Wheeler's Corner 43 Special US Veterans suffer under Trump.

1960 as a soldier in 1 Bn RNZIR

                                  

Dear Peter,
I really like the emphasis you are placing on the world's most important question - global heating.Some people still have hope, and that's a good thing. Here is an article about one of the other things you care about: America's treatment of veterans. As usual, it takes one person's predicament as a way of gaining traction.
Larry.

Thank you Larry for this vital information from the Guardian [International] I've decided that I will share it with my anti-war readers and supporters: 

Why do this, because it makes horrific reading and reveals the bull Shit spoken by Trump when he speaks about Veterans and his childlike understanding of what war does to people...it is doubly weird when one considers Trump's guttless behaviour when he was called upon to serve HIS country...he avoided his duty by lying...and he now commands the US military beat that for ironic stupidity. 
 

'I refuse to die in here': the marine who survived two tours and is now fighting deportation

In his 21 months of detention, Jose Segovia Benitez says he’s been denied critical treatment for his PTSD and heart condition

by Sam Levin in Adelanto, California

Sat 7 Sep 2019 06.00 BST Last modified on Sat 7 Sep 2019 06.44 BST

But the US is not helping him recover. On the contrary, the government may be leading him to his death.

Segovia is currently imprisoned at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in Adelanto, California where he says he is being denied critical medical and mental health care. The 38-year-old veteran is facing deportation to El Salvador, a country he left when he was three years old and where his loved ones fear he could be killed.

 “I’m not going to die here. I refuse to die here,” Segovia said on a recent morning, wearing a red jail uniform and seated in a cramped room with no windows to the outside.

During his 21 months of detention in the southern California facility, Ice has failed to provide adequate care for Segovia’s serious heart condition, denied him proper treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and repeatedly placed him in isolation, according to the former marine and his lawyers. The consequences, they fear, could be fatal.

Segovia is one of fifteen current detainees who filed a federal lawsuit against Ice last month alleging medical neglect and horrific conditions that rise to the level of “torture”. He is also one of the estimated thousands of veterans who have faced deportation over the years despite their service to the country.

He said he didn’t know how much more he could take and was desperate to leave Adelanto and return to his hometown and family in Long Beach, California: “I want my freedom so bad … I try to hold onto any kind of strength I have, but I’m not doing well mentally, emotionally, physically.”

Life after war: ‘I tried to seek help’

Segovia, who became a legal permanent resident soon after arriving in the US as a child, became interested in the military at a very young age.

Raised in Long Beach, a city just south of Los Angeles, he has early memories of playing with toy soldiers. In high school, he was different from his peers and drawn to the discipline of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, a US Army program for students.

At age 18 in 1999, one week after he graduated high school, he enlisted in the marines.

“I joined not to go to war, because nobody ever signs up for that,” he said.

But then war happened.

He was deployed as part of the initial Iraq invasion in 2003, ultimately completing two tours of duty.

His mother, Martha Garcia, recalled the stress of his deployment and her constant fear that soldiers would show up at her door announcing his death: “I didn’t want him to go. It was very, very scary for me. But he said, ‘No, I wanna go.’”

Segovia survived – but barely. He was honorably discharged in 2004 after he was badly injured by an explosive device in Iraq the year before.

He struggles to talk about it today: “I’ve seen combat. I don’t like that subject, I stay away from it.”

Life after war was a battle, and he said he had a hard time returning to society and finding a stable routine.

Doctors suggested he find jobs that didn’t involve loud noises, because that triggered his PTSD, his mother said. He worked a range of jobs, including in retail, security and manual labor. Meanwhile, he struggled to get the urgent mental health treatment he needed from Veterans Affairs, she said, adding it took roughly seven years to properly diagnose his PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

 “I was trying to seek help,” Segovia Benitez said. “Meanwhile, you’re doing your own therapy.”

He struggled with substance abuse, had run-ins with the law, and was ultimately convicted of numerous serious felony crimes related to drug possession and violent offenses. He was sent to prison and due to be released in January of 2018.

He was eager to get out, his mother recalled. She was planning to make him a welcome-home meal of tamales.

But he never came. After serving his sentence, Ice agents were awaiting him at the prison to take him into custody.

When immigrants are sentenced to ‘double jeopardy’

Immigrants have long served in the military, with an estimated 5,000 enlisting each year. Service has traditionally provided a path to citizenship for foreign-born members, and roughly 130,000 of them have been naturalized since 2001.

However bureaucratic challenges mean some immigrant service members don’t complete it, and under the Trump administration, a series of changes have made the process even harder. Some also mistakenly believe citizenship is automatic, advocates say. When immigrant veterans who haven’t been naturalized are convicted of certain felonies, they can then be deported.

Ice says it doesn’t know how many veterans it has deported, but groups that assist deported veterans have tracked roughly 400 cases since 2014. Advocates estimate there are likely thousands.

In deportation proceedings, Ice is required to take into consideration a veteran’s health and deployment record and elevate their cases to senior officials, but a federal watchdog department recently found that the agency frequently failed to do so.

Segovia repeatedly submitted paperwork for naturalization, but the process was never completed, according to Brandee Dudzic, one of his advocates.

“The system was designed for them to fail at every single step of the way,” said Dudzic, founder of Repatriate Our Patriots. Immigrant service members sometimes start the immigration process and then get deployed and the paperwork doesn’t follow them, or they have difficulties navigating bureaucracy due to PTSD.

As a result, disabled veterans have ended up in prisons and then Ice detention centers where their struggles to access healthcare are exacerbated and their mental health further deteriorates.

