Open mike 17/10/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 17th, 2015 - 104 comments
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104 comments on “Open mike 17/10/2015 ”

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  1. Kyle P 1
    17 October 2015 at 7:31 am

    TPPA’s Orwellian clauses already affecting local publishers: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/orwell-trotsky-and-tppa.html

    • savenz 1.1
      17 October 2015 at 7:48 am

      +1 Kyle P

    • Chooky 1.2
      17 October 2015 at 10:36 am

      thanks…it is disgraceful appropriation of creative works by big business…works which were meant by the artists for the good of all humankind…

      …”Warner Brothers and other big players in the American entertainment industry lobbied hard for the extension of copyright during TPPA negotiations. These companies own the rights to many of the world’s great movies, songs, and television programmes, and want to collect royalties for as long as they can. Warner Brothers has even suggested that copyright should last a century after an author’s death. Complicated corporate-driven legislation means that books often take a long time to throw off copyright in America. Ninety Eighty-Four won’t be free to republish there until 2044. In 2009 American Kindle users had their copies of Orwell’s masterpiece wiped”…

      (…and very interesting about the obviously corrupted SWP in the USA…)

    • Draco T Bastard 1.3
      17 October 2015 at 11:09 am

      Study: “Trade” Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers

      But what would such a paltry GDP rise mean for your pocket? Answering that requires taking into account the increase in income inequality that typically results from such “free trade” deals. The author of the CEPR report, economist David Rosnick, explains, “There are winners and losers from trade, and research has shown that trade contributes to inequality. In fact, it would take only a very small contribution to inequality due to trade to wipe out all of the gains that most workers would get from this agreement.” Rosnick then uses the empirical evidence on the trade-inequality relationship and shows that even taking the most conservative estimate of trade’s contribution to inequality (that trade is responsible for just 10% of the rise in inequality), the losses from projected TPP-produced inequality indeed would “wipe out” the tiny projected gains for the median U.S. worker.

      One thing we were promised back in the 1980s by the Rogernomes was that incomes would increase due to their reforms. In fact, that’s a normal cry of the people pushing the free-trade dogma. What we got was stagnating wages for the middle ~75%, declining wages for the lowest ~15% and massive increases for the top ~10%.

      The TPPA will increase that disequilibrium.

      • savenz 1.3.1
        17 October 2015 at 12:35 pm

        +1 Draco – it is pretty clear now that all the neoliberal bullshit is actually driving the inequality. There needs to be a fresh look at economics based on new world factors like pollution, water, biodiversity loss, climate change, technological changes like solar and industry and so forth and peaceful resolution.

        The old 19th century model of capitalist economics is not working for most people. Someone has a billion dollars while his workers live in China and are paid nothing and the company under many different names and corporations pays little tax.

        That is why TPP is so wrong. It supports and encompasses everything wrong about what is happening in the world today, inequality, pollution and halting progress on a whole range of technological and social issues. It is the opposite of free market , it is a controlled market based on the judgement of rich individuals who are gamed and lobby to win to maintain the status quo so they do not have to adapt.

        Instead of people who provide or produce something necessary, high paid jobs are for people who provide consultancy on how to screw over the environment and workers or the public. i.e. the Paula Restock of the world. Paid to provide a report to keep the status quo and capitalist system rolling.

        Now there are so many working poor unable to support the capitalist system desire for growth above all else, they have to start going for governments money like Serco.

        The public, pay taxes so that Paula’s of the world get paid to provide reports to divert that money to a company’s providing the service with workers screwed down to pay as little as possible.

        That what is driving inequality.

        • Draco T Bastard 1.3.1.1
          17 October 2015 at 12:47 pm

          That is why TPP is so wrong. It supports and encompasses everything wrong about what is happening in the world today, inequality, pollution and halting progress on a whole range of technological and social issues. It is the opposite of free market , it is a controlled market based on the judgement of rich individuals who are gamed and lobby to win to maintain the status quo so they do not have to adapt.

          QFT

    • Poission 1.4
      17 October 2015 at 11:39 am

      Do you have the right of copyright.if the idea is not original and plagiarized ?

      http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/jun/08/george-orwell-1984-zamyatin-we

      • Stuart Munro 1.4.1
        17 October 2015 at 5:06 pm

        We is a very different story – collective society building a spaceship – not nearly as totalitarian as 1984.

