Daily review 04/08/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 4th, 2020 - 34 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

34 comments on “Daily review 04/08/2020 ”

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  1. Patricia Bremner 1
    4 August 2020 at 6:07 pm

    We are learning how to test quickly. 90 minute rapid tests in Britain. Could help with border tests, reassurance tests… We will survive and thrive.

  2. Muttonbird 2
    4 August 2020 at 7:02 pm

    I find the idea that a position of strength for the powerful and a position of weaknesses for the vulnerable must be maintained in order for the vulnerable simply to be housed, odious.

    Multiple landlord groups and now The Crusher are up in arms at the idea their benevolent blessings over the less fortunate are being scrutinised.

    The amendment bill in question has been so weakened by these powerful groups in select committee process, that the final bill barely changes anything from a tenant's point of view.

    Additional costs for the landlords, where? That they might have to record breaches of a tenancy agreement three times instead of once simply aligns with other master/servant relationships in the workplace, and is long overdue.

    Even the provision that landlords must now do what they say when invoking a family take-over of a tenants home, while welcome, is light years too late.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12353655

    • Molly 2.1
      5 August 2020 at 6:33 am

      It would be useful alongside these changes to have some figures on how many times the Tenancy Services think the use of the no-cause termination has been abused by landlords, and some data on how many instances of anti-social behaviour by tenants has resulted in immediate termination.

      During the Covid Alert Level 4, despite the behaviour of our neighbouring tenants, the police advice came down to this:

      1. Videotape them

      2. Get rid of them

      3. Anti-social behaviour would require them to physically assault you or your family before they would charge them.

      Note: None of this advice was of any use.

      We have a two page record of police visits to our property over a four month period.

      The journey to the Tenancy Tribunal was a long and fraught one, despite the ongoing abuse and failure to pay rent, and in the end the adjudicator said, I'll issue a termination order for the rent arrears and don't worry about the rest. The rest was a meticulous record – proposed by the police – of all the instances – almost 200, that had taken place over three months.

      When we finally got access to the property, after the tenants did not appear at their instigated Tribunal hearing, there was damage to the property that we will have to go through another Tenancy Tribunal process for – and run the risk of having to deal with the tenants in person again. The hearing took place in a Family Court situation, and the waiting room has no staff, and you are expected to arrive and sit there looking at the other party until you are called in…

      So, the law does need to be fair, to both tenants and landlords – and the process could do with some streamlining, so that it takes place as efficiently as possible. The requirement for three instances of anti-social behaviour within three months, may sound appealing to some (why?), but from personal experience, living on the other side of it makes the times in between a tenterhook of anxiety.

      The housing situation at present is so appallingly bad, that this focus on tenant/landlord balance seems to be a given. But the housing crisis has been created by a series of regulatory and legislative decisions that make investing in housing and flipping, a common and successful way of getting financial security, not just for some NZers, but for overseas investors. There are significant changes that can be made that will give NZers other choices, and so reduce the likelihood of irresponsible landlords being able to find tenants.

      It is these regulatory, tax and legislative changes that will have the most impact – not just targeting rentals. Also, building of state and council housing will reduce the viability of rentals.

      • Sacha 2.1.1
        5 August 2020 at 9:30 am

        That sounds like a terrible situation. I agree with your assessment of the underlying cause of the housing crisis.

        • Molly 2.1.1.1
          5 August 2020 at 4:54 pm

          … was not the best… but thankfully over now.

          I also understood that fraudulent use of the 42 day notice to end tenancy already had existing fines for landlords of up to $6,000. To be honest, I can't be bothered going through all the Tenancy Legislation again, but I'm sure that is already in place.

  3. I Feel Love 3
    4 August 2020 at 7:15 pm

    “We’ve always said te reo Māori was one of the official languages of New Zealand." – well, that's big of ya! & “We also don’t think there should only be one broadcaster for Māori, which is a very bad decision the current Government has done,” Collins said.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300073402/judith-collins-cant-count-to-10-in-te-reo-and-wont-commit-to-learning-the-language

    I just found those comments quite Trumpian, first I thought this was more gotcha crap from the journalists but it was actually in context, Collins talking about supporting Te Reo then being asked to count to 10, so she supports it, but won't speak or learn it, mmmmmkay. The Nats are keeping their heads down, no new roads or shambles today!

  4. ScottGN 4
    4 August 2020 at 7:44 pm

    Second to last QT of the parliament and Collins clearly thought a shotgun approach was her best shot at trying to catch the PM out. Supplementaries ranged across a wide number of subjects. The PM did well to stay ahead of ahead of them all.

  5. Ovid 5
    4 August 2020 at 7:45 pm

    Here’s Jonathan Swan’s full interview with Donald Trump. The US president is incoherent combative and illogical.

    • Andre 5.1
      4 August 2020 at 7:57 pm

      Jaeezzuss! I'm in awe of anyone that can last the whole 37 minutes of the ramblings of the terracotta turdface with a used orangutan's merkin perched atop his head, without clawing out their eyes and blowtorching their ears off just to get some relief from that level of stupid.

