The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The video of George Floyd gasping for breath was essentially Exhibit A as the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on the Black man’s neck went on trial Monday on charges of murder and manslaughter.
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed the jurors the footage at the earliest opportunity, during opening statements, after telling them that the number to remember was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — the amount of time officer Derek Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement last May.
The white officer “didn’t let up" even after a handcuffed Floyd said 27 times that he couldn’t breathe and went limp, Blackwell said in the case that triggered worldwide protests, scattered violence and national soul-searching over racial justice.
“He put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him, until the very breath -- no, ladies and gentlemen -- until the very life was squeezed out of him,” the prosecutor said.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by arguing: “Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career.”
Floyd was resisting arrest, and Chauvin arrived to assist other officers who were struggling to get Floyd into a squad car as the crowd around them grew larger and more hostile, Nelson said.
The defense attorney also disputed that Chauvin was to blame for Floyd’s death.
Floyd, 46, had none of the telltale signs of asphyxiation and had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, Nelson said. He said Floyd’s drug use combined with his heart disease and high blood pressure, as well as the adrenaline flowing through his body, to cause his death from a heart rhythm disturbance.
“There is no political or social cause in this courtroom,” Nelson said. “But the evidence is far greater than 9 minutes and 29 seconds.”
The medical examiner’s autopsy noted fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd’s system but listed his cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
Chauvin, 45, is charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. The most serious charge, the second-degree murder count, carries up to 40 years in prison. The case is the first trial ever televised in Minnesota.
The first witness was Minneapolis police dispatcher Jena Scurry, who testified that she saw part of Floyd's arrest unfolding via a city surveillance camera and was so disturbed that she called a duty sergeant. Scurry said she grew concerned because the officers hadn’t moved after several minutes.
“You can call me a snitch if you want to,” Scurry said in her call to the sergeant, which was played in court. She said she wouldn't normally call the sergeant about the use of force because it was beyond the scope of her duties, but “my instincts were telling me that something is wrong.”
The video played during opening statements was posted to Facebook by a bystander who witnessed Floyd being arrested after he was accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. The footage caused revulsion across the U.S. and beyond.
It prompted calls for the country to confront racism and police brutality. Confederate statues and other symbols were pulled down around the U.S., and activists demanded that police department budgets be cut or overhauled.
Jurors watched intently as the video played on multiple screens, with one drawing a sharp breath as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin sat calmly during opening statements and took notes, looking up at the video periodically.
“My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts,” Floyd says, and: “I can’t breathe, officer.” Onlookers repeatedly shout at the officer to get off Floyd, saying he is not moving, breathing or resisting. One woman, identifying herself as a city Fire Department employee, shouts at Chauvin to check Floyd’s pulse.
The prosecutor said Chauvin used excessive...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) There Is a Plan, Right?/Hosko's Favourite Subject/More Clark Intervention/Apples Are Hard, Man/The PM's Borrowed Clothes

The Forest Owners Association doesn't believe anyone could have expected the country's timber shortage would get as bad as it has.
Carter Holt Harvey has stopped supplying Mitre 10, Bunnings and ITM for the foreseeable future.
Association President Phil Taylor told Mike Hosking Carter Holt can only be partly blamed for the situation.
‘The company has underestimated the time it would take to get a new mill working, but couldn't have expected the post-covid spike in demand for timber, and the strong bounce back in the NZ economy.”
Forestry Institute president James Treadwell says overall there's no shortage and short term problems aren't caused by too much wood being exported.
“Mills are predominantly exporting logs the domestic market doesn't want”
Treadwell says there isn't a supply issue...and he doesn't want the situation used as an excuse for a levy on export logs.
He claims some people are trying to take advantage of the situation, and while he understands people want more logs processed here - this isn't the way to do it.
LISTEN ABOVE