  2. mickysavage 2
    17 October 2015 at 7:52 am

    John Armstrong has published his swan song column in the Herald this morning. I had a bit of a read through the Standard posts where he is mentioned and there are a number of them. Some are scathing but there are a number of congratulatory ones where his comments are quoted with approval.

    He was clearly a good old fashioned conservative with principles.

    And he has the decency in this column to apologise to David Cunliffe for calling on him to resign over the Donghua Liu letter which he describes as “relatively trivial”. He could have gone further and acknowledged that the media got completely played by National about the Donghua Liu issue but it is a start.

    Lprent has a full post to put up on the subject.

    All the best to John and his family.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11530382

    • Sacha 2.1
      17 October 2015 at 8:11 am

      It is really up to the editors, producers and managers to apologise for being such willing tools.

    • Bearded Git 2.2
      17 October 2015 at 8:39 am

      Armstrong should have had the decency to apologise to Cunliffe at the time and reverse his position, not at this stage when it doesn’t matter.

      • Hami Shearlie 2.2.1
        17 October 2015 at 10:30 am

        Agreed – an apology at the time would have been of some use and would have been the big and the right thing to do.

    • Visubversa 2.3
      17 October 2015 at 8:52 am

      Meh – it is a trickle of truth. If he really wanted to unburden his conscience he could have told the proper story about how he and other Herald staff were falling over themselves to conspire with Whaleoil to smear the leader of the Opposition for party political purposes.

    • RedLogix 3.2
      17 October 2015 at 8:50 am

      Regrets? A couple. First, failure to immerse myself deeper into Maori political culture. Second, effectively calling for David Cunliffe to resign when he was Labour leader over something which was relatively trivial. Sorry, David.

      It could have come a bit sooner – but it’s a gracious admission.

  4. Paul 4
    17 October 2015 at 8:08 am

    This is a brilliant article about our culture’s abuse of Alcohol.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11529162

    • Rosemary McDonald 4.1
      17 October 2015 at 12:16 pm

      Thank you Paul for posting this.

      Very, very good piece of writing, debunking the myth that problem drinking is the sole problem of the ‘poor’. That the damage caused by our casual acceptance that every social situation requires some kind of chemical lubrication.

      “UDIs (Emergency Department code for unidentified drinking injuries); a litany of unremembered sexual encounters; sleeping rough after losing bag, phone and keys; episodes in which they soiled themselves. All of these people are middle-class, educated and hold down “good jobs”. Many are also parents, some of these narratives relayed by their infant children.

      My epiphany came after I found myself on an inadvertent bender that started at 11am and ended asleep in a friend’s bath. When I add that the bender in question was a christening, you will begin to perceive the enormity of said spree.”

      My most profoundly saddening social moment was at a friend’s daughters fifth birthday party held at the local community kindy.

      The kiddies had free range of the kindy’s toys and play equipment…the grown ups stood around drinking alcohol….at 10 am.

      The parents who can’t sit and watch the kids’ sport without a can in their hands.

      • Paul 4.1.1
        17 October 2015 at 12:28 pm

        10 things the alcohol industry won’t tell you about alcohol – Doug Sellman

        1. Alcohol is a highly intoxicating drug which is fairly easy to overdose
        on
        2. Alcohol can cause brain damage
        3. Alcohol causes aggression
        4. Alcohol is fattening in moderate drinkers
        5. Alcohol can cause cancer
        6. Alcohol cardio-protection has been talked up
        7. The alcohol industry actively markets alcohol to young people
        8. Low risk drinking means drinking low amounts of alcohol
        9. A lot of the alcohol industry’s profit comes from heavy drinking
        [28, 29, 30]
        10. There is a solution to the national alcohol crisis: “The 5+ Solution”

        • RedLogix 4.1.1.1
          17 October 2015 at 1:59 pm

          Alcohol cardio-protection has been talked up

          Yes the cardio protection thingy is probably just an artifact of the fact that alcohol is a bit of an antidote for chronic stress – which is the dominant factor in damaging the heart.

          It’s well understood that the reason why people enjoy alcohol is because it temporarily reduces the unpleasant physical symptoms of the unconscious, unacknowledged fear and anxiety most of us live with all the time.

