Open mike 10/07/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 10th, 2019 - 126 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open 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 …

126 comments on “Open mike 10/07/2019 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Sacha 1
    10 July 2019 at 8:01 am

    Well-written article about how our govt decided not to cover all people harmed by the Chch mosque terror attacks:

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/07/09/674024/ministers-vetoed-acc-extension-for-terror-victims

    • Shadrach 1.1
      10 July 2019 at 7:10 pm

      No-one should qualify for ACC as a result of what happened in Chch. What happened was not an 'accident'. It was a deliberate act of evil by someone with a sick mind.

  2. Sacha 2
    10 July 2019 at 8:07 am

    How Auckland Transport refuses to act against rogue car parking: https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2019/07/08/auckland-transports-parking-nonsense/

    So people asked the question: “Why won’t you enforce the rules against parking on the verge?”

    AT referred to a legal problem, while refusing to provide any details, and pointed people to the supposed need for a further law change, or additional signage everywhere.

    Other councils didn’t require this change to take action. So when NZTA consulted about a change, many people rightly considered it unnecessary.

    You see, the problem here is not the law.

    • RedLogix 2.1
      10 July 2019 at 8:22 am

      The core problem, that AT is probably aware of, that the law is largely unenforceable because there are more cars than carparks.

      • greywarshark 2.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 10:55 am

        I have had a licensed vehicle parked and never moved outside my home for months. The Council can't do anything about it because it is licensed till September. I am thinking of checking with the police to see if it is reported stolen.

        The streets are clogged with cars parked on the kerb, often because the owners can't be bothered maneouvring into their garages or car parks. At the kerb they sit, ready to go in seconds. Some have bigger vehicles than car parking provided. Some leave them there for days, then use them, returning to the same spot or nearby. Rarely is the street free of cars. When tradespeople, visitors want to park they have to search for a spot. It isn't satisfactory, and the streets are narrowed by cars on both sides. Some park out from the kerb by about 30 cm, which then reduces space for cyclists and cars using the space.

        But cyclists don't mind really, they all use the footpath, swishing along behind you before you know they are there. Bells announce them so you can move out of their way. Does anyone think about them having to dismount and walk the bike round citizens using the path, for whom the paths were originally formed?

  3. esoteric pineapples 3
    10 July 2019 at 9:04 am

    This fascinating documentary focuses primarily on the use of methamphetamines by the German military during World War II and Hitler's personal drug habits but it also mentions a fact I've found mentioned elsewhere, which is the allies (and Japan) preferred amphetamines which they gave to troops in millions of pills. Among those who were given them were allied troops in North Africa which would have included New Zealand soldiers. But I have never heard of any research etc into drug use among New Zealand soldiers during World War II. I wonder if New Zealand soldiers got addicted and if this might have contributed to alcoholism among New Zealand soldiers when they returned home (not having access to amphetamines). Amphetamine use by New Zealand soldiers during WWII would make interesting area for someone to research perhaps?



    • greywarshark 3.1
      10 July 2019 at 10:57 am

      I'd heard about the USA giving LSD to airmen as it allowed them to undertake longer flights. (The doses would have to be carefully managed so they didn't forget that they were piloting a plane with a mission.)

      • joe90 3.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 2:58 pm

        Go pills are a thing.

      • McFlock 3.1.2
        10 July 2019 at 3:10 pm

        LSD sounds odd (not a stimulant), but there was a case over Afghanistan where two US F16 pilots bombed and killed some Canadians. Part of their largely unsuccessful defense was that their amphetamine use for the mission made them more likely to identify unrelated actions as threats.

        I remember a sequence in a Nicholas Monsarrat book (The Cruel Sea, probably) where the captain needed to out-wait a submerged Uboat so got the doctor to give him some uppers. The doctor kept them on a tight leash. Yes, fiction, but I mention it because Monsarrat is to WW2 convoy escort duty what Le Carre is to cold war esionage: a practitioner writing about what he knows.

        • Sacha 3.1.2.1
          10 July 2019 at 9:29 pm

          LeCarre certainly captures all the tiniest details. Have you been watching the latest version of Little Drummer Girl on tv1?

          • McFlock 3.1.2.1.1
            10 July 2019 at 9:49 pm

            The Alexander Skarsgård one? Yup, really well done.

            Apparently Le Carre's written a brexit one – I'll be really interested to see the mix of tech and spycraft in that. So many ultra-modern spy things are gadgets beating gadgets rather than the human touch. Not to mention that they ignore the longer term goals for the immediate ones – e.g. Bond is just using a cover to stay undetected (even officially) long enough to kill someone, he never uses a cover for weeks or months.

    • The Al1en 3.2
      10 July 2019 at 4:34 pm

      Emergency rations for British soldiers in ww2 consisted of speed laced chocolate. It was an offence to consume them unless directed to by an officer. I would imagine, though of course I could be wrong, NZ, Aus and Canadian troops would have had similar provisions with the same level of control over their use.

    • WeTheBleeple 3.3
      10 July 2019 at 7:02 pm

      The Wolves of War: Evidence of an Ancient Cult of Warrior Lycanthropy

      "The legendary wine of Thrace was particularly potent through the addition of a psychoactive mushroom. The rituals of the women known as bacchants enacted the fantasies of root-cutters in commemoration of the deity in his persona that predated viticulture. This fungal persona represents the same intoxicant that was known to the Persians as haoma and represents the spread of an Indo-European sacrament into the Classical world, with its association of lycanthropy and the bonding of warriors into brotherhoods as packs of wolves, better known in its manifestation in late antiquity among the Nordic peoples as berserkers."

      http://www.neuroquantology.com/index.php/journal/article/view/898

      "According to Falk, Parsi-Zoroastrians use a variant of ephedra, usually Ephedra procera, imported from the Hari River valley in Afghanistan."

      Haoma, soma… it's been a while and many interpretations of what the drug was. Some variations I think. From Vedic Hymns with recipes: poppies, weed, speed (Papaver, Cannabis, Ephedra). From other texts, fungi. I think they got folk shitfaced on whatever was convenient.

