Open Mike 20/05/2017

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 20th, 2017 - 52 comments
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52 comments on “Open Mike 20/05/2017 ”

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  1. Tautoko Mangō Mata 1
    20 May 2017 at 7:07 am

    Heartening! Jews and Palestinians working to reclaim occupied land.
    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1869129410026697&id=1438208006452175

    • Graeme 2.1
      20 May 2017 at 8:34 am

      Stuff published that? I hope they keep that sort of thing up for the next six months to keep the bullshit in check.

      Maybe they are throwing a hissy at dildo for not getting stuffme over the line and aren’t playing in his “communications” sandpit

    • ianmac 2.2
      20 May 2017 at 9:28 am

      GST and “tax cuts”. Those politicians are just dishonest. Who would have guessed Bull English.

  3. Glenn 3
    20 May 2017 at 9:27 am

    A widespread outbreak of myrtle rust disease had the potential to dramatically change the treescape of the region.

    The long term effects of the windborne fungal disease, which has so far affected five horticultural properties nationwide, including three in Taranaki, are unknown.

    The disease affects the myrtaceae family including 3000 species, among them pohutukawa, rata, feijoa, ramarama and manuka, and various garden ornamentals.
    The Taranaki landscape would be altered if large tracts of pohutukawa and manuka were destroyed by the disease, said gardening writer, Glyn Church.

    “We could see 1000’s of pohutukawa trees dying in front of our eyes,” Church said.
    “The myrtaceae family is quite large, it includes eucalypts, and the outcome of the disease is not known.

    “It could wipe out the trees, or it could make the plant weaker but not really kill the plant. “One thing we are certain of is that is here and would be impossible to get rid of.”
    Church said plants grown in warmer climates were often more susceptible to the disease than colder climates.

    “We’ve seen this in Australia where the disease has spread further northward along the eastern coast than southward.
    The warmer the temperature the worst effect it had on the plants.”
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/92792393/myrtle-rust-spread-has-potential-to-change-landscape

    The outcome of this could be horrendous for the environment and “tourisms scenic NZ”.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uredo_rangelii

    • bwaghorn 3.1
      20 May 2017 at 9:44 am

      honey companies have been paying huge money for land in the manuka areas of nz ,they will be sweating now, instead of spraying to kill it they will be spraying to save it,

    • mauī 3.2
      21 May 2017 at 11:43 am

      The disease has been across the ditch for 7 years now. You would think our biosecurity boffins would have tested the rust on pohutukawa and manuka by now to see the likely effects on nz plants. But it appears we have no idea what its going to do from here. Biosecurity win?

  4. AsleepWhileWalking 4
    20 May 2017 at 10:50 am

    The continuing “fake news” offensive is best described as digital book burning – Bill Holter.

  5. mauī 5
    20 May 2017 at 11:08 am

    Wow Glenn Greenwald 3 months ago, but he could be describing the goings on in Washington just this last week. He’s basically calling the propaganda against Trump the “destruction of democracy”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY1MiNfwcRg

    • weka 5.1
      20 May 2017 at 12:47 pm

      Deep State vs Tr*mp/Bannon State. Not much of a choice is it.

      Greenwald, “I happen to think that the Trump Presidency is extremely dangerous” 😉

      I agree with his general premise about the loss of democracy though and the danger of the conservatives (including in the Dems) thinking that the Deep State will save them. Really stupid.

      • mauī 5.1.1
        20 May 2017 at 5:34 pm

        It’s tricky to compare the two, Trump is hurting people’s lives in America now although the Deep State has probably had a much worse effect across the world for decades.

        I just find it particularly grating that a political figure is being ousted by the so called “good folks” through the use of lies and propaganda. If there was a bully at my school who had done some horrible stuff to some other kids would I want him expelled due to some fabricated stories made up by other students in order to get rid of him for good. I’d like to think I would want no part of that, and you start to get into the territory of being no better than the bully.

