Open mike 17/05/2022
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Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...1 week ago - Chris Penk’s Hate Parade
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All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...1 week ago
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National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...2 days ago - Release: Minister’s plan for tertiary sector a backwards step
Returning to the model that was failing for most polytechnics and Institutes of Technology is not the answer. ...3 days ago
- Release: National buries 1019 planned homes
It’s been revealed that National has cancelled 60 percent of its housing projects planned before mid-2025 amidst housing woes. ...3 days ago
- Release: Rule-Czar bill a right-wing power grab
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...3 days ago
- Release: Why not both? Luxon shuns Waitangi celebrations
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is running away from problems of his own creation, with his decision not to go to Waitangi. ...4 days ago
- Govt’s ‘free speech’ legislation stokes fear, not freedom
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...4 days ago - Release: Nicola Willis spirals country deeper into recession
The economy shrank 1% this quarter and New Zealand has tumbled into the depths of a recession of Nicola Willis’ making. ...4 days ago
- Release: Hikes for company directors but not ordinary Kiwis
Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...5 days ago
- ECE no place to cut corners
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...5 days ago
- Release: Strengthening Justice Services for New Zealanders
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...5 days ago
- Release: Labour will continue fight against destructive projects
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...5 days ago
- Green Government will revoke dodgy fast-track projects
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...5 days ago
- Government for the wealthy keeps pushing austerity
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...6 days ago
- Release: Visa changes let migrant workers be paid less
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...6 days ago
- Release: Nightmare before Christmas for Nicola Willis
With more debt and a larger deficit, Nicola Willis’ reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the Government’s books to surplus. ...6 days ago
- Warning to Fast-Track Applicants – ‘Exploit the Whenua, Face the Consequences’
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt cuts wages for lowest paid NZers… again
For the second year running, the government has effectively cut wages for the lowest paid workers in New Zealand. ...6 days ago
- Govt’s miserly 1.5% minimum wage will take workers backwards
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt shirking responsibility for rate hikes
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...6 days ago
- Luxon’s ‘localism’ strikes again
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt breaks promise on EV chargers
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...7 days ago
- Greens call for end to subsidies for Methanex
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...7 days ago
- Govt child poverty targets allow for increase in poverty
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...1 week ago
- Release: Four weeks annual leave under threat
The Government’s attack on workers continues with news it is scrapping work on the Holidays Act. ...1 week ago
- Govt’s emissions plan for measly 1% reduction
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...1 week ago
- Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...1 week ago
- Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...1 week ago
- Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...1 week ago
- Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation
Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker
The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...2 weeks ago
- One year on, still no progress on new ferries
Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
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The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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Were there no ram raids last night?
Ah yes there were. They hardly make the headlines now as there are so many.
Two arrested after ram-raiding Vodafone, Bottle-O stores as Auckland's crime spree continues (msn.com)
Phew, you can rest easy now.
Yep I will rest easy knowing Poto Williams is on to it with her tough on crime stance. Good that they have arrested two so they wont be back out there ram raiding for at least a week.
Good to know because it can get quite cold and wet under the bridge this time of the year.
Hope the mobile phone and alcohol keeps them warm…
I guess that you feel a bit left out Jimmy since your bottle store was not regarded as worth raiding. Never mind lad. Your turn will come.
At least six arrested this week for ram raiding.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/two-arrested-after-ram-raiding-vodafone-bottle-o-stores-as-auckland-s-crime-spree-continues/
Because our beloved media instance every ram-raid but seem to neglect to report how many people have been arrested out of the total of criminals involved, here is the state of play from Feb 1 to mid April- 80 arrests.
Arrests made after spate of North Island ram-raids – 1News
So at least 86, possibly a hundred arrests for ram-raiders since Feb 1. Yet do we hear the good news nightly about the success of our police? Does the Police Minister get those kudos as much as she gets the blame?
I can hear a version of the old song, "It's the same the whole world over. Ain't it all a bleeding shame? It's the rich what gets the money and the Left what gets the blame."
You can add another arrest for stolen car which may or may not have been used for other criminal purposes. My car. Stolen nearly 6 weeks ago. Police caught the culprit in central Auckland about 3 weeks ago. I'm assuming the dunce still had the official number plate attached. Don't know details because the car now belongs to my insurance company.
Good spotting by police.
Did you sleep well?
