Open mike 30/05/2015

25 comments on “Open mike 30/05/2015”

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    1. 2.2

      @ colonial rawshark
      There was a great interview Kim Hill and Russian commentator this morning on Radionz. You I think, have commented on the deliberate confusion the Russians are creating with carefully directed propaganda. Kim Hill practices the critical thinking that the interviewer recommends and throws him a bit.
      http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201756482
      Peter Pomerantsev: Putin’s Russia
      08:15 Senior fellow at the Legatum Institute who spent nine years as a television producer in Russia. He writes for The Atlantic and the London Review of Books, and is the author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia.

    1. 3.1

      And this is the professionalism and attitude of the SIS analysts (who then get promoted to management) who have all the tech tools required to intercept, scan and record everyone’s electronic communications, access your hard drives and computers, etc.

        1. 3.2.1.1

          b wagon – key is just another in a long line of elites in this country who disdain the general populous. Key’s great gift – is he never, never shows that distain – except in ways which will win him votes.

    2. 3.3

      There is only one word for it ianmac:

      PATHETIC.

      They should have been sacked for behaving like a bunch of philistines.

      1. 3.3.1

        @Anne
        The willingness of NZ officials to obey and operate under USA law must be one of the most unsettling (treasonable?) behaviours that we have witnessed in Dotcom’s story.

        Interesting on Radionz interview this am with Jeremy Jones.
        He says that USA law was quoted and used in the Court case against his satirical video against Key for Darren Watson’s song Planet Key. What authority has the USA over us? We haven’t signed up to the TPPA yet.

        10:05 Playing Favourites with Jeremy Jones
        10:05 Director of the Auckland multi-media company Propeller Motion who created the video for Planet Key, and the Animation Nation series for TV3’s The Nation.
        He created the video for Darren Watson’s song Planet Key, which was banned from broadcast during the 2014 election campaign and is now back on sale with all royalties going to Red Cross Nepal.

  1. 4

    The PalestIne Football Association (PFA) dropped its motion on Friday asking for Israel to be suspended by FIFA.

    Instead, soccer’s governing body agreed to send observers to monitor the freedom of players and officials to travel to and from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories — one of the main complaints raised by Palestinian authorities.

    In a statement from Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed what he called the Palestinians’ failure to freeze Israel out of world soccer, saying it represented a success for his government’s diplomatic effortsThe Palestine FA (PFA) has complained of anti-Arab racism in the Israeli game and accused Israel of hampering its activities and restricting the movement of players between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    Israel cites security concerns for the restrictions and the country’s football association has argued that it has no control over such matters.

    FIFA has been trying to settle the matter for two years and Blatter this month travelled to the region and met Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Palestine had asked for a motion proposing that Israel be suspended, which would have meant that Israeli teams could not take part in international competitions, but Rajoub said he had been persuaded to back down

  2. 6

    Stephen Fry always seems to have something interesting to say – about anything.
    This is his comment in The Statesman in answer to a question about things you can’t talk about today.

    An example from each side. The truth has to be told about the genocidal madness of Hamas (read their “covenant” online if you don’t believe me. It’s not just every Jew across the world they want to kill, it’s also – I’m serious – Rotarians).
    The truth also has to be told about the failure of the west’s “war on drugs”. Not just a tactical failure, but a ­strategic and moral one.

    http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/05/what-can-t-you-say-stephen-fry-slavoj-i-ek-elif-shafak-and-more-say-unsayable

    1. 7.1

      I know responding to myself…

      But this story has developed wings. Always rely on Aussies to play the idiot card.

      And looks like Eddie McGuire put his foot in his mouth again.

      http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-30/mcguire-denies-violent-and-aggressive-comment-on-goodes-war-dance

      http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/take-chill-pill-afl-star-adam-goodes-tells-critics-war-dance-6326578

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/68991491/racism-row-erupts-over-aussie-rules-victory-war-dance

      Goodes interview in the stuff link is well worth watching. Legend.

  3. 8

    While the class struggle is at a record low in this country, in Ireland significant sections of the working class in the south began battling in the aftermath of the financial sector meltdown there against attempts by the Fianna Fail/Greens coalition to impose austerity on them. The anti-working class measures were stepped up when the Fine Gael/Labour coalition took power: they have tried to impose household and water taxes on the population, as well as cutting benefits and pensions. Colluding with these enemies of the working class have been most of the trade union leadership. There is now real hatred in working class communities for the Irish Labour Party and for many of the trade union leaderships, leaderships who have done their damnedest to obstruct and prevent the working class fighting back.

    As long-time revolutionary Cork city activist James McBarron noted in a comment on Redline, these working class communities provided massive majorities in support of same-sex marriage in then recent referendum, indicating the depth of solidarity with all the oppressed and discriminated against.

    In the north, too, there has been an increase in struggle, with rising protests against austerity, despite the attempts of trade union leaders to prevent and corral strike action.

    One of the products of the growth of working class militancy has been the growth of socialist-republicanism in the tradition of working class leaders like James Larkin and James Connolly. For instance, nine years old this year, is éirígí which has grown from a campaigns group of half a dozen people in Dublin into a militant socialist-republican party with circles across the island. . .

    full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/supporting-the-irish-revolution/

    This includes three great video clips of eirigi speakers at protests in Dublin.

    Phil

  4. 9

    PS: At the end of the second clip, the one with Ciaran Heaphy speaking, you can click onto the wonderful Damien Dempsey performing ‘James Connolly’ at one of the massive protests against the Fine Gael/Labour attempt to impose water taxes on the working class.

  5. 10

    Campbell Live @CampbellLiveNZ

    Dear NZ, last night’s show was our most watched, EVER. 484,000 viewers plus 48,000 on +1 = 532,000. TV3’s biggest show of 2015. THANK YOU!

    It beat TV1’s Seven Sharp, which had 411,580 viewers in the 7pm time slot.

    Meanwhile, according to TV3’s own research, John Campbell is twice as popular as Paul Henry.

    Extensive polling commissioned by Mediaworks late last year, understood to be when the channel’s bosses were weighing the future of the now-departed broadcaster, showed Campbell was picked by 29 per cent of respondents as their most preferred current affairs presenter.

    Paul Henry, who then fronted a late night show bearing his own name at the time, rated 14 per cent. Henry has gone on to headline MediaWorks’ breakfast television and radio show.

    The research also showed Campbell Live was watched by more people than Seven Sharp and the Paul Henry Show – results at odds with official rating information that was used to justify an ultimately terminal review of the show.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/television-industry/news/article.cfm?c_id=260&objectid=11457005

  6. 11

    The private enterprise system is soooo much better…

    A “violent” robber managed to escape from a high-security prison run by the outsourcing giant Serco by walking out with a group of people who were visiting him, The Independent has learnt.

    Haroon Ahmed, 26, is being sought by police after escaping from HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire on Wednesday. He had been in jail since 2008, after being convicted of robbing a garage armed with a knife.

    Sources close to the prison, which has been run by the private company Serco since it opened in 2001, said Ahmed had managed to slip away unnoticed during visiting hours despite being on the prison’s “watch list”.

    …at letting high concern prisoners simply walk out of prison.

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