        • Rosemary McDonald 4.1.1.2
          17 October 2015 at 2:36 pm

          The 5+ solution….

          1. Raise alcohol prices

          2. Raise the purchase age

          3. Reduce alcohol accessibility

          4. Reduce marketing and advertising

          5. Increase drink-driving counter-measures

          PLUS: Increase treatment opportunities for heavy drinkers

          http://www.alcoholaction.co.nz/?page_id=19

          Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and most definately yes.

          • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.2.1
            17 October 2015 at 2:39 pm

            4. Reduce marketing and advertising

            That one needs to be done across the board as it fuels the consumerism that makes our society unsustainable.

          • Ad 4.1.1.2.2
            17 October 2015 at 3:35 pm

            The new Health and Safety legislation is having a major impact in the construction and engineering industries, all electricity and water utilities, and I’m across many of them.

            No more boozy events. No more alcohol-sponsored events.
            Even Rugby World Cup televised in-house events for staff, with explicitly no alcohol.

            Executives and Directors are feeling their liabilities harder.

            That, together with personal liability when driving a company vehicle, really close to eradicates it in one’s professional life.

            My observation is also that there’s still a rump blokey NZ culture in rural New Zealand where getting shitfaced is still a badge of honour.

            Sure ain’t no honour anywhere near where I work.

            • Rosemary McDonald 4.1.1.2.2.1
              17 October 2015 at 3:46 pm

              Hah! The Law of Unintended Consequences….

              “The new Health and Safety legislation is having a major impact…. No more boozy events. No more alcohol-sponsored events.
              Even Rugby World Cup televised in-house events for staff, with explicitly no alcohol.

              Executives and Directors are feeling their liabilities harder.”

              an aside…

              I wonder if the Show Off Day at the Otara Spinal Unit will be sponsored by the Brewery over the road this year?

              • Ad …
                17 October 2015 at 7:04 pm

                Hmmm. Very dark of you.

                My point is I don’t think further intervention of the type listed above is necessary.

          • AmaKiwi 4.1.1.2.3
            18 October 2015 at 12:48 pm

            Rosemary McDonald

            6. Required Alcohol Education in schools from an early age.

            When you tell kids how alcoholics behave, a lot of kids will realize they have an alcoholic parent and their family life is completely screwed up because of the alcoholic parent.

            They will also recognize the difference in behavior between socially acceptable drinking and being smashed.

  5. savenz 5
    17 October 2015 at 8:15 am

    Yes, I think there is a battle between the old fashioned conservative with some principals and the new self absorbed and self indulgent, arrogant conservative without any principals or morals which have taken over the National party and MSM.

    I

  6. Paul 6
    17 October 2015 at 8:36 am

    How ignorant is John Roughan?
    ‘ let’s suck it and see.’

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11530394

  7. RedLogix 7
    17 October 2015 at 8:41 am

    This should look familiar:

    One of his many biographers, John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail newspaper, who is more sympathetic than most, concludes: “No prime minister in history and no political party have been loathed as intensely as Stephen Harper and the Conservative party.” Yet this deeply unpopular politician has won three elections in the last nine years. Although the Liberals are showing a late lead in the polls, Harper’s emphasis on his record on security and the economy may yet put a fourth in his trophy cabinet next week. That is what makes Harper’s politics interesting, that he has perfected the tactics of taking and holding power – in spite of the demands of democracy.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/stephen-harper-master-manipulator

  8. Chooky 8
    17 October 2015 at 10:28 am

    Probably been said here before, but again worth repeating, on TPP machinations:

    ‘EXCLUSIVE: My response to the Official Information Act win against the TPPA’

    http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/16/exclusive-my-response-to-the-official-information-act-win-against-the-tppa/

    “I wanted to let the dust settle before writing about Justice Collins’ decision this week that Trade Minister Tim Groser acted unlawfully when he refused to release any information relating to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to me under the Official Information Act (OIA)….

  9. johnm 9
    17 October 2015 at 10:30 am

    A very important book has been published which explains the neoliberal trap we’ve all fallen into which is polarising societies and wealth, destroying equity in social relations:

    Killing the Host – the book
    By Michael Wednesday, September 2, 2015 0 Books Killing the Host

    The book can be ordered in paperback or as an ebook:

    CoverKtH-ebooksharepage killing-the-host-digital-book-cover-281×450

    KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) have gained control of the global economy at the expense of industrial capitalism and governments.