    • ianmac 5.2
      20 May 2017 at 1:02 pm

      The CIA has of course a long history of tampering with”foreign” countries using legal and illegal means. The USA is in deep trouble when the CIA uses its “skills” to collapse the democratically elected government. Innocent until proven guilty.

    • Bill 5.3
      20 May 2017 at 2:58 pm

      But The Washington Post says they were told by an anonymous official that Trump did (fill in whatever takes your fancy). Therefore it behooves every person who might have any degree of reservation about Trump as a person or any dislike of Trump policies to jump on board and denounce, decry and destroy.

      And if The Washington Post, can’t get you on board, well we got it over here… in The New York times, The Guardian, The Independent and any other major, liberal and msm news outlet that knows what the control c /control v functions of a keyboard do.

      But wait. There’s more! We got CNN, BBC, ABC, MSNBC and every other piece of liberal alphabet spaghetti with broadcast wavelength, who’ll breathlessly provide (fill in whatever takes your fancy) as actual, verifiable news with a straight face and secondary analysis to boot.

      How can you not jump aboard? Are you against us? Are you a Trump voter? A Putin lover? A fascist? Just plain stupid? What’s wrong with you Will Robinson?

      • marty mars 5.3.1
        20 May 2017 at 3:26 pm

        Boo hoo for trump. Who cares, he deserves everything he gets imo. I hope all media continues to dig up the truth about the unpleasant man. If his followers can’t take that much truth then that is as expected too after all they support the mango mussolini.

        • Bill 5.3.1.1
          20 May 2017 at 3:57 pm

          If media were digging up truths and truly holding power to account with genuinely sourced and verifiable materials, then that would be great. But they’re not.

          Liberal msm are being willing stooges for the establishment (as personified by the likes of McCain and Clinton) – and every fucker who just mindlessly jumps on board with the shit they’re pushing through their various contacts to msm are aiding and abetting their attempts to re-assume a hold on the reins of power.

          In case it escaped your notice – not very many people anywhere want these clowns to actually have power any more. That’s why they keep losing elections (Democrats, both the traditional left and right in France) and internal control of the parties they belong to (Corbyn, Trump) or, retaining control of their parties through running machevelian bullshit (Sanders) and only winning elections and campaigns, courtesy of campaigns that are just variations on ‘Project Fear’ (Scottish independence, French Presidential elections)…and yes, losing some too (BREXIT) …

          In the choice between ‘Deep State’ (ie, the establishment) and ‘Trump/Bannon State’ (ie, authoritarian ‘new kids’), I say, a curse on both houses. I choose “left”.

          • marty mars 5.3.1.1.1
            20 May 2017 at 4:04 pm

            Seriously I just don’t believe all of that. You seem to want big baddies like a James bond movie and it just isn’t like that imo. Real life doesn’t need a liberal application of imagination it’s full on enough, if you have eyes to see, already.

            • Bill 5.3.1.1.1.1
              20 May 2017 at 4:20 pm

              So, you’re happy to believe what you’re being asked to believe by msm that offer no verifiable evidence (Russians messing in elections for example) and that consistently rely on anonymous sources for the stories and/or the vague assertions that they report?

              And you’re comfortable whereby one outlet (eg BBC) merely uses the reporting of another outlet (eg NYT) to lend its own reporting on a particular issue a sense of depth and veracity?

              That’s not journalism. Journalism is examining and questioning sources and evidence. (Which is kind of difficult in a world of news that runs on anonymous sources and zero evidence)

              There are no ‘big baddies’ marty, and I don’t imagine any ‘big baddies’. It’s a question of established power – which is institutional and so not predicated on particular individuals (Clinton and McCain could disappear tomorrow and the same shit would continue).

              • marty mars …
                20 May 2017 at 4:30 pm

                Yep it may not be journalism and it is the way it is. I just think all the shadowy plots are fictional. Mostly it is selfish incompetence that drives things along rather than deep state mega Corp.

                • Bill …
                  20 May 2017 at 4:38 pm

                  No shadowy plots and no ‘deep state mega corp’ – just institutional power, in its various facets and iterations asserting itself.

