Open mike 04/02/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 4th, 2025 - 126 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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

Step up to the mike …

126 comments on “Open mike 04/02/2025 ”

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  1. gsays 1
    4 February 2025 at 7:10 am

    I have a plea, a hope, a wish.

    We, in the left, have some great writers and opinion shapers.

    Obviously the easy clicks are pointing out how poor our current coalition government is. There is lots of low hanging fruit to pick.

    But… we need a vision of an alternative. Where a government is there to serve the people first. To set policy that improves our infrastructure and resilience.

    Ideas that can unify a splintered left. Where we can ignore essentially petty differences and aim for a bigger prize.

    • Tony Veitch 1.1
      4 February 2025 at 7:34 am

      I am neither a great writer, nor an opinion shaper, but I do have some firm and decided ideas on what a left-wing coalition government should be pushing.

      Take one idea as an example:

      ALL utilities upon which human’s depend MUST be publicly owned.

      This means our health system, our water supplies, our energy requirements, our transport systems, our education establishments, our food distribution outlets – all owned and run in the interests of the public.

      That leaves plenty of things for the private sector, just not essential things.

      • Michael Scott 1.1.1
        4 February 2025 at 8:53 am

        It is true that food is a human necessity but I don't think it is a good idea for the state to be in charge of food distribution. The private sector is more efficient.

        I have a long association with Cuba where the state heavily subsidises staple food products.

        Everyone has a ration book (La Libreta) and hours are spent queueing for items that often run out. I once spent 4 hours in a queue for charcoal for cooking only to just miss out and be told to try again in 2 days.

        • gsays 1.1.1.1
          4 February 2025 at 8:59 am

          You have a point about Cuba.

          However, you use the term efficient in relation to the private sector. Is that a euphemism for obscene profits as witnessed by the supermarkets?

          Excuse the term but we must find a third way for food distribution.

          • Michael Scott 1.1.1.1.1
            4 February 2025 at 9:24 am

            In a food crisis the state would obviously be involved but outside of that private enterprise works better for food distribution.

            We grow our own veges mostly and bake sourdough bread and eat little meat so our food bill is low. Fish is free so we eat lots of that.

            I was visiting family in Dunedin a few months ago and at the railway farmers market was told that the reason farmers markets are more expensive than supermarkets is the industrial scale at which supermarkets operate.

            There was an online supermarket that we bought some items from but they couldn't compete with Pak n Save.

            • Tiger Mountain 1.1.1.1.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 9:33 am

              Farmers markets are often expensive due to bourgeois boutique producers pretensions. At our local Far North Kaitaia market, fresh produce is good value, often cheaper than Pak n Slave from small organic and other growers.

              • gsays …
                4 February 2025 at 9:40 am

                That's another way supermarkets continue their evil corporate ways.

                Suppliers often sign contracts that forbid the sale of produce locally.

            • Tony Veitch 1.1.1.1.1.2
              4 February 2025 at 9:48 am

              Our local vege market, just round the corner from a New World, is almost always cheaper, and with prices that mostly are below Pak n Save.

              What they don't tend to do is offer North American stone fruit in the middle of winter – we've got to get back to the idea that our fruit is seasonal.

        • tc 1.1.1.2
          4 February 2025 at 10:52 am

          Agree about food, we are being reamed as they are across the ditch by a duopoly. Busting it up benefits everyone with the political will required to do so nowhere to be seen.

          Power, water keep public as everyone benefits from that.

          More public housing is desperately needed, didnt stop them cancelling 40% of this years so easy to see the coalition priorities once you factor in charter schools corrosive impact.

          • Michael Scott 1.1.1.2.1
            4 February 2025 at 11:34 am

            Australia has a lot more supermarket choice than NZ with Aldi and Metcash along with the big Woolworths and Coles.

            Martyn Bradbury suggests setting up a competitor to the NZ duopoly to be jointly owned by the State and Iwi.

            This new business would pay staff more and treat suppliers better by paying them more. It would also have cheaper prices than the current duopoly.

            I don't agree that we need more public housing. We need more people owning houses.

            • Psych Nurse 1.1.1.2.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 1:10 pm

              Aussie may have more choice of suppermarket than we do but that means nothing when there is no choice when you enter the doors. In Melbourne this past week, 37.0 degrees, beer might be good, an IPA or a Hazy, nope only Furphys or Carlton and that at $56 a dozen.

          • Belladonna 1.1.1.2.2
            4 February 2025 at 11:52 am

            Looking at the list of charter schools opening this year – it's difficult to see the 'corrosive impact'

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360568057/what-are-seven-new-charter-schools-opening-week-and-what-are-they-offering

            Unless you don't support immersive language, or schools specifically targeting kids who are being failed by the current schooling provisions.

            One-size-fits-all just doesn't work for all kids.

            • gsays 1.1.1.2.2.1
              4 February 2025 at 12:14 pm

              Doesn't mean the state can't learn from that and apply itself to those youth.

              Surely there is a part of you that is uncomfortable with a profit motive in education?

              • Belladonna …
                4 February 2025 at 12:42 pm

                Well, so far the 'State' has shown minimal ability to learn from any source in education. I have zero confidence that they will do so. More importantly, those parents who have kids who are falling through the cracks have zero confidence in state education.

                When we have a previous Minister of Education, turning down an integrated school proposal – specifically directed at neurodiverse learners – because "there are available supports for all learners in existing state schools". It's very clear that the MoE and the education bureaucracy in general are severely out of touch with the on-the-ground reality.

                https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-07-2021/chris-hipkins-needs-a-reality-check-on-kids-with-special-learning-needs?amp=

                We already have a 'profit-motive in education'. It's called private schooling.

                It seems as though the majority of the already-announced charter schools are in a not-for-profit or minimal profit management structure.

                • David …
                  4 February 2025 at 5:19 pm

                  I agree with you on this. However I can only speak from my personal experience with the state system. Going from the state school to private/alternative schools opened the doors for me, I’m afraid it’s a bit difficult to explain, but I do remember I would have been 7/8, this wonderful older woman sitting next to me and treating me as a normal person and feeling valued. My reading age went from practically zero to 13 in a few months. So personally I’m all in favour of these different schools

            • Tony Veitch 1.1.1.2.2.2
              4 February 2025 at 2:24 pm

              One-size-fits-all just doesn't work for all kids.

              But that is precisely what Erica is imposing on teachers in state schools – a one size fit all approach.

              Any teacher of any degree of competence, knows this does not work!

              • Belladonna …
                4 February 2025 at 5:40 pm

                Not sure where this is coming from….

                The one area that they have mandated is phonics-based reading – and all of the international research is with them, there. They've also set minimum standards for the amount of 'basics (reading, writing, maths) which should be going on daily/weekly. At the level they've set, every school should be easily complying. If they're not – you have to wonder what they're doing instead.

                Can you point to even one state school which is significantly outstripping the expected-at-decile level? I can point to half-a-dozen integrated schools, which regularly do so (have a look at McAuley – delivering results better than state schools two or three deciles higher)

                The state system does the same thing at every school – they regard this as a feature, not a bug. And, based on the evidence of the last two decades – across multiple governments, by-and-large does it increasingly badly.

                The exceptions are Decile 10 schools like Auckland Grammar – which effectively operate as post-code limited private schools. And are rich enough and well-enough connected to tell the MoE to take a hike.

                • KJT …
                  4 February 2025 at 6:26 pm

                  Well. I went from not reading to over 14 reading level in less than a year. This was with reading recovery in a State school in the 60's. It was using phonics, by the way. Because good teachers have always changed their approach to suit the individual learner.

