Daily review 28/11/2024

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, November 28th, 2024 - 29 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

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 …

29 comments on “Daily review 28/11/2024 ”

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  1. SPC 1
    28 November 2024 at 8:09 pm

    Stock standard, par for the course, assessment of the COVID response.

    For mine the move to "cohort" quarantine was overdue (and with a first week room confinement system would have been better still).

    The lesson with the Auckland lockdown, was threefold.

    1.it was a risk to open up travel to Oz before vaccination (it was somewhat effective as per Delta variant) was completed there and or here.

    2.it would have been wiser to restrict it to WA and Queensland (not states bordering Victoria) or otherwise a one way only option including SA, Tasmania and NSW.

    3.they should have used the lockdown in Auckland to bring back Aucklanders (and others with places to stay in Auckland) from overseas – freeing up spaces for others to use the quarantine hotels (to disperse around New Zealand).

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/royal-commission-of-inquiry-into-covid-19-report-from-first-phase-released/5IRKYWF3GRC2DG2Q5PMGV7DM64/

    • observer 1.1
      28 November 2024 at 8:25 pm

      The purpose of looking back is to look forward. Or it should be.

      The questions that matter should be "Are we prepared for the next health emergency?", and therefore "Is cutting back staff and services the smart way to get ready?".

      (The answers should be obvious).

      But the government won't want to talk about this, so instead it will just be a petty exercise in settling scores with Jacinda, who they hated for being competent in a way Luxon could never be.

      And that's why Hipkins can't be an effective opposition leader. Instead of "What is the government doing now?" he has to be defensive, answering "What did I do?". See his responses in the media today. All about the past.

      The only way Luxon can win next time is by fighting the 2023 election again, against the previous PM. Letting him do it in 2026 would be stupid from Labour. Are they that stupid?

      • observer 1.1.1
        28 November 2024 at 8:30 pm

        And from the link …

        "Professor Plank called for investment in the health system, science sector, community services and public health functions like testing, contact tracing and vaccine delivery, to prepare for a future pandemic.

        “The report makes a series of recommendations. Prominent among these is the establishment of a central agency for pandemic planning and co-ordination. This mirrors a similar recommendation from the recent Australian inquiry. I hope the Government takes this and the other recommendations on board,” he said."

        (Spoiler: they won't).

      • SPC 1.1.2
        28 November 2024 at 8:41 pm

        The report refers to Oz moving out of lock downs earlier than us, without reference to this indicating a greater confidence in their health system.

        This difference in health system capability is growing, not declining.

  2. SPC 2
    28 November 2024 at 8:59 pm

    The 1958 born tell it like is to Americans of route 66, living in the Don Old Trauma Pit

    In John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), the highway symbolizes escape, loss, and the hope of a new beginning; Steinbeck dubbed it the Mother Road. Other designations and nicknames include the Will Rogers Highway and the Main Street of America

    US 66 was a primary route for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and it supported the economies of the communities through which it passed.

    People doing business along the route became prosperous, and they later fought to keep it alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the more advanced controlled-access highways of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s and 70s.

    US 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, but it was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360504118/sharon-stone-blames-ignorant-uneducated-americans-donald-trumps-win

    • adam 2.1
      28 November 2024 at 9:30 pm

      Sharon Stone is like all to many celebrates, basically a moneyed idiot. Who has to punch down to feel good about themselves.

      I mean Sharon Stone wants to leave the USA for Italy because she can't live under a fascist – the lack of any political awareness on that one, is priceless.

      • SPC 2.1.1
        28 November 2024 at 9:42 pm

        1.She is no idiot.

        2.I doubt she had any need to do it.

        3.There is no fascist government in Italy.

        • adam 2.1.1.1
          28 November 2024 at 10:01 pm
          1. punching down makes you an idiot

          2. Who the PM of Italy again…

          • SPC 2.1.1.1.1
            28 November 2024 at 10:08 pm

            You are misusing the term, punching down.

            The PM of Italy is not a fascist.

            • gsays 2.1.1.1.1.1
              28 November 2024 at 10:32 pm

              Yeah, nah.

              "So, Americans who don’t travel, who 80% don’t have a passport, who are uneducated, are in their extraordinary naivety……"

              is punching down.

              • SPC …
                28 November 2024 at 10:58 pm

                How do you define “punching down”?

