Open mike 12/09/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 12th, 2015 - 78 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen 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 …

78 comments on “Open mike 12/09/2015 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Manuka AOR 1
    12 September 2015 at 8:06 am

    “Australian IS Jihardist” is US Troll!
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-is-jihadist-is-actually-an-jewish-american-troll-20150911-gjk852.html

    “Joshua Ryne Goldberg, a 20-year old living at his parents’ house in US state of Florida, is accused of posing online as “Australi Witness,” an IS supporter who publicly called for a series of attacks against individuals and events in western countries.

    “In recent days Australi Witness has claimed online that he is working with other jihadists to plan attacks in Australia and the United States. He distributed pictures of a bomb that he was working on with “2 lbs of explosives inside”.”

  2. dv 2
    12 September 2015 at 8:12 am

    Oops

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11511711

    Crack crime-fighting unit sent top-secret files to the very criminals they were investigating.

    Top-secret police intelligence documents with details about confidential informants were accidentally sent by our elite organised crime-fighting agency to the criminals they were investigating.

    The stunning bungle saw the information copied and widely circulated among gang and methamphetamine-producing circles and led to police taking emergency steps to protect those exposed by the blunder.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.1
      12 September 2015 at 10:20 am

      Chances are the police are using MS Outlook for email and not dedicated software which would keep confidential information safe. They would be doing this because it’s cheaper than actually having proper software.

  3. dv 3
    12 September 2015 at 8:54 am

    This is a interesting read
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11511690

    Key points-

    Minimum wage
    No training (oops one day)
    New contract – undercut price
    Changeover scramble

    My job fitting ankle bracelets to crims

    The company’s monitoring centre had sent me to install a GPS ankle bracelet in a remote and run-down Hauraki Plains town called Kerepehi.

    Only after getting out of the car did I see he was holding a machete.

    This is New Zealand’s home detention frontline in 2015, where security guards on minimum wages are sent out alone, including at night, after one day’s training and no idea what awaits them.

    For 20 years, New Zealand has detained convicted criminals and those awaiting sentencing at their homes. Until this year, Chubb had the Corrections Department contract, but the United States corporate 3M, formerly Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, and its First Security NZ partner, a subsidiary of Australia’s Wilson Security, offered new GPS equipment and an undercut price.

    The changeover was a scramble. People with no experience, like me, were hired. We had doubts that all offenders, wearing the old units, were being monitored. After the first few weeks, we were told we no longer needed to contact Chubb before cutting off old bracelets.

    How many have cut off their trackers.

    • save NZ 3.1
      12 September 2015 at 10:11 am

      Shocking. The problem with all the neoliberal dogma is that cheaper ineffectual solutions are not solving the problem and a waste of money and in many cases increasing the costs and risks to the public as well as taking away ‘real’ jobs, but they can’t comprehend that.

      • Pat 3.1.1
        12 September 2015 at 11:33 am

        they “comprehend” that very well….and are unconcerned as they problems it engenders have not impacted ( indeed in many ways supports) their cosseted lifestyles…..yet.

          • Paul 3.1.1.1.1
            12 September 2015 at 12:06 pm

            Neoliberalism has destroyed society and is destroying the planet.

            Special thanks to……
            Ayn Rand
            Milton Friedman
            Ronald Reagan
            Margaret Thatcher
            Roger Douglas
            Ruth Richardson
            John Key

        • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.2
          12 September 2015 at 1:25 pm

          and are unconcerned as they problems it engenders have not impacted ( indeed in many ways supports) their cosseted lifestyles…..yet.

          Yep, the poverty that neo-liberalism produces is needed so that a few can be rich.

    • Plan B 3.2
      12 September 2015 at 11:40 pm

      Wilson parking !

  4. The Chairman 4
    12 September 2015 at 9:00 am

    Teen marijuana use held steady in 2014, the first year that marijuana was legally available for purchase in the US states of Washington and Colorado, according to just-released numbers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

    Many opponents of legalisation have warned that legal weed would lead to a spike in the number of teenagers using and abusing the substance.

    So far, there’s been little apparent downside to legal weed in Colorado and Washington. Colorado marijuana taxes are bringing in millions of dollars for schools (ditto in Washington).

    Cops are spending less time arresting and jailing marijuana users. Crime and impaired driving in Colorado is generally flat or trending downward.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/71983455/us-teen-pot-use-hasnt-increased-despite-legalisation-in-two-states-study-shows

  5. Tony P 5
    12 September 2015 at 9:13 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71879431/what-is-a-new-zealander

    Insightful and to the point.
    “Is that New Zealand now? Three parts sport to one part depression?”

