Open mike 14/08/2015

47 comments on “Open mike 14/08/2015 ”

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1. dv 1

   14 August 2015 at 8:00 am

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/the-rebuild/71093579/brownlees-bombshell-leaves-cantabrians-in-the-dark

   Experts found defects including superficial patching of earthquake cracks running through foundation walls, the use of inappropriate building materials and poorly installed exterior brickwork or solid plaster repairs.

   How can homeowners be sure a builder who did shoddy foundation work did other repairs on a house properly?

   Insurers were also part of the MBIE investigation – 14 over-cap repairs were checked and sources have said that many failed the test.

   Will the Government ask them to audit their own work?

   If the builders are to blame and to bear the cost of fixing this mess, many will go bankrupt.

   And is it fair to blame the builders?

   Experts and industry leaders say EQC and Fletcher EQR need to take responsibility for selecting bad builders, scoping work inappropriately, giving tight budgets and failing to identify faulty work.

   For years, foundation experts have raised concerns about the MBIE repair guidelines.

   YET

   However, Brownlee said it was a poor workmanship issue and that EQC and EQR’s processes were good.

   There is a lot to play out here.
   • Jenny Kirk 1.1

     14 August 2015 at 8:25 am

     This is appalling – and hugely bad for NZ’s international reputation as being good workers and expert at what NZers do, to say the least – and lousy for the homeowners. Will they have any financial comeback to get shoddy work re-done ?
   • Draco T Bastard 1.2

     14 August 2015 at 12:03 pm

     However, Brownlee said it was a poor workmanship issue and that EQC and EQR’s processes were good.

     How can it be good if they were selecting people to do that work that obviously didn’t know what they were doing?

     The thing about builders is that they’re not structural engineers.
     • dv 1.2.1

       14 August 2015 at 12:16 pm

       Yes I thought that was really bizarre.

       Surely the GOOD processes would have picked up the faulty workmanship on inspections of the work!!!
2. Jenny Kirk 2

   14 August 2015 at 8:31 am

   This is an extraordinarily good result for people opposed to GMOs in NZ forests – there wasn’t much time to put in submissions.
   Surely the Govt will start to take a bit of notice of people’s objections to genetically modified organisms being introduced – one lives in hope !!

   Press Release: GE Free NZ 13 Aug 2015 Scoop NZ

   The Ministry of Primary Industries has received over 16,550 submissions and petitions on the National Environment Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF). All 16,000 submissions recommended the deletion of the clauses, inserted at the 11 hour, on genetically engineered trees being the sole responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency.

   “This is amazing, it must be the largest opposition ever recorded on an issue open for submissions. The Ministry must now take these submissions seriously” said Claire Bleakley president of GE Free NZ “They are not holding a hearing and we hope that these views are not ignored.”
   • weka 2.1

     14 August 2015 at 11:42 am

     thanks Jenny, great to have good news about activism.
3. AsleepWhileWalking 3

   14 August 2015 at 8:51 am

   Hmmm…food for thought
   http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/08/13/the-dissident-dad-teaching-children-how-to-save-in-a-0-world/

   Will they eventually need a checking account for daily purposes? Sure. Nevertheless, I want to teach them the real reasons why saving money in a bank makes sense in a normal world, namely a combination of capital preservation and compound interest. The American status quo has killed the innocence and logic of simply walking into a bank and depositing money by offering a near-zero-percent interest rate return for depositors.

   Meanwhile we have seen the precedent for bail-ins set in Cyprus, and even just last month, Greek banks simply shut down, denying access and limiting withdrawals.

   In Australia, a deposit tax could be coming in the near future. You’d think the banks and consumers would be raising hell, but ING Direct Treasury Head Michael Witts had this to say about Australia’s deposit tax:

   “So I think it’s generally a move in the right direction and so, therefore, I think from a consumer’s viewpoint the additional stability that this potentially will bring I think is very good.”

   Notice that this isn’t a tax on bank profits, but a tax on citizens’ money in the banks.
   • Draco T Bastard 3.1

     14 August 2015 at 12:16 pm

     The American status quo has killed the innocence and logic of simply walking into a bank and depositing money by offering a near-zero-percent interest rate return for depositors.

     Putting money aside so that it begets more money is delusional as it doesn’t actually do anything because the banks just create more money when they make a loan. It’s this concept of money for nothing that makes our entire financial system unstable and prone to collapse.
4. save NZ 4

   14 August 2015 at 9:46 am

   It wouldn’t happen in Wellington.

   Auckland’s ‘big breast’ courtesy of Ports of Auckland – it has to be seen to be believed. Click on link.

   http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Silo-blocking-harbour-views-erected-without-notification/tabid/506/articleID/94031/Default.aspx

   Another F – U to the people of Auckland – by the company the ratepayers are supposed to ‘own’ and who the council and CEO can’t and won’t control.