      • Dennis Frank 3.3.1
        10 July 2019 at 7:23 pm

        You bet. Percolated on down the millennia from paleolithic times. I remember the kerfuffle in the media when one of the Dead Sea Scrolls team of scholars broke ranks & advocated heresy: "cult practices, such as ingesting visionary plants to perceive the mind of God, persisted into the early Christian era". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacred_Mushroom_and_the_Cross

        "There was a media frenzy when it was published at the dawn of the 1970s. This caused the publisher to apologize for issuing it and forced Allegro's resignation from his university position."

        "In November 2009 The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross was reprinted in a 40th anniversary edition with 30-page addendum by Prof. Carl A. P. Ruck of Boston University." So could be that the time of conforming to orthodoxy in acadaemia is over, and we may actually see academics learning something new.

        • WeTheBleeple 3.3.1.1
          10 July 2019 at 7:43 pm

          Ethnobotany is helping. Also helping pharmaceutical companies to pillage as UNDRIP has no teeth.

  4. Herodotus 4
    10 July 2019 at 9:49 am

    Why do we have a parliament and most here being climate change deniers ?

    AS if actions really do speak about what people REALLY think then there would be some direct action, declaring an emergency is doing nothing. If we were really serious there would be an acceptance that the world pop. will have to reduce, living standards will decline. But perhaps the really macro effects are way too serious to contemplate about.

    So we say we agree but in reality we Deny.

    • greywarshark 4.1
      10 July 2019 at 10:59 am

      Why do we have a parliament and most here being climate change deniers?

      What do this relate to Herodotus? Who are 'most'…deniers?

      • WeTheBleeple 4.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 11:16 am
        • Stopping oil exploration
        • Climate policy
        • New tech initiatives and funding
        • Hand-up for EV purchasing
        • Extensive riparian planting
        • Billion trees

        It's not nothing that's been done. The so called deniers you speak of reached bi-partisan consensus with James Shaw's work, diluted though it may be.

        There is not nothing being done. You are concern trolling while ignoring facts.

        Yes, you'd think more would be done… but if this lot are turfed out and Nats are back in we'd be in a considerably worse position right now. Don't forget there are a large portion of self-obsessed twats landlords in this country who think they're the only game in town. Give them power back we'll be truly fucked.

        Not to mention the myriad of other problems the Coalition are currently trying to deal with.

        For some people positive action is merely an excuse to start on the not enough mantra.

        Count your blessings, positive change is occurring in an atmosphere of resistance and denial via media prostitutes. Those servicing that other mob that would crisp us for a buck.

        Asking for more to be done is good and well. Claiming nothing is being done is bullshit.

      • Herodotus 4.1.2
        10 July 2019 at 12:05 pm

        The Labour and Green MP's most on this site, otherwise there would be strong demands to examine what NZ does. e.g. How do we promote tourism when the effects on the climate are so dramatic e.g air travel etc

        Either this is a crisis that requires dramatic changes in everything we do on this planet or it is a nice to do as it makes "us" feel good.

        WTH stopping oil exploration is great (What Crap ) if we then expect other countries to continue to supply us, nothing you have listed is dramatic., but it feels good.

        • WeTheBleeple 4.1.2.1
          10 July 2019 at 12:43 pm

          "nothing you have listed is dramatic"

          I see, you require drama.

          Just go check out the Herald/Stuff/Shitpublication et. al. reactions to the above listed changes.

          Apparently, the sky is falling.

          • Herodotus 4.1.2.1.1
            10 July 2019 at 12:47 pm

            With the changes that have been signalled e.g. many to become effective "after" the next election. The sea will be rising, who cares what the sky is doing 😜

            • greywarshark 4.1.2.1.1.1
              10 July 2019 at 4:00 pm

              I can be dramatic Herodotus. I can just get so depressed reading stuff from you and similar others that i can feel like killing myself.If you would not like even bringing that thought to anyone, then I suggest you don't come on here with your black mood and your allegations of nothing. I get blue, and sadder when I can't even see the Bill for euthanasia of people who are nearly dead get through. I would hope that I can give up one day soon, be resigned that I have achieved something small but worthwhile, and plan my passing ritual legally. But watching the meanness of so many rigid and uncaring is sad, and your approach makes it worse.

              Tell us what YOU are doing and encourage us to take some specific action like you, protest, plant a tree etc. Whining and criticising is not going to get us where we need to go.

              You could have a look at the vid at the bottom of the How to Get There last Sat post. It should be watched once a day by you to give you some hints about turning your negativity into something useful and supporting others trying to do good.

              • Herodotus …
                10 July 2019 at 4:39 pm

                I do enough to feel that I am doing my bit. Visit a few Hauraki Gulf Islands or Hūnua ranges. Perhaps when you go behind a flax bush or a tree that was was planted by my hands, or you listen to the bird song perhaps I had a hand in the relocation or care.

                Now I would like to hear what YOU are doing, many transfer their inaction by attacking others ?

                Next time you hear the Greens or Labour spout off about what they are doing; feel good because that is all that the govt is doing and it feels SOOOOO good as long as you are not directly inconvenience.

                • patricia bremner …
                  10 July 2019 at 8:12 pm

                  So Herodotus, you have done as we have then? Did you vote wisely?

                  Yes, some changes are too slow. However, this Government knows that to move to fast is to alienate the voters.

                  When voters start to demand change and vote in large enough numbers for the proposed platform, Governments have a mandate.

                  At least this Government has made moves to improve our footprint where they have traction.

                  They are hoping for a greater mandate next time. We hope so as well!!

    • johnm 4.2
      10 July 2019 at 11:42 am

      Compared with Europe and the Americas plus India and much of the Northern hemisphere and Australia, we here in NZ surrounded by cooling heat absorbing ocean waters and the Antarctic to the south, though it's melting too, are not being affected in your face obviously except our glaciers are melting back and the Alps' snow pack is declining. Ignoring reality is a way to keep BAU going: we all do it me too! Earthquakes are a more frightening prospect for us e.g. Wellington central library is still closed for examination and repairs from the last Kaikoura shake.

