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Open Mike 13/12/2018

Written By: - Date published: 5:49 am, December 13th, 2018 - 163 comments
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163 comments on “Open Mike 13/12/2018”

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  1. patricia bremner 1
    13 December 2018 at 6:35 am

    A successful outcome for the Union negotiators.
    Air NZ spotting backlash in opinions and insurance problems.

    • Tuppence Shrewsbury 1.1
      13 December 2018 at 7:55 am

      Where’s the statement of what the union has achieved from e tu?

      Unions blinked, realised the masses hold more power than the few, and now honest hard working kiwis can enjoy Christmas

      • mac1 1.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 8:15 am

        Tuppence, why in your comment did you refer to the “kiwis who can enjoy Christmas” as being ‘honest, hard working”?

        Are you insinuating that the engineers who work for Air New Zealand are not? It seems that you are using a meme often used by National now in constant referral to ‘hard-working kiwis’ which is actually a way of saying that our side are the good guys and those who disagree with us are lazy and corrupt.

        The old reference used to be “decent law-abiding citizens” and before that ‘God-fearing people”.

        It’s all smear tactics, Tuppence, and it’s dirty politics.

        • Tuppence Shrewsbury 1.1.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 8:33 am

          So you are saying that 41000 kiwis who had travel booked next friday shouldn’t be thought of as hard working? and that my mentioning of it is some kind of conspiracy?

          are the 41000 people, who would have paid above a normal rate to travel next friday, somehow to blame for their travel getting in the way of a strike and the demands of 1000 top 10 percent salary earners”

          • mac1 1.1.1.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 8:46 am

            Yes, I’m saying that. You used National party rhetoric, clichéd and false.

            If you had meant that the ordinary public would have been inconvenienced, which is true, then you should have said that. Why typify these travellers as ‘hard-working and honest’? Conspiracy is not the same as insinuation, btw.

            Their honesty and work ethic is not germane to the issue unless you were smearing the engineers.

            And FFS how can you construe from my comments that I am blaming these travellers? That in itself points to your illogicality and your falseness in accusations, adding to the falseness of the implied accusation that the proposed strikers (remember they aren’t strikers until they have actually struck) are lazy and corrupt.

            • Tuppence Shrewsbury 1.1.1.1.1.1
              13 December 2018 at 8:55 am

              So Kiwi’s who have been working all year and are looking forward to a well earned break at christmas time aren’t germane to the conversation about striking engineers?

              Why did the engineers choose the busiest time of year to strike then?

              • mac1 …
                13 December 2018 at 9:04 am

                Tuppence, most travellers have been working all year. You haven’t answered why you chose that descriptor, along with ‘honest’, to describe them. Tuppence, why did you use the word honest?

                Your second paragraph is an attempted distraction from your discredited smearing and illogicality.

                • Tuppence Shrewsbury …
                  13 December 2018 at 9:14 am

                  Thanks for agreeing with me. it was hard to see how you could try impugn that travellers aren’t hard working.

                  as they go about in an honest attempt to enjoy christmas with their families on their limited holiday with minimal disruption

                  • mac1 …
                    13 December 2018 at 9:32 am

                    And you still haven’t justified your language………..

                    Your debating behaviour is a bit like that worm on the hook that Paula Bennett is going fishing with in the Sroubek case- wriggle, wiggle, twist and turn.

                    “There has to be a connection” says Paula. I am trying to get you to admit that there is a connection between your thinking and the language that you use.

                    Let’s fact it, Tuppence, you regard workers who contemplate strike action in defence of their wages and conditions, and perhaps even their very jobs, as being the opposite to hard-working and honest.

                    Which is why you used the language that you used.

                    • Tuppence Shrewsbury …
                      13 December 2018 at 11:14 am

                      This strike was dishonest. Ruining innocent travellers holiday plans so that the engineers could have more annual leave shows a callous disregard for the truth when e tu and yourself try to make this about fairness.

                    • mac1 …
                      13 December 2018 at 12:35 pm

                      So you seem to know what dishonest means, Tuppence.

                      Now, why use honest to describe travellers? (And I’m not talking Irish gypsies here). As Anne points out, the word honest is not applicable to all travellers, nor I say to all kiwis.

                      Nor does hard-working.

                      But we know they are dog-whistle terms to denigrate and elicit support from fellow (heh!) travellers.

                  • Anne …
                    13 December 2018 at 9:34 am

                    So, you’re claiming all travellers are hard working and honest. What a load of codswallop. Some are, some aren’t. Some earned their money honestly some didn’t. Some are decent people, some are ratbags. In other words travellers represent a cross section of people who can be good, bad and indifferent.

                  • Observer Tokoroa …
                    13 December 2018 at 12:29 pm

                    Hi Tuppence

                    You wanted the people who keep the Aircraft maintained to have their pay and conditions cut.

                    You are one nice fellow Miss Tuppence.

                    • Wensleydale …
                      13 December 2018 at 3:24 pm

                      I think Tuppence deserves a long flight on an aeroplane that hasn’t been well-maintained by the honest, hard-working aviation engineers at Air NZ.

          • greywarshark 1.1.1.1.2
            13 December 2018 at 9:28 am

            You are such a shill Tuppence and couldn’t make a straight truthful statement about anything – it all gets skewed as it runs past your crooked mind.

            • mac1 1.1.1.1.2.1
              13 December 2018 at 10:07 am

              Our Tuppence shilling? We don’t get our full bobs-worth………

            • greywarshark 1.1.1.1.2.2
              13 December 2018 at 2:19 pm

              I notice how what should have been a discussion about the union and airnz has been derailed by a bloody RW lightweight. We would get further if we treated them all the time as just trolls who would rather argue with a leftie than stop them falling under a bus. DFTT they are enemies, not merely ignorant of facts and realities – and if they are ignorant it is the wilful kind, and NOTHING will ever improve with that mindset, concrete-set.

              So back to Patricia at 1.
              I guess the union were counting on Air NZ getting bowled over by the ramifications. And AirNZ have been low shits for sure. The engineers have to work long hours, keep themselves to high standards of work, and we all love them for the safety of travel that results. Then to try and save money on those extra-long hours by reducing the overtime rates, when they are making large profits is just unconscionable. That sort of thing is why unions are so important. Unions are to help safeguard employees against the machinations of Big Business and also the sneaky, nasty types of Small Business that do exist.

              But unions need people to see them as good jokers, not self-centred people who will adopt business tactics and walk all over the people further down the ladder, the customers of their employers. Going on strike in January, that would have caused disruption, but Christmas is family time and we need to have lives and families to make life worth living.

              Was there some reason that the two unions ( E tū and the Aviation and Marine Engineers Association – AMEA) could not have waited till January to make their protest? It would still have brought leverage on our national airline. And AirNZ don’t think of going overseas for all your engineering checks, we want quality NZ workers, to be treated fairly, and in turn, for them and their unions to treat us fairly and thoughtfully.

              Note: Employers and Manufacturers Association heads-up on new workplace access bill.
              https://www.ema.co.nz/newsandmedia/news/Pages/Workplace-Bill-proposes-changes-to-union-access.aspx

      • Gabby 1.1.2
        13 December 2018 at 9:38 am

        II agree tuppy, Sirponyboy was always going to enjoy xmas. Private jet dewnchinew.

      • georgecom 1.1.3
        13 December 2018 at 7:28 pm

        including the honest hard working engineers, baggage loaders and other support crew who have had an offer from their employer to vote on

  2. Sam A 2
    13 December 2018 at 7:06 am

    An update on how DIA appears to have been stripping out the budgets of the National Library and Archives NZ:

    https://turnbullfriends.org.nz/numbers-tell-the-story/

    Quite curious how Archive NZ’s overheads somehow increased 279% between 2013 and 2018.

