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Open mike 29/08/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 29th, 2015 - 76 comments
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76 comments on “Open mike 29/08/2015 ”

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  1. Northsider 1
    29 August 2015 at 6:57 am

    “Liz Kendall, with her permanent air of an office manager who has just come back from a course, couldn’t lure a voter out of a burning building – and her whole campaign is based on changing Labour to be whatever people who hate it want it to be.”

    “Many people thought the Labour party would struggle to top the disaster of losing the general election, but it has silenced the doubters by somehow contriving to lose its own internal leadership election. Voters have signed up to support it, and Labour has reacted with a purge of such generalised unfairness that I’m almost starting to doubt that its leading lights really wanted to bring democracy to Iraq. ”

    Frankie Boyle has some very pointed observations in his piece in the Guardian.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/27/how-will-labour-top-losing-the-election-by-losing-its-own-leadership-contest

    • millsy 1.1
      29 August 2015 at 1:01 pm

      Phil Quin, Shane Te Pou, and the Paganis are among those who support Liz Kendall for UKLP leader.

      • Peroxide Blonde 1.1.1
        29 August 2015 at 5:41 pm

        There are a number of similarities between the ABCs in London and in Wellington. The most obvious ones are is their antipathy towards membership power and their common background as insiders who have gone from Uni to political adviser roles to safe seats.
        They are the reason the parties in both countries have been rejected by the voter for being aloof and uninspiring.

        • Anne 1.1.1.1
          29 August 2015 at 7:34 pm

          I watched a debate online between all the candidates about 3 weeks ago. As a long-time political observer (40 years) I was struck by one particular revelation. That was the similarity between what Corbyn was saying in 2015 to what Norman Kirk was saying in 1970. And guess what… Kirk went on to win the next election (1972) in a landslide!

          Yes, we lost in 1975 but that was a direct result of the premature and tragic death of Norman Kirk. I believe had he lived to carry on as PM, Labour would not have lost that election to Muldoon and our political history would have taken a totally different path.

          • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.1
            29 August 2015 at 8:45 pm

            If Kirk hadn’t died I don’t think National would have been in power until the 1980s at the earliest and it would have been left to National to do the Rogernomics stuff and chances are they’d only last one term with Labour coming back in to undo their fuckups. NZ would be a vastly different place.

            • RedLogix 1.1.1.1.1.1
              30 August 2015 at 11:16 am

              Yes Kirk’s untimely passing was a fork in the road alright.

              At the same time I don’t think we can neglect the malign influence of neo-liberalism globally. Even if we had avoided the Rogernomic catastrophe – as Australia did – the left would still have faced some very strong head-winds.

      • Anne 1.1.2
        29 August 2015 at 8:10 pm

        Note the body language of one, Liz Kendall during this debate on NATO. Oh dear, petulance abounded and did I detect a hint of malice at the end? Never mind, Jeremy put her in her place.

        I was reminded of a certain ‘left’ commentator in NZ.

        http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-snaps-liz-kendall-6331863

        • North 1.1.2.1
          29 August 2015 at 10:33 pm

          Thanks for that link Anne. Very interesting. Amusing how Kendall quick off the mark at around eleven seconds to deploy a throwaway ‘branding’ line against Corbyn, when rebuffed (in a thoroughly gentlemanly and fairly unanswewrable way) then consoled herself with a pretty massive sulk for the next five and a half minutes. At the end of which period, lesson not learned, unsuccessfully tried the same trick again. Liz Liz Liz…..some ‘entitlement’ showing there maybe ?

          Parallel personalities here anyone ? Which is what makes it so interesting, yes ?

        • Northsider 1.1.2.2
          30 August 2015 at 8:22 pm

          Kendall’s sulking bad manners would earn a 13 year old in our household the confiscation of an iPhone for a week.

          • Anne 1.1.2.2.1
            30 August 2015 at 8:39 pm

            Well, she won’t win the leadership after that childish display. Not that she is going to win anyway – surely not. God help the UK if she did…

  2. mary_a 2
    29 August 2015 at 7:38 am

    What was going on with TS yesterday afternoon? I was blocked out of the site! Nasty little Gremlins maybe????

    Anyone else affected?

    • dv 2.1
      29 August 2015 at 7:41 am

      Yep – told mr I was no human and tried to access too many times!!!

    • lprent 2.2
      29 August 2015 at 8:42 am

      Exceeded the maximum number of page not found errors per minute for humans.