  6. Morrissey 6
    12 September 2015 at 9:38 am

    Iran is a “belligerent” state?
    Kim Hill needs to do a lot more reading, watch less Fox News and BBC.
    Radio New Zealand National, Saturday 12 September 2015

    This morning Kim Hill interviewed Nelson orchardist Harry McQuillan, who worked for many years in the Iranian oil industry until the 1979 revolution. This was an interesting half hour, but was marred slightly by a couple of naïve and provocative contributions by the host. First, she made the bizarre claim that the recent deal with the United States might bring about a lessening of Iran’s “belligerence”. A little later she expressed wonderment that the Iranian people have somehow managed to think differently from their government—something that could be said about any country, of course.

    Harry McQuillan refused to engage with this behaviour, but this writer, i.e., moi, was moved to send an email to Ms. Hill….

    Iran is a “belligerent” state?

    Dear Kim,

    In your interview with Harry McQuillan, you referred to Iran as a “belligerent” state. In fact, Iran has attacked no state, overthrown no government for more than 2,400 years.

    Harry McQuillan was too polite to say so, but perhaps you had confused Iran with Saudi Arabia or Israel or the United States or the United Kingdom.

    Yours sincerely,

    Morrissey Breen
    Northcote Point

    • Chooky 6.2
      12 September 2015 at 1:21 pm

      I thought it was a very positive interview about Iran…sometimes Kim Hill says things ironically …or to get a reaction/contradiction

      …sometimes interviewers have to play devils advocate..otherwise boring listening if it is all agreement

      This interview about the early scientist Hector was superb

      http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201770399/simon-nathan-james-hector-explorer,-scientist,-leader

      Please please more on New Zealand history from the media !

      …with jonkey and his servile msm and rugby black shirts around anyone would think New Zealand didnt have HISTORY until he appeared on scene with his bankster mates and started to reframe/ rewrite New Zealand by selling off State Owned Assets and reflagging /redesigning the flag

      • Chooky 6.2.1
        12 September 2015 at 1:37 pm

        this also was very good listening from Kim Hill this morning

        ‘Matthieu Aikins: Yemen and the Middle East’

        http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201770391/matthieu-aikins-yemen-and-the-middle-east

        “Schell Fellow at the Nation Institute who reports from the Middle East and South Asia for a number of magazines and whose investigative work exposing war crimes in Afghanistan won him the George Polk Award and the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism.”

      • Morrissey 6.2.2
        13 September 2015 at 9:38 am

        I thought it was a very positive interview about Iran…

        I agree with you.

        sometimes Kim Hill says things ironically …or to get a reaction/contradiction

        My problem in this instance was her statement, in apparent high seriousness, that Iran was a “belligerent state.” That’s not being ironic, it’s an inversion of the truth.

        …sometimes interviewers have to play devils advocate..

        An interviewer has an obligation to stick within the bounds of reality. When Kim Hill stated that Iran was a “belligerent state”, she was reiterating the black propaganda, i.e., lies, of the U.S. government. Similar behaviour by her in 2003 moved John Pilger to give her a memorable dressing down on television. “You waste my time because you have not prepared for this interview,” he told her. “This interview frankly is a disgrace.”[1] As one of the commenters under the clip notes, “A bad haircut & facetious sarcasm do not compensate for an unprepared interview of one of the world’s best journalists.” Luckily for her, Harry McQuillan was determined to ignore her provocations yesterday.

        otherwise boring listening if it is all agreement

        Disagreement is fine. Telling lies is not.

        [1] http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/face-to-face-with-kim-hill-john-pilger-2003

  7. The Chairman 7
    12 September 2015 at 9:41 am

    It’s bad enough when sport stories lead the nightly news.

    Today we have an interview with All Blacks coach Steve Hansen leading the Nation.

  8. Chooky 8
    12 September 2015 at 9:43 am

    Who is fooling who with lies about the war against Syria, which just so incidentally owns the Golan Heights?

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14724842

    ‘Unsourced Syria’

    http://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/314795-syria-military-assistance-isis/

    “An unsourced story originating on an Israeli website claimed Russia was about to deploy significant military assistance to Syria to fight Islamic State. This set the media aflame and had Washington issuing warnings. The story was not only unsourced, but also untrue. But it did reveal how the West frames its illegal war against Syria.

    CrossTalking with Eric Draitser, Danny Makki and Fawaz Gerges.”

    http://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/314808-assange-corbyn-us-wikileaks/

    Assange on ‘US Empire’, Assad govt overthrow plans & new book ‘The WikiLeaks Files’ (EXCLUSIVE)

  9. The Chairman 9
    12 September 2015 at 11:32 am

    TPP requires major sales effort to gain acceptance?