                  Maybe you need to imagine a character or an individual or a committee orchestrating some great plan in order that you can ‘pin’ things on a definable physical something – but that isn’t and never has been how institutional power operates.

                  • marty mars …
                    20 May 2017 at 4:48 pm

                    You’ve lost me now but it’s okay I’m good.

                    • Bill …
                      20 May 2017 at 5:20 pm

                      Institutional power is exercised through people and their positions, rather than by people in their positions. And what guides and sustains it? Simple institutional memory with all its assumptions and what not that pass on in the same way as in any culture.

                • Morrissey …
                  20 May 2017 at 4:43 pm

                  So there are no state agents plotting against the welfare of their citizens? The people plotting against Julian Assange are just incompetent, are they? Have you actually read anything by Edward Snowden, or by Julian Assange? Or Jeremy Scahill? Or Glenn Greenwald? Or Nicky Hager?

                  • marty mars …
                    20 May 2017 at 4:57 pm

                    What is a state agent?

                    • Morrissey …
                      20 May 2017 at 5:10 pm

                      What is a state agent?

                      Members of Parliament who represent powerful interests and not their constituents, prosecutors, MI5, MI6, the Police—and their quasi-official media outlets, including most shamefully the BBC.

    • Ad 5.4
      20 May 2017 at 4:35 pm

      Greenwald would like to think that the U.S. intelligence community functions as the real government.

      Greenwald should open his horizon a little more.
      Trump’s administration has already gain an extremely conservative Supreme Court, to go with control of the Senate and Congress.

      Trump’s administration is openly flouting all kinds of probity andy ethics violations, and there are plenty of investigations going on about his dealings both personal and private with Russian interests.

      Trump’s administration also has complete control of the military, its funding, and its massive subcontractors.

      Trump’s administration has shown it’s perfectly happy to take out anyone it likes in the intelligence community.

      Trump also acts in total symbiosis with Fox News and Breitbart, far and away the two most powerful media outlets in North America.

      Trump’s administration has exceedingly close relationships with the banking system – far greater and more obvious than anything Bill Clinton or Obama ever dreamed of.

      Greenwald should stop looking for Washington circle-jerk intelligence conspiracies to uncover, and pay more attention to the far broader power President Trump already holds and wields across civil, legal, military, media, banking, commerce, and political spheres.

      • weka 5.4.1
        20 May 2017 at 4:51 pm

        “Greenwald would like to think that the U.S. intelligence community functions as the real government.”

        Greenwald doesn’t say that though. He says that the Deep State is undermining real government and that it’s too our peril to support that in the hopes it will bring Trump administration down and restore order.

        Your last paragraph is odd, given that Greenwald basically says in the video that Trump is also very dangerous (I even quoted him saying that).

      • Bill 5.4.2
        20 May 2017 at 5:10 pm

        Greenwald wasn’t saying that Ad. He was pointing out that the Intelligence Community seeks to persist and to exercise its ‘god-given’ powers regardless of any changes in elected administrations.

        The Intelligence Community is one part of what we might call ‘the establishment’ – an inherently conservative expression of power that’s exercised through various institutions (legal, media, military etc)

        As for the supposed executive powers of a US President, I don’t know enough about the US system of government to comment much, but I’d be very, very surprised if it was the case (as you claim) that a US President has complete control of the military, its funding, and its massive subcontractors.

        You’re saying by that, that neither Congress nor the Senate have any say in military budgets or military operations and that a US President could decree all military sub-contracts were to go to his Chinese mate.

        Much of the rest of what you say cannot be backed up by evidence and is just so much allegation as rumour (the Russian connections etc)

        Fox News and Breitbart are far and away the two most powerful media outlets in North America and yet (according to the lauded intelligence Community report into Russian interference in the election) RT exerted more influence on the minds of US voters than both those outlets put together! How’s that work? 🙂

        He fired a guy…one guy. Big deal (it’s not really) – though it affords a nice stick for those wanting something to hit him with.