                  A successful program which is now being defunded to buy "one size fits all" "structered literacy" materials from some overseas corporate. I wonder which Coalition of Cockups MP's have an interest in that. And what is going to happen to those who the magic one size fits all solution fails. "Sorry, we have no funding for that".

                  It is obvious the Coalition of cockups is setting up State schools to fail by putting them in an underfunded strait jacket, while giving private schools more freedom and funding to meet students needs.
                  By the way, Auckland grammer like the charter schools, and private health shoves their failures back on the State system to make their results look better. Whangarei schools are well aware of the kids they have let down.

                  The goal remains the same. Destroy the State system to make privatisation look better. Force a narrow one size fits all on State schools, while private schools are giving the freedom to teach to best practice, and the funds, State school teachers can only dream about.

                  Private schooling in the USA, like privatised health, is an abject failure. Only right wing fantacists and those with their eyes on billions of taxes going to private school profits, and "useful idiots" truly believe that private schools are the answer. Decades of evidence worldwide shows much better results if the funding is directed to State schools.

                  It hasn't changed. Fuck up State provision, so a few people can make billions from privatisation. W've already seen how it works with rail, power, health (GP is apparent at present) , State housing, aged care, child care.

                  Why the hell would we want a repeat with education.

                  • Belladonna …
                    5 February 2025 at 9:11 am

                    The Reading Recovery programme in NZ has been anything but successful over the last 2 decades. Just witness the long tail of children who are reaching secondary school as functionally illiterate. Most of which have failed to learn in the classroom, and then failed to learn in the RR programme.

                    The MoE has remained firmly wedded to the concept of 'balanced literacy', regardless of decades of international research showing that it has poorer educational outcomes than phonics-based strategies for learning to read.

                    Schools which have gone against the tide in NZ – specifically disregarding MoE directives, and using discretionary funding to support a phonics based learning to read programme – have reported very significant improvements.

                    Most parents are not willing to put philosophy ahead of the welfare of their children.

                    • KJT …
                      6 February 2025 at 6:09 am

                      Just witness the long tail of children who are reaching secondary school as functionally illiterate

                      Yes. Just note the long tail reaching secondary school illiterate.

                      Who were at primary during the last National Governments "unfortunate experiment" in education. Forcing Teachers into a strait jacket after they canned the Clark Governments evidence based and widely consulted "New NZ curriculum" ( which allowed Teachers flexibility) for a top down imposition of NACT standards.

                      Again we are seeing top down impositions. Just the thing you complain about.

                      Of course, widespread effects of housing shortages and poverty which the Coalition of cockups are exerbating, has an even greater effect than anything Teachers can do. The "tail" are known to consist mostly of children whose families are below the poverty line!

                  • Belladonna …
                    6 February 2025 at 9:18 am

                    Yes. Just note the long tail reaching secondary school illiterate.

                    Who were at primary during the last National Governments "unfortunate experiment" in education. Forcing Teachers into a strait jacket after they canned the Clark Governments evidence based and widely consulted "New NZ curriculum" ( which allowed Teachers flexibility) for a top down imposition of NACT standards.

                    I realise that maths may not be your strong point. But we have just had 6 years of a left government. Any kid reaching high-school at this point in time, had had their primary/intermediate years almost entirely under a Labour led government.

                    • KJT …
                      6 February 2025 at 1:05 pm

                      You may have noted that NACT standards, curriculum, NCEA and other carryovers from the Key Government, continued under Labour.

                      Unfortunately!

            • tWig 1.1.1.2.2.3
              4 February 2025 at 7:35 pm

              I have commented on this topic extensively, before. From my reading, in both the UK and Australia, a big shift to for-profit schooling by the Torys and the Liberals has sucked a huge amount of government money away from state education. The end redult is a 2-tier education system, with a breaking/broken state sector.

              Just who do you support, BD? Your red herrings on name suppression took up column space on MTui's Yago post, which was about ACT's strategic obsfucation's, not Yago's crimes.

              And today, BD, you are coming out behind Seymour's destructive charter school policy, which has been extensively debunked in a previous iteration in NZ.

              Don't bleat about consumer choice and failures in our state school system. Put up the case for the for-profit model from, for example, your 'Isle of Perfection', the UK academies.

              • Belladonna …
                5 February 2025 at 9:21 am

                If you struggle with differing viewpoints, then you are likely to find a political blog a … challenging … place.

                I've been commenting on the need for phonics-based reading education in NZ on TS, for quite some time. Based on the overwhelming international research on its effectiveness. This is hardly new territory for me. Nor is the fact that the state schooling system in NZ has continued to fail children. It's an unpalatable truth for those wedded to state-is-best – that children at state-integrated schools, regularly out-perform their decile peers at state schools.

                The current charter schools (just opened this week, so a little too soon to comment on their effectiveness) appear to be very largely run by trusts or zero-profit organizations – and specifically targeted at kids whose needs are demonstrably *not* being met through the current state system. This is hardly privatization of education.

                Nor, have I advocated for a 'for profit' model for education. Or claimed that the UK is an 'isle of perfection'. This comes entirely from your disordered imagination.

                • KJT …
                  6 February 2025 at 6:27 am

                  that children at state-integrated schools, regularly out-perform their decile peers at state schools.

                  The results, in reality, are rather mixed.

                  But once you add family income as a variable. No! State integrated schools and charter schools in NZ do not perform better than State schools.

                  When you have much more funding and the capability to pick and choose your pupils it is easy to, outwardly, show better results. An example is Auckland Grammers zoning. I could do that too, if I could pick my students.

                  I taught for a while at a very low decile school. Their results, as far as "value added" student achievement from a disadvantaged base, far exceeded those of the more prestigious, but hidebound, school down the road. The local charter school startup, which was supposedly set up for disadvantaged Māori kids at great expense, booted any kids that were "difficult" back to us. To the disappointment of the kids, and their families, being promised much and then shoved around. I suppose it made their "results" look better, though.

                  Lastly. State schools would perform a lot better, if we could teach as we are taught to teach, with evidence based pedagogy and with regard to learners needs. Instead of having to follow particularly National Governments”one size fits all” nostalgia for rote learning and rigid counterproductive summative testing.

                  The rigidity you complain about in State schools comes from, mostly, National, Governments, not teachers!

                  • Belladonna …
                    6 February 2025 at 9:07 am

                    Lastly. State schools would perform a lot better, if we could teach as we are taught to teach, with evidence based pedagogy and with regard to learners needs. Instead of having to follow particularly National Governments”one size fits all” nostalgia for rote learning and rigid counterproductive summative testing.

                    State schools have just had 6 years of a left government which was highly supportive of the teacher unions – and their 'teacher knows best' mentality. Learning standards continued to fall. Teachers, led by the MoE demonstrably did not learn from international best practice (cf phonics-based reading and open-plan classrooms). Continuing to do what has been happening over the last two decades – under a range of different governments – is clearly failing.

                    State-integrated schools rarely 'pick ad choose' pupils. They have strict selection criteria to prevent that happening. And even more rarely select based on academic ability (there is an argument that sporting ability 'counts' – but the result is that the sport-selected kid is getting a better education than they would in the state system – so pretty moot, from a parent's perspective. Note: this notoriously happens at high decile state schools, as well)

                    Any exclusions will be around behaviour, rather than learning ability. If a pupil chooses to deal drugs to other kids, or be violent to kids or staff, then they will be excluded. I'd argue they should be excluded from State schools as well – but that rarely seems to happen (the 'right' to education for that specific kid outweights the 'right' to education for all the rest of their classmates)

                  • Belladonna …
                    6 February 2025 at 9:40 am

                    But once you add family income as a variable. No! State integrated schools and charter schools in NZ do not perform better than State schools.