    A full political campaign has not yet been mounted at retail level. Associate Trade Minister Todd McClay has been deputised by Groser to fill that vacuum but there is much more to be done.

    Key said he would be concerned if the deal (TPP) was not done by Christmas.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/best-of-political-analysis/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502734&objectid=11500955

    • Paul 9.1
      12 September 2015 at 12:03 pm

      Did you notice that comments below were universally anti the TPP and so the Herald closed down the opportunity for people to comment?
      ‘ This discussion is now closed.’

      • The Chairman 9.1.1
        12 September 2015 at 2:10 pm

        There is widespread concern when it comes to the TPP.

        The first comment got my attention.

        “NZ does not have to benefit directly. If this agreement is good for the economies of our trading partners then our economy benefits too.”

        Guest we can expect National’s spin machine to start gearing up.

  10. Draco T Bastard 10
    12 September 2015 at 11:41 am

    14 Years After 9/11, the War on Terror Is Accomplishing Everything bin Laden Hoped It Would

    Fourteen years later, don’t you still find it improbable that George W. Bush and company used those murderous acts and the nearly 3,000 resulting deaths as an excuse to try to make the world theirs? It took them no time at all to decide to launch a “Global War on Terror” in up to 60 countries. It took them next to no time to begin dreaming of the establishment of a future Pax Americana in the Middle East, followed by the sort of global imperium that had previously been conjured up only by cackling bad guys in James Bond films. Don’t you find it strange, looking back, just how quickly 9/11 set their brains aflame?

    Fourteen years later, how probable was it that the country then universally considered the planet’s “sole superpower,” openly challenged only by tiny numbers of jihadist extremists, with a military better funded than the next 10 to 13 forces combined (most of whom were allies anyway), and whose technological skills were, as they say, to die for would win no wars, defeat no enemies, and successfully complete no occupations? What were the odds? If, on September 12, 2001, someone had given you half-reasonable odds on a US military winning streak in the Greater Middle East, don’t tell me you wouldn’t have slapped some money on the table.

    And the world is still dealing with the fallout of that fateful day and US over-confidence and aggression.

  11. marty mars 11
    12 September 2015 at 12:09 pm

    “”I am not a heartless, racist camerawoman who would kick children … ”

    You tripped and kicked them and it is all on video – that isn’t in dispute – Why you behaved in the way you did is open to interpretation.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/71992426/hungarian-camerawoman-regrets-kicking-tripping-migrants

    For some reason I can hear a few standard regulars plaintively spin this line too – after they have kicked and shoved back into the water some refugees that are half dead from making it to these pretty little islands.

    • Muttonbird 11.1
      12 September 2015 at 12:21 pm

      She says she snapped but that was just the right winger trying to get out, the something inside which drives their entire approach to life and attitude towards fellow human beings.

      This is something they do their best to hide in every day life but sometimes under stress the ugly and inhumane truth cannot be covered up.

      • marty mars 11.1.1
        12 September 2015 at 12:27 pm

        + 1 Yep those right wingers are the biggest cowards out – they hide their toxicity but it can’t help oozing out, like the pus it is, when they think they can get away with it.

        • joe90 11.1.1.1
          12 September 2015 at 1:19 pm

          The shoe fits.

          According to Adorno’s theory, the elements of the Authoritarian
          personality type are:

          • Blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and
            wrong
          • Respect for submission to acknowledged authority
          • Belief in aggression toward those who do not subscribe
            to conventional thinking, or who are different
          • A negative view of people in general – i.e. the belief
            that people would all lie, cheat or steal if given the opportunity
          • A need for strong leadership which displays uncompromising
            power
          • A belief in simple answers and polemics – i.e. The media
            controls us all or The source of all our problems is the loss of morals these
            days.
          • Resistance to creative, dangerous ideas. A black
            and white worldview.
          • A tendency to project one’s own feelings of inadequacy,
            rage and fear onto a scapegoated group
          • A preoccupation with violence and sex

          http://www.psychologistworld.com/influence_personality/authoritarian_personality.php

    • Naki man 11.2
      12 September 2015 at 1:38 pm

      I hope they sack the heartless bitch

  12. Karen 12
    12 September 2015 at 1:03 pm

    The bookies in Britain have evidently declared Jeremy Corbyn the winner and paid out on bets made that he would be elected the new leader of the Labour Party.