      I have quite a lot of traps for robots trawling the site. Some are for unknown robots that look like humans, or humans trying to do a site dump.

      A characteristic problem is for robots to look for pages (that often don’t exist) as backdoors into the system. Especially old plugins with security holes. So the system automatically blocks for two hours any ‘human’ IP that tries to read more than 3 missing pages in a minute.

      Just part of a general eternal war against idiot robots that runs alongside the war against idiot trolls and other fools.

      However in all our pages we show the links and excerpts of a RSS feed to other blogs, party sites, and a couple of more general news sites. Which means that we show some of their content that is in the excerpt. Including their links to images.

      There was a problem with the RSS feed from GarethWorld (Gareth Morgans blog). It had 2 links to images in 2 different RSS posts that started like
      “/tmp/remote-image-cache/….”
      ie they were links to local images on Gareth’s server.

      Needless to say, when readers on our site tried to access these images, they found that they were completely unable to do so from our site, giving a invalid page error in each case. If people viewed two of our pages within a minute, my ever vigilant software minons locked them out of the site for two hours.

      Fortunately this only became a problem for our more voracious consumers of pages in the morning. After the second post showed up, it became a more general problem. Which is when I got alerted (thank you Olwyn and Jenny Kirk) and killed the problem after work.

      Now I either have to write some more code that detects invalid image links on the RSS receive and processing side, or better still report this as a bug to the person who wrote the plugin I use for this purpose.

      Sorry for anyone who got caught by this bug. However it is a small price to pay compared to the damage and slowness of not dealing with the damn bots.

    • Hami Shearlie 2.3
      29 August 2015 at 11:30 am

      I had the same – we must have been very naughty! It came right after a while, but I was locked out completely!

  4. AsleepWhileWalking 4
    29 August 2015 at 7:45 am

    FBI in a pickle http://www.thedailysheeple.com/ap-sues-us-govt-over-fake-fbi-news-article-booby-trapped-with-surveillance-virus_082015

    The Associated Press, one of the main sources for mainstream news articles in the world, is currently suing the U.S. government. It’s claim?

    The FBI endangered the AP’s reputation when the federal law enforcement agency sent out a link to a fake AP article the FBI had created which was laced with a surveillance virus that would infect the computer of anyone who clicked on it, thereby enabling the FBI to spy on them.

  5. The Chairman 5
    29 August 2015 at 8:54 am

    Of the 80,000 people who lived in the harbour catchment area, 65 per cent were unaware that stormwater drains led directly into the harbour.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/71540950/porirua-council-embraces-car-wash-ban-backlash-as-a-chance-to-educate

    After years of the council trying to clean up its harbour, has anyone thought of filtering the outlets?

    • JanMeyer 5.1
      29 August 2015 at 9:29 am

      If filtering slows flow, which it would have to to be effective, then you would risk serious flooding when it pours with rain as oulets overflow, so not sure this is solution

    • b waghorn 5.2
      29 August 2015 at 9:37 am

      I can imagine farmers all over the country smilling quietly. # boots on the other foot.

      • vto 5.2.1
        29 August 2015 at 10:29 am

        yes mr waghorn, and rightly so…… but why do so many farmers still cry that they should be exempt from rules like this?

        btw re other commenters – there are ample examples of screens, large scale sump systems and the like that are incorporated into stormwater systems today to take out the shit and leave on ly clean water running into our waters…

        all good

        • b waghorn 5.2.1.1
          29 August 2015 at 12:29 pm

          I’m in no way excusing farming, just enjoyed watching townies get fired up on TV last night.
          Of course the most sensible thing is for a law making all detergents for household use biodegradable but like the light bulb fiasco the fools would hate the idea.

          • weka 5.2.1.1.1
            29 August 2015 at 12:35 pm

            We should make all detergents biodegradable. But we’re talking stormwater drains right? and people pour all sorts of weird shit down their drains.

            • b waghorn 5.2.1.1.1.1
              29 August 2015 at 12:46 pm

              Every little bit helps, although car washing is a drop in the ocean compared to what would be washed off the highways every time it rains.

    • Draco T Bastard 5.3
      29 August 2015 at 9:46 am

      After years of the council trying to clean up its harbour, has anyone thought of filtering the outlets?

      Have you thought of the difficulties of filtering storm water where having a blockage is contra-indicated?