  5. Dennis Frank 5
    10 July 2019 at 10:32 am

    Trotter's prescription for Labour: populism. He reckons "the really exciting thing is that a huge part of the campaign need not be visible. If Labour in New Zealand is not too proud to copy the extraordinary social-media campaigning techniques perfected by Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in the recent European elections, then Jacinda should be able to avoid pretty much all of the blood-splatter."

    You think?? Labour as sophisticated political operatives? Pull the other leg, it's got bells on. http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/07/can-jacinda-give-national-kiss-of.html

    • greywarshark 5.1
      10 July 2019 at 11:00 am

      Did I read that someone thought of Nigel Farage being behind the leaking of the Brit diplomat's confidential notes?

      • Dennis Frank 5.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 11:07 am

        Gabby suggested one of his supporters was. However I'm not convinced Nigel is a true patriot. He has twice failed to name his political parties Britain First. He hasn't even adopted Make Britain Great Again as his slogan.

        • greywarshark 5.1.1.1
          10 July 2019 at 11:24 am

          Perhaps he wants to be a free spirit like the Don? Buzzing around creating frenzy. From what I have heard about Farage, he can be captured, bottled and held under glass. If so that would larn him to say the Right things.

        • Gabby 5.1.1.2
          10 July 2019 at 12:41 pm

          Are you suggesting that only a True Patriot would steal and leak diplomatic notes franko?

          • Dennis Frank 5.1.1.2.1
            10 July 2019 at 2:16 pm

            Nope, that wasn't my intent. However, it's true that patriots have done that kind of thing for yonks (whenever they believe it's in the best interests of the nation)…

    • Ad 5.2
      10 July 2019 at 11:27 am

      How much more populist does he want?

      We already have a talented charismatic leader who is also the most popular politician in Australasia. And who has babies, gets the all-round guy, has a baby in office, and gets engaged.

      2020 must surely be New Zealand Royal Wedding year.

      If he were talking about the Labour Party of 2012 he would have a point.

      Not with Ardern.

    • Gabby 5.3
      10 July 2019 at 12:39 pm

      Trotsker's increasingly coming across as a bit of a tosser franko.

  6. Anne 6
    10 July 2019 at 10:42 am

    Barry Soper is a slimy creep:

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12248158

    To begin with, he knows the difference between Key's and Clark's former holidays and Ardern's trip to the Cook Islands. Key went to a gated community in Hawaii where privacy was guaranteed. Clark climbed faraway mountains and skied in faraway places like Norway. Her privacy was guaranteed by lack of access and distance. Jacinda and Clark have gone to a well known holiday spot where privacy is not guaranteed.

    They also have their little girl whose privacy they rightly wish to protect.

    And just to be sure we get his nasty message, he throws in a few jibes at the late David Lange.

    I recommend the article as the latest reminder of the extent of right-wing vengeance when they don't get their own way – in this case political power and the money and prestige that flows from it for the media sycophants.

    • marty mars 6.1
      10 July 2019 at 11:05 am

      yep nasty creep is a pretty nice description for that human imo

      • Morrissey 6.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 11:07 am

        That might be true, but the value of the observation is somewhat diminished when it comes from someone who calls a politically motivated liar and calumniator a "hero".

    • Peter 6.3
      10 July 2019 at 11:09 am

      "Why does Jacinda Ardern want to keep her holiday a secret?"

      The PM has often talked about mental health in the country, the use of drugs and all sorts of prevalent maladies. Barry Soper shows the tragic state we've descended too.

      A senior political journalist, an adult, a man who's kicked around planet earth for quite a few years getting precious about not knowing where Ardern's gone on holiday? Or that we, I, don't know?

      Call an ambulance for Soper, not just for the fact that he was upset for not knowing where she was going, but for all the drivel he comes up with around his little episode.

      • Gabby 6.3.1
        10 July 2019 at 5:12 pm

        Why does Soapy want to know? So he can criticise her ostentation, or sneer at her cheapness?

    • Rapunzel 6.4
      10 July 2019 at 11:12 am

      I find it disturbing on the basis that someone paid him to write that utterly pointless garbage, not because I don’t think that the PM "can't handle" it – likely she just ignores it – or anything else that comes by way of her job. The uneasy feeling is that someone who was paid to write that and those with similar tendencies main intent would be to be the first with anything that remotely looks like "bad news" of some description and it is their fondest dream that that will happen. While they're not worth effort of considering how this is what some "journalism" has come to is really strange.

    • AB 6.5
      10 July 2019 at 11:29 am

      Miserable Barry is living proof of that great line by Yeats:

      "An aged man is but a paltry thing / A tattered coat upon a stick / Unless soul clap its hands and sing…"

      Soul-less, whiny, paltry little Barry. Ignore the half-wit.

    • veutoviper 6.6
      10 July 2019 at 12:47 pm

      I read the Soper piece as "I have to write something to get my money; I'm bored: I'll stir the pot – oh great, Ardern is in the Cook Islands and I did not know …" End of story -Soper style.

      Here is a much more balanced item, IMO, probably much closer to the truth – Gayford is filming for his TV show Fish of the Day in the Cook Islands. Ardern and their daughter accompanied him for a short break – much deserved, and few and far between. Choice of destination boosts the local economy of one of our closest Pacifc neigbours, a former dependency with the main currency remaining NZ dollars, etc End of story – Reality.

      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/jacinda-ardern-spotted-holidaying-in-cook-islands-with-neve.amp.html

    • patricia bremner 6.7
      10 July 2019 at 8:24 pm

      Anne, after working such unsociable hours, family time should be private and precious.

      Soper never got over mucking up the flights to Britain when Jacinda and Clarke were such a hit. He is a sour sad man.

  7. Puckish Rogue 7
    10 July 2019 at 10:48 am

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113578935/prison-officers-will-work-12-hour-shifts-in-new-roster

    Its been talked about for a long time…

    'Corrections Association of New Zealand president Allan Whitley said a group of members asked the union to advocate for longer shifts about six years ago.'

