The Daily Blog Open Mic – Monday – 9th September 2019

1. I noted the news item early on Radionz today 9/9/19 about the use of certain music of a calming nature for dogs. Apparently it is very effective in kennels for noisy, stressed dogs. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018712410/music-going-to-the-dogs

   Then there was an item about bullying in the NZ police and an apparent callousness in dealing with it from the top police management. There was a comment read, that took the approach that they were just people who couldn’t accept orders and discipline. I wondered if the one news item could be used to advantage on the other. Perhaps there could be piped calming music all day in the offices of top police management so they can keep their cool, and remember the importance of positive policing in helping the country from becoming barking mad. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/398383/bullying-in-the-police-it-just-builds-up-and-builds-up

2. Scary stuff and instead of decreasing, seems to be increasing as years go by!!!

   65 Interesting Facts about Pollution

   https://www.factretriever.com/pollution-facts

   A sample…

   Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, with over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide each year.

   Cigarette butts are composed of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic that takes years to decompose; estimates vary between 5-400 years.

   Over 80% of items buried in landfills could be recycled instead.

   Over one trillion plastic bags are used each year around the world. This equates to 100 million barrels of oil.

   In Florida alone, hundreds of thousands of sea turtle hatchlings are killed due to light pollution. Hatchlings gravitate toward brighter lights, and, consequently, crawl toward city lights rather than to the sea. Additionally, light pollution affects the breeding and migration of many types of birds

   Scientists report that carbon dioxide emissions are decreasing the pH of the oceans and, in essence, acidifying them.

   The largest e-waste site on earth is in Guiyu, China. Approximately 88% of children there have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

   Lake Karachay, located in the southern Ural Mountains in Russia, is considered to be the most polluted spot on earth after it was used for decades as a dumping site for nuclear waste. Spending just 5 minutes near the lake unprotected can kill a person. In the 1960s, the lake dried out and radioactive dust carried by the wind irradiated half a million people with radiation equivalent to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

   Studies show that children in families who live near freeways are twice as likely to have autism as kids who live farther away from freeways. Scientists believe the increased risk is due to exposure to pollutants given off by freeway traffic.

   Sound pollution from ships, sonar devices, and oil rigs can disrupt the migration, communication, hunting, and reproduction patterns of many marine animals, such as whales and dolphins.

   An estimated 1 in 8 global deaths per year, or 7 million people, is linked to air pollution

   Approximately 30% of the air pollution in San Francisco originates in China

   The world’s largest CO2 emitter is China. China emits more CO2 than the U.S. and Canada combined, up by 171% since 2000. However, China has four times as many people as the United States, so the Chinese still burn far less fossil fuel on average than Americans.

3. I think about a vision sometimes – of a retaliatory kind. I think of Treasury economists of the 1980s, such as Doug Andrews, and the terrible trio Roger Douglas, David Caygill and Richard Prebble. They would be imprisoned sitting in easy chairs and have to watch endless videos of NZs downfall, and slide in standard of living and business acumen and shonky outcomes all day. For light relief they would watch USA and UK politics. They would have to drink 1 litre of milk a day, and eat vegan food so as to be healthy. For light relief they would watch USA and UK politics. Half an hour in the exercise yard a day, until they got as big as David Lange. And for practice at being smart-arse money men, they could play Monopoly and see who always got all the property and charged top rents and rates of interest. And when they found out, they could strangle him, until there was only one left to smirk at being Top Dog.

   Just a quick run through for the children of the 1980s who wouldn’t know all about this.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics#Minister_of_Finance,_1984%E2%80%931988
   In 1984, Roger Douglas was made Minister of Finance, with two associate ministers of finance, David Caygill and Richard Prebble. They became known as the “Treasury Troika” or the “Troika”, and became the most powerful group in Cabinet. Douglas was the strategist, Prebble the tactician, while Caygill mastered the details. With Caygill the “nice cop” and Prebble the “nasty cop”, Douglas could sometimes appear as steering a considered middle course. Later Trevor de Cleene was made undersecretary to Douglas, with special responsibility for Inland Revenue.

   Earler: https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6l1/lange-david-russell/page-2
   Lange was supported by other MPs who saw Rowling as an impediment to their ambitions and to the more innovative economic policies towards which some of them, notably Roger Douglas, were working. Michael Bassett, Richard Prebble and Mike Moore were other leading figures in the group that became known as ‘the fish and chips brigade’ when they were photographed sharing takeaways after their first attempt to overthrow
   Rowling in 1980 failed by a caucus vote of 19–18.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Labour_Government_of_New_Zealand#Division_over_Rogernomics
   The “Douglas” faction, which supported the reforms, dominated Cabinet. The doctrine of Cabinet collective responsibility under the “Westminister system” requires all Cabinet members to support Cabinet policy, even if they do not agree with it. Since the Cabinet had a slight majority in the Labour caucus, the Douglas faction was able to dominate caucus even though they were a minority.
   It was later alleged[citation needed] that Douglas and his supporters had used underhand tactics such as introducing important motions at the last minute, preventing serious debate. David Lange also complained in his autobiography about the “Backbone Club”, a caucus group chaired by Ron Bailey which supported Douglas and Rogernomics.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics
   Douglas characterised the policy package as restrained and responsible, and an appropriate response to the country’s economic difficulties. He acknowledged the contribution to the package of Doug Andrew, a Treasury officer on secondment to the parliamentary opposition, among others. W H Oliver noted the close alignment of the package and Economic Management, Treasury’s 1984 briefing to the incoming government. His assessment was that Douglas was predisposed towards the Treasury view because its implementation required decisive action and because greater reliance on the market solved what Douglas saw as the problem of interest-group participation in policy-making.

   Update and Overview:
   3 May 2017 Branko Marcetic: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/new-zealand-neoliberalism-inequality-welfare-state-tax-haven/

4. Currently watching Bojo and the Irish Taiosaich (cant spell it) ‘answering’ press questions. Never heard such meaningless answers from two “leaders” especially Johnson, who hasn’t a clue what to do about Brexit and the hard border backstop. Bojo is a useless Etonian rich boy twat who coudn’t organise a f*ck in a whorehouse. Hugh Grant described him perfectly. In spite of his daddy’s rich boy purchased qualifications from Cambridge or was it Oxford .. or was it Trump University (peals of laughter) he’s as dumb as Trump. and about as moral. Corbyn is way above him in intellect and ethics.

5. The Standard Open Mike for 9th September: There’s half an hour I’ll never get back.
   I thought it was the Right that usually eat themselves – usually out of an economic competitiveness, ego and a synthetic kind of testosterone.
   Now it’s the bloody left trying to show intellectual one-up-man-ship and superior egos.

   • I’v done a bit of that in my life, so has Roger Doiglas, David Caygill and Richard Pebble (never did fix Dicks last name in spell check). We shouldn’t be to involved in routine tactics as we may miss the battle raging all around us. Climate change, even if the scientist are 10% correct will take all of us.

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