                    Can you link to any evidence for this?

                    It doesn't seem to be borne out by the MoE data in the EQI (replacing deciles), which is intended to take this specific factor (along with a whole lot of others) into account.

                    I invite you to compare the NCEA results for One Tree Hill College (which has a lower, i.e better) EQI (470) than McAuley (487)

                    https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/find-school/school/qualifications/ue-standard?district=&region=&school=85

                    https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/find-school/school/qualifications/ue-standard?district=&region=&school=90

        • Descendant Of Smith 1.1.1.3
          4 February 2025 at 1:21 pm

          Cuba is a bad example to use because food is an internationally grown commodity and trade with Cuba is restricted e.g. US suppliers are prohibited from selling food to the Cuban government. Given the success of their education and health areas to everyone it is hard to make a case that food distribution would necessarily be inefficient in a free trade situation.

          We're about to find out how efficient international food distribution is with trade tariffs.

          • Michael Scott 1.1.1.3.1
            4 February 2025 at 1:50 pm

            Hi DOS US suppliers are not prohibited from selling food to the Cuban government. At the moment all of the frozen chickens in the system are from the US along with many other items.

            Cuba can order whatever food it wants from the US and would order a lot more if it had the money to pay for it.

            • Descendant Of Smith 1.1.1.3.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 2:23 pm

              I had understood they can only sell to private enterprise in Cuba – capitalism vs communism.

              Indeed this seems to say the same.

              In a surprising development given Cuba’s worsening economy, exports of food and other goods from the United States were up last year thanks to an explosion of trade involving private small and medium enterprises on the island.

              According to trade data gathered by the New York-based U.S. Cuba-Trade and Economic Council, an organization that tracks business with Cuba, U.S. companies, many based in Miami and Hialeah, exported food and agricultural products worth $342.6 million. That’s a 12.4% increase from 2021, when private enterprises, known in Cuba as pymes, were first authorized, and exports to Cuba reached $304.7 million.

              Exports in December also jumped 58% from November, to $45.2 million from $28.6 million.

              The export data for 2023 “is remarkable not only by the U.S. dollar value, but the substantial increase in the number of companies, primarily located in South Florida, who are exporting products from the United States to Cuba specifically in support of the re-emerging private sector in Cuba,” said John Kavulich, the council’s president. “This data legitimizes these are real businesses, that there is commercial activity, and it is expanding.”

              Cuba has been under a U.S. trade and financial embargo since the early 1960s, but there are several exceptions that allow for the export of food, agricultural products, medical supplies, humanitarian donations, and several other categories of goods if they are to be used by the private sector and not the government.

              https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/02/14/u-s-exports-to-cuba-increased-in-2023/101676/

              • Michael Scott …
                4 February 2025 at 3:54 pm

                DOS there maybe an embargo on US goods still. I don't know. What I do know is that the Cuban government is corrupt and desperate.

                Yesterday- for the first time ever – they went begging to the UN World Food Program. Castro would Never have done that.

                The young have had the internet for a few years now and are all looking at Amazon who deliver whatever you order. Not that anyone has any money except party officers and their families. Three years ago one USD cost 50 Cuban Peso. Today one USD costs 325 Pesos.

                Cuba used to export food. Now agriculture has collapsed. Old tractors and farm machinery sits rusting on previously productive farms.

                As I mentioned I could not believe all of the chickens are now imported from the US. Last year there were riots in at least three cities over food supply.

                The power infrastructure urgently needs replacing and Cuba's major source of funding (exporting doctors) will come to an end if they can't find the money to upgrade the medical equipment that the doctors need to train on.

                Diaz- Canal the President schedules endless speeches which no one listens to and no one believes blaming American Imperialism for all of Cubas woes and asking for more sacrifice.

      • gsays 1.1.2
        4 February 2025 at 9:03 am

        Don't sell yrself short.

        I understand that there are way more readers than commenters here. Lurkers?

        What you propose will influence others.

        While including the TS commenteriat, I was thinking of writers the likes Trotter, Rockel, MT, Slack etc.

    • Ad 1.2
      4 February 2025 at 8:54 am

      Well a good step is: stop talking about the government and the state. Start talking about New Zealand. The right talks only of markets, property owners, and customers. That's how to start unifying.

      Go for it.

      • gsays 1.2.1
        4 February 2025 at 8:59 am

        Good point.

      • Michael Scott 1.2.2
        4 February 2025 at 10:37 am

        I often think about what the perfect society would look like. And what part I play and what part the state. Obviously individuals can't provide hospitals, police, roads etc.

        What if everyone was housed and had their nutritional needs met. And there was free healthcare, education and public transport.

        To get there we would need a powerful capitalism to generate the necessary wealth.

        Some socialism to spread the wealth

        And the constitutional power of liberalism to keep us in order.

        • Tony Veitch 1.2.2.1
          4 February 2025 at 2:28 pm

          Norman Kirk: “Basically there are four things that matter to people: they have to have somewhere to live, they have to have food to eat, they have to have clothing to wear, and they have to have something to hope for.”

          • Ad 1.2.2.1.1
            4 February 2025 at 2:38 pm

            That's a sticker not a programme.

            • Morrissey 1.2.2.1.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 2:52 pm

              It's a coherent statement of principles. It stakes a claim for Norman Kirk's Labour Party as champion of humane and decent values; a stark contrast to the "vision" put forward by Bill Clinton and his malevolent campaign manager James Carville in the 1990s.

              • weka …
                4 February 2025 at 3:03 pm

                so just post the programme that Kirk did after he made that statement of principles.

                • Morrissey …
                  4 February 2025 at 3:54 pm

                  Maybe you've heard of some of the things Kirk's government did: 1) opposing French nuclear testing in the South Pacific—he sent a ship with a cabinet minister (Fraser Colman) on board to actually stop them; 2) standing in solidarity with the South African liberation struggle—Kirk stopped the Springbok tour in 1973; 3) establishing alternative lifestyle communes (the Ohu movement); 4) pulling New Zealand troops out of the U.S. assault on Vietnam; 5) established the Waitangi Tribunal; 6) abolished Compulsory Military Training; 7) established the DPB; 8) established the Disability Allowance; …

                  • weka …
                    4 February 2025 at 4:12 pm

                    perfect. That's what Ad meant about a programme rather than a statement.

                    The statement is all well and good. The programme is the meat that voters will be interested in.

                  • alwyn …
                    4 February 2025 at 5:20 pm

                    Your memory of New Zealand history is a little different to mine.

                    You say "opposing French nuclear testing in the South Pacific—he sent a ship with a cabinet minister (Fraser Colman) on board to actually stop them". Are you really suggested that the testing stopped? Remember that the frigate was sent in 1973.

                    In reality French nuclear tests continued at Mururoa until 1996. Twenty three years is an awfully slow stop, isn't it?

                    • Obtrectator …
                      4 February 2025 at 5:31 pm

                      It succeeded in stopping atmospheric testing, which ceased only a year later. Underground testing was of course still utterly reprehensible, but the effects were by comparison much more confined, and not at all susceptible to the vagaries of weather.

