Daily Review 25/07/2017
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5:30 pm, July 25th, 2017 - 37 comments
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- “That would never happen here!”
Today is Donald J Trump’s second inauguration ceremony.I try not to follow too much US news, and yet these developments are noteworthy and somehow relevant to us here.Only hours in, parts of their Project 2025 ‘think/junk tank’ policies — long planned and signalled — are already live:And Elon Musk, who ...3 hours ago - Finally
Back in March, Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier resigned after hitting the age limit for his office. And now, almost a year later, parliament has finally gotten around to appointing a replacement: John Richard Allen is likely to take over the role of chief ombudsman from Peter Boshier, who still ...10 hours ago - Close To The Edge.
California Burning: The veteran firefighters of California and Los Angeles called it “a perfect storm”. The hillsides and canyons were full of “fuel”. The LA Fire Department was underfunded, below-strength, and inadequately-equipped. A key reservoir was empty, leaving fire-hydrants without the water pressure needed for fire hoses. The power companies had ...11 hours ago - Sabotaging te Tiriti
The Waitangi Tribunal has been one of the most effective critics of the government, pointing out repeatedly that its racist, colonialist policies breach te Tiriti o Waitangi. While it has no powers beyond those of recommendation, its truth-telling has clearly gotten under the government's skin. They had already begun to ...12 hours ago
- National Hugging Day
I don't mind where you come fromAs long as you come to meBut I don't like illusionsI can't see them clearlyI don't care, no I wouldn't dareTo fix the twist in youYou've shown me eventually what you'll doSong: Shimon Moore, Emma Anzai, Antonina Armato, and Tim James.National Hugging Day.Today, January ...14 hours ago - Rwanda’s Kagame: from Saviour to Tyrant?
Is Rwanda turning into a country that seeks regional dominance and exterminates its rivals? This is a contention examined by Dr Michela Wrong, and Dr Maria Armoudian. Dr Wrong is a journalist who has written best-selling books on Africa. Her latest, Do Not Disturb. The story of a political murder ...14 hours ago - NZ now frozen, listless, mean & hopeless
The economy isn’t cooperating with the Government’s bet that lower interest rates will solve everything, with most metrics indicating per-capita GDP is still contracting faster and further than at any time since the 1990-96 series of government spending and welfare cuts. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short in ...15 hours ago - Welcome to American Hell
Hi,Today is the day sexual assaulter and alleged rapist Donald Trump officially became president (again).I was in a meeting for three hours this morning, so I am going to summarise what happened by sharing my friend’s text messages:So there you go.Welcome to American hell — which includes all of America’s ...16 hours ago - Moving away from high-end emissions scenarios
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Last night I chatted with Northland emergency doctor on the substack app for subscribers about whether the appointment of Simeon Brown to replace Shane Reti as Health Minister. We discussed whether the new minister can turn around decades of under-funding in real and per-capita terms. Our chat followed his ...22 hours ago
- The cabinet metastasises
Christopher Luxon is every dismal boss who ever made you wince, or roll your eyes, or think to yourself I have absolutely got to get the hell out of this place.Get a load of what he shared with us at his cabinet reshuffle, trying to be all sensitive and gracious.Dr ...1 day ago - Puberty blockers
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Sometimes I wake in the middle of the nightAnd rub my achin' old eyesIs that a voice from inside-a my headOr does it come down from the skies?"There's a time to laugh butThere's a time to weepAnd a time to make a big change"Wake-up you-bum-the-time has-comeTo arrange and re-arrange and ...2 days ago - Luxon flicks Reti’s hospital pass to Brown
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Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a cabinet reshuffle, which saw Simeon Brown picking up the Health portfolio as it’s been taken off Dr Shane Reti, and Transport has been given to Chris Bishop. Additionally, Simeon’s energy and local government portfolios now sit with Simon Watts. This is very good ...2 days ago - Signs of panic
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Rise up o children wont you dance with meRise up little children come and set me freeRise little ones riseNo shame no fearDon't you know who I amSongwriter: Rebecca Laurel FountainI’m sure you know the go with this format. Some memories, some questions, letsss go…2015A decade ago, I made the ...3 days ago - In Defence of Golriz Ghahraman
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- Bastards Abound
The old bastard left his ties and his suitA brown box, mothballs and bowling shoesAnd his opinion so you'd never have to choosePretty soon, you'll be an old bastard tooYou get smaller as the world gets bigThe more you know you know you don't know shit"The whiz man" will never ...4 days ago - Latest Poll- Nats in a slo-mo death spiral?
