Open mike 13/11/2015

47 comments on “Open mike 13/11/2015 ”

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1. North 1

   13 November 2015 at 6:24 am

   The Ministry of ‘Truth’ working at full tit –

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11544478

   Another ‘report’ to rival Bazley and Rebstock.

   Wow ! Here’s another one –

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11544460
   • Paul 1.1

     13 November 2015 at 6:50 am

     Democracy is dying in NZ.
     The bankster Key and his Wall Street friends are taking over,
   • ScottGN 1.2

     13 November 2015 at 7:23 am

     And don’t forget the government stonewalling on the Saudi sheep debacle. The Chief Ombudsman is investigating Radio NZ’s complaint that NZTE won’t release it’s report into the lamb deaths.
     http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/289548/govt-agency's-silence-on-the-lambs
     • Morrissey 1.2.1

       13 November 2015 at 11:39 am

       I think Key and his cronies should be lambasted over this issue.
   • Rosemary McDonald 1.3

     13 November 2015 at 8:19 am

     “Wow ! Here’s another one –”

     “”That, frankly, is a level of dishonesty that I would not expect from a government-appointed body,” he said.”

     No surprise to many of us….
     • tracey 1.3.1

       13 November 2015 at 8:38 am

       and then

       Run Rabbit Run

       “Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, who is overseeing the flag change referendum, said in a statement that the process was a delivery of an election promise but the collection and assessment of submissions on the flag was not his responsibility.”
       • Draco T Bastard 1.3.1.1

         13 November 2015 at 11:37 am

         And the typical right-wing refusal to take any responsibility.
     • Draco T Bastard 1.3.2

       13 November 2015 at 11:36 am

       Yep, exactly what I would expect from a panel appointed by this government.
2. Vaughan Little 2

   13 November 2015 at 7:41 am

   some great prose in today’s Herald piece on the impending demolition of the fawlty towers hotel. “the hotel …is to be demolished and turned into 32 retirement flats.” a genius act of total building recycling, it would seem. and then: “the Gleneagles Hotel, which has been at the centre of a long-running debate about its future, will be demolished… ” good to hear that the hotel was the centre of the debate about …um, the hotel.
3. Chooky 3

   13 November 2015 at 9:37 am

   Peter Dunne hit the nail on the head likening the Detention Centres to Concentration camps….lot of air time and a lot of positive comment on radionz

   http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201778566/dunne-deals-to-dutton-over-concentration-camp-policy

   …why doesn’t he pull out of his devil bargain and ditch jonkey national for Labour?…and where is the Maori Party?…they should also ditch jonkey nactional

   …SHAME!
   • Ovid 3.1

     13 November 2015 at 11:04 am

     Yes. Good for him. Here’s his blog post:

     http://honpfd.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/12-november-2015-somewhere-alongthe-way.html

     I think some good avenues for pressure on Key to make proper representation to the Australians are his coalition partners. Both Dunne and the Maori Party are clearly uneasy on this. Nothing from David Seymour, though.
     • Morrissey 3.1.1

       13 November 2015 at 11:13 am

       Nothing from David Seymour, though.

       Nihil fit ex nihilo.
     • Grindlebottom 3.1.2

       13 November 2015 at 3:54 pm

       Some other good articles on the Aussie detentions issue from today’s Herald:

       Does Key believe he can get away with anything?
       http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11544867

       Peter Dunne blasts Australia’s ‘concentration camps
       http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11544724

       Brian Rudman: Shameful lack of political fallout over Aussie gulags
       http://www.nzherald.co.nz/best-of-political-analysis/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502734&objectid=11543178
4. Chooky 4

   13 November 2015 at 9:42 am

   ‘Israel suspends meetings with EU after Brussels’ move to label settlement products’

   https://www.rt.com/news/321636-israel-settlements-labelling-products/

   “Israel is to temporarily suspend several meetings with European counterparts in protest of the decision to label goods that come from Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced the labeling initiative as “discriminatory….
5. Rosemary McDonald 5

   13 November 2015 at 9:51 am

   An excellent interview on Natrad this morning about New Zealander’s shitty access to surgery.

   People are waiting years to just to get on the waiting list.