                    • Morrissey …
                      5 February 2025 at 10:34 am

                      Not only did that Labour Government stop France carrying out nuclear tests, it later prosecuted France at the World Court. The Lange government continued this policy of principled opposition to nuclear testing, culminating in the ban on nuclear ships entering our waters,

                      Sadly, such principled and courageous politics was entirely absent when the National Party was in power—of course, the most abject moment was Don Brash's pathetic "gone by lunchtime" pledge. no

                    • alwyn …
                      5 February 2025 at 10:51 am

                      Given that Lange was only Prime Minister from 1984 until 1988, and the French nuclear tests continued until 1996 just how did he " stop France carrying out nuclear tests"?

                      You then claim that " entirely absent when the National Party was in power—of course, the most abject moment was Don Brash's pathetic "gone by lunchtime" pledge. "

                      Well the National Party were never in power while Don Brash was an MP. He was there from 2002 until 2007 so how does anything he is claimed to have said have to do with when the National Party was in power?

                      I was also tempted to comment on your comment about NZ in the Vietnam war. All the New Zealand combat troops were withdrawn a year or so before Kirk became PM.He withdrew some people who were helping train the Vietnamese forces. He left other military personnel there of course. He had been dead for a year or so before the final troops were withdrawn.

            • Dennis Frank 1.2.2.1.1.2
              4 February 2025 at 2:59 pm

              It's a tetrad. I'd up-grade it to incorporate fun as 5th essential since all culture emanates from it! To do a reality check, ask around friends & family to ascertain the viability of life with no fun. Big Norm clearly had a tacit acceptance of there being no fun in Labour.

  2. Dennis Frank 2
    4 February 2025 at 8:07 am

    Panopticon alert: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2025/02/03/mass-surveillance-fascist-nz-corporation-demands-more-mass-surveillance-powers-with-zero-accountability/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

    Privatisation of mass surveillance has happened and mass lethargy remains the norm. She'll be right – but Bomber dissents anyway. "What, me worry?" thinks Alfred E Neuman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman

  3. Dennis Frank 3
    4 February 2025 at 8:14 am

    Trump chalks up another win: https://www.foxnews.com/world/panama-pledges-end-key-canal-deal-china-work-us-after-rubio-visit

    Panama's president vowed Sunday to end a key development deal with China after meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and after complaints from President Donald Trump that the Latin American country had ceded control over its critical shipping canal to Beijing. José Raúl Mulino, Panama's president, said his nation's sovereignty over the 51-mile waterway, which connects the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, will remain unchanged. But he said he would not renew a 2017 memorandum of understanding to join China’s Belt and Road global development initiative and that Panama would instead look to work more closely with the U.S.

    "I think this visit opens the door to build new relations … and try to increase as much as possible U.S. investments in Panama," Mulino told reporters after meeting with Rubio on his first international trip since being confirmed.

    This has been confirmed by Rubio, yet apart from Reuters all our main sources remain reluctant to acknowledge the win!

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday welcomed Panama's decision to let its participation in China's global infrastructure plan expire, calling the move "a great step forward" for its ties with the United States.

    Any move by Panama to distance itself from Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative is a win for Washington, which has argued that Beijing uses the scheme for "debt trap diplomacy" to cement its global influence. https://www.reuters.com/world/rubio-hails-panamas-move-exit-chinese-infrastructure-plan-2025-02-03/

    • joe90 3.1
      4 February 2025 at 9:43 am

      Trump chalks up another win:

      "You've got a nice canal here. It would be a shame if something happened to it"

      fify

      • Tiger Mountain 3.1.1
        4 February 2025 at 10:35 am

        The “TrumpFather”–a lot of people seem to let him get away with his mobster affectations.

        But that's ok for me to say…there are hundreds if not thousands in some genuine fear of their lives in the US following his return. If John Bolton and others of that ilk are on his revenge list who would be safe?

    • SPC 3.2
      4 February 2025 at 11:14 am

      SNL began the Sean Spicer/Trump press spokesperson impersonations.

      Mexicans will pay for the wall, the USA will get the canal back if the charges for the USA are not lower.

  4. Dennis Frank 4
    4 February 2025 at 8:47 am

    US govt censors bad words:

    Researchers were told to remove any mention or reference to a list of terms. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cdc-orders-papers-withdrawn-forbidden-words_n_67a02486e4b0521901454fe9?ime

    That list includes “gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,” Inside Medicine, citing the email, reported.

    Back to binary, folks! No tertiary category will be used officially. Real people will be allocated official categories on the basis of biology. Identitarians will prevail?

    • Visubversa 4.1
      4 February 2025 at 11:56 am

      Back to reality folks. Real people have real categories based on the binary reality of human sex. And nobody is "assigned" anything at birth except a collection of sexist stereotypes tied up in a pink or blue ribbon.

    • SPC 4.2
      4 February 2025 at 12:13 pm

      If the terms assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth are not used, how will they discuss such cases (those not of the biological sex) in research?

      • David 4.2.1
        4 February 2025 at 12:49 pm

        Maybe the term classified. We use this term, from observation of certain characteristics. The word assigned suggests something random, or how the drill sergeant would assign a new recruit to potato peeling duties

        • SPC 4.2.1.1
          4 February 2025 at 1:15 pm

          Sure, some term would be required. Usually the "classification" would be for social reasons as the child would not have the same genitalia as others – but then comes puberty (and the issue returns of difference returns in the outward appearance).

      • weka 4.2.2
        4 February 2025 at 1:09 pm

        do you mean research on trans people? It would depend on the research.

        Obviously medical research would need to know if the person was female or male.

        If it was social research, then use the term trans man or trans woman (and define that in the research brief and paper).

        The problem we have at the moment isn't lack of language, it's ideological enforcement. The liberals enforced one set, they can 't really complain when the conservatives do the same. This is a superb example of the principle that you have to bring society with you, and that forcing people to think like you doesn't work.

        Fortunately, left wing gender critical feminists, and others who are both gc and progressive, had been discussion these issues for a long time and have solutions. At some point the left should stop ostracising us and engage in an open manner and see if we can't find a better way than the left and right identitarians.

        There are additional issues. Trans people with marked gender dysphoria have a need to not be reminded of their biological sex, and to have their chosen gender identity affirmed. This seems reasonable, and it's also reasonable that society places limits on that. eg people should be registered with their GP as their biological sex (and additionally their gender id if they choose). It also matters when it comes to women's spaces and similar issues.

        There also appear to be trans women whose identity is around being affirmed as a woman because of their sexual fetish eg autogynephilia. They were formerly known as cross dressing men. They are particularly problematic for women, and we should be having an open public discussion about where the boundaries are. But at the moment, thanks to liberals, people with AGP are allowed to self identify as trans and into women's spaces. They tend to have a particular sense of male entitlement similar to other men, disrespectful of women.

        Research has been done on AGP, someone could look up what terms were used.

      • Karolyn_IS 4.2.3
        4 February 2025 at 4:31 pm

        I agree. Trump doesn't seem to have factored in Differences of Sex Development. He doesn't seem to care.

        The term "assigned female/male at birth" was initially used for people with DSDs, whose sex was incorrectly identified and recorded at birth. These are largely males with atypical genetalia and the conditions are mostly identified at birth or puberty, especially in wealthier communities & countries.

        The gender ID movement appropriated the term, which many DSD people and organisations are not happy about.

        Trump has also made these EOs in a way that seems to make transgender IDed people a target. But, I don't think he really cares about people with DSDs, people whose bodies have had some of their sex characteristics altered medically and/or surgically, or about females.

        I think giving primacy to biological sex over gender identity, is good, but the way Trump is going about enforcing those definitions is not good at all.