    Thank f**k, working 8-9 days straight is no joke (well it is a joke but its not a very funny one…)

    'Waggott said more work was required before the revised system could be fully implemented and there was no finalised timeframe.'

    D'oh!

  8. greywarshark 8
    10 July 2019 at 11:06 am

    Paula Bennett this morning talking about Labour Coalition climate change 'posturing'. What posture is this – I think it should become a recognisable badge of courage for those getting on with the mahi!

    And then she condemns passing legislation relating to it by emergency. National didn't do this. We know Paula. And National only chose to do it when there was a real emergency – that would be when their funders became impatient to get their requested legislation passed enabling their desired business transactions.

    • AB 8.1
      10 July 2019 at 11:22 am

      Bennet was 'posturing' as a car-loving Westie, and a very poor imitation it was. She seemed completely unaware that vulgar selfishness doesn't make you look working class, it makes you look like a one-percenter.

      • greywarshark 8.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 11:25 am

        Sounds like trying to have her cake and eat it too. That would be something that she would like to achieve, believing she has the talent.

      • Psycho Milt 8.1.2
        10 July 2019 at 1:13 pm

        Bennet was 'posturing' as a car-loving Westie, and a very poor imitation it was.

        Her current posturing as a blue-rinse conservative is no more convincing.

        • Matiri 8.1.2.1
          10 July 2019 at 1:25 pm

          Has Bennett had speech lessons to give her more gravitas? She certainly sounded different in that interview! More blue-rinse conservative maybe…..

        • Anne 8.1.2.2
          10 July 2019 at 1:36 pm

          Yes, she changes her persona according to the circumstances of the day. In the event of a leadership challenge, she's after the votes of the Blue Rinse Brigade?

          Quite a change from her original persona

        • greywarshark 8.1.2.3
          10 July 2019 at 9:29 pm

          Talking about posturing – if one is not careful then one might get eaten by a lion like young Albert. Paula had better stay away from the zoo in case she has not perfected her posture, from a lying-down lion's POV.

          He lay in a som-no-lent posture with his face close to the bars.
          Just a light moment for those who like Stanley Holloway. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaw-savyK0s

          • Drowsy M. Kram 8.1.2.3.1
            10 July 2019 at 9:47 pm

            Prompted me to recall another cautionary tale about a lion (Ponto), a boy named Jim, and always keeping a-hold of nurse!

            • greywarshark 8.1.2.3.1.1
              10 July 2019 at 10:13 pm

              That's good. Stanley Holloway is still tops – his world-weary accent and cynical air are great.

    • Cinny 8.2
      10 July 2019 at 12:57 pm

      Where is simon? That's two weeks in a row he hasn't given Wed morning interviews.

      However he's active on the twitter today, and once again he's getting owned.

      https://twitter.com/simonjbridges/status/1148705424801067008

      • Fireblade 8.2.1
        10 July 2019 at 1:45 pm

        Interesting. National Party policy must be to promote inefficient vehicles and build more roads.

        National supports the polluters.

      • veutoviper 8.2.2
        10 July 2019 at 3:30 pm

        Its mid-year break for Parliament and politicians with a full three weeks between sittings of the House, Apart from the summer break (Christmas – late Jan/early Feb) the House sits in 2 to 3 week blocks with only 1 -2 week breaks in between.

        The PM has also not been doing her usual weekly media stints so its not just Simon, and things should get back to usual next week when Cabinet/Caucus meetings and House sittings resume.

        [On another subject, hope all is going well with the anti-bullying situation. ]

      • mac1 8.2.3
        10 July 2019 at 5:05 pm

        Not my car, Simon, I’d pay less for my car. Lots less. 🙂

        Doing quite well, actually. Staying warm with the winter warmth payment as the sleety rain falls outside. Got a free repeat for my hearing aid batteries yesterday.

        On Monday I get a free check for bladder cancer at three weeks notice from symptoms to specialist.

        This government is working for us older citizens…….

  9. marty mars 9
    10 July 2019 at 11:07 am

    Good one Nicki

    The Human Rights Foundation issued a statement last week, calling for Minaj and other performers to pull out of the show. On Tuesday, the New York-based organization praised Minaj‘s decision to not perform at the concert.

    “This is what leadership looks like. We are grateful to Nicki Minaj for her inspiring and thoughtful decision to reject the Saudi regime’s transparent attempt at using her for a public relations stunt,” said Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation. “The July 18 festival in Saudi Arabia still shows Liam Payne as a performer. We hope that he follows Nicki Minaj’s lead. Minaj’s moral stance differs from celebrity performers like J-Lo and Mariah Carey, who in the past have chosen to line their pockets with millions of dollars and stand with dictatorial governments as opposed to with oppressed communities and imprisoned human rights activists.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/09/nicki-minaj-pulls-out-of-saudi-arabia-concert-after-backlash

    actions speak louder than lyrics

    • Morrissey 9.1
      10 July 2019 at 11:10 am

      Billy Blagg will no doubt be performing though?

    • Cinny 9.2
      10 July 2019 at 1:00 pm

      Actions do speak louder than lyrics, and credit where credit is due for her action on said topic.

      However….. if she could be less skanky in her video's that would go a long way in helping females to not be objectified.

  10. marty mars 10
    10 July 2019 at 11:25 am

    fantastic essay

    My cohort and I are labelled millennials because we came of age in the new millennium. We are also generation zero: the first generation that will live with the palpable effects of climate change throughout our adult lives. The generation invoked, at every business and climate change conference I attend, as the source of ingenuity that will help us deal with the current climate crisis. Yet few (if any) people under the age of 30 sit on the board of New Zealand’s biggest-emitting companies. Few of us are making significant decisions in politics or business. Looking to the next generation for solutions is just another delaying tactic. Instead of denialism, we now have delayism.