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A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...1 week ago
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It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...1 week ago - 2024 sets some new road safety records
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- The role of climate change in the catastrophic 2025 Los Angeles fires
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob Henson Flames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...1 week ago
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..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...1 week ago - There’s a solution in there, there really is
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The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...1 week ago - Elon Musk Adores Chris Luxon
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So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...2 weeks ago - A Bully of Billionaires
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- L.A. Burns
2 weeks ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #2 2025
Open access notables Large emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications: Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...2 weeks ago
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- 300,000!
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...2 weeks ago
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The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...2 weeks ago - Exploring the drivers of modern global warming
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..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...14 hours ago - Release: Cabinet reshuffle a futile exercise from failing government
National's Cabinet reshuffle is a futile attempt to turn around a failing government. ...17 hours ago - Greens welcome Gaza ceasefire, but say more work to do
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...6 days ago
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Ka kohukohu te awa o Whanganui!Ka tau te kākahu taratara ki runga I te maunga o Whānau Ora!Ka tangi hotuhotu tō iwi Māori! ...1 week ago
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The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party acknowledges the enormous life, contribution and passing of Dame Tariana (Kahurangi) Turia, the co-founder of Te Pāti Māori. ...3 weeks ago
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Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...2 weeks ago
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Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...3 weeks ago
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“but, but, but, – if I don’t see it, it isn’t happening” – favorite quote of right wingers
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/homelessness-manurewa-reaches-epic-proportions
and amazingly the right and this government don’t want people to know about this – if they did they would record the information
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/07/data-gaps-and-social-murder.html
You could build 2 or 3 decent tiny homes for $140,000. Or after a week you could build a couple of macro houses.
What National are doing is profligate waste and gross incompetency, but as micky pointed out today it’s also about where their values are at. They. just. don’t. care.
weka, check the Hosking discussion – phone number?
25 July 2017 at 6:52 pm
Mike Hosking: Narcissistic prig:
prig noun
a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if they are superior to others.
sorry, only just seen this and didn’t realise it was urgent. Next time throw the word MODERATOR in, and then any of us will pick it up. Cheers.
Okay, Lynn picked it up eventually. It just looked like you were on board as you had made the last comment.
replying to me or one of the other moderator’s recent comments is a good idea.
Of course they care – just not about poor people.
They care about rich people getting higher profits for doing even less work.
If you standardised you could probably build half a dozen for that – sites would be extra though. I have a feeling that’s going to have to be part of the solution because of the scale of the problem. A pretty safe job creation & skills training scheme for any government that means to actually do its job.
“If you standardised you could probably build half a dozen for that”
True, although in smaller spaces I think you need to take more care not using materials that offgas too much, which can move the price up.
I really like the training/job creation potential, as well as owner/builder potential.
I could see tiny homes being stepping stones for some people/families, and long term for others.
NZ is blessed with a wealth of macrocarpa – lovely stuff – good weather qualities without chemical preservatives. Now if we could get Tesla’s tiles or equivalent, https://www.tesla.com/en_NZ/solarroof, a micro solid fuel stove for cold weather events like these http://blazingstoves.wixsite.com/blazingstoves, proper double glazing or shoji panels instead of the rubbish ‘two panes in one conductive aluminium frame’, and euro level insulation and ventilation we’d almost be ready to roll them out.
Sounds bloody good to me. I love macrocarpa, we should be planting shitloads of it. Some passive solar, composting toilets, and grey water gardens too.
Interesting tiny stove. I’ve seen these ones in house trucks,
http://www.littlecracker.co.nz/
Tnx – Looks great – back when I was crayfishing we had a tiny coal stove between the bunks – only lit it when it was absolutely freezing. One small scoop of coal & it’d get so hot we had to open a couple of hatches. The Greens as a community have the knowledge to make something like this work really well. A lot of other practical kiwis could help too.
So many good creative things NZ could be doing.
I thought that macrocarpa was only good under cover, didn’t weather well. Was I told wrong?
