Open mike 22/07/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 22nd, 2023 - 36 comments
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36 comments on “Open mike 22/07/2023 ”

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  1. tWiggle 1
    22 July 2023 at 8:57 am

    Stuff profile of Matu Tangi Matua Reid. There is nothing in his background to suggest he would act the way he chose.

    • Visubversa 1.1
      22 July 2023 at 9:15 am

      I have a suspicion that the problem is that there are a lot of angry young (and not so young) men out there who have very similar profiles. It is hard to predict which of them are likely to "go postal" and which are not.

      Domestic violence is a good indicator. If they cannot control their violence when it comes to people they supposedly care about – what does that say about their ability to control it when it comes to people who they do not care about and who subsequently annoy them somehow?

      If we look at American mass shooters – for a large number of them, particularly the younger ones, the first victim is a female relative.

      • arkie 1.1.1
        22 July 2023 at 9:27 am

        There is power in how events like these are covered in the media. The attention society turns towards these people after these shootings can inspire others:

        Densley: Mass shooters study other mass shooters. They often find a way of relating to them, like, “There are other people out there who feel like me.”

        POLITICO: Can you take us through the profile of mass shooters that emerged from your research?

        Peterson: There’s this really consistent pathway. Early childhood trauma seems to be the foundation, whether violence in the home, sexual assault, parental suicides, extreme bullying. Then you see the build toward hopelessness, despair, isolation, self-loathing, oftentimes rejection from peers. That turns into a really identifiable crisis point where they’re acting differently. Sometimes they have previous suicide attempts.

        What’s different from traditional suicide is that the self-hate turns against a group. They start asking themselves, “Whose fault is this?” Is it a racial group or women or a religious group, or is it my classmates? The hate turns outward. There’s also this quest for fame and notoriety.

        https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/27/stopping-mass-shooters-q-a-00035762

  2. weston 2
    22 July 2023 at 11:11 am



    Good entertainment to be had from the ongoing hearings in the US of the ' Weaponization of Government ' the tactics of the dems being deflect distract and distort !

    This whole hearings round has been a showcase of bad tempered petulance and denialism as the dems try every trick in the book to thwart the purpose of the hearing which seeks to discover/investigate a mountain of evidence brought into the sunlight by the ' twitter files 'of a vast collusion between the DNC and a multitude of organizations and intel agencies in order to censor their perceived political enemies .

    For some reason this vid starts towards the end of proceedings and jumps back to the middle for the beginning !!.Witness swearing in and initial statements begin about 4.38.40.

    RFJjr speaks very powerfully and theres also a witness who details the masses of evidence which has brought these hearings into being .It seems pretty obvious that RFKjr is not gonna be another Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corban he's going to fight back despite the odds !!!

    He goes right on to an interview on 'the hill ' immediately after the hearing



    • joe90 2.1
      22 July 2023 at 12:10 pm

      brought into the sunlight by the ' twitter files '

      Do keep up.

      /

      In a court filing last week, Twitter’s attorneys contested one of the most central allegations to emerge from the Twitter Files: that regular communications between the FBI and Twitter ahead of the 2020 election amounted to government coercion to censor content or, worse, that Twitter had become an actual arm of the US government.

      […]

      “Nothing in the new materials shows any governmental actor compelling or even discussing any content-moderation action with respect to Trump” and others participating in the suit, Twitter argued.

      The communications unearthed as part of the Twitter Files do not show coercion, Twitter’s lawyers wrote, “because they do not contain a specific government demand to remove content—let alone one backed by the threat of government sanction.”

      “Instead,” the filing continued, the communications “show that the [FBI] issued general updates about their efforts to combat foreign interference in the 2020 election.”

      The evidence outlined by Twitter’s lawyers is consistent with public statements by former Twitter employees and the FBI, along with prior CNN analysis of the Twitter Files.

