The Daily Blog Open Mic – Saturday 10th August 2019

1. Journalists being targeted by big business, with dirty politics tactics

   “I’m a journalist. Monsanto built a step-by-step strategy to destroy my reputation”

   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/08/monsanto-roundup-journalist-documents

2. “Truth and transparency are precious commodities, the foundations for the knowledge we all need and deserve about the world we live in. Without truth we cannot know what risks we face, what protections we must make for our families and our futures.

   When corporate power is so intensely brought to silence messengers, to manipulate the public record and public opinion, truth becomes stifled. And we should all be afraid.”

   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/08/monsanto-roundup-journalist-documents

3. Rise of 3rd parties who ‘manage’ everything, while the managers in the military don’t notice they are screwing up…

   “Britain faces an army recruitment crisis, with frontline combat units operating as much as 40% below strength, figures obtained by the Guardian reveal.

   Data released by the Ministry of Defence under freedom of information laws shows the number of soldiers in the British army’s infantry regiments has declined steadily over the past five years. There are more than 2,500 fewer personnel in frontline units than 2015, and all 16 regular regiments are have shortfalls.

   The figures have prompted criticism of the outsourcing company Capita, which signed a contract with the MoD to manage recruitment to the armed forces in 2012, for its “shambolic and chaotic” handling of the situation. The have also been calls for the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, to address the crisis urgently.”

   As well as neoliberalism… one of the best articles about the risks of privatisation of state housing… why have billions being spent on Trident when the UK are effectively screwed by their own people with on going consequences when they can’t even afford the rents to house people to defend the country because they sold it all off to private foreign equity.

   “In 1996, the Ministry of Defence decided to sell off its housing stock. The financier Guy Hands bought it up in a deal that would make his investors billions – and have catastrophic consequences for both the military and the taxpayer.”

   https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/25/mod-privatise-military-housing-disaster-guy-hands

   And finally entering into wars for networking reasons, not with the law on your side, with poor facts and without an achievable plan and ignoring known consequences and fall outs from that action.

   THE 7 BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM BRITAIN’S BLOCKBUSTER IRAQ WAR REPORT

   https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/iraq-war-chilcot-report

   (Clearly with Boris J at the helm and about to leave the EU, the UK has not learnt much of the above from the Chilcot report findings in terms of following a person into the unknown but probable disaster).

4. At some level we all know that anti immigration hysteria is a very bad thing. Politicians like Trump and Winston love to use it to beat us over the head with it and to offer an easy target to blame all the problems on to. Its even easier when the skin colour is different cause you can more easily identify the “problem”. In NZ both historically and currently the easy target has been Asia and in particular China. We have also had Pacific Islanders and in particular many may remember the dawn raids by Muldoons goon squads.
   It would be good if we could remember that these are all people. That they are our friends and neighbours and work colleagues and that the reasons for any of our problems is not their fault. The end place for where allowing us to be persuaded of the above by those with self serving agendas is being reached in the USA where events with striking similarities to those of any fascist regime are now a regular occurrence. The below is a very distressing illustration of an ICE round up of 680 suspected undocumented workers. It is expected that many of those taken will subsequently be found to be documented.
   In the case below, children were abandoned at schools and daycares…

   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52061.htm

5. On the subject of the dawn raids there is an exhibition with this theme in Porirua coming up.
   https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2019/the-dawn-raids-educate-to-liberate/porirua-mana?utm_campaign=also-visited-events&utm_medium=click-through&utm_source=2019%2Fhere-from-kupe-to-cook%2Fporirua-mana

6. More evidence of National’s dirty politics part two is now fronting on main stream media RNZ and others.

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018707861/the-battle-of-two-julie-annes-mps-roles-and-the-public-interest

   Chris Bishop is questioning Julie Anne Genter over a letter sent from her as deputy Minister of Transport to Minister of transport Phil Twyford?????
   The letter apparently contains Green Party opinions expressed by Genter to Twyford on a Wellington City transport plan; opinions which may have influenced the shape of the plan that was agreed to.

   But the details of the letter are unknown and have not been the main fight so far. The fight has been over whether the letter should be public.

   Was that the best “dirt” the National Party strategists coucld find on these associated Ministers of Transport?

   So how did he get the letter which was suppoosed to be an ‘internal ‘confidential’ document as we saw when Natioinal was last in Government?

   Was it an internional leaked document sent from a ‘National Party mole’ opeerating inside these two Ministers offices?

   There is something very odd about the Minister oif Transport Phil Twyford’s office because for two years we have as a NGO in Napier been refused our letters requesting to meet with Minister Phil Twyford and on several occassions our NGO has called Phil Twyford’s office and been ‘rebuttled’ with a sharp refussal to discuss the issue of why we are not recieving an apointment time to meet with Phil twyford in Wellington.

   We are not impressed at all with the office staff at Phil Twyfords office and perhsaps they need to investigate the beackground of all Government ministers as some may be opposition policitical operatives trying to sabotage the govenement?

   I recall that during the Last ‘toxic’ National Government it was Steven Joyce who sent a memo around the office staffers warning them that they would need to be loyal to the ministers and not report any issues or information to the press that ?may embassess the Governemt and would be a ‘dismissable offence if it was carried out”.

   Perhaps now Labour leader PM Adern needs to repeat this threat using the Steven Joyce memo again during her reign?

   Or at least conduct full background intellegence into the ‘polical leanings’ of all office staff within the parliamentary pool?

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