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/11/how-jeremy-corbyn-went-from-no-hope-candidate-to-brink-of-victory

    The actual result is expected at midday their time, 11pm here.

    • millsy 12.1
      12 September 2015 at 2:04 pm

      I wouldn’t start popping the champagne yet.

      It ain’t over till it over…

    • Anne 12.2
      12 September 2015 at 4:11 pm

      I know its going to unleash a storm of malice and dirty tricks for Corbyn but tonight if he wins I will cheer…

      A small beacon of hope.

    • swordfish 12.3
      12 September 2015 at 10:45 pm

      The Guardian’s sources suggest Corbyn has won – and in the first round.

      A decisive mandate that his Blairite / Brownite antagonists throughout the PLP can’t ignore. Looks like that cosy little group of careerist elites have just been given a bloody nose by the plebs they secretly (and, at times, not-so-secretly) disdain.

      The reaction of ‘soft Left’ caucus members will be fascinating. I suspect they’ll split, some joining (or supporting) the Shadow Cabinet, others (maybe their nominal leader, Jon Cruddas) possibly joining the New Labour ‘Resistance’.

  13. Draco T Bastard 13
    12 September 2015 at 1:23 pm

    Now this is rather interesting. It’s about a couple living as they’re in the 1890s. The short article does point out the two peoples privilege at the beginning but also says that the woman, who runs a blog, has an interesting point in this paragraph:

    Much of modern technology has become a collection of magic black boxes: Push a button and light happens, push another button and heat happens, and so on. The systems that dominate people’s lives have become so opaque that few Americans have even the foggiest notion what makes most of the items they touch every day work — and trying to repair them would nullify the warranty. The resources that went into making those items are treated as nothing more than a price tag to grumble about when the bills come due. Very few people actually watch those resources decreasing as they use them. It’s impossible to watch fuel disappearing when it’s burned in a power plant hundreds of miles away, and convenient to forget there’s a connection.

    And I think that’s true – we have lost the connection between what we use and the resources needed to produce them.

    • maui 13.1
      12 September 2015 at 9:35 pm

      I think we’ve lost touch with a lot of things, food is another one. A lot of people have no idea how to prepare raw food/produce and know what’s in season when, because they don’t need to. Gary Williams (permaculturist) said in a talk if general society is quite happy to have animals such as pigs and chickens living in slave type inhumane conditions, then those same people will be quite likely to transfer that across to the treatment of human beings.

  14. The Chairman 14
    12 September 2015 at 2:17 pm

    Will a Kiwi “white knight” emerge?

    The NZ Super Fund certainly has the funds to invest in a key growth area for New Zealand’s agribusiness sector.

    There are a number of NZ players who could usefully join a “consortium” including Ngai Tahu Holdings – the South Island iwi company which has significant growing investments in the agribusiness sector and has a strong working relationship with the fund.

    There are also linkages at board level with Ngai Tahu Holdings chairman Trevor Burt serving on Silver Fern Farms’ board.

    The Chinese firm is understood to have capital of more than $300 million to invest. This makes such a deal attractive to the banking syndicate which has pressured the board to get the capital restructure done.

    Shareholder opposition is strong in some quarters and is readily being whipped up at the political level.

    But unless board members can be persuaded to remove their support for a proposal that has got momentum and banker backing it will be hard to derail.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/fran-osullivan/news/article.cfm?a_id=13&objectid=11509834

    Thoughts?

    • Foreign waka 14.1
      12 September 2015 at 4:43 pm

      Yes, don’t touch my money without my permission. Since when is the Kiwi Superfund a slush fund and there is no recognition that is is NOT free money and to take it would be theft? Perhaps too much time has past for some but not all to have forgotten similar arguments before the pension fund under Maldoon was lost.

      • The Chairman 14.1.1
        12 September 2015 at 6:35 pm

        The NZ super fund is an investment fund. Therefore, this would be an investment. There is nothing sinister with that. In fact, it will help secure NZ control.

        • Foreign Waka 14.1.1.1
          12 September 2015 at 7:32 pm

          No, the Superfund is money that has been taken out of the pay packet of those people who agreed and signed up to an approved number of investments into a company portfolio of low risk. This is to make sure that the investor has some sort (of cause this is never 100%) of security that he/she will have a return when they turn 65. At no point has the owner of these shares agreed that the money can be used to non agreed investments. If the super fund is used without consent than this is theft, full stop. The only person who can sign up to an investment decision is the owner of the money.
          If Silver Fern is viable and has a business plan assuring the investor that he/she has a return when they retire then it can and perhaps ought to be put forward as a proposal. Of cause the current participants need to a choice to have a new entity added to their portfolio.
          Do you disagree?