   Living in pain and on painkillers.

   Resulting in some cases being incarcerated in rest homes.

   http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201778593/are-patients-seeking-hip-knee-replacement-surgery-waiting

   “anger, frustration and hopelessness’.
   • alwyn 5.1

     13 November 2015 at 10:11 am

     There is one thing about this Government’s approach to elective surgery waiting lists that is different to the previous approach taken when Annette King was in charge.
     The present approach may require a higher pain score to get on the waiting list. However if you do go on the waiting list you WILL get the operation.
     When Labour were in power it may have been easier to get on the waiting list and, as they promised, you wouldn’t be on the waiting list for more than six months. It did NOT mean however that you would receive the operation. When the six months was up you would, if the operation hadn’t been performed, simply be removed from the waiting list and told to go back to your GP. He would then have to try and get you another referral for assessment. You would probably be put onto the waiting list again, returning to the bottom, and start again.
     After six months, still waiting, you would then be removed again and the cycle would repeat.
     The difference? Now you know you will get the required operation if you are accepted. Under the previous lot you might never have had it. Which do you prefer?
     I knew someone who went through 3 cycles of the Labour Party’s deception. They finally, after a couple of years of hoping to get what they had been told would be an operation, gave up and had it done privately.
     I, under the current Government, was assessed, got onto the list and received the op. If I hadn’t made the list I would have immediately had it done privately. It would have been expensive but I wouldn’t have put up with wasted years of pain whilst hoping for the state-funded op that might never have happened.
     • Rosemary McDonald 5.1.1

       13 November 2015 at 10:31 am

       Its such a shame, really a shame, that a patient can be referred through the Public Health system to a surgeon only for that surgeon to tell them that they DO need the surgery but they DON’T meet the criteria.

       “Do you have medical insurance?” “No?”

       “I can do it privately for $?”

       Cue, bargaining session between patient and surgeon until a mutually agreed price is reached for the “overworked” surgeon to do the op privately.

       This is after all avenues to try and get ACC cover for the problem are exhausted.

       THIS is the biggest problem.

       Its kinda corrupt….
       • alwyn 5.1.1.1

         13 November 2015 at 11:37 am

         You have personal experience of this do you?
         Or is it perhaps one of those popular urban myths?
         The surgeon isn’t actually the one who evaluates whether people meet the criteria, at least in the DHB I was involved with. They decide whether you need the op but they don’t actually make the decision about you going on the waiting list.
         • Rosemary McDonald 5.1.1.1.1

           13 November 2015 at 12:17 pm

           Personal experience? No…but that is probably because of my demographic…being a beneficiary at least affords some protection from this…racket, for want of a better word.

           But…I do have better heeled acquaintances.

           And this has been going on for decades.

           You get real problems when you have a three tier system…Public, Private and ACC…. all operating within the same sphere.

           The same professionals working across all three systems.

           Lets be honest here…successive governments have underfunded the public health and disability system…and the current incumbents have been masterly.

           Starve it, then contract out core work to the “more efficient” private sector.

           Voila! We have a US style health system….
           • northshoredoc 5.1.1.1.1.1

             13 November 2015 at 1:26 pm

             Our health system is nothing like the US healthcare system.

             While there could always be more spent in and on health it is also true that there is a law of diminishing returns. It is important to note that the standard of care and access within the NZ public health system is as good and in most cases substantially better than most of the world.

             In terms of funding i believe current core spend is around 14.5 billion a decade ago it was around 10.
             • Rosemary McDonald …

               13 November 2015 at 1:58 pm

               “Our health system is nothing like the US healthcare system.”

               Not yet….but some doctors have predicted that TPPA will facilitate the change.
               • northshoredoc …

                 13 November 2015 at 2:17 pm

                 🙄 they’re delusional. Canada probably has the closest and longest trading relation with the USA and their health systems are quite different.

                 In fact all the individual state health systems in Canada are quite different from the US.
   • McFlock 5.2

     13 November 2015 at 12:50 pm

     Hi Rosemary,

     re: your question to northshoredoc regarding roundup – mine is by no means a medical opinion, but damned near everything is carcinogenic at some level. Now, I wouldn’t put it past any corporation to have buried some serious mortality data (like tobacco and car companies have done), but if the demonstrated effect was difficult to find (and not for want of trying), basically it’s a population problem not an individual person’s imminent danger.

