Open Mike 10/10/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 10th, 2016 - 55 comments
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55 comments on “Open Mike 10/10/2016 ”

    • Colonial Viper 1.1

      I love their first bullet point “there’s probably serious evidence.” Well, where is it. Just like the “serious evidence” of Saddam’s wmd.

      What an establishment repeater joke politico has become. The truth is of course that it is the NSA with the most invasive and far reaching cyberwarfare and hacking tools available anywhere in the world.

      And what exactly were the cyber protection teams at the NSA doing with the billions in new funding that they have received since 9/11, that they did not notice that the Democratic Party, the major party in charge of the USA, was apparently being hacked by Russians over a long period of time?

      And no where did Politico say the obvious: that US officials made this announcement in the timing they did in order to try and minimise and spin the impact of the Wikileaks announcement which came out a short time later the same day.

    • One Two 1.2

      Time to grow up, as it appears you are stuck in personal growth quick sand

      Obvious outcome from attaching ones self to something/someone with reckless abandon

  1. Colonial Viper 2

    ‘Enabler’ Hillary Clinton haunted by efforts to ‘destroy’ husband’s accusers

    Running to be the first woman president, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has taken a stern stand on combating sexual harassment and assault — and has insisted that every accuser who comes forward has “the right to be believed.”

    But Mrs. Clinton took a very different approach herself 25 years ago as the wife of then-Gov. Bill Clinton, leading the effort to discredit women who came forward with their own stories of harassment or assault by her husband.

    Campaign narratives written by reporters detailed how she honchoed the campaign team that handled “bimbo eruptions,” digging up personal papers and official records that could be used to undercut the stories told by a series of women. One top aide later recounted Mrs. Clinton’s intent to “destroy” the story of one accuser, while former adviser Dick Morris said Mrs. Clinton engaged in “blackmail” to try to force women to recant their stories.

    In the chase for power and influence, Hillary Clinton captained multiple campaigns to discredit the female victims of Bill Clinton. And the most ironic comment in Clinton’s defence from the piece:

    “This whole conversation is irrelevant to Hillary’s ability to run the country,” said Martha Burk, former chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations. “Trump’s just trying to be a sensationalist. This doesn’t have any place in the discourse about somebody’s ability to run the country; it’s a complete red herring. He’s trying to find something to take the attention away from the fact he doesn’t have the qualifications to be president.”

    While Clinton supporters seem to think that what Trump said decades ago is relevant to his Presidential run, they seem to think that what Clinton DID decades ago is not.

    And while Hillary has the qualifications and experience to be President, when you look at those qualifications and experience they are all bad – from pay to play corruption taking money from foreign interests as Sec State, to destroying servers and mobile devices to hide her activities, to an inner circle of staffers who have been granted unprecedented levels of FBI immunity from prosecution up to and including being allowed to destroy evidence to halt all further investigation

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/14/hillary-clinton-haunted-by-efforts-to-destroy-bill/

  2. Andre 3

    KellyAnne Conway seems to have been low profile lately but she’s baaaack…

  3. From tangatawhenua.com

    “Today marks the anniversary of Cooks Landing (9 October) so today we want to share this korero…”

    “The following is a discussion between two native wahine of Te Moananui a Kiwa. It discusses the interconnected streams of representation, storytelling, and occupation of indigenous landscapes from our relative spaces and within our common spaces.

    One of us resides in Te Ika a Maui, Aotearoa, and one of us resides on Moku o Keawe- Hawaii Island, Hawai’i. Both of us reside on indigenous lands under occupation, and both of us reside as members of the indigenous territories of Te Moananui a Kiwa.”

    http://news.tangatawhenua.com/2016/10/reclaiming-mana-moana/?doing_wp_cron=1476010489.4788870811462402343750

    Creating any sort of ‘Cook” day will be problematic I think – and so much is bloody named after him anyway – come on enough is enough.

  4. Tory 5

    The reality is Cook, Magellan, Colombus and dozens of explorers have all played a part in colonising the world we live in. Life goes on ….

  5. Penny Bright 6

    FYI

    Just posted this on Chloe Swarbrick’s Facebook page:
    ___________________________

    How many people Chloe – know you support PRIVATISATION via Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)?

    Which is hardly ‘fresh’ new thinking – but a fundamental stale old Neo-liberal policy which serves the interests of the corporate 1%?