        A US Admin in bed with bankers? Well, fuck me dead, who’d have thunk it?! Exactly how is Trump’s relationship something that Clinton and Obama could only dream of (bearing in mind that financiers hold the upper hand in that relationship)? Y’know – “Bail me! Bail me!!” “Duh – okay”

        • weka 5.4.2.1
          20 May 2017 at 5:17 pm

          “Fox News and Breitbart are far and away the two most powerful media outlets in North America and yet (according to the lauded intelligence Community report into Russian interference in the election) RT exerted more influence on the minds of US voters than both those outlets put together! How’s that work? ”

          I haven’t really been following the whole thing, but if you use programmers to manipulate social media that’s an entirely different thing than broadcast media like Fox.

          • Bill 5.4.2.1.1
            20 May 2017 at 5:23 pm

            RT is a broadcast network. Nothing more. Manipulation of social media belongs to the facebooks and googles of this world.

            • weka 5.4.2.1.1.1
              20 May 2017 at 5:25 pm

              I thought part of the theory was social media manipulation. And sorry, but if you think FB and google are the only ones manipulating social media, that’s incredibly naive. I fully expect that the various secretive agencies in the US are also doing that. I can’t see any good reason to think the Russians wouldn’t be.

              • Bill …
                20 May 2017 at 5:48 pm

                The supposed ‘theory’ was to do with armies of paid commenters and such like.

                There’s manipulation and manipulation, but where google and facebook are at, is that they write the algorithms that determine what becomes prominent and what disappears. And sure, that can be ‘gamed’ to an extent.

                • weka …
                  20 May 2017 at 6:03 pm

                  I understand what google and FB do. What I’m saying is that in addition to that it’s possible to do things like programme twitter and FB accounts to astroturf and that has nothing to do with FB and Twitter as corporations. And that governments will be doing that as well as other big players with vested interests. I think the issue here is whether it was done on the scale being claimed (likewise with Brexit), with the intention of altering another state’s democracy. I have no trouble believing that the US or Russian govt are capable of that ethically and technically.

                  I have no idea whether that happened in the last US election or not. Which is part of why I don’t follow the issue, because I’m not sure that there is any way to know. I also think the polarisation that is happening around this issue plays into the hands of the fascists and authoritarians.

                  • Bill …
                    20 May 2017 at 6:24 pm

                    So astroturfing is setting something up to look as though it’s grassroots and popular when in actual fact it’s a piece of wholly contrived bullshit. Corporations are doing it all of the time – supposed citizens networks/ pressure groups etc.

                    You saying that finds a mode of expression through twitter and what not? I wouldn’t know – don’t do twitter and know nothing about it. I’m not understanding how an account can astroturf though. (Maybe you’re meaning something else?)

                    With BREXIT, it’s being claimed that a US (?) company had the wherewithal to target messaging at fairly precise demographics based on data they possessed around browsing habits or some such. I’m sure if you google, you’ll find the details.

                    What’s the polarisation that’s feeding into the hands of authoritarians? Whether people voted on a punt or in protest or desperation or whatever, as against being manipulated by “the Russians” or “tyhe Kremlin”? If that’s what you’re referring to then sorry, but that’s like saying there’s polarisation around the issue of there being fairies at the foot of the garden.

                    edit – I should add that the Intelligence Community report that so many put so much store by mentioned nothing about any of the stuff you’re alluding to. Most of it was the supposed influence of RT broadcasts.

        • Ad 5.4.2.2
          20 May 2017 at 5:44 pm

          The President is the Commander in Chief of the entire military.

          The President proposes the budget, and has had his first one approved already. That’s how it works.

          The President has fired and replaced almost all senior figures in the entire public sector – and that is standard practise.

          The Constitution predicts and expects that other branches of government will continue while the seat of President goes through elections. That continuity exists in every part of our public sector, and theirs.

          Now, I fully expect that under this Presidency the US constitutional framework part will be challenged, right to its core, but so far it really looks to me like all parts of the system are working there as they should.

          Greenwald was better under the Bush 2 administration – because that was an inept and weak President. Trump ain’t one of those.