      • maui 5.3.1
        29 August 2015 at 4:06 pm

        This also goes against decades/centuries of engineering thinking that we must pipe everything and get it the hell out of here as quick as possible. Working with natural systems by using swales and plants/wetlands as filtration systems before water gets out to sea is only very slowly being built into infrastructure. I think the only way we will see widespread change to a logical natural way is when hydrological engineers realise they don’t have a job anymore and communities can decide for themselves how they deal with waste water.

    • ianmac 5.4
      29 August 2015 at 9:46 am

      Dimly aware that in Christchurch ponds are built to catch the daily stormwater runoff and thus catch the heavy “metals?” etc. before running into the Avon. Or maybe that is Rangiora. Think tyre debris.

    • dv 5.5
      29 August 2015 at 12:54 pm

      I thought the suggestion of councillor Cropp to use towels as a dam to divert the wash water into the garden/lawn was smart.

      I might dig a hole to act as a sump- fill with gravel and sand.

      Re the suggestions of filtering – one of the problems is the soap.

      I don’t think the problem is too difficult or onerous on the car washers.

      • Macro 5.5.1
        29 August 2015 at 8:07 pm

        Having worked for a time in surveying I have come across the problem of dealing with stormwater (we set out many a storm water drain) – One project I was working in about 2007 was a commercial development in Albany North Shore, and it had a uniquie system for dealing with the direct runnoff from roads and treating that water prior to it ending up in the ocean (as all storm water eventually does). If you go to google maps (Google Earth) Albany NZ and zoom in on Albany Lake Reserve just to the north of the two lakes you will see along with Don Mckinnon Drive, Daviis Dr and Corban Ave. Zoom in on these two roads and you will see green rectangles dotted along the roads. Instead of normal “cesspits” for the storm water – these are natural filters built to take the storm water and filter it before discharging into the Albany lakes where the water settles again before joining the main drains to the sea. These large filters are about 4 metres deep (from recollection) filled with organic humus and planted with native plants such as flax and sedges ideally suited to filtering the water naturally. The Lake reserve is also planted with native aquatic species and I remember coming across several NZ Dotterels nesting there while I was working.
        So Stormwater can be successfully treated If enough thought is put in to it. The result is not only benefitial to oceans it is also benfitial to us the result is a very pleasing place to be.

  6. Enough 6
    29 August 2015 at 9:45 am

    Canadian Election Gerrymandering. No surprises here. How the right wing corrupts democracy. http://www.theguardian.com/world/canada/2015/aug/28/all

  7. vto 7
    29 August 2015 at 10:09 am

    North Canterbury is a classic farming regional area, filled to the gunnels with appropriate types….
    But two things have gone on recently which highlight very poor standards and qualities amongst its inhabitants….

    Firstly, it is dry as a bone in these lands so the farming people there, not content with already have shat on the land, cry very loudly for more and more water. They have basically fucked all the rivers and waterways for their own gain…. This is a familiar story of course and the ins and outs of it are very well known.

    It is a stain on their community.

    Secondly, there has been a lot of media recently about heavy racism amongst Canterbury rugby clubs. It is thick in the air. North Canterbury has been one of the culprits, the Glenmark one at Omihi singled out recently for appaling racism and general pig-behaviour (apologies to pigs)….

    … and then this yesterday night http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/north-canterbury/71526790/all-blacks-history-destroyed-in-north-canterbury-rugby-club-fire ….

    any link do you think? I would posit that they have been targeted for their racism…

    North Canterbury eh …. I wonder if any of the locals put these things together and realise the picture that is painted of their community… I don’t imagine they do. They would look to that old fool Griz Wylie who would just stand there and grump without a clue. Poor them.

  8. greywarshark 8
    29 August 2015 at 10:44 am

    Brazilian pollution in the spotlight because a wealthy yachtie from Germany says their rotten water has resulted in nasty bacterial growths in his body when he considered he was in good health previous to sailing in Rio de Janeiro.

    This is a case for having contests in countries with many poor. The wealthy are encouraged to visit and frantic efforts have to be made to improve conditions. The people who permanently live in Rio de Janeiro won’t be immune to the troubles their visitor has suffered!

    Heil, who finished third with Thomas Ploessel in the 49er class, was told by a Berlin hospital that he had been infected by multi-resistant germs, the German sailing team said.
    “I have never in my life had infections on the legs. Never!” Heil said on the sailing team’s Olympic blog. “I assume I picked that up at the test regatta. The cause should be the Marina da Glória where there is a constant flow of waste water from the city’s hospitals.”….