    • Wayne 2.1
      13 December 2018 at 7:46 am

      Probably due to substantial rebuilding of their facilities around that time at a cost of in excess of $100 million. The capital expenditure then feeds into the annual capital charge (about 7% of the capital), which is part of fixed overhead.

      • Sam A 2.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 10:19 am

        Thanks Wayne. Archives have built a new Christchurch repository at Wigram.

        But I still find it hard to understand how the new capital charge deriving from this initiative could almost quadruple the agency’s total overhead in 5 years.

        How would that work?

        • OnceWasTim 2.1.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 10:27 am

          As far as I know, DIA/Archives still has some fairly substantial project(s) underway – even though they may be over-burdened with countless meetings and bean counting

        • Tricledrown 2.1.1.2
          13 December 2018 at 10:38 am

          Increase in value of asset a brand new asset is worth more than a rundown asset.

          • Wayne 2.1.1.2.1
            13 December 2018 at 11:08 am

            I have not actually checked the annual accounts on the increase in capital charge. But I do know National Library and Archives had some big capital projects, mostly approved in 2009 and actually started in 2010. At that stage well over $100 million initially on the National Library with Archives to follow. I would imagine a lot more than $100 million by now.
            As an aside one of the ways NZDF buys new assets is to use the depreciation allowance. With all the stuff bought over the last decade (helicopters, upgrades to aircraft, upgrades to ships, new buildings, new Army weapons and vehicles) there is at least $200 million annual depreciation. This is used to buy new stuff, so a fair chunk of the $2.3 billion on the new maritime surveillance aircraft comes from accumulated depreciation.

    • Adrian Thornton 2.2
      13 December 2018 at 8:31 am

      I don’t know about other libraries around the country, but our local libraries in Napier and Hastings, (both of which were very good provincial libraries) have been absolutely destroyed and gutted over the past 2-3 years, huge book sales, including many very rare local history books, the shelves are now only half full, and a majority of the few replacement books are lackluster coffee table books rather than serious reference books,

      I hardly go to either library now, I find them too depressing witnessing in real time the dumbing down of out communities, as if there wasn’t enough dumbing down going on everywhere else anyway.

      • SaveNZ 2.2.1
        13 December 2018 at 8:58 am

        @Adrian, Sad. Our poorly stocked libraries and sales of out of print books, a national shame.

        • greywarshark 2.2.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 9:31 am

          Totally whacked out on the meme that digital is everything and books and paper and passe’.Digital as ephemeral as the brains that only briefly touch on an understanding of knowledge and how it is used to achieve wisdom. I am reading Penguins printed shortly after i was born. They are available, accessible, and don’t require a machine.

          • SHG 2.2.1.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 12:41 pm

            It’s also a weird inverted privilege issue. With a Kindle I can carry an entire library of books with me wherever I go. To have paper versions of the ebooks I have in my backpack 24/7 I would need to buy a big house with entire rooms devoted to book storage. Who can afford that these days?

      • Molly 2.2.2
        13 December 2018 at 9:37 am

        Visited Ōtara library in Auckland recently after several months, the library has been deliberately gutted by Auckland Council to make room for “community space”.

        This was achieved by initially putting out a survey in Ōtara asking the public if they wanted more community space. When the results were collated, Auckland Council then used those results to remove about 80% of the books from the library, which now has plenty of open space and beanbags.

        The really vindictive nature of this move is that the library is part of the shopping and parking complex near to Manukau Technical Institute. Auckland Council owns and manages the large Ōtara Community Centre, the Ōtara Music Centre, and the aquatic complex within the same area. These community spaces, particularly the Community Centre, are available for public use if required, but the use of fees prohibits use.

        This is in indication of the stealth with which Auckland Council will go to remove one of the best accesses a community and individual, regardless of age or ability, can have to a free education.

        • SaveNZ 2.2.2.1
          13 December 2018 at 10:34 am

          +1 Molly

        • Siobhan 2.2.2.2
          13 December 2018 at 11:38 am

          Down here in Hastings, I had a member of the local ‘Friends of the Library’ inform me with great pride that they used the money from the endless all encompassing book sales to buy a new couch for the Flaxmere Library.
          yipee.
          4 years latter the couch is looking suitably sad…and the libraries are even emptier.
          What especially irritates me is the claim that books being sold are either unborrowed titles, or books that are about to be superceded. Yet I have seen recent books on, NZ Tapa; NZ Tussock Moths and NZ State Houses, all in pristine condition, on the sales table. They are not redundant titles.

          I presume that the term ‘friends of the Library’ is purely ironic.

          meantime…

          “,i>There are 178 New Zealand schools that don’t have a dedicated library, while 330 schools have less library space than they’re entitled to.”

          https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/overcrowding-forces-178-nz-schools-go-without-library?utm_variant=taboola_visible_1

          • Molly 2.2.2.2.1
            13 December 2018 at 11:46 am

            I spoke to one of the librarians at the time, and asked what had happened.

            He seemed fairly accepting of the process. I said that I considered libraries to be the one public place that is accessible to all; regardless of age, income, physical impairment and education. That physical browsing can expose you to ideas and interests that are not likely in internet browsing, and the editing and publishing process ensures a degree of quality that is not necessarily true of online sources. I honestly believe that access to well-resourced libraries is access to education, and the value of libraries is social.

            If local authorities want to get more financial value of of library investment, use financial tools such as SROI (social return on investment) to see what they provide. Include in libraries – social enterprise cafes that train people to employment while providing a gathering place for users. Add programmes that genuinely bring together community.

            The dependence on the current financial methods of cost/benefit produce four-year old saggy sofas. The value of libraries is more than that.

          • WeTheBleeple 2.2.2.2.2
            14 December 2018 at 3:00 pm

            We didn’t have a library at school till I was eight. When we got a prefab library I nearly read the whole lot. I’d already read everything my parents owned. Then it was off to Hamilton. Bored, I’d skip school and go to the public library and study plants, insects and fungi…

            Both those libraries, when I first walked into them and saw the books: at school the smell of new carpet and print, with more books than I’d ever seen before; and then Hamilton, this massive building with mezzanine floor holding row after row of shelves that stretched beyond the walking bridges criss-crossed overhead… it was like finding hallowed ground. All the worlds were in those rooms.

            Libraries should be hallowed ground.

            Officials in charge of libraries should be total geeks who’d live onsite if allowed. They are the gatekeepers of knowledge. I know people who’ve worked very hard just to be librarians, they love books like crazy. Why aren’t they in charge?

            Business heads qualified to be managerial material’. Meddling in education and the arts. No f’n idea. If we have x books and y book lenders…

            Just re-read Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (1932)

            ‘There isn’t any need for civilised man to bear anything that’s seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things, Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own.

            What about self-denial, then? If you had a God, you’d have a reason for self denial.

            But industrial civilisation is only possible when there is no self denial. Self-indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygeine and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning.’

            • greywarshark 2.2.2.2.2.1
              14 December 2018 at 3:52 pm

              WTB
              Libraries, banks of thought and imagination and facts. Stacked up on shelves, each book long in the making, the planning, the choice of words for meaning and impact. Jewels of the brain’s electricity crystallised into physical form.

              Go into a bank which represents fantastical power. Where is the money, the documents, the trapped electrical impulses that carry this weight of value. The product isn’t to be seen. If it is physical, it must be stowed away safely. If it is driven by impulses, it must be protected, even though it is merely based on imagination, feeling, marks on a screen that can change, double or vanish as one watches.

              But a book is an artifact, it has been made from different components, and each aspect is the result of skilled tradespeople working together, consulting and then going forward with their portion of the whole. And these magic objects can be touched and handled, and will last for many lifetimes with care, and an understanding of the marks on the page.