   Michael talks with RadioLIVE about Auckland’s new big ‘breast’

   Silo blocking harbour views erected without notification
   Sean talks with Michael Goldwater from Stop Stealing Our Harbour about the latest outrage concerning the Auckland port company.
   • Draco T Bastard 4.1

     14 August 2015 at 12:27 pm

     Yeah, that was a real piss off that one. Really, they should actually be looking to close the Ports of Auckland as it is no longer a suitable place for a commercial terminal.
5. save NZ 5

   14 August 2015 at 10:04 am

   Edward Snowden wins Swedish human rights award for NSA revelations
   Whistleblower receives several standing ovations in Swedish parliament as he wins Right Livelihood award

   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/01/nsa-whistlebloewer-edward-snowden-wins-swedish-human-rights-award?CMP=share_btn_tw
   • whateva next? 5.1

     14 August 2015 at 10:39 am

     good to know not everyone joins in with the childish schoolyard narrative of “lets get him”
     • Puckish Rogue 5.1.1

       14 August 2015 at 10:42 am

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M

       John Oliver: How many of those documents have you actually read?

       Edward Snowden: I’ve evaluated all of the documents that are in the archive.

       Oliver: You’ve read every single one?

       Snowden: I do understand what I turned over.

       Oliver: There’s a difference between understanding what’s in the documents and reading what’s in the documents.

       Snowden: I recognize the concern.

       Oliver (cuts in sarcastically): Right, because when you’re handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you want to do is read them. (laughter)

       Snowden: I think it’s fair to be concerned – did this person do enough, were they careful enough?

       Oliver (cuts in): Especially when you’re handling material like we know you’re handling.

       Snowden: In my defence I’m not handling anything any more. That’s been passed to the journalists and they’re using extraordinary security measures to make sure this is being reported in the most responsible way.

       Oliver: But those are journalists with a lower technical skill set than you.

       Snowden: That’s true but they do understand like you and I do just how important it is to get this right.

       Oliver: The New York Times took a slide, it didn’t redact it properly and in the end it was possible to see that something was being used in Mosul on Al Qaeda.

       Snowden: That is a problem.

       Oliver: Well, that’s a ****-up.

       Snowden: It is a ****-up and these things do happen in reporting. In journalism we have to accept that some mistakes will be made. This is a fundamental concept of liberty.

       Oliver: Right, but you have to own that then. You’re giving documents with information that you know could be harmful which could get out there.

       Snowden: Yes, if people act in bad faith.

       Oliver (cuts in): We’re not even talking about bad faith, we’re talking about incompetence.

       Snowden: We are, but you will never be completely free from risk if you’re free. The only time you can be free from risk is when you’re in prison.

       Sloppy at best, incompetent at worst
       • lprent 5.1.1.1

         14 August 2015 at 11:09 am

         Like all activities, we live in a world of risks. Is the return worth the risks? That appears to be the question that you are sloppily and incompetently avoiding to deal with in your comment.

         One of the risks is the risk of doing nothing and letting the paranoid idiots in the US congress, NSA and other similar ‘security’ organisations try the impossible task of making the US ‘safe’ from foreigners. In doing so they make their citizens and everyone else worldwide less safe because they routinely screw up in how they use that information. There are enough public instances of that that I’m not going to mention more than one – the colossal misinterpretation / wishful thinking screwup by Bush Jnr’s administration in Iraq and its downstream effects of the millions killed and maimed which was exactly that.

         What Snowden revealed about the way that organisations like the NSA, GCSB, etc were collecting and using data (industrial espionage on Merkel’s phone?) has changed the whole political landscape about surveillance. More importantly, that the way they were collecting and using that data was (to say the least) highly susceptible to error and misinterpretation.

         Sure there are the risks of individual casualties from that when people screw up. But the risk of having fuckwits like George W Bush launch wars based on screwed up information is a much higher risk. Opening those processes, and in particular the outright lying by many of the people in those agencies to their oversight committees, up to public scrutiny is an extremely valuable contribution to public debate.

         Return vs risk so far has been extremely high for us.
         • Colonial Viper 5.1.1.1.1

           14 August 2015 at 12:42 pm

           In doing so they make their citizens and everyone else worldwide less safe because they routinely screw up in how they use that information.

           And its worse than that. These “security” agencies have now proven time and again that they cannot even competently safeguard the information that they collect from illegal, inappropriate or political use.
       • whateva next? 5.1.1.2

         14 August 2015 at 12:40 pm

         There is a MUCH bigger picture to consider, details you have explained are collateral damage unfortunately.

         Choice of two routes, you chose to take the route where people are under the illusion that “someone can look over us and keep us safe” with catastrophic collateral damage, the loss of all freedom to think for ourselves, ever.

