Open mike 27/12/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 27th, 2020 - 20 comments
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20 comments on “Open mike 27/12/2020 ”

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  1. WeTheBleeple 1
    27 December 2020 at 10:21 am

    Three explosions in three days in USA. Nashville's AT&T Christmas day bombing has overshadowed the Baltimore Gas & Electric explosion on 23rd and the gas pipeline explosion in Nebraska on the 24th.

    Online theories are rife and the loonies are represented in full force. Media have not noted a potential pattern. This is all infrastructure under attack, or accidentally blowing up?

    Isolated incidents? A sad play by Trumpets to enable martial law?

    With tens of millions of Trump supporters, how many are potentially radicalised to the point of terrorism. 100? 1000? One million?

    Last thing we need is more conjecture, but WTAF?

  2. Anne 2
    27 December 2020 at 11:16 am

    It may not meet the academic threshold of some who comment on this site, but in a broad sense I think Damien Grant's latest column is right on the money.

    Having lived my adult life through the entire period of change – starting in the mid 1970s through to the present day – his description plus the population responses are pretty much what I recall.

    I do however disagree with his contention that the 1981 Springbok Tour was the only time the population became seriously exercised. My recollection of the enormous amount of off-shore borrowing by Muldoon (unprecedented at the time) did concern people a lot and that is what enabled the acceptance of the new fangled ideology introduced by Roger Douglas which came to be known as neoliberalism.

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/123815591/sir-roger-douglas-great-experiment-is-finally-coming-to-an-end

    • AB 2.1
      27 December 2020 at 1:03 pm

      There's always something wrong with a Damien Grant effort. Here it's the overall contention that Sir Rog's experiment is ending when it isn't – plus a faint sense that even if it was ending, Grant wouldn't view that fact as an unambiguously good thing.

      • Anne 2.1.1
        27 December 2020 at 4:51 pm

        Yes. It did cross my mind he was being a tad optimistic (pessimistic if one is so inclined) but it could be beginning to happen – albeit in slow motion.

        We need two further terms of the current Govt. to bring about sufficient changes to the system. I agree with Ardern when she talks about… having to take the people with them. Hence the reason for the slowness of change. It should also be borne in mind that political tragics like ourselves tend to be ahead of public opinion, so we have got to exercise patience.

    • Adrian Thornton 2.2
      27 December 2020 at 3:46 pm

      @Anne,

      Sir Roger Douglas' great experiment is finally coming to an end

      ‘Wellington is returning to its traditional role of guiding not only the economic levers of the nation, but is actively seeking to direct the cultural direction of those who reside within its jurisdiction. And for most of us this feels right. This country has always been comfortable with a firm hand on the ship of state.

      This is a return to normal for New Zealand. It is how, for most of our history, that we lived. The great experiment unleashed by Sir Roger is coming to an end.’

      Not sure where Damien Grant gets this completely bizarre and completely unfounded notion from? Quite incredibly he seems to equate (and with a straight face ) the Labour govt flexing its muscle over “the use of plastic shopping bags and what sort of stickers can be applied to fruit” to the govt displaying “far greater intervention by central government in our economic lives”.. this is the only evidence of this miraculous transformation he presents.

      Sure this Labour will and has moved on certain cultural issues, but to try and say it has moved one inch from the economic neo liberal ideology of David Lange’s and Helen Clarke’s respective Labour governments (and Keys National govt for that matter) is pure nonsense.

      • Anne 2.2.1
        27 December 2020 at 4:55 pm

        See my 2.2.1

        We'll have to agree to disagree there.

        • Jilly Bee 2.2.1.1
          27 December 2020 at 10:45 pm

          Thank you Anne, my sentiments exactly. Of course I would like the needed changes to happen yesterday, but if the Government doesn't take the people with them, we'll have a National lead Government in 2023 if not before. We are probably of a similar age – I recall the Muldoon years with mostly despair, which prompted me to join the Labour Party, though I was a supporter prior to joining. Having a very young family at that time prohibited me from political activity for several years though I became more involved when our family shifted to Auckland in the mid 1970s.

    • SPC 2.3
      28 December 2020 at 1:31 am

      It's the history of New Zealand according to a libertarian, and designed to mobilise dissent by freedom loving people against this and all government.

  4. aom 4
    27 December 2020 at 12:34 pm

    There will no doubt be few who will be surprised that Israel has no intention of vaccinating Palestinians until there has been much more Covid-19 carnage among the victims of the viciously apartheid Israeli regime. It is time the Minister of Foreign Affairs called in the Ambassador but no doubt it will be another case of hands off and turn a blind eye. There are no doubt some limits to the moral principles of NZ's opportunistically empathetic PM.

  5. Macro 5
    27 December 2020 at 5:45 pm

    The spread of Covid is based on two things:

    A. How dense the population is, and

    B. How dense the population is.

  6. Patricia Bremner 6
    27 December 2020 at 6:48 pm

    Poor Motueka. That hail has caused great grief. We have just had the same in Rotorua, but for a shorter time.

  8. Anne 8
    27 December 2020 at 8:10 pm

    What a creep:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55454720

    Trump claims its because he wants them to be paid more, but in reality I believe it is revenge because enough of them didn't vote for him.

    And yes, he’s doing his damnedest to undermine Biden.

    • Phillip ure 8.1
      27 December 2020 at 8:35 pm

      no anne..

      it is aimed at his base..who (broad-brush) are largely poor etc..

      this is the sort of thing populist leaders do..what makes them successful..

      and that is what trump is..

      and he is looking to the future..to another run himself..or for ivanka..

      it is just the opposite of the revenge you claim it is..

      • SPC 8.1.1
        28 December 2020 at 6:12 pm

        His belated and too late intervention achieved one thing – millions go a week without a benefit (and the duration is down a week – money they will not be compensated for).

        He could have argued the past month for $2000 for the unemployred and lowest paid workers only – instead he opts for a universal payment (to Gates and Buffet etc), via a last minute veto.

        A full-time golfer and poseur in action, not a POTUS.

    • Treetop 8.2
      28 December 2020 at 8:06 am

      Trump wants Biden to have a huge deficit. Not signing the package could trigger riots.

      20 January 2021 cannot come soon enough.