    • Herodotus 5.2
      4 August 2020 at 8:01 pm

      Was Donald the model for the orange man promoting us to get on the role and vote. Not sure of the irony there 😉

      • Andre 5.2.1
        4 August 2020 at 8:10 pm

        Nah. If he was the model, they'd have had to include a cartoon week-dead roadkill hamster festering atop its head.

    • mauī 5.4
      4 August 2020 at 9:17 pm

      I thought Trump dealt quite well with the hit job interview and raised some good points.

      • Macro 5.4.1
        4 August 2020 at 10:06 pm

        Many other people see it differently.

        For example

        Here are a few tasters of the wisdom of the 45th President of the United States, rifling through a sheaf of graphs that he seems to be having trouble with in so many way.

        Trump: “Right here, US is lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world…”

        Trump again, when Swan compares death as a proportion of population in South Korea to the US: “You don’t know that.”

        Swan: “You think they’re faking their statistics? South Korea?”

        Trump: “Errrr. I won’t get into that because I have a very good relationship with the country. But you don’t know that.“

        And again: “Death is way down from where it was…It’s going in Arizona. It’s going down in Florida. It’s going down in Texas.”

        Swan. “It’s going down in Florida?”

        Trump: “Yeah. It levelled out and now it’s going down. That’s my report as of yesterday.”

        (As ever, it’s not clear where Trump is getting his info but the Worldometers.info seems pretty clear that deaths in Florida have been increasing – slowly since March but steeply since June 15th. As of today, there have been 7,157 deaths across Florida.)

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/04/coronavirus-live-news-who-says-there-may-never-be-a-silver-bullet-vaccine-for-covid-19

        The man is not only a buffoon, he is a complete and utter ignoramus, a liar and a cheat. He is not fit to even clean the boots of a ditch digger. Remember he is supposed to be the President of his country; but over the past 30 days when the number of people in his country infected with covid -19 increased by 1.9 million – nearly 42% of the more than 4.5 million cases reported since the pandemic began, and more than double the number documented in any other month, (he has spent 10 of them (1/3 of his time) playing golf.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/world/coronavirus-covid-19.html

        https://trumpgolfcount.com/displayoutings

        • mauī 5.4.1.1
          5 August 2020 at 7:58 am

          I thought you would have learnt by now that you can't take everything he says literally.

          Depending on how you look at it Florida deaths were trending down when he said it.

          The interviewers comparison between the US and South Korea was completely disingenuous and got the treatment it deserved. Trump came up with a more relevant point that the US has a low Case Fatality Rate.

          • solkta 5.4.1.1.1
            5 August 2020 at 8:21 am

            So what do you think of Trump’s comparison of testing in the US with testing in India? Do you think India has comparable resources to the US?

          • Macro 5.4.1.1.2
            5 August 2020 at 8:34 am

            Trump came up with a more relevant point that the US has a low Case Fatality Rate.

            Well woopie shit!

            Depending on how you look at it Florida deaths were trending down when he said it.

            And yet – just 5 days ago – Florida was breaking records for the number of deaths

            The interviewers comparison between the US and South Korea was completely disingenuous and got the treatment it deserved.

            Only a Trumpkin could make such a statement – Ignoring the fact that it was Trump who initially raised the comparison of the US's reaction to Covid with South Korea.

            • mauī 5.4.1.1.2.1
              5 August 2020 at 10:55 am

              And yet – just 5 days ago – Florida was breaking records for the number of deaths

              Yet if one is smart enough to not just look at a single figure, the lowest death days have been trending down, and new cases have continued to reduce.

              Only a Trumpkin could make such a statement – Ignoring the fact that it was Trump who initially raised the comparison of the US's reaction to Covid with South Korea.

              🙄 Um, it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country. But to compare death rates between countries where there's so many different variables at play is absurd.

              • solkta …
                5 August 2020 at 11:02 am

                it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country

                So do you think that India is such a benchmark country to compare the US with? Do you think India has comparable resources to the US?

              • Macro …
                5 August 2020 at 4:31 pm

                Yet if one is smart enough to not just look at a single figure, the lowest death days have been trending down, and new cases have continued to reduce.

                If one is smart enough one would realise that 5 days is hardly enough to feel confident that there is a reduction in cases – particularly where one is dealing with a disease that has an incubation period of up to 14 days. – The 3 day testing at NZ's Managed Isolation is precisely because that is around the 5 days that most returnees would be at having left their previous country of residence ( ie 2 days travel). The 12 days is there to pick up the cases that are slow to incubate. (ie 14 days after departure from their previous place of residence.)

                In the meantime, Trump and his compatriot in crime Ron DeSantis, have been negligent in opening bars and restaurants for super spreading events when the disease is endemic in the community.

                it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country. But to compare death rates between countries where there's so many different variables at play is absurd.

                Except under Trump the US has done precisely nothing to deal with the pandemic What information is available is at best sketchy and varies from state to state. Even so the meta data tells us that the US in comparison to almost every other developed Nation is in a parlous state wrt its handling of Covid-19.