              The book is human communication reaching out to others of like mind, and those who want to explore that line of thinking. It is a little piece of society, wrapped up in a sort of ravioli case, ready for the mind’s delectation. It talks to us and may give us strength and comradeship as in the last verse of 1 September 1939, W.H.Auden.

              Defenseless under the night
              Our world in stupor lies;
              Yet, dotted everywhere,
              Ironic points of light
              Flash out wherever the Just
              Exchange their messages:
              May I, composed like them
              Of Eros and of dust,
              Beleaguered by the same
              Negation and despair,
              Show an affirming flame.

      • millsy 2.2.3
        13 December 2018 at 9:38 am

        Same thing is happening in New Plymouth here. People need to realise you cannot Google a lot of stuff that relates to local history.

        • SaveNZ 2.2.3.1
          13 December 2018 at 10:42 am

          +1 millsy, sad, it’s not just the local history, but not having to rely on an internet connection which as we all know in NZ, is hardly reliable or even fast. Not sure how many low income families are also allowing their kids internet access when they can’t even keep the power or phone on.

        • Sacha 2.2.3.2
          13 December 2018 at 10:49 am

          Are they removing local history materials?

      • Me 2.2.4
        13 December 2018 at 9:43 am

        Adrian Thornton,
        In 1989, I began saving books that I thought were important, because I could see what was going to happen when greed and asset sales and betraying New Zealanders’ rights and histories began to swirl under extreme right philosophies that are incapable of appreciating the beauty of books AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, the need for all New Zealanders to access them. I now have my own library. Perhaps you can start your own. Good luck.

        • SaveNZ 2.2.4.1
          13 December 2018 at 10:37 am

          +1 Me, but it is not just the right who seem to now hate books, the third way Rogernomic lefties seem to hate books too. And the Auckland university specialist libraries were closed with a Labour government in, with Chloe from the Greens who I think did art history there, did not seem to be making any protest about the libraries demise and the jobs lost, while the university were also paying the Chancellor over $700k, the third highest public servant apparently.

          • Draco T Bastard 2.2.4.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 12:35 pm

          • SaveNZ 2.2.4.1.2
            13 December 2018 at 4:27 pm

            I think the idea is that Kiwis don’t read because then they can be better low paid workers, have less critical thinking and be blind donors to political parties to get things done.

      • veutoviper 2.2.5
        13 December 2018 at 11:46 am

        I hear there is a very good secondhand bookshop in Hastings called “The Little Red Bookshop” …. LOL

        “Their huge collection of affordable books is a local treasure. As their website puts it, they are “proprietors of the best little second hand bookshop in Hastings, New Zealand. We may, on occasion, seem a touch irreverent, but hopefully in the nicest possible way”.

        …

        Behind the book shop and chocolate shop is a warren of fascinating rooms. It’s like something out of Being John Malkovich. There are rooms filled to brimming with books and puzzles, a music studio (home of the seven-ten piece Revolutionary Arts Ensemble, …), and a large collection of classic racing bicycles and memorabilia. This collection is a penchant of (name removed), to which he welcomes like minds by appointment.”

        • te reo putake 2.2.5.1
          13 December 2018 at 11:49 am

          Shout out to Bay FM, NZ’s best indy station!

          • veutoviper 2.2.5.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 11:56 am

            Really? I am not in the Bay, but will check it out sometime. Hope I did not overstep in my comment above! Did not put link …… but AT and partner and their wonderful shop are well known outside the Bay as well.

            • Te Reo Putake 2.2.5.1.1.1
              13 December 2018 at 12:28 pm

              I’m sure it’ll be fine with Adrian, any publicity is good publicity, as the marketers say.

              Bay FM can be found on Simple radio and via their website. The first time I heard the station I was driving into Hastings and resetting the radio. I couldn’t believe it when I heard Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby. They followed that up with a Joy Division track and that was me hooked!

  3. Andre 3
    13 December 2018 at 7:22 am

    PEEOTUS isn’t denying campaign contacts with Russia anymore, now he’s calling them “peanut stuff”.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/12/politics/donald-trump-russia-contacts-peanut-stuff/index.html

    • Cinny 3.1
      13 December 2018 at 7:26 am

      Geeez, Cohen just got three years jail for lying to congress over it, peanuts huh?

      Oh well USA voted for their peanut president.

      • Andre 3.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 7:45 am

        Lotsa peanuts. Lotsa monkeys. Bananas galore.

        But never forget, the mandarin manutang’s opponent won almost 3 million more votes than he did. It was just an anachronistic quirk of the electoral system that delivered the presidency to Dementia Don. Coupled with the way the Electoral College failed to fulfill one of the duties it was expected to do when it was set up: it was intended that the Electors would assess the fitness for office of the candidates and if somehow someone totally unsuitable conned the general public, the Electors would exercise their better judgement and choose a candidate that actually was fit. Check out the Federalist Papers 68. In this case, the Electors overrode the good sense of the popular vote and installed the Tangerine Tantrum.

        • Wayne 3.1.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 7:53 am

          Not really an anachronistic quirk. It is built in to the constitution ensure that each state has their say in the final result. So that huge majorities in say New York or California don’t drown out narrow victories in smaller states.

          We tend to forget in New Zealand that the United States has a federal constitution, designed to give a substantial say to each of the 50 states.

          Not much likelihood of changing the constitution on this point. What the next democratic candidate has to do is win states like Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Been done plenty of times in the past.

          • Andre 3.1.1.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 8:08 am

            I’ll stick with anachronistic.

            At the time it was set up, communication across the country was extremely slow and unreliable. Times have moved on.

            At the time it was set up, how to account for the proportion of a state’s population that were slaves was an issue. Women and non-landowning males couldn’t vote either. Times and human rights views have moved on.

            Should the decisions around setting up the Electoral College be redone today, I’d be astonished if choosing the presidency would be anything other than one person, one equal vote. The composition of the Senate with 2 senators from each state would then be the sufficient safeguard of the smaller states’ interests.

            But yeah, changing the Constitution ain’t gonna happen. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact sidestepping the Electoral College is only a tiny bit more likely to happen.

          • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1.2
            13 December 2018 at 12:43 pm

            Anachronistic is correct. There was a link on here detailing how the system, set up to achieve what you say, now actively prevents it. It needs to be changed but the chances of that happening are between slim and none. The US constitution is preventing that necessary change because of the requirements needed to change the constitution.

          • Macro 3.1.1.1.3
            13 December 2018 at 7:18 pm

            Wayne what you say is true to some extent but there are tremendous inequalities built into the current system of Government in the States where, for example, the value of a vote in California is only a fraction of the vote in Wyoming. This was exemplified in the recent appointment of Judge Kavenaugh where the number of votes behind the senators who voted for him was around 11million less than the votes represented by those who voted against.
            I’m sure you would find this opinion piece by John Dingell the longest serving, and recently retired Senator, (he represented Michigan for 59 years) highly interesting.

        • Cinny 3.1.1.2
          13 December 2018 at 8:06 am

          Andre, you’ve made me laugh so much, thanks for the giggles this morning…. the mandarin manutang, dementia don, peeotus, tangerine tantrum. Lmao

        • North 3.1.1.3
          13 December 2018 at 8:27 am

          Informative input you make Andre. I can recall reading somewhere years ago something suggesting that it is lawful for an official (?) to throw a state’s electoral college vote tally in favour of a presidential candidate who did not receive a majority of the votes in that state. Thinking about that now it seems unlikely, even as a legal possibility. Do you know anything of that Andre ?

