Open mike 13/12/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 13th, 2020 - 52 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

52 comments on “Open mike 13/12/2020 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. KSaysHi 1
    13 December 2020 at 9:08 am

    Warrantless Police searches disproportionately target Maori. This is a great investigative piece from Stuff which covers something most of us had no clue could happen.

    The video down the page is a must watch too.

    https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2020/12/unwarranted-police-searches-racial-bias-justice/

    • NOEL 1.1
      13 December 2020 at 11:57 am

      Ah..so thousands of people consented to a search without a warrant?

    • Foreign waka 1.2
      13 December 2020 at 2:20 pm

      "But apart from the rule of law and public accountability, the police power to use force, engage in summary punishment, use covert surveillance, and to stop, search and arrest citizens, can be used to support dictatorial regimes and practices."

      http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/poldem.html

      • NOEL 1.2.1
        13 December 2020 at 4:23 pm

        As I indicated above there are strict regulations around warrentless searches here in NZ.

        I'm guessing if the bros stopped using in there vehicles , carry their stash and meth gear in odour proof bags and not wear the same clothes they were wearing when they used the incidence would dramatically drop.

        Highly unlikely given the number that consent to a search.

        • Foreign waka 1.2.1.1
          13 December 2020 at 6:34 pm

          I am not saying there aren't, but we all have to be vigilant as history has shown how easy it is to turn a trial into compulsory and a maybe into a demand. People are the same no matter where you are.

          I am absolutely against drugs, but the law has to apply. Especially to those who purport to represent it.

          2 wrongs do not make one right. If we start to subvert the law we are a lawless society.

          • Phillip ure 1.2.1.1.1
            13 December 2020 at 7:38 pm

            @fw..

            Does your opposition to 'drugs' include alcohol…?

            or does that get an exemption..

            'cos you like/use it…?

            • Foreign waka 1.2.1.1.1.1
              13 December 2020 at 7:47 pm

              Phillip

              Alcohol in smaller amounts does not create a problem, P and synthetics (how the hell can this be legal?) are. As everything, harm prevention is the key.

              • Phillip ure …
                13 December 2020 at 7:56 pm

                @fw..

                alcohol is the most damaging drug in new zealand..

                do you see any issues with you opposing all drugs..

                ..but supporting the most dangerous of them all..?

                and we all know most people don't drink 'just a little'.do they..?

                they drink to get drunk…

                • Foreign waka …
                  13 December 2020 at 8:57 pm

                  I am not defending any drug at all. I don't take any, need my brain need my health.

                  All I am saying that we need to take harm prevention seriously.

                  • Phillip ure …
                    13 December 2020 at 9:38 pm

                    but you still think drug use should be a crime/justice issue..?

                    not a health one..?

                    and should be treated as such..?

                    i.e..lock em up danno..!

                    do you have a caffeine addiction going on..?

        • McFlock 1.2.1.2
          13 December 2020 at 8:35 pm

          No, the number of searches resulting in an arrest would be dramatically higher.

          Someone hasn't bothered reading the link.

  2. Macro 2
    13 December 2020 at 9:27 am

    More ironic humour from Andy Borowitz (and very close to the truth!)

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A furious Donald J. Trump attempted to fire the Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sources report.

    According to the sources, Trump was so irate about the Supreme Court’s dismissal of his election challenge on Tuesday that he phoned Barrett directly to inform her that she was “history.”

    “I hired you to get a job done, and you didn’t get it done,” Trump angrily informed Barrett. “You’re out of here.”

    Sources say that Barrett had the unenviable task of informing Trump that Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life and therefore cannot be fired, a revelation that left Trump “flabbergasted.”

    “If I can’t fire anybody I want, maybe I don’t want to be President anymore,” he reportedly muttered.

  3. alwyn 3
    13 December 2020 at 12:28 pm

    I greatly enjoyed an article in the DomPost yesterday.

    It was about a senior representative of our Government explaining when we might find out about options for allowing travel between Australia and New Zealand. The length of the comments was most impressive. A flow of words which went on and on and on.

    'I've never put timelines on it because of course timelines, people book their lives around it, they make plans so I want to make sure that whenever we do give that indication it will have the certainty of firm dates attached," she said.'

