Open Mike 12/08/2017

52 comments on “Open Mike 12/08/2017 ”

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1. Maui 1

   12 August 2017 at 7:42 am

   Where is the United Nations in this Korean crisis ?

   Shouldn’t the secretary-general call in Trump and Kim for a face-to-face meeting
   and bang a few heads together ?
   • garibaldi 1.1

     12 August 2017 at 8:16 am

     Since when has the USA taken any notice of the UN? They only tolerate them in the guise of pretending they care.
     • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1

       12 August 2017 at 11:55 am

       +1
   • Ad 1.2

     12 August 2017 at 8:18 am

     The U.N. did its job last week with the unanimous resolution applying tonnes more sections.
   • One Two 1.3

     12 August 2017 at 11:33 am

     It’s pantomime. They’re reading from a script

     At the appropriate time, there will be de-escalation of ‘tensions’, and the focus will shift to the next, or previously highlighted ‘hot-spot’

     Nothing new, it’s the same strategy played out by the puppeteers, for an age

     ‘The USA’ ‘created’ North Korea
     ‘The USA ‘created’ The UN
2. Ad 2

   12 August 2017 at 9:09 am

   If anyone wants to really join in to this election and they are in Auckland, Phil Twyford is holding a public meeting this Monday the 14th at 6pm to talk about our plans for light rail in the west.

   It was not until Phil and Jacinda announced this policy last weekend that it was ever in the realms of possibility. Now for the first time, we have a chance to really transform Auckland for good.

   The meeting is being held at Henderson Intermediate School, 70 Lincoln Rd, Henderson. Come along to support Phil, and find out more about the plans, so that you are well informed when you are talking to voters.

   All we have to do is get them in to power. Just like that 🙂
   • Gabby 2.1

     12 August 2017 at 9:49 am

     Is there a chance he will explain why new light rail networks are a better option than adding to existing rail?
     • Ad 2.1.1

       12 August 2017 at 9:51 am

       Are you thinking of an Onehunga heavy rail extension?

       There’s better commentary on http://www.greaterauckland.org.nz if you want to see the precise benefits to each of the neighbourhoods from downtown Auckland to the airport.
     • dukeofurl 2.1.2

       12 August 2017 at 10:02 am

       A simple answer would be- in certain circumstances- a heavy rail line physically divides a community while a light rail line uses existing rights of way that arent divisive.
       • Ad 2.1.2.1

         12 August 2017 at 10:03 am

         And it’s too fucking hard in a city.
     • Draco T Bastard 2.1.3

       12 August 2017 at 11:56 am

       Some routes don’t need heavy rail.
3. Eco maori 3

   12 August 2017 at 9:17 am

   It’s a joke punish the poor in Korea so
   Two big egos dance on the world stage we all no China view on this and American ain’t going to fuck with China the rich in America will lose to much money
4. Grey Area 4

   12 August 2017 at 9:51 am

   Graham denied candidacy

   Good decision.
   • mauī 4.1

     12 August 2017 at 8:26 pm

     Good, the green slimeball can’t grease his way back in now.
5. weka 5

   12 August 2017 at 9:54 am

   The Greens have rejected Kennedy Graham’s request to be put back on the party list.
   • dukeofurl 5.1

     12 August 2017 at 10:03 am

     While hes still an MP , he would make a good catch for TOP ?
     • weka 5.1.1

       12 August 2017 at 10:15 am

       how would that work? He’d have to resign as a GP MP first.
     • james 5.1.2

       13 August 2017 at 9:42 am

       That would be fantastic – keep it in the news for a few more weeks.

       Poor guy kicked out by the greens for standing up for what he believed in – Showing that the party is still sympathetic to their recently resigned leader as opposed to members who reflect the publics view (according to poll results)

       This can only hurt the greens more – Winston will be loving this.
   • Psycho Milt 5.2

     12 August 2017 at 10:27 am

     Who knew that helping your party’s opponents smear it during an election campaign might have consequences? Not Kennedy Graham, apparently. I don’t think politics is the right field for him to work in.
   • Chess Player 5.3

     12 August 2017 at 7:32 pm

     Now, if Gareth Morgan offered Kennedy Graham the No.1 list spot for TOP, that might be interesting….
     It would reinforce the growing perception that TOP is something of an alternative to the Greens for those who want to ensure the environment is front and centre irrespective of who leads the government.
     It would give TOP voters confidence that in the currently unlikely, but certainly possible, prospect that they get over 5% that the first person in has parliamentary experience.
     It would save GM from having to go into parliament, which, let’s face it, would be bad for everyone.
     It would also get attention for the TOP party like nothing else.
     • RedLogix 5.3.1

       12 August 2017 at 8:13 pm

       That offer is pretty much already on the table CP:

       http://www.top.org.nz/environmental_tribute_to_kennedy_graham_and_david_clendon

       I was in two minds about the timing; but now the Greens have explicitly rejected them returning, anything may well happen in the next few weeks.
       • Sabine 5.3.1.1

         12 August 2017 at 11:58 pm

         yep, the best party money can buy.
6. ianmac 6

   12 August 2017 at 10:13 am

   Newsroom has some good items. Such as surgical mesh saga and the ineffectual response from Minister of Health Jonathon Coleman. by Teuila Fuatai
   “Most recently on July 28, Korte and Sullivan met with the Health Minister in Dunedin….