          • Andre 3.1.1.3.1
            13 December 2018 at 8:43 am

            Going from memory, there’s nothing in the US constitution that says an Elector is in any way constrained in who they vote for. Almost every presidential election there are a few faithless electors that vote for someone other than who they were “supposed to” vote for. But so far, the only election where faithless electors have changed the outcome was 1796.

            States set their own laws about how to apportion their electors and penalties for faithless electors. 48 states have winner-take-all for all of their electors. Maine and Nebraska have winner-take-all for two of their electors (corresponding to the 2 senators) and then the electors corresponding to the House seats are pledged to the popular vote winner of that district.

  4. Cinny 4
    13 December 2018 at 7:30 am

    Who will take over from May? Snap election in the UK? Or will she win her party over?

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46535739

    • Wayne 4.1
      13 December 2018 at 9:09 am

      I reckon May will step down in June. There will be an open contest so that will take a couple of months. I reckon Dominic Raab or Sajid Javid will be the finalists. Something flawed about Boris.

      As for a snap election. Won’t happen. The only way it can occur is if the DUP switch sides, and they won’t.

      i suppose the new PM could call a new election, but given what happened to May, that won’t be very appealing.

    • millsy 4.2
      13 December 2018 at 10:04 am

      Looks like May has won the no confidence vote. Helps that she has decided to stand down before the next election so took the wind out of her opponents sails

  5. Ed 5
    13 December 2018 at 8:17 am

    I missed this article by Rachel Stewart yesterday.
    Absolutely superb. Read it and share it with all your friends.
    I see she is also talking to Derrick Jensen on Christmas Day.
    That will be well worth a listen.
    Rachel isn’t scared to tel us the truth.
    A rare commodity today.

    An excerpt of her wisdom.

    “As this is my last column for 2018, I thought it timely to review the big news stories that point to an even better 2019.
    Except, there are none.
    So, instead, here’s a selection of this year’s news stories that sent a shiver down
    my spine. I write it for those of us who aren’t stupid enough to believe that the planet is doing anything other than hurtling to its doom.
    First cab off the rank must be climate change. You know, the biggest threat to the continuation of our species since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Not only is the news all bad, there’s no sign of any global consensus on the way forward. The chances of reversing the situation in any meaningful way are about as high as my dog reversing my Jeep into a spare parallel park on Queen St during Christmas week.
    Too many people living on an overheating capitalist planet means that our oceans are awash with plastic, our rivers – the ones that still flow – are awash with nitrates, our soils are awash with chemicals, and our media is awash with greenwash. Whatever pays the bills, right?
    Only when our biodiversity is gone, and we reach the point of biological breakdown, will we realise what we’ve done. Even then, someone will find a way to spin a buck out of it. Profit is everything, and the earth will provide. Until it won’t.”

    https://t.co/LhbjvYLhqQ?amp=1

    • garibaldi 5.1
      13 December 2018 at 9:03 am

      As always Ed, thank you. Both you and Rachael are gems.

    • gsays 5.2
      13 December 2018 at 11:12 am

      Derrick Jensen is sure to rock a few yachts.

      I enjoyed his Endgame books.
      Has influenced my thinking.
      Sustainability defined as leaving the soil in better condition than last season.

      Haven’t gotten round to blowing up any dams yet though.

  6. The Chairman 6
    13 December 2018 at 8:20 am

    Since July the government’s family package has been giving low-income families an extra $75 a week. Yet, the Auckland City Mission has had an unprecedented increase in demand for food parcels and will double its Christmas efforts as a result.

    City missioner Chris Farrelly said “we’ve identified very clearly that we have got a growth in food insecurity and food poverty in New Zealand.

    The prime minister plans to visit the Auckland City Mission before Christmas to “drill into” why an increasing number of families are struggling to make ends meet.

    She is hoping the rise in demand is a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help. However, even if it is a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help, clearly the government’s family package isn’t doing enough to help them.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/377945/city-mission-to-double-efforts-for-christmas-due-to-unprecedented-demand

    Could it merely be a case of more people in need feeling they can ask for help or is the growth in demand (as City missioner Chris Farrelly pointed out above) more likely a case of the government’s family package not going far enough?

    The benefit of the government’s family package would have been largely offset by the new charges/taxes the government has also introduced since in power.

    How long will it take for the government to establish what is driving the increase in demand and more importantly, when are they going to act to correct it? One would like to think people going hungry is a priority for this government. So again, when are they going to correct it?

    • SaveNZ 6.1
      13 December 2018 at 9:26 am

      When you have huge increase in low paid workers and and fake students with fake financials, you get a spike in poorer people into NZ, which then can make the exisiting poor even poorer as they are all competing for the same resources.

      A spike in people with money also drives up the prices of luxury housing, while spikes of poorer people drives up the affordable housing prices. Not rocket science!

      Before the government capitulated to business interests and ran their lazy immigration scams to the maximum, they might have worked out how much it was going to cost to upgrade all the housing, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, roads and how they were going to pay for the top up of so many low paid wages, WFF or asset rich, cash poor satellite families based in NZ.

      When they decided to do it through further taxation like petrol taxes, rates and user pays charges what effects that might have on poorer folks based here that don’t have family to fed X over tens of thousands of family money for the increased cost of living.

      The thirty year NZ experiment, first Rogernomics then immigration led neoliberalism has made NZ a worse place to live for many people and reduced the opportunities for our youth born here, made productivity static, lowered wages in real terms, driven up the prices of set costs of living and create a bigger inequality divide.

      • The Chairman 6.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 11:45 am

        Do you think Labour will do enough over the coming year to make a significant difference in turning around the large number queuing at the City Mission next Christmas?

        • SaveNZ 6.1.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 4:22 pm

          @The Chairman, nope. It is not so much Labour’s fault as the legacy of National party policy on immigration and welfare but Labour don’t seem to be keeping their election promises of reducing immigration to 15000, which judging by the amount of new housing they are whooping about for Kiwibuild does not even cover it. aka 100,000 over 10 years is approx 10,000 houses per year.

          The types of migrants coming are of a lower skill level than 5 years ago. Hard to see where the tax money will come from for the future when our big plan for immigration is more nickel and dime store owners with 100% profits on liquor, bad restaurant food and plastic goods stores and how to be a third party rip off merchant on labour and more nurses and doctors and teachers to pay for the population growth on the back of it and people’s 11 day relationships when they get lonely or jailed criminals coming here on ‘compassionate’ grounds .

    • millsy 6.2
      13 December 2018 at 10:05 am

      Landlords upping rents again.

      • The Chairman 6.2.1
        13 December 2018 at 11:46 am

        Rents are another area where Labour policy is driving up costs.

        • Herodotus 6.2.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 12:39 pm

          In my humble opinion
          Get housing right and most other issues in directly would be resolved.
          The rise of those in need form my observation has mirrored the increasing level of affordability of housing and then the flow on with rental prices, which leaves a reduced disposable income after housing costs are deducted
          https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11894842
          https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research-and-publications/speeches/2013/speech2013-10-15

        • Sabine 6.2.1.2
          13 December 2018 at 12:41 pm

          No, Labour are not driving up costs,

          Landlords who want more money, and who can ask for more money, ask for more money, driving up costs for many. And considering that we still have a rental shortage, and that people don’t really like living in ditches, Landlord can virtually ask for what ever they like and still rent out their investments.

          Good grief, can’t you do better?

          • I feel love 6.2.1.2.1
            13 December 2018 at 1:18 pm

            Rents have always gone up since… forever havn’t they? Or are right wingers suddenly wanting rent controls? I do, I actually bought my first home a couple years ago, way cheaper than renting ironically, though I was very lucky with a Super scheme through my (heavily unionised) job.