    • weka 4.3
      4 February 2025 at 1:13 pm

      Back to binary, folks! No tertiary category will be used officially. Real people will be allocated official categories on the basis of biology. Identitarians will prevail?

      you really are missing the politics here Dennis. There are whole swathes of people who now support Trump, who didn't before, because of this issue. Stop and think about why that is.

      Biology matters. Try reading Jane Clare Jones who spells out the connection between denial of material reality and the ecological crisis.

      • Drowsy M. Kram 4.3.1
        4 February 2025 at 2:06 pm

        There are whole swathes of people who now support Trump, who didn't before, because of this issue.
        …
        Try reading Jane Clare Jones who spells out the connection between denial of material reality and the ecological crisis.

        Weka, when you say "whole swathes of people who now support Trump" "because of this issue" [that sex in humans is binary?], what might "whole swathes of people" mean as a number or percentage of US voters?

        And do you believe a similar proportion of Kiwis might have been swayed to cast their votes for conservative political parties based on "this issue"?

        And would it be unreasonable to suggest that a majority of Trunp supporters are in denial about the polycrisis? If the Trump administration can "erase terms including gender, transgender, pregnant person, LGBT, transsexual and nonbinary", then maybe the polycrisis is similarly erasable – just imagine what a strongman like Trump can do with whole swathes of people supporting him.

        • weka 4.3.1.1
          4 February 2025 at 2:39 pm

          I used the term support, not vote, but few organisations are counting this issue well, so my guess is that there is almost no reliable data on voting choices in the US or NZ.

          But here's the crunch: it's very difficult to do such research when it might cost you your career. No Debate means we have no debate and that included no data. Not just voter patterns, but attitudes or societal shifts. We don't have good data on transition and detransition for the same reason.

          What I do know is that I've spent 7 years watching this dynamic unfold. Women being radicalised because liberals said women can't have our own rape crisis or toilets any more and if we want them we are bigots. That includes women in the UK and the US, and women in NZ, including on TS.

          There are women like myself who are left in our bones and who understood that women's rights couldn't be attained by moving rightwards. But we are in the minority. The liberal left have ostracised us, so the great work being done on these issues by left wing GCFs is not well known.

          • SPC 4.3.1.1.1
            4 February 2025 at 2:55 pm

            This 2024 polling shows

            1.clear Dem-GOP divide

            2.a trend 2017-2024

            What it does not show is polling of any difference between male and female voters.

            https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/06/gender-identity-sexual-orientation-and-the-2024-election/

            • weka 4.3.1.1.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 3:05 pm

              I didn't say anything about voting sex demographics.

              • SPC …
                4 February 2025 at 3:55 pm

                You asked for reliable data on voting choices in the US as related to opinion on gender ID.

                This does that by showing the clear difference between Dem and GOP voters on that issue. And a trend in the overall position over 7 years.

                But what it does not sample is female and male difference on the gender issue.

                • weka …
                  4 February 2025 at 4:19 pm

                  which bit in your link talks about women changing their support for Trump over the gender/sex war?

                  • SPC …
                    4 February 2025 at 4:22 pm

                    But what it does not sample is female and male difference on the gender issue.

                  • SPC …
                    4 February 2025 at 4:26 pm

                    What it does show is an overall trend towards a strongly held GOP position on the issue since 2017.

                    • weka …
                      4 February 2025 at 4:43 pm

                      ah, ok. Yes. But what we don't know is how many people would have voted differently if women's voices were being listened to by the Dems.

                    • tWig []
                      4 February 2025 at 8:00 pm

                      Here's a data-filled analysis on the issue un the UK's 2024 election.

                      'Last year just 8 per cent of Britons said they paid a lot of attention to trans issues and as many said that trans people face significant prejudice as said the same of disabled people. And those paying the greatest attention to media coverage of trans rights are people who are more supportive of them than opposed'.

                      And the UK is a hot-spot for anti-trans/culture wars electioneering. There was that senior Tory official who claimed the 'trans debate would win the election' for them. Ha.

                      I would guess that the US was not much different.

                    • Karolyn_IS …
                      4 February 2025 at 4:58 pm

                      There have been some polls that show that last year both Democrat and Republican voters became more opposed to trans IDed males in sport (a big issue in the US), in bathrooms, etc.

                      YouGov on bathrooms: the Independent vote is significant because it may have shifted enough swing voters to make a difference.

                      "NYT poll finds majority of Democrats oppose transgender athletes in women’s sports"

                      "Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women."

                      I think this is a conservative Christian group – Concerned Women for America (CWA) exit poll:

                      "found 70% of voters indicated transgender issues were an important factor in deciding their vote."

                      "Hispanic men carried the largest demographic of voters who found the issue important in their voting choice (84%). In 10 key states, Hispanic men and women were Trump’s largest voter gain."

          • Drowsy M. Kram 4.3.1.1.2
            4 February 2025 at 4:28 pm

            I used the term support, not vote…

            Quite right – happy to change “US voters” to ‘US supporters’ [of Trump] in para 1, and “cast their votes for ” to ‘support’ [for NZ conservative parties] in para 2.

            The liberal left have ostracised us, so the great work being done on these issues by left wing GCFs is not well known.

            So how might "ostracised" (left and right-wing) gender critical feminists and activists get more publicity for their great work?

            The Women's Rights Party may have broad support, but fewer than 1 in 1000 Kiwi voters gave it their party vote in the 2023 general election.

            Women being radicalised because liberals said women can't have our own rape crisis or toilets any more…

            Have liberal lefties really been saying that – for seven years? Not this lefty, but if so, then for all the debates – culture wars even – such comments stir up, there seems little appetite for implementation in NZ.

            NZ First’s toilet bill is designed to outrage but that doesn’t mean we can ignore it [15 May 2024]
            The toilet bill is, as Stuff and others report, “likely to target the transgender community, restricting which toilets they could use”.

            Just like Williamson’s carefully chosen words, the words in Peters’ tweet are carefully chosen. Among the “‘atta boy, common sense, I remember when men were men and women were women” framing is a signal that amplifies a fringe concern. It sanctions that concern and all the division it causes on a platform where it will get enough unregulated airtime to satiate and encourage those who want it to be a mainstream concern. If people are looking for cues to dress up their prejudice against an already marginalised group of people as socially acceptable behaviour, there they are, sanctioned by no less than the deputy prime minister of our country.
            …
            The debate is frequently given oxygen on social media and is a direct import of tactics deployed by politicians in the fanning of culture war flames around the world.
            …
            I think it’s perfectly fine for people to be asking questions about gender and our evolving understanding of it. It’s fine to be confused. It’s fine not to have all the answers and to not know the right thing to say. The toilet bill and the toilet debate, happening as it is on the worst possible platform for encouraging thoughtful conversation, is not a genuine exercise in advancing our collective knowledge and understanding, it’s a Trojan horse for people’s prejudice. It is a tail flicking at us from interests that don’t represent the majority and we, in the absence of leadership, are a dog being wagged.

            • weka 4.3.1.1.2.1
              4 February 2025 at 5:06 pm

              there's no such thing as a RW GCF in the way you imply. Kellie Jay Keen is not a feminist. There are centre right GCFs I guess, Helen Joyce being the most notable. Economically conservative, socially liberal, GC, feminist.

              I generally use the term GCF to refer to the left and centre left feminists who believe that biological sex is binary and that this matters, and that gender stereotypes harm women. I also think feminists like Joyce are important voices.

              In the UK, those feminists have fought a long, hard grass roots campaign, and eventually shifted the MSM on the issue. They also made policy gains in legislation and won legal cases. There are people other than feminists doing this work too.

