Open Mike 28/05/2017

55 comments on “Open Mike 28/05/2017 ”

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1. The decrypter 1

   28 May 2017 at 8:18 am

   Power bill paid? Good morning.
   • David Mac 1.1

     28 May 2017 at 1:47 pm

     I thought he was a volunteer?

     Just kiddin bill, love you bro.
     • The decrypter 1.1.1

       28 May 2017 at 2:37 pm

       Short brief reply I received — ( from bill.) —–Thanks David. signed bill english,
2. bwaghorn 2

   28 May 2017 at 8:27 am

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/93007699/david-slack-i-was-holding-a-beer-when-the-revolution-started

   Slack on the good old days, i know plenty of good people who have fallen for the capital is king survival of the fittest line, how do you convince them otherwise without being called envious .
3. North 3

   28 May 2017 at 9:24 am

   Watch the mother and weep. And put yourself in the brother’s skin. He stopped by police over 50 times. For being born black. Wonder whether in your heart of hearts you wouldn’t ask the question (paraphrased) – ‘Will burning buildings have them taste the injustice…..?’

   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/oct/18/milwaukee-wisconsin-segregation-young-black-voters-election-video
4. swordfish 4

   28 May 2017 at 9:36 am

   Revealed: Conservatives revise down their internal election projections

   I understand projections for the election result have shifted dramatically. The internal ‘ceiling’ (the best case scenario) has gone from a majority of near 200 in week one, to a majority around the 80 mark. The ‘floor’ is now a hung Parliament — which is a worse case scenario and still an unlikely one. In response to the numbers, the Conservatives said they would not comment on ‘polls or projections’

   The mood in CCHQ is one of annoyance verging on anger.….. Tories were only happy going along with the high levels of control freakery on the basis that it worked.

   ….. But whatever way you look at it, celebration plans for Theresa May’s win come June 9 have been put on ice.

   https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/05/conservatives-revise-internal-election-projections/
5. joe90 5

   28 May 2017 at 9:51 am

   Greg Allman has died.
   • Drum 5.1

     28 May 2017 at 10:58 am

     ABB….one of my absolute favorites. What turmoil Greg Allman’s life has been but what wonderful gutsy music he, as a solo artist, and the band produced.
     • joe90 5.1.1

       28 May 2017 at 11:40 am

       Good write up.

       http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gregg-allman-dead-southern-rock-trailblazer-was-69-992288?
       • DRUM 5.1.1.1

         28 May 2017 at 12:49 pm

         Thanks for that Joe
       • David Mac 5.1.1.2

         28 May 2017 at 1:43 pm

         Yes, that was a good bio, thanks. I wonder if he has a unique rock star claim to fame? His best known piece of music is the theme to a TV Series.
6. One Two 6

   28 May 2017 at 10:01 am

   ‘Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court – Now What?’

   After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.

   The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff’s identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case.

   http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/88323
   • McFlock 6.1

     28 May 2017 at 2:54 pm

     lawyers be lawyerin’ where the plaintiff has a light proof threshold to pass.
     • One Two 6.1.1

       28 May 2017 at 3:48 pm

       ‘Excusers’ be ‘excusing’…which is what you’re practising regularly in your comments

       Much like the ‘re-naming of diseases…it’s misdirection and denial , at best

       India’s aggressive eradication of polio established the template for moving a disease from endemic to eliminated and has been lauded by the World Health Organization.

       But in the process, a rise in the prevalence of another polio-like condition, acute flaccid paralysis, has been recorded.

       It’s been going on a long time, and has fooled many….

       Too many seem to enjoy being fooled. It’s embraced these days..

       It shouldn’t be!
       • McFlock 6.1.1.1

         28 May 2017 at 4:25 pm

         If it didn’t kill babies, I’d enjoy your stupidity.

         Acute flaccid paralysis is a symptom. Polio was usually the cause of that symptom. Now polio has been almost eradicated, incidences of that symptom that were often misdiagnosed as being caused by polio are now evidently not related to polio.

         A bit like how the incidence of lung cancer will decrease with smoking, but some lung cancers caused by things other than smoking will remain.

         If polio was merely being renamed as acute flaccid paralysis, the incidence of both together would not have changed in the last 50 years. Up until the polio vaccine was introduced in NZ, dozens if not hundreds of people caught polio. In 2015 there were six cases of acute flaccid paralysis. Your renaming theory is a pile of bullshit.
         • One Two 6.1.1.1.1

           29 May 2017 at 9:30 am

           if it didn’t kill babies I would enjoy your stupidity…

           The irony in your comments escapes you, seemingly…why is that?