         I choose the route that although it appears more risky, will allow us to continue to participate and think for ourselves, and thrive, despite the inability to control everything.
6. reason 6

   14 August 2015 at 10:52 am

   Gee puckish we await your concern for all the innocent victims of the U.s.a drone murder program …..

   Or all the Palestinian woman, children and other civilians regularly murdered by the Israelis with american weapons ……….

   Incompetent at best ……….. murderous but unconcerned in practise.
7. rhinocrates 7

   14 August 2015 at 11:11 am

   Good God, people who want the Labour Party to be the Labour Party are joining the Labour Party!

   Just a reminder that Labour’s old guard in the UK are aghast that new supporters won’t fuck up things as thoroughly as they have and are therefore pre-emptively trying desperately to fuck things up even more.

   http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/with-hundreds-of-thousands-of-new-supporters-labour-is-on-the-verge-of-something-big–what-a-complete-disaster-10454504.html

   I’m sure Goff, Mumblefuck and Robertson have their notepads out (though in Robertson’s case, he’ll just do a cut and paste).
   • weka 7.1

     14 August 2015 at 11:41 am

     😈
   • Karen 7.2

     14 August 2015 at 12:28 pm

     Thanks for the link Rhinocrates.

     I see by another of Mark Steel’s pieces that Blairites must have got control of the membership applications as some left wingers have been told they don’t fit in with Labour’s values. War criminal Tony Blair is just fine, however.

     http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-contest-mark-steel-becomes-latest-leftwinger-to-be-barred-from-voting-10452628.html
   • Draco T Bastard 7.3

     14 August 2015 at 12:31 pm

     The fervour around Jeremy Corbyn is extraordinary, but it wouldn’t be fair to suggest he’s the only Labour politician who can bring large crowds on to the streets to greet him. Tony Blair is just as capable. In his case the crowds are there to scream that he should be arrested for war crimes and to throw things at him, but that’s being pernickety; he can certainly draw an audience.

     😈 😆
     • save NZ 7.3.1

       14 August 2015 at 1:03 pm

       +1 @ Draco
     • Bearded Git 7.3.2

       14 August 2015 at 3:36 pm

       +100 Draco….LOL
       • North 7.3.2.1

         14 August 2015 at 8:40 pm

         Yeah Blair’s the biggest scab in the world really. Not counting Douglas Moore Prebble Bassett et al. As a youngster in 70s Wellington I used to cruise the corridors of Parliament, getting drunk, wanking, fraternising with, licking-up to those punks whom at the time I thought contained ‘All Wonder’. My God ! Guess I can rightly say that whatever a blithering wanker I was at the time my being knew no artifice.
8. Chooky 8

   14 August 2015 at 11:26 am

   ‘Campaigners are key to getting secret TPP and TTIP trade deals published’

   http://www.rt.com/op-edge/312362-ttip-eu-us-wikileaks/

   “The fact that WikiLeaks is offering €100,000 for documents that reveal thedetails of the secretive TTIP shows that the US and EU are attempting to block anybody that has any sort of real information regarding this treaty, Matteo Bergamini, director of Shout Out UK told RT.

   WikLleaks has launched a bounty hunt for the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership documents. The terms of the trade deals, including the loss of sovereignty for participating countries, have been kept away from the public….

   …and on another issue:

   Assange can’t leave embassy as UK wants to arrest him, no matter what – attorney to RT

   https://www.rt.com/news/312385-assange-attorney-uk-arrest/
9. Draco T Bastard 9

   14 August 2015 at 12:23 pm

   Is this the world’s greenest toilet? Minimise Water unveils new system for flushing away carbon emissions

   “Toilet flushing accounts for up to 90 per cent of water consumption in commercial buildings,” he said. “Changing to a more sustainable and water-efficient technology can pay both cost and environmental dividends. This system reduces the water used but does not compromise on the action. In fact, it significantly improves flushing and hygiene performance.”

   Now that has got to be a plus. Water is more precious than gold and supplies of fresh potable water are declining around the world so using less water is a Good Thing. Wonder if there’s a political party with enough gumption to make toilets this efficient as mandatory on new instals.

   Of course, we should also be working to stop the destruction of fresh water supplies in the first place.
10. The Chairman 10

    14 August 2015 at 1:29 pm

    Four times as many dairy farmers than normal crying out for help

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/71028700/dairy-farmers-crying-out-for-help-in-wake-of-falling-fonterra-payout
11. Puckish Rogue 11

    14 August 2015 at 1:47 pm

    http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2015/03/why-labour-needs-to-distance-themselves-from-the-unions/

    Theres a link to UMRs mood of a nation which makes for interesting reading
    • McFlock 11.1

      14 August 2015 at 1:59 pm

      What, the one released in February?