          • weka 5.4.2.2.1
            20 May 2017 at 6:04 pm

            I can’t see any reason why the so called deep state can’t operate within the framework you just outlined.

            • Ad 5.4.2.2.1.1
              20 May 2017 at 6:17 pm

              What you call the ‘deep state’ (however you would like to define it) is better known to mere mortals as the public service, doing its’ job.

              As a result, Greenwald continues to sound like a Bourne Supremacy extra.

              If there was a sniff that we were in the midst of a full scale 1950s-1960s Commie witch-hunt, or a massive 1970s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ South American rogue CIA, or even a 1980s Contra programme, I’d say, fair enough, have a good crack Mr Greenwald. Write a book.

              Instead, all the scandals are in perfectly plain sight. Where they should be in a democracy. The media and the Senate are doing their jobs.

              Hell, even Comey has agreed to testify in public.

              Trump’s military and intelligence leadership is accelerating what Obama set in train: managed and gradual retreat.

              Trump will either figure out how to operate in the sunlight, continuing this strategic direction, or he will resign in frustration.

              • weka …
                20 May 2017 at 8:14 pm

                “What you call the ‘deep state’ (however you would like to define it) is better known to mere mortals as the public service, doing its’ job.”

                I’m just using the term as short hand. But I don’t think it’s the public service doing its job. It’s extra that, that’s the point. Greenwald might be over-egging it, but it’s not helpful to deny that the culture of the secret services would be self-serving, and that individuals within it don’t gather and use the power at their disposal. I’m not suggesting widespread corruption, but I can’t see how those agencies could be corruption free entirely.

                “Instead, all the scandals are in perfectly plain sight.”

                How would we know? I don’t mean that in a paranoia way, but honestly, with a set of systems this complex and large, how would we know?

  6. Robert Guyton 6
    20 May 2017 at 12:18 pm

    Weka, Greywarshark et al;. – this article from The Dark Mountain Project is wonderful! All about the rhizomati (the who?) – you heard right, the rhizomati 🙂

    “When contemplating the quagmire of obstacles and institutions within our capitalist society that interfere with the equitable and just interchange of currency and access to resources, I find myself motivated to explore less oppressive economic, social, and political human relationships.

    In doing so, I have become aligned with that ever-gallant and hopeful group of folks dismissed as unrealistic dreamers. We ‘dreamers’ always hold fast to the truth that the wilful designation of creation and power can be delineated into a network of horizontal or lateral functions that make greed, conquest, and competition unnecessary and invalid, except in extreme conditions.”

    http://dark-mountain.net/blog/radicle-and-rhizomati-notes-from-a-folk-herbalist/

    • Bill 6.1
      20 May 2017 at 12:49 pm

      A thing that has stood me in good stead from those reckless days of youth is never to underestimate the power of a ‘shroom! 😉

    • weka 6.2
      21 May 2017 at 11:52 am

      good read, cheers.

    • greywarshark 6.3
      21 May 2017 at 11:59 am

      Good thoughts Robert. It is a big journey from town man to earth man – farmers, horticulturalists, isolated locations – to simple-living earth man in tune with the seasons, and the plants.

  7. greywarshark 7
    20 May 2017 at 1:02 pm

    Heard on Kim Hill this morning on Radionz.

    So sad to be losing our entities of excellence (non-business oriented) because they aren’t immediately, or at all, profitable. Can we do something about Waikato University and their desire for functionality?

    education music
    11:05 am today
    David Dolan – Please don’t stop the music
    From Saturday Morning, 11:05 am today

    Listen duration 55′ :32″
    Lecturers at the Waikato University School of Music fear proposed staff cuts will see the school’s demise, with University management preparing to restructure the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and proposing to cut the full time staff numbers in the music department from eight to five. David Dolan is a concert pianist, researcher and a professor both at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the UK, and he is dedicated to the revival of the art of classical improvisation. He has weighed in to efforts to try and save the facility, describing it as a “rare and precious” world class centre of excellence, with a standard of teaching he has rarely witnessed anywhere in his travels.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201844557/david-dolan-please-don-t-stop-the-music