          • SaveNZ 6.2.1.2.2
            13 December 2018 at 4:07 pm

            Apparently the people who are the largest group in poverty is Pakeha parents with a mortgage. Aka not renters. I think you can look back and realise that certain things like housing don’t seem to go down over time but increase, and I very much doubt the government can do much to stem that. What is not rising enough is people’s incomes.

            • The Chairman 6.2.1.2.2.1
              14 December 2018 at 8:53 am

              It is the role of the Reserve Bank and the Government to ensure price stability in the housing market. But it’s not just the price of houses that has been excessively exceeding, putting more into hardship.

          • The Chairman 6.2.1.2.3
            14 December 2018 at 9:01 am

            @Sabine

            Generally, landlords want more money due to their costs rising – i.e. rates, insurance, etc. And Labour policy (like the recent change in letting fees) is driving up their costs.

    • patricia bremner 6.3
      13 December 2018 at 11:14 pm

      Part of the problem is a build up of poverty and debt during the last 9/10 years.

      The payments made helped many, but others have reached the end of their resilience, and debts are growing. Repaying MSD, student debt, rental debts. etc.

      To imply that Jacinda Ardern and her Government have caused this is such deliberate misdirection that I despair of your “concern”

      When the previous Government was in power, I did not read anything from you telling that government to alleviate hunger.

      Further, when some ideas were put forward there was a huge out cry about choices self help and I did not see any effort by any politician to find out what was happening.

      The PM says she will visit to discover where the problems lie. Because she cares.

      • The Chairman 6.3.1
        14 December 2018 at 8:44 am

        I wasn’t implying Jacinda Ardern and her Government have caused this, Patricia. But it is evident that she and her coalition Government aren’t doing enough to turn the numbers around.

      • The Chairman 6.3.2
        14 December 2018 at 9:12 am

        As for you despairing my concern, Patricia, I despair more on the left aren’t making noise about this.

        We on the left should be calling out in numbers for the Government to do more.

  7. mauī 7
    13 December 2018 at 8:25 am

    The glorious George Galloway on the “Gilet Jaune” demonstrators in France and of course May.

  8. OnceWasTim 8
    13 December 2018 at 8:37 am

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109294166/grace-millane-case-accuseds-name-searched-more-than-100000-times-on-google-despite-it-being-suppressed

    I’m no lawyer but Marie Dryberg’s stance seems a sensible one to me:

    “Sharing the name is a publication,” defence lawyer Marie Dyhrberg QC said.

    “I don’t think anyone rowed out of New Zealand waters and called a newsroom and then rowed back.”

    ….. and that said, wouldn’t it have been an opportunity to put that before the judiciary, get some sort of precedent set, so that we can see if and what sort of changes need to be made?
    If the guy is guilty, it’d be a shame if the case failed on some technicality
    Thoughts???

    • Wayne 8.1
      13 December 2018 at 9:19 am

      I reckon Marie Dyhrberg is wrong and Chris Finlayson is right on how the appeal should be dealt with. There should be no automatic 20 days for an appeal. In a case like this, it should be accelerated through the High Court, say by end of business/court year.

      The District Court Judge could see no grounds at all for name suppression, but of course the right to an appeal is automatic, whether to not the appeal has any merit. I am not suggesting any change to the right of appeal since that right is fundamental. But I do think that an appeal like this should be expedited, and not automatically stall everything for 20 days.

      There is almost nil circumstance where the naming of the accused in the UK press will have any effect in the accused going through a full trial. Little was at best exaggerating that it would.

      • OnceWasTim 8.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 9:29 am

        Well we’ve yet to see what sort of a defence will be put up, so going through a full trial is one thing, going through a fair trial might be another.

        But….. in any event, THEN there is this:
        https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/13-12-2018/google-emailed-out-the-name-of-the-man-accused-of-killing-grace-millane-and-they-dont-even-care/

        The name probably would not even have got to Google had members of the Brit Media not been on the ground (sharing/publishing it).

      • OnceWasTim 8.1.2
        13 December 2018 at 10:00 am

        By the way Wayne, I have a different perspective, and that is that is actually none of my bloody business, or the public’s who the defendant is UNTIL a verdict has been given.
        The only people who need know are the Police, Judiciary, Jurors, the family and various Counsel.
        Justice being seen to be done does not have to be immediate just to serve whatever voyeuristic tendencies I might have. I could either attend Court, or perhaps look at a recording of proceedings AFTER a verdict has been delivered.
        It seems to me that one of the reasons faith is being lost in judicial processes (and the Police sometimes) is that all the hype and sensationalism that goes on just serves to make people lose faith in the system (especially when you get Lackwit Larry’s, and Hoskings, and Leighton’s rarking it all up)

        • Peter 8.1.2.1
          13 December 2018 at 11:32 am

          I could not agree more

          • OnceWasTim 8.1.2.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 2:06 pm

            I saw a photo and heard the name discussed as I negotiated my way through a group of butch, fluro-vested blokes blocking the footpath just near Courtenay Place when they were on their tablet.
            The look on their face was almost like one of disappointment when the image popped up (presumably because, AND judging by the discussion – the defendant was neither brown, nor apparently gang-related).
            I’m of course making assumptions there, but even then, as I managed to get past I could hear the “fucking scumbag” , and “I’d ……..” and “If someone did that to my missus”…… etc.
            Whoar! they were tuff!

            • Jilly Bee 8.1.2.1.1.1
              13 December 2018 at 5:06 pm

              Out of curiosity to see just how simple it was to find out, I did a Google search and blimey up came the UK Telegraph with name and photo. I quickly got out of it. I suppose I’m now one of the thousands who did just that. “The look on their face was almost like one of disappointment when the image popped up (presumably because, AND judging by the discussion – the defendant was neither brown, nor apparently gang-related).” My reaction was relief actually.

        • Draco T Bastard 8.1.2.2
          13 December 2018 at 1:08 pm

          /agreed

          • I feel love 8.1.2.2.1
            13 December 2018 at 1:23 pm

            Agree. Even if I knew the name what difference would it make? I also am presuming he’s innocent til judge decides otherwise.

        • Wayne 8.1.2.3
          13 December 2018 at 6:18 pm

          Can’t possibly agree. The idea that every trial of every defendant would not have the name of the defendant disclosed seems to be a gross breach of the concept of open and public justice.
          In any event it is not going to happen. No conceivable parliament would vote for it.

          • OnceWasTim 8.1.2.3.1
            13 December 2018 at 10:02 pm

            If I may say so, that’s fairly lame (even coming from you. And I mean that because you are really quite a fuddy duddy – sorry I couldn’t find a better way of saying it).
            You’ll have to agree that there are often suppression orders and for good reason. After a verdict is reached, the details are usually public, “Open and Public” justice is still done and seen to have been done. The only difference is immediacy, which in the new era, is proving to be a problem – as in Millane case and with the likes of Google. We’ll likely see more of this kind of stuff

            • OnceWasTim 8.1.2.3.1.1
              14 December 2018 at 1:28 pm

              Sorry @ Wayne….. at the time I posted, it had been a long day, and the word I was looking for was ‘traditionalist’ – despite all that spin you’ve learned about not being ‘change averse’. (We’ll fight them in the trenches till the bitter end! For our agenda and vision is sacrosanct and righteous – and of course we do know better. ‘We’ were BORN to rule and preserve decency and we’ll fight to the death)

          • Draco T Bastard 8.1.2.3.2
            14 December 2018 at 12:01 am

            Justice is blind.

            So, tell me, should all the investigations that the police engage in also be on public display during the investigation so as to prevent a gross breach of open and public justice?

            IMO, the court is the end part of that investigation and it is only afterwards that the public should see it.

  9. joe90 9
    13 December 2018 at 9:22 am

    Yay, yellow vests for carbon.
    /

    Edmonton also saw a large protest, with hundreds marching from the Legislature to Churchill Square, carrying signs, some reading “No Global Climate Pact. Suicide.”