    … The idea that we’re individually responsible for minimising plastic waste is the result of concerted lobbying, but manufacturers also played a key role in introducing plastic into the economy in the first place. Before corporate entities worked hard to replace existing arrangements, we had a circular economy for wrapping food or carrying liquids.

    … If we frame the problem as one that individuals can solve, we ignore the fact that infrastructure, institutions and regulation continue to place real limits on what we can achieve, and work against our best efforts to live sustainably.

    … Our dependence on fossil fuels and plastic has been constructed and reinforced by corporate interest and decades of lobbying that thwarted environmental regulation.

    https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/the-power-is-yours

  11. reason 11
    10 July 2019 at 11:41 am

    This is why racism should be challenged ,,, two ticks national is no excuse for encouraging our sicko's.

    And how come no media in NZ …. apart from Nicky Hager ,,,, called out the blatant dishonesty and racism ,,, of the Brash Nats ' steal the beaches ' election propaganda,

    I think Brash is still banging away at it …. … who would Hobson votes end up floating too

  12. greywarshark 12
    10 July 2019 at 12:37 pm

    More pressure on Pharmac – they are damned if they do and damned if they don't

    The Pharmac board was advised that the cost of funding OxyContin would be $1.2m by 2008 – it ended up being $3.5m and kept ballooning.

    Doctors have told Stuff that after Pharmac agreed to fund OxyContin, Mundipharma began heavily promoting it, including for conditions such as arthritis.

    Sales reps would visit GPs, and advertisements were placed in publications such as New Zealand Doctor.

    Dr Alistair Dunn, a Whangarei addiction medicine specialist who was one of the first to raise concerns about OxyContin, says GPs would not previously have resorted to using morphine for arthritis.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/111691539/pharmac-has-spent-tens-of-millions-on-oxycontin-blamed-for-americas-opioid-crisis

    It’s hard to help citizens who are dying to have addictions to various things.
    Lachlan Foote, 21, returned to his Blue Mountains home after celebrating New Year’s Eve in the early hours of 2018. He made himself a protein shake before bed, adding caffeine powder, and his parents found him dead on the bathroom floor the next morning.

    A Coroner’s report has confirmed Lachlan died from caffeine toxicity when he included too much pure caffeine powder in his shake.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/114118208/a-teaspoon-will-kill-you-grieving-australian-father-warns-of-caffeine-powder

    He comes home from a party, had he been drinking?
    He makes himself a protein drink and then adds a stimulant to it just when he is going to sleep?

  13. Peter 13
    10 July 2019 at 12:46 pm

    Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

    • Dennis Frank 13.1
      10 July 2019 at 4:53 pm

      Right, good stuff. I hadn't realised it was all about fox-hunting, but yes, ever so traditional and something any true conservative needs to excel at. devil

  14. greywarshark 14
    10 July 2019 at 1:22 pm

    An old 2000 piece on CGT that might be of interest to some. By Robin Oliver then IRD General Manager

    https://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976485506/capital-gains-tax-the-new-zealand-case.html

  15. greywarshark 15
    10 July 2019 at 1:23 pm

    This about what we are up against by opening up ourselves to the world business that is equivalent to drive-by smash and grab. Our government hasn't a chance in coping with sharp operators like this.

    https://www.noted.co.nz/money/business/what-are-private-equity-firms-really-doing-to-new-zealand/

    This was from Branko Marcetic in 2017

    Such a nightmare scenario was not out of the ordinary for renters around the United States after Invitation Homes, a subsidiary of New York private equity firm Blackstone Group, began buying foreclosed homes on the cheap after the 2008 financial crisis. It quickly became the country’s largest owner of single-family homes. The firm soon earned a poor reputation as an absentee landlord that left houses in disrepair and ignored calls from tenants to fix pest infestations, electrical or plumbing problems, and other issues. Report after report by independent groups detail complaints about a lack of maintenance, swift evictions being carried out based on glitches or errors, and steep overcharging for rents….

    Episodes like these are why there continues to be fierce debate about the merits of PE firms everywhere around the world – everywhere, seemingly, but in New Zealand. While the public and media remain fixated on the threat of foreign home buyers and property speculators, there has been comparatively little debate about the entrance of large, foreign PE firms into our economy.

    • WeTheBleeple 15.1
      10 July 2019 at 10:32 pm

      Yep. A recession is just a land grab to them.

      A 'buyers market.'

      Anathema to society.

  16. greywarshark 16
    10 July 2019 at 1:40 pm

    Random Note: Reads like a thriller!

    According to the journalist and author Graeme Hunt, domestic intelligence and counter-subversion prior to the establishment of the SIS was primarily in the hands of the New Zealand Police Force (1919–1941; 1945–1949) and of the New Zealand Police Force Special Branch (1949–1956). Another predecessor to the SIS during the Second World War was the short-lived New Zealand Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB).[6] The SIB, modelled after the British MI5, was headed by Major Kenneth Folkes, a junior MI5 officer. The conman Syd Ross duped Major Folkes into believing that there was a "Nazi plot" in New Zealand. Due to this embarrassment, Prime Minister Peter Fraser dismissed Folkes in February 1943 and the SIB merged into the New Zealand Police. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the police force resumed responsibility for domestic intelligence.[7]

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

  17. The Chairman 17
    10 July 2019 at 1:58 pm

    Unbelievable (read link below)

    In Australia GP's can order an MRI and people have them within 24 hours, but they can't here.

    Big improvements required here.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113542194/invercargill-nurse-collapses-in-australia-before-undergoing-surgery-to-remove-tumour.

    Being diagnosed early is vital to being cured, avoiding patient pain and suffering along with potential long term health costs in the process. MRI's are a vital diagnostic tool that should be GP referable and shouldn't require such long wait times.

    Is there any action being taken to address this?

    • WeTheBleeple 17.1
      10 July 2019 at 2:47 pm



    • Drowsy M. Kram 17.2
      10 July 2019 at 6:03 pm

      "Is there any action being taken to address this?" [The Chairman @17]

      Do you mean action to address the clinical decision not to offer Rachel Terrill an MRI scan? Both better clinical decision making, and more resources for publicly-funded MRI scans, would be one way to go.

