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Open Mike 20/03/2026

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 20th, 2026 - 21 comments
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21 comments on “Open Mike 20/03/2026 ”

  1. Hunter Thompson II 1
    20 March 2026 at 9:08 am

    There is a prolonged dry spell happening across NZ right now.

    I wonder if the weather gods are going to let that run on for a few more weeks, then hit us with another Cyclone Gabrielle.

    Reply
  2. Rakuraku 2
    20 March 2026 at 9:13 am

    It would appear that Trump has shot himself in both the left foot and the right foot with this Circus that is going on in Iran ???

    Reply
    • lprent 2.1
      20 March 2026 at 10:00 am

      Pretty much. Drearily predictable. Not exactly the only one.

      Was watching Al Jazeera news this morning. It switched over to a American segment hosted by an aussie. They had a recently retired senior CIA spook and a ex-US ambassador to Bahrain talking.

      The CIA bod appeared to think that relations between Iran and the US started in 1979, effectively saying that hostile relations started then, and have only now broken out into a hot war. Not exactly the way that Iranians view it.

      They remember 1953. The first major CIA active operation was in 1953. The CIA on their second attempt managed to engineer a coup d’état of the democratically elected government at the behest of the UK and its oil companies in favour of the Shah and some of the conservative religious leaders.

      The UK and French oil companies, joined by the US companies, then proceeded to continue resource stripping oil and gas and avoiding audits of their royalty payments.

      After the coup, the religious ayatollahs fell out with the shah, eventually forming theocratic state in 1979. In a large part because the CIA secured the coup by having ‘volunteer’ contractors set up the really nasty police state for the Shah that eventually drove the islamic revolution in Iran.

      It would appear that the CIA prefers not to remember that in effect they caused antagonism that ultimately drives this current war. No wonder the dumb-arse in the White House misunderstood that attacking the Iran at the behest of Israel with no obvious immediate threat to the US or even Iran’s neighbour was going to get the obvious reactions from Iran.

      The strategy of the dimwitted deal botcher and his brainless minion in the Pentagon appears to have been gleaned from war comics rather from reality. Iran has been aware of the limitations of their military, which is why they specialise in assymmetric warfare strategies. Economic warfare using cheap drones and missiles was always the obvious counter-strategy.

      I could see it from here well before this war. Why didn’t Trump or Netayahu – who are purportably unprepared for it?

      Reply
    • Psycho Milt 2.2
      20 March 2026 at 3:17 pm

      Remains to be seen. We could wish that it wasn't the most incompetent US administration in a long time that finally decided to do something about Iran, but it's the one that did actually decide to do something, so it is what it is.

      The people running the US military are anything but incompetent, and they have specific war aims regardless of whatever wild shit Trump is blathering at media from one hour to the next, those aims being: degrade Iran's military capability, destroy its ballistic missile manufacturing capability and further damage its nuclear weapons programme. Those aims are being met pretty conclusively.

      Israel has a separate war aim of killing as many of Iran's leaders as it can manage. Again, those aims are being met pretty conclusively, to the extent that they're now going after local IRGC and Basij leaders. Given the everyday activities and long-term objectives of the deceased leaders, the success of that war aim benefits the Iranian people and the whole Middle East, not just Israel.

      So much for the good news. Problems:

      1. Incompetent US administration means no attempt to get either Congress or public support for a military solution, and apparently no contingency planning whatsoever for the highly foreseeable threat to shipping in the Hormuz strait, and a "Secretary of War" who comes across like the bully who'll get his come-uppance at the end of the movie.

      2. Iran has to be dealt with because people who are dedicated to exterminating another country and think being killed guarantees them a place in Heaven can't be allowed to develop long-range ballistic missiles, let alone nuclear warheads to put in them. However, fanatics are very hard to get rid of unless you invade and destroy them city by city, so the current US war aims are insufficient to the requirements of the job.

      3. The Islamic Republic has been very good at ruthlessly murdering anyone capable of forming a potential alternative government. That doesn't bode well for the future if the regime is brought down.

      So, yeah, hard to tell. Militarily it's a roaring success. Politically, much harder to say whether things are going well or badly.

      Reply
  3. Drowsy M. Kram 3
    20 March 2026 at 9:26 am

    In the run up to election 2023, NAct was looking forward to governing alone,
    for the sorted alone – not that Winston First has been much of a handbrake.

