Open mike 11/07/2021

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, July 11th, 2021 - 19 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 …

19 comments on “Open mike 11/07/2021 ”

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  1. Muttonbird 1
    11 July 2021 at 2:48 pm

    Absolute shite from National Party embedded journalist, Tracey Watkins. She parrots the bizarre claim made this week by former Mr Break-It, Steven Joyce, who stated the government was determined to return to the Muldoon era and a closed economy.

    Al the right wing nut job journalists have been at over the last few days, Watkins, Trevett, Young, McIvor, and Heather Stupidity-Allan.

    All claiming we are fearful little sheep hiding behind the skirts of Jacinda Ardern.

    Have these rank idiots looked over the Tasman recently?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/300354397/covid19-we-need-a-plan-to-open-fortress-nz

    • DukeEll 1.1
      11 July 2021 at 5:18 pm

      So we shouldn’t have a plan because other, similar, plans have failed?

    • McFlock 1.2
      11 July 2021 at 7:45 pm

      We know this from the government’s own research, which shows a majority of Kiwis are comfortable with keeping the borders closed for now, and largely content with the way life has panned out under Covid.

      followed by (my colour change for emphasis):

      We can assume some of that fear of opening is driven by confusion over the vaccination roll-out; when there are still tens of thousands of vulnerable people in group 3 who are yet to even get an appointment for their first dose, we all know the risks of opening up are too high.

      lol so because we’re largely content, we’re afraid of opening?

      Maybe most of us know the situation, have tried to adapt to it, and maybe don’t actually miss the cruise ships and package tours that really try to minimise the amount of cash that actually stays in the country – many customers giveth customers with one hand, taketh kickbacks with the other so the economic impact is significantly less than the retail sales.

      And importing staff to undercut wages and conditions for locals needs to stop. Pay a living wage and let the cards fall as they may.

      • greywarshark 1.2.1
        11 July 2021 at 7:55 pm

        Covid19 is a serious example of the future trend. It should be a game-changer for agile minds who care about the country and all NZs – there is still a decent sized percentage of people like this. It’s an opportunity for change.

        Play it like musical chairs, every time there is a sudden pause, whip another chair out from under some comfortable bum and make them stand on the sidelines. They can watch for a while other people trying to ignite the dampened, chastened economy with carefully placed kindling, not just hot air from blowhards. Hah (end of rant).

      • lprent 1.2.2
        11 July 2021 at 8:35 pm

        I don’t think that anyone is confused about the vaccination schedule. It is driven almost entirely by supply and scaling. Everything is up on the MoH site. I just think that PR idiot is more confused about how credulous the suckers are.

        Despite the NZ Herald propaganda mill has been pushing, I suspect most people are wary about throwing the doors open without strong controls either to visitors or returning kiwis who choose to go offshore. They are simply going to be too dangerous for those of us who actually want to live here.

        There are a few things that I think we could do with the MIQ and vaccines to enable our business travel to work more effectively. But most of those depend on data we don’t have yet – like the risk of the vaccinated being infectious carriers soon reinfection after a even after a full vaccination of Pfizer.

        But the clear thing that has been shown over the last year showing is that this pandemic is a marathon not a frigging sprint. I don’t think that this pandemic will significantly wane worldwide for until mid-2023. That just gives the virus more time to explore its large genome.

        At present the upper Northern hemisphere are mainly getting the effect of summer and the outdoors. As it turns to winter I suspect their patchy vaccination footprint will find that variants like pockets of population who aren’t.

        From where I was at the end of March last year, I’m only surprised that the mRNA vaccines are so effective, and especially at dealing with variants. We need to get to an actual 80-90% vaccination rate here before we start doing anything stupid. I’d really like it if building booster vaccines against variants become an established technology. That is the epidemic killer. For NZ that will be our next year problem.