    The FIRE sector is responsible for today’s economic polarization (the 1% vs. the 99%) via favored tax status that inflates real estate prices while deflating the “real” economy of labor and production.

    The Great 2008 Bailout saved the banks but not the economy, and plunged the U.S., Irish, Latvian and Greek economies into debt deflation and austerity.

    This book describes how the phenomenon of debt deflation imposes austerity on the U.S. and European economies, siphoning wealth and income upward to the financial sector while impoverishing the middle class.

    The Table of Contents is as follows:

    Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy

    Introduction: The Twelve Themes of this Book

    The Parasite, the Host, and Control of the Economy’s Brain

    I. From the Enlightenment to Neo-Rentier Economies

    1. The Financial Sector’s Rise to Power

    2. The Long Fight to Free Economies from Feudalism’s Rentier Legacy

    3. The Critique and Defense of Economic Rent, from Locke to Mill

    4. The All-Devouring “Miracle of Compound Interest”

    5. How the 1% holds the 99% in Exponentially Deepening Debt

    6. Rentiers Sponsor Rent-Free National Income Statistics

    7. The Failed Attempt to Industrialize Banking

    II. Wall Street as Central Planner

    8. The Stock Market as a Predatory Arena

    9. From the Stock Market’s Origins to Junk Bonding

    10. Finance vs. Industry: Two Opposite Sides of the Balance Sheet

    11. The Bubble Sequence: From Asset-Price Inflation to Debt Deflation

    12. The Bankers Saw It Coming, but Economists averted their Eyes

    13. The Bailout Coup of 2008: Saving Wall Street instead of the Economy

    14. The Giveaways get More Deeply Politicized and Corrupt

    15. Wall Street Pretends to Insure against the Crash

    16. Bailing out of Goldman via AIG

    17. Wall Street Takes Control and Blocks Debt Writedowns

    18. From Democracy to Oligarchy

    III. Austerity as a Privatization Grab

    19. Europe’s Self-imposed Austerity

    20. The Neoliberal Conquest of Post-Soviet Latvia

    21. Creation of the Troika and its pro-Rentier Agenda

    22. High Finance turns Greek Democracy to “Junk”

    23. Installing Technocrats as Proconsuls

    24. The Troika’s Road to Debt Serfdom

    25. Creditor Colonialism: U.S. Courts Block Debt Writedowns

    26. Financial Austerity or a Clean Slate?

    27. Finance as War

    28. Is the Mode of Parasitism overshadowing the Mode of Production?

    IV. There Is An Alternative

    29. The Fight for the 21st Century

    http://michael-hudson.com/2015/09/killing-the-host-the-book/

    KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) has gained control of the New Zealand economy at the expense of genuine productive investment ( as opposed to privatisation and the rentier economy ) and truly democratic governments who represent all the people’s wishes.

    • Paul 9.1
      17 October 2015 at 10:40 am

      The Keiser Report
      Michael Hudson: killing the host

    • Ad 9.2
      17 October 2015 at 11:53 am

      All of that is ground so well worn as to be tired.

      What’s his do-able alternative in the last chapter?

      • Colonial Viper 9.2.1
        17 October 2015 at 1:32 pm

        All of that is ground so well worn as to be tired.

        Smashing the rentier/usury/FIRE economy is the answer.

        It was the answer 20 years ago, it was the answer 10 years ago, it was the answer last year and it remains the answer now.

        No one likes listening to a broken record but that doesn’t make it less true.

        • Ad 9.2.1.1
          17 October 2015 at 3:37 pm

          So it perplexes me that we’ve now gone through crises as bad as the Depression of the 1930s, and “smashing” hasn’t got a sniff of happening. Some stuff just isn’t going to change.

          • Colonial Viper 9.2.1.1.1
            17 October 2015 at 7:19 pm

            funny, because i see the increasingly pervasive security surveillance state, militarisation of the police, and constant Orwellian state of perma-war as signs that the elite are very aware that things are becoming very tenuous.