    Last year biologists said rivers leading into the bay contained a super-bacteria resistant to antibiotics used to treat urinary, gastrointestinal and pulmonary infections.

    The waters along Rio’s Atlantic coast, including Guanabara Bay where the Olympic sailing events will be held, have been polluted for years and successive governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on clean-ups to little effect….

    When Rio bid to host the Games, the city trumpeted the clean-up and said it would cut the amount of sewage flowing into the bay by 80%. However, it has since admitted it is unlikely to meet that target. The amount of sewage treated before reaching the bay had risen from 17 to 49%.

  9. greywarshark 9
    29 August 2015 at 10:51 am

    Living longer>>>>>………………….
    Lesotho had the world’s lowest healthy life expectancy, at 42 years, while Japan had the highest, at 73.4 years.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/282702/a-longer-lifespan-but-at-what-cost

  10. ianmac 10
    29 August 2015 at 11:23 am

    From Stephanie Rodgers on the side panel: “It seems thoroughly unfair that hot on the heels of losing Dita de Boni from our political commentariat, we’re saying goodbye to Brent Edwards as political editor at Radio New Zealand.”
    (Thanks Stephanie.)

    Very sad but I hope his influence on fair balanced reporting continues?
    I sent an email of appreciation to Brent at [email protected]

  11. Sanctuary 11
    29 August 2015 at 11:27 am

    An fawningly approving technocratic authoritarian doozey from Fran O’Sullivan today, where she applauds a right wing technocrat’s go at a palace coup against the elected democracy of Auckland

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11504525

    It contains a sentence for the ages:

    “…What’s clear is that Town is breaking through the political stasis holding Auckland back….”

    What’s clear is no one voted for this guy and his “breaking through” involves an authoritarian conspiracy of little known neo-liberal apparachiks to ride roughshod over the constantly repeated wish of Auckland voters NOT to sell assets. I wonder if he can get the trains to run on time as well?

    In all this, it is clear Len Brown’s utter obsession with the CRL is now turning him into an isolated lunatic prepared to any and everything to cement in his legacy. Brown is now as big a threat by omission to our assets as Mr. Town is by commission.

  12. b waghorn 12
    29 August 2015 at 12:31 pm

    http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/serco-boss-admits-interest-in-nzs-rail-services-2015082910#axzz3k9uSFISc
    I propose that the new flag should have “serco” as its main emblem.

  13. Chooky 13
    29 August 2015 at 1:19 pm

    ‘Steve Keen on Economic Forecasts, Ponzi Schemes, GDP, China; One Way Streets and Poison’

    Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/08/steve-keen-on-economic-forecasts-ponzi.html#Rpqrk3RPikCSprL7.99

    ….”China needs external capital. Instead, China sees capital flight. Resultant stress is everywhere one looks because debt exceeds carrying capacity.

    Symptoms of Too Much Debt

    Yuan devaluation
    Stock market prop jobs by Chinese regulators
    Emerging market currency crashes
    Global equity bubbles
    Commodity price crashes
    Junk bond bubbles
    Slower global growth
    Still raging property bubbles in Australia, Canada, and the US West Coast (thanks to influx of money from China)”….

    ( re “raging property bubbles in Australia, Canada, and the US West Coast (thanks to influx of money from China)”

    …..is New Zealand also being flooded with Chinese money escaping China?…ie buy ups of NZ housing and land?

    …we are a very small country…there must some restrictions on this flood…or is jonkey Nact using this Chinese buy up money to prop up his economic failures?)

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/wall-of-chinese-capital-buying-up-australian-properties-20150628-ghztdf.html

  14. Tautoko Mangō Mata 14
    29 August 2015 at 1:48 pm

    Here is a just posted interview from Robert David Steele. For his opinion on TPPA, start at 8 minutes. Travellerev will be interested in this interview.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmJeK5M9mGE

  15. Draco T Bastard 15
    29 August 2015 at 1:59 pm

    Oops:

    A lawyer who has used intimidating legal requests to try to gain access to the records and emails of climate scientists has a financial relationship with a major coal company, it has been revealed.

    Christopher Horner, who works with two groups to pursue scientists and environmental regulators, is listed in the bankruptcy papers filed by lawyers on behalf of Alpha Natural Resources and its 150 subsidiary companies in the coal industry.

    The Heartland Institute, a “free market think tank” and major promoter of fringe views that greenhouse gases are not a problem for the planet, is also named in the papers, as are other key groups.