    Chlöe Swarbrick
    September 24 at 8:27am

    “Hey Penny, I support certain PPPs to see certain necessary infrastructure built.

    It is a practicality, and does not need to be evil, especially with requisite controls in contracts.

    I am against the TPPA, and my track record in journalism will show that.

    I support density because cities operate best, and most efficiently, when they are denser.

    Where would you like to see Auckland growth go? Forever sprawling outwards, without the support of infrastructure or job opportunity?

    My whole campaign is premised on engaging the disengaged – bringing Auckland’s disenfranchised back into the conversation.

    I do not think we can have a representative democracy when only 1/3 of the city votes, let alone when there is a large correlation there between voters and homeowners protecting their interests.”

    As a social media marketing business CONsultant Chloe – you must be delighted with the success of your Auckland Mayoral campaign, ably assisted by mainstream (corporate) media?

    Congratulations!

    In my view, your arguably very slick social media campaign, effectively marketing yourself as a fresh-faced millennial purporting to advocate for the disenfranchised and disadvantaged while supporting policies that support the corporate 1%, was truly scary to behold.

    In my view, your campaign confirmed the following adage?

    “The key thing in life is sincerity – once you can fake that – you’ve got it made.”

    Penny Bright

    ‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog / Whistle-blower’.

  6. Puckish Rogue 7

    *Warning gushing fan boy ahead*

    IMHO the All Blacks of 2016 are the greatest side to ever take the field and no other team in history could beat them (though it’d be a humdinger against the All Blacks 2015)

    In fact I’d say they even surpass the All Blacks of 1987 in how much better they are against the rest of the opposition and in how they’ve changed the game, for the better

    To play at the pace they do and to execute the skills from numbers 1 – 23 is simply “total rugby” at its finest

    To see the tight five throw the passes or step or put others into gaps…well that’s probably how rugby in heaven is played (if there was a heaven of course)

    Its nit picking at its finest but Barretts goal kicking remains a concern and number 8 and hookers back ups probably need to get sorted out but apart from that the depth in this team must make other teams green with envy

    You’d have to say the NZRFUs decision to only select players from NZ for the All Blacks is paying big dividends and I recall more then a few articles from “experts” saying it’d be the death of rugby in NZ

    All in all bring on the Lions and give us a real challenge!

  7. Wayne 8

    Penny,

    Chole, like a lot of other smart young people have a strong entrepreneurial streak, which is reflected in how they live their lives and what they do. From what I have seen of a lot of young people of her age, and up to about 35, they are looking at the world differently to people of older generations, which includes us both.

    They are not socialists, but they have strong social consciences, typically with a strong Green bent. They tend not to work in the corporate or govt sectors but are involved in independent entrepreneurialism. Traditional unionism is irrelevant to them, but new ways of organising work is much more important – a sense of we are in this together.

    They like open borders and ready access to international markets, but are against TPP which they see as a traditional corporate vehicle. Maybe that reflects a marketing failure by the TPP proponents. It was not able to be sold to young people, even though it was intended to enable the way they see the economy.

    So PPP’s are hardly scary to this generation, since they do not see the govt as the answer to everything.

    Interestingly I think Grant Robertson with his “Future of Work” initiative has some sense of this generational shift, but I am not sure that his party really sees this..

    Perhaps a new politics will emerge, most probably within existing political parties. The existing parties will change as more of this generation take charge.

    • Colonial Viper 8.1

      Your team always has good talent spotters sniffing around, Wayne. Does Chloe make the grade?

    • Stuart Munro 8.2

      Wayne covets the popularity that his government’s excrable performance has not earned – Gnats aim to graft it onto their blighted tree and blight it in its turn.

      McCaw dodged that bullet – perhaps Swarbrick will too.

      • Olwyn 8.2.1

        Beautifully succinct Stuart! I was formulating something to say along much the same lines, only more long-winded and not quite so blunt. You have saved me the bother 🙂

    • Siobhan 8.3

      “independent entrepreneurialism??”……Isn’t that how Google and Apple etc all started out?? Successful companies, but not exactly great for Government coffers..

      “Traditional unionism is irrelevant to them, but new ways of organising work..” again, that sounds all very ‘Uber taxis’ and jobs called ‘gigs’.

      Great for the bright young things at the top…but hellish for your average ‘man’ in the street trying to pay the rent.

      • Wayne 8.3.1

        The impression I get is that the new generation of entrepreneurs want a model that is different to the Apple or Google model. Something of a blend of a co-operative model and a capitalist model. Where more of the decision making is shared.