It's almost like the invasion of Ukraine had SFA to do with NATO expansion.
/
https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1526175012096548864
Apart from the general barbarity of killing and maiming your own civilians from a distance ie by shelling the ukrainians seem to have a penchant for getting up nice an close as in this torture and detention facility recently discovered called Poloviken .
Wonder how many of those there are in the Donbass ? could that be another motivation for Putin ?
/
Hard to say much about this level of destruction although a brief description of where and when would be useful lest we think its berlin in 45 .
Groznyy. Flattened over a couple of months in 1995 by Russian artillery, killing something like 30K civilians in the process. Nobody really knows.
The Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Aleppo, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kherson, Kyiv…the list goes on and again, dog only knows how many civilians killed.
So leaving out the foreign wars sticking to ukraine only post the russian invasion to the twelve of this month about three an a half thousand civilians have died according to statista .com .Seems there are no accurate figures for how many soldiers on either side .
What's with the compulsion to defend a klepto-oligarch like Putin? Daddy issues?
I get it, we are only allowed to mention the foreign wars of Western imperialism as evidence of their evil.
However Russia's foreign wars can't be ignored because they are inextricably linked to the current conflict in Ukraine.
The same tactics the same level of atrocity, even the same hired killers.
I am pretty sure that the mukhabarat officer, responsible for the Tadamon massacre, Amjad Youssuf, would be keen, especially if as well as his pay, Amjad was offered a chance for a new identity in Russia's
witness genocide protection program.Think i'll let you an joe do the globe trotting jen im just a simple chap an find one subject at a time enough to cope with
‘
Two legs bad, four legs good.
Western imperialism bad, Russian imperialism good.
"im just a simple chap an find one subject at a time enough to cope with" weston
And that's where you go wrong.
In the book Snowball who coined the above phrase, tries to do good by exposing the cruelty of humans to animals,
Snowball is a bit like Abby Martin who hosted the show "Empire Files" and "Breaking the Set" on RT, which exposed the crimes of Western (particularly US), imperialism.
But unlike the ill fated Snowball, Martin knew when to jump ship. When she was called on to defend the Russian invasion of the Donbass in 2014, Martin quit RT rather than be a propaganda tool of the Russian Federation.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/rt-host-who-criticized-russias-ukraine-invasion-is-leaving-t
Women who have had issues with breastfeeding or have restricted their diet or medication while breastfeeding, will understand my disdain – not so much for the male who appears to have a fetish – but for the supposed lactation consultant who worked with him.
How is this discharge – full of medications – a healthy intake for a newborn?
Systematic safeguarding failures are happening.
https://twitter.com/miss_teabaggins/status/1526296409447743489
the future is female they say 🙂
Yes. 'Girlz' can do Anything.
Once again Molly thanks for posting.
Child abuse
as a mother who fully breastfed my three infants using absolutely no formula I know breastfeeding is a huge committment it is about sustaining the baby and giving her what she needs to grow. It is about love and bonding. It is a partnership between the mother and baby. It is about the mother giving to the baby. It is about natural hormones which help the mother to relax and have the rest she needs while milk which is designed perfectly to meet the baby's needs is produced. For instance if the baby has a gastro bug and needs to feed more often the milk will be more watery. It will also have anti bodies from the mother which will help the baby to stay healthy. It is wonderful. This is just disgusting and an adult filling adult needs. Beyond belief.
Follow up link regarding Australian lactation consultant who said she was fired for not assisting men in their efforts to breastfeed
https://www.womensforumaustralia.org/has_gender_ideology_captured_the_australian_breastfeeding_association
And I wonder why these men never seem to be pictured doing the things any parent can do such as feeding solid foods, changing nappies, bringing up wind, playing peek a boo, or dressing or bathing baby.
I dunno, have you gone looking for them?
Sri Lanka crisis deepens.Runs out of fuel,and limited reserves for medicines.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1526266177734975492?cxt=HHwWiICxyZHAsa4qAAAA
The future today
Terrifying thread from the PM as JB said.
The Governor of the Bank of England,suggested strongly that the current conditions from the commodities shock (food and energy) are apocalyptic.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/300590783/apocalyptic-food-shortage-threatens-says-bank-of-england-governor
The UN agrees and the DG has invited Russia to remove its naval blockade on the Ukraine to allow maize,wheat and oils to go to developing countries.