    Multiple posts on Canada’s yellow jackets Facebook page called for more drastic action.

    “Look at France today. After four weeks of burning the cities, the French government cut the carbon tax. So what do we want? 90 years or four weeks until something changes?” wrote Robb Kerr on the group’s page. “If you want to crush a government, you have to play their game … You want to see them jump? Then burn down City Hall.”

    The protests were jointly against the provincial and federal carbon taxes, and Canada’s plan to endorse the United Nations’ migration pact, which outlines objectives for treating global migrants humanely and efficiently.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-yellow-vest-protests-1.4938333

  10. SaveNZ 10
    13 December 2018 at 9:52 am

    A tale of two steels: Auckland’s Seascape vs Wellington’s Dixon St project

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378085/a-tale-of-two-steels-auckland-s-seascape-vs-wellington-s-dixon-st-project

    P>S> Doesn’t Jenny Shipley have a place on the board of China Construction company? That alone after Mainzeal is a huge worry.

    • greywarshark 10.1
      13 December 2018 at 1:38 pm

      Jenny Shipley – China Bank director? Joind at the hip?

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/68435306/null
      Richard Meadows 11 May 2015 – (good stuff Richard.)
      The first disclosure statement for China Construction Bank (CCB) NZ, of which Shipley is chairman, reveals she was paid $50,769 between June and December last year, which works out to about $90,000 on a yearly basis.
      In an interview with Stuff.co.nz last week, Shipley declined to reveal her director’s fees, though hinted that she had taken a substantial pay-cut.

      Even so, Shipley’s earnings dwarf that of her fellow former politician, with Brash earning just $65,000 as chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)’s local arm.

      The Bank of China, which is the third banking behemoth to enter New Zealand in the last two years, has yet to disclose its financial records.
      That means the salaries of its directors Ruth Richardson and Chris Tremain, also both former National MPs, are as yet unknown.

      Shipley
      Brash
      Richardson
      Tremain

      Being a NZ government minister is a good CV point.
      I think we should bring the salaries down for MPs as they apparently regard it as apprenticeship training, or an alternative to a politics university degree which others have to pay to get.

      • OnceWasTim 10.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 2:42 pm

        +1 (especially the bit about apprenticeship training)
        I’m wondering where Nafe might end up. Most of the rest of them could get a pozzy at Harcourts Real Estate – without even having to change their uniforms – exceptions being Gerry the big boy, and Finlayson of course, and there are others looking for a pozzy in a High Commission somewhere.
        Paula’s going to be a problem. She does have impeccable credentials as an actress or maybe a mime artist though.

        • greywarshark 10.1.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 2:53 pm

          Paula has presumably had advice on changing her image, and has succeeded. She looks quite tasty – an actress would be good, Maori presenter as she would be a good role model for the star-struck teenager. Has she ever been on Shortland Street? They could find a spot for her I should think. She follows along similar lines to Donna Awatere Huata who has found her feet in management.

          Finlayson slagging off Maori because they persist in wanting their own way, but Ngapuhi can’t work out how many ways there are! He needs to get into something where they call a spade a spade and no mucking about.

          • OnceWasTim 10.1.1.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 3:30 pm

            Yes yes. As Maggie might say – Paula has come a long way but she still has a wee way to go to shake off some of that rabble around her. She has scrubbed up well and its hard not having gone to a finishing school. She’ll have to learn not to use those ‘P’- like eyes when she gets angry and when cameras are present.
            It’s all about perceptions and ‘the look’ darling, which I’m becoming increasingly concerned about poor old Chris.
            I am of course of the same vintage and I’m not sure whether his bro feels the same, but he is starting to look more like a dried up old prune and could end up like our friend Moz. Or things could go the other way and he’ll land on his feet at Palmer and Chen maybe

  11. joe90 11
    13 December 2018 at 9:59 am

    A hug and a chocolate fish.

    I love how quietly this immense slapdown is delivered to @ABridgen and what a supremely important point it is. “You can’t have what you want” is the one concept Brexiters cannot seems to grasp. Give that woman a big hug @joannaccherry. pic.twitter.com/peOD3uwmaZ— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) December 11, 2018

    edit:

    https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/1b838bec-2c7f-4371-82a9-69dc79eb5b43.png

  12. indiana 12
    13 December 2018 at 10:50 am

    The Milky Bars are on us!

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12175719

    …in fact it would be very un-New Zealand of us, if we didn’t try to rort the system, especially when the policies are designed/loaded with unintended circumstances.

    • Puckish Rogue 12.1
      13 December 2018 at 11:15 am

      At the very least they could have given it to third year students or grad students or something, of course they shouldn’t have done it in the first place

    • Molly 12.2
      13 December 2018 at 12:56 pm

      There is always a percentage of first year students that withdraw, don’t engage or fail in the first year of tertiary study. The article would be more informative if it compared last year’s rate to the usual, but as far as I can see – it did not. In any real way, this withdrawal rate should have been anticipated by the government.

      As for the rest, I think tertiary education should be free, but if this is the best that can be done. I agree with PR below. There would have been a greater benefit to graduate students, and the attrition rate would have been much lower.

    • Draco T Bastard 12.3
      13 December 2018 at 1:35 pm

      It’s still a better spend than $26m on a flag.

      It’s better because it does get people educated. Yes, even people who fail a course have better education and by failing they will probably understand how to succeed next time. In fact, calling it ‘failing’ is a misnomer. They didn’t learn what the course taught but they learned so much else. Here’s a few links on the subject:

      https://www.elitedaily.com/life/failure-more-beneficial-than-success/1824857
      https://blog.bufferapp.com/why-highly-successful-people-crave-failure-and-mistakes

      I especially liked this one:

      The Importance of Luck

      Admittedly, our thoughts on falling forward or failing forward get a little cynical here, but then we sat down with Gregg Fairbrothers – a Dartmouth College grad, founder of the Dartmouth Entrepreneur Network, and serial entrepreneur – who brought some reasonable perspective. A pretty savvy guy involved in at least a half dozen successful startups, Fairbrothers argues, ‘When you succeed you often don’t know why. Often it is pure luck.’ He points out what do you learn from that except it’s good to be lucky? Whereas he believes ‘mistakes are a terrific teacher.’ Looking at the collective experience of many founders, it’s hard to disagree with the luck factor. Sure, you can have a competent founder who makes all the right decisions but they also get lucky – maybe it’s lucky timing like good market trends. On the flipside, lucky timing can also cover up mistakes, gives you wiggle room, so what are you really learning?

      There’s nothing wrong with the spend on helping people be better. They tried. Now we need to support them into picking themselves up and trying again.

      It’s only idiots that expect everything to go perfectly every time. They seem to all vote National.

    • McFlock 12.4
      13 December 2018 at 1:35 pm

      Where’s the rort?
      ~12% fail usually.
      We have another ~6% who withdrew.

      The students don’t get any money if they withdraw. They don’t have a motive to rort the system for the institutions. And most courses would do a refund if you withdraw, depending on how much of the course you were there for.

      If there was a spike in people enrolling then withdrawing, that just means that the policy has at least identified the need for education to be more accessible. In that case we need to know what other barriers exist for those 2600 people.

      • David Mac 12.4.1
        14 December 2018 at 9:36 am

        If we’re not failing we’re not trying hard enough.

        The path way to equality needs to be paved with opportunity. Providing opportunities for people to try university study that are otherwise unable to do so is exactly the right thing to be doing. Some establish it’s not for them, fabulous, reset their compasses. Others flourish, equally fine.