    '"I know people want to restart that travel but we want to do it safely. I don't want to take any risks that jeopardise the freedoms we have, but I am hopeful that some time in the near future we'll be able to give some more certainty around when the opening will happen."'

    Wouldn't it have saved an enormous number of words and got the real answer out by saying the very simple phrase "I have no idea"?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/300181774/transtasman-travel-bubble-jacinda-ardern-says-work-still-underway

    • Jester 3.1
      13 December 2020 at 12:58 pm

      Communication experts tend to speak a lot, but actually say very little, and rarely answer a question decisively.

      • Muttonbird 3.1.1
        13 December 2020 at 1:44 pm

        That particular communication expert saved alwyn's life. He should be grateful.

        • alwyn 3.1.1.1
          13 December 2020 at 3:26 pm

          Saved my life? Really?

          Well some people like to think that their dreams are real. There are some people who like to propagate the myth that Trump was robbed of his massive win in the US elections by those dastardly Democrats.

          Stick to your dreams. After all, as Muhammad Ali put it "Different strokes for different Folks".

          • Muttonbird 3.1.1.1.1
            13 December 2020 at 3:56 pm

            Apologies. I naturally assumed you were in a high risk category.

            • Robert Guyton 3.1.1.1.1.1
              13 December 2020 at 5:00 pm

              I'm worried about alwyn 🙂

              • Incognito …
                13 December 2020 at 5:53 pm

                So am I. I thought he’d found his happy place at Lord Voldemort’s blog when he signed out here (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-04-2020/#comment-1706034) but maybe the up-ticks are a poor substitute for the real kindness he receives here where people do actually worry about him.

              • alwyn …
                13 December 2020 at 8:28 pm

                Why thank you Robert. I shall write to Santa and tell him what a good boy you have been this year. I will suggest that he put an extra present in your stocking. Perhaps a large bag of sheep pellets for your garden. I think you can use them if you are into organic gardening.

                • Robert Guyton …
                  13 December 2020 at 8:45 pm

                  School children say to me, "You're Santa!". I reply: " No, I'm his brother, Uncle Christmas".

                  They call me Uncle Christmas from then on.

                  It's nice.

                  To any that don't play the game, I say, " Nothing in the Christmas stocking for you this year!"

                  They go quiet, being unsure…

        • Jester 3.1.1.2
          13 December 2020 at 8:15 pm

          According to Shaun Hendy, she saved 80,000 lives.

          • McFlock 3.1.1.2.1
            13 December 2020 at 8:50 pm

            Choosing the far end of an estimate is a bold move, given that Sweden recently had more cases and deaths in a single day than NZ has had over the entire pandemic.

            Sure, Sweden's twice our population, but not 365 times bigger.

            • alwyn 3.1.1.2.1.1
              14 December 2020 at 12:22 am

              The place that got it right was, of course, Taiwan.

              They had at least one politician, the Vice-President, who really did know what he was doing. I believe they have had 733 cases and 7 deaths in a population of about 24 million. The also didn't close the schools and didn't shut down their economy. Businesses didn't close and PPE was available to all. The GDP rose this year and is expected to end up with a 2% growth for the calendar year.

              Now that is what I call a success story.

              We weren't nearly as good were we? We have had about 2,100 cases and 25 deaths in a population of 5 million. We have also nearly wrecked our economy, at least in my, as a trained Economist's, opinion.

              • McFlock …
                14 December 2020 at 12:42 pm

                "Nearly".

                But yes, we we could have done better in some aspects, which might even have made the lockdown unnecessary. I didn't see Simon Thornley saying we should copy Taiwan, though. Sweden, on the other hand… well, that depends on which cherry he wanted to pick at the time.

  4. Herodotus 4
    13 December 2020 at 2:36 pm

    At The food bank I sometimes help out, I asked the head honcho about the need increasing and that some families over the last few years I had seen were missing this year which was great not to see them. I was told these families needs were similar to last year the reason they were not there was that there were those not previously seen with greater need. It struck me how easily it is to become “unnoticed” 🤬

    • Macro 4.1
      13 December 2020 at 3:33 pm

      Yes there is certainly an increase in need this year, and sadly those who have been waiting for sometime are now again at the back of the queue.