           In your opinion, which babies are ‘acceptable’ collatoral damage?

           Looking through the comment history on this subject, it’s abundantly clear your maturity is not on a level adequate to engage with..

           Comments such as the above, provide that evidence. Explicitly!
           • McFlock 6.1.1.1.1.1

             29 May 2017 at 10:23 am

             Right, your theory that polio was just being renamed “acute flaccid paralysis” is demonstrated to be bullshit because the numbers nowhere near add up, so now you’re calling me immature.

             Fair enough, then: that’s like a totes legit arg, mofo, that puts the shizzle to the pizzle and d-cellz in your b-cellz, straight up. werd.
   • Draco T Bastard 6.2

     28 May 2017 at 4:00 pm

     Now we have proof that courts have no business in science.
7. Herodotus 7

   28 May 2017 at 10:46 am

   We are being told “no one owns the water”
   http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/03/government-to-investigate-putting-a-price-on-exported-water.html
   The Government has written to its advisory group on water, telling it to investigate putting a price on exported water and to report back by the end of the year.
   and “Mr English said there isn’t going to be a simple solution, and charging for water would lead to questions about ownership. ”
   A simple solution IMO that still does not complicate the “ownership” issue is to charge an export duty on bulk water exports. If the bottling takes place in NZ then “we” are manufacturing no issue . If it is just bulk pump it into a ship and exported then we have lost an unprocessed resource. And NZ IMO should never export raw unprocessed resources.
   • AsleepWhileWalking 7.1

     28 May 2017 at 4:24 pm

     At the very least we need to charge royalties. High ones so we can pay for our housing.
8. Ed 8

   28 May 2017 at 11:00 am

   A thought provoking read for today.

   ‘You Only Hate Assad Because Your TV Told You To.

   The only thing keeping westerners from seeing through the lies that they’ve been told about Syria is the unquestioned assumption that their own government could not possibly be that evil. They have no trouble believing that a foreigner from a Muslim-majority country could be gratuitously using chemical weapons on children at the most strategically disastrous time possible and bombing his own civilians for no discernible reason other than perhaps sheer sexual sadism, but the possibility that their government is making those things up in order to manufacture consent for regime change is ruled out before any critical analysis of the situation even begins. Despite the evil and unforgivable invasion of Iraq having happened a mere fourteen years ago, sold to the public based on nothing but lies and mass media propaganda, mainstream America is unwilling to consider the possibility that this is happening again. Unwilling to turn and face the implications of what this would mean for their worldview, their self-image, and the entire system they’ve developed for examining and interpreting their experience of their lives up until this point.’……..

   …..’What we can know with absolute certainty is that we are being lied to about Syria by western governments and the mass media propaganda machines which promote their oligarchic agendas. The mountains of evidence that are coming out against the White Helmets, the fact that Amnesty International is the same organization that promoted the false Nayirah testimony which was used to manufacture consent for the Gulf War, the fact that CNN recently staged a fake interview featuring a seven year-old girl who can’t speak English reading scripted anti-Assad propaganda to an unsuspecting audience; there is enough there to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the same power establishment that lied to us about Iraq is now lying to us about its neighbor Syria. The only question is whether or not you have the emotional and intellectual integrity to face this reality.”

   Read the whole article here.

   https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/you-only-hate-assad-because-your-tv-told-you-to-5e3c9a9d17f9
   • Draco T Bastard 8.1

     28 May 2017 at 2:58 pm

     The best thing that I’ve done in my life is to stop watching TV and to actively seek out knowledge.
     • Ed 8.1.1

       28 May 2017 at 6:12 pm

       Ditto
     • SpaceMonkey 8.1.2

       30 May 2017 at 9:37 am

       Same… and I’d add reading the newspaper. Flicked open the Herald the other and what was there on the front page of my screen… the Bachelor and some inane story about tattoos on someone. Good grief… seriously, I wept.
   • Wayne 8.2

     28 May 2017 at 4:28 pm

     Have we been lied to about Assad?

     Is everything that western media says about him and Syria a lie? That in the words of Trump they are all fake media.

     That Assad (and his father) have been thoroughly misunderstood. And that in fact Assad loves democracy and human rights.

     Incidentally the Gulf war is usually used as a reference to the 1990/91 war. Maybe the world was wrong at that time. Maybe Saddam did not invade Kuwait. Or if he did, all the Kuwaitis rejoiced at that fact.
     • Draco T Bastard 8.2.1

       28 May 2017 at 5:29 pm

       Have we been lied to about Assad?