    Investigative journalist Lee Fang, of news website The Intercept founded by lawyer and journalist Glenn Greenwald, first reported the links in two stories.

    Can’t really say that I’m surprised.

    It is not surprising that a coal company would support the kind of activities that Horner undertakes. It helps them attack the science, which advances their policy agenda. I think it’s also becoming apparent that most of the big players in the denial movement are indeed being paid by fossil fuel interests — via campaign contributions to sympathetic politicians and through dark-money payments to individuals and think tanks that are then used to fund useful – to them – activities. I think future generations will be disgusted by this.

    I’m hoping that present generations are disgusted by this obvious corruption of the legal and political systems.

  16. Morrissey 16
    29 August 2015 at 2:00 pm

    Lisa Owen is not up to the job of interviewing Helen Clark
    The Nation, TV3, Saturday 29 August 2015, 9:30 a.m.

    Hosted by Lisa Owen and Patrick Gower, The Nation is an in-depth weekly current affairs show focusing on the major players and forces that shape New Zealand—TV3 publicity blurb.

    Our former prime minister Helen Clark did not have a good relationship with high quality journalists. In 2002 she glowered with anger and tried to overtalk John Campbell when he confronted her with her dishonesty about an unapproved release of genetically modified sweetcorn. [1] During the long-running scandal of her regime’s persecution of Ahmed Zaoui, she brusquely terminated any attempts by the excellent Selwyn Manning to make her answer questions. [2]

    Thankfully for Helen Clark, then, she didn’t have to put up with the indignity of being interviewed by a high quality journalist on TV3 this morning. Lisa Owen’s performance was as reliably useless as long-suffering viewers have come to expect from her. Instead of going into anything in depth, several topics were given the usual once-over-lightly treatment. This program is notorious for its low quality interviews, which are often utterly incompetent or horribly biased [3] or—as with Tova O’Brien’s outrageous performance with Murray McCully—a combination of both. [4] But, even so, this was a particularly abject performance. Here are a few selected highlights, or lowlights, complete with Ms Clark’s trademark snickering and snorting delivery….

    LISA OWEN: So what can the rest of the world do, then, and why aren’t they stepping up?

    HELEN CLARK: [speaking slowly and with the deepest possible tone, to indicate thoughtfulness and moral seriousness] In the short to medium term, peace in Syria would help enormously. But that’s not about to happen.

    LISA OWEN: I want to talk about sustainable development…

    Here Clark chuntered on in yawn-inducing officialese for a minute or so. She’s such a smooth operator that she managed to talk about the “G-7” instead of the G-8, casually accepting and therefore endorsing the U.S.-driven attempt to isolate the eighth member, Russia. Lisa Owen didn’t even notice.

    HELEN CLARK: The EU’s calling for more action, the UN’s [snicker] calling for more action…. needs more commitment from countries that historically have contributed [snicker] to carbon levels. We need China [snort] to act, we need India to act….

    But Lisa Owen, even if she were capable of discussing that issue in depth, had other questions she was required by management to ask. Someone had written a really pointed anti-Labour one for her to read out….

    LISA OWEN: [nervously] How comfortable are you with Chinese people being singled out as an ethnic group here?

    Ms Clark knows a partisan political angle when she sees it. However, instead of fixing the hapless Lisa Owen with her trademark rock-splitting stare, Clark took the bloodless option, and chewed up a couple more minutes saying something bland and non-committal. But Lisa Owen wasn’t allowed to let it go at that. She had obviously been ordered by her producers to keep banging away at this one….

    LISA OWEN: [diffidently] So… are you uncomfortable with a single ethnic group, the Chinese, being singled out?

    Again, Clark swatted her aside with ease.

    Why can’t they get someone knowledgeable and with a bit of flair to interview a big hitter like Helen Clark? Oh that’s right—-they’ve got rid of all the good ones.

    [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dET78Z5b5s
    [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeZ8yuEqZm0
    [3] https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/makers-of-tv3s-the-nation-refuse-right-to-reply-to-untrue-allegations/
    [4] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02082015/#comment-1053747

    • maui 16.1
      29 August 2015 at 3:35 pm

      Well, seeing Lisa Owen interviewing the Serco boss on 3 news last night I thought she must be the best interviewer main stream media has got right now. I think you might be being a bit harsh on her performance on the Clark interview.