If you want to see a side that can win the NRL, then look at the Warriors Saturday night.
If you are just a sports fan who loves drama, look at the Warriors Saturday night.
If you thought Tuivasa-Sheck might check out having signed for union next year, have a look at Saturday night.
I you want to see records broken, have a look at Saturday night.
They had never been down by as much as they were and come back to win. That in itself is probably an issue going forward given.
The match against Canberra started well. We not only scored first, but it was a great try, it looked like the try of a side that is class and knows what it is doing.
Notable aspects of this side if you haven’t followed them closely so far this season: they are fitter and faster and can off load in a way wave not seen before. Previously they can look good and flashy but it’s never been consistent.
This game they were superb. Let us not forget the value of this win is Canberra is a top side. They are the sort of side you need to be beat if you’re serious
So to win, and come back in the way they did, is one we will talk about for the rest of the season.
Ricky Stuart, expressive at the best of times, was lucky not to have a heart attack.
But the simple truth was this wasn’t a fluke, this wasn’t luck, and this wasn’t toss of the coin.
It was two top sides playing exceptional football and the best side won.
If you want highlights, look at Tuivasa-Sheck, and if I was a league owner or agent I’d write a cheque any size you wanted to keep him.
The new recruits yet again turned up, reassuring us that we’ve bought well.
We should never have ended the first half the way we did. But as they say, it’s not how you start, its how you end. And we ended as well and brilliantly as we ever have.
If we play like this for the rest of the season, there is absolutely no question, no doubt, this is our year.

They'll say it's the system learning, of course.
But surely the question to ask after 12 full months of lockdown and the MIQ system is why is it the learning is so slow? Why is the obvious, the bit that is staring right smack bang in between their eyes, not addressed at first sight? Why aren't the red flags spotted until they're too late?
In other words, just how thick are these people?
The bus trips full of potential Covid cases are off. They have been cancelled.  Herding MIQers into a bus so they can go walk or jog are done because, after a full year, they’ve worked out what a mad risk they are.
Surely, it's not unfair to ask, just why it's taken this long? The same way we've asked all year, why they insist on running a programme where you leave your room anyway.
We all know the border is the weak link. We all know that even with the so-called unknown community cases, it always leads back to the border, or its weaknesses. MIQ, ports, airports, border services - it's always the same.
The testing at the border has been a mess, the security at MIQ has been a mess, the whole approach and looseness at MIQ has been a mess.
Through all of that, all the positives, all the alerts, all the track and tracing, all the lockdowns that resulted, all the constraints on our lives and ability to make as living, and they carried on loading up buses to wander off for walks and sunshine.
It's 14 days we are talking about for God's sake. It's not 14 months, or 14 weeks. For many it’s a pain. Yes, a bit of fresh air is no bad thing, but at what cost? And why does it always take an issue, mistake, or a cock up for the pin to be pulled?
Is this, as they would say in business, best practice? Is this gold standard?
Is literally asking for trouble, or running the gauntlet, really what we want from a government department that keeps insisting it knows what it's doing?
For a government with a hair trigger mentality on lockdowns, it is astonishing they keep giving us reasons to keep doubting they have the slightest clue what they're doing.

A nutritionist believes 'dad bods' could be harmful to their owners.
A survey of 2000 people on a dating site shows roughly 75 percent prefer a rounder physique, to an athletic one.
Nutritionist Nikki Hart told Mike Hosking around the middle is a dangerous place to put on body fat.
"Its visceral fat that is abdominally based, which means it's closer to all your organs - your heart, your lungs - so its a big deal."
She says one in three men under the age of 55 are on high blood pressure medication so the concept of a dad bod doesn't help,
Hart says that diets need to change.
"Eat more plant based foods, eat until 80 percent full, and eat less." 
LISTEN ABOVE