    Also heard – see details I’ve put up under #1 on post about Mike King and Mental Health suicide prevention.
    Ariel Levy
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201844552/ariel-levy-the-rules-do-not-apply
    and
    Tommy Rhattigan
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201844547/tommy-rhattigan-bread-jam-and-terror

  8. Draco T Bastard 8
    20 May 2017 at 1:32 pm

    Immigrants ‘bypassing health criteria’ – MBIE

    Immigration New Zealand has taken steps to close a loophole which it says immigrants were exploiting to bring children who are sick, disabled or have special needs into the country.

    It has prohibited parents from leaving children off residence applications or withdrawing them, as it said some families were doing so to circumvent health criteria and then later making a humanitarian case for their child to be allowed to stay.

    In other words what some people were doing was ‘losing’ some children to get residence and then once settled ‘finding’ those children again and then bringing them here for the medical care.

    They’re trying to close the loophole by doing data matching with the MoE which itself could be problematical. If they’ve lied once then the chances are that they’ll lie again. Obviously we need to catch these discrepancies at the border and not after they’ve settled here.

  9. joe90 9
    20 May 2017 at 2:49 pm

    heh

    "If he took a dump on his desk you would defend it." 💩@andersoncooper what? 😲 pic.twitter.com/nD8ZfZKtVN— Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) May 20, 2017

    https://twitter.com/SalHernandez/status/865724799473135617

    I regret the crude sentence i spoke earlier tonight and followed it up by apologizing on air. It was unprofessional. I am genuinely sorry.— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) May 20, 2017

    https://twitter.com/andersoncooper/status/865754552766803969

    • McFlock 9.1
      20 May 2017 at 6:37 pm

      lol

      I believe the current form is for the mouthpieces to deny a dump took place and explain that someone might have misidentified a bowl of hershey’s kisses, and the fake news outlets are making things up.

      And the next morning Trump tweets that he’s president and can take a dump wherever he wants, and Obama did it too.

  10. Morrissey 10
    20 May 2017 at 4:20 pm

    Great Thinkers of Our Time: Bernard-Henri Lévy

    BHL’s a fool and a buffoon, so of course he makes a lot of money as a “philosopher” in France….

    http://normanfinkelstein.com/2017/05/17/scenes-from-the-life-of-frances-most-honored-philosopher-since-voltaire/

    More Great Thinkers of Our Time….
    https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26072015/#comment-1049985

  11. Andre 11
    20 May 2017 at 6:54 pm

    Loony lefty fake news does exist and is spreading and needs to be guarded against. Anything passing near the likes of Louise Mensch, John Schindler, Claude Taylor should be viewed with extreme skepticism.

    https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/19/15561842/trump-russia-louise-mensch

    But this is not to be confused with the work of proper journalists in credible news organisations (like CNN, NYT, WaPo, Guardian etc) that still believe in fact-checking and not publishing until they’re reasonably confident in their accuracy (but still occasionally get things wrong).

    • Bill 11.1
      20 May 2017 at 7:09 pm

      lol – nice article there on being hoist by ones own petard.

      The second part of your comment, obviously doesn’t stack up. It’s the evidence free reporting of anonymous sources from your CNN, NYT, WaPo, Guardian etc that’s feeding this shit…making the claims of the worlds’ Mensch’s seem plausible and/or believable.

  12. greywarshark 12
    21 May 2017 at 12:38 pm

    I liked Wallace Chapman this Sunday – gripping.

    HEARTENING – Educational interview on bringing education to adult school leavers. One so poorly advised that he thought he did not have any educational qualifications for his school time, and actually when checked on-line, he had over 100. (We have to help each other because the government will not, although it has been tasked with bringing the aids of a modern society to all.) Can we help this initiative in a way they would find helpful?