      Altogether, the filing by Musk’s own corporate lawyers represents a step-by-step refutation of some of the most explosive claims to come out of the Twitter Files and that in some cases have been promoted by Musk himself.

      https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/twitter-files-lawyers/index.html

    • fender 2.2
      22 July 2023 at 12:32 pm

      Correction: RFK jr. lies very "powerfully" (stupidly is more accurate).



    • joe90 2.3
      22 July 2023 at 12:54 pm

      he's going to fight back despite the odds !!!

      Of course he is.

      /

      Robert F. Kennedy Jr's 2024 White House bid was always a long shot. But the more voters get to know the anti-vax conspiracy theorist, the less they like him, The Washington Post's Aaron Blake reports.

      […]

      "A new poll out of New Hampshire is even worse for Kennedy," Blake continues. "The University of New Hampshire Survey Center in April showed him 22 points underwater among likely Democratic primary voters; its latest poll now shows him 60 points underwater." UNH also found that "just 9 percent had a favorable opinion of Kennedy, compared with 69 percent who had an unfavorable one. The survey also asked people to use one word to describe Kennedy, and the most popular words were 'crazy,' 'dangerous,' 'insane,' 'nutjob,' 'conspiracy,' and 'crackpot.'"

      Blake concludes that "these are not the numbers of someone who is seriously competing for the nomination."

      https://www.alternet.org/voter-distaste-for-rfk-jr/

  3. joe90 3
    22 July 2023 at 12:30 pm

    lol

    AVK @VaxxersAnti

    Jul 19

    Caught these trucks carrying loads of chemtrails to the airport for later spraying. When will people wake up??? I DO NOT CONSENT!

    https://canada.unofficialbird.com/VaxxersAnti/status/1681708058576314368#m

    • bwaghorn 3.1
      22 July 2023 at 1:35 pm

      Heh, reminds me of a truckie telling a radio dj he was carrying yacht fuel!! The dj asked him what type!!

  4. alwyn 4
    22 July 2023 at 6:12 pm

    I see that 'mourning for the people killed in Auckland was, at least to Labour leaders rather more in the form of a two minute silence.

    Late in the afternoon on Thursday we had the PM telling us that "the whole nation is mourning after this morning's shooting in the city"

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/494127/watch-prime-minister-chris-hipkins-gives-briefing-on-auckland-shooting-deaths

    A couple of hours later it is pretty clear that for him, Robertson and Ardern at least the time for mourning was long past. Look at their photos here.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/fifa-womens-world-cup-2023/300932439/pm-chris-hipkins-niece-adopted-as-good-luck-charm-after-football-ferns-win

  5. alwyn 5
    22 July 2023 at 7:28 pm

    Ah, nostalgia has struck.

    This story in the Herald today reminds me of one of the posters put up by The Double Standard some 40 years ago. They appeared occasionally on lamp posts around Wellington and gave a viewpoint that diverged somewhat from the accepted story.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/armed-police-pursue-pig-near-auckland-motorway/YVLXUGONOVD6BB33OUEHZCOJOY/

    The poster then was devoted to the PM of the day, Rob Muldoon

    https://natlib.govt.nz/records/37020819?i%5Bsubject%5D=Muldoon%2C+Robert+David+%28Sir%29%2C+1921-1992&tab=cart&text=PM+Library

    I never did find out exactly who was responsible for the mock newspaper posters, although I had my suspicions.

  6. weka 6
    22 July 2023 at 9:55 pm

    Can anyone give me a two paragraph summation of the Fair Pay Agreement legislation and why it's better than what we had before?

    bonus points for a third paragraph on how women in particular are affected.

    • Craig H 6.2
      23 July 2023 at 12:46 am

      The legislation allows for unions to bargain Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) with multiple employers at once. Once a FPA is agreed by the parties, approved by the Employment Relations Authority, and ratified by the workers covered by it, the FPA will set minimum employment terms and conditions across the occupations covered by the FPA which can be across the whole labour market, or contained with an industry (the union can choose when initiating the FPA).

      Minimum terms and conditions include pay (base rates, overtime and penalty rates), hours of work, training and development and leave. FPA duration is 3-5 years. FPAs can be enforced by unions and labour inspectors. Workers and employers can agree to more than the minimum FPA terms and conditions, but not less.