            • Ad 9.2.1.1.1.1
              17 October 2015 at 8:10 pm

              Any time now.

              • Colonial Viper …
                18 October 2015 at 1:17 am

                Why can’t you smell the fear coming from the elite in society? Why can’t you see the reason for our police arming everyone with tasers, arming US police forces with armoured personnel carriers, London ratepayers paying for water cannon.

                You should study history. People say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. What they should really say is that Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day. But destroyed it was.

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  18 October 2015 at 2:13 am

                  You should study history. People say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. What they should really say is that Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day. But destroyed it was.

                  Yep, once the rich took control it’s fate was sealed. Just as the fate our civilisation is also sealed and by the same mechanism – the rich.

                • Ad …
                  18 October 2015 at 5:26 am

                  We shouldn’t have to wait for the Rhine to freeze over, Belisarius.
                  (Gibbon, V4)

  10. maui 10
    17 October 2015 at 10:32 am

    Little was just on tv3 the Nation, looked uncomfortable when asked about Labour’s position on the TPP. Wishy washy indeed. Seemed to be using the fact that the Government had already signed us up for it as an excuse to go along with it. A couple of minutes earlier he was talking about the critical thing being restoring faith in the party. It was hard to see that being achieved with his vague responses on a crucial issue.

    • Paul 10.1
      17 October 2015 at 10:37 am

      What a sell out.

    • weka 10.2
      17 October 2015 at 10:49 am

      Not up online yet, but tv3’s website is useless. I had to use google to find The Nation page (can’t find it on TV3’s front page), and everything on The Nation’s page appears to be from last week (although you have to click through to a vid to find that out. Nothing obvious about what they’re doing this weekend apart from two tweets that are for content they’re not advertising. The promo for this weekend on the facebook feed has dropped out of sight. I guess I’m supposed to have a television and passively take in what they dish up.

    • marty mars 10.3
      17 October 2015 at 3:48 pm

      interviewer – “sounds like a party president talking?” – yep…

      little – “Leadership isn’t about the individual…” – oh deary me…

      little – “I play the long game” – how many election cycles are we talking about there?

      journeyman reveal

      • seeker 10.3.1
        17 October 2015 at 6:00 pm

        I liked Little continuing grossers ‘tpp bus’ analogy by saying that he was on the ‘free trade bus’ but that the tpp was a US driven vehicle and one the government were signed up to and that might be quite complex to get off. He would have to wait for what we are all waiting for. There might be some good things but he suspects it’s going to need a’repair’ job.(at the least I would think.)

        • b waghorn 10.3.1.1
          17 October 2015 at 6:14 pm

          Well pointed out seeker but you’re wasting you’re time with some of the labour haters here.

          • marty mars 10.3.1.1.1
            17 October 2015 at 6:32 pm

            is that what you think I am b just so I’m clear

            • b waghorn 10.3.1.1.1.1
              17 October 2015 at 7:52 pm

              Little s here till 2017 whether you like him or not so instead of having a shot at him support the party you prefer because with out labour getting 40% or there abouts in the polls its term 4 for key.
              As to whether you personally are a labour hater that’s for you to decide.

              • marty mars …
                17 October 2015 at 8:02 pm

                right, that has cleared it up – lol – I’m afraid the ‘give him more of a go’ chorus line doesn’t need me in it, certainly not with the likes of you puffing out your chest and singing at full strength.

                • b waghorn …
                  17 October 2015 at 8:50 pm

                  Sweet as, keep it up, it’ll mean key in co can pay there hench men less as the job of keeping the opposition devided is being done for free .

                  • marty mars …
                    17 October 2015 at 9:02 pm

                    here’s the thing – I want little to be strong and he won’t be, or Labour, if they get given free rides because people are scared that they can’t take it. If they can’t take it from the left they never will survive the right – and we have seen that. So I think YOU are doing the gnat job – saying those who ACTUALLY care can’t make criticism – YOU are the one fucking it up for the left and Labour but you don’t even give a fuck – too busy being sanctimonious.

          • Ad 10.3.1.1.2
            17 October 2015 at 7:06 pm

            I’m a lover not a fighter

            • b waghorn 10.3.1.1.2.1
              17 October 2015 at 8:02 pm

              I would love to have witty repost to that ,but my patience is running out with people to thick to understand that without a labour win there is no hope of stopping the nats ,they should get behind the party that suits them so when labour gets in there party is big enough to get labour to adopt some of there policy.