      Ministry of Health chief medical officer Andrew Simpson said national waiting times were carefully monitored.

      "The performance indicator [or target] is that 90 per cent of people receive an MRI scan, within six weeks," he said.

      "Capacity across the country has increased through improved efficiency and DHBs investing in new or additional machinery, and more scans are being performed now than in the past, but there are still challenges to be worked through," he said.

      "The six week timeframe was introduced in 2012/13, based on advice from the National Radiology Advisory Group."

      "In our region [Nelson Marlborough] we share MRI scanners with private healthcare providers which affects our capacity to scan and have plans this year to purchase a new MRI scanner for Nelson Hospital, solely for public healthcare use.

      We acknowledge that waiting for a scan is not what people may want to do, but reassure people that this service is organised by order of priority – if you urgently need a scan you will get one quickly," Lexie O'Shea said.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/110055930/new-mri-scanner-to-combat-patient-wait-times

      I agree with The Chairman that, in general, public health funding should be prioritised over defense spending. Could there be bipartisan political action on this, once the National party has plugged its leaks?

      • Sam 17.2.1
        10 July 2019 at 6:41 pm

        Universal health funding does mean that the Defense Forces should be payed less. It means they are payed differently.

        The ACC/Super funds could be used to build private radiologies and the government could focuse on building replacement hospital.

        The ACC funds are meant to divest from sin stocks anyway and it's a lot of money just sitting there looking for a place in New Zealand.

  18. Morrissey 18
    10 July 2019 at 2:12 pm

    Graeme Hunt, who died in 2010, was one of the most unpleasant right wing ideologues infecting public life in this country. He was a regular dark and pompous presence on Larry "Lackwit" Williams' joke of a show on NewstalkZzzzzB, where he made a point of bullying, ridiculing, and harassing lesser souls, like Tim Watkin and the ridiculous Josie Pagani.

    Even worse than his radio performances was his writing. He wrote a substandard biography of Fintan Patrick Walsh, and this "history" Spies and Revolutionaries was another missed opportunity, muddying the waters for any serious journalist or academic who might have wished to write on the history of security in this country in the future.

    In 2003 Hunt's crappy secret persona was outed on Google Groups, much to his mortification….

    https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-egregious-graeme-hunt-outed-on.html

  19. Ad 19
    10 July 2019 at 2:29 pm

    UK Labour will now back remain if there's a further referendum:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/09/corbyn-says-labour-would-back-remain-in-brexit-referendum

    Couple of years too late and 20 polling points down the tubes, Corbyn extracts from being self-impaled sitting on the policy fence.

    • McFlock 19.1
      10 July 2019 at 4:26 pm

      Too little and far too late.

      He would have been wiser and more principled to have made a clear call years ago, one way or the other. This frittering looks indecisive at best and cynically manipulative at worst.

      • Anne 19.1.1
        10 July 2019 at 4:36 pm

        Yes to Ad and McFlock.

        It looks like he didn't have the nous to make a stand one way or another. A big disappointment.

      • greywarshark 19.1.2
        10 July 2019 at 5:15 pm

        he was probably too busy looking out for brutus at his back.

    • Dennis Frank 19.2
      10 July 2019 at 4:45 pm

      Yet the report makes it evident that UK Labour have agreed to adopt a different position on the situation in campaigning for the next election. "In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, he said there was no decision yet as to what Labour would argue for in a general election on Brexit. He said: “We will decide very quickly at the start of that campaign exactly what our position will be.”

      "Pressed on whether Labour was now a party of leave or remain, Corbyn said: “We will give people the choice on this. That is something which is surely very important. We respect the result of the referendum. We’ve been through this whole long parliamentary process over the past three years and we’ve made it very clear we will do everything we can to take no deal off the table or stop a damaging deal of the sort Hunt and Johnson are proposing.”"

      So it seems a nuanced principled position. No doubt spooked by the LibDem poll ratings, he's gotten agreement from his colleagues. I think he's done well.

      • Ad 19.2.1
        10 July 2019 at 5:14 pm

        That "nuance" has been a 15 point gift to the LibDems.

        Corbyn needs to show he has to chops to actually pull back the voters he's lost to them. That is the measure of whether he's more than an idealistic maverick.

        • Dennis Frank 19.2.1.1
          10 July 2019 at 7:02 pm

          I do agree his lack of leadership has allowed the LibDems to get up past Labour. I was just pointing out that he secured a nicely-nuanced collective agreement from Labour in response. It encompasses a two-pronged strategy & seems coherent.

          Getting consensus on both in a complex political context at the top level is a real accomplishment. We ought to acknowledge that. I've been critical of him several times the past few months but I feel he's redeemed himself somewhat.

          Labour's political culture has been groupthink since the nineties, remember, here & in Oz as in Britain. Labour leaders only get tolerated if they genuinely represent group opinion. Thus hamstrung, it is rare for them to demonstrate individual flair or initiative. I think the evidence shows he has been successful in steering the groupthink to an appropriate result.

          • CHCoff 19.2.1.1.1
            10 July 2019 at 7:51 pm

            MAGA President Trump supporters are not sick of winning, there seems to be some consensus about among them.

            Brexit supporters are….um……well……you know……errrr………still campaigning for their referendum, whatever that was about, of a few years back.

            I'd say, to do it with any kind of momentum, & have it be momentous, it needs a no holds barred sack the cabinet, hard take it or leave it deal with the EU, proroguing the people's vote through parliament, strong solidarity with MAGA movement & President Trump on the world stage with an opening shot of a successful deal with the U.S.A.

            A people's uprising Brexit another words.

  20. greywarshark 20
    10 July 2019 at 6:21 pm

    Wethe Bleeple

    Have you some recommendation – one or two – on what a forestry company can do for a quick ground cover on hills they have logged to prevent run-off when it rained heavily? I thought if they could fly over, perhaps with a drone, would dropping seed work well and enough come up even if the ground wasn't wet? This time of the year the dew is quite heavy.