New Zealand hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe has set a stunning Oceania record on the way to claiming automatic qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
Ratcliffe overcame another impressive performance from fierce rival Lauren Bruce to take out her sixth national title and reaffirm her position as Aotearoa's best in the sport.
Ratcliffe set the standard from round one, adding more than a metre on to her lifetime best to power the hammer out to 73.40m and comfortably beyond the Tokyo automatic standard of 72.50m.
Yet the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist was not finished and in round four added a further 15cm on to that mark with a 73.55m effort – 8cm in excess of the Oceania record mark set by Bruce in September 2020. That throw would have earned her a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004, though the sport has come a long way in the following 17 years.
Bruce also bettered the Olympic qualification mark with a throw of 72.76m to take out the silver medal and continue her steady form this summer.
Ratcliffe was understandably pleased with her performance and said: "It feels so good to get the Olympic qualification mark off the plate and I can finally focus on building up for Tokyo.
"It was just awesome. It was like the culmination of 16 years of training with Dave (coach and father) in the crowd. In the last week or so training has been up and down, so to keep it all together was the big challenge. It was more than I could have hoped."
Two months ago in her last outing in Hastings, Ratcliffe committed three no throws so for the 27-year-old thrower to launch such a long throw in round one was a surprise given her cautious strategy.
"Because of how it went last time (in Hastings), I went in with the attitude that the first throw was my safety throw, so I focused on just getting it between the little white lines. That was my relaxed one, obviously relaxed worked for me!
"I was still in shock a bit after the first throw, but it was, yes, just keep on doing what you are doing."

Democrats have seized on new voting restrictions in Georgia to focus attention on the fight to overhaul federal election laws, setting up a slow-building standoff that carries echoes of the civil rights battles of a half-century ago.
In fiery speeches, pointed statements and tweets, party leaders on Friday local time decried the law signed the day before by the state's Republican governor as specifically aimed at suppressing Black and Latino votes and a threat to democracy. President Joe Biden released an extended statement, calling the law an attack on "good conscience" that denies the right to vote for "countless" Americans.
"This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century," Biden said, referring to laws of the last century that enforced heavy-handed racial segregation in the South.
"It must end. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act," he said. He told reporters the Georgia law is an "atrocity" and the Justice Department is looking into it.
Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, lashed back, accusing Biden of attempting to "destroy the sanctity and security of the ballot box" by supporting what the governor sees as federal intrusion into state responsibilities.
Behind the chorus of outrage, Democrats are also wrestling with the limits on their power in Washington, as long as Senate filibuster rules allow Republicans to block major legislation, including H.R. 1, a sweeping elections bill now pending in the Senate.
Biden and his party are seeking to build and sustain momentum in the realm of public opinion — hoping to nationalize what has so far been a Republican-led, state-by-state movement to curb access to the ballot — while they begin a slow, plodding legislative process. Allies meanwhile plan to fight the Georgia law, and others, in court.
"What's happening in Georgia right now, underscores the importance and the urgency," said Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in an interview Friday.
"This is about what is fundamental to our identity as an American people — one person, one vote."
The emerging brawl over the politics and policy of voting access is swelling like nothing seen in recent years, harkening back to what many Americans may assume are well-settled rules ensuring equal access to the ballot.
But as Republican-controlled state legislatures from Georgia to Iowa to Arizona are taking dramatic action to limit early voting and force new voter ID requirements, the debate in Washington threatens to exacerbate the nation's cavernous political divides in the early days of the Biden presidency, just as the Democratic president vows to unite the country.
It is expected to be a months-long slog in the narrowly divided Congress, specifically the Senate, where Democrats are, for now, unwilling to muscle their slim majority to change filibuster rules, despite the party's urgent calls for action.
Instead, the Democrats are prepared to legislate the old-fashioned way, unspooling arguments in lengthy Senate debates, spilling out of the committee hearing rooms and onto the Senate floor, and forcing opponents to go on the record as standing in the way — much as South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond was positioned when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act of the last century.
"They're literally squeezing the arteries of the lifeblood of America," Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., the son of civil rights activists, said in an interview. "They are choking what makes us distinct and unique on the planet Earth."
Booker would not, however, openly call for the end of the filibuster, a parliamentary tool requiring at least 60 votes to advance Senate legislation in some cases.
On Friday, the president revived his call on Congress to enact H.R. 1, an elections overhaul that would confront the Republican restrictions. He called as well for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore some aspects of a landmark law struck down by the Supreme Court in...