              • Ad …
                17 October 2015 at 8:15 pm

                You telling’ that to me Honeychile?
                Seriously?
                Get Up Offa That Thang!

              • weka …
                17 October 2015 at 8:24 pm

                I would love to have witty repost to that ,but my patience is running out with people to thick to understand that without a labour win there is no hope of stopping the nats ,they should get behind the party that suits them so when labour gets in there party is big enough to get labour to adopt some of there policy.

                Well I hear your frustration b, and in theory I agree. Problem is it’s not people being too thick, it’s people who have lost their own patience, with Labour, precisely because Labour are a necessity and don’t appear to be doing the things that will lead to a left wing government in 2017.

                I thought the interview on the bus was fine. I agree with Little on the long game for Labour and can see some of what he is doing. However I’m under no illusions that Labour are going to go left. Little is working on Labour being a centrist party with some satellite left wing policies in certain areas, but mostly it’s making adjustments to the status quo.

                That presents dilemmas. If they can pull that off and become government we get some breathing space from the terrible damage that National are doing. But it’s hard to see us making the necessary changes regarding climate change. We can’t look to parliament any more as the main agent of change. Still, a Labour-led government will also create space for something else to be done.

        • marty mars 10.3.1.2
          17 October 2015 at 6:31 pm

          I didn’t think he ‘got’ the bus thingy but it was great to see little a bit relaxed AND riding the bus so kudos to him for that.

  11. Draco T Bastard 11
    17 October 2015 at 11:38 am

    Wellington ‘spindle monster’ victim’s thumb found in dust bag

    The spindle router was “one of the more dangerous machines” because it caused “complex injuries”, MacKinnon said.

    An industry source said the spindle moulder was essentially a large upside-down router which was dubbed the “spindle monster” in the industry because it was one of the most- dangerous machines in a joinery workshop.

    The machine is used for running shaped profiles into wood and has two high- speed steel profile knives which spin at up to 10,000 revolutions per minute.

    And the reality is that such manually operated machines should no longer exist. But the telling bit is this part:

    The report went on to say the man, an experienced joiner with 30 years of experience, was in his first managerial position and was putting pressure on himself.

    He had been working 11-hour days, seven days a week for a month leading up to the accident, “which was not unusual for him”.

    He was over worked and WorkSafe found nothing wrong with this.

  12. Chooky 12
    17 October 2015 at 12:05 pm

    Kim Hill had some interesting interviews today: first an American Capitalist (Jesse Columbo) …and then followed by a former Trotskyist ( Paul Mason) now economics editor Channel 4:

    ‘Paul Mason: postcapitalism’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201775049/paul-mason-postcapitalism

    “Economics editor of Channel 4 News in the UK, and writes regularly on the economy, culture and politics. His new book is PostCapitalism: a Guide to Our Future.”

    ‘Jesse Colombo: economic bubbles’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201775048/jesse-colombo-economic-bubbles

    “Forbes.com columnist and economic analyst, who created TheBubbleBubble.com for the purpose of exposing dangerous post-2009 economic bubbles and warning of their ability to severely damage and destabilise the global economy.”

    • Pat 12.1
      17 October 2015 at 10:42 pm

      Paul Mason’s vision particularly interesting…I wonder if it has created any more discussion in the UK than the extremely brief examination of universal benefit here?

  13. Draco T Bastard 13
    17 October 2015 at 12:25 pm

    Energy round-up: the numbers are on our side

    So what’s cheapest?

    The cost of installation means the levelised costs of wind and solar are not zero, and up until now this has put renewables above fossil fuels. But this week, for the first time, analysts calculated that onshore wind is the lowest cost energy source in the UK and Germany, and solar isn’t far behind.

    This is a watershed moment in a series of long-term trends: the cost of fossil fuels changing unpredictably, nuclear getting more expensive, and renewables getting ever cheaper. Adding in the very real costs to our health and the environment makes clean energy even more economic in comparison (see this week’s chart).

    So we could bring back in the ban on building new fossil fuelled power generation and doing so would, over time, bring down the price of our power. With an active government we could get rid of all fossil fuelled generation in a few years and we’d all be better off.