      Linkwhore.
    • Rodel 11.2

      14 August 2015 at 2:04 pm

      Oh Boy! Thanks!. a link to whaleoil to read the Slutter’s advice to Labour. Can’t resist..on second thoughts– yes I can.
      • Puckish Rogue 11.2.1

        14 August 2015 at 2:27 pm

        Its more interesting what UMRs mood of the nation has come up with and remember UMR is Labours pollers of choice but better you don’t read it, you might not like to read that unions are the least trusted organisation in NZ, even less trusted then the media
12. ianmac 12

    14 August 2015 at 1:49 pm

    And the effect of the drop will be for next season as they finish this one still on the higher payout.
13. adam 13

    14 August 2015 at 3:45 pm

    Wow, this does a great summing up.
    • Draco T Bastard 13.1

      14 August 2015 at 4:58 pm

      +1111

      The last bit was brilliant.
    • Robert Guyton 13.2

      14 August 2015 at 7:18 pm

      Thank you – *brilliant, indeed.
      * weeps
      • North 13.2.1

        14 August 2015 at 8:23 pm

        Can’t be that Key……way too articulate – no ‘pissy’ babble. Could be that Mutton/Lamb thing Hosking……glib, hubristic, patronising. Eckshilly, not a bad physical resemblance to that Sir-Loony-Bob-Lower-Hutt-Hills number come to think of it. Less ill-tempered, less “One Foot in the Grave”, but redolent.
    • Macro 13.3

      14 August 2015 at 7:35 pm

      I like the “Grexit” “explanation” too – so very true.
      • Jenny Kirk 13.3.1

        14 August 2015 at 8:01 pm

        Thanks Adam. Please keep putting up these John Clarke “shows” ….. he’s an extraordinarily astute political commentator. Just brilliant this one – and especially the “warning” at the end re infrastructure.
        • Macro 13.3.1.1

          14 August 2015 at 8:08 pm

          And so very pertinent re NZ.
          Thank YOU very much.
14. maui 14

    14 August 2015 at 3:49 pm

    More western media propaganda on how the Russians were behind MH17 being shot down with a Buk missile. Still no word from the Dutch Safety Board, who are running the actual investigation to give us the real answers on what happened.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/71132150/mh17-dastardly-cia-plot-to-shoot-down-plane-revealed-in-russia
15. Macro 15

    14 August 2015 at 7:32 pm

    Guyon Espiner interviews Blinglish today on the imminent demise of Solid Energy, and at 2.30mins starts to rip into him calling him out on his asset stripping of Solid Energy…
    http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20150814-0817-english_defends_govts_record_over_solid_energy-00.ogg
    An extraordinary statement from English:
    “If you leave the cash in there they waste it!”
    Having driven Solid Energy to borrow heavily and taken cash out of the SOE at an ever increasing rate, it is clear English is as much to blame for the sorry state of the SOE as the equally incompetent Elder.

    One of Guyon’s best interviews I have heard. Well done.
    • John Shears 15.1

      14 August 2015 at 9:17 pm

      Well said Macro Guyon was really on target and the dipton boy was dithering.
16. North 16

    14 August 2015 at 7:58 pm

    Article re Murray’s being found guilty of murder…….there’s a message there if you read it closely (perhaps not even closely)…….certainly hope there was no interference in the reaching of the verdict by the ghost of the onetime putative ‘Father Of The Entitled Nation’.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11497335
17. Smilin 17

    14 August 2015 at 8:23 pm

    Why do we trust financiers with the nations money and assets ? is it that they have professional integrity, are beyond reproach, infallible, sit on the the right hand of god, commanded by the Pope, the Queen, the President of the USA etc
    Nah they are opportunist scumbags with a B Com degree or should that be just a B Con degree and very little else
    • North 17.1

      14 August 2015 at 9:23 pm

      It’s the way of ‘The World’ now unfortunately……utter inhuman shit from the media controlling/owning mouths of the slavers……it rules. For myself I have trouble seeing but pitchforks in answer. Lusty greed way beyond need knows no limits. That is their ethos – “Way Beyond My Needs Forever !”

      We must, must find a charismatic leader capable of constructing theism in opposition. Otherwise countless babies, our nation, our future, will be born into the service of the gloating, the entitled, the pampered, the fetid, greedy !
18. dv 18

    14 August 2015 at 9:29 pm

    Well well well
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/71145106/auckland-housing-market-fears-lead-to-standard–poors-bank-credit-rating-cuts

    Global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s dropped ANZ, BNZ and Westpac’s A- rating to a BBB+ rating, while ASB’s rating was cut from A to A-.

    Auckland house prices
    Oops
19. North 19

    14 August 2015 at 10:59 pm

    It’s a hoot isn’t it ? The Establishment of UK Labour and The Establishment of US Republicans on the horns of the same dilemma at the same time. UK Labour because Corbyn’s actually Left while they’re not – US Republicans because Trump’s actually Mad while they’re not (to be generous).

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