Open Mike 06/05/2017

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 34 comments
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34 comments on “Open Mike 06/05/2017”

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  1. 1

    The local body elections reported in The Guardians in the U.K.make for sobering reading.

    1. 1.1

      That’s a matter of perspective:-).

      It was always going to happen – and the general election could be worse for labour(UK)

      1. 1.1.1

        It might well be. There seems to be a solid appetite among voters in the UK for ruining the country, and Brexit is the best way they can achieve that in the near term – so voters are keen on Brexiting as hard as possible.
        And then when the country collapses, they’ll probably blame muslims.

        2. 1.1.1.2

          No; UK voters have a ‘sold appetite’ for effective leadership.

          Incompetent Corbyn completely fails this important test.

          1. 1.1.1.2.1

            Give me an uninspiring leader with good policy over an effective leader whose policy is to run the country into the ground any day of the week.
            The UK doesn’t need someone who looks good on TV while they wreck things, the UK needs socialism.

    2. 1.2

      It really doesnt matter anymore. The sad truth is, by October this year, the Labour Party will have Dan Jarvis as leader and Liz Kendall as shadow chancellor. They will be supporting 95% of what the Tories are doing, with the Holy Trinity of privatisation, austerity and war preserved.

      Nick Cohen, Oliver Kamm and the like will be happy.

  3. 3

    Looking forward to Lisa Owen interviewing Winston re Pike River on the Nation this morning 9:30am tv3

        1. 3.1.1.1

          To Quote Blinglish…”Our law allows for prosecution of people making a decision to do something that looks dangerous even before it is done.”

          What a Crox! Legislation introduced years later once the damage, (29 Men! Their families!, Six years on… No closure!,) had been done… )

          Legislation to protect their ase! Legislation to protect their position! Five Years On!

          Forget Forestry, Farming! and Bee Keeping! Or Even getting out of bed….

          Thanks Cinny. Not having TV missed this…

      2. 3.1.2

        Do the Maths Red… Pit Bottom is only 2.5 km

        http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/330007/toby-and-toby-on-re-entering-the-pike-river-mine

        “I’m prepared to go in myself – not as a boast as some in the media say, but as an indication of my confidence safe re-entry is possible,” he, (Winston Peters) told The Nation on Saturday.

        “I’ve worked 11 miles underground in a mine. I know a bit about the dangers… We can take away any possibility that by making a decision to give the miners’ families justice, anyone else would be, for that event, capable of some sort of penalty. We can remove all that.”

        Go Winston, and/or anyone else with the “Balls”, (or whatever you say these days) to sort this Shit out once and for All!

  4. 4

    Don’t believe the liberals – there is no real choice between Le Pen and Macron
    Slavoj Zizek
    “Yes, Le Pen is a threat, but if we throw all our support behind Macron, do we not get caught into a kind of circle and fight the effect by way of supporting the very neoliberalism that fuels the far right? ”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/french-elections-marine-le-pen-emmanuel-macron-no-real-choice-a7714911.html

    You can see that Bill was in good company when he wrote his piece on The standard from a couple of days ago..https://thestandard.org.nz/liberalism-and-the-left/

    1. 4.1

      heh, thanks for providing the link and the encouragement to keep speaking up 😉

      Zizek’s wrong to offer up nothing but despair off the back of asserting that there’s no viable leftist alternative btw. Methinks he’s channeling Ad on that one 🙂

      2. 4.1.2

        Here here, keep up the good work, Bill.
        I may not be able to fully understand it all, (all to do with my end, no criticism of author), but the vibe rings true.

        especially compared to the status quoists, masquerading as lefties.

    2. 4.2

      “Don’t believe the liberals – there is no real choice between Le Pen and Macron
      Slavoj Zizek”

      By that do you mean people who adhere to classical Liberalism, or do you mean people who support social liberal change? Either way, I suspect that you are wrong. If it was a choice between National and Labour, even without the Greens in the picture, there would still be enough difference to warrant making use of the democratic choice we are currently afforded.

      If by no real choice you mean that people don’t get to feel wonderful about how they vote, then I’d say it’s time to get over one’s personal need to have politics be a good cultural fit as the primary criteria. If you want to change the political system, that’s of way more interest to me, but making out that in the interim it doesn’t matter if we have fascist neoliberals or centre left neoliberals in power is going to have too many people walk away from the conversation. There are actually ways to framing the criticism of the centre left without supporting fascism or denying the very real different a centre left govt makes despite it not being nearly enough.

      1. 4.2.1

        Did you actually read Zizek’s piece? If you did, then his point clearly sailed right over your head.

  5. 5

    Gosh Granny has gone from the young property investor to rich listers investors not being able to afford Auckland.

    So for those who don’t have $400 million don’t worry if you help these developers get corporate welfare and overseas cash, remove all regulation then viola, maybe more houses….

    Next we’ll have articles on Auckland Transport and Metrowater saying how poor they are too and how hard it is out there to survive in Auckland…

    Meet the $400m man who rents in Auckland: ‘I can’t afford one’

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11848013

  8. 8

    And we’re off, again.

    French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its campaign mails online 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

    Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of them were genuine.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-leaks-idUSKBN1812AZ

  10. 10

    The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it

    After 200,000 years of modern humans on a 4.5 billion-year-old Earth, we have arrived at new point in history: the Anthropocene. The change has come upon us with disorienting speed. It is the kind of shift that typically takes two or three or four generations to sink in.

    Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet in the face of these facts we carry on as usual.

    Most citizens ignore or downplay the warnings; many of our intellectuals indulge in wishful thinking; and some influential voices declare that nothing at all is happening, that the scientists are deceiving us. Yet the evidence tells us that so powerful have humans become that we have entered this new and dangerous geological epoch, which is defined by the fact that the human imprint on the global environment has now become so large and active that it rivals some of the great forces of nature in its impact on the functioning of the Earth system.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/05/the-great-climate-silence-we-are-on-the-edge-of-the-abyss-but-we-ignore-it

    1. 10.1

      The Anthropocene spin is a dangerous and disempowering one.

      It’s simply not the case that humanity’s responsible for AGW – a relatively small proportion of humanity are disproportionately responsible.

      Acknowledgement of that fact is crucial for taking effective action or demanding that effective action be taken.

      According to independent studies done by Oxfam and and another by Chancel and Picketty, about half of all global warming has, and is caused by about 10% of humanity, while a full 50% of humanity collectively contribute only about 10% of the warming.

      Go back to the industrial revolution in England and ask yourself who wanted the coal dug up from the ground. It was the industrialists.

      Essentially AGW is the result of capitalist exploitation and an expression of class war. And that points to an obvious solution, no?

      1. 10.1.1

        Not really.

        Even if we got rid of capitalism tomorrow, we’d still want our heaters on.

        I did hear an interesting theory that alternative energy is now lower cost than coal, so really the new emissions problem will sort itself out. Just not in time.

      2. 10.1.2

        Says Bill, furiously tapping away on his filthy, capitalist-inspired computer, which is helping to reduce harmful emissions.

        How about standing up for the workers in the class war? You should be submitting all your comments by post. And who cares about the extra greenhouse gases that would cause? At least then they would be delivered by unionised labour.

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