                Here is a pretty full analysis of the fractured state of the US's response to the pandemic :

                We aren’t tracking the public health equivalent of vital signs. That’s one big reason the United States is losing the battle against Covid-19.

                We have a per capita death rate five times the global average, cases are increasing, and our economy and educational systems will not recover until we get the virus under control. Last week’s abrupt decision by the Trump administration to stop sending information on Covid-19 patients to the C.D.C. and instead to send it to the Department of Health and Human Services reflects this lack of national coordination.

                Over the past three weeks, researchers in our initiative, Resolve to Save Lives, searched all the data they could find on publicly available websites from all 50 states. They found it to be shockingly inconsistent, incomplete and inaccessible.

                Not a single state published turnaround time for testing, nor how promptly patients are isolated, nor the proportion of cases diagnosed among people who had contact with a Covid-19 patient. In most states, there is no way to track the trend of Black and Hispanic people suffering hospitalizations and deaths at greater rates than white people.

                Only two states — Oregon and Virginia — even reported information on whether patients were interviewed promptly for contact tracing. Indicators such as these are essential to know how well we are fighting the virus so that we can do better.

                The fault does not lie with the states — it’s a federal failing. Although getting the data quickly and accurately is hard, the underlying problem is the lack of common standards, definitions and accountability. This reflects the absence of national strategy and leadership. Unless we get onto the same page, we will face continued and preventable disorganization, economic decay and death.

                There is a better way. Our group — along with a coalition of national, state and academic partners including the American Public Health Association and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security — has developed a list of 15 indicators 1. Every state and county should be able to collect and publish nine of these immediately and the other six within a few weeks.

                The basics are early signals from emergency departments that could warn us if cases are spiking; information about cases, tests and deaths over time by age, sex, and race and ethnicity; and information about outbreaks in nursing homes and elsewhere, as well as epidemiological links among cases.

                Indicators that could be published in a few weeks include performance measures for testing, case interviews and contact tracing; health care worker infections; and objective assessment of the proportion of people wearing masks correctly in indoor public spaces such as stores and public transit. (This could be monitored by human surveyors or security cameras for aggregate analysis, while protecting individuals’ privacy.)

                The full list is available here 1.

                The greatest benefit of good information isn’t knowledge, it’s action. Among other things, these indicators would give us:

                An early-warning system to prevent explosions of cases by scaling back physical connections as soon as cases begin to rise.

                More incentive to improve the turnaround time of tests, which is crucial to stop spread (there is little value to tests that come back more than two or three days later).

                Information on the size, lethality and status of control of every outbreak, including those in every nursing home, homeless shelter, correctional facility and meatpacking factory.

                The opportunity to better understand and reverse the unequal burden the pandemic is placing on Black, Hispanic, Native American and other communities.

                Accountability for how many health care workers have been infected each week; if we published this, we would drive that number down toward zero.

    • I Feel Love 6.1
      4 August 2020 at 8:22 pm

      Yayus! I did see him causing his usual outrage today by suggesting the Govt is fearmongering & NZrs should not get tested just coz MOH say so. Idiot.

      • Chris T 6.1.1
        5 August 2020 at 11:19 am

        Didn't hear him today, but they kind of are to be fair.

        Why the sudden re-emergence of the ads and the continued press conferences if we are "Covid free and have no community spread"

    • Chris T 6.2
      5 August 2020 at 7:45 am

      This is probably the year we actually need Hosking running it.

      At least he actually demands policy, which is more than Ardern fanboy Campbell and plaid Tame will do.

      It is turning into a joke.

    • Sacha 6.3
      5 August 2020 at 9:31 am

      And good provisions for Sign Language and subtitling.

  7. Hanswurst 7
    4 August 2020 at 8:18 pm

    I couldn't help but note that, while today's article on Stuff, Judith Collins Slams Ardern for Lack of Election Policy, was pretty much par for the course for any past year, if one had taken precisely the same article, adjusting only the names and governing party during the Key years, we can state with 100% certainty that the headline would have been "Opposition Promises Would Mean Huge Cuts to Education, Health — Key".

    • I Feel Love 7.1
      4 August 2020 at 8:26 pm

      I can't remember the time of the media being as even handed has they been for this election, calling National out with their lies (30,000 houses, "I was only joking", anything Bishop says), maybe now when they get given something dirty from National they take a bit more care (the Herald running with the Falloon "I left my phone unattended story being an exception, suckers!).

    • JanM 7.2
      4 August 2020 at 8:44 pm

      Yes, sneaky smart, aren't they! Until they stop playing those glib little pro-Nat word games they can forget about any financial support from me!

      • Hanswurst 7.2.1
        4 August 2020 at 8:55 pm

        Hmmm. One could argue that, given that the article is actually about what Collins said, they aren't playing them here. They certainly were during the Key years, though. That doesn't say anything about what they might do if National were in power again, of course, nor about what donating to them might achieve.

  8. roblogic 8
    4 August 2020 at 10:31 pm

    Here’s a neat pic that could possibly be used for “Daily Review” in future… apart from the Mordor vibes 😝

    https://twitter.com/NZLainey/status/1290220193428336641?s=20

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