                I would where it refers to a defence of a class with power and privilege, or a related exercise of power.

                Using it as a general term for criticism of others, makes it worthless in political debate.

                Everyone has free speech.

                JD Vance in Hillbilly Elegy … did what?

                • adam …
                  29 November 2024 at 12:27 am

                  FFS stone has power and influence. The celebrities have a voice.

                  With that voice, stone chose from a position of privilege, to attack people who are poorer than her.

                  Same dumb attack lines from the same crowd who lost to trump last time – specifically against working people. The democrats have lost working people, and it's their own dam fault.

                  Stones utterings are dumb because the reek of arrogance, and special type of political naivety.

                  Here the thing with free speech I can call an ass an ass.

                  • SPC …
                    29 November 2024 at 1:15 am

                    And IMO – defence of the working class doing dumb stuff, like voting Trump. is not a winning strategy.

                    Honesty is always best.

                    • adam …
                      29 November 2024 at 1:58 pm

                      Honesty is always best.

                      Well at least the democrats are honest about their hatred of working people.

                      And attacking working people for their choices is way more stupid idea – but a second election where that fact is thrown in your face is not enough for you SPC?

                      Punching down, calling people shit and worse so you can feel smug is not a winning strategy. As the democrats have once again proven.

                      I didn't defend the choices, I defended their right to make them. And not to denigrated people for making them.

                      THAT SAID: When the offer is shit and utter shit, and when shit is a smug know it all, condescending, do little, gatekeeper of the status quo. Then utter shit starts having appeal – no matter how fubar and totally against your interests – utter shit is.

                      So sure if you want to keep pushing working people into the arms of people who will use them – keep denigrating them.

                    • SPC …
                      29 November 2024 at 4:34 pm

                      You refuse to get it, Adam.

                      1.those you accuse of punching down, also defend the right of other people to make their own choices.

                      2.And in case you do not yet know, many of those low income folk voting GOP do not call themselves working class and are anti-union. They are first of all nativist Americans and are against those different to themselves/their "real" America.

                      Pushing them into the arms of the GOP, they are registered Republicans.

                      Your facts, are your reckons.

                    • adam …
                      29 November 2024 at 6:40 pm

                      You refuse to get it

                      So it's I'm dumb now – that's is your argument. Classy

                      And your making up shit and have the gall to say to me

                      Your facts, are your reckons.

                      I'm done, your just to far off the farm for me.

                    • joe90 …
                      29 November 2024 at 7:40 pm

                      Honesty is always best.

                      Indeed.

                      They're as dumb AF and proud of it.

                      130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

                      https://map.barbarabush.org

                      We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated,

                      – Donald Trump 2016

                      Yesterday Jemele Hill recirculated a study YouGov did in 2022 about the gaps between people’s perceptions and reality.

                      YouGov asked a series of questions on “What percentage of Americans do you think are [fill in the blank]?” with the [blank] being all sorts of qualities: black, gay, Christian, left-handed, own a passport, etc.

                      The results were hilarious. Here are some of the percentages that Americans (on average) think their fellow citizens are:

                      • Transgender: 21 percent
                      • Muslim: 27 percent
                      • Jewish: 30 percent
                      • Black: 41 percent
                      • Live in New York City: 30 percent
                      • Gay or lesbian: 30 percent

                      We’ll get to the actual, in vivo percentages in a moment. First I want to point out the absurdity: 1-in-3 are gay/lesbian? Muslims and Jews make up 57 percent of the country? Blacks are 40 percent of the population?

                      Not to be crass, but if a third of the population is gay/lesbian then where are all the kids coming from?

                      If a quarter of the country is Muslim and a third is Jewish, then mosques plus synagogues would outnumber churches. Does anyone see more mosques and synagogues than churches as they drive around?

                      https://www.thebulwark.com/p/americans-have-one-very-strange-cognitive

            • adam 2.1.1.1.1.2
              29 November 2024 at 12:18 am

              You are misusing the term, punching down.

              So slamming people who don't travel or have passports – naive and uneducated is not punching down. Yeah right.

              The PM of Italy is not a fascist.

              Yeah right…

              • SPC …
                29 November 2024 at 12:59 am

                She really is not, read the Guardian article and educate yourself.

                And noting that 80% of Americans do not have passports is fact based.