 Segovia served two tours of duty before being honorably discharged. Photograph: Courtesy the family of Jose Segovia Benitez

“This was not what I envisioned my life to be,” Segovia said.

He noted that he was already incarcerated for his offenses, served his sentence and paid his debts to society. Instead of letting him rebuild his life, he is being punished again – in new and more severe ways: “You hear about double jeopardy, but this feels like triple jeopardy … I did time, and now I’m being exiled?”

One of the most upsetting moments of his detention, he said, was when an Ice agent suggested that America was not his home. “‘Thank you for your service, but you were not born in this country’,” Segovia recalled the officer saying.

In Adelanto, a legacy of death and scandal

The immigration jail where Segovia has lived for more than 20 months is located in Adelanto, a remote desert town that is a two-hour drive inland from Los Angeles. A road sign at the edge of town advertises a “city with unlimited possibilities”.

Geo Group, the private prison company that runs the jail, has repeatedly been accused of abuse and neglect. Last year, a US government audit found there were “nooses” made out of bedsheets in 15 cells, which guards overlooked even though someone had died by suicide in 2017. That year, three detainees died within three months, and there were reports of at least five suicide attempts.

Guards also improperly shackled detainees and placed them in solitary confinement and failed to provide adequate medical care, the audit said.

“These people don’t know how to treat combat stress veterans,” Segovia said. “It’s a slap in the face. I’ve been in a downward spiral of depression.”

He has been isolated in segregation multiple times, typically for three to five days, during which time he did not receive daily medical or mental health check-ins, according to the recent lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Advocates and other groups.

He has repeatedly complained of chest pain, dizziness and other heart problems, but has been denied timely care, the suit said. Lawyers alleged that the facility “entirely ignored” multiple abnormal cardiology test results, and that on 3 July, after he reported significant chest pain, he wasn’t evaluated for seven hours. At that point, the facility called 911 and took him to emergency care.

Segovia had no way to tell his family, and after his mother didn’t hear from him by phone, she rushed to the detention center in person, demanding answers, she recalled.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to leave until you tell me where my son is’,” said Garcia, 58. “They said, ‘You can’t see him. He’s not here’.”

Eventually, she heard from the family member of another detainee that he had been hospitalized, but she couldn’t find out where he was taken and wasn’t able to visit him.

“How am I going to get better?” Segovia asked. Some days, he added, “I shut down. I close everybody out.”

An enduring patriotism: ‘I took an oath’

Segovia is running out of options.

An Ice spokeswoman said in a statement to the Guardian that he is a “citizen of El Salvador” who was “ordered removed to his home country” and has an “extensive criminal history”.

A Geo Group spokesperson did not comment on Segovia’s case, but said the allegations in the lawsuit were “baseless” and that the corporation’s medical programs “provide 24/7 access to health care free of charge … supported by professional teams, including full-time physicians”. The VA declined to comment.

Segovia’s advocates are now urging California governor Gavin Newsom to pardon him for his criminal record, which would shield him from deportation to El Salvador, where he would be vulnerable to gang violence.

Garcia said she wanted Newsom to know that her son’s incarceration and pending deportation was ruining so many lives. “It’s not just my son. My whole family is broken. We’re asking him to please help.”

For Segovia, being forced to live in his birth country is unfathomable: “There’s nothing over there for me.”

Segovia said he tries to stay positive and spends time assisting deaf detainees, who can’t communicate with the guards. He learned sign language after he thought he might lose his hearing due to injuries overseas.

“I don’t like to see injustices. I have to stand up for those that need help,” he said. “I am not afraid of retaliation because I’ve been through worse.”

Somedays, he wants to be deported, just to feel free. But he continues to fight for the sake of his family.

And despite everything, his love for his country remains deep, he said. He has a tattoo of the Statue of Liberty on the side of his body and another on his arm that says USMC to commemorate his service.

“Patriotism is still a part of me. I took an oath long ago, and I haven’t untaken that oath,” he said, adding, “Everything I love is here. Everything I know is in Long Beach, California.”

And this folks is just what our present Minister of Defence loves to support now days, thank god that we don't have NZ Troops [at least ones we know about] directly assisting dictatorships like Israel and Saudi Arabia, we buy and sell weapons to Israel, and keep our mouths shut about US war crimes. 

Watch really creepy Ron Mark cuddle up to the Israeli dictator:  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=340436336683611

Wheelers Corner 42 7th Sept 2019 Will a burning Amazon shake us up, or will we carry on as normal, sleepwalking.

It’s a cold, wet Friday morning here in Palmerston North, dare I say it yet another one! Still I suppose that this is a sign of the future for the world these days.

The changing weather patterns are no accident of nature, they are the result of mankinds failure to recognise the long ignored impact of greed and unnatural misuse of a world balance of nature vs mankind’s greed and stupity as the major driving force in the destruction of a habitable space for all living creatures be they be animal or vegetable. It seems as if we wont be happy until we’ve destroyed the planet... Greta Thunberg, a hero if ever there was one...speaks the truth and millions and millions of people around the world accept that she is far more honest than many of our so-called leaders...seriously folks compare her with Doanald Trump, she is lights years ahead of him in intelligence and wisdom and she is only 16 years old...

The difference between a carrot and a human being is that a human being has a brain while a carrot with pink hair and small hands does not... man is considered to be the smartest and most intelligent animal on earth...even if he says so himself as Trump keeps doing. his statements on climate change are Bull-S**t at its very best...our children in the main think, Trump is a joke, as di I, and a dangerous one, judging by the nut cases who follow him preaching war and a love for the Zionist dictatorship in Israel.

Dressed for the shocking weather the heroic marchers brave the odds.

