Open Mike 19/05/2017

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 19th, 2017 - 46 comments
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46 comments on “Open Mike 19/05/2017 ”

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  1. joe90 1
    19 May 2017 at 6:28 am

    Slug begone.

    “I created a TV network for people 55 to dead,” Ailes boasted to us. “Nobody believed it could be done, but I did it. It’s for guys who sit on their couch with the remote all day and night.” That seemed a condescending way to talk about his audience—not to mention, much of the Republican base—but it was fascinating anyway.

    “And they don’t want to see anyone like you,” he continued, looking directly at me. I wasn’t sure whether he meant a liberal, or a brunette newswoman in a dark pantsuit. “They don’t want to see you — they don’t even want to know that you exist!” And he was obliging them: he’d created a world where women were blonde and wore short tight skirts, men were in charge, and articulate, principled, complicated liberals – especially women — didn’t exist.

    https://www.thenation.com/article/my-only-meeting-with-roger-ailes/

  2. Andre 2
    19 May 2017 at 7:52 am

    The serious question raised by McCarthy’s “joke” about Putin paying Trump: what did the GOP leadership know about Trump connections to Russia and when did they know it?

    http://www.salon.com/2017/05/18/kevin-mccarthys-explosive-joke-points-toward-a-darker-questions-how-long-have-leading-republicans-known-about-donald-trumps-russia-problem/

  3. Andre 3
    19 May 2017 at 8:26 am

    Why fear of Trump and his Trumpkins will stop the Repugs from doing anything about him. If there weren’t so many real-life consequences flowing out of it, it would be fun watching the Repugs squirm.

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/trump-congressional-republicans-russia-comey-flynn-scandals

  4. Ad 4
    19 May 2017 at 8:33 am

    A well written piece from Bloomberg on the intent, effect, and positioning of China’s great “Belt and Road” project:

    “Aimed at building infrastructure to connect China to a range of Asian countries, it’s sometime described as a Marshall Plan. But that analogy doesn’t go far enough. Infrastructure is how you dominate. Thus, Belt and Road is more like the 19th-century creation of railroads across continents — or an effort to build an Eisenhower Interstate System for an entire region of the planet.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-17/china-is-building-its-way-to-an-empire

    • Draco T Bastard 4.1
      19 May 2017 at 8:53 am

      The American obsession with President Donald Trump and the investigation into untoward Russian influence is distracting us from China’s bid to displace the U.S. when it comes to global leadership. The latest major step is the “Belt and Road” initiative, which officially kicked off this week.

      That’s the US’s biggest concern. The that China and Russia are replacing them as world leader, that the US has become irrelevant.

      • Red 4.1.1
        19 May 2017 at 10:03 am

        Russia economy is smaller than California, with oil on the way out their future leading anything looks pretty bleak

        • Wayne 4.1.1.1
          19 May 2017 at 12:35 pm

          Red

          While true in GDP terms measured in US dollars, it ignores the facts that Russia has over 150 million people who overall are well educated and technically proficient, is a vast nation in terms of land area, and has a powerful military with the ability to operate at least as far as Syria.

          On your measure Russia should not have been able to defeat Germany in WW2 and Napoleonic France, but it did.

          Mind you if the UK and US were not also in the war, maybe Germany might have defeated Russia, or at least pushed it back to the Urals, but then again perhaps not.

          How decisive were western supplies in the Battle of Stalingrad? The impressive thing about that battle is not just the defeat of the German 6th army, but also the sheer scale of the Russian encirclement involving millions of fresh troops who were well equipped. Who then went on to defeat the Germans in the Kursk tank battle a few months later.

          • Barfly 4.1.1.1.1
            19 May 2017 at 2:14 pm

            Kursk was a draw but the Germans couldn’t afford anything other than a big win because they were losing any attritional continuation of the war

          • McFlock 4.1.1.1.2
            19 May 2017 at 7:43 pm

            Large area provides depth to defend in, but it doesn’t help you rule the world.

            That requires, as the neocons liked to call it, “blood and treasure”, lack of which meant the Soviet Union collapsed and disintegrated before the US did.

            Russia is a significant regional power, but the rest of the BRICS are better set up to be global powers than Russia is. At the moment Russia is developing some high tech items, but it can barely operate a legacy fleet aircraft carrier on a short duration, and even then their operational skills have atrophied.

            • In Vino 4.1.1.1.2.1
              19 May 2017 at 11:41 pm

              True. Russia is and has always been essentially a poor country, with a culture of totalitarianism – whether under Tsars or Stalin. But it is big enough to pack a big punch, and its victory over Hitler despite suffering 80% of his war effort (yes – we bravely coped slowly with only 20%) is remarkable. Also remarkable was how long such a poor country competed with the USA as a super-power. But that was never a fair contest… Only ignorant right-wingers foolishly claim that Socialism failed in Russia.
              The USA was richer and more powerful from the start, and able to tilt the field in its favour. And Russia became too totalitarian to be truly socialist.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.2
      19 May 2017 at 8:58 am

      The American obsession with President Donald Trump and the investigation into untoward Russian influence is distracting us from China’s bid to displace the U.S. when it comes to global leadership. The latest major step is the “Belt and Road” initiative, which officially kicked off this week.

