The Daily Blog Open Mic – Friday 12th August 2016

1. i am kinda despairing over andrew little..

   ..there is so much he is promising to do nothing about..

   http://www.whoar.co.nz/2016/op-ed-even-littles-pot-referendum-cannabis-still-illegal/

   (excerpt..)

   ed:..that is the best we are expected to bloody hope for..?..and the police still chasing ‘growers/dealers’..?..and taxpayers still forking out a half a billion dollars a year..?..

   ..still forgoing that tax-bounty that places like colorado are swimming in..?..to the extent colorado is now giving a tax-refund to all taxpayers (!)..

   but here in new zealand..andrew little just wants all this prohibition‘madness’ to just continue..?..

   ..f*ck off..!..eh..?)

2. A problem of tenancy I have not considered before is that tenants have lesser free speech than home owners.

   I have been seeking fences and other sites for placards for the Minto for Mayor campaign. Many homes on busy roads are rentals and when asked almost all tenants say that they would have to ask the manager or that I should approach the manager. They can’t decide for themselves whether to express a political preference or opinion on the fence of the property they are supposedly enjoying use of.

   An example I knocked on the door of a house next to a Baptist church on a busy road. The bloke who answered said he couldn’t decide I would have to speak to the landlord. The landlord next door was the Baptist church. Now that is restricting the tenant’s free speech.

   Interestingly I approached the landlord and asked to do it. They rejected my plea on the grounds that it would not be aesthetic. Our policy platform includes a living wage and a large public housing project, both of which policies many churches are supporting campaigns for. So for baptists aesthetics overrule the need to feed and house the poor???

3. More stuff to worry about re the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan, presently being voted in by the Governing Body of Auckland Council, step by step, recommendation by recommendation, amendment by amendment by Council planners:
   http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/82950123/little-protection-for-aucklands-future-notable-trees

   So much for “leafy suburbs”, they may become a thing of the past, not just due to more intensification, also in some of them.

   I have also been following this live-stream:
   http://councillive.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/

   It seems the Councillors are mostly blindly relying on their planning staff and management, who did with the vested interest holding business and developer parties, and some central government agencies, dominate the whole “independent” hearing process.

   So any recommendation by the Panel that they agreed with gets votes for in favour and waved through, and those where some amendments were sought by Council’s planners, they then mostly support that.

   Not many questions are asked, not many details checked, I bet most of our representatives hardly read many of the various submissions on the Plan themselves, and they rather rely on what is presented to them, and then claim, it was all “democratic” and went through the “scrutiny” or a long hearing process, which is BS.

   Only 34 to 35 percent of Aucklanders bothered voting last election, and hence here we have Councillors claim they act in the name of Aucklanders, bringing in loose, liberal rules that will only favour developers, building companies, other businesses and also Council, all keen on “growing” the city for growth’s sake, to earn ever more money, in profits, rates and whatever they can dream of.

   Who cares about sustainability, who cares about costs for infrastructure, who cares about limited water supplies, who cares about the environment.

   Auckland should rather shrink in area, intensify smartly and carefully with a sound, firm planning framework, rather than nearly doubling the population which will cause endless future issues nobody likes to think or talk about.

4. At this time of year we should recall
   Racism, Hiroshima and the Pacific War: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/the-pacific-war-racism-and-hiroshima/

5. And when we think about imperialist war, we should also recall the introduction of peacetime conscription in New Zealand and the campaign against it, almost 70 years ago:
   https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/labours-introduction-of-peacetime-conscription-and-the-fight-against-it/

6. Subject: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201811871 Hillary Clinton promises to reject TPPA today, and here on this RNZ audio at the 5minute mark

   http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201811871

   Hillary Clinton promises to reject TPPA today, and here on this RNZ audio at the 5minute mark you can hear her speech today on this announcement, so listen up SS Joyce/Shonkey who were the architect’s of TPPA get real and dump it or your jobs!

7. @cleangreen – not so sure HilLIARy will keep her promise once elected as president. She is owned by the corporates remember.
   Her promise actually makes me nervous…

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