              In NZ, the situation is different. Much smaller population, we don't have the kind of pre-existing grass roots feminist movement that the UK has (what happened to that btw?), and we are more liberal than the UK. Liberal NZ is firmly in the women's spaces are transphobic camp. Hence your Spinoff link.

              But, my guess is that if NZ women were asked, the majority would say they want women's spaces. If you look at the yougov polling in the UK, once you shift the question from 'do you support trans rights' to 'do you support trans identified males who haven't surgically transitioned', people's positions become more aligned with GCFs ie supportive of trans rights but not at the expense of women.

              But No Debate was incredibly successful, and it hasn't really been broken in NZ. The GC feminists I know here are mostly laying low, or just working steadily on the issues. We still can't have an open, robust debate. Even on TS, one of the few places online where debate has been held, is now in a kind of stasis.

              One consequence of No Debate in NZ is this:

              1. GC policy is being advanced by conservatives

              2. GCF voices aren't being heard, so there is a dearth of progressive GC voices*

              3. Liberals like Rawhiti-Connel are free to distort the debate in similar ways as Peters and co.

              4. Women will increasingly say fuck off, as they come to realise what it means

              *I'm generalising, WRP and SUFW in particular continue to do good work.

            • weka 4.3.1.1.2.2
              4 February 2025 at 5:10 pm

              Have liberal lefties really been saying that – for seven years? Not this lefty, but if so, then for all the debates – culture wars even – such comments stir up, there seems little appetite for implementation in NZ.

              Sure, and not this liberal lefty either. I was talking policy and positioning. If. you doubt what I say, stand up and talk about women's spaces in any progressive space in NZ and see what happens (seriously though, don't do that).

              And I was referencing other countries. I've been following the UK GCFs for that long, I watched liberals (including NZ ones) allow rape and violence memes against terfs online in that time, I saw women lose jobs, careers, get arrested for tweets.

              There are places in the UK now where there are no Rape Crisis centres that provide women only services. What do you think NZ women would do if they knew that was happening here? Why don’t they know?

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 February 2025 at 6:57 pm

                Sure, and not this liberal lefty either. I was talking policy and positioning. If. you doubt what I say, stand up and talk about women's spaces in any progressive space in NZ and see what happens (seriously though, don't do that).

                I regard TS as a progressive 'space' in NZ. My current view on the need for (maintaining) women-only (safe) spaces in NZ has been informed by what I read here, and I don't remember anyone challenging me when I stated my view, except perhaps a few Standandistas who thought I wasn't articulating that view correctly or strongly enough.

                There are places in the UK now where there are no Rape Crisis centres that provide women only services.

                I was unaware of that. How have UK women / women's groups responded to this (new?) lack of women-only services in (some) Rape Crisis centres?

                https://rapecrisis.org.uk/about-us/women-only-spaces/

                Rape crisis centre failed to protect women-only spaces – report [12 Sept 2024]

                What do you think NZ women would do if they knew that was happening here?

                Is it happening here, in NZ?

          • Shanreagh 4.3.1.1.3
            4 February 2025 at 4:42 pm

            Support all that Weka has said. There are women who voted right last year, other who voted left but who were absolutely over the moon when Trump made his pronouncement.

            As important & ground breaking as a changed vote from left to right for womens rights is/would be, the shattering aspect for me is the number of people who won't or can't make the move to vote right and whose decision is to not vote at all.

            This may have a flow on to local body elections when we see aspiring national (small 'n') politicans being inspected for anti women sentiment eg Katrina Biggs has kept followers on X up to date with the moves to allow men into women's dressing rooms in Christchurch espoused by Phil Mauger's council. Mauger is centre-right so it's a fair old mix up .

            We/the women may just slide away……will we ever hear from them again?

        • weka 4.3.1.2
          4 February 2025 at 2:43 pm

          And would it be unreasonable to suggest that a majority of Trunp supporters are in denial about the polycrisis? If the Trump administration can "erase terms including gender, transgender, pregnant person, LGBT, transsexual and nonbinary", then maybe the polycrisis is similarly erasable – just imagine what a strongman like Trump can do with whole swathes of people supporting him.

          Of course. This is such an obviousness, I'm not sure what your point is. Would you mind stating it directly?

      • Dennis Frank 4.3.2
        4 February 2025 at 2:17 pm

        I'm confident I'm not missing the dimensional drivers of the trend. Realism has two sides: binary people cling to their tradition while trans people know they don't belong in the binary. Denial of trans reality is silly and cannot prevail socially. The principle of biodiversity applies. Yet it's also true that nature features dyads, and male/female is the dyad of reproduction. That's realistic.

        So we must transcend the binary by allowing trans to be realised as an evolutionary option (despite the dead-end it becomes for some who adopt it), and acknowledge that the binary is real for most of us. Both/and logic applies!

        Re JCJ, I found this:

        Those committed to the belief in innate gender identity – while simultaneously denying that it is a belief, and hence that other people are entitled not to share it – will only interpret ideological non-compliance on this issue as “hatred of trans people,” and feel fully justified in punishing all detractors for their wickedness

        It nicely illustrates how people create barriers to sharing reality, which effectively isolate a social group from another, and fixate on the dichotomy instead of anchoring on common ground.

        • weka 4.3.2.1
          4 February 2025 at 2:46 pm

          please post the link for the quote.

        • weka 4.3.2.2
          4 February 2025 at 3:36 pm

          I'm confident I'm not missing the dimensional drivers of the trend. Realism has two sides: binary people cling to their tradition while trans people know they don't belong in the binary. Denial of trans reality is silly and cannot prevail socially. The principle of biodiversity applies. Yet it's also true that nature features dyads, and male/female is the dyad of reproduction. That's realistic.

          Um, material reality exists whether humans do or not, and whether humans think about shit or not. Material reality doesn't have two sides, it just is. All humans are one of two sexes.

          If you are talking about philosophy, then there are more than two sides on the issue of binaryness, this is my point.

          There are the people who believe that the binary nature of sex matters and should be enforced via gender stereotypes (fundamental conservatives).

          There are people who believe that the binary nature of sex matters because material reality matters, but gender stereotypes suck (gender critical feminists and other progressive gender critical people)

          There are people who believe that biological sex is a construct, that it can be changed, and that gender identity trumps biological sex.

          There's more than that, but you get my point. My comment above was about the numbers of women for whom being female matters a great deal and who will side with that over liberal left politics. Understanding why is crucial to the left making gains. To frame the dynamic as two sides missed the point.

          So we must transcend the binary by allowing trans to be realised as an evolutionary option (despite the dead-end it becomes for some who adopt it), and acknowledge that the binary is real for most of us. Both/and logic applies!

          you are conflating biology and social identity

          • Dennis Frank 4.3.2.2.1
            4 February 2025 at 4:01 pm

            conflating biology and social identity

            Not equating them, framing them as an inevitable complementarity. Some people have their identity anchored in biology. Others self-define it.

            • weka 4.3.2.2.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 4:13 pm

              maybe. There's a pretty strong feminist argument that gender identity (as we currently do it) is harmful. Some people say they have no gender identity.

              • Dennis Frank …
                4 February 2025 at 7:49 pm

                I have commented here in the past a few times in support of the feminist position. I don't claim any competence around gender since I grew up back when it was used as a simile for sex and haven't encountered any explanation of difference that stuck in my mind (I do recall reading one of yours once that I thought at the time clarified it nicely – but retain no memory of the details due to being ancient!)