    If you let me know what you think would be viable for putting over quite a big area I could pass that on as there is concern about a logged area here and while it is being thought about, perhaps some sensible plan for fast growing beneficial weeds could be passed on and tried out (and then done as a regular sensible move. Fast and nitrogen fixing – would clover do it – chickweed?

    • WeTheBleeple 20.1
      10 July 2019 at 7:19 pm

      I reckon forethought would go a long way. Damage control is harder.

      You are looking for local fast growing legumes and ground covers that can handle the soil conditions left behind after pines. It might be you can aerial spray seeds but need to add lime. They could maybe get hold of the mountains of discarded oyster shells industry creates and crush and use them to facilitate things (if liming would help).

      There's also the question of land use after harvest – another pine crop? A bush regeneration project? A fallow period?

      For regeneration and even another crop of pines (why!) I'd be inclined to go in and innoculate stumps with oyster mushrooms, shitaake if they'll grow on pines, mulch down the slash and add Stropharia rugoso-annulata and other saprobes to generate some local crops/small business while turning the trunks and slash to topsoil.

      If rapid ground cover is imperative you want something practically invasive to the conditions. Observation of the site will indicate which plants or close relatives of plants might work.

    • Rosemary McDonald 20.2
      10 July 2019 at 7:53 pm

      Don't know which part of the rohe you're in GWS but up North, anywhere between the FFN and the Waikato by far the very bestest and fastest growing ground cover for recently cleared land is this…https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/getting-involved/students-and-teachers/plant-pest-factsheets/woolly-nightshade-factsheet.pdf

      Driving back from the FFN the other day I was actually shocked to see entire hillsides covered with the stuff. Some large, but mostly it was plants of about 1.5 metres growing about 1 metre apart, covering entire hillsides.

      I've pulled a few of these out from my place but it seems that they simply love to exploit bare land…too many trees at mine.

      And strangely, while obviously it is the time of the year for spraying gorse…woolly nightshade growing alongside the sprayed and withering gorse was thriving.

      Got me to thinking that perhaps we could grow the stuff to feed our bio diesel/ethanol plants.

      • WeTheBleeple 20.2.1
        11 July 2019 at 1:32 am

        Interesting Rosemary. Good observation. It is a prolific space invader right down to at least the Waikato. Noted as a pest plant, shade tolerance could be a problem where other pioneers typically do the nursery job then die back as other plants canopy forms over them.

        Biofuels are impractical unless waste streams of crops/industry. We've gone that route (growing biofuel specifically) to the detriment of food security already. One day we might get the desired bacteria to live outside of certain insects guts but we're not there yet. Once we can crack lignin apart easily biofuels will lend a lot more energy for a lot less input.

        • greywarshark 20.2.1.1
          11 July 2019 at 12:39 pm

          Thanks all for your interest. I'll see what I can do with this to take it further.

      • greywarshark 20.2.2
        11 July 2019 at 12:48 pm

        Pretty shocking stuff Rosemary. Its spread indicates that some immediate ground cover plants are necessary to stop this relentless weed, and it is so nasty, bad for skin and smelly and the birds should be provided with a better weed that they can go to.

  21. Eco maori 21
    13 July 2019 at 10:20 am

    Kia ora Newshub Nation.

    Medical cannabis needs to be accessed by sick people who need it.What I don't want to see is big companies getting a monopoly in the industry and charging the Papatuanuku for a product that people need to have a good life. I can see business manipulating the laws so that they can dominate the market.

    What commercial operations is going to grow weed close to a school on the most expensive land not very wise they will grow it on farm land not in the city's????????????????????????????????.

    I say that we will have the same problems that the United kingdom and other countries have. Our doctors are all elderly so they have a negative attitude and view on medical weed they will be very reluctant to prescribe it. The elderly have a very different view on our society's that the younger generations they have had it drummed into them over the years that alcohol is good and laughable that weed is bad.

    Times are changing we have the internet now so we can find out the TRUTHS about our society the younger generation have a much clearer view on our society's problems.

    Ka kite ano

  22. Eco maori 22
    13 July 2019 at 11:43 am

    This is a joke the billionaires get away with what ever they do to make money no matter the harm caused.

    Facebook to be fined $5bn for Cambridge Analytica privacy violations – reports

    The $5bn fine would be the largest ever levied by the Federal Trade Commission against a technology company

    The FTC’s investigation was launched in March 2018 after the Guardian revealed that the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had improperly obtained the private information of more than 50m Facebook users. Facebook had agreed under a 2012 consent decree stemming from a previous FTC investigation into privacy concerns to better protect user privacy. The investigation centered on whether this decree .

    Critics say the changes required of Facebook are not substantial enough, and the fine will hardly make a dent in Facebook’s bank account. The company had more than $15bn in revenue in the first three months of 2019.

    “This isn’t a fine, it’s a favor to Facebook, a parking ticket which will clear them to conduct more illegal and invasive surveillance,” said Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute who specializes in monopoly power. “Congress should start defunding the FTC and move the money to state enforcers like Karl Racine who believe in enforcing the law,” he added, referring to the attorney general of Washington DC, who is currently pursuing a lawsuit against Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica

    David Cicilline, the Democratic congressman who chairs the House subcommittee on antitrust issues, reacted to the news on Twitter, saying: “The FTC just gave Facebook a Christmas present five months early. It’s very disappointing that such an enormously powerful company that engaged in such serious misconduct ka kite ano link below.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/facebook-fine-ftc-privacy-violations

  23. Eco maori 23
    13 July 2019 at 1:21 pm

    Eco Maori totally agrees with this Wahine view these guys think that they are leaders but NO they are just con artists fooling people that they put their te tangata best interests before their own wants YEA RIGHT.