    How a crucial 45-minute meeting between ministers took pay equity claims away from tens of thousands of women [careful now RNZ, 20 March 2026]

    Pay equity specialist Amy Ross, the former head of the pay equity taskforce, said those briefings exposed what she said was a longheld, ideological view among the agencies: that pay equity was nothing but a risk to the government.

    "They never thought about it for what it really was – an evidence-based market correction that had massive downstream benefits for communities – money flowing into households, services improving and the country retaining workers," Ross said. "They only ever talked about the 'cost' of pay equity. But the 'cost' is women subsidising labour. It's actually a cost to women."

    Enter Brooke van Velden

    Reply
  4. gsays 4
    20 March 2026 at 10:17 am

    What's that hollow sound?

    Holcim's threat to truck cement round. Doubly stupid as they cocked up the redundancy process so are paying workers to stay home.

    Reply
  5. BK 5
    20 March 2026 at 10:43 am

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/590140/pumping-wastewater-into-kawarau-river-only-option-queenstown-mayor-says

    Another cracking piece of planing for the long term future of NZ's pristine environment. I wonder if any of these great community leaders, past and present ever stopped to once think that you cannot expand, expand, expand ( ie: growth, growth, growth) when you do nothing about how our communities are going to cope with the extra shit ( pun not intended) that comes with that.

    Reply
  6. Incognito 6
    20 March 2026 at 11:01 am

    Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman might be ruffling some feathers of a peacock or mother hen. I think it’ll be good to hear a relatively impartial view on the rapidly evolving situation; Breman is fresh & new in the job, she’s neutral & objective, and she’s (relatively) independent of the powers that be.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/590157/reserve-bank-head-anna-breman-will-publicly-speak-about-the-iran-conflict

    Reply
  7. Sanctuary 7
    20 March 2026 at 11:21 am

    Forget China buying the Cook Islands premier a new car or whatever, IMHO this is what a paid for crooked minister and the concomitant corruption looks like.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bill-would-remove-commercial-minimum-snapper-size-under-fisheries-reforms/XY572IFIL5BYPL5URB3KEYLHQY/

    Reply
  8. Incognito 8
    20 March 2026 at 12:05 pm

    But for the moment, Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis are seizing the opportunity to attempt to model leadership in a time of crisis.

    […]

    Moreover, regular updates also keep Luxon and Willis in the public’s view, potentially crowding out coalition ministers who have stepped up their political competition in election year.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/20/luxon-reaches-for-silver-linings-in-looming-fuel-crisis/

    It’s a very crowded & noisy space with Shane Jones, armies of economists, the Treasury, and now also the RBNZ starting to wade in.

    Then there’s the question as to whether the Government’s actions will actually alleviate the pain, at the point where action is required. Willis has been firm that any financial assistance would be narrowly targeted. That indicates it’s likely to skip over the “squeezed middle” Luxon spent the cost-of-living crisis advocating for.

    All the kind words in the world won’t mean much if people struggle to pay the price at the pump and the Government looks too stingy to help out.

    The cost-of-living is most acutely painful at the bottom, not in the middle, and least of all, at the top-end of town (aka the wealthy & sorted). If indeed the targeted support will go through WFF and nothing else will be offered in immediate financial assistance, then I think the ‘package’ can and will be criticised. A multi-pronged approach has merit, in my opinion, e.g., target WFF and discount PT fares temporarily, for people aged under 25, if must be.

    Reply
  10. Rakuraku 10
    20 March 2026 at 12:43 pm

    Christopher Luxon is now officially a Big White Samoan Kahuna/Matai.

    Reply
  11. Ad 11
    20 March 2026 at 4:55 pm

    Apparently Wellington's Moa Point sewerage plant just needed a good fart.

    Reply
  12. Joe90 12
    20 March 2026 at 8:15 pm

    Luxoon lies, again.

    Helen Clark

    @HelenClarkNZ

    #NZ Cabinet had been briefed on the framework of a critical minerals deal with USA & NZ officials had negotiated amendments to its text well before the PM claimed that discussion was speculative & very preliminary. His statement was clearly wrong. A habit.

    https://nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-zealand-officials-have-had-united-states-critical-minerals-framework-for-months-despite-christopher-luxon-saying-talks-very-preliminary/premium/52JCAXNINZAH5KVRMU2UBTQ3NI/

    https://x.com/HelenClarkNZ/status/2034129090949665239

    https://archive.li/Jh0kA (nzherald)

    Reply

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