     Depending on the levels, it might warrant restriction, but in general we could probably do with not relying so much on a single herbicide type anyway. Leads to greater evolutionary selection effects and ruins it as a tool.
     • Rosemary McDonald 5.2.1

       13 November 2015 at 1:48 pm

       “Leads to greater evolutionary selection effects and ruins it as a tool.”

       Funny you should put it that way…I was thinking about a particular research paper that closes with almost that same concern.

       The paper, was quoted in a Food Safety Authority document (which appears to be now unavailable since the shift to MOBIE) was presented in 1977.

       DIFFERENTIAL BINDING OF METHYL BENZIMIDAZOL-2-YL
       CARBAMATE TO FUNGAL TUBULIN AS A MECHANISM
       OF RESISTANCE TO THIS ANTIMITOTIC AGENT
       IN MUTANT STRAINS OF ASPERGILLUS NIDULANS
       L. C. DAVIDSE and W. FLACH

       It closes with the warning…”Their use, however, in agriculture as fungicides
       and, quantitatively on a minor scale, in veterinary
       medicine, should be reconsidered from the
       point of view of their mechanism of action. Interference
       of MBC with nuclear division in mammalian
       cells has been found to occur in vitro (27, 59,
       67) and in vivo (59, 67). This implies a potential
       genetic risk for man. The toxicology and genetic
       effects of benzimidazole compounds have recently
       been reviewed by Seiler (59). We agree with him
       that the use of pesticides with this type of action
       should be restricted.”

       However, in the NZFSA document, they cheery picked one line from this paper that indicated MBC is non toxic to humans.

       The other, more commonly used name for MBC is carbendazim…2, methyl, benzimidazole carbamate.

       Many papers have been presented on this particular systemic fungicide…the research funded by its patent holder du Pont …

       Evaluation of thresholds for benomyl- and carbendazim-induced
       aneuploidy in cultured human lymphocytes using
       fluorescence in situ hybridization
       Karin S. Bentley a,), David Kirkland b, Morna Murphy b, Richard Marshall

       is well worth a read.

       (perhaps northshoredoc could take a look….carbendazim is another one of those ubiquitous chemicals…it replaced formaldehyde as a mould and fungus prevention measure for goods in transit…many imported fabrics are coated with it.)
6. Tautoko Mangō Mata 6

   13 November 2015 at 10:40 am

   The Govt, not liking decisions made by the Environmental Protection Authority, EPA, now want to APPOINT members to the Board. How long will it be before we see headlines like this in the UK:
   “Toothless Environment Agency is allowing the living world to be wrecked with impunity”

   These problems are likely to become even more severe, when the new cuts the environment department has just agreed with the Treasury take effect. An analysis by the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts reveals that, once the new reductions bite, the government’s spending on wildlife conservation, air quality and water pollution will have declined by nearly 80% in real terms since 2009-10.
   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/nov/12/toothless-environment-agency-is-allowing-the-living-world-to-be-wrecked-with-impunity
   • Draco T Bastard 6.1

     13 November 2015 at 11:44 am

     Learn basic formatting so that we can tell what you’ve written and what you’re quoting. HTML really isn’t that hard.
7. Morrissey 7

   13 November 2015 at 11:01 am

   IS bombs kill 37 people in Beirut, injure more than 200;
   Now watch as mainstream media pundits spit on the victims.

   This item appeared two years ago. Watching Al Jazeera’s outrageous coverage of this morning’s IS bombing of the Shia suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, it is highly relevant today. Right now the BBC, the American de facto state media and of course the New Zealand media are busy spinning this morning’s outrage; according to Al Jazeera (the outlet of the IS-backing Qatari dictatorship) the bombing of the civilian neighbourhood is primarily the fault of the victims. I have no doubt that the U.S. State Department will be pushing the same line. Nothing has changed….