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201844586/ngaire-aben-tuhiwai-and-cleveland-raroa-from-nuhaka-with-aroha
    Listen 15.10m
    Nuhaka in the northern Hawke’s Bay has a general store, a fish and chip shop, eight marae and until recently little in the way of post-secondary educational opportunities. Educationalist Ngaire Aben-Tuhiwai decided to do something about that and has started an educational programme for local rangitahi that aims to see them all complete their NCEA level 3 qualifications. Twenty-six-year old Cleveland Raroa says it’s education with aroha and that’s the way he likes it.

    GOOD Insight doco on P – Meth Listen to the full Insight documentary here duration 26′ :58″
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/201844428/insight-meth-the-human-cost-of-a-hit
    The police and health authorities are trying a new tack in Northland – to loosen the grip of methamphetamine on troubled communities. They’re joining forces in a pilot project – not to arrest users – but to offer them help to kick the P habit that’s breaking hearts – and families across the region.

    The call came out of the blue last week, for Margaret – a Whangārei grandmother.
    And yet it was one she’d been half-expecting for years.
    Her methamphetamine addicted daughter in Auckland had left her five children home alone.
    Someone called the police – and at 3am they’d picked them up.
    The eldest was 10 – the youngest, two.
    Unless Margaret took in the two eldest girls and the other grandmother in Kaitaia took in the rest, they’d all be going into foster care.
    “Wednesday, my daughter brought two of the children up to me and she just quickly left,” she said.
    Her daughter, who’s 28, has been using P since she was 18.

    Another part of the story was about grandparents with adult children who have fallen under the spell of P or meth and have neglected children who have learned to despise their parents. The law says that grandparents can ask for a benefit for each child to be paid to them so they can provide and support it. But the social welfare – WINZ? agent turned them down.

    Winston Peters has helped nine of these hard-worked oldies gain this money. And the children can be helped to settle down eventually with settled lives and continual stable care. But once settled with the grandparents when the children have let their guard down and rely on them, they can develop separation anxiety so it is hard to attempt to leave them for a time. Emotional, health, learning disabilities – grandparents deserve all the help they can get.

    But one great thing, an organised team is helping with this dreadful P epidemic. It is bad in Northland, they used to make it themselves, but its coming in from China now, left off shore attached to a buoy, and with a GPS tracker on it so it is easy to pick up.

    This is a harsh look at the drug scene from Tom Lehrer (at present meths is being offered for free, as a taster).
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTfuGeKPsZM

    ALSO early on: TAX and Fairness was subject at 7am+. You may have been still dozing and missed it but it will be important to listen to. ( I am reminded of watching a vid of Mark Blyth, Scot lecturer living in USA. His message on how to get things going there – most basic thought – “Pay your taxes”.)

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201844580/tax-and-fairness-what-s-wrong-with-the-system
    New Zealander’s are being taxed too harshly with KiwiSaver funds paying four times as much as property investors, a tax expert says.
    A new book, Tax and Fairness, by tax consultant Terry Baucher and senior taxation lecturer and Labour Party candidate Deborah Russell said a tax system needs to be fair and ours is not.

    Mr Baucher told Sunday Morning tax rules meant KiwiSaver members ended up paying tax even if their fund had not earned anything.
    “Over time what is emerging is that … if you looked at the size of KiwiSaver funds, looked at the tax it’s paid relative to property investors, they’re paying four times as much.”

    Mr Baucher said the latest figures showed in the past five years the average tax paid by property investors was less than a third of what the New Zealand Super Fund paid last year alone.
    Tax consultant Terry Baucher has written a book “Tax and Fairness” with Massey University tax lecturer and Labour candidate Deborah Russell, outlining why our tax system needs work. They’ve timed its release to begin a discussion on capital gains tax, negative gearing and superannuation in election year. Terry Baucher and former IRD Deputy Commissioner Robin Oliver discuss tax and why we should smile when paying it.

  13. greywarshark 13
    21 May 2017 at 1:06 pm

    Piece in local Gisborne Herald about the initiative of adult, school leavers furthering their education in isolated Nuhaka.

    http://gisborneherald.co.nz/lifestyle/2755271-135/nuhaka-education

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