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Open mike 10/02/2015
185 comments on “Open mike 10/02/2015”
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Key has a lot of defending to do today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11399194
That wasn’t when they found out though, was it. I wonder whether it was a day. Or two. A day or two certainly means at least a week in National Party English.
In any event, they found out before the 2011 election.
Why do they want to look so donkey deep in this? Just how much involvement has the National Party had in Sabin’s activities?
Think of johnny as the goalkeeper, they have to get past a well resourced defense of audrey, clare, armstrong, editorial authors, tvnz, radio rantland etc etc who love to protect the brand.
They have to get past that lot who are organised by their “trainer” Mark Textor too.
we are lead to believe the NBR as Hooton outlined that they were aware of issue/s surrounding Sabin dating back to 2011, then using your ‘better’ judgment as PM wouldn’t you personally sit down with Sabin to get clarification that no more trouble can be expected. When you also consider Key had short listed Sabin for a Ministers position, and was about to appoint him to chair the law & order select committee.
I find Key’s hands off approach negligent, or just too unbelievable for Kiwi’s to be expected to swallow. If no plausible reasons are forthcoming in parliament tomorrow, and given the seriousness of the matter a full independent inquiry into corruption should take place.
Depends on how much power the Sabin-enabler wing of the party has.
Yes dirty play within the National Party. Joyce contracted Sabin & son to do a number on Collins who is his only real challenger to take over from Key. She is just too tough and has a shrewd legal mind, batting the milk saga away with relative ease. It wasn’t till Brook Sabin went after her like a blood hound did Key finally feel safe to clip her wings. He also culled some of her MP fan base sending a signal to others by demoting Maurice Williamson one of her biggest fans.
So in the end Collins will be back sooner than people thought possible, after she goes after Joyce with a little help from her rightwing friends. This is the start of the self destruct of the Nat’s. Collins will be leaking all sorts of hits on Key and Joyce and anyone else that stands in her way.
ACT smells blue blood and are looking to capitalise, isn’t this correct Gosman?
The government has enough for failing charter schools, but not enough for books.
Further shame on Peter Dunne.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11399117
The man has no shame as you know it Paul, an A grade trougher and willing sellout merchant. Bet schools in his electorate are well resourced.
Did you spot the glaring contradiction in that article?
“Mr Macnaught said teachers who wanted hard copies of a specific book would be able to borrow them from the National Library, through a request sent by the school library.”
This is completely contradicted by
“Lending changes
• The National Library will this year stop allowing teachers and school librarians to request non-fiction books on a particular topic.”
The second quote stating the lending changes is verified by this article yesterday on RNZ
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20166464
This is a government of the liars, by the liars for the very wealthy and the poor gullible.
I applaud them going to digital copies but to drop the hard copy format before everyone has digital access in entrenching the digital divide. Of course, once we take in to account National’s ongoing attacks on education creating a less educated populace does seem to be their goal.
One very bewildered and intimidated fat guy….
This will give the Sabin apologists something to cheer about: showercam in prisons
“Dehumanising a person and taking away their rights makes it harder to rehabilitate them.” Michael Bott.
So it will increase the crime rate too. Bravo authoritarians. Who needs a secret prison when you can get away with it in the open?
Wonder when the government is going to have to pay for its appalling mismanagement of the economy.
Putting all its bets on dairy starting to look like a really stupid idea.
Still, we’ve got a ‘rock star’ economy. What a joke!
‘Deutsche Bank is painting a grim picture of the impact of dry conditions on the dairy industry, predicting it could be worse than the 2012-13 drought.
Two years ago global prices soared by 40 per cent because of Chinese demand, boosting New Zealand dairy farmers as they moved out of drought, but the bank does not believe this scenario will play out again.’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/65977073/bank-bearish-on-droughts-effect
I wonder what Deutschebank’s angle is. Obviously it suits their interests to tell this story at this time; perhaps it’s even true.
I wouldn’t take a banker’s word for it though.
QFT
Probably lining up the repossessions of farm land so that they can sell it for a huge profit to offshore investors.
Feathering the nest, then off to Hawaii with his lifetime salary for being a PM for over 5 years, just to top up his already overflowing coffers. Lovely photo album to keep him company if he gets lonely.
(it wd be interesting to hear northshoredocs’ take on this take-down/expose..
..seeing as he claims ‘there is nothing to see’ here in nz..eh..?..)
“..John Oliver Eviscerates the Stunningly Corrupt Practices of Big Pharma..
..John Oliver dug deep into the corrupt practices of the pharmaceutical industry in a 17-minute rant Sunday –
– that will be one for the ages.
It’s a must-watch video tha lays bare just how deeply invested Big Pharma is in getting doctors to prescribe their drugs to millions of people –
– no matter what..”
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/video-john-oliver-eviscerates-stunningly-corrupt-practices-big-pharma
so i guess we are expected to believe that here in nz..
..big-pharma/doctors are squeaky-clean…
..eh..?
..and if we still believe that..we also believe in the tooth-fairy…
..maybe northshoredoc wd fancy being a whistleblower..?
..detailing for us the hows/whys of it happening here..
..y;know..’conferences’ all funded/paid-for by big pharma..?
..plus what oliver details..
Why wait for him? Expose it yourself. What’s the next conference paid for by big pharma in Aotearoa?
‘cos a whistleblower from inside will gain more traction..
I’ve had a time or two when a doctor has pushed drugs on me when I didn’t need them.
Very good expose by Ben Goldacre on Bad Pharma, how drug companies foist drugs on doctors who then foist them on patients:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/bad-pharma/
One to particularly watch out for is statins. They nearly drove my old man round the bend; he seemed to be going crazy but when Psych Services for the Elderly tested him and did a scan, nothing was revealed out of the ordinary.
My mother had started following horror stories about statins and I did some internet research. We took him off them and in about a month all his erratic/crazy behaviour and paranoid delusions stopped.
There’s a massive amount of anecdotal evidence, and slowly-accumulating research evidence, that statins can have very serious side effects. Some people seem to handle them Ok, but a lot of people – abut 12 out of 15 cases I know of personally – where people had all kinds of side effects ranging from kidney problems to paranoid delusions.