      What seems to be their biggest concern is that the US is losing its dominant position and becoming irrelevant.

      • gsays 4.2.1
        19 May 2017 at 9:08 am

        Hi dtb, your last sentence hits the spot.
        All my life, the US has interfered, destabilise, toppled, replaced governments.
        Not a peep, or at most shrug of shoulders from the populace.
        Now.. the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming… trump trump, look out for the Chinese….

        I suppose it is a reflection of who controls our media.

        • ianmac 4.2.1.1
          19 May 2017 at 9:30 am

          The CIA has decades of interfering in the democracies of other countries. Even assassination when “they” do not understand the American ideas on democracy. Weird that Americans are obsessed with Russian interference. Perhaps the population has no idea of what the CIA does in their name. Torture? Kidnapping? Assassination? Bribery? Arming rebels?

  5. marty mars 5
    19 May 2017 at 10:38 am

    This graverobbing arsehole needs to be prosecuted – he’s got no training, is not qualified and is a racist scumidiot.

    “A self-proclaimed historian in Northland has been accused of grave-robbing after admitting to taking Māori skulls from grave sites.

    Noel Hilliam told the Northern Advocate he had found skulls that pre-date Māori. He then sent human remains overseas for forensic examination and facial reconstruction.”

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/05/northland-historian-admits-grave-robbing-maori-burials.html

    Why isn’t he prosecuted??? For too long this celtic bullshit has been tolerated – put this dude in court to answer for his desecration of sacred sites.

    • Karen 5.1
      19 May 2017 at 11:01 am

      Hilliam should be prosecuted and the Northern Advocate should be printing a full page apology to its readers for publishing this racist rubbish – and so should the Herald online for keeping it up for three days.

    • grumpystilskin 5.2
      19 May 2017 at 11:52 am

      I don’t agree with his methods at all no matter what he says, but he has a point there is evidence of pre-maori peoples living here. I’ve heard it from Kaumatua in Northland as well as several others in the media that have shot stories covering the topic. (disclosure: I work in the media myself so have talked to these people directly, many of them brought up the subject, not me.)
      I could go on but why is this topic so frightening to some, whats wrong with finding out about our past? Only a closed mind will shout that it’s about being racist, I’m not at all, just interested in the history of our land.
      Have a watch of this, he’s probably off the mark and guessing at some links but still worthy of a look, Maori have been here since roughly the 12C, is it so hard to acknowledge others may have journeyed here beforehand ?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfve2lVMQk0

      [Martin Doutre is another with links to white supremacy. Please do some research on this if you are going to put up links to his work – weka]

      • marty mars 5.2.1
        19 May 2017 at 12:10 pm

        doutre is as much a douche and fraud as hilliman – only an imbecile very gullible person would be sucked in by these demented ravings of racist bigots

        the topic isn’t frightening – it has been debunked time and time again yet dim witted people still believe – go figure???

      • One Two 5.2.2
        19 May 2017 at 5:59 pm

        Much if not Most of ‘history’ is distorted by gatekeepers who control information along with the funding of research and publication channels

        Entire frameworks, industry and reputations are built around the distortions and inaccuracies, which then will fight to enshrine their own existence…

        This is the world we live in..

      • Daveosaurus 5.2.3
        20 May 2017 at 1:27 pm

        Citing those frauds Hilliam or Doutre as a basis for anything would be operating on the same intellectual level as citing “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” as a basis for a theory that leprechauns were the indigenous people of Ireland.

    • McFlock 5.3
      19 May 2017 at 11:53 am

      Well, given that all anyone’s seen is the identikit “reconstruction” and no skull, dating analyses, or forensic pathologist has actually appeared, with any luck he just photoshopped the pic from scratch and spun the Northern Advocate a line of utter bullshit, no graverobbing involved.

      He’s a liar. We know this. He didn’t deal with the University of Edinburgh. He would have lied on the customs forms if he had sent human remains overseas. The only question is where his lies start.

  6. marty mars 6
    19 May 2017 at 11:29 am

    Yep I agree with karen above that this is unacceptable – I mean really WTF?

    “A guard then checked on Mr Lightbody and found him totally unresponsive despite shaking him and shouting at him.

    Both guards did nothing else initially. They sat at their base for 20 minutes, with one continuing to file while the other made himself a hot drink and ate a sandwich.

    During this time, the prison wing’s manager and supervisor left the unit. The supervisor told the guards that he was off for the next week and that it was up to them to “sort it out”, the report said.”

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/331104/guards-delay-after-prison-attack-unacceptable

    if you run it like a business for profit then this is the sort of shit that happens.

  7. stever 7
    19 May 2017 at 11:45 am

    Could all journalists please watch this, understand…and then ask more intelligent questions? Thanks.

    • ianmac 7.1
      19 May 2017 at 3:58 pm

      Crikey stever. Not only journalists but simple people like me.
      And yet English/Key have been insisting that a surplus is so good. Are they exactly 180 degrees wrong. And same call in Australia. Wonder why.

      • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1
        19 May 2017 at 8:41 pm

        And yet English/Key have been insisting that a surplus is so good. Are they exactly 180 degrees wrong.

        So has labour and, yes, they’re wrong.

        They don’t seem to be willing to accept that the private banking system is a Ponzi scheme and needs to be stopped.

  8. joe90 8
    19 May 2017 at 12:03 pm

    Being nice to a friend or a none too subtle reminder?.

    Saddled with steep legal bills, Flynn wanted to reconnect with old friends and talk about potential future business opportunities. But one overriding question among those present were his views on the president who had fired him from his national security advisor post.

    Flynn left little doubt about the answer. Not only did he remain loyal to President Trump; he indicated that he and the president were still in communication. “I just got a message from the president to stay strong,” Flynn said after the meal was over, according to two sources who are close to Flynn and are familiar with the conversation, which took place on April 25.

    […]

    But friends of Flynn insist the president’s comment could also be viewed not as a deliberate effort to obstruct justice but a personal plea — however ill-advised — on behalf of a down-on-his luck friend who had stood by Trump throughout his campaign and is now ostracized by former associates and struggling to find new consulting work. “Basically what [Trump] was saying is, ‘Can you take it easy on my buddy?,’” said one friend of Flynn who has stayed in touch with him.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/investigators-circled-flynn-got-message-trump-stay-strong-145442727.html?

  9. Cinny 9
    19 May 2017 at 12:18 pm

    Looking for some weekend entertainment?

    Come and join Nick Smith for a coffee in his caravan tomorrow Saturday at 3:30 and Sunday at 1:30pm, Bateup’s Rd in Richmond.

    See you then Nickoff, I might even make a new sign just for the occasion.

    Any sign ideas from TS readers would be very much appreciated.

    • rhinocrates 9.1
      19 May 2017 at 1:01 pm

      Take some coffee in a thermos or just some water and serve it to him. Once he’s drunk it, tell him which polluted river the water came from. If he refuses to drink it, ask him why he won’t.

    • Red 9.2
      19 May 2017 at 4:08 pm

      Stay home

      • Cinny 9.2.1
        19 May 2017 at 5:18 pm

        Yeah… Nah.. Nationals greatest enemy is a well informed public and I’m a helpful girl who likes to share information and knowledge.

        I know that will never sit well with your agenda Red, but hey, you’ll get over it, eventually.

      • Augustus 9.2.2
        19 May 2017 at 8:19 pm

        That’s a good idea for a sign. You could add “for good, no-one will miss you, Nick”

    • Philj 9.3
      20 May 2017 at 7:32 am

      Nickleodious?

  10. Robert Guyton 10
    19 May 2017 at 1:07 pm

    Sounds like it’s gonna be, “Beatups Road”, Cinny 🙂

    How about something sculpted in cow shit?
    It’s worked before.

    • Cinny 10.1
      19 May 2017 at 5:15 pm

      I’ve been inspired by the Emoji Poo, and have something extra special lined up for his Street Corner meetings closer to the election. Will have to ask someone to film it, so I can put it on the youtube for you fellas 😀 that idea is going to be epic.

  11. Muttonbird 11
    19 May 2017 at 5:23 pm

    Ah, normal transmission under a National government. Lightly enforced regulations brought about by privatising inspection services and underfunding what remains (brings back memories of leaky building syndrome). Anything to ‘make business easier’ for dodgy developers. Except real lives are put in danger under National government policies and Pike River taught us that.

    This could have been much worse than it was but thankfully the fire service was up to it. How long before the fire service is privatised, I wonder?

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/331123/fire-service-slams-non-regulation-construction

  12. The decrypter 12
    19 May 2017 at 5:34 pm

    Cinny, you lucky thing. Unfortunately my tory is not as stupid as your tory .But anyway if there is a 2 dollar shop open in the morning I suggest you visit it and buy a 3 dollar plastic face disguise mask,–well worth doing. Full face includes a false mustache ,false glasses ,and full beard. For extra impact clip on ears ( 2 dollars extra) work a treat, much more impact I find. In fact I wonder also if you even need a sign. If you hover around the caravan -or even get a selfie with nick wearing your “I vote for nick” t shirt and the face disguise kit you will have a good day I’m sure. Looking forward to any reports. The decrypter

    • Cinny 12.1
      20 May 2017 at 10:47 am

      DC, LMFAO.. funnily enough we’ve a whole area at home dedicated to dressups, no need to go to the $2 shop. You know what would be funny, to dress up as Agent Orange with a trump message of support for Nickoff. Imagine lololz

      Would rather not wear a mask, can’t smile back at people with a covered face.

      It’s freezing here today, wind blowing off snow covered mountains and a bit of rain, on the bright side if the weather is not suitable today, there is always tomorrow, 2 chances in one weekend, dang that should always happen.

  13. JC 13
    19 May 2017 at 10:31 pm

    “Angry West Coast senior doctors say the Government’s plans for a public/private partnership to fund Westport’s new integrated family health centre (IFHC) will suck millions of dollars from health care.”

    https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/doctors-angry-secret-westport-deal