        From what I can tell, many of the current large scale tech companies are like benevolent dictatorships. Many people may get bonuses and shares, but decision making clearly sits with the founders. Maybe I am wrong, never having worked in that sector.

        Are there more young people interested in way of working than in the past?

        Maybe not as a percentage, but this group is certainly getting more positive press than ever in the past. And in doing so, they emphasise their altruistic intent in a way that was not so evident in the past.

  8. pat 9

    ” From what I have seen of a lot of young people of her age, and up to about 35, they are looking at the world differently to people of older generations, which includes us both.

    They are not socialists, but they have strong social consciences, typically with a strong Green bent. They tend not to work in the corporate or govt sectors but are involved in independent entrepreneurialism. Traditional unionism is irrelevant to them, but new ways of organising work is much more important – a sense of we are in this together.”

    ..that would appear to be a fairly accurate assessment…….of the entrepreneurial segment, but it was probably always thus and as in earlier times that cohort is not dominant, at least not in number though it may be fair to suggest it is larger than in the past.

    • McFlock 9.1

      Yeah. It’s probably a fair assessment of that crowd (with a given margin for error on things like green or social orientation), but to apply it to an entire generation is a bit much.

  9. Tory 10

    Penny, I see you don’t use “ratepayer” as part of your electronic signature.

  10. alwyn 11

    I’m sure we will hear from the NZEI about this. What totally horrible treatment of a child.
    Perhaps we can blame it all on the ACT party.
    Obviously nothing like this would ever have happened if they hadn’t introduced Charter schools.
    Oh, wait. This is a State school.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=11724467
    How is that headmaster in particular allowed to be in the teaching profession? He should be booted out TODAY.

    • swordfish 11.1

      “Obviously nothing like this would ever have happened if they hadn’t introduced Charter schools. Oh, wait. This is a State school.”

      You’re beginning to sound more and more like Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.

      From now on, I’ll always read your comments in Stewie’s smugly superior Upper Class English accent.

      • Puckish Rogue 11.1.1

        Rex Harrison if you’re interested:

      • alwyn 11.1.2

        Teacher are you?
        Or are you someone who simply doesn’t give a stuff about the dreadful behaviour by those teachers who abused the kid?
        What do you think about their behaviour?

    • millsy 11.2

      I would say more a product of US-style ‘zero tolerance’ attitudes that are slowly taking root in our school system.

  11. Colonial Viper 13

    Saudi-led coalition of powerful rich middle east countries pounds poorest one Yemen into dust

    This heavily US armed and supported “coalition” consisting of the militaries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Kuwait and others has been attacking Yemen for months now.

    And just yesterday they struck a large funeral in a community hall in Sana’a killing over 150 and injuring over 500 more.

    Some reports suggested that it was a “double tap” attack to kill emergency first responders as well.

    The War Nerd suggested that the funeral was struck as it was for a high ranking Houthi military officer and that it was too good an opportunity for the Saudis to miss hitting.

    The US declared its displeasure at the massive civilian casualties and said that their support of the Saudi war against Yemen was “not a blank check.”

    https://twitter.com/TheWarNerd/status/784824128159125505

    https://www.rt.com/news/362069-yemen-bombing-saudi-us-support/

    • Some reports suggested that it was a “double tap” attack to kill emergency first responders as well.

      I guess they’ve learned something from the Russians. Still, as we know from Syria, Arab emergency first responders are terrorists who just fake propaganda rather than actually rescuing people, so no harm done, right?

      • Garibaldi 13.1.1

        Yeah Psycho Milt ,let’s blame the Rusky’s. Whatever you’ve got, you’ve got it bad mate. Why don’t you go and dig over the Middle East and see whether you collect more American or Russian shells?

        • In Vino 13.1.1.1

          He’d better not. The American ones are often contaminated with depleted uranium, remember? You could probably safely collect the fewer Russian ones. As far as I know, the evil Russians have not yet been accused of using depleted uranium. (If they had, you could be damned sure we would have been told about it with capital headlines.)

          Or am I wrong, Psycho Milt?

          • Colonial Viper 13.1.1.1.1

            Just did a quick google and it does seem that the Russians do have DU tank rounds available.

            But they haven’t (yet) left thousands of the things fired around, radioactively polluting the Middle East country side like the US has.