        Lasting equality will not come about by slopping grants around. It will come through the creation of opportunities. Opportunities for Mothers to receive a tertiary education, opportunities for poor kids to learn to sail. A vast and enticing tsunami of opportunity available to all.

        • miravox 12.4.1.1
          14 December 2018 at 10:04 am

          Thanks for that comment David Mac.

          After leaving school at 15 and having 3 kids at 21, I would never have my tertiary education with out the opportunity to try and not manage, then try again and achieve.

          Obviously that was before the last NAct government.

  13. lprent 13
    13 December 2018 at 12:32 pm

    I did one of my very rare media appearances last week with Greg Presland on Planet FM

    https://www.planetaudio.org.nz/listen/red-alert-radio/political-current-affairs/455254

    Always an issue talking after I’ve been programming. But I wasn’t too inarticulate.

    • greywarshark 13.1
      13 December 2018 at 1:30 pm

      Sounded good. It was interesting hearing the brief resume’ of the history.

      • lprent 13.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 1:51 pm

        Only half an hour and voice is a slow medium.

        I still reckon it is a good thing that I stopped coding an hour earlier and then biked there.

        Better than today. I didn’t have whatever biological bug which my body is fighting off today. I really hate being sick. Makes it hard to concentrate on the site theme upgrade.

        • greywarshark 13.1.1.1
          13 December 2018 at 2:42 pm

          Open your Christmas whisky early! Hope you recover soon – don’t be sick with bugs at Christmas, keep it for hangovers if you get those. Perhaps your trouble is the sudden change to fresh air from being in a coding-coop. You need to get off your perch more often. Anyway Merry Christmas when it comes and regards to Lyn.

          • lprent 13.1.1.1.1
            13 December 2018 at 2:53 pm

            Picked up 3×1 litre bottles of Tullamore Dew duty free when I came back from Singapore a few weeks ago. I was working long hours outside for 7 weeks there because when you play with radio frequencies you need to suffer the weather. Fresh air I can live without hummph! Give me air-conditioning any day.

            But I may have to drag myself out to find some food before self-medicating as the cupboard is a bit bare. After a few days of diminished appetite has left me a bit hungry.

        • Sacha 13.1.1.2
          13 December 2018 at 10:42 pm

          “site theme upgrade”

          applause!

          • lprent 13.1.1.2.1
            18 December 2018 at 6:19 pm

            I have a few weeks off over xmas. WordPress has had some significiant changes and it has been more than 8 years since the last major update.

  14. joe90 14
    13 December 2018 at 12:41 pm

    And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven….

    Asked whether it’d been an adjustment to his lifestyle, the legendary guitarist quipped: “You can call it that, yeah”

    The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards has revealed that he has cut back drastically on his drinking, admitting in a new interview that “it was time to quit”.

    https://www.nme.com/news/music/keith-richards-cut-back-on-drinking-rolling-stones-interview-2419801

    • I feel love 14.1
      13 December 2018 at 1:27 pm

      What’s the joke? After an atomic apocalypse all that will be left alive are the cock roaches … and Keith Richards. I’m glad he’s cut down, he’s a great guitarist and a very funny guy.

  15. joe90 15
    13 December 2018 at 12:48 pm

    [lprent: deleted. Still subject to a court orders in Australia. I’d suggest not doing that again. ]

    • SHG 15.1
      13 December 2018 at 2:25 pm

      The Catholic Church is a centuries-old child-rape cult. Why it is allowed to continue to exist is beyond me.

      • greywarshark 15.1.1
        13 December 2018 at 6:58 pm

        Probably for the same reason that RW trolls still can come here and be objectionable, and never change despite protests. Once a thought settles into the brain of someone who thinks they are entitled, everything else gets rationalised away – they are teflon-coated.

        The Catholic church does so much good, but it’s the old saying which applies to all:
        ‘Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely’.

        And that is truly one of the absolutes in life.

    • joe90 15.2
      13 December 2018 at 5:19 pm

      Orders issued in Australia apply here?.

      • RedLogix 15.2.1
        13 December 2018 at 5:32 pm

        Because it’s Lynn who gets the legal in the neck not you.

        • lprent 15.2.1.1
          18 December 2018 at 6:25 pm

          Yep court orders obtained in Aussie can apply here if they are asked to be observed by the courts there and yes, I’d be the person in the gun.

          Besides I agree with the underlying precepts of court orders – which is why I don’t break them or allow them to be broken on my server. I’ll let published information and information that doesn’t appear to break the published detail of a court order through (obviously I’m not in court to get the detailed orders) including speculation through. Anything else gets warnings and if required some painful moderation.

          Any time that I need to understand exactly why, I only have to look at the travesty of the open court American lynch system, the conviction rates of high media cases, and their incredibly high ratio of overturned criminal convictions when and only when someone actually funds the collection and presentation of basic evidence presented to judge only appeals. Basically if you are black or hispanic and not wealthy, having a highly public trial appear to ensure convictions.

          • Chris T 15.2.1.1.1
            18 December 2018 at 6:31 pm

            And tbf it is a bit pointless with the risk putting his name here as everyone knows who he is any way.

            Bit of similar situation to that other scumbag who killed the UK girl

            • lprent 15.2.1.1.1.1
              18 December 2018 at 6:41 pm

              To be fair it isn’t your arse that such dimwits legally risk, it is mine. I’m not put at risk if it isn’t on my server. And I’m perfectly happy making an example of any arsehole who deliberately puts my server at risk. In fact I’d be prepared to add an exception to our privacy rules and lay a complaint and give assistance to the police against any arsehole that violates the court orders on this site.

              I’ve already spend almost 40k because the legally ignorant criminal blogger Dermot Nottingham falsely accused me of breaking name suppression orders on his case where he was charged and eventually convicted of deliberately breaking name suppression and harassment on his blog. He brought a private prosecution against me.

              He failed to even prove after 15 months that I was associated with The Standard or that APN were associated with the Herald – which really demonstrates his level of legal stupidity. Since he seems to have spent a lot of time assisting Cameron Slater, I guess it is pretty obvious why Cameron is in so much legal shit. Dermot is now wearing a bracelet and home detention, and as he lost futile appeals I assisted him into bankruptcy along others who’d been dragged through his insane legal vendettas.

              Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me if the courts ask the courts and the police in the UK to find out what local scumbag journalist leaked the information from court documents here to the yellow rags in the UK.

              I hope when they find out who it is that they use the full-force of the sentences and toss the scumsucker into jail as a lesson in journalistic ethics.

              I know that I would.

              • Chris T …
                18 December 2018 at 6:55 pm

                Don’t know how true it is, but I have heard Google just didn’t bother removing it in one of their latest global news alerts to the world’s media.

                Which is probably what Little was meeting them about today

  16. marty mars 16
    13 December 2018 at 1:58 pm

    ReNews

    “Russian media say a contraption presented by Russian state television as a high- tech robot was in fact a man in a commercially available robot costume.”

    NZ media say a man presented by the gnashional party as its leader Simon bridges is in fact a robotic contraption in a commercially available man costume.

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/109324993/robot-shown-on-russian-tv-turns-out-to-be-man-in-suit

  17. Ad 17
    13 December 2018 at 4:20 pm

    Great to see [deleted] reported as convicted for historic sex crimes against minors:

    [deleted]

    [lprent: Still under court orders ]

    • Macro 17.1
      13 December 2018 at 7:29 pm

      Good! No wonder we haven’t heard of it here because of name suppression in Australia. Sentencing next year.

  18. WILD KATIPO 18
    13 December 2018 at 5:43 pm

    Meanwhile ,… while we are all fighting among ourselves , having wars, getting drunk and celebrating Christmas… somewhere out there ( perhaps ) is something truly creepy… or maybe they think we are creepy…

    Is Bigfoot a Neanderthal? (ThinkerThunker) – YouTube

  19. joe90 19
    13 December 2018 at 7:09 pm

    He should ask his friends….oh, that’s right, he stiffed them on the bail money.