       More than likely.

       Is everything that western media says about him and Syria a lie?

       Probably not. Some of what’s been said will be truth but, as the saying goes, the best lie contains an element of truth.

       And that in fact Assad loves democracy and human rights.

       Seems that he does:

       “We were on the way to democracy, it’s a process, it’s a long way. There’s no place you reach it, you say this is democracy. If you want to compare me to the West, to France, and other countries, no, you are much ahead of us, definitely, because of your history and because of many other circumstances and factors. If you want to compare me to your closest friend, Saudi Arabia, of course we are democratic. So, it depends on how you compare me.”
     • North 8.2.2

       28 May 2017 at 8:06 pm

       Wayne……possibly skilful of you (but not that much actually) to conflate someone’s suggestion that we’ve not been told all the stuff about Syria and Assad on the one hand, and on the other the ‘fake news’ charge the invention of the most ludicrous individual ever to sit in the White House. What bullshit you give us.

       I have adequate memory Wayne. I recall you on many occasions spittlingly raging about the “damnable socialists” on the other side of the House. Not that you ever believed it. Were you still to ‘grace’ the seat of power, and were that ludicrous thing to visit NZ, I reckon you’d lick arse like John Key around Richie McCaw.

       So piss off with your purportedly professorial musings. In moral essence, and in terms of the goals of acquisition and retention of power, and as a member of New Zealand’s decades and decades long parliamentary ruling class, you’re no different from Assad and his father. You can take your pick as to which one but give us a break from your pomposity and insistence that you’re somehow high-minded and possessed of high morals. In our context you demonstrably ain’t. Your record and the company you kept attests to that.
     • mauī 8.2.3

       28 May 2017 at 9:40 pm

       Is everything that western media says about him and Syria a lie?

       Probably, two thirds of Americans don’t believe in their “fake news” media anyway.
       http://www.newsweek.com/fake-news-mainstream-media-614968
9. Ed 9

   28 May 2017 at 11:09 am

   A thought provoking watch for today.

   The Non-Profit Industrial Complex Exposed – The Most Important COP Briefing the World Never Heard.
10. Draco T Bastard 10

    28 May 2017 at 11:41 am

    Air rage: Why does flying make us so angry?
    Science says it’s about class

    In baboons, status stress echoes down the hierarchy through obvious bullying: the alpha male hits a lower-status male, who then chases a weaker male, who takes his aggression out on a female, who then bites a younger, lower-status female.

    These effects are mirrored in stress hormone responses: for the most part, those at the top have the lowest levels, except when there is instability in the ranks. In contrast, low-ranked animals are constantly flooded by stress hormones.

    So even the hierarchy is killing us.
    • greywarshark 10.1

      28 May 2017 at 3:20 pm

      In business the middle manager gets sick. At home the angry old man or womaqn lives to a vinegary old age and the younger ones succumb to illness.
      • Draco T Bastard 10.1.1

        28 May 2017 at 3:58 pm

        You’re saying that the study is wrong?
        Do you have anything to back that up?
        • greywarshark 10.1.1.1

          28 May 2017 at 4:30 pm

          What’s the problem DTB. Can’t you understand what I was saying? I was saying that the study of baboons reflects what is known about humans.

          Senior managers pass down their stress levels to the shoulders of middle managers, who are the ones to wear all the problems, unreal expectations from above and difficulties with staff they are responsible for.

          At home the ones who get angry with others further down the chain are the ones who tend to outlive everyone. All the others suffer the stress and have to bear it or pass it on as they don’t have the right to express their annoyance to the alpha person in the household.

          Now what is hard to understand from that, can you see the comparison with the study? Have you not read about the effects of hierarchical stress on people? And you will have to take my word for it, it is something I have read and remembered but I can’t give you a link to that part of my brain.
          • Draco T Bastard 10.1.1.1.1

            28 May 2017 at 5:02 pm

            Can’t you understand what I was saying?