They don’t really do much for most people’s cholesterol, plus there is now plenty of evidence that cholesterol in and of itself isn’t such a problem.
When my mother, brother and I decided to take the old man off statins his doctor wasn’t at all pleased. But other doctors and various medical professionals I’ve spoken to since are much more up-to-date with trhe problems re statins.
Phil
Keep up the good work on this phill my mum was sick as recently, the doctor had here on a cocktail of drugs after research on the net she discovered that they were a bad mix and she didn’t really need one of them.
When she told the the doc he rolled his eye’s and muttered something about the internet then said stop taking it if you want. She’s much improved without it.( the step fathers kidneys nearly stopped awhile back as well due to the amount of voltaren they had him on while he waited for a bionic bit.)
Funeral Insurance is a very very profitable business for Cigna.
It is lousy value for those who buy the products: when contributions are discontinued the Insurer holds the cream; people are less likely to “claim” in their younger years.
Every day I see Michael Jones use his legend status to front the very heavy advertising aimed at poorer Pacific Island families. Keith Quinn has also fronted Cigna ads.
Michael Jones is failing in his leadership responsibilities by fronting these ads.
plus of course..many of the customers for the funeral-ads..
..are those who have died prematurely from consuming the fast-food junk jones peddles..
..i have been following/commenting on this christian who prays over (sorry..!..that’s preys upon) the poor/his own people..for some time now..
..and i am/have been quite toxic/scathing on the business-interests of michael jones…
..to me he is the current exemplar of hypocrisy/exploitation of own people..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=michael+jones
Thanks Phil, good links there. Especially Tapu Misa’s piece.
where is tapu misa..?
..has the herald fired her..?
I’ve long thought that any endorsement by a celebrity needs to devote 1/6th of the advert time / space (either in print or on radio / tv, minimum 5 seconds) to the celebrity plainly saying:
“I have been paid $xxxx by [company] to appear in this advertisement”.
In the case of TV, it would require a head-and-shoulders close up of the celebrity speaking directly to camera without any music playing.
You mean Cigna who did not pay out the fire-fighters in New York after September 11. That Cigna?
As far as I can make out, insurance itself is fraud. They take the money and then try not to pay out and this happens in NZ as well as I was reading in an article the other day (which I can’t find now – think it was in the NZHerald). This is a related article.
http://thestandard.org.nz/why-insurance-should-be-a-state-monopoly/
Big corporations have turned societally useful activities into scams and rorts.
Par for the course in this game of crony corporate capitalism that we have landed ourselves in.
‘Things’ by John Key:
There are the things we remember
That we forgot,
The things we forgot,
That we remember,
And then there are the other things,
The things we forgot we forgot.
Lolz 😀
Observations On The Day Before Waitangi Day 2015. A Deafening Silence!
A bit eerie Trav. Thanks for the report.
Managed to go to Waitangi with the kids for the first time last year.
Similar to what you described, and notable for the lack of non-Maori NZ attendees. Most non-performers seemed to be tourists.
The blue line was there in force last year as well. Looking ridiculously out to sea.
Went there last year too, shame about the weather. But really cool to see Maori celebrating alongside (a few) Pakeha! It’s a great day, sadly the good news doesn’t get air time.
From the very get-go it seemed like the locals had made a conscious decision to stay away and ignore Key, thereby removing any hope he had of making hay over disturbances.
Hi vto your are correct there, we dont want to give key any more credibility than his party loyals do, we also don’t want to be locked out of te marae by the thickening blue line, that just cause’s frustration and then sometimes violence and then key will be right … in his and his party loyals own feeble minds.
why would we want to celebrate this day of the great colonial lie?
Hi BLiP, if you’re around this one’s for you.
Yesterday we had a discussion about doing some crowd funding, a give a little campaign was suggested, to publish your chronicles of Key’s lies.
The motivation for this and benefits of publishing such a book are outlined in this thread, starting here:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09022015/#comment-965675
It’s your work we’re talking about so your thoughts are required before we go any further.
I think it could be done and should be done. It’s time there was a public response to the media’s lack of holding Key to account, in a post Dirty Politics NZ. We can’t leave it to opposition parties to do all all the work. As NZer’s, ordinary people, we can also hold a mirror up to the govt.
If you think the idea is daft, just say, and I’ll drop it.
The idea is on a par with Bob Jones “Achievements of the third Labour government” which consisted entirely of blank pages… hee hee what a hoot that was…
same same for key key
Get into it
(moved from below. Posted at same time as Rosie)
Been thinking about BliP’s list, and if it could work as an interactive website.
(I realise that the conversation has been about printed form, but just putting this out there…)
Trying to think of a framework that would be appealing, and allow people to dip into it now and again, while also keeping track of new and relevant material. (And we all know that is going to happen.)
So far:
1. Create a “wall of lies” like filmforaction.org ‘s Wall of Films
2. You could also have a Top 100, and allow people to search by interest
3. Also a calendar that shows the lies by dots, so you can view clusters and the sheer number of them.
4. Include a separate category for Brain Fades/or my office statements
5. On The Century of Self – there is a clip where they were trying to show the public how to avoid being manipulated by the media. Eg. analyse the articles by headline tone, emotive words logic etc. A big undertaking, but one that would be interesting to see how little attention is paid to the failings of National, and the imagined bottle of wine of Labour.
6. Maintain some kind of timeline that matches media reports with problems, and diversions. (I think of this diversion technique as “You don’t know how lucky you are!”)
7. Try and find someone who can critique and maintain something similar to Russell Brand’s Trews – True News, subscribe here – subscribe here!
i think the online-option is more feasible/preferable to dead-tree publishing..
Phillip. See response below to Molly. It’s as much about then power of group work as providing info.
Online is easy enough to setup
plus no trees have to die…
..and no need for a major fundraising-exercise..
..it’s a no-brainer..really..
No need to pour cold water all over the idea phillip.
Are books redundant in your view? Should we close down the libraries as they would do in Liverpool?
