Open mike 14/02/2020

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 14th, 2020 - 34 comments
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34 comments on “Open mike 14/02/2020 ”

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  1. pat 1
    14 February 2020 at 7:37 am

    “This is what panic from the Wall Street elite looks and sounds like,”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/13/sanders-campaign-criticizes-panic-from-wall-street-elite-after-new-hampshire-win

    Think Sanders is being given an unfair shake in the MSM now?……aint nothing compared to what will happen should he win the nomination

      • RedLogix 1.1.1
        14 February 2020 at 12:41 pm

        Yet in reality Bernie's policies are pretty middle of the road when compared to almost all other developed nations. If he's socialist, it's of a very pragmatic non-threatening kind indeed.

        This hyperventilating is useful in one sense however, it's nicely diagnostic.

        • Andre 1.1.1.1
          14 February 2020 at 1:29 pm

          While disgust at the Queens rufous shitgibbon may be enough to get a lot of moderate voters to hold their nose and tick the box for Sanders, dislike of Sanders is likely to also push them to vote Repug for their local House rep and Senator. To put a handbrake on Sanders.

          Without strong majorities in the House and the Senate, there is very little Sanders could actually do to implement any of his agenda. Hell, without a majority in the Senate and McTurtle still Majority leader, it's likely that there would suddenly be a rule that there are to be no Senate confirmations for judges within 2 years of a midterm election.

          https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/13/politics/bernie-sanders-house-democrats/index.html

        • Chris 1.1.1.2
          14 February 2020 at 3:34 pm

          A lot of the Mana Party policies are consistent with what Labour would've said 30 years ago, too. For that matter there are things previous National governments wouldn't have dreamed about doing which are unquestioned core Labour government policies now.

      • Andre 1.1.2
        14 February 2020 at 1:17 pm

        Taibbi fails to mention a key difference between the Repug primary system and the Dems.

        The Repug primary is grossly more undemocratic than the Democratics primary. Many of the Repug primaries are winner-take-all or winner-take-most, so the Fifth Avenue Fraud could take a solid majority of the delegates (1441 out of 2472) off of 44.9% of the votes. That 44.9% wasn't even a realistic picture of his support, it's inflated by the fact that all his rivals dropped out with 9 states still to go.

        So while it is indeed looking likely that Bernie will arrive at the convention with the greatest number of pledged delegates, let's optimistically say 40% of the pledged delegates off of say 35% of the popular vote, that won't be enough to get him the nomination on the first vote.

        Then for the second and subsequent votes, the pledged delegates are no longer bound to their candidate and the superdelegates come into play. Then the horse-trading begins. Being able to retain influence in that horse-trading is a strong incentive for the candidates to not drop out, even those that understand their chances of actually getting the nomination are between zero and none.

        • adam 1.1.2.1
          14 February 2020 at 9:24 pm

          Oh the irony of calling the GOP undemocratic, then telling us why Bernie won't win.

          Because the democratic party is equally undemocratic.

          • Andre 1.1.2.1.1
            15 February 2020 at 12:42 pm

            With the Repug system, it is possible for a candidate to grab the nomination even when they only have the support of about 1/3 the electorate and 2/3 of the electorate really really prefer someone else to win, but the against vote is split among several candidates. It’s the classic first past the post problem.

            Whereas to earn the Democratic nomination you have to be the choice of an outright majority of the electorate. Or if you can't do that, you have to be able to put together a consensus coalition that's acceptable to a majority. Kinda like MMP.

            • joe90 1.1.2.1.1.1
              15 February 2020 at 1:02 pm

              Remember when HRC had a plurality but not a majority of delegates.

              https://twitter.com/AlxThomp/status/1227771448082780161

              • Andre …
                15 February 2020 at 3:03 pm

                Uhh, to be honest, no I don’t remember that *. Disregarding the superdelegates and except for a brief period between New Hampshire and Nevada, HRC had an outright majority of the pledged delegates for the entire primary.

                But Bernie did have a crack at floating the idea that the superdelegates should overturn a huge majority for HRC in the cast votes and install himself as the nominee.

                https://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/bernie-sanders-longshot-victory-superdelegates-220847

                nb: While HRC won a small plurality of votes over Obama in 2008, Obama actually won an outright majority of pledged delegates, and the superdelegates did not change the outcome. Then HRC had the integrity to concede and endorse Obama well before the convention, rather than continuing to be divisive up to the convention as Bernie did. And the BernieBros continued to be after the convention.

                *explanation for the benefit of readers that missed the /sarc tag

                • adam …
                  15 February 2020 at 8:43 pm

                  'bernie bros' do we have to live through this sad lie again?

                  have you ever read the podesta emails, or what about the other lies that h.r.c is spreading about bernie.