            No because it was poorly worded and didn’t convey any meaning whatsoever.
            • greywarshark 10.1.1.1.1.1

              28 May 2017 at 9:49 pm

              Sorry DTB I will try to be more linear in future.
11. Bearded Git 11

    28 May 2017 at 11:41 am

    Listen to this from RNZ’s Sunday Morning this morning and then downsize your house quickly.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201845436/steve-keen-the-coming-crash
    • weka 11.1

      28 May 2017 at 11:48 am

      Downsize the physical house, or the mortgage?
      • Bearded Git 11.1.1

        28 May 2017 at 12:00 pm

        Sell current house and buy a smaller cheaper one
12. marty mars 12

    28 May 2017 at 1:19 pm

    Wow I have got so many lines from this genius artist and song – not for the fainthearted though be warned.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3mzrnVbsaXk&feature=youtu.be
13. greywarshark 13

    28 May 2017 at 2:11 pm

    This about the health care plan that Obama was hoping would be able to provide competition and lower health prices. Already almost half the participating entities have fallen down. It shows how hard it is to wrest the private business entities away from providing a need that they can charge almost at will for. (With a slight bow to looking competitive and caring.)

    http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/051916/obamacare-steep-premium-hikes-expected-2017-unh.asp
14. Cinny 14

    28 May 2017 at 2:19 pm

    Q+A was worth a watch this morning, commentators were fascinating, well worth a watch to listen.
    Thorougly enjoyed Kerry McDonalds observations and translation of the budget.
    • ianmac 14.1

      28 May 2017 at 4:06 pm

      Cinny- Dead right the 3 Commentators were pretty strong on the big failures of this Budget. Kept wondering where were the big supporters to shout support for Joyce’s Election Budget. There were none.
15. adam 15

    28 May 2017 at 2:24 pm

    So this is terrorism RIGHT!!

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/portland-attack-two-dead-throat-slashed-muslim-hate-crime-oregon-us-islamophobia-a7758736.html
    • joe90 15.1

      28 May 2017 at 4:36 pm

      A few days ago another alt-right connected white guy [lynched] stabbed a black man to death, too.

      http://www.reuters.com/article/us-maryland-crime-stabbing-idUSKBN18I05L

      http://heavy.com/news/2017/05/sean-christopher-urbanski-umd-maryland-stabbing-murder-facebook-alt-reich/
16. Draco T Bastard 16

    28 May 2017 at 2:53 pm

    Goldman Sachs exec gets $285M payout upon getting Trump job, now pushes White House plan to enrich Goldman Sachs

    Can’t say I’m surprised to hear that. The entire system is corrupt.
    • AsleepWhileWalking 16.1

      28 May 2017 at 4:28 pm

      So corrupt. Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity.com talking about how the Fed is printing money to pay interest to big banks who earn risk free income at twenty times the rate available to regular savers. 10mins long
    • Incognito 16.2

      28 May 2017 at 4:41 pm

      I’d say that the entire system is self-serving, which is only one step away from being corrupt. Often there is a semantically-small separation between legal, pretty legal, and illegal. But the main problem is the value system that shadows the self-serving system.
    • North 16.3

      28 May 2017 at 8:31 pm

      I wanna hear what Colonic Vapour of Dunedin has to say about this……swamp, swamp, what swamp ?
17. North 17

    28 May 2017 at 8:14 pm

    Fuck me ! Back in the US of A Trump’s calling his presence in Europe a “home run”.
    • Anne 17.1

      28 May 2017 at 9:32 pm

      Trump pretends to be listening at G7 summit but no headphones.
      • Incognito 17.1.1

        28 May 2017 at 9:37 pm

        He doesn’t need translation headphones since he’s fluent in the language of money 😉
18. North 18

    28 May 2017 at 8:22 pm

    It’s greed for money (as if they they don’t have enough) which will kill Trump, his spawn, and one spawn’s spouse. What’s the bet that Jared wanted his special line to Russia to have a special line to Russian bankers ? “Waddya mean Emoluments Clause ?”. Jared, the Jewish guy who supports Israel hard out, the guy whom Trump trumpets is gonna make all the difference re Israel/Palestine ???
19. Morrissey 19

    28 May 2017 at 8:54 pm

    This is how to defeat the Israelis:
    heroic mass non-violent civil resistance

    http://normanfinkelstein.com/2017/05/27/this-is-how-to-defeat-the-israelis-heroic-mass-non-violent-civil-resistance/
    • Ad 19.1

      29 May 2017 at 8:33 am

      You wouldn’t want – as Fatah did in this case – to invite the White House to intervene too often in the Middle East though.

      25 years of perpetual US instigated war is enough.
20. Ad 20

    28 May 2017 at 9:22 pm

    Goodbye to the private car and the death spiral of all petro-states in 8 years, apparently:

    http://business.financialpost.com/news/transportation/fossil-fuel-vehicles-will-vanish-in-8-years-in-twin-death-spiral-for-big-oil-and-big-autos-says-study-that-shocking-the-industry

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