   Why Western media frames civilian areas as “Hezbollah strongholds”
   Al Akhbar, August 21, 2013

   Beirut was thrown into turmoil on Thursday evening as a terrorist attack against residents of Dahiyeh – a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital and a predominantly Shia neighborhood – threatened to draw the country into a region wide crisis.

   As conflicting news reports began to eke out in the immediate aftermath of the city’s deadliest car bombing in eight years, there was a disconcerting congruity in headlines beaming out from western capitals – and it had nothing to do with facts.

   In lock-step, western media was calling the scene of the crime a “Hezbollah stronghold”:

   Wall Street Journal: “Car Bomb Blasts Hezbollah Stronghold in Lebanon”

   BBC: “Deadly Lebanon Blast in Beirut Stronghold of Hezbollah”

   LA Times: “Massive Explosion in Beirut Rocks Hezbollah Stronghold”

   Washington Post: “Bomb Explodes in Hezbollah Stronghold in Beirut, Injuring Dozens”

   Reuters: “Over 50 Hurt as Car Bomb Hits Hezbollah Beirut Stronghold”

   Associated Press: “Car Bomb Rocks Hezbollah Stronghold in Lebanon”

   France24: “Car Bomb Rocks Hezbollah Stronghold in Beirut”

   A quick Twitter or Google search for “Hezbollah stronghold” is all you need to see how hard western media works to “frame” language and drive use of a phrase that makes Shia civilian life negligible.

   On Twitter Thursday night, “tweeps” questioned the validity of this phrase in describing a civilian neighborhood. Said Arash Karami, editor for Al Monitor’s Iran Pulse: “When you write ‘Hezbollah stronghold’ instead of South Beirut it gives the impression military barracks were bombed and no innocents died.”

   That view seemed to be confirmed by the reaction of an American tweep who wrote: “GREAT NEWS!!!!!” in response to the BBC headline “Deadly Lebanon blast in Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah.”

   Worse yet was this reprehensible tweet by Al Monitor’s Washington correspondent and senior fellow at the Atalantic Council Barbara Slavin, who declared on Twitter: “As I recall, Hezbollah invented the car bomb; what goes around, comes around.” Except, of course, the targets of Thursday’s terror attack – where 27 died and nearly 300 injured – were civilians, not Hezbollah.

   An army of tweeps quickly reminded Slavin that Hezbollah neither invented the car bomb nor targets civilians, and drew attention to the ironic fact that Israeli militant groups used them liberally in attacking British officials in Palestine last century – well before Hezbollah’s 1985 formation to combat Israel’s occupation of Lebanon.

   And herein lies the problem. By calling a residential neighborhood a “Hezbollah stronghold,” western media softens public opinion to accept these terror attacks as justifiable, and their targets, legitimate. Because the only reason for characterizing civilian Shia neighborhoods as “strongholds” of Hezbollah is to justify carnage against those populations most likely to support the Lebanese resistance group. …..

   Read more….
   http://mideastshuffle.com/2013/08/21/why-western-media-frames-civilian-areas-as-hezbollah-strongholds/
   • Colonial Viper 7.1

     13 November 2015 at 11:22 am

     Worse yet was this reprehensible tweet by Al Monitor’s Washington correspondent and senior fellow at the Atalantic Council Barbara Slavin, who declared on Twitter: “As I recall, Hezbollah invented the car bomb; what goes around, comes around.”

     I wonder if this Barbara Slavin understands what she is saying given the wanton death and destruction of civilian populations US and Israeli military actions cause.
     • Morrissey 7.1.1

       13 November 2015 at 11:26 am

       She doesn’t care. She’s a propagandist, and words are like explosives to her. She has a dirty job to do and, unlike some people, she is prepared to do it.
       • proud poppy wearer 7.1.1.1

         13 November 2015 at 11:41 am

         “She’s a propagandist, and words are like explosives to her. She has a dirty job to do and, unlike some people, she is prepared to do it.”

         Almost your doppleganger then.
         • Morrissey 7.1.1.1.1

           13 November 2015 at 11:47 am

           You really know nothing at all. I suggest you trot off and read a book, or better, one hundred books, then come back here when you have a clue about something.