  12. Morrissey 15

    RNZ’s Brains Trust re Assange: “He’s just anti-EVERYTHING isn’t he?”
    Jesse Mulligan, out of his depth, is plummeting from bad to much worse.

    The Panel pre-show, RNZ National, Monday 10 October 2016, 4:20 p.m.
    Jim Mora, David Farrar, Ali Jones, Julie Moffett, Jesse Mulligan
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/201819389/the-panel-pre-show-for-10-october-2016

    Since he took over as the main afternoon host on RNZ National, I (and no doubt many other radio listeners) have generally regarded Jesse Mulligan as adequate: competent enough, personable, often delightfully quick with a pun. Probably the worst anyone would have said about him was that he was a pleasant but vacuous comedian and an earnest if not pretentious gourmand.

    Last week, however, Jesse Mulligan filled in for Jim Mora, as he occasionally has done in the past. Sadly for him, and even more sadly for listeners, he found himself having to talk to people about matters of grave consequence—the Syrian insurrection and the Israeli raid on a peace protest ship in international waters. He was simply not up to the job. My take on Mulligan then was simply that he was indolent, therefore poorly prepared, therefore unable to intelligently interview even a mediocre academic like Paul Sinclair, [1] leave alone an ideologically driven liar like Dr David Cumin. [2]

    It’s getting harder and harder to take such a benign view of Mulligan, however. Today, his intellectual laziness segued with disturbing smoothness into a nasty little attack against one of the West’s leading dissident journalists. That he did this in tandem with the sneering long-time Mora producer and dutiful chortler Julie Moffett makes it almost inevitable that he will be compared to the sneering, scoffing Jim Mora, and even to such insalubrious characters as Mike “Contra” Hosking, or Larry “Lackwit” Williams…..

    JIM MORA: Julie Moffett.

    JULIE MOFFETT: Another WikiLeaks LEAK reveals that Hillary Clinton apparently suggested that Wall Street INSIDERS were best qualified to regulate the banking industry, and also included her APPARENT admission of the need for money from banking executives for political fundraising. [mocking singsong tone] Hmmmm. This comes from thousands of emails HACKED from Clinton’s campaign chair John Poseda’s [sic] email account, and appear to include the excerpts from Mrs Clinton’s paid closed-door speeches to Wall Street executives after leaving her position as Secretary of STATE. [3]

    JIM MORA: This is not the smoking GUN, really, IS it? There have been so many revelations, allegations, opinions about Hillary and her connections with Wall Stre–, I mean, either Julian Assange has got something saved UP for just before the election but, I mean, tha–, this has been SEIZED ON, it’s considered—

    JULIE MOFFETT: Yeah.

    JIM MORA: —ahhh, interesting MATERIAL by her OPPONENT.

    JULIE MOFFETT: But they go around lobbying EVERYONE for money, don’t they?

    JESSE MULLIGAN: It’s pretty much exPECTed, isn’t it.

    JULIE MOFFETT: Yeah.

    JESSE MULLIGAN: Why is Assange on TRUMP’s side? Or is ‘e just anti-CLINTON?

    JULIE MOFFETT: He’s just anti-EVERYTHING isn’t he?

    JESSE MULLIGAN: Yeah I s’pose SO. I would’ve thought if you had the choice between two people, SURELY—- [Julie Moffett snorts sardonically] —someone in HIS position would go with CLINTON.

    JULIE MOFFETT: He doesn’t NEED to release anything on Trump.

    JESSE MULLIGAN: I guess so. [snorts] That’s right! [snorts]

    JULIE MOFFETT: Really. You KNOW.

    JESSE MULLIGAN: It’s all being released from ‘is MOUTH!

    JULIE MOFFETT: [snorts] Yeah, ha ha!

    JESSE MULLIGAN: Huh, ha ha ha ha ha.

    JIM MORA: We’ll talk about that after four.

    JESSE MULLIGAN: Okay.

    ….Pause….

    JULIE MOFFETT: Paper ROAD MAPS seem to be making a comeback….

    ….ad nauseam.

    [1] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06102016/#comment-1240595

    [2] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08102016/#comment-1241801

    [3] The “John Poseda” she mentions here is her butchered version of John Podesta.

  13. Morrissey 16

    Further evidence that Trump is a
    member of New Zealand’s wacky ACT cult…

    http://theslot.jezebel.com/new-audio-emerges-of-trump-bragging-about-his-voluptuo-1787578389

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