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/10/writers-join-fight-to-save-liverpool-libraries-caitlin-moran-cathy-cassidy
And re your comment at 10.2.2, Is Whoar a roaring success changing the way NZer’s think and bringing down the establishment?
i am just pointing out the inevitabilities/difficulties of doing a dead-tree book..
..that won’t be present if done online..
..in no way am i dissing the idea..i have advocated an online-version previously..
..(what have you got against trees..?..)
..and did you feel like lashing out did you..?
..and as i am involved in the dissemination of news/information/ideas..
..i wd hope that information wd change wrong/entrenched ideas/mores..(c.f..cannabis..vegan..as the two obvious ones that i don’t see anyone else covering..)
..but ‘a roaring success’ wd b in the eye of the beholder..wouldn’t it..?
..wd u look at it if someone else told you it was worth the effort..?
..do u need those nudges/group/herd-approvals..do you..?
(if it helps..a site-audit by zeald told me that over 20,000 other websites..spread over 96 countries..
..have whoar on their best/recommended-sites lists..)
..and somehow..that i do commentaries on questiontime..
..cd become more relevant/readable in the reasonably near future..
..you’d think..?
It could work well as toilet book with every second page in it, tear off too ply with keys mug on it.
lol yep. Only problem is, if you print teflon john on the paper, it will be too slippery and shit won’t stick to it.
“..and did you feel like lashing out did you..?”
Sorry phillip. Saying the online option only over the printed version was “no brainer” got me. I read this as “your idea sucks”.
I don’t have anything against plantation tree’s being used for paper for printing books.
In fact I descend from one of NZ’s early conservationists and have a deep love and respect for forests. I have askully wept upon hearing chain saws start up to remove a massive and very old stand of macrocarpa’s on the development where I live. They destroyed the habitats of a variety of ground nesting birds and assorted critters over the three days it took to destroy those lovely lungs. An ugly scar was left on the landscape. The full moon doesn’t appear in her Gothic glory on a rocky bit of clay, as she had previously done, gliding up slowly and majestically above the tree’s.
As for your site, I have visited it when you have linked it, for music. I’m not your target audience for your cannabis n vegan info though. But we’ve been through all that, in the past.
it is a generalist news site..rosie..
(focusing on high-quality content/commentary..sourced from what i deem to be the best publications around the world..basically the best of the best..each/every day..)
..the vegan/pot stories wd be 1-2% of the content..
..and i presume you regularly moan that there are no good left/progressive daily news sources in nz..
..eh..?
..part of the general deploring..isn’t it..?
You presumed wrong phillip.
I can’t recall a time where I’ve ever “moaned” about the lack of left/progressive daily news sources in NZ.
I only have an expectation that news should be factual, unbiased and uninfluenced by advertising dollars, which it is of course, not.
Which brings me back the idea of crowd funding the publication of BLiP’s Chronicles. It would be, in part as I’ve already said, a challenge to the media, highlighting their inability and unwillingness to bring the full picture to the public. Which sounds like one of the motivations for you, for the work you do on your site.
No point “moaning”, when you can at least try, to do something about it eh? As you have done?
“..I can’t recall a time where I’ve ever “moaned” about the lack of left/progressive daily news sources in NZ…”
so…where do u get yr news from..
..that is ‘left/progressive’ here in nz..?
..i’ll link to them..
Well, by saying I don’t moan, It doesn’t mean I said the opposite either, which would be “we have an abundance of progressive news services here in Aotearoa”. That’s simply not true.
Before I became unwell I would use Democracy Now as well as receive email news from labour rights groups such as Labourstart and International Labour Rights Forum (I have an interest in this area and wanted to keep up with overseas labour rights news).
I don’t have the energy to keep up with that at the moment so start my day with RNZ news, then switch to Radio Active, especially on a Thursday if I’m up in time for the Scoop report, have a squizz at the scoop site most mornings, then have a squizz on The Standard.
In the evening for junk food news lols it’s TV3 at 6pm, followed by Al Jazeera. (not lols)
I haven’t read the Herald since 2006 and only look at stuffed.co.nz a couple of times a week, where I remind myself why I don’t visit that site.
in the sense of holding the bastards to account..
..each/every day..
..and/or as a stop-gap measure ’till yr ideal appears..
..can i suggest http://whoar.co.nz/ ?
..and as an example of that in action..i wd point you at the cache on the business-dealings of michael jones (in the comment above..)
..where else wd u find that..?..
… sure you can, 😉 …
A collaborative site such wikia or hackpad would be effective and easy for several contributors to edit. I’m thinking the URL could be something like “crikey.hackpad.com” (or hokey, flakey, keynotes, offkey, snakey, wonkey…)
If there were enough resources, another “wall of” tracking back through legislative changes that passed by unnoticed and uncommented would be a good addition at a later date.
Particularly if comments were permitted.
Hi Molly.
Thats a great idea. The wall of ideas I especially like. Something visual you can click on discover what’s behind. As an aside,the NZ equivalent of Russell Brand’s Trews can be found every morning on the breakfast show hosted by Redbird Jnr on Radio Active 88.6 fm or listen to on line if you’re not in Wellington. As mentioned previously, they do the Scoop report with Alistair Thompson every Thursday morning too.
Agree that there needs to be an on line resource as the lies and the agenda isn’t a static thing and people have come to expect that everything is available on line. Then again, a site like The Standard is doing that anyway. Authors produce posts that critique our government’s work, and analyse media response to political events.
The idea for a book though, isn’t simply to release information. I see it as a people’s project. Something tangible, like a crowd funded book, represents a public response and in a way a public movement, a challenge to those who refuse to bring the full picture to light and as a service from members of the public to members of the public.
It’s an exercise in organisation as much as an exercise in education.
OK, Rosie.
Coming from an entirely different intent than I was thinking.
Personally, I’m more interested in getting people informed so that critical conversations can be had over the next couple of years. It’s very difficult to have a reasonable conversation with people that don’t even have the basics of knowledge about what is going on. For that reason, I prefer the idea of preaching to the unconverted, and that would be something I’d put time and effort into if it was needed.