  14. Sirenia 14
    17 October 2015 at 12:50 pm

    Has anyone on the Standard covered Russell Brand’s visit to NZ this week. He apparently had a sold out crowd at the Vector arena boo-ing John Key and also had a go at Rupert Murdoch (so probably why he has not had any interviews in NZ)

    • Paul 14.1
      17 October 2015 at 1:17 pm

      Why do you think?
      The corporate media serve one God only.

    • whateva next? 14.2
      17 October 2015 at 5:14 pm

      TVone got excited when he breezed into their offices for 20 mins, showed on their show one night in the week….

    • Molly 14.3
      17 October 2015 at 11:06 pm

      My older children and partner went along to the show and enjoyed it thoroughly.

      Russell Brand can be crude and egotistical but has a good sense of his own ridiculousness, and very honest self awareness. Got a good sense of his range from manic to spiritual and everything in between from watching the Trews, which finished in quite a timely way.

      As for the show on Wednesday night:
      The crowd apparently relished the John Key moments, re pony tail saga and flag. And Murdoch did come under flak, which was expected and enjoyed.

      It must have been nice to be in a crowd that can hear this kind of humour without it being followed by apologists and die-hard National supporters.

  15. Visubversa 15
    17 October 2015 at 1:10 pm

    It’s a bugger so many people are getting cremated these days. Yes, I know it is good for the environment and all that but it removes the opportunity for the final vengance of pissing on the graves of ones political enemies. I have whiled away many a despondent minute by planning the Grand Tour of my incontinent dotage. I have a long list of political enemies, I am not young and have been remarkably sectarian for most of my political life. Some of my enemies will cheat me by outliving me, but far to many are removing themselves from my final ministrations by having an unkown scattering place rather than a grave on which no flowers should be permittted to grow!

    • Ad 15.1
      17 October 2015 at 3:40 pm

      … so you can start singing “I’ll Be There to Tramp The Dirt Down” – Elvis Costello.

      One of my favorites I recite loudly when I’m having a whiskeyed moment of an evening.

      • Molly 15.1.1
        17 October 2015 at 10:57 pm

        Mine too. My offspring are often embarrassed with my loud, enthusiastic rendition when driving the car…. but I’m pretty sure they know all the words now.

    • Chooky 15.2
      17 October 2015 at 4:01 pm

      re …”the final vengance of pissing on the graves of ones political enemies.”

      lol…their ashes are probably sitting on someone’s mantelpiece

      …this would make a good ‘detective ‘ with a difference, black novel you know…(cf genre ‘The Lives and loves of a She- Devil’ or Beryl Bainbridge’s novels)… you could have a chapter on each of the political enemies whom you wish to piss on and the detective work required to find where their final resting place is…it may require pissing on someone’s mantelpiece?!..or under someone’s pear tree…or getting your bollocks frozen off pissing up the Hooker Valley…or somewhere out at sea

      re “Some of my enemies will cheat me by outliving me…”

      well you could end the novel with two geriatrics having a fight to the death ..of course the author would be the winner and then would have to dispose of the body…and then the piss up…or down…or both

      ( cf…that wildly funny Irish/British film where a bus load of geriatric Orangemen are accidentally double booked for a Christmas bash at a country pub with a busload of geriatric IRA and the resulting brawl..)

      • Visubversa 15.2.1
        17 October 2015 at 4:19 pm

        I have had sugestions from friends of likely contenders – and their final resting places. Also requests to organise a bus tour. Calculations have also been done of the number of pubs to visit to achieve the intake required for the various feats of micturation.

  16. Rosie 16
    17 October 2015 at 2:29 pm

    Bunnings workers stepping up their campaign

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/287241/occupying-the-store-just-the-beginning

    This nonsense around “flexible hours” has to stop. We are not your slaves, bosses, to be used as and when required because you can’t manage to organise a roster efficiently.

    Bunnings, do the right thing and give your workers set work hours each week – they have a life outside of work which needs to be lived and enjoyed. Won’t be purchasing anything at your stores until you remove this clause and settle the negotiation.

    Bunnings workers: So proud of you! Kia Kaha!!!