    Ruining a country near you soon: the beta males who think they’re alphas

    What could be more insecure than a 55-year-old bragging about Latin, or a literal president tweeting his enemies on the bog

    Racegoers wearing masks of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump at Royal Ascot, June 2019

    If the Tory leadership election unfolds as widely expected, the UK will basically be ruled by a Fathers4Injustice activist. Boris Johnson is the kind of guy who’d don Spider-Man pyjamas and scale a building in order to see less of his kids. Sorry, fewer. Even so, he remains a remarkably typical hero of our political times. “There are two kinds of women,” Harry explains at one point in When Harry Met Sally. “High maintenance and low maintenance.” “Which one am I?” Sally asks. “You’re the worst kind,” he says. “You’re high maintenance, but you think you’re low maintenance

    See also gratefully submissive Donald Trump fanboy Nigel Farage, who has spent much of the past three years hanging wanly around Washington on the off-chance of a half-hour 6pm burger with the alpha male to his beta. And see also Donald Trump himself, the leader of the free world, who spent about 48 hours this week tweeting like some homicidal 11-year-old Justin Bieber fan about the leaked comments of the British ambassador. Who, apparently, we now let him pick. More on toxic insecurity’s poster boy shortly.

    Great leaders show, rather than tell, their skills. Yet Johnson never lets up with telling people that he is not “defeatist”, that he will “put some lead in the collective pencil”, that “energy” is needed, that what the EU really fears is a big strong man like him. Mm. I hear they talk of little else in the 27 European capitals. “O Fates, please spare us the dreaded ‘positive energy’ of a guy internationally ridiculed as the worst foreign secretary in memory; and the unplayable charm of a surprisingly indifferent orator who knows the Latin for ‘can we just take out the backstop?’”

    And Johnson does know Latin, as he never misses a chance to remind us. No one could accuse him of wearing his learning lightly – or, indeed, wearing any of it lightly. Witness his excruciating promise to reach out to something he pointedly referred to as “Oppidan Britain”. To which the increasingly despairing response has to be: YES YES! I KNOW WHAT SCHOOL YOU WENT TO! I KNOW WHAT HOUSE YOU WERE IN! I KNOW YOU GOT A SECOND CLASS CLASSICS DEGREE! I KNOW THIS SOMEHOW ENDS WITH YOU CONSIGNING OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY TO THE CATACOMBS THEN BEATING US TO DEATH WITH YOUR RELATIVELY MIDDLEBROW ACHIEVEMENTS! But mate: you are 55 – FIFTY-FIVE – years old. How, how can you possibly still be wanking on about any of this, in public, as though it was still the best thing you’ve ever done? Can it really be because it was? [Spoiler: yes ka kite ano link below.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/12/country-beta-males-alphas-latin-president-tweeting-enemies

  24. Eco maori 24
    13 July 2019 at 4:05 pm

    Eco Maori thanks the wealthy US philanthropist for their tau toko of the Students Strikes and the extinction rebellion

    A group of wealthy US philanthropists and investors have donated almost half a million pounds to support the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion and school strike groups – with the promise of tens of millions more in the months ahead.

    Trevor Neilson, an investor and philanthropist who has worked with some of the world’s richest families, has teamed up with Rory Kennedy – daughter of Robert Kennedy – and Aileen Getty, whose family wealth comes from the oil industry

    Neilson said the three founders were using their contacts among the global mega-rich to get “a hundred times” more in the weeks and months ahead. “This might be the single best chance we have to stop the greatest emergency we have ever faced,” he told the Guardian.

    The new fund has the author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, who set up 350.org, and David Wallace Wells, who wrote international best seller Uninhabitable Earth, on its advisory board.

    Global heating: London to have climate similar to Barcelona by 2050

    The money will initially be used to support school strike and Extinction Rebellion groups in the US, but will also be available to help “seed” similar groups around the world.

    It offers tiers of funding to support different-sized groups, from teenage activists wanting money for leaflets and megaphones, to funding for salaries and offices for established groups in big cities. It has already committed some of the fund to support Extinction Rebellion groups in New York and Los Angeles Ka kite ano link below.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/12/us-philanthropists-vow-to-raise-millions-for-climate-activists

  25. Eco maori 25
    13 July 2019 at 6:31 pm

    Kia ora Newshub.

    A big Hurricane is moving into the Mississippi river in America while the river is in flood cause trump climate change.

    John haven't you been in that or around that type of organization. People like you only care about your own mana you are just sturing the Oranga tamariki stuff to use it to try and get the Auckland mayors job you don't care that you're moves could damage the government that does more for the common poor tangata than the last lot muppet Maori make up a large portion of them. You're backers are just using you to try and damage our humane Labour lead Government wake up fool.

    I new a elderly couple who had a daughter on the Earabus flight.

    That's a big explosion in Russia.

    America sky lad 40 years today it crashed landed in the Australian outback the person describing the loud noise when it hit Papatuanuku Eco Maori knowns that feeling a meteor hit in Edgecome back in the day it was shaking the road the bank window in Opotiki was wobbling and a huge sonic boom .

    Ka kite ano

  26. Eco maori 26
    13 July 2019 at 6:46 pm

    Kia ora te ao Maori news.

    Tiana turia why didn't you raise this problem about Oranga tamariki and sorte it out when you were in bed with NATIONAL they just stuffed up te tangata whenua.????????????????????. You were played by shonky and you are being played now fool

    I have Already given my opinion of john tamahira in the above post.

    Karen I oppose any Tangata whenua whenua being sold te Atua is not making anymore whenua they could have just used the whenua as security for a loan to do the development that they wanted in Papamore.

    Ka pai to the Wahine who are getting bald heads to raise funds for housespice and the Rainbow community is a awesome cause.

    Ka kite ano.

  28. Eco maori 28
    14 July 2019 at 9:41 am

    Some Eco Maori music for the minute.

    https://youtu.be/wE4TpnYIsW4

    I hit the justice department with a request for all the information that they have on Eco Maori to get JUSTICE. The muppets just stepped up their intimidation GAMES 10 fold lucky I'm Eco Maori I have others who have my Back

  29. Eco maori 29
    14 July 2019 at 12:11 pm

    She made the mess and now she's blaming our Labour lead Coalition governments for the mess

    https://youtu.be/a5peOzISOe0

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.