I’ll have to check out Redbird Jnr, appreciate the info.
In the end, I’m a book hoarder from way back, and would contribute what I could to help the publishing of Blip’s list.
Yes, the core purpose of publishing the chronicles is to inform and educate.
I’m just saying there is more than one aspect to it, and yes, the audience would be those who don’t have the basics, as well as others, to my mind at least. There isn’t much point publishing a crowd funded book for a those who follow politics closely, or if there is that can be left to some one else. That WOULD be preaching to the converted.
There seems to be thousands upon thousands of NZer’s who have been turned off the concept of politics and fail to understand how critical a part they play in a democracy. These are the people that need to be reached and I agree, it’s very difficult to have a reasonable conversation with them.
The trick is engaging them. It’s working out a way to do that. I’m guessing the writing style is one way of doing that. But there’s a a lot to think about before we get to that stage and BLiP hasn’t entered the craic yet………….
Kia ora,
I have gone ahead and created a wiki site: https://offkey.hackpad.com/
BLiP’s list will go here: https://offkey.hackpad.com/The-List-kUC4LW4cyFQ
It needs a lot more work, feel free to jump in, or write your thoughts in this thread.
Aw! Thats fantastic Ropata. Love your work! Well done you. Love that AB’s image too. 😀
Those lies and” misremberings” though, so many and so many I’d forgotten about. It’s a real bollocks-a-thon.
If anyone wants to edit, drop me a line at
robertpnz AT hotmail DOT com
here’s a very rough concept:
The JK Casino Game
Do it as an interactive flash-animation site
base it on a One Armed Bandit
have various topics represented on the wheels – in icon form, or words
when the player pulls the arm, the wheels spin
a simple animation runs as the wheels spin
when it stops, the machine pays out currency
when the currency is clicked, (collected) the link is activated
the link could go to an article or an analysis of the item or a video etc
Different buttons on the dashboard could group different ‘lies’ into topics so the pay out relates to that topic
has smartphone ap potential also
just a thought.
a good ‘thought’..
I like it! Creative and fun, as well as educational.
‘
Hello hello . . .
Don’t always dwell in the Open Mike but found your comment today. Wow!! Go ahead: do whatever you wish with any of my lists. While I am happy to compile them, they are Copyleft and available to anyone who wants to make use of them.
Here’s my current, updated list of John Key’s Lies:
‘
‘
Here’s my list of the actions taken by the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key in its systematic attack on the environment of New Zealand. There’s some work to do in the latter part, its just got too depressing for me but, if anyone’s interested, I can steel myself to the task of writing each item up.
‘
. . . continued from above
‘
And here’s my list of what the police have been up to since the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key took over . . .
. . . continued from above:
Phew! Right! I have just picked myself up off the floor after going through that tsunami of despair.
You have my utmost respect for the work you have done BLiP.
What has always struck me about your lists, apart from the bare faced key lies, is the pattern of of deceit that has woven itself throughout Key’s reign. He misleads and bluffs his way through his role as leader. He has always spoken from the position of a man whose values are constantly shifting to suit his own agenda and self advancement.
He has no moral integrity.
Your Chronicles illustrate his poor morality and his absolute lack of suitability to be a leader of a democracy. He will never get above level one (pre conventional, parts one and two) on Kohlberg’s scale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development
Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
1. Obedience and punishment orientation
(How can I avoid punishment?)
2. Self-interest orientation
(What’s in it for me?)
(Paying for a benefit)
Level 2 (Conventional)
3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
(Social norms)
(The good boy/girl attitude)
4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation
(Law and order morality)
Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles
(Principled conscience)
Back to The Book. Your master list perhaps could be broken up into areas of lies and deception: Economic, Misleading the House, Opposition politicians and their supporters, Employment, Public Service, Ministerial services and Promises to the public (eg, we won’t raise GST, etc) The environment cache of lies could be a part two.
At this stage The Book is just an idea. Brand Key is holding up the government and NZer’s need to know what they voted for is nothing more than a brand. A product created by a PR company. A false leader. Exposing Key for what he really his, a lier, could be one way to wake people up. The media is like zopiclone to the public, keeping us dosy and sleepy. That’s why I thought it might be good to do some shaking and shouting…………
I have no idea what happens next or if anything will happen at all………..
16/12/08 – Palmerston North police officer Timothy Hesketh, 27, who lied during investigations and showed no remorse was found guilty of breaking a prisoner’s neck yet escapes a jail sentence.
Is he any relation of the disgraced judge Robert Hesketh?
“..The Latest Cannabis Science You Need to Know..”
(excerpt..)
..’Five new cannabis-centric studies warrant major attention..
The study is not the first time that researchers have identified an inverse association between marijuana use and the development of cancer.
In 2009 Brown University researchers similarly reported that the moderate long-term use of marijuana was associated with a reduced risk of head and neck cancers – in a multi-center cohort involving over 1,000 subjects.
In addition the largest case-controlled study ever to investigate the respiratory effects of marijuana smoking – found no positive association between inhaling pot and lung cancer risk.
‘We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer –
– and that the association would be more positive with heavier use’ pulmonologist Dr. Donald Tashkin – Professor Emeritus at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA told The Washington Post.
‘What we found instead was no association at all –
– and even a suggestion of some protective effect’.
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/latest-cannabis-science-need-know
(and in related news..)
“..Marijuana in Jamaica: Possession of up to two ounces decriminalised on Bob Marley’s birthday..
..Possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use has been decriminalised in Jamaica.
Bob Marley – who died aged 36 – would have been 70-years-old..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/marijuana-in-jamaica-possession-of-up-to-two-ounces-decriminalised-on-bob-marleys-birthday-10034299.html
Is two ounces a ‘small amount’ Phil? Sounds like heaps to me
in times past that wd have lasted me about two days..
..then i used to roll very large spliffs..(usually laced with hash..)
..and in fact..was known for the quality of my ‘joints’/joint-rolling..and yes..!..a filter..always..!..
..standards had to be maintained..
..nowadays when/if i smoke..it is from a very small pipe…and very small amounts..