                  Admit your a devote of liberalism, and not a social democrate – no wait you don't have to, as you never supported social democratic ideas here.

                  My guess is you're going to go all bloomberg some time soon. Please prove me wrong.

                  Have a nice day.

  2. Blazer 2
    14 February 2020 at 8:27 am

    what a surprise :(…'Speculation in the market was the primary driver of house price growth, she said, and houses were being treated as an investment, fuelled by the availability of cheap credit.'

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119511533/crackdown-on-investors-needed-to-fix-unsustainable-property-market-researcher-says

    • A 2.1
      14 February 2020 at 8:48 am

      Don't agree with the second part of this…why should the government insulate people from their investment decisions? All investments have risk.

      To address that, she recommended debt-to-income limits on borrowing for high-income households and a capital gains tax.

      That would reduce prices, she said, but the Government could help those who were pushed into negative equity – where they owe more than their houses are worth – by refinancing a proportion of each of the existing mortgages of people's primary homes.

      Nothing was said about the growing short term rental market (aka AirBnB) that is displacing local tenants, but giving landlords a significantly higher rate of return and fewer responsibilities as RTA doesn’t apply. Maybe that is covered in other parts of the paper, not deemed newsworthy by Stuff.

      • Psycho Milt 2.1.1
        15 February 2020 at 1:29 pm

        …why should the government insulate people from their investment decisions?

        Realpolitik. There's a lot of those investors and almost all of them vote.

    • pat 2.2
      14 February 2020 at 8:50 am

      she's pretty much on the money but her solution will face major headwinds in being adopted (and maintained)….the banks will scream and threaten

  3. Herodotus 3
    14 February 2020 at 8:53 am

    the Stupidity of some 😤 I can only hope the lost common sense returns

    "Some families living across the road from their local primary school at Hobsonville Point in Auckland will be shut out under a proposed zoning change."

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12308297

    • You_Fool 3.1
      14 February 2020 at 2:57 pm

      Not sure which "some" you are insulting, but the issue has multiple problems… in my mind mostly caused by the greed of property developers and the inactivity of the previous National government.

      In any case, the nice planned community of Hobsonville Point has been trashed

  5. Sanctuary 5
    14 February 2020 at 11:51 am

    On 14 February 1779, James Cook was slain by Polynesians in Hawaii.

    On 14 February 2020, Bob Jones was slain by Polynesians in Wellington.

  6. mosa 6
    14 February 2020 at 12:25 pm

    Bernie's latest campaign ad.



    • Ad 6.1
      14 February 2020 at 6:22 pm

      Dumb ad.

      Doesn't need California votes.

      Doesn't need young people votes.

      Already got them.

      Well overdue to reach to other states.

      • Andre 6.1.1
        14 February 2020 at 7:01 pm

        He might not need California and young people for November, but he certainly needs them locked down as tight as he can for the primary.

  7. Climaction 7
    14 February 2020 at 2:44 pm

    How on earth is phil tryford still a minister?

    our largest airport shutting down as it's key function is compromised and phil's only just calling in the airport about it?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/119493119/auckland-airport-called-into-meeting-with-transport-minister-over-runway-problems

    How about utilising his power as minister to investigate transport licences to ensure failures like this aren't happening? having meetings. what a liability

    • Ad 7.1
      14 February 2020 at 5:23 pm

      What regulatory or executive power does the Minister have to assist, if he felt inclined?

    • Cricklewood 7.2
      14 February 2020 at 6:13 pm

      Hmm if gardeners have a green thumb… perhaps Phil Twford has a poo finger…

      In fairness nice guy good ideas but a little bit out of his depth in terms of how to deliver those ideas.

    • Chris T 7.3
      14 February 2020 at 6:47 pm

      Twitford has continued to prove himself a tad shit.

      He is only going on form.

      • Psycho Milt 7.3.1
        15 February 2020 at 1:40 pm

        What, Twyford's in charge of Auckland Airport now? If so, who are these ass-clowns calling themselves Auckland International Airport Limited and claiming they own it? Somebody call the cops!

    • Psycho Milt 7.4
      15 February 2020 at 1:52 pm

      our largest airport shutting down as it's key function is compromised and phil's only just calling in the airport about it?

      This isn't the People's Republic of China and Twyford doesn't get to summon the owners or executives of the airport company to his office and require them to account for their actions. Limited liability companies aren't answerable to government ministers, they're answerable to their shareholders – which is exactly the problem.

      Shareholders are interested in receiving dividends and capital gain, not in how to run an airport. From their perspective, poorly-maintained runways are only a problem at the point where it begins to affect profitability, which it clearly hasn't yet.

      This is just the usual problem of having essential infrastructure in private ownership. Twyford's powers don't extend to altering that. If you'd like to see it change, vote for left-wing parties and encourage others to do the same.