Open mike 21/05/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 21st, 2023 - 18 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step up to the mike …

18 comments on “Open mike 21/05/2023 ”

    • Tony Veitch 1.1

      It seems to me there is a growing acceptance for the idea of a CTG and/or a wealth tax.

      "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come!"

  1. joe90 2

    Nope. I can’t imagine fundamentalist loons using such tech to root out others.

    @mattyglesias

    Paper claims a computer can read your mind and tell if you’re gay based on brain activity. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36104854/

    https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1659952594779877378

    • mikesh 2.1

      It's probably much easier to look at the computer's programming, and tell if the computer is gay.

  2. The Chairman 3

    Those thinking of voting ACT may find they will become the unemployed ACT are planning to take a hard line on.

    Treasury forecasts 150,000 New Zealanders to lose jobs by end of next year

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/05/treasury-forecasts-150-000-new-zealanders-to-lose-jobs-by-end-of-next-year.html

    ACT's proposal to lower benefits 'out of touch with reality'

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/act-s-proposal-to-lower-benefits-out-of-touch-with-reality-says-auckland-action-against-poverty.html

    [This comment at least contained a minimal thought of your own (i.e. the first sentence). However, the rest is just copy & paste from the titles of articles that you linked to and again without quote marks. This is your warning for spray & walk-away behaviour and not using quote marks when required – Incognito]

    • The Chairman 3.1

      Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) head of strategy and advocacy Alan McDonald​ said a rise in unemployment to 5% would mean business closures and large workforce reductions.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/130691376/how-bad-could-a-reserve-bank-engineered-recession-get

      [This one-sentence comment is verbatim from the link. When you quote, you must use quote marks. Otherwise, you come across as plagiarising parrot.

      On a different note, where is your commentary, opinion, political point, et cetera? Are you just dumping links here aka link-spamming (or link-whoring)?

      Your contributions here leave much to desire – Incognito]

      • Incognito 3.1.1

        Mod note

        • The Chairman 3.1.1.1

          Noted, re quote.

          The one-sentence comment and link was meant to be added to commentary above re ACT.

          My one-sentence comment was all I required to express my point on this matter.

    • Incognito 3.2

      Mod note

    • observer 4.1

      Great move. It shatters the myth of "emissions versus employment". Yes, you can cut the first without destroying the second.

      Awaiting the opposition reaction with interest.

    • UncookedSelachimorpha 4.2

      Needs to be done, but what a crap way of doing it.

      Labour and the Greens donate $140m of public funds to a massive multinational that makes over $1b p.a. profit for its private owners. Another transfer of wealth from the many to the wealthier few.

      Instead of corporate welfare ("please take these millions to stop killing us with your pollution while you make your private profit") – how about legislate to reduce their emissions, and if they don't like it, nationalise them (or at least take public ownership to the value of the public money contributed to reduce emissions).

      Labour and the Greens remain clueless when it comes to driving inequality.

      • Johnr 4.2.1

        Couldn't agree more UK but it would be even easier if the authorities grew a spine, saved $140mil and said. "From now on we are going to restrict the import of coal until in 3 years it will reduce to zero. Sort your own shit out.

        That will achieve the same result and also put Huntly power station on notice

        Imagine another $140mil distributed to the peasantry and not the corporates

  3. joe90 5

    Meet Randi Nord, the Mint Press hack who attacked a Synagogue to get Americans to turn against Ukraine.

    A 35 year old woman, Randi Nord, was arrested in Detroit for an attack on a synagogue and on a Scientology church. She was charged with “ethnic intimidation and vandalism” she spray painted antisemitic graffiti on the front of a Royal Oak Synagogue in April.

    Nord also has made threats to airports in Oakland County and Wayne County. Around the time of the incident in Royal Oak, Nord told police she also painted a swastika on a child’s stroller and on a car at a synagogue in Oak Park.

    So far, the sort of antisemitic desecration that occurs across the US any given week… But it gets stranger.

    She spray painted a swastika and the word “AZOV” on the Jewish cultural community building. “She said she planned to do as many hate crimes as possible and blame them on Azov,” said Royal Oak Detective Dan Pelletier. She told police she wanted to show people Azov was in the U.S. and to instill fear against the nation’s support for Ukraine.

    Azov, as you know, is the right-wing Ukrainian militia that has become the focus of Russian attempts to portray Ukraine as "Nazi".

    So, who is Randi Nord, and where did she get these ideas?

    Well, it turns out that she was a minor celebrity in a particular alternative media sphere.

    http://brockley.blogspot.com/2023/05/false-flags-in-detroit-on-multipolar.html

  4. tWiggle 6

    Bathroom police The outcome when you need id to have a pee.

    Plus in Slovakia, transsexual rights are likely to backwards after 40 years of legal recognition.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/17/slovakia-block-legal-recognition-trans-people-lgbtq

    • Molly 6.1

      Strange article that repeatedly conflates sex with gender identity, creating a report that lacks clarity.

      Short summary: Slovakia may remove the legal fiction of sex change, and return to accuracy in official documentation.

  5. tWiggle 7

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/132099945/wage-theft-its-widespread-its-ugly-its-a-bloodsport-in-our-country

    Ibrahim Omer has introduced a Private Members' Bill to criminalise wage theft, currently a civil matter.

    Trevor Noah reckons wage theft of $18bi pa, costs more than all other types of property thefts in the US.

    Trevor Noah on US wage theft