You can use macro outside. It’s one of the timbers we should be using instead of tantalised pine.
http://www.nzwood.co.nz/forestry-2/macrocarpa/
tantalised pine.
God bless typos. I’m imagining a pine tree pining because it’s been tantalised 🙂
McFlock
Haha. VG
rofl. We should definitely leave the tantalised pine alone from now on.
Our house is clad with macrocarpa. We painted it but I wish we’d left it bare as macrocarpa ages to silver and is long-lasting if it isn’t touching the ground. Oiling makes it even better. Beautiful scent when cut.
Under cover is best.
Up to 20-30 years as decking, gets slippery though.
Probably go a lot longer as a cladding if painted/sealed, even better under a verandah.
Be great framing too if seasoned.
I don’t know if there is all that much left.
Here in the manawatu it is getting harder to get trees as firewood and I am not sure if it is getting planted anything like it was 80-100years ago.
“Probably go a lot longer as a cladding if painted/sealed, even better under a verandah.”
Ae, appropriate design is imperative with natural materials.
I believe so – you’d probably want to oil it if its exterior, but it’s superior framing, stronger and more rot resistant than PR. I wouldn’t use it for piles untreated, but that’s what concrete’s for.
There are places overseas where they build entire houses with windows, plumbing, and electrical wiring inside of factories and then ship out the final house in modules to be assembled in one to two day depending on the size on a concrete base already put in.
This production line method greatly reduces the build time and over all cost with builders, plumbers, and electricians all on staff. Building inspectors can easily check all the work as they head along the lines.
We need such a factory here in New Zealand.
For tiny houses you could have a yard doing them in each region – they don’t need crazy amounts of space. A separate crew doing foundations and utilities and you could get numbers up and occupied pdq.
Exactly, Stuart. Yurts too. They’re elegant.
NZJester
+100
The really crazy thing about the government buying up motels is they displaced families that were living there. Net effect was zero. Better that they actually build new houses.
Ok, that’s really bad 🙁
Now, watch Labor make a pigs ear of any advantage.
History repeats itself, but always with variations on the theme.
Sixty-odd years ago, a group of mostly religious social conservatives led by a Catholic zealot divided the Labor Party and condemned it to a protracted term in opposition.
Now a bunch of mostly religious social conservatives led by a couple of Catholic zealots seem to be doing their best to make it happen again. But this time they’re doing it to the Liberal Party.
Last time the main wrecker was Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria, better known as B. A. Santamaria. This time, it’s Tony Abbott and Cory Bernardi. But the war is being fought on much of the same ground and the tactics are much the same, too.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2017/07/22/how-the-church-splitting-the-liberal-party/15006456004959
Tony Abbott – got called The Mad Monk!
Brilliant article by Dr Liz Gordon.
Well worth a read.
‘We had been preparing the story for weeks. A huge research project, a scholarly article in a good journal, a well-known charity behind us. It was our “I, Daniel Blake” story for New Zealand.
Grandparents, forced to take on the care of often damaged and vulnerable grandchildren, arriving at Work and Income for some financial assistance, get… nothing. In 85% of cases, they were not told they were eligible for the Unsupported Child Benefit, a lifeline to help with the costs of bringing up other people’s children.’
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/07/25/guest-blog-dr-liz-gordon-epic-media-fail-in-nz/
Barry Soper is really quite a nasty piece of work.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11895020
He was ‘singing for my supper in Singapore’ only the other day…..
https://twitter.com/barrysoper?lang=en
A nasty piece of work alright.
It amazes me how selective people are in their interpretation of which laws are ok to break, and which aren’t.
Dirty filthy bennies failing to declare = not ok.
Driving pissed ?
Wife beating ?
Cashy jobs mmmmm maybe just don’t get caught
Metiria’s critics are just so pure and perfect (especially Soper) i’m SO in awe
If you’re on twitter, there’s a left wing chat happening tonight at 8.30pm
https://twitter.com/MaryStGeorge/status/889752089034764288
Anyone can follow the hashtag #LeftWithEnough here,
https://twitter.com/hashtag/leftwithenough?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash
Weka. I am unfamiliar with the process bu a signal comes up “sorry something went wrong.”
just checked not logged in and the link works. I get the ‘something went wrong’ message at the top but all the tweets are still visible.