   First, the pair was told Coleman would only have 15 minutes to meet.

   During that time, only two concerns about surgical mesh were discussed – and even that was rushed.

   “He wanted to leave after the first concern was raised,” Sullivan said.

   “His responses to our questions about the lack of progress in implementing Select Committee recommendations was completely unsatisfactory….

   “Looking back, it seemed like a PR exercise to show he was meeting with an advocacy group. His attitude towards us and ongoing problems with surgical mesh has been extremely tough to understand and endure – especially since he is a GP,” Sullivan said.”
   https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/08/06/41379/surgical-mesh-a-decade-of-debilitation
   • Molly 6.1

     12 August 2017 at 12:20 pm

     A good friend has been through a decade of surgeries, and fighting against ACC and surgeons to have the damage from the mesh implant recognised – and if possible – remedied.

     Hard to get something remedied when the surgeon won’t acknowledge that there is a problem.

     Along with other NZ casualties from this implant, she had to raise her own funding to get to the US, where surgeons are fully employed with removing this mesh from where it has embedded.

     I posted a few years ago about how one of our advisors for the surgical community, was also a paid advocate for the mesh companies.

     National Women’s quietly removed the mesh implant surgery from their recommendations a couple of years ago, but this is not yet true nationally. The Independent has a good article a couple of weeks ago referring to the mesh scandal being the new thalidomide in the UK.
     • ianmac 6.1.1

       12 August 2017 at 2:13 pm

       Here it is the bland arrogance of Coleman that defeats proper remedy. He did the same re the Southern DHB under funding under resourcing in spite of the evidence presented by John Campbell.
       (The surgeon recently used mesh in my hernia operation but it has been very successful.)
       • Molly 6.1.1.1

         12 August 2017 at 4:42 pm

         Glad that you have had no complications. Reality is, one out of the four acknowledged fatalities in NZ, relates to mesh used in a hernia operation. I suspect that there may have been other deaths, but they may not have been identified as originating from mesh.

         Along with the physical damage caused by mesh travelling, and embessed in tissue, bones and organs, there is a high incidence of infection that is unable to be managed with the current stock of antibiotics.

         As an implant, I would prefer the use of sutures, rather than mesh. But I have witnessed what happens when it goes wrong. The son of the woman had also had mesh implant for his hernia, and has had no issues.

         It has been an uphill battle, trying to get surgeons to acknowledge the harm that some women reported post surgery. And unfortunately, while that reporting was being ignored, more mesh has been used in operations.
7. Ad 7

   12 August 2017 at 10:25 am

   My wife’s got a t-shirt with big text:

   “Liberable and miserable”

   I prefer Left Melancholy. Stops me getting excited.

   [TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
   
   • adam 7.1

     12 August 2017 at 1:32 pm

     Yeah that why I bag liberalism, because it’s depressing in spades.

     Socialism, not only does it cure the worlds ills, it has all the best dancers as well.

     Edit: And the heaviest rockers.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph-CA_tu5KA&ab_channel=RammsteinOfficial
     • Ad 7.1.1

       12 August 2017 at 1:45 pm

       http://cloggie.org/wissewords2/2011/01/20/rammstein/

       Rammstein’s political leanings aren’t necessarily settled left or right.

       The left would get more votes if they avoided persuasion less through Rammsein, and started more welcoming them to their world ……….

       ……via Jim Reeves

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCCvN8YDuc
       • adam 7.1.1.1

         12 August 2017 at 1:48 pm

         Still clinging to liberalism and your depression with Jim Reeves I see Ad 🙂

         Edit: A link predating the song I linked, which answered the question.
8. savenz 8

   12 August 2017 at 12:07 pm

   Chlorinated chicken? Yes, we really can have too much trade
   George Monbiot

   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/25/chlorinated-chicken-trade-britain-us-food-standards-globalisation

   “To trade fundamentalists, rainforests and ancient woodlands, coral reefs and wild rivers, local markets and lively communities, civic life and public space are nothing but unrealised opportunities for development. Where we see the presence of beauty, tranquillity and wonder, they see the absence of palm oil plantations and soybean deserts, container ports and mega-dams, shopping malls and 12-lane highways. For them, there is no point of arrival, just an endless escalation of transit.