      The main benefit to women is providing for industry-wide bargaining in low-paid industries with a lot of small businesses and workers who are predominantly women like cleaning (one of the first FPAs to be initiated). While collective bargaining is currently available, it's not really practical other than with medium-large employers, so employees of small businesses don't really have access to it.

      • weka 6.2.1
        23 July 2023 at 6:12 pm

        thanks Craig. That sounds radical. If I understood right, a union and employer can come to an agreement and then this agreement can apply across the whole sector. All workers have to ratify it, but the other employers don't get a say?

        • weka 6.2.1.1
          23 July 2023 at 6:13 pm

          looks like I misunderstood, all employers have to agree?

          • Belladonna 6.2.1.1.1
            23 July 2023 at 6:25 pm

            Yes. The employers (all who employ people affected by the proposed FTA) – appoint a negotiating group. And then the proposed agreement has to be ratified by the individual employers.

            I don't know what happens if one (or more) don't ratify. But suspect they go back for another round of negotiations.

            I think there is a final arbitration if the two sides can't reach agreement. But the first negotiations are still in the infancy stages – so we don't know how it will play out.

            • weka 6.2.1.1.1.1
              23 July 2023 at 11:16 pm

              so in the end a third party makes the decision? This makes sense, otherwise why would the employers agree.

              • Belladonna …
                24 July 2023 at 11:25 am

                Like all negotiations, the intention is for the two parties to come to agreement through the process. If they can't, after repeated efforts, then third-party independent arbitration may come into effect.
                .

    • Belladonna 6.3
      23 July 2023 at 10:02 am

      The theory is that FPA will enable one group of workers/union to negotiate with a board of employers to set minimum wages/conditions for everyone in their industry.

      To take bus drivers, for example, one group of unionised bus drivers can negotiate with a board of bus companies – and the award will be applicable to all bus drivers across NZ.

      Agreements then have to be ratified by both sides (unionised and non-unionised workers across NZ); and all employers who have that type of worker employed.

      Previously, unionised workers might get an agreement beneficial to them – but it had no effect on the people working in the same job down the road.

      The benefit to women is likely to be because they are over-represented in the groups which have low-pay, uncertain hours, and have struggled to organise collectively (e.g. cleaners, supermarket workers)

      https://employmenthero.com/nz/blog/fair-pay-agreements-nz/

      It appears that MBIE have to authorise the application (test against legislation) – I'm not sure about what that requires.

      The only FPA currently in negotiation (i.e. passed the MBIE hurdle) is the Watersiders.
      Five others are in the MBIE approval process: hospitality workers, supermarket and grocery store workers, security guards/officers, and commercial cleaners.

      https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/employment-and-skills/fair-pay-agreements/fpa-dashboard/

      • Craig H 6.3.1
        23 July 2023 at 2:07 pm

        MBIE approving the FPA to move to the next state (forming bargaining parties) involves them checking that the test for initiating an FPA is met and approving coverage with the initiating union. The main options for the test are 1,000 workers requested it or the public interest test. No FPAs to date have bothered with the public interest test as unions have easily put forward a list of 1,000+ workers instead. MBIE then check a sample from the list of workers (basically call or email them to check that they did actually support initiating the FPA). MBIE also work with the initiating union on the specifics of coverage using ANZSCO for occupations and ANZSIC for industries.

        You've misread the dashboard though – Watersiders are still in the checking process so have not passed the first hurdle yet. Bus Drivers are in negotiations, and the others have been approved to form bargaining parties.

        • Belladonna 6.3.1.1
          23 July 2023 at 6:28 pm

          Thanks CraigH. I'm sure you're correct – I didn't find the dashboard at all easy to follow.

          Bus drivers will be interesting. There is definitely an argument for location-based weighting (it's a lot harder/more expensive being a bus driver in Auckland, than it is in Timaru). I'd be interested to see if that's part of the proposal.