  17. ianmac 17
    17 October 2015 at 4:19 pm

    Plasma as a source of bountiful cheap energy. Too much science for me.
    ” From today (16 October) the production of energy, the production of food has changed.”
    Keshe Foundation Spaceship Institute
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1280&v=BM8wuqPmVBg
    Amazing! Help someone who can evaluate this. Mr Prentice?

    • ianmac 17.1
      17 October 2015 at 4:29 pm

      If this is true then it will collapse the oil industry. Wow! Hell for Shell!
      No wonder they are releasing it around the world at once.
      A unit is the size that you could hold between your hands.
      “Computer technology is obsolete because plasma is the speed of light.”
      Or is it a scam???

    • One Anonymous Bloke 17.2
      17 October 2015 at 4:37 pm

      Currently being discussed on scam.com…

      Keshe is the Messiah – according to Keshe…I’m not making this up.

      • ianmac 17.2.1
        17 October 2015 at 5:06 pm

        He doesn’t seem to be selling stuff as would a scam. And he is very public rather than secretive as for a scam. Can’t see where the scam part is but it is so huge it has but.. but…

        • One Anonymous Bloke 17.2.1.1
          17 October 2015 at 5:17 pm

          Crowd funding is all the rage these days.

          Why would he need to crowd fund when peer-reviewed publication (or simply independent verification), would suffice to win the Nobel Prize in Physics?

          It’s all explained at the Physics exchange and other Physics forae.

          In Nature, not so much.

          • Draco T Bastard 17.2.1.1.1
            17 October 2015 at 5:55 pm

            From the few seconds that I watched it just looked like the old Perpetual Motion scam.

            • marty mars 17.2.1.1.1.1
              17 October 2015 at 6:26 pm

              yeah hard to call it anything other than a scam – especially when you listen and watch his megaearthquake vid – just silly shit – 40 million dead, 20 to 24 Richter scale hit near panama canal, magnitude 10’s down the west coast of US. ffs at least he stands back to his audience writing shit on his white board most of the time.

            • ianmac 17.2.1.1.1.2
              17 October 2015 at 6:42 pm

              Thanks for the info One and Draco. Pity as the idea is tremendous but the physics reality is nil. I wonder why Mr Keshe is doing it? Maybe just thought experiment rather than a money-making scam. Back to the dream then. 🙂

  18. Chooky 18
    17 October 2015 at 5:46 pm

    A good discussion/debate on CrossTalk:

    ‘Washington confused’

    https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/318830-syria-fiasco-isil-fight/

    From one fiasco to another: Washington has failed to change the regime in Syria, failed to effectively fight ISIL, and now wants Russia to fail. At the same time, Obama appears to be willing to arm any anti-regime fighter who can carry a gun. What could possibly go wrong with that?
    CrossTalking with Philippe Assouline, Marcus Papadopoulos, and Roshan Muhammed Salih.

  19. joe90 19
    17 October 2015 at 6:06 pm

    Seems a darling of the wingnut/hate/chookfeeder sphere was/is on the industry payroll.

    The smog has lifted from the financial ties between high-profile climate denier Christopher Horner and the coal industry. The now-bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources Inc., one of the largest coal companies in the country, paid Horner $18,600 in three equal installments, according to documents filed as part of the company’s bankruptcy case.

    http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/coal-company-backed-high-profile-climate-denier/

    http://www.desmogblog.com/chris-horner

  20. Nic the NZer 20
    17 October 2015 at 6:17 pm

    Prof. Bill Mitchell (Australian) explains most of the subject of macro economics in Finland recently. This is worth listening to with reference to the recent surplus posted by Bill English and because his main subject is macro economics.

    http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/bill-mitchell-on-euro-crisis-and.html

  21. chris73 21
    17 October 2015 at 7:53 pm

    I’m a bit bored so can i come back soon, three years was a bit harsh i reckon

    [lprent: A author sort of spoke for you. You are back conditionally. ]

  22. Draco T Bastard 22
    17 October 2015 at 11:28 pm

    Church threatens to sue D.C. over bike lane — because of religious freedom

    The “substantial and egregious encroachment,” naturally, refers to the free parking that the church can offer its members — and which the bike lane would replace.

    Yeah, the more I see of the actions of some churches it’s obvious that only selfish, greedy people go to them.

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