..two ounces wd keep me going for yoinks..
..and yes..it is a reasonable amount..
..it’ll do..
(i actually went to jamaica to break a crack-habit..
..and yes..i hooked up with vego-rastafari..
..and smoked shedloads of ganga to ease me thru the crack-withdrawals..)
hmmmm interesting….. did you find you needed more as time passed and your body / mind got used to it? i.e. you needed increasing amounts for the same hit? (within the context of either big fatties or small pipettos
no..not really..
..sure..a tolerance wd build..
..but that effect from smoking more depends on the quality of the pot…
..not the amount..
..’cos if the pot is crap..u can chainsmoke it and get no higher..
..it is different from booze in that way..’cos even the cheapest/nastiest alcohol will get u drunk…
..cheap/nasty pot won’t get u high..
Canterbury and Otago longtitudinal studies show otherwise.
These studies have been published in Lancet unlike your study phil!
which are published in a pro marjuana magazine.
Smoking very “high”temperature substances damages airways and lungs!
Ingested eating cannibis may be safe when not driving or working!
Get real Phil every drug has drawbacks to Deny that is making your argument weaker!
i repeat:..
..”..In addition the largest case-controlled study ever to investigate the respiratory effects of marijuana smoking – found no positive association between inhaling pot and lung cancer risk..
..and even a suggestion of some protective effect’..”
what do you find so hard to understand about a study from the med-school @ ucla..?
..where the scientists/doctors had that same expectation you cite as fact..
..”..Smoking very “high”temperature substances damages airways and lungs!..”
(exclamation-mark and all..)
..and were confounded to instead find:
‘What we found instead was no association at all..’
w.t.f. do u find so hard to understand about that..?
..and yr ‘pot-magazine’ attempt to discredit the credibility of that study..
..is just fucken farcical..
..(and no..exclamation-marks don’t necessarily make it so.. eh..?..)
and as anecdotal-evidence..i had a check-up about a year ago..
..and lung-function was tested..
..as you may think..i was keen/curious to hear the results..
..and to my surprise/delight..
..i was told i ‘have the lungs of a young man’..
..make of that what u will..
Ms England knows why these pictures haven’t been published.
– Lynndie England
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/05/line-sand-fight-release-thousands-photos-prisoner-abuse/
Echoes of what SS officers and other defendants said at the Nuremberg trials.
People willingly giving up their moral agency to do the inhumane, while “just following orders.”
That’ s why I cited Lynndie England because IMO it could well be the real reason behind the refusal to publish all of the images when the Ahbu Gahrib chain of command apparently stopped at the rank of staff sergeant.
No commanding officers were prosecuted yet subsequent reports detailed the use of stress positions, humiliation, hooding, and rectal feeding as legitimate interrogation techniques.
Love these Guys. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Great report on Swiss Leaks and very dodgy outfit HSBC
http://www.icij.org/project/swiss-leaks/banking-giant-hsbc-sheltered-murky-cash-linked-dictators-and-arms-dealers?utm_campaign=swiss_leaks&utm_source=appeal&utm_medium=button_middle&goal=0_ffd1d0160d-b4353af741-100020097&mc_cid=b4353af741&mc_eid=c346e018f7
…. and the journalists include Nicky Hager working on some interesting stories at the moment.
And some good news
Strikes and actions from around the globe.
http://libcom.org/news/s%C3%A3o-paulo-ongoing-demonstrations-against-transit-fare-hikes-09022015
http://libcom.org/blog/lsse-struggle-next-stop-drapers-09022015
“State capitalism is usually described as an economic system in which commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity is undertaken by the state, with management and organization of the means of production in a capitalist manner, including the system of capital accumulation, wage labor, and centralized management.” – Wikipedia
While the Wikipedia writer understands that state capitalism is a form of capitalism, this is not well understood on the New Zealand left. Much of this left, for instance, supports capitalism if the capitalist company is owned fully by the capitalist state. This left campaigned in favour of such ownership in the referendum on whether the government should be able to sell 49% of shares in a number of State-Owned Enterprises.
But from the standpoint of the material interests of workers, how is being exploited by a company, functioning as a fully capitalist company, owned by the state preferable to being exploited by one 49% privately-owned, or even 100% privately-owned? Workers are no better off materially. In fact, when the state itself functions as a capitalist company it is more thorough – and more powerful – as the boss.
The widespread left support for state capitalism in New Zealand also acts to disorient workers and retard the development of any meaningful class consciousness. It reinforces illusions in the nature of the state and of capitalism where the state itself acts as the personification of capital.
SOEs: corporatised business as usual: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/soes-corporatised-business-as-usual/
“Our asset” lays off 125, threatens more: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/our-asset-lays-off-125-threatens-more/
What Solid Energy and Mainzeal reveal about private and state capitalism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/neither-private-capitalism-nor-state-capitalism-but-workers-power-what-solid-energy-and-mainzeal-reveal-2/
State companies, capitalism and the left: a Marxist view: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/state-companies-capitalism-and-the-left-a-marxist-view/
Phil
Singapore and China uses state capitalism to accomplish strategic objectives to strengthen their nation’s capabilities and potential. NZ uses state capitalism to extract more money from its citizens.
+1
I was always amused when neoliberals held up the Asian Tigers as models for the NZ economy. They were all built with not only massive state intervention in the economy but a sizeable amount of state planning.
I wrote a study of the Japanese case back in 1994: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/japan-and-the-new-world-order-1-from-postwar-take-off-to-stagnation-1945-1994/
One of the other amusing things in relation to the neolibs was all the Asian tigers, even the tiny places like Hong Kong and Singapore, built on an industrial base whereas the neolibs wiped out much of the industrial base in this country.
They thought that as long as some people were making heaps of money somewhere in the economy it was all fine!!! They didn’t have much understanding of the bubble economy and its consequences – the more inflated the artificial economy is the bigger the crash will be when it comes. Even after 1987 they kept ploughing ahead. . . to new and bigger disasters!