            • Karolyn_IS 4.3.2.2.1.2
              4 February 2025 at 6:04 pm

              "Not equating them, framing them as an inevitable complementarity. "

              Re your very strange comment on JCJ's views. She sees biology and social processes as interacting in some quite complex ways.

        • Karolyn_IS 4.3.2.3
          4 February 2025 at 5:59 pm

          What do you mean by an "evolutionary option"?

          This is a twitter thread by a US human evolution biologist, Carole Hooven. She would not agree with you. The thread is a copy of the email responses she sent to The Guardian journalist who asked her views on Trump’s sex/gender EO.

          "TLDR: I provided her with plenty of scientific evidence/argument/detailed commentary in answer to her questions about Trump's executive order (YES it is scientifically sound) and the idea that everyone starts out female (UNsound). All of that was ignored, which is not unusual."

          What is the "biodiverse" reality that you refer to re transgender IDed people?

          There are only 2 sexes. Within each sex there is a great deal of diversity. However, all but an infinitesimal amount of people have a male or a female reproductive system, which is full integrated within the whole anatomy. This creates important differences between males and females that need to be acknowledged.

          Transgender IDed people include a vast range of different people, including differences between male & female sex differences. Some trans people take opposite sex hormones and have surgeries that modify their bodies. Others ID as transmen or transwomen without any medical or surgical intervention.

          • Dennis Frank 4.3.2.3.1
            4 February 2025 at 7:43 pm

            Whereas evolution works via mutation & selection (theory), male & female are the norms that enable reproduction. Those who are attracted to same sex don't reproduce unless they are also bisexual & do the normal thing.

            That makes 3 obvious categories: male/female/whatever. Trans has become the culturally-endorsed category for whatever but there are various sub-categories that have become popular in recent years/decades. Nature makes all, but there's a cultural warping also evident with some folk. I here use the word warp in a technical non-condemnatory sense. So nature provides biodiversity within humans as a spectrum, which is our collective reality.

            Traditionalists & conservatives go instead with the paradigm that socially conditioned them when young: male/female. It's their reality.

            • Karolyn_IS 4.3.2.3.1.1
              4 February 2025 at 8:56 pm

              I'm having difficulty following your argument. Many lesbians and some gay men have children, eg through reproductive technologies these days. But, also many lesbian follow social pressures when young, get into heterosexual relationships, even though they are not attracted to men. Furthermore, many heterosexual humans choose not to have children – and the numbers seem to be growing in younger generations these days.

              But what does that have to do with trans identified people, who indeed are strongly influenced by various cultural, and sexual experiences in the way they come to ID as trans? Each individual's story is a bit different thought there are some common themes.

              Male and female aren't norms. They are sexes, which are reproductive systems and all but an infinitesimal amount of humans have either a male or female reproductive system. The results are a cluster of differences between human males and females. There is no spectrum with gradations between being male and female; it is not like some genetic rainbow spectrum where one colour gradually fades into the next.

              Yes, culture has a role in how each human understands him/herself, and sex-based, culturally-constructed stereotypes have a lot of influence how we view ourselves. Many of us call that 'gender' ( a term derived from linguistics, not biological reality).

              Many trans IDed people have mothered or fathered children, so I'm not sure where your connection with childless lesbians and gays relates to them.

              There's Debbie Hayton, born male, medically and surgically transitioned, has a wife and daughter. Here Debbie talks about the need for single sex hospital wards, and, if necessary trans people should be put in single rooms. And here Debbie talks about the desire to be a woman was his (hetero)sexuality.

              And this is a review of Scott Newgent's biography, about how lesbian mother, Kellie King, transitioned medically and surgically to transman, Scott Newgent. Now Scott puts that drive down to homophobia, and now still sees herself as female and a lesbian, but continues to the external appearance of being like a man. Plus she had early childhood trauma, and was raped as a teenager.

              Both Debbie and Scott don't really care about what pronouns people use for them, and both are not concerned about being 'dead-named'.

              These are not in some "whatever" category that is neither male nor female. Sex (male or female) is not the same as socially constructed 'gender'.

              • Dennis Frank …
                5 February 2025 at 7:25 am

                My view encompasses all that you describe so well. Perhaps my framing seems too simplistic: one's personal framings are aesthetic choices, and I prioritise communicating complex topics is simply as possible to optimise comprehension. Doesn't mean anyone else necessarily gets my intended meaning, just that it ups the odds of success.

                In essence, use metaphysics to discern the metapattern. The spectrum runs from 0 to 1. Sex is the two natural numbers 0 & 1 used as symbols to represent male & female. All fractions in between them are available to users to represent their self-identity in the sex category.

                If it helps, take heed of how this metapattern is used in quantum computing, where the functional design of the tech system selects a value between 0 & 1 (false & true) as answer to a binary question into what's real.

                In my view this is the same mental process that our minds use when making a decision of what to do. Shakespeare made Hamlet say to be or not to be but we are no longer limited to that binary. Trans folk live accordingly.

  5. joe90 5
    4 February 2025 at 9:55 am

    $21 billion was returned to victims of financial fraud and abuse. Of course the billionaires want it gone.

    //

    President Donald Trump on Monday appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a powerful watchdog agency whose operations Bessent immediately halted pending a review.

    In an email to agency staff sent from the “acting director,” Bessent ordered the bureau to cease all work to craft regulations, enforce its rules, conduct investigations or provide “public communications of any type,” citing a need to “promote consistency” with the goals of the new administration, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.

    https://archive.li/xcPvf

    • joe90 5.1
      4 February 2025 at 10:30 am

      Those nice billionaires will acquire debt at cents in the dollar.

      /

      A government-wide hiring freeze has led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to yank job offers to more than 200 new examiners, the front-line employees who closely monitor banks to ensure they operate safely and adhere to an extensive rule book.

      The FDIC is already facing a staffing challenge, particularly with a lack of examiners, undermining its ability to reduce the risk of bank failures. A chronic shortage of examiners contributed to the failure of Signature Bank, one of three large banks to collapse in 2023, the agency has said.

      Though the FDIC historically operates independently of the White House, it is complying with the freeze, which President Donald Trump announced through an executive order last week. The move demonstrates the extent to which financial policy is increasingly set by the party in control of the White House.

      https://archive.li/2u0el (wapo)

    • joe90 5.2
      4 February 2025 at 10:47 am

      ffs

      .

      @mmasnick.bsky.social‬

      ·

      3h

      Wrote a thing warning people to expect a "Twitter Files" redux, of "The Government Files" in which Elon's dumbest fans will make a bunch of blatantly false conspiracy theory claims, he'll find some credulous "reporter" to repeat them, and people will believe it: http://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/t...

      https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social/post/3lhc4zyc7nc2s

      Remember the Twitter Files? That carefully orchestrated “exposé” where incredibly gullible hand-picked journalists were given selective access to internal documents to manufacture misleading outrage about Twitter’s content moderation?

      Get ready for the government edition.

      […]

      So, consider this a blaring warning: we’re going to see a bunch of false and misleading nonsense pushed by Elon and his crew, claiming all sorts of waste, fraud, and abuse. Most of it won’t actually be any of those things. Much of it will actually be important (sometimes life-saving) programs. They may stumble upon actual problems — those always exist. But they’re going to destroy hugely consequential elements of US infrastructure to get there.

      And then we’re going to be lied to about it all by dimwit reporters for years on end.