But the question our present day children are asking is, “Is that true? Our children are challenging their so-called elders so that a future will exist for them and their children in the not too distant future. This is not an unfair question...those old grey haired males who in general control the political scene thoughout the world, who also indirectually or directly control the wealth spread, the non-sharing, the inequality that allows 1% to own 90% of an individual nations wealth, while the rest barely earn enough to survive.

Our school children and more and more adults have come to recognise the stupity of continuing this idiotic behaviour which will alter the natural balance between nature and the continuation of human life.

There are none so blind as those who can not or will not see what the science has taught us over the last hundred years... leading this driving force for change from our damaging behaviour patterns are those who have accepted that we cannot continue down the self distructive pathway that man has created over the past few hundred years.

Mother and Daughter say it all.

Here in Palmerston North a small group of dedicated human beings have been spending each Friday morning taking the climate message out to the public... this Friday was the 36^th Friday in a row that they have done so. These people are hero’s in every sense of the word. Their protest has been held outside of the Council Chamber, because their main aim has been to get our very, very slow moving, slow learning council to declare a state of emergency in regard to climate change...but it would seem, that the council see’s war as a greater threat than man made climate change so the council spends its time allowing our arms manufacturers to sell weapons to the dictatorship known as Israel and to support NZ to buy arms from Israel, its a strange world we live in...it seems that mankind has forgotten that it is better to make love rather than war...or is it that our so-called leaders recognise the money to be made in making war rather than love...

This mother and her daughter marched this Friday and their message was very clear and precise. “Weep for the Amazon...

While the dictator

Bolsonaro of Brazil

supported by Trump of the USA lights fires in the rain forest known as the Amazon purely for profit and political power and we keep our mouths shut for fear of offending the US bully boy and his Republician mates who just love never ending wars as does our present Mayor and his cronies
. 

This young women says NO.

Oh dear me what has happened to our sense of justice. It takes the courage of Greta Thunberg a 16 year old to stand up to the bully boy dictators, and yes Trump is a dictator just as

Bolsonaro is, any one who can lock up children in cells without toilets, etc and order them to sleep on floors is a dictator, especially when the US President permits his employees to break the law.

Well the marchers carried their coffin around the Square and once again the Councillors steered well clear of the marches, its almost as if the present bunch don't believe in the obvious fact that climate change is a fact of life...the science simply proves it, but alas it would seem that you can take a horse to water but you can't make them drink, especially if its the Manawatu river or Lake Horowhenua in Levin. 

Just as the MRC [Horizons] seems to accept no responsibility for the state of Lake Horowhenua...as does the HDC...a place where the police have attempted to close down any protest about the weakness of the so called CEO of the HDC to actually accept responsibility for continuing to polute the lake even further if that is possible...

Our lungs are on Fire....but hey, profit is more important than life...well so says the climate deniers.

So there you have it, anothe Friday goes by, while our Councillors sit on their hands and unlike countless other councils like Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Nelson along with other regional bodies declaring a climate emergencies.

Still we can only hope that people will have learned from their children or grandchildren just how important it is to take some commonsense steps to protect OUR environment before its too late.

If you love humanity and your children and grand or great-grand children's future I'm sure you will consider carefully to whom you give your tick and number the environmentalists high on your list. Time is running out...but there is still time to do something about our behaviours regarding climate change all that it entails. We must stop pretending that climate change is a hoax...and accept that the science has now well proven that theory to be a hoax...I think if Jesus was alive today he would fully support Greta Thunburg fully...

Join us outside Palmerston North City Council from 12pm - 3pm on Friday 27th September! We will be coming together to demand climate justice and would love you to add your voice. As this is an intergenerational strike, we hope to see adults, teachers, parents, grandparents and everyone standing in behind us rangatahi. See you there!

Toyota give away forgotten in local body elections in PN. Wheelers Corner 41 23rd August 2019

Thanks to Manawatu Peoples Radio and with the very professional chairperson abilities of Fraser Gregg the MPR station Manager and assisted by the Programme Manager Hugh Dingwall. I attended the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday meetings but missed the Monday meeting: 

our Councillors and two candidates came together for a public chat [Tuesday]...around twenty public attended. All of the Councillors public meetings will be available from midweek next week just go to MPR and you can listen to what the Councillors and candidates had to say...You will not hear the Mayor because didn't even bother to turn up to even one meeting...so much for his community connections...he is tighter to Toyota than he is to PN.
 
“One of the subjects was By-Laws and what is entailed in enforcing them. Naturally we here in PN have had many many discussions around this touchy subject... One past mayor I remember considered bringing the local rugby team members to move those begging to move along out of the shopping area...but that died an early death [thank God]

Now depending how you look at it, beggers are seeking extra income by asking the public for money...if one is in that position where one has very little choice but to beg...they could of course steal... but in my view those who steal to feed themselfves or their family are simply applying a survival behaviour rather than a criminal one...people who steal to live are simply trying to surviving. 


Now for years and years we jailed those who robbed or stole to survive, especial if they were Maori and poor, because our police and general public just love to blame and punish [we inherited this shocking attitude from our British heritage: the individuals concerned are condemned not only for begging but also for being poor...or being Maori and now days if they are begging or even questioning the behaviour of the so-called political elite or the police / so-called Justice system they are blamed rather than us looking together at the failing system and putting in right...

I posed the thought that those candidates who are standing now days, for Mayor or Councillor positions, are in their own way ‘Begging for votes. So the question can rightly be asked would they stand if they were not being paid or rewarded?

