Open Mike 14/12/2025

9 comments on “Open Mike 14/12/2025 ”

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1. bwaghorn 1

   14 December 2025 at 6:34 am

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581717/kiwirail-investigating-interislander-kaiarahi-ferry-steering-problem

   3 years before the budget ferries arrive and cancelled deep water tug, new Zealand need reminding this is national ineptness risking lives.

   Just noticed Mountain Tui has it covered
   • PsyclingLeft.Always 1.1

     14 December 2025 at 9:04 am

     We can but hope more people think…and vote them out ?

     For a better NZ.
2. Dennis Frank 2

   14 December 2025 at 7:38 am

   Whistleblower case has serious implications:

   A U.S. appeals court heard dueling arguments on Friday on the legality of the federal False Claims Act’s whistleblower provisions, which have helped to fuel billions of dollars in government settlements and judgments.

   The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta is weighing a ruling by a Florida federal judge who struck down the provisions last year, finding that they improperly allowed whistleblowers to exercise federal executive power without accountability to the president.

   Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch at the hearing pointed to recent statements from some members of the U.S. Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, which was first enacted during the Civil War and allows private citizens to bring lawsuits on the government's behalf alleging fraud against the United States. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/appeals-court-weighs-fate-us-whistleblower-law-2025-12-12/

   Whistleblowers are entitled to a 15% to 25% cut of proceeds when the government intervenes in a False Claims Act case and helps to litigate it. When the government does not intervene, the amount is 25% to 30%.

   The appeals panel grilled attorneys on both sides of the case, including on whether a whistleblower who isn't paid by the government can be subject to the U.S. Constitution's appointments clause.

   A lawyer for the government, Daniel Winik, argued that the executive branch exercises sufficient control over whistleblower litigation, and urged the court to reject the lower court's decision.

   This view that deep state agents blowing the whistle on dirty deals within govt get official rewards for doing so seems founded upon common sense and ethical conduct. Unusual for the patriarchy, sure, but good to see the buggers moving with the times.

   This case will redefine the relativity of state agency. Operators have relative autonomy, defined in law, but legal opinions differ in interpreting that…
3. PsyclingLeft.Always 3

   14 December 2025 at 9:03 am

   Luxury Luxon tries to explain. Well what I can tell you is..

   Christopher Luxon mounts leadership defence: 'I know what it took to rebuild'

   Amidst the deflection there was this !? Gotta laugh as he blithely trips himself up. Completely unaware,no sense of Irony has Luxo…what a maroon. : )

   Luxon said he was "fixated" on unemployment as many people struggled to find work, though he blamed economic mismanagement for the tough job market.

   "If you care about working New Zealanders, they've taken the brunt of this economic mismanagement and that's why I feel a huge responsibility to actually fix it."

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/581742/christopher-luxon-mounts-leadership-defence-i-know-what-it-took-to-rebuild
   • Dennis Frank 3.1

     14 December 2025 at 9:22 am

     He's being honest about the situation subliminally, whilst being duplicitous overtly:

     We were slow coming out of Covid, and they've walked straight into a recession by virtue of economic management being poor and I know people want it done faster and we're [going] as fast as we can."

     Going as fast as they can in the wrong direction is being decisive and manly as per trad kiwi male ethos, so adhering to our normalcy is exemplary performance art for a pollie.

     Conceding that Willis has been doing poor management is clever: most people won't notice that he did that. Just a tip to the clued-up sector of the voters who haven't forgotten that the economy was doing well at the last election. Hooton could bounce off his appraisal nicely, if he has his wits about him…
4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4

   14 December 2025 at 9:29 am

   There seemed to be quite the divergent view on the whole Nicola Willis/Adrian Orr implosion.

   Whatever the actual behind it all…it maybe appears things are not quite sorted yet..Or is it an interestingly…. She said/She said event?

   Rising home loan rates blamed on 'another misstep from Reserve Bank'

   Miscommunication from the Reserve Bank has driven interest rates higher than they should be, Kiwibank economists say, but they expect the economy to recover next year, anyway.

   Kiwibank has released its outlook for 2026, noting that the Reserve Bank is currently "at the centre of some confusion".

   Kiwibank economist Sabrina Delgado

   "Ultimately, it's a bit annoying and premature to be seeing financial conditions tightening, and it's frustrating, because it is coming from another misstep from the Reserve Bank," she said.

   "Although the Reserve Bank cut rates, with the obvious intention of lowering retail rates for businesses and households, a higher-than-expected OCR track has catapulted wholesale rates higher. Traders are now factoring in rate hikes – no longer cuts – in early 2026.

   "That's way too aggressive and premature."

   Hang on..I thought Economic Wiz Willis brought the Northern hemisphere replacement Governor in to put a stop to all this? …

   Kiwibank's economists said the misstep "is all too familiar".

   "The Reserve Bank can – and should – lower wholesale rates with the stroke of a pen in February or from a speech at any time."

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/581758/rising-home-loan-rates-blamed-on-another-misstep-from-reserve-bank
5. Ad 5

   14 December 2025 at 10:47 am

   https://crux.org.nz/national-news/ngai-tahu-set-to-take-33-stake-in-milford-sound-tourism/

   This is what fully privatized all-service NZ infrastructure looks like.

   If it can be done elsewhere it will be.
6. Dennis Frank 6

   14 December 2025 at 1:27 pm

   Yesterday Israel nailed a terrorist commander as soon as he crawled out of his hidey hole:

   On 13 December 2025, at 2:49 pm, Sa'ad was targeted in an Israeli drone strike on his car while driving on the Al-Rashid road, west of Gaza City.

   The Jerusalem Post reported that Sa'ad was targeted around an hour after he emerged from a tunnel, which he had operated in for months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%27ad_Sa%27ad

   Sa'ad was a part of the "inner circle" of Hamas leaders who planned the October 7 attacks, which led to the outbreak of the Gaza war. At the beginning of the war, he was widely identified as No. 4 in the Hamas military hierarchy… By December 2025, he became Hamas's de facto chief of staff after much of its leadership was killed by Israel, with Israeli intelligence officials considering him the second-most senior Hamas military official. He played a large role in developing and adapting to military strategies and doctrines, such as guerrilla warfare, and was also responsible for replacing slain brigade commanders and training their replacements.

   The Herald reported this morning Israel's govt using tit for tat logic to try to teach Hamas to honour the peace deal (instead of tradition):

   Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that “in response to the detonation of a Hamas explosive device that wounded our forces today in the Yellow Area of the Gaza Strip … [they] instructed the elimination of the terrorist Raad Saad”. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/israel-says-strike-kills-senior-hamas-weapons-chief-raad-saad-in-gaza/SK35XPDMIZAXLA3PYYRWREEJQU/
7. Bearded Git 7

   15 December 2025 at 4:01 am

   If you look at the graphs in the Wiki NZ election polling data/poll of polls, that One News poll is so obviously a rogue poll.

   It has done the Left a favour by keeping Luxon in his job.

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