Phil
Yep fast boys with cellphones and no understanding or comprehension of humanity. They continuously cause so much damage …
The PM you mean?
Aye …
Yep, noticed that myself. IMO, many services which are run in a capitalist way should actually be government services supported through general taxation. There may, in some cases, need to be a use charge to limit usage. Electricity would have such a usage charge but telecommunications wouldn’t.
Great insight from Danyl M over at the Dim-Post.
“Hooton ascribes part of Key’s popularity to his preeminence as a commentator on light-entertainment shows across New Zealand media. More FM, Breakfast TV, Seven-Sharp, etc. Critically these are (a) news sources for ‘median’ or persuadable voters and (b) they’re formats in which Key can assert his version of any news story unchallenged, and then go on to tell funny stories about the All-Blacks.
So there’s a reality-based community in which, say, people read the Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence’s report and see that Key’s office was found to have abused intelligence information for political purposes, but Key can create his own reality in the minds of hundreds of thousands of voters simply by going on Breakfast TV and explaining that his office was completely exonerated while the hosts nod their heads and smile.”
So somehow Labour needs a way to get to those “median” voters. Replicating Key wont work.
Link here. https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/key-and-reality/
Samsung Smart TV users find out that their TV can record private conversations and pass them onto a third party.
https://twitter.com/xor/status/564356757007261696/photo/1
Every smart phone is a bug and tracking device; every laptop with a webcam in the lid is a CCTV camera.
“every laptop with a webcam in the lid is a CCTV camera.”
Only if I turn it on while I am connected to the internet.
Ditto my phone. Most of that shit is turned off unless needed.
If script kiddies can do it…..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/miss-teen-usa-webcam-hacker-jared-james-abrahams-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-9200575.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/18/research-shows-how-macbook-webcams-can-spy-on-their-users-without-warning/
for a desktop..
..you can fold a business card to form a screen over the camera..
I’m sure anything can be hacked. Bit different from my laptop being a cctv in the context of samsung’s tv.
As I’ve been saying for quite some time: The people you really need to be concerned about spying upon you is the corporations, not the government. The government can be held to account, the corporations can’t (and the TPPA will make that even worse).
Nope it’s the government you need to be afraid of. That is because governmental power to imprison you, confiscate your property, run tax audits to ruin your life/business or outright execute you (eg in the case of droning US citizens) for purely political or venal reasons is beyond the interests and capabilities of standard corporations.
As for “holding the government to account” – that can be done in a functioning (or mostly functioning) democracy.
Governments can legally imprison or kill you.
Ever hear of private prisons or “military contractors”?
Corporations can sue you to bankruptcy and suicide. Or do you for copyright infringement, or trespass, or violating terms and conditions, or keep their aggregated data on a single unsecured database, or spend millions on lobby groups.
You can’t vote to change a corporation, though, because people with more money have more votes.
NZ examples?
Auckland Central Remand Prison run by SERCO
Corporate reps at TPPA negotiations
File-sharing copyright infringment act
Secret sources of mcvictim’s senseless-sentencing finances.
Hager on NZ private military contractors
Anything from the Winebox Inquiry.
Anyone stiffed by a finance company or insurance company.
$65 parking fines for 5 minutes too long outside dunedin stadium.
Wheel clampers and their “fees”
Sorry, I meant in the context of Samsung-esque surveillance.
I seem to recall that the Xbox One had similar issues (camera always on) that were nuked after the public reaction.
Not sure whether any NZ companies even make TVs.
All you’re pointing out is an amalgamation of government and corporate power.
We all know what that is called.
Tellie-tubby land?
It’s the way of the future, and shortly, they will be armed with real time mass surveillance of everybody.
eh-oh!
Yeh, but the private prisons and military contractors are under contract to *the government*. So Col Rawshark’s argument still stands.
I’d say, however, government/state rather than just government.
And you can’t really change the state or the government. You can change which party is in power but, whichever it is, it runs the same apparatus. For instance, the SIS operated just the same under Labour as National, for instance.
I don’t want the SIS to be under Andrew Little instead of John Key. I want it abolished.
Phil
yes, if you reduce his list to two items and ignore the instances when technical illegalities appear to have been unpunished when large corporations have been involved, then yes, you raise a valid point.
Nope. As I say, the government can be held to account and changed whereas the corporations can’t. Of course, it doesn’t help that the government is presently owned by the corporations.
You still talk as if replacing one group of elite oriented politicians with another group of elite oriented politicians is going to have any real effect on the TPPA, mass surveillance, banking hyper profits, unaffordable housing, etc.
They got rid of Bush in the USA and Obama has been worse, from a targeted killings, civil liberties and imprisoning whistleblowers perspective.
Yes, we have to change the system so that we don’t have elites.
FJK.
John Key said unless more money could be found, the convention centre could end up as an ”eyesore”.
Under the deal, Sky City would build and design the centre for up to $402 million.
In return, it could operate another 230 gaming machines and 40 tables.
Last year, Sky City revealed the estimated cost could reach $530 million.
Mr Key said that was because the design was bigger and ”flasher” than was originally proposed.
“Ultimately Sky City has worked off a concept through to something that looks more like a project that’s ready to go.
“I’m keen to see the best convection centre I can for Auckland because this is a very long-term asset.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/265717/taxpayers-may-cover-sky-city-shortfall
the snake oil salesman going about his daily toil ……….
The first part of the gentle slide to tax payers subsidising another corporate has begun
I think this can easily be described as a payment to corporates rather than a subsidy to corporates.
Taxpayers paying to build a casino…… *slowly shakes head*
What has happened to the amazing free market? Has it failed again?
When they say free they mean free for the wealthy to run things for there immediate benefit.
It’s also all about keys legacy he wants a flag and a convention centre in his name plus a knighthood ,let’s hope Little can bring him to his knees this year so he gets none of it.
This government have been subsidising corporations at the taxpayers expense since it got into power.
I know it’s banging an old drum but for the benefit of new visitors….
Folk might notice the items listed as part of the original Government deal do not mention a 300 room hotel. For some reason this late addition to the deal is an apparently insignificant detail. Doubleplusgood deal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11385010
“At the end of last year, SkyCity said the original $402 million cost had been “revised” to $470-530 million.”