So you could say that maybe they are standing to boost their incomes, rather than for the community in which they live. I don’t in any way condemn anyone standing, nor will I assume what each candidates individual motivation is:

But if it was agreed that Councillors would no longer be rewarded how many of our present councillors would remain in the race, approaching this from the financial reward angle makes for some interesting possibilities maybe the motivation for standing needs to be expressed by the candidates.

I recall that we [Cris Teo-Sherrell and myself] [in 2007 or 2008] moved a motion to recommend that salaries be paid on a performance basis, this was because many Councillors appeared to skip heaps of meetings. We were greatly defeated when the vote was taken.And some of that Councillors who voted against are still in council right to this day.

So I would agree that it is vital that we find out why individuals are begging on the streets of our city...making begging a crime is simply totally stupid in my humble opinion.
And takes us right back to the 1840s when the poor working classes of the UK were shipped off shore to places like Australia, Canada and New Zealand to keep the streets of London clear of beggers and unemployed masses. We should never forget that at that time the Brits supported slavery and were busy shipping indigenous people around the world to be sold as slaves.
As one of the candidates [David Lane} pointed out begging should never be considered a crime...and being an ex policeman he must surely see the obvious hypocritical behaviour of the police force these days as are never found guilty of breaking the laws rhey are meant to enforce...the latest act of the police of finding themselves not guilty of breaking the law was when they broke into Nicky Hager's home. And it was after the High Court had ruled that the police broke the Law. But: [But this report from the Daily Blog says it all]

“Surprise, surprise – the police cleared themselves over their illegal raid on Investigative Journalist, Nicky Hager…Police did not intentionally deceive judge in Dirty Politics raid – IPCA
An unlawful police search of journalist Nicky Hager’s home came from officers neglecting their duties rather than intentional misconduct, the police watchdog says.

Officers did not deliberately deceive a judge when they failed to mention that Hager was a journalist while applying for the search warrant, the Independent Police Conduct Authority said in a ruling released this morning.
Instead, the IPCA found the unlawful search of his Wellington home in 2014 was the “result of unwitting neglect of duty” and “did not amount to misconduct by any individual officer”.

Police searched Hager’s home on October 2, 2014, for 10 hours. They were seeking evidence about a hacker who provided information to Hager for his book Dirty Politics, which was published on August 13, 2014. They were acting on a complaint from blogger Cameron Slater, who said his emails had been hacked.
Note the language here, there wasn’t any misconduct in not telling the Judge who signed off on an illegal search warrant against Hager that he was a journalist, oh no, it was a “unwitting neglect of duty”!!!!!
What a load of bullshit! They knew full well that the idiot Judge wouldn’t have signed off on a warrant if they knew Hager was a journalist with the protections that has, they specifically left it off and they have gotten away with it.

These lying ex-policemen will do anything, say anything and plead ignorance at anything to hide their abuse of power, and when you try to hold them to account, they attempt to rig the Court process so it can all be heard behind closed doors.
The IPCA are former cops investigating cops and they are as trustworthy as a fox in a hen house.

If only the media spent as much time on the cops clearing themselves of illegally raiding an Investigative Journalist doing real journalism as they are on Celebrity Treasure Island and a stupid Australian talkback host saying mean things to the Prime Minister
What a sickening, duplicitous outcome.
There is no justice on these shallow Islands. TDB ends here:

Wednesday 21st August Councillor / Candidate meeting, was held at 11am. 4 sitting Councillors attended along with four Councillor candidates and 2 Mayoral candidates fronted up. And the subject was housing:
Judging by the general comments it was obvious that the Councillors in the end agreed that the subject of housing was important and urgent, and while sitting Councillor Vaughan Dennison could not resist trying to lay blame on the present government [at least in part] for the housing crisis, this was to be expected after he has always been a big time Nat supporter. Regardless the others up front felt that the blame lay elsewhere.

It was amazing that I received an email from a Wheelers Corner reader on the subject of house building from days long ago: And I will share it with you for it proves that basic housing can be constructed at an affordable price...what is needed is the desire and ability to create the climate for action. Here is the email:

Ex Fletcher's builder Peter Grove.

Peter,

I notice TDB is making a lot of noise over the current housing crisis. Chris Fafoi looks to be in the sights of a number of guns.I had a long association with State Housing from 1949 to around 1955. I Was employed by Fletcher Residential Construction over that period, The section in which I worked was that which produced the Frames and roofs of houses to be built as a result of contracts let by the department responsible for the creation of state houses
When a new contract was let it would be accompanied by a huge sheaf of plans for all the houses in the contract. It was our job to sort out all the timber required, which in my earlier years with the company, saw me unloading timber from railway wagons on a siding next to the Framing Mill, stacking it and eventually turning it into 4×2's for the framing gangs.
The boss at the time was the guy who set out all the frames for the houses to be built.
 
They were set out in the order of the sheaf of plans and eventually sent to the framing benches. My job beside ripping to size the 45x2 timber included putting it through another machine which cut the timber into stud lengths which was stacked and trucked away to the framing gangs.
They were heads down all day knocking together the frames. As each frame was completed it was craned away onto the growing pile of frames to be eventually trucked away to the construction site where another team had been employed setting out the foundations, boxing and pouring concrete, setting out and putting in place the piles and bearers for the eventual floor joists, in readiness for the erection of the frames.

The boss beside setting out the frames, would set out the rafters on a single length of timber on which the common rafter came first and all the subordinate rafters from the hip rafters to the walls were also set out. When this was done it was sent to the guy with a cross-cut saw who would set the saw to the appropriate angles and bevels as required to produce the finished rafters, which in turn would be delivered along with the hip and valley rafters to the site for later assembly.
Fletcher's, in those early days claimed they could produce house frames
cheaper than any one could buy the timber for!'s It's my bet those plans will have been archived somewhere and could have been reused as the basis of further new state Houses. They were simple, plain, buildings which housed many thousands of people. Kiwi Build appears to have been a request to builders to build houses, to no particular specification, who chose to produce various master pieces, costing the earth, as we are seeing.