      • Morrissey 16.1.1
        29 August 2015 at 5:14 pm

        I am glad to hear that she did a good job there. Sadly, however, what I have seen of her suggests that she is nothing like the “best interviewer mainstream media has got right now.” She allowed Clark to get away with some nasty propaganda—talking about the “G7” as though she had had her comments vetted by the U.S. State Department—and boring ahead with those spurious, partisan questions, possibly written for her by Paul Henry, designed to aggravate and embarrass the Labour Party.

        Further examples of Lisa Owen’s substandard performances…..

        Bamboozled by Scott Campbell….

        Open mike 30/11/2014

        Given the runaround by Murray McCully….

        Open mike 18/10/2014

        A lame, unwise attempt at being witty…..

        Open mike 22/11/2014

        Making vacuous comments about the London riots of 2011….

        Open mike 10/08/2011

  17. Tautoko Mangō Mata 17
    29 August 2015 at 2:10 pm

    World Health Organisation only requires 90 DAYS ‘SAFETY TESTING’ ON GMOS – NOT long enough for tumours to show.

    • Psycho Milt 17.1
      29 August 2015 at 9:30 pm

      “Not long enough for tumours to show?” But isn’t it the chemtrails that cause the tumours?

    • Jenny Kirk 17.2
      30 August 2015 at 7:48 am

      Tautoko Mango Mata – could you please put up the link to the WHO video “Are GMOs Safe to Eat” . This is a really informative doco, and I’d like to share it with people up here in the north who are strongly opposed to current govt attempts to introduce GMOs despite local councils not wanting that to happen. thanks.

      ps Its okay thanks – I right-clicked onto it, and have the link now.
      Thanks for putting this up.

  18. greywarshark 18
    29 August 2015 at 2:36 pm

    Thank you Tautoko for link.
    I’m only part way in and already I have heard that the experienced professional academic speaking has found a potato that after genetic modification tools have been used on it, has antibiotic resistance to three bacteria.

  19. Poission 19
    29 August 2015 at 3:45 pm

    Unions win big decision in US with the role of joint contractors in effect being joint employees .

    https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/board-issues-decision-browning-ferris-industries

    they share or codetermine those matters governing the essential terms and conditions of employment. In evaluating whether an employer possesses sufficient control over employees to qualify as a joint employer, the Board will – among other factors — consider whether an employer has exercised control over terms and conditions of employment indirectly through an intermediary, or whether it has reserved the authority to do so.

    Background here.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/unions-plot-major-push-after-landmark-labor-ruling_55e10081e4b0aec9f35376e6

  20. Draco T Bastard 20
    29 August 2015 at 4:25 pm

    Over on the Border Fiasco thread RedLogix said this:

    Overstaying is a crime; benes spending money on ‘luxuries’ is not.

    Well, not yet but I’m sure that National, following patterns in the US as they do, are looking at it:

    That “unmasking” is behind two recent bills that caught the Internet’s attention this week. Kansas and Missouri’s legislatures are working to target the social services provided to the state’s welfare recipients, limiting how people on welfare can use their assistance. In Missouri, a bill awaits Gov. Jay Nixon’s approval that would ban soda, energy drinks, cookies, and chips. Curtailing spending on snacks and soft drinks might be defensible from a public health angle (former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg would be a fan), but the state is also targeting steak and seafood—which speaks, ironically, less to concerns about welfare and more about policing what poor people do.

    Actually, didn’t they give cards out to some beneficiaries to prevent then from buying luxuries?

    • Draco T Bastard 20.1
      29 August 2015 at 8:17 pm

      As Barbara Ehrenreich memorably argued in the seminal Nickel and Dimed, it’s those low-wage workers who are essentially paying for everyone else’s prosperity with their cheap labor:

      When someone works for less pay than she can live on—when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently—then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The “working poor,” as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.

      True. The rich get rich by taking from the poor not by working for it.

  21. cogito 21
    30 August 2015 at 12:16 am

    An interesting column re China from the BBC:

    “The politics behind China’s stock market turbulence

    One of the most extraordinary things about the world’s number two economy is that when it faces a crisis, the leadership carries on in public as if nothing has happened.

    Decisions which affect the fate not just of 1.4 billion people in China but as we now know, the rest of the world as well, are made in secret by a handful of men.

    This week, China’s top political leaders have made no mention of the crisis, flagship mainstream media avoided touching on it, and government censors constrained discussion on social media within firm boundaries.”

    ……continues http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34071368

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    7 days ago

  • New legislation to streamline Cyclone recovery
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