          • The Chairman 14.1.1.1.1
            12 September 2015 at 7:41 pm

            That is incorrect, thus I don’t concur.

            The Fund is a long-term, growth-oriented, global investment fund.

            It is managed on our behalf, thus we have no direct control over its investments.

            It is funded through Government, not subscription.

  15. Tony Veitch 15
    12 September 2015 at 5:46 pm

    TPP again!

    An Australian ad which opponents of TPP tried to get on Channel 9 in Aussie – we need to give it some traction here!

    • North 15.1
      12 September 2015 at 7:48 pm

      Doesn’t matter mate……the Ponce Key’s got $50 mill’……nothing that happens touchs him or his family. Get real……less human than rich person……poor person. Hey, that goes for your kids too !

  16. Michael 16
    12 September 2015 at 6:09 pm

    This video about Bernie Sanders is very good:

    He is also now within 10 points of Hillary Clinton in the national polls, and is ahead of Clinton in the two early-state primary polls.

    Also, on Labour Day, Bernie Sanders joined a picket line and stood with workers: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/07/bernie-sanders-picket-line-unions-hillary-clinton

  17. Mike the Savage One 17
    12 September 2015 at 6:56 pm

    The picture that shocked the world and changed people’s view of the refugee crisis hitting the Middle East and Europe has turned out to be the result of a desperate and perhaps irresponsible father, who acted as people trafficker and got money for it:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/71991402/aylan-kurdis-father-is-a-people-smuggler-woman-claims
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/11/us-europe-migrants-turkey-iraq-idUSKCN0RB2BE20150911

    It appears there is some truth to earlier suspicions, that had been shared on other media and blogs, and this is worrying. It will not help the refugees that deserve help and access to peaceful countries.

    I fear there will always be some desperate to make some gains from a crisis situation, where possible, and this must be considered when screening refugees. I am getting increasingly worried about the demands by some refugees in Europe, to be given free access to countries like Austria, Germany and Sweden, taking their pick as to where they feel they should be allowed to go.

    This is neither here nor there, but it shows that the world and humanity are reaching new crisis levels, and we get fed the messages every day, here in NZ, that everything, increasing humans and our needs, are mere commodities, that can be catered for by “the market”.

    Thanks John Key, Nats and gangsters for turning this place into just another place like the rest I see on this planet, all is for sale, nothing is sacred and respected anymore. That includes a token gesture about 600 additional (selected) Syrian refugees over two and a half years.

  18. North 18
    12 September 2015 at 7:32 pm

    Just had the most amazing (abridged) telephone conversation with a mate 260 kilometres away. Remarking that I’ve tired already of the “ABs, ABs, ABs……” on TV news……chided for the heresy of being “political”…….mate hangs up in a huff, what ???

    So Richie’s a god, fully entitled to play politics for the Ponce Key, but immune from response ???

    Pretty screwed when the ONLY thing that rationalises the controlling ‘imperative’ of “no politics !” re the ABs is a risible double standard. Together Richie McKey and John McCaw have played fast and loose with the AB brand. They have responsibility for the uncomfortable downside of people saying so !

    • Anne 18.1
      12 September 2015 at 8:07 pm

      I heard they were at the Tower of London about 12 hours ago. Why didn’t someone lock em up and throw away the key.

      • North 18.1.1
        12 September 2015 at 8:45 pm

        Anne Anne Anne !……you trouble me……I will wait for Steve Hansen to tell how some crows flew down and whispered that the ABs are in with the finest chance then I’ll go have several tumblers of “Beefeaters” then I’ll get back to you about your egregious lack of patriotism and don’t expect my remonstrations to be pretty !

        BTW…..I think you mean the “Key”. Mmmm…..don’t wanna put Richie off his game now……

        • Anne 18.1.1.1
          12 September 2015 at 9:49 pm

          My lack of ‘patriotism’ and non-complimentary remarks (nice way to put it) about people who have dirty great flag poles on their property with the Nu Zillind flag flying is legendary among those who know me well.

          Remonstrations will get you nowhere. 😈

  21. The Chairman 21
    12 September 2015 at 10:25 pm

    I’m viewing the live feed as we speak.

  22. Ovid 22
    12 September 2015 at 10:33 pm

    Guardian has called it for Corbyn, according to sources.

  23. maui 23
    12 September 2015 at 10:42 pm

    Ed Milliband re-elected as Labour leader!

  24. Ovid 24
    12 September 2015 at 10:43 pm

    And he wins on the first round.