Some where in the report was a comment about renting to own. That seems to me to be ideal and had it been in place during the 1930's and 40's all state house tenants would have become the eventual owners of the properties they were living in.
The drawback with many of those earlier homes was that they were built from ordinary building Rimu which with the passage of time became a Borer's breakfast. Any later alterations would see studs once wall-boards had been removed, when struck with a hammer would disintegrate in a cloud of borer dust! The advent of treated Radiata Pine has revolutionised house building and rot and borer are now things of the distant past for house-building. Apart for a brief flirtation with untreated Radiata Pine which introduced new sets of problems, brought about by wet behind the ears politician, who had absolutely no idea of what the eventual outcomes would reveal!
Those early houses were all built to a standard set of specifications and produced many thousands of good sturdy homes which served their eventual occupants well. Their major drawback in these present times was that ceiling , underfloor and in wall insulation were unheard of in those far off days and by today's standards they are quite inferior. I notice in the Hutt Valley large swathes of these older houses have been demolished and after quite a lengthy time plans are afoot to utilise the empty land for the production of new homes. It is to be hoped prices are easonable. A radio announcement earlier today was offering newly built homes for $995,000. We must be living in some sort of Dreamer's holiday!

Thanks for that Peter Grove, we old timers can offer a way forward that has been proven successful in the past...when will we ever learn.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/397156/phil-twyford-poor-quality-planning-is-stopping-our-cities-from-growing
Click on the above reference to see what the Government is doing to kick start local gocernment into the 21st century in regard to building in their communities.

I attended a couple more so-called public [Thursday and Friday] meetings organised by the Community Services Council [no relation to the PNCC].
2.
The PNCC decided this election not to support public meetings so the candidates could meet with the public. This is a massive step backward but not unexpected when one considers the absolute negative response by locals to the free gift from rate-payers to Toyota Motor Company [the 3rd largest car maker in the world] of $400.000 dollars...during the discussion on Thursday at 5pm, not one sitting Councillor stood up and said that they supported what the council did. But they spent a lot of time attempting to justify their so-called support for the various gatherings held annually in PN and organised by other community groups.

The usual long term councillors did their normal thing and stated simply what [I believe] they thought the public would want to hear. The master-mind behind the Toyota gift stuff up was the Mayor Grant Smith who failed to appear at any of the CSC run meetings, 
I wonder why? This is what the MS had to say about the gift to Toyota...it makes for shocking reading. I would suggest that it just might make voting for Grant Smith for Mayor a very dangerous and risky thing to do! Especially if you care about community relationships.

"Yet, it only came to light this week thanks to an Official Information Act request from the NZ Taxpayers' Union.
This is clearly not acceptable.
Given the effusive praise of Toyota from the council official, and what they say is true, surely the council would want to shout from the rooftops about its contribution?
At the very least, details about the grant should have been made public at the time and, ideally, discussed in a public forum so ratepayers can form their own views on its merits.

Toyota didn't want to talk about the issue, referring us to the council for comment. As a private company, that's its right.
But the council is a public body and should be transparent in its dealings, especially when a significant amount of ratepayer money goes to a business that made a $21.9 million profit in the past financial year.
We need to know if Toyota asked for the money, what it was for specifically and who was involved in the decision-making.
We've asked the council this week why nothing was made public at the time – and by this we don't mean as some accounting footnote – and what information about the grant is in the public domain now.
Despite repeated attempts, the council hasn't told us.
At first, it didn't answer our question about where ratepayers can find out about the grant. It's also told us mayor Grant Smith is away this week so nobody can give an answer.
We look forward to hearing what Smith has to say, but the information vacuum suggests there is nothing easily accessible in any public document about the payment. And we were asking a simple question, not for comment.
It's tempting to conclude the council was happy with leaving the public in the dark.

Its spokesman praised Toyota's "ongoing commitment" to Palmerston North. We're sure the council is equally as committed to ratepayers, but it's a shame it neglected to be transparent. Jimmy Ellingham is a Stuff news director in Manawatū.
Stuff
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/109856811/no-excuse-for-city-councils-secret-grant-to-toyota-nz



Notice all the old grey haired gentlemen present at the give-away for $400.000 of rate payers hard earned money.

 

Death Penalty to be sped up...more innocent people will die.Green Challenge for Mayoral spot. Wheelers Corner 40 17th August 2019

Renee Dingwell, Teanau Tuiono and Brent Barrett add a touch of Green.

Local News Headlines...
1. Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith is standing again...but this time the Greens are putting forward a candidate to oppose Smiths do nothing attitude and that person is Teanau Tuiono.
Education consultant and international environmental activist Teanau Tuiono has announced he is running for the Palmerston North City Council mayoralty as a Green Party candidate.
Speaking from the steps of the city chambers as he handed in his nomination papers, alongside Green Party City Council candidates Brent Barrett and Renee Dingwall, Tuiono says, “Our city needs a strong community voice for people and the environment at the head of the council table.

We need to take the impacts and causes of climate change seriously, and do the work now to plan for our future. Unlike some coastal communities our city is under-prepared for the challenges and changes to come.“

“As Mayor I will stand up to tackle the climate crisis, putting a local plan in place so the climate changes expected in the next 10, 20, 30 years are prepared for, and the consultation and conversations get underway now.