Andrew Laming will quit politics at the next election but the scandal-plagued Queensland MP has resisted calls to stand down immediately.
Mr Laming has been under pressure to resign after he was the subject of complaints from two women who claimed he harassed them online.
He has also been accused by another young woman of taking a photo of her underwear while she bent over.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Sunday revealed Mr Laming would not contest the Queensland seat of Bowman at the next election after two LNP colleagues said his position beyond his current term was untenable.
“I hope for some privacy can be extended to me and my family in this time, and I ask my local community to be kind to them,” Mr Laming said in a statement.
“Being elected to Bowman at six consecutive elections has been the greatest honour of my life. I will not be contesting the next federal election in any capacity.”
Mr Laming said from Monday he would take leave to undergo clinical counselling at his own expense, in an attempt to become a “a deeper and more empathetic person than what the recent events have demonstrated”.
“The common thread of the last week has been not demonstrating anything close to understanding how my actions affect others. I intend to own those mistakes.”
Mr Laming’s decision not to contest the next election comes a day after he was spoken to by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Mr Frydenberg resisted calling for Mr Laming to resign from the LNP immediately, saying it was proper for him to see out his term, despite labelling his conduct as “completely unacceptable”.
Mr Laming could for the rest of the parliamentary term move to the crossbench however that would force Scott Morrison into leading a minority government.
The LNP hold 76 seats in the 151-seat parliament and losing Mr Laming could leave them deadlocked or needing the support of independents of smaller parties to pass legislation.
Asked if Mr Laming was a fit and proper person to stand in parliament, Mr Frydenberg said: “I understand he is, that’s my view”.
“As for him sitting into LNP party room, that will be a decision for the LNP itself.
 “But I think he’s taken the proper course of action to seek that counselling and following that conversation with the Prime Minister not to stand at the next election.”
Mr Laming has taken time off to undergo therapy and counselling and will return to parliament in budget week.
His decision to quit came after LNP colleagues Senator Sarah Henderson and MP Katie Allen on Sunday said he should step down at the next election.
But Labor leader Anthony Albanese said he should resign immediately.
“The fact is that Andrew Laming is not fit to be a Member of Parliament today,” Mr Albanese said.
“Andrew Laming should go. He brings disrepute and disgrace to our national Parliament and he simply should go.”
On Friday, a Brisbane mother told Nine News that Mr laming took a photo of her as she bent over to restock a fridge at a landscape supply business.
The woman said that her underwear was visible and it was reported that witnesses backed up her account.
“The photo was really inappropriate, especially when I was bent over,” Crystal White she recounted.
However Mr Laming said: “I reject the allegation aired on Channel 9 that I took an inappropriate photo with malicious intent”.
Earlier in the week Mr Laming was reprimanded by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and forced to apologise to parliament for trolling two female constituents, including one who said she was left suicidal.
He was forced to issue a further apology after he seemingly made light of his comments in public Facebook comments where he said he “didn’t even know” what he was apologising for, followed by a series of laughing emojis.
text by Steven Zemek, NCA NewsWire​

The training wheels are still on as officials establish a nationwide Covid-19 vaccine database.
Canterbury DHB has been left red-faced, after an error meant people were able to view information about other people booking their appointment.
A person's name, gender, age and NHI number could be seen, but not their health history.
Malaghan Institute of Medical Research Director Professor Graham Le Gros told Mike Hosking it's the first time this has ever been done -- and the system will go through growing pains.
"Remember, people travel all over the place, and they all want their vaccine, and they will say 'Can I change so I get it down in Dunedin?', so we do need to have those databases in place so we can track and monitor, and know what's going on."
He says not everything will go according to plan.
"Just imagine if the Auckland motorway breaks down as it sometime does and you've got vaccine on one side of the Harbour and you've got to get it to people on the other side.
"We've got to get those logistical things in place. It takes practice." 
LISTEN ABOVE