  2. weka 2
    11 July 2021 at 2:59 pm

    Welcome back everyone

  3. Tony Veitch (not etc.) 3
    11 July 2021 at 3:55 pm

    I need to widen my horizons! Not having the Standard to go to and read these last couple of days has left me bereft and desolate!

    Thanks to Lprent and hoping you get well soon!

  4. r0b 4
    11 July 2021 at 4:40 pm

    Henry Cooke: “In Auckland, Labour local board member Greg Presland, who runs the party’s traditional newspaper The Standard, has opposed …”

    Thank goodness the “traditional newspaper” is back online. And get well soon lprent.

    • mickysavage 4.1
      11 July 2021 at 4:53 pm

      Gidday Rob. Bloody press …

      There is a development out west near the edge of the city that the local board opposed because it was pretty intense, and was outside the walkable zone for the local train station. This would not be affected by the GPS on intensification. But local board opposition to a private application on land outside the apartment zone gets converted into opposition to the Government’s policy. Grrrr…

      And I certainly do not run this site although I contribute …

    • AncientGeek 4.2
      11 July 2021 at 5:29 pm

      the partys traditional newspaper

      Well if Henry Cooke certainly isn’t a person who knows his history. From memory he is talking about 20-25 decades that the Labour party ran the old Standard – ended in the 1960? They certainly don’t run this one.

      I operate it, in the engineering sense. But I certainly don’t run it in terms of giving anyone orders. I’ll occasionally get annoyed and take a preemptive action to avoid getting more annoyed. Mostly it is just there for volunteers to use if they can figure out how to get along with each other. These days I’m so busy with other things that I have to get sick to have time to comment.

    • r0b 4.3
      11 July 2021 at 6:21 pm

      Gidday all! Yeah I think Cooke probably does know about the original The Standard, but he should also know better than to describe the current site that way. Bravo to all putting in the work here…

      • greywarshark 4.3.1
        11 July 2021 at 7:46 pm

        Good to hear from you r0b. Henry Cooke is the Chief Political Reporter for stuff and no doubt runs that news service!? Or thinks he does, or even doesn’t think too hard. Politics is much too nuanced for someone who makes firm statements on shaky grounds.

  5. greywarshark 5
    11 July 2021 at 8:10 pm

    Ancient Geek – I saw a listing on youtube of Ancient Greek and thought I would look to see which one you might identify with. Most are nude and am unsure what your choice might be. But they were definitely men of stature as we consider you to be in your work at keeping this modern petroglyph going!

  6. greywarshark 6
    11 July 2021 at 8:30 pm

    This medical practitioner was sanctioned for recommending patients with diabetes use less sugar! Big ‘Grosser’ is watching him methinks.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018802393/dr-gary-fettke-fighting-the-demonisation-of-red-meat

  7. Muttonbird 7
    11 July 2021 at 9:21 pm

    Question:

    Did Patrick Gower deliberately pass on the leaked draft script of That Are Us to the victims’ families so he could do an exclusive TV story on them and their distress?

    If so, he should be run out of all forms of media immediately.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/07/leaked-they-are-us-draft-script-graphically-depicts-christchurch-terror-attack-families-say-it-s-worse-than-the-livestream.html

    Oh, he did do that.

  8. Fireblade 8
    11 July 2021 at 10:07 pm

    The Standard awakens!

    It’s alive, it’s alive…it’s alive!

  9. Jenny how to get there 9
    12 July 2021 at 7:05 am

    Asthma is a chronic disease that falls most heavily on lower socio-economic communities and sectors of the population, with the most distressing cases amongst children.
    All around the world from Singapore, to the US, to the UK and Europe and even here in New Zealand, new research and medical studies are pouring in about the decrease in reported asthma cases during the pandemic.
    There are so many links on this reported phenomenon, that if I put up even some of them it would trip the auto moderation. But it is a very real effect, just google it.

    We need to ask ourselves, what is the true cost of returning to BAU to human health and well-being and the natural environment and global climate?When we could have this instead.

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