Together with Brent Barrett and Renee Dingwall, I will stand up for a more open and inclusive democracy within our city council - we need a values-led approach to our decision making, and to shine the light onto all council decisions, including those to support arms-trading events from city-run venues.

“I will stand up for Māori representation ensuring that the voices of tangata whenua are heard at the governance table acknowledging the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
It’s time for change to tackle the immediate challenges we have socially and environmentally and I encourage people of all parties and none to stand with me."

Supporting Tuiono, local Green Party Councillor Brent Barrett says, “Teanau is a familiar face on the streets of Palmerston North and is known as a passionate community organiser with strong connections with many of our diverse communities that call Palmerston North home. 
He is recognised internationally and at home as a serious advocate for environmental change, and expects to run a well-supported grassroots campaign.

Short bio:

Tuiono lives within the city boundaries in Pohongina. He works as an education consultant and was the most recent ‘Activist in Residence at CARE: The Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation at Massey University.

He has extensive experience working at the United Nations particularly at the intersection of indigenous rights and the environment. He was based in Paris for a number of years working at UNESCO and worked for the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change during the Paris Climate Treaty negotiations. 

Earlier this year he was invited to speak at the High-Level event on Culture and Sustainable Development by the President of the UN General Assembly in New York.

He stood for the Green Party in the 2017 General Election in South Auckland and was a high ranked list candidate.

Teanau is married with four children.

The following is the MS item in Saturdays paper... https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/115045944/greens-put-climate-change-at-centre-of-mayoral-contest

2. Killing the guilty and the innocent is now US policy once again:

It has been reported that Donald Trump [Frumpf] keeps a book about Adolf Hitler in his bedside cabinet, and he studies it nightly so we can expect little else but Hitler like behaviour from copy-cat dictator Trump::

While the rest of the progressive and humane free world has removed the death penalty, the good old USA wants to make America Great Again by reintroducing it...under the big tough President Donald Trump, the man who ran away and hid behind his mothers apron strings to avoid his military service [a real hero is our dear Donald]. 
Even Adolf H fought for his country in the First WW. and then murdered millions of Jews, but Time magazine thought he was just great...just as wee Donald does too...

Read the item below and learn just how many innocent people have been convicted under the death penalty and were then found to be innocent decades later...click on 'read more' below to learn just how bad this extremely racist law has been for citizens of the US [and others] when tried by the US legal or military system.

It certainly appears that hundreds of innocent prisioners have been killed in error...and Trump and his henchmen want to speed up that killing...the man is an absolute idiot.

"On July 25, in a surprise announcement, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that the federal government would be resuming executions, with five scheduled in the coming months. This overturns an effective moratorium on the federal death penalty that has lasted over 16 years. “Punishment must be swift,” Barr said. This from Democracy Now:

Just a week later, President Donald Trump exploited the mass killings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, by demanding not an assault weapons ban, but that capital punishment “be delivered quickly, decisively and without years of needless delay.” Needless delay? Since 1973, over 160 wrongfully convicted people have been freed from death row.
In fact, the death penalty is rapidly losing favour in the United States. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have banned executions, while four more states have formal moratoriums in place. Around the world, 106 countries have outlawed ... Read More →

3. Is Trump the president of Israel?

JERUSALEM — Under intense pressure from President Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Thursday barred two members of the United States Congress from entering Israel for an official visit, reversing a previous decision to admit two of the president’s most outspoken critics.

But on Friday, Israel said that one of the congresswomen, Representative Rashida Tlaib, could enter on humanitarian grounds so that she could see her 90-year-old grandmother, after she promised to “not promote boycotts” during her stay.

By enlisting a foreign power to take action against two American citizens, let alone elected members of Congress, Mr. Trump crossed a line that other presidents have not, in effect exporting his partisan battles beyond the country’s borders. And he demonstrated the lengths that he will go to to target his domestic opponents, in this case two of the congresswomen of colour he has sought to make the face of the Democratic Party heading into his re-election campaign.

[Israel Says Rashida Tlaib Can Visit to See Her Grandmother]

In initially blocking the visits of the two Democratic congresswomen — Representatives Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — who are both Muslim, Mr. Netanyahu cited their support for boycotting Israel, acceding to the wishes of the American president, who declared on Twitter shortly before Israel’s announcement that letting them in would “show great weakness.”

ANZ Australian owned bank rips off NZ wheelers Corner 39 10th August 2019

Old habits die hard: Behaviour learned over many years often repeats itself, as this latest case of the ANZ board chairpersons behaviour proves: 

This report [from Stuff] shows clearly that old habits die hard. 

Especially when they concern past normal behaviour of John Key [Now Sir John believe or not]. 

Spending other peoples money is Oh so easy when you hold positions of power...of course every day Joe blogs like you and I are rarely in a position to do such favours for our business mates.
 
So here is the latest story of greed Vs need, by the Australian owned New Zealand Bank [NZ Branch] here in good old Kiwi land...giving its mates great deals...well until they were caught out by the banking watchdog!!! This from Stuff who now and then then reports on some really important stuff concerning the hanky-panky of millionaires rigging the books and such like.

"Employee morale is at a low ebb at ANZ NZ following the departure of the bank’s CEO, David Hisco, and the disclosure by Stuff of the lavish benefits he enjoyed during his tenure.
Through a recent staff survey, ANZ found that “overall trust” in senior leadership at the bank has fallen to 49 per cent. And only 60 per cent of bank employees said they feel able to raise issues and concerns within ANZ “without fear of negative consequences”.
 
That measure fell from 86 per cent before Hisco’s departure.
 