      Over the covid lock down we managed to get our 20 or so really rough sleepers into motel accommodation – but on the opening up of the restrictions they are now out on the streets again and back to square one. Some have now moved up a level to the relative luxury of a tent in the hills behind the town, but for others the choice is behind a building or under a tree.

      I notice that the allocation of responsibility for Housing of homeless people is given to Marama Davidson who has advocated strongly on poverty matters for some time. But as an Associate Minister for Housing with responsibility for Homeless. – A position outside of Cabinet. this gives some indication of just how seriously the Labour Govt takes this matter.

      I believe that the most effective means to ensure these people receive the aroha and mana they deserve is from a dedicated case worker with whom they can relate and trust.

  6. Robert Guyton 6
    13 December 2020 at 4:59 pm

    ""Don't buy it." Refusal to participate is a moral choke. Water is a gift for all, not meant to be bought and sold. Don't buy it. When food has been wrenched from the earth, depleting the soil and poisoning our relatives in the name of higher yields, don't buy it."

    “A fine book by Syracuse-area resident and SUNY/ESF professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass.
    “In those childhood fields, waiting for strawberries to ripen, I used to eat the sour white ones, sometimes out of hunger but mostly from impatience. I knew the long-term results of my short-term greed, but I took them anyway. Fortunately, our capacity for self-restraint grows and develops like the berries beneath the leaves, so I learned to wait. A little. I remember lying on my back in the fields watching the clouds go by and rolling over to check the berries every few minutes. When I was young, I thought the change might happen that fast. Now I am old and I know that transformation is slow. The commodity economy has been here on Turtle Island for four hundred years, eating up the white strawberries and everything else. But people have grown weary of the sour taste in their mouths. A great longing is upon us, to live again in a world made of gifts. I can scent it coming, like the fragrance of ripening strawberries rising on the breeze.”

  7. Foreign waka 7
    13 December 2020 at 6:52 pm

    Professor Jilnaught Wong has once more pointed out that large corporations have kept the wage subsidy despite not needing it.

    “The thing about the wage subsidy is where do you think this money is coming from? It’s coming from the other taxpayers so really there is a wealth transfer that has gone from people like you and me and gone to these corporates who are then giving it to their shareholders,” he says.

    “There is a clear wealth transfer that is going on and at the time when the government needs the funds for the needy and to support child poverty, these companies are just taking this money without any conscience"

    I really applaud him for raising the issue and voicing his view. Unfortunately, these companies keeping the taxpayer money to show returns to shareholders will be proud to be immoral to the core. I just wish we would know more about as to who they are so that we can avoid them like the pest.

    Here is a lesson to be learned, if there is ever a similar situation, it is cheaper and more honest to pay a UBI to the people who have lost their job. The rich ones can look after themselves, always have.

    • Phillip ure 7.1
      13 December 2020 at 7:44 pm

      don't go near the warehouse again..for starters..

    • Incognito 7.2
      13 December 2020 at 8:00 pm

      “A lot of these appalling companies are basically saying, ‘well we have met the law, so we are going to keep it,’ but morally, it’s not the right thing to do,” Wong says. “Companies and executives need to behave ethically and morally, that’s why they are in there in the roles of leadership.”

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123679007/cashrich-firms-need-to-find-their-moral-compass-and-pay-wage-subsidy-back-accounting-professor-says

      The Professor is wrong about one thing though, when these executives show a lack of ethical leadership they cannot be called leaders in the true sense but they are managers rather.

      The lack of ethical leadership is one thing but in the end, it is up to the individual shareholders to decide what to do with their windfall. For example, they could donate a portion to Auckland City Mission. In other words, if the Taxpayers’ rescue package is distributed appropriately and trickles down to those who need it the most then I consider it a good thing, IMHO.

      BTW, a UBI is completely different from the Wage Subsidy Scheme.

      • Phillip ure 7.2.1
        13 December 2020 at 8:31 pm

        yeah..I am sure the city mission is being inundated by those shareholders who received those taxpayer funds…

        heard much about the tooth-fairy lately..?

        • Incognito 7.2.1.1
          13 December 2020 at 8:39 pm

          Yup, saw her today.

          Yes, I know all shareholders are carnivorous Devil’s spawn but it is never too late to turn to the light and repent.

  8. Jester 8
    13 December 2020 at 8:25 pm

    About six stories in the NZH today regarding Mallard

    Image

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.