   Brussels attacks Liam Fox’s ‘ignorant’ remarks on chlorinated chicken
   Read more
   Nowhere is a place in its own right; everywhere is a resource waiting to be exploited. No one is a person in their own right; everyone is a worker, consumer or debtor whose potential for profit generation has yet to be realised. Satiety, wellbeing, peace: these are antithetical to globalised growth, which demands constant erasure and replacement. If you are happy, you are an impediment to trade. Your self-possession must be extinguished.”
   • Incognito 8.1

     12 August 2017 at 12:12 pm

     The vicious circle of Want-Lack-Need-Have.
   • Draco T Bastard 8.2

     12 August 2017 at 1:23 pm

     So the existential question the chicken issue raises is this: why do we want more trade? What is it for? The old promise was that trade led to prosperity. But what if we have enough already? What if enhanced global trade, far from promoting wellbeing, now undermines it?

     Some good questions and I’m pretty sure that your average, run of the mill economist and politician couldn’t answer any of them.

     Trade cannot lead to prosperity. It’s economic development that does that but trade, in it’s present capitalist format, actually prevents that. If it was cooperative rather than competitive then trade may help with that economic development.
9. Draco T Bastard 9

   12 August 2017 at 12:08 pm

   Rob Stock: The nightmare of negative equity
   Translation: The Housing Bubble burst

   Barfoot and Thompson’s July sales report showed the average sale price for an Auckland Eastern suburbs home was $1.117 million in July, compared to $1.193m in July last year.

   In the North Shore the average price was down from $1.3m to $1.06m. In South Auckland, it was down from $824,069 to $708,069.

   What exactly this all means is up for debate.

   No, it means that he’s too shit scared to tell everyone that the fun’s over and the economy is now on its way to hell now that it’s artificial life support has been removed.

   National’s ‘Rock Star’ economy is doing what many real rock stars have done – crash and burn.

   But unless banks get uppity and demand extra repayments (which they didn’t do when prices fell in 2009 after the Global Financial Crisis), a homeowner in negative equity can just get on with life, hoping the property market will quickly revert to rising as the tide of migration to Auckland, and the failure to build enough homes in the city, continue.

   Ah, so the home-owners only hope is that excess immigration continues which none of us can afford.

   It traps them, and is a rankling symbol of how they are a victim of failed markets, failed government policies, and other people’s profiteering.

   That’s the way that the system is set up. A few people get rich while everyone else gets poor.
   • Sabine 9.1

     12 August 2017 at 1:11 pm

     its winter. Sales are always slower in winter and prices are always down in winter.

     IF the same is still true come spring/summer you might have a point. Until then, i would say it is a seasonal dip. But i can see how the undertaker of Barfoot and Thompson don’t like the fact that they loose a wee bit of money.
     • Draco T Bastard 9.1.1

       12 August 2017 at 1:19 pm

       its winter. Sales are always slower in winter and prices are always down in winter.

       Did you read it? Especially the bit that said that they were looking from July last year to July this year?

       I’m pretty sure that that accounts for winter.
       • Sabine 9.1.1.1

         12 August 2017 at 3:06 pm

         i did.
         but generally winter sales are lower and slower.

         so i would really just wait.

         no when prices go back to what they used to wear, and suddenly property prices are back to 300.000 and less in south Akl you have reason to dance in the streets.
         • Herodotus 9.1.1.1.1

           12 August 2017 at 3:53 pm

           This has nothing to do with our trading banks placing stricter requirements on developers (same happened during thebGFC) when much of the reduction of development was due to banks restricting credit in many cases “forcing” builders and developers to pay back debt and leaving them with no working capital to continue producing land and houses.
         • Draco T Bastard 9.1.1.1.2

           12 August 2017 at 4:12 pm

           but generally winter sales are lower and slower.

           Yes, they are which is why comparing prices from last winter to prices this winter generally works.
           • Incognito 9.1.1.1.2.1

             12 August 2017 at 9:01 pm

             The drop is sales volumes is possibly even more telling than the drop in average sales prices. July this year is down 29% cf. last year. With small(er) volumes the average price will start to become more ‘jumpy’.
10. Molly 10

    12 August 2017 at 12:23 pm

    My partner’s company has been informed that freight charges for rail transport will be going up by 63% over the next two years. Making the option of transitioning to rail for transport companies that much harder.

    The knock-on effect of having utilities that have private shareholders to compensate.
11. joe90 11

    12 August 2017 at 12:49 pm

    I guess this is threaten war week at the Whitehouse.