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears via video at a Quito court hearing as he appeals against new protocols – Ecuador will no longer pay for his food and medical care, etc. – governing his stay at the Embassy in London pic.twitter.com/UbIw5qxTiF— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 13, 2018

  20. georgecom 20
    13 December 2018 at 7:30 pm

    Donald Trump huh.

    On sorry, “Crooked” Donald

    What was that saying? Something like, um…

    …”lock him up! lock him up! lock him up”

  21. joe90 21
    13 December 2018 at 10:18 pm

    Erdogan’s dead set on remaking the empire.

    Turkey will launch a military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria “within a matter of days,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, prompting warnings from the Pentagon and State Department.

    Washington backs the Kurds with thousands of service members, special forces and contractors who maintain a presence east of the Euphrates River, while Turkey and its coalition of Syrian rebels have mainly stayed to the west.

    Turkey will target the east to “save the area from the separatist terrorist movement,” Erdogan said, using his routine term for Kurdish militias.

    https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-turkey-operation-20181212-story.html

  22. eco maori 22
    14 December 2018 at 8:38 am

    Kia ora The Am Show
    Kendra deserved to win NZ Rugby Player of the year prize she had a good season
    ka pai.
    That what a wahine would say Ingrid funny my partner would have said the same on the Rugby.
    The thing about the sandflys discretion on who they bust for drugs and billy said they did so last year when he was in the lead is they let Europeans off and lock up the brown people I hope that has changed I have warned the Tangata of that reality .So in reality there has been little changes on that front.
    Grant I see the Maori Party and Tops party are going to cooperate a .
    Eco Maori for Tangata Whenua of the year.
    MPI are full of your m8 duncan I served the official information act on them and the statements they sent me were mostly false.
    Fontera did not deliver they lost billions in China and just added 50% more admin cost.
    Aretha Franklin death was a sad loss to she fought for equal rights to .
    The theft of the Mangere Bridge kindy play ground is stupid why don’t you start a give alittle page then the mokopunas will get brand new jungle jim and slides .
    judy your neo libreal capitalist m8 around Papatuanuku are crashing out they are all greedy climate change deniers who can not think about there childrens FUTURE .
    King Home Boy giving his prize to charity ka pai
    I do support looking after the well being of our new foreign workers paying and treating them fairly mai chen ?????? & her m8 shrilly from 7 blunt tried to underarm bowl me out but they just gave me more mana.
    I tau toko the #METO movement Ka kite ano P.S what happened to the poll??????????

  23. eco maori 23
    14 December 2018 at 8:50 am

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute

  24. eco maori 24
    14 December 2018 at 8:56 am

    To the Am Show team have a good holiday have not been able to afford one of those in ten years with that monkey on Eco Maori’s back playing with my fortunes
    Ka kite ano

  25. eco maori 25
    14 December 2018 at 9:25 am

    The cafe I could support Credit Simple I just need to get my communication encrypt I have seen the Eco Maori effect in action but I will only use it to benefit all Te tangata positively ka kite ano

  26. eco maori 26
    14 December 2018 at 9:28 am

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.

  27. eco maori 27
    14 December 2018 at 9:57 am

    Many thank’s to the American Senators that voted to curb support to the Saudi war machine and for putting the children’s lives first ka pai
    US Senate approves resolutions to curb Saudi support and condemn Khashoggi murder – liveSenate votes 56-41 to pass the War Powers Resolution that would halt US military assistance to Saudis in Yemen Ka kite ano links below.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/dec/13/trump-michael-cohen-mueller-investigation-pelosi-latest-live-updates

  28. eco maori 28
    14 December 2018 at 11:12 am

    I can see that this will become a reality very soon the world’s financial crash and in trumps own word’s he did not care because it would happen when he has retired .
    Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.

    The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.
    Eco Maori is proactive for a positive future for all the humans on Mother Earth .
    Ka kite ano. links below. P.S Just 3 % of the worlds GDP is need to combat climate change shear with thy neighbors

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/10/tackle-climate-or-face-financial-crash-say-worlds-biggest-investors

  29. eco maori 29
    14 December 2018 at 11:50 am

    Eco Maori agrees strongly with John Kerry’s words
    John Kerry: Forget Trump. We All Must Act on Climate Change.

    If we fail, it won’t be just the president’s fault.
    This week is the third anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The Trump administration marked it by working with Russia and Gulf oil nations to sideline science and undermine the accord at climate talks underway in Katowice, Poland.

    While I was in New Delhi this week, where I met with solar energy advocates, a comment made thousands of miles away by the journalist Bob Woodward almost jumped off my iPad: The president, he said, “makes decisions often without a factual basis.” This isn’t a mere personality quirk of the leader of the free world. It is profoundly dangerous for the entire planet.

    Scientists tell us we must act now to avoid the ravages of climate change. The collision of facts and alternative facts has hurt America’s efforts to confront this existential crisis. Ever since Mr. Trump announced that he would pull America out of the Paris accord, those of us in the fight have worked to demonstrate that the American people are still in. Links Below

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/opinion/kerry-climate-change-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

  30. eco maori 30
    14 December 2018 at 1:03 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.

  31. eco maori 31
    14 December 2018 at 1:18 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute

  32. eco maori 32
    14 December 2018 at 2:48 pm

    You know I remember when I was a young fella my Mama /Greatgrandmother told me be loyal to those that help you and don’t bite the hand that feed’s you.
    There have been some that Eco MaoriTau toko’s and next minute these people are biting me WTF.
    You know that the sandflys are breaking mine and my immediate whano’s human right’s every day 24/7 I know every move they make against me but I get pissed when they target my whano. The justice system does stuff all for the poor but try to stuff us up .But there are consequences to biting Eco Maori Ka kite ano

  33. eco maori 33
    14 December 2018 at 5:50 pm

    Kia ora Piripi from Tekaea yes tangata whenua have the highest rate of heart attacks and lowest survival rates te tangata need to go to the doctors more and look after Our health to look after the Mokopunas
    Carmen I say the culture is much better now than it was last time I was in Winz the wait was short and there were not a lot of people in the office and they were not stressed .
    Maori interactive video games ki ora that is awesome maori can generate a lot of jobs and money from video game’s .The industry is way bigger than Hollywood.
    Eco Maori tau toko’s the Maori Santa some people cannot put there prejudices
    Ka pai to the maori modular whare with the money saved with time
    That was cool Jason Momoa doing the Haka and his movie Aquaman will be one I am going to watch at the Cinema.
    Ka kite ano

  34. eco maori 34
    14 December 2018 at 6:43 pm

    Kia ora Newshub
    Steve Hansen is retiring he does not mince word’s all the best on your new journey Coach. I have my pick for your replacement but I will keep that to myself .
    That hurricane hitting Australia looks like it will cause problems I hope no one gets hurt.
    People searching on Google for good thing’s is cool some in the media need to do they same .
    It show how deprived some people are in America if they will risk there lives going to get copper wire in a mine to survive.
    Virgin Galactic is getting close to there goals of passenger space flights I wish Richard all the best .
    Sawn the Sun bear dying is sad
    There you go Russia has taken a leaf out of someone else old book with the man posing as a robot lol . Ka kite ano

  35. eco maori 35
    14 December 2018 at 8:15 pm

    Some Eco Maori music for the minute.

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    Minister of Defence Ron Mark today announced New Zealand is sending three Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopters and crew, and two NZ Army Combat Engineer Sections as well as a command element to support the Australian Defence Force efforts in tackling the Australian fires.  The New Zealand Defence Force ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

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