           Right now, you’re simply wasting your time and everyone else’s.
           • proud poppy wearer 7.1.1.1.1.1

             13 November 2015 at 12:08 pm

             “Right now, you’re simply wasting your time and everyone else’s.”

             Having read a number of your dissertations here I had formed the opinion that was this blogs raison d’être.
             • North …

               14 November 2015 at 12:32 am

               What a ridiculous pseudonym you’ve taken Poppy. Oh to be a Proud Poopy !
         • greywarshark 7.1.1.1.2

           13 November 2015 at 3:15 pm

           ppoppywear
           Where have you been all my life? I always wanted to meet a really keen smarmy airhead who has time on his hands and more money than he needs. You seem to fill all the boxes. Serial boxes that is, sigh.
           • Chooky 7.1.1.1.2.1

             13 November 2015 at 8:11 pm

             lol
     • Grant 7.1.2

       13 November 2015 at 2:24 pm

       “Barbara Slavin, who declared on Twitter: “As I recall, Hezbollah invented the car bomb; what goes around, comes around.””

       I think she got that badly wrong. Hezbollah were late comers in the use of the car bomb. Didn’t they take their schooling in the uses of terror bombs from the IRA and the Stern Gang?
8. Morrissey 8

   13 November 2015 at 11:17 am

   Stealing Palestine’s Past – The Great Book Robbery

   Highly recommended viewing here – Benny Brunner’s The Great Book Robbery. Brunner helps to uncover Israeli attempts to steal and keep submerged pre-Nakba Palestinian culture and history. Let’s hope that awareness can be raised about this vile aspect of the immense crime perpetrated against the Palestinians.
   • Chooky 8.1

     13 November 2015 at 8:12 pm

     +100
9. esoteric pineapples 9

   13 November 2015 at 12:19 pm

   The Netherlands closing down eight prisons due to lack of prisoners

   http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/26/netherlands-prisons-close–lack-of-criminals-_n_3503721.html
   • Chooky 9.1

     13 November 2015 at 8:13 pm

     says it all!
   • Incognito 9.2

     14 November 2015 at 2:11 am

     The Huffy article was posted 26 June 2013 and updated 14 October 2013. It referred to an article in nrc.nl dated 19 May 2009!? Old news rehashed?
10. Expat 10

    13 November 2015 at 3:34 pm

    I suppose the positive thing is that ruby has now disappeared from the front page, at least till next season!
11. ianmac 11

    13 November 2015 at 3:47 pm

    John Drinnan has a column being concerned that since Mihingarangi left Native Affairs the program has plumetted and they may cut it to 30 minutes and 3D on tv3 may be gone. (Current Affairs being culled for someone’s political want?)

    But the last paragraph on Speaking Out sounded hopeful:
    “NZ On Air chief executive Jane Wrightson said: “We still believe audiences want good quality investigative journalism. We will continue to look for options to support it. The changing media environment means that while broadcast television still has the biggest audiences, other platforms are now becoming more interesting to us as ways to deliver content that may not fit with commercial schedules.”
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11544520
12. newsense 12

    13 November 2015 at 7:05 pm

    Time for Kelvin Davis to call Key gutless again for

    1) not apologising to the women of the house and the people on Christmas Island who are not rapists
    2) for trying to play the victim
    3) for not standing up for the New Zealanders on Christmas Island who on top of everything have had their phones taken off them

    ?

    Would that play? Refocus the matter?
    • Paul 12.1

      13 November 2015 at 7:18 pm

      It was Davis calling weak on the Xmas Island civil rights issue that prompted Key’s deliberate and disgusting distraction.
      He’d do anything Key.
      The second worst NZ PM ever.
      • Chooky 12.1.1

        13 November 2015 at 8:14 pm

        who was the worst?…he must have been pretty bad
        • North 12.1.1.1

          14 November 2015 at 12:29 am

          Fascist who popped up in New Zealand 1949, only 4 years after defeat of the fascists of Europe – Sid Holland ? Against the law to give a loaf of bread to your locked-out wharfie brother’s family. Nah, the wicked bullshitter and self-server Mike Moore, PM for six weeks last quarter of 1990 ? Muldoon looks like an angel now.

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