                It explains their susceptibility to Trump’s nationalism

  3. Kat 3
    28 November 2024 at 9:26 pm

    This from Sharon Stone on the recent US election outcome: “Adolescence is naive and ignorant and arrogant. And we are in our ignorant, arrogant adolescence. So, Americans who don’t travel, who 80% don’t have a passport, who are uneducated, are in their extraordinary naivety……"

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360504118/sharon-stone-blames-ignorant-uneducated-americans-donald-trumps-win

    Given the current one year in inept Luxon led coalition govt I would argue similar voter levels of naivety here in New Zealand.

    • adam 3.1
      28 November 2024 at 9:31 pm

      Another wanker punching down – classy.

      • Kat 3.1.1
        28 November 2024 at 10:44 pm

        Sharon Stone appears to have made a point……a strong suit…..or hit a nerve………

        • adam 3.1.1.1
          29 November 2024 at 12:11 am

          People who are being treated like shit, only have which type of shit to embrace – the yanks embraced the true ugly shit, as the lesser evil – the lesser evil.

          Your the one who is embracing this fubar message

          I'm just pointing out it's typical class warfare from the current crop of US liberals who hate working people.

    • Visubversa 3.2
      28 November 2024 at 9:35 pm

      Every time we travel I thank whatever deity is currently on duty for the fact that 80% of Americans do not possess a passport.

  4. SPC 4
    28 November 2024 at 9:27 pm

    Building on a flood plain, or on good soil – no worries … .

    It will still be covered by higher insurance premiums or will it? We still have land for growing food …until we do not and have to import.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/11/28/hawkes-bay-housing-to-be-built-over-the-best-soils-in-the-world/

    • Descendant Of Smith 4.1
      29 November 2024 at 6:10 am

      Except we are not really growing food to feed ourselves in NZ – we are growing food to sell overseas – so who cares really when we pay less for imported stuff than the premium we pay for local stuff.

      The landowners don't care either – they are happy to sell their productive land to developers for housing – and the ones that don't sell are happy as their land values get pushed up due to increased scarcity.

      Unsure too why all the projections about increasing populations. The world population is forecast to decline and we will soon be fighting over people of child bearing age.

      Some of our retail decline is due to baby boomers moving from working to super, there are already increasing numbers of over 65's working particularly in education and health.

      Japan, China, Russia (exacerbated by the war against Ukraine) and others already have declining populations.

      It seems to me that too many of these cities are forecasting continued growth but it isn't clear in their plans where the people are going to come from – presumably immigration but no one, and certainly no council) has a clear immigration strategy. Nor are there clear strategies for training up our young people to replace our skilled older people.

      Birth rates in NZ are 1.66 – well below replacement. Australia worse at 1.63 which is why even 20 years ago part of their workforce planning was to let NZ train people up and to then recruit them with higher wages. They were quite open about this at the time.

      Why we have politicians doing planning on continued growth is beyond me – tis lazy short-term future planning. Especially as generally low paid work such as growing food and tourism and selling logs and milk powder continue to be the be all and end all. No added value at all.

      In some respects letting COVID run rampant and having lots of old people die would have put this situation into a much starker relevance – a quick burst of the future as large numbers of baby boomers died off. Think of the benefits – freed up housing, more jobs for young people, transfer of wealth to younger generations before it got sucked up by corporate residential villages, less expenditure on NZS and longer term healthcare ……

      • SPC 4.1.1
        29 November 2024 at 1:36 pm

        Put it this way, GW and planning for it.

        What if the Atlantic current goes down? (then there is no global market, added value or otherwise).

        In the first phase, even if it is just a rising temperature, there are still more floods and less land suitable for habitation.

        Where do the people go?

        We really do need to preserve good growing land and plan for building away from flood plains (Westport plan option and or streets where houses are removed to build a car park building* and flood banks protecting neighbourhoods. That, or houses replaced with ones built to be above flood water*).

        We need to build with focus on the future.

        There is a reason for land use rules.

  5. SPC 5
    28 November 2024 at 10:16 pm

    Russia trying to use winter as a weapon by attacking Ukraine's power supply (apparently widespread use of generators mitigates this).

    Presumably hoping for Trump to rescue Ukraine into "peace in our time".

    https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c4ngn290zr5t