“The documents the Herald obtained show SkyCity started making changes almost immediately after it secured land from TVNZ in September 2013.
The most significant was the placement of a 300-room hotel on the TVNZ land. SkyCity had said for years the land was needed for the convention centre.”
What does it cost to build a 300 room hotel? Who can tell but $130 million might just swing it.
Yep both Key and Skycity know 100% about the sham scam that has been pulled here regarding the addition of a 300-room hotel
The deal did not include a hotel…… surely the free market could deal with justifying the build of a hotel next to the country’s biggest casino and not need taxpayers to help them out? No? What the f&*k is the matter with the free market?
I have no problem with the government coughing up $130 million for a 300 room Hotel, IF we see every cent of the investment repaid in full at standard market interest rates plus a couple of points for the effort. Oh what’s that you say SkyCity? You could get a better deal than that from a bank – then go do that you %#&*^$ bunch of reprehensible parasites.
“.. Oh what’s that you say SkyCity? You could get a better deal than that from a bank – then go do that you %#&*^$ bunch of reprehensible parasites…”
+ 1..
i approached it with a degree of trepidation/doing-duty..
..but little is giving a ripper of a speech..
no metiria turei there..?..
..why is norman giving the greens’ speech..?
..when he is bailing-out..
..shouldn’t turei be giving it..?
..and again..where is she..?
normans’ delivery is insipid/stilted…underwhelming..
re little..
..favourite aside was to tolley and ‘woody’ woodhouse..referring to the resignation of sabin..
.and the when did they know?-question..
..’the truth will set you free’..
..and that he ‘would come back to that’…
heh..!..
..peters is using his speech to taunt the national party backbenchers..
..over their impending leadership spill..
he tells them their upcoming embarrassment at the hypocricies etc will be acute..
..and he confirmed he will be standing in the northland bye-election..
did Winston confirm he will stand ? I didn’t get that .. I got his repeated promise ‘help is on its way’, but no absolute confirmation which I was hoping for ? did I miss it ? thx
I thought he was marvelous today .. healthy and thriving.
Link is up now .. here we go:
he said ‘help is on the way’..
..and that:..’the campaign will start soon’..
..(key shouldn’t have taunted him..i thought that was a big mistake when key said it..)
..and it makes perfect political sense for him to stand..to build his/nz first profile..
..and it sets up an interesting dynamic..
..peters cd split the vote and labour cd walk thru..
..and peters wouldn’t mind if that happened..
..anything to bloody national…
and peters was on form..
..much better than he was for most of last yr..(going on his questiontime-appearances..)
..he was particularly adept at demolishing heckling national party backbenchers..
..naming them..and then riffing on them..
wow. Speaker David Carter has just disclosed that Sabin is the subject of the suppressed court case by shutting down all reference to an MP who resigned.
Covering Key’s backside, that’s for sure.
Sorry lprent .. don’t have a link as yet but will post asap so you are in not in any breach … spoken by David Carter interrupting and preventing Andrew Little’s speech at about 2.30 pm this afternoon.
lol
Protecting key, or simply incompetent, I wonder, if carter left no reasonable doubt that dude A was dude B.
Even more interesting – MPs have parliamentary privilege when speaking in the House, but does the Speaker have privilege when giving a ruling? 🙂
i was puzzled by carter..
..yep..!..he has gone on the record…joining the dots for the first time..
..he’s ‘blown the gaff’..as they say..
..and yet he didn’t need to..little was tip-toeing enough..
..but in his ruling..which must now be in/on the public record..
..carter made a clear statement..that cd leave nobody in any doubt..
(..and therefor able to be commented on..?..can those who know advise if comment can be made on carter joining those dots..?..)
Little was very clear to only mention that an MP was under Police investigation. He did not mention a court, or a court case or a proceeding of any other form excepting the aforementioned and publicly reported Police investigation.
When the Speaker first rose to his feet it was understandable and to be expected as a precautionary measure, though him mentioning the suppressed court case in connection to comments on an MP under Police investigation was a shock.
To rise a second time and again mention the court case, when Little was clearly moving away from that area of commentary, The Speaker only confirmed the connection existed.
indeed. here’s the link for Little’s nuggety attack on Key and Nats …
Timed.
http://youtu.be/URnuaz6-HRo?t=13m15s
@lprent et al : the relevant comments re court case start at 13.00 and runs to about 16.00
And Winston on the same matters is worth the viewing:
Just watched Andrew’s fiery emphatic speech and am buoyed! Thanks for the link raw.
onya, ian !
and Winston is worth a viewing also .. if you don’t have 20 mins, start at 17. 35 mins … link is just above from me at 20.2.1.2.1
onya, ian !
and Winston is worth a viewing also .. if you don’t have 20 mins, start at 17. 35 mins … link is just above from me at 20.2.1.2.1
+100 ianmac and rawshark-yeshe…I was also buoyed to hear it on the radio as i was driving
Andrew Little superb in his attack on John Key….and followed up by Russel Norman and Winston Peters
….now if this trioka/ triumvirate could get together and cooparate to help Winnie win Northland…they are a government in waiting ….close enough to roll John Key and his corrupt government sooner rather than later …..
if only they will listen …. and work together …
am I right in thinking there is no party vote in a by-election ? Well, if all those who party-voted NZ First vote for a candidate, it will be game on !!
Sure is good to watch Little when he’s in that sort of form alright, it would be even better if he eye balled the rat key while he’s ripping into him.
Its a shame that all the fools on tv3 news tonight showed of it was Littles repeated “masters of the universe” comment.
The Speaker only confirmed the connection existed.
Indeed he did. Instructions from above? Do whatever you have to, to stop Little saying anything?… then the idiot went and gave the game away himself.
I see Tolley is refusing to answer media questions relating to Mike Bush contacting her. Now Carter shutting down all questions relating to the ex MP is outrageous. Some of us still believe in transparency from Central Government.