In exchange the UN will allow Russian and Belarusian fertilizers to be exported.
We are fortunate we are a country of 5 million that (may be able to) feed 40 million…provided we can maintain our infrastructure.
If we can start to decrease our current account deficit,we have the ability to enhance our infrastructure,without it being either sold off shore (perpetuating the debt flow)
we have been supposedly trying that for 40 years….dosnt look promising
Well think big was supposed to avert some of the problems,where we were importing high cost refined product.
Now the owners have closed Marsden point,we are not importing say $us100 bbl of oil,we are importing $ us 250 bbl of distillate,missing out on the windfall taxes that would have arisen with 60us$ bbl cracking profits.
Will take your word for the taxes…I'm more concerned about the reduced capacity…we produce oil (around 40,000 bpd)….but by shutting down the refinery and dismantling it) we have lost any future capacity…we are now completely reliant on offshore supply….and we know when push comes to shove how that will play out.
Refinery margin links in thread (no real shortage of oil,only refining capacity)
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1524661365960491009
The oil we export was light and sweet ( low sulphur) we imported sour as it was cheaper.
The methanex ,methanol plant in Waitara has shut due to an absence of feedstock,and replacement of methanol for NZ comes from coal fired plants.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/437055/methanex-to-mothball-waitara-valley-plant-in-taranaki
Yes was aware we had limited capacity to refine our own…limited capacity is better than nil capacity…and Methanex life is directly tied to the gas fields….the life of is around a decade irrespective of CC policy…when its gone its gone.
I enjoy the brief moment of indulgence in childlike wonder when I see photos like this.
For a few seconds all the rational thinking in the world is kept at bay, … and it's magic.
https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1064629/?site=msl#.YnvOWyqfr8c.twitter
<iframe src="https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/embed/1064629" width="400" height="400" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe>
(Sorry, mods. I’ve bollixed the image.)
All too quickly, the moment ends…
https://twitter.com/GuacSamurai/status/1525916070674153478
you can't cut and past embed code from another site. Best bet is to open the image in it's own tab/window, copy the URL. In the TS text box, click on the image icon, paste the URL, set the width setting to 500, and click ok.
Afaik, twitter images won't auto embed, it has to be the original tweet.
Thanks.
Across the ditch an insight report conducted by Treasury found $27 billion was paid to businesses that didn’t have a 30% decline in turnover as the rules dictated.
Scumo is now throwing people's super on the table in a desperate piece of 'on the fly' policy that will inflate house prices and screw super in one hit.
The independent media are having a field day as Murdoch's media does it's best to keep scumo in the lodge
Neat!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/467263/cableway-to-be-built-to-transport-workers-and-material-to-mt-messenger-bypass-site
Here is something good for a gloomy Tuesday full of fractious arguments. Reading this essay reminds me of the way a determined government and almost all the rest of us could harness our own 'immense power of citizenry' when the pandemic first hit us in 2020. It's discouraging to see how quickly that collective sense of purpose seems to have dissolved around the edges (can the centre hold?) into factions and fury.
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/how-zelensky-harnessed-the-immense-power-of-the-citizen
Spot the difference:
RNZ : Luxon against corporate welfare for emissions reductions.
Top story
Stuff: Luxon remove climate subsidies- except for agriculture
3rd or 4th
Herald: Amber Heard and gang violence
Rather suggests the main outlet was RNZ. And they don’t have a Jack Tame on staff or on their news website at least…
In the House at QT: I am sure I could never be a politician – I'm nowhere near thick skinned enough.
Luxon humiliated by Grant Robertson, but his ego protected him from assimilating the depth of his embarrassment.
And James Shaw on top form in reply to questions about the Climate Change response.
Good stuff: if the '23 election depended on responses in the House, Labour and the Greens would be a shoe in!
That's good to hear that James Shaw got better during the day, as his morning interview with Hosking was a train wreck.
I would beg to differ.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-05-2022/#comment-1885960
LOL – I wondered if you would pull a stupid stunt like that.
You do realise that you are the ONLY moderator who routinely acts against other authors and gets away with it – and then you have the unmitigated gall to pretend you are somehow a powerless victim of a sexist patriarchy and constantly under threat. Ridiculous.
The collective sense dissipated quickly when people realised they were being protected and weren't going to die.
That freedom gave them the space to attack Ardern and the Government because on a daily basis they were in front of us.