    President Trump just said he wouldn't rule out a "military option" in Venezuela. "A military..option is certainly something we could pursue" pic.twitter.com/bdfDg5oPZs— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) August 11, 2017
12. Dspare 12

    12 August 2017 at 1:10 pm

    An object lesson in the need for strong Labour laws which are rigourously inspected and enforced:

    The 11 gang members in the Lincolnshire case, convicted of fraud and slavery charges, used the money they made from their workers to pay for holidays to Barbados, cosmetic surgery and coaching at a Manchester United football school…

    “He was asked to sign a contract by John Rooney – a contract would have been out of his understanding,” she said. “And John Rooney said to him: ‘You’re going to work for me for the rest of your life.’

    “My brother replied: ‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’ Prior to that conversation, John Rooney had actually made him dig a hole. And my brother said to him: ‘How much further do you want me to dig down?’ And he [Rooney] said ‘keep digging’ and at the end of the conversation said to him: ‘If you don’t sign this contract, that’s where you’re going, in that hole.’

    “We think he was captured for up to 26 years.”

    Reflecting on the Rooneys’ manipulation of their victims, Janine Smith of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “These members of the Rooney family lived lives of luxury at the expense of their victims, condemning them to live in fear, misery and squalor. For them, exploitation, violence and extortion were a way of life. The defendants have caused serious harm to the people they exploited, some of whom have now passed away.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/11/uk-family-found-guilty-of-enslaving-homeless-and-disabled-people

    There may have been no publicized cases with such sensational details as this in New Zealand. But make no mistake that unmonitored employment conditions of contracters in this country have led to similar episodes of vile abuse. Greed is never satiated.

    When some people people are abandoned to be treated as slaves, others will act as whipcrackers.
13. Cinny 13

    12 August 2017 at 5:19 pm

    Bill English came to Motueka yesterday, it was what I’d call a private visit, as the public weren’t notified.

    Bill English went to Talleys HQ where he was mobbed for selfies by the immigrant workers there, the kiwis just sat around, not interested or impressed at all by the PM.

    Bill was heard saying to the immigrant workers ‘i wish you guys could vote’.

    His next stop was an orchard, this too would have been filled with workers unable to vote.

    Funny as

    Newspaper didn’t tell the whole story, lucky the locals filled me in. Crack up

    See for yourselves… those lovely Indonesians made him feel very special

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95686477/pm-mobbed-in-motueka-as-local-economys-success-stories-revealed

    PM Bill English kissing up to the large corporations that hire and exploit foreign workers.
    • tc 13.1

      12 August 2017 at 8:10 pm

      Ticking off a few commitments to nationals funding partners. Talleys don’t like the media on their premises also.

      Like 2002 methinks Blinglish is in for, in his own words, ‘a test of character’, with similar outcomes.
    • JC 13.2

      12 August 2017 at 8:33 pm

      Tnks Cinny. wonder if He’ll make an appearance on the Coast… now that Talley’s are part of Bathurst/Talleys, (Coal) mining group there, and (in southland it seems)…

      Perhaps he’ll call at Pike on the way down South…

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/85911498/bathurst-resources-and-talleys-buys-three-solid-energy-mines
      • JC 13.2.1

        12 August 2017 at 9:03 pm

        P.S On reading the Stuff link further….

        a further link, http://bathurstresources.com/project/domestic-operations/

        And another reason to not purchase Talleys frozen Peas, and/or Hoki et al …
      • Cinny 13.2.2

        13 August 2017 at 10:10 am

        Cheer for the link JC. The Bill English visit to Talleys is the big joke around town this weekend with the locals.

        Interestingly enough Peter Talley was in the audience for Winstons meeting at our local RSA last month.
    • swordfish 13.3

      12 August 2017 at 11:09 pm

      Motueka = relatively evenly-divided town in 2014 – though tending slightly Left & fairly strongly Oppo (Left+NZF)

      Left 45%
      Right 42%
      NZF 11%

      That makes Motters even more Left & Oppo-leaning than most large & provincial Cities – let alone most comparable small towns

      *West Coast-Tasman + Te Tai Tonga Motueka Booths
      • Cinny 13.3.1

        13 August 2017 at 10:05 am

        Thanks for the stats Swordy, much appreciated.

        Many Nats around here are party voting NZ1st this year, so I’ve been hearing. But that was before Jacinda.

        When the announcement was made about the Red Princess last week, people were literally cheering and dancing in the main street.
14. Eco maori 14

    12 August 2017 at 9:03 pm

    Any one no what happened to that law student law suite against National .
    It was about climate change
    • lprent 14.1

      13 August 2017 at 9:01 am

      Judges decision has been reserved. Which means that they will release it when they have finished polishing it,

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