Some of us think things may need to be amped up by excising our democratic right to protest outside National electorate offices. Some of the Northland offices during the by election is a worthy place to start. People enjoy scribing their beef on placards and banners. What they write is up to the individual 🙂
how about it wasn’t Tolley but Collins earlier ? Tolley is snookered if that’s the case !!
Some may say Collins originally leaked details about Sabin having a scrape with the law back in 2011 through her then good friend Slater.
I’ll be intrigued to what comes out before the by-election – Northland will still be national afterwards, but it might be interesting to see how much of a hit they take.
if it all comes out, I’d take a reasonable bet that Nats lose the seat. And Winston was very, very clear today he did not consider himself in the house to be bound by any court suppression ruling.
Technical legal question … if someone has pleaded guilty and the court has accepted such a plea, is it still sub-judice ? ( Tracey ?Murray ? Mickey? thx for your help as always !)
Yes, if a suppression order has been put in place by the court relating to the name (s) and/or other details.
thx vv
In the mysterious court case we have at the moment, everything has been suppressed, and continues to be under suppression until judge lifts it.
skinny .. do u hv a link for that pse re Tolley avoiding questions?
Here is Katie Bradford on Twitter
https://twitter.com/katieabradford/status/564952124614664192
That is a strange back sided decision from Carter in the house today when he shut out Andrew Little making any reference to an MP being made the chair of the Law and Order committee while under police investigation.
YET, it is JOHN KEY himself that HAS been talking to the media about this issue announcing when and what date he was told about Sabin’s case (though he kept changing the dates) and ALSO said that he was OK with SABIN chairing that conflict of interest chairman’s post (even though it happened AFTER key/his office was already made aware through multiple sources), including Matt McCarten, of the police investigation!
How can there be one rule for Key and a different one for Little?
So, will the courts charge Key for the breach of their suppression order for his public statements?
they really are muddling up their knitting patterns and dropping stitches all over the place, aren’t they ? lie upon lie upon lie, and not a decent memory cell between them. actually, it’s potentially hysterically funny if it were not our democracy being corrosively attacked.
f.f.s..!
..mora is defending screws watching prisoners in the shower/on the toilet..
..and the panelists are braindead fucken idiots..
..some airhead woman..(who was once burgled – and seeks revenge..is positively gleeful..almost biblical in her desire for generalised-revenge on prisoners..f.f.s..!..)
(what is it with all these new dumbarse female panelists..f.f.s..!..)
..where are they finding them..?
..greg newbold came on..and is ‘disgusted’..the airhead snaps back at him..says that ‘prisoners should have no rights’..
‘she’s a valley girl..!..she’s a valley girl..!’
..she’s doing a moon zappa riff..
..’fer sure..!..fer sure..!”
and the rightwing airhead male..inglis..
..obviously talking about something he knows absolutely fucken nothing about..
..and denounces the new greek govt…for ‘wanting to take ten steps back’..
..some more of that panel ‘balance..eh..?
..they were both airheads..
(heh..!..i actually felt sorry for mora..for him it was like wading thru a thigh-deep swamp..
..he wd throw out conversation-starters..to dead-air..
..and all we cd hear was the wind whistling thru..and the tumbleweeds rolling around in..
..those matching airheads..
..it was behind-the-sofa-radio..
..excruciating..
A mention by the marvelous Tim Minchin.
“In darker days, I did a corporate gig at a conference for this big company who made and sold accounting software. In a bid, I presume, to inspire their salespeople to greater heights, they’d forked out 12 grand for an Inspirational Speaker who was this extreme sports dude who had had a couple of his limbs frozen off when he got stuck on a ledge on some mountain. It was weird. Software salespeople need to hear from someone who has had a long, successful and happy career in software sales, not from an overly-optimistic, ex-mountaineer. Some poor guy who arrived in the morning hoping to learn about better sales technique ended up going home worried about the blood flow to his extremities. It’s not inspirational – it’s confusing.
http://www.timminchin.com/2013/09/25/occasional-address/
heh..!
Car hacked on 60 Minutes
That is a serious concern and it makes you wonder just what these car firms were thinking or if they were thinking. The really interesting bit, though, is in the next paragraph:
Yeah, real time monitoring of computers connected to the network.
MH 370 anyone ?
lol
why not just head straight to 9/11?
very different .. not into conspiracies, but what they describe above is exactly what is known of the MH370 computers …. as little as it is ..
nothing is known of the MH370 computers, other than when they ceased communication.
There is certainly no telemetry from the flight, which is sort of the problem.
Could be a hacker, but could be hijack, flight crew hijack, hypoxia+autopilot, hell even a close encounter of the third kind.
Until Bob Ballard or someone find the thing, nobody will know – maybe not even then.
exactly. agree with you 100%. the story above simply demonstrates one possible explanation, and proves a possible scenario in particular circumstances, which is why I commented.
I believe it deserves some oxygen and not to be forgotten, for the sake of the families, and passengers everywhere.
Serendipity: this crash was on telly tonight.
Yet another possible scenario. Pilots didn’t notice they’d plugged the wrong coordinates into the autopilot, flew into the middle of the Amazon.
Maori TV “Rethink.”
RMA Reforms. Just watched a half hour panel discuss the intent and practice of the RMA and broadcast on Maori TV “Re-think.” This is the first time I have heard/watched any discussion on this coming issue.
Damnit! How come it is avoided on other MSM?
The changes are certainly aimed at maximising economic advantages and minimising environmental ones.
Hence the Government is politically appointing Boards of Enquiry to avoid public input and avoiding the Courts for appeal.
When the detail becomes clearer will we protest?
Host the excellent Stacey Morrison.
And why do they automatically parrot the government-friendly formulation that these savage assaults against the right of citizens to challenge powerful interests are RMA “reforms”?
Similar anodyne language—“reform”, “changes”, “restructuring”—is used whenever there is discussion of the massive cuts to public housing, hospitals, education and welfare.
Rather than speak plainly, the likes of Brent Edwards on Radio NZ National seem more than happy to use the distorting and misleading vocabulary of the government.
On Demand Rethink on RMA
http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/re-think
Je suis….