Staff satisfaction also dropped to 69 per cent from 83 per cent, while 71 per cent of employees said they would recommend the bank as a place to work to friends and family, down from 87 per cent previously.
 
READ MORE:
* ANZ needs a new broom for a boss, not a continuation from the dark days of banking
* Did fear of reprisal stop ANZ acting on whistleblower tip?
* How did ANZ lose money on a house in the hottest housing market in memory?
 
ANZ distributed the results of the “My Voice” survey to staff by email last week; a source within the bank shared them with Stuff, but requested anonymity fearing reprisal. ANZ has warned staff against speaking to the press.
 
ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick said the company held the survey following Hisco’s departure in order to “find out the mood of people after the leadership change”. He called the results “disappointing but not surprising considering what’s happened”.
 
Note:
David Hisco's "non monetary benefits," averaged $441,116 a year, for a total of $3.35 million across his eight full financial years in ANZ New Zealand's top job. 

David Hisco [left] wife Deborah Walsh [middle]

In the internal email to all ANZ NZ staff, acting CEO Antonia Watson also called the results disappointing, and asked employees to be open with their concerns.
In June, the bank announced Hisco’s departure; chairman Sir John Key said Hisco had misrepresented tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of personal bills as business expenses, including wine cellaring and chauffeur-driven cars.
In making the announcement with acting CEO Antonia Watson at his side (Hisco was already off work on medical leave), Key said Hisco’s actions fell short of the standard of integrity required by the bank.
But subsequent revelations by Stuff quickly revealed that Key and Watson had given only a very partial accounting of the benefits Hisco enjoyed as ANZ NZ’s top banker.


A company owned by ANZ NZ purchased this $7.5m St Heliers home for former chief executive David Hisco. It then sold the house to his wife at a huge loss.
For example, in 2017, the bank sold Hisco’s wife, Deborah Walsh, the six bedroom Auckland mansion Hisco had previously rented from ANZ and expensed as a benefit of employment.

The sale price was close to $4 million less than the home’s rateable value, and it was not disclosed to shareholders and regulators as a related party transaction.
ANZ had also spent more than $500,000 renovating the home in 2015 and 2016, and it footed more than $100,000 annually in maintenance costs.
 
Acting CEO Antonia Watson has refused to answer questions about the sale, though she knew the details. In 2017, she was a director of Arawata Assets, ANZ’s wholly owned real estate holding company which sold 269 St. Heliers Bay Road to Walsh.

Sir John Key, pictured with acting ANZ chief executive Antonia Watson. Key didn't mention that Hisco's business expense account, reported by the bank as "non monetary benefits" topped A$464,577 in 2018.
The source who leaked the survey results said employees see ANZ executives as hypocritical. “They knew what was going on with Hisco even as they were enforcing integrity for everyone else,” the source said.
 
The staffer said that both Felicity Evans, former general manager of human resources and Watson, then head of retail and business banking, were enthusiastic enforcers of ANZ’s “culture of integrity,” and took a strict line with middle managers on such breaches as company credit card use for personal spending.

Evans left the bank in 2018; she was a director of Arawata in 2017 when the St Heliers house was sold.
Annis O’Brien was also a director of Arawata in 2017 and remains on the bank’s executive team.
 
Antonia Watson is understood to be in the running for the permanent CEO position. ANZ said it expects to announce Hisco’s replacement in late September or October.

Australian-based ANZ has the largest share of the lending market in New Zealand. Following recent events, the New Zealand regulator, the Reserve Bank, requested it commission two independent reviews of its operations.

ANZ has confirmed that one of those reviews will consider how the bank conducted the sale of 269 St Heliers Bay Rd. It has not undertaken to make the results public or to share them with staff.

The second review will consider separate issues surrounding ANZ’s “persistent failure” to properly calculate how much capital it is required to keep on hand to mitigate against risks taken in its lending. To read the item in full go to:j

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/114825579/anz-nz-employees-trust-in-senior-leadership-tested-after-hisco-scandal

To finish up this subject here are some words from the: 350 Aotearoa team:
 
"On the surface, ANZ claims to be environmentally responsible and committed to climate action. But behind closed doors, it’s propping up the industry most responsible for climate breakdown.

With so many scandals remunerating among customers and officials, Sir John Key has promoted the bank’s values, vying for the people’s trust: He said;
“[David Hisco’s] departure demonstrates that when people do not do the right thing we hold them to account no matter their status or position in the organisation. This culture of strong values is one I, and the ANZ New Zealand board believe is important.”

Well John, we’re here to hold ANZ to account. It’s clear a bank that has created an architecture of deceit and denial around its association with the fossil fuel industry cannot be trusted.
Peter, you and I both value a safe and just planet to live on, a clean energy future, and investment in the livelihoods of future generations and those most affected by climate breakdown. ANZs facade of empty climate policies to cover up its alliance with the fossil fuel industry is not something to be proud of. I’ll call out ANZ’s greenwash and share the video online.
Ngā mihi nui,
Claudia, on behalf of the 350 Aotearoa team.
P.S. If you’re not on Facebook, watch and share the video on YouTube here.

Wheelers Corner 38 4th August 2019 Rigging elections is now normal behaviour.

Yeah Right says ANZ bank chairperson.

The National Party has for years misused the MMP system by selling off a seat to a now useless ACT party...so far it has cost hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to keep ACTs one vote in parliament. But as a tactic it has failed in real terms. Especially since the ACT party can not muster more than 1 percent.

Strangely the Labour party, who has willingly rushed to  accept as its structure, the corupt and smelly dregs of NZ liberalism for reasons best known only to itself, but yet still seems happy to condemn the Nats for their twisted behaviour, while at the same time they realise only too fully that if NZ First and the Green don't reach 5% then Labour could well be a one term government...unless they adapt and organise to ensure the greatest chance of victory in 2020. Its so obvious that even the thickest follower of the NZ political scene accepts this fact.

