugh
ISIS was a model of a Morris car back in the 60s
I know totally of no value in its current context on the news
But you just never know when every thing is important with meta data collection
Maybe its just something Key has a private bit of madness about in his own guilt of how he describes his childhood in the 60s and tells all those lies about being poor when everyone knows it different and now all his money is up for scrutiny in ANY conflicts of interest as a public official ,when he is doing the will of Britain the US etc
Like maintaining Rio Tinto in NZ for Britain when economically its a dead loss for NZ
GET MY DRIFT
This little piece from Malaysia links recent changes to their labour laws to readiness for the TPPA.
http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=390982:msia-land-of-the-working-dead?-signing-tppa-will-further-erode-workers-rights-psm&Itemid=2#axzz3IWkp9SgP
After reading Mr Grosers comments this morning, I am so tempted to add a disclaimer…’ the names and places have been changed to protect the guilty’.
Felix above
“Can someone please remind me what function is served by allowing right-wing fuckwits to spout National Party propaganda all over what is supposed to be a left-wing blog?”
+100
It’s all done to derail conversations.
If I want to hear rwnjs, there are plenty of other places to turn to…………
And it turns people off this site.
Well me anyway.
Yep. I spend too much time just scrolling through trole-centred conversations until I get bored and finally join in.
Yes because the absolute worst thing the left could do is listen to different opinions
That presupposes that your opinions are original, useful, or offered with genuine constructive intent.
A magic 8 ball would be more useful.
It is certain.
Listening to opinions of people who get basic facts wrong is not particularly helpful.
+1
They just spout slogans and do it in bad faith.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11354344
And the modern day slaver will ensure the utility of the ‘business tool’ of modern day slavery by refusing to employ anyone who can’t show experience of modern day slavery.
The script written by Crosby Textor of course. “Very well young man…….welcome to the team, as of tomorrow. Your unspecified pay starts in six months. Completely voluntary of course. ACT Corporation is a fervent believer in freedom of choice…….oh by the way, tomorrow bring in confirmation of your self-funded public liability cover, there’s a good chap.”
Far fetched ? Yeah. The risk of imminent mortality for the slaver far too high. I mean who could blame the slave ?
Global Wealth Inequality – What you never knew you never knew (Video)
“There are things like the Len Brown affair…”
You’re joking right ?
……and as for the dirty politics book the most astute overview IMO was this piece in the herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11323792
I’ve seen better. That piece is trying to say Hager was wrong in what he did, and that Gusher Collins (for example) was just trash talking to impress her buddy Slug Boy. That might be OK except that she gave him names of people to trash. It should be the job of the GCSB to intercept communications between conspirators against our democracy. Why didn’t they intercept these? Or if they did, why wasn’t Key informed? Or if he was,……..? Nah mate, Rawshark was our last line of defence.