The Daily Blog has laid out the path toward victory in the reference below:

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/08/03/so-in-the-face-of-national-on-45-how-do-labour-greens-nz-first-win-2020-election/

After reading that, you don't have to be a political whiz kid to realise that Labour, the Greens and NZ First need to look carefully at what electorate seats could lead to both NZ First and The Greens being represented in Parliament. The National Party has never hesitated in buying the Act Party off...and even Peter Dunne...of United Future fame.

TDB suggests the seats of 'North-land and Wellington Central', would do the trick...and I'm inclined to agree... 

Here is what TDB actually said [just a reminder] and I quote:

"How do we ensure a second term for this Labour, NZ First and Green Party Government?
To beat a behemoth like National requires using MMP to the letter of the law.
Labour have got to gift two electorates, one to NZ First and one to the Greens.
As an insurance policy against NZ First and the Greens slipping below 5%, Labour needs to cut a deal for them while clearly signalling before the election that they intend to jointly seek a second term.
Labour stands down Willow-Jean Prime in Northland to allow Winston/Shane to run uncontested to guarantee a NZ First win. Prime gets a high list position as compensation and NZ First gain an electorate. In the 2017 election the combined total of Labour + NZ First candidate vote was 6000 more than the National candidate so this is actually very doable.
In Wellington Central Labour needs to stand aside to give James Shaw the electorate so that the Greens have a guaranteed electorate. Again, the combined Labour + Green candidate vote in 2017 was 16 000 votes higher than the National candidate.
To date, the Left have hated the idea of using MMP the way the Right use it. That’s because the Right like to win while the Left likes to loose and whinge about how unfair it is that they lost.
 
Matt McCarten shaped the 2017 Labour strategy by eliminating National’s two coalition partners so that NZ First was likely to negotiate with Labour + Greens. In 2020, National’s only strategy to victory is pushing Greens and NZ First under 5%.
 
By cementing into place this Government with electorate deals, National’s strategy fails because even if Greens and NZ First both slide under 5%, with guaranteed electorates they still get representation sub 5% and can add to Labour to gain the Parliamentary majority.
 
The broad Left need to work together and use MMP to defeat National or this could be a one term Government". quote ends.

In the US they just cancel out the black vote by rigging the electoral system and taking gifts from the corporations and by appointing judges that will carryout the POTUS illegal election wishes. To make illegal legal, the POTUS just appoints his best mates as judges, so far Trump has appointed some of the most racist and twisted people possible as SC judges.

Here in NZ the National Party destroyed the Maori Vote so that route is now closed off for them, the ACT party appears to have slid back into the dark swampland of never-never-land. 

If Labour and its partners reach some sort of arrangement then the National Party will have little hope of ever becoming the government...So perhaps the Greens conference will come to grips with the reality of our political scene, and perhaps NZ First will plan for a future without Winston... 

James shaw a greens co-leader opened the 2019 AGM meeting held in freezing Dunedin over the weekend...his leading selling point was the greens leading edge out of all the political parties regarding the implentimation of at least some proactive behaviour regarding climate change and all that goes with it. 

https://www.facebook.com/nzgreenparty/photos/a.489359751371/10156120585061372/?type=1&theater 

Without any doubt the greens have introduced some back bone to the Labour Party and even the NZ First Party regarding this vital issue. Our young people have reconised as the most important issue of the day. And are taking action to get their so-called elders to recognise the importance of doing some thing NOW. The National Party seems more concerned about the price of cars...in fact when one looks carefully at what National did in the last nine years in office...the reality is that they did nothing. Labour until it changed its leader also did noth in real terms...but once they realised that they could not become the government without the support of the Greens firstly and the NZ First party secondly they offered a sort of change that could satisfy the Greens. Well the facts are now clear...its only by keeping the Nats and their policy of greed before need out of government.

New Zealand can not take the risk of letting the Nats crawl back into power and thereby put what good steps we have taken over the past year and a half. National will only discuss their wallets...nothing else matters to them...look back at every thing the Key Government did. Did it help our health services, education goals, mental health services, and so on. God help us but the Nats think Donald Trump has a brain...and hey whats a war or two these days.

The younger generation is showing us the way to combat years and years of neglect and massive greed in regard to ensuring our survival and the survival of our children and grand children.  A future that can be free from war, free from greed and offer hope rather that the racism pushed by the US and China as they try to out tax each other, Both China and the US hate the concept of free elections...China makes sure people cant vote, while the US makes sure only Republican votes count.

We here need to work within the rules of our political system to ensure that we achieve the result that leads to our long term goals of creating a society based in equality and fairness, one in which the wealthy pay their fair share in income tax and capital gains tax. And most importantly we have to pay a living wage. 

Simon Bridges the non builder of various bridges up north...sits on 6% equal with "China's" best friend Judith Collins who is also on 6%...

Ardern is on 41% 

but the Nats are still polling 46 % and could accidently become the Government [God help us] again!

So come on Labour do the right thing...and shut the door on them.

Lastly:
If you have time read this about the US Republican plan to make sure people's votes don't count...its absolutely shocking no matter how you look at it...make america great again by allowing their votes to count...now that would be a worthy goal...It is a long read but its a most valuable insight into the manipulation of peoples voting rights...you can actually lose your voting rights by getting a parking ticket...America invented the term: Rigged election.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/02/17-million-americans-purged-voter-rolls-between-2016-and-2018-analysis-finds?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email