      The Twitter Files were just the dress rehearsal. The real performance is about to begin, and this time, the damage won’t be limited to content moderation decisions at one social media platform — it threatens to undermine crucial government functions from international aid to public health infrastructure.

      https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/the-twitter-files-playbook-comes-for-the-us-government/

  6. Dennis Frank 6
    4 February 2025 at 10:38 am

    Konrad the Kool does exemplary enterprise: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-04/engaging-young-australians-punters-politics/104878384

    His first reel, "How dumb are Aussies?" skewered the decisions of successive governments that he said allowed corporations to "rip off" Australia over its natural resources.

    It compared Australia's comparatively tiny tax revenue on oil and gas in the 2022-23 financial year ($2.6 billion) to that of Qatar's expectations that year ($76b) and Norway's take ($133.8b) in the year to December 2023, despite Australia being among the world's biggest natural gas exporters.

    In less than 12 months he has amassed about 330,000 followers on Instagram, set up a website and a podcast that has been joined by several politicians, and has "patrons" backing him financially.

    He has also raised more than $80,000 to erect billboards across the country ahead of the federal election – a move that is sure to cause a few headaches for all sides of government – as he continues to highlight Australia's comparatively small gas royalties… University of Adelaide media lecturer Caitlin Adams said satire was an "effective vehicle" for social and political commentary… "The Onion, for example, was first an offline satire newspaper before it gained popularity online," Ms Adams said.

    Guerilla politics was invented by the yippies circa 1971 when Jerry Rubin's Do It hit the bookshops (bought brand new by me). Nike, much later, recycled that slogan. Street theatre was the style of the times. Online peer pressure is the current form.

    • tWig 6.1
      4 February 2025 at 11:15 am

      Friendly Jordies rips into Gena Rhinehardt, the richest woman in Australia and doyen of the mining industry, talking to the poor mining industry late last year. The industry been hit by taxation enforcement and pressure to unionise by the current Labor state and federal governments.

      Start from 20 mins, Jordie is both funny and informative:

      When Gena advocates for an Oz DOGE department: "Elon musk's ideology seems to be centered entirely around reading Ayn Rand when he was 15, so… it's the same thing that all those like libertarian types in the US have of 'yes yes I will counter Das Capital with Fountain Head'…it's a fantasy book, it's like saying here's my view of the world have you read Harry Potter 4 yeah I'm going to base my political leanings off of… fighting evil with magic'."

      The points in this about the rip-off by the Oz industry, with PROFITS of $250 bi last year, and probably around 10% of that contributed in tax.

  7. tWig 7
    4 February 2025 at 11:28 am

    Trump's first Truss-onomics moment: Global stock markets come under pressure amid ‘Trump tariff tantrum’, And the DeepSeek imbroglio hits those investment vehicles heavily exposed to Nvidia et al, europena car comapnies and international crypto investments.

    ‘The JP Morgan Chase chief economist.. said: “This weekend’s actions challenge our underlying view that the Trump administration will strive to limit disruptive policies as it balances its desire to reduce engagement with the world with a commitment to support US businesses.

    “In short, the risk is that the policy mix is tilting (perhaps unintentionally) into a business-unfriendly stance.”

    Perhaps unintentionally?

  8. PsyclingLeft.Always 8
    4 February 2025 at 11:49 am

    Interislander replacement: Government begins global hunt for ferry builder

    Rail Minister Winston Peters has this morning announced it has started a worldwide search for two medium-sized ships, and will engage with international ship builders that can deliver the ferries by 2029.

    Worldwide. I wonder if that includes a certain ship builder in…Korea?Would be so fkn Ironic if they were the solution ? Also of course so very unlikely as…Willis and Co could not ever admit their screw up.

    "This will narrow the list of potential ship builders to those able to strike a deal, ensuring no time is wasted when we issue the ship specifications later this year," he said.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/540822/interislander-replacement-government-begins-global-hunt-for-ferry-builder

  9. tWig 9
    4 February 2025 at 12:01 pm

    People are following government advice and fleeing Santorini in Greece, after an increasing swarm of quakes, and . More than 30 > 4 magnitude tremors in the past 3 days. Santorini itself is the rim of a huge caldera, and the site of the cataclysmic earthquake that destroyed the Minoans.

  10. PsyclingLeft.Always 10
    4 February 2025 at 12:02 pm

    Chris Bishop reveals plan to 'turn around' Kāinga Ora

    Bishflap hand on "heart" states…(for what thats worth : (

    Housing Minister Chris Bishop says the total number of social houses will not reduce under the government's Kāinga Ora turnaround plan.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540846/chris-bishop-reveals-plan-to-turn-around-kainga-ora

    I see Simon Moutter was also yakking. I had a looksee what he would know about Social Housing. SFA as far as I could see…Maybe thats part of the Plan.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Moutter#Career

    • joe90 10.1
      4 February 2025 at 3:31 pm

      I see Simon Moutter was also yakking. I had a looksee what he would know about Social Housing. SFA as far as I could see…Maybe thats part of the Plan.

      Si's a change agent. A glib, smarmy pos who fucks up peoples lives and does it with a smile.

      • tc 10.1.1
        4 February 2025 at 5:38 pm

        Yup also likes to buddy up to the workers to discover things he can use against them from his management perch.

        He fooled a few at spark who weren't paying enough attention to what he actually represented and they found out the hard way.

        He was a good culture fit at akl airport.

        • joe90 10.1.1.1
          4 February 2025 at 6:47 pm

          Yup also likes to buddy up to the workers to discover things he can use against them from his management perch.

          Yup, that's what he did.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 10.1.2
        5 February 2025 at 7:33 am

        Si's a change agent. A glib, smarmy pos who fucks up peoples lives and does it with a smile.

        Always good to hear from those who have had some interaction with these types.

        in my long working life, your description would IMO, fit the majority of so called managers.

        Most with very little, if any, practical or business ability, common sense etc;

        How do they get to become manager? Stabbing and bullshitting their way upwards…..

    • Descendant Of Smith 10.2
      4 February 2025 at 10:32 pm

      Just doing what Key did – getting rid of all the state housing in posh areas.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 10.2.1
        5 February 2025 at 8:01 am

        On that….

        Government to sell 1000 – 2000 state houses – John Key

        And revisiting the past. Same old Nat modus….nothing changes.

        Labour leader Andrew Little says the Government's plan for social housing is about looking after National's "private developer mates" rather than fixing the country's housing problem.

        Proven

        Little said boosting subsidies for state house tenants to move into the private rental market would push up prices, affecting all renters.

        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/65495215/government-to-sell-1000—2000-state-houses—john-key

        From ChCh some years back….

        Sale of Christchurch state houses criticised

        Housing Action Christchurch has been set up to oppose the sell off.

        Its spokesperson, Sheena Dickson, said the type of civil disobedience seen in response to the demolition of state homes in Glen Innes could also be seen in Christchurch.

        "We hope it doesn't come to that obviously, but yes we will take the action we need to take just to move things forward

        Did the state tenants take action? Would they now?

        "So you know, we'll be drumming up the state tenants to do the same thing if they feel so passionate about it as we do, watch this space."

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/322156/sale-of-christchurch-state-houses-criticised

    • observer 11.1
      4 February 2025 at 2:41 pm

      The alarm bell ringing in that poll is NZ First scraping just above 5%. Soon Winston will be off the leash (no longer deputy PM, no longer sitting alongside Luxon in the House and playing loyal sidekick).

      Then he and Shane Jones will turn the rabble-rousing up to 11. Luxon won't be able to cope. He's already a feeble apologist for his Minister's bigotry, how much worse will it get?

  12. tWig 12
    4 February 2025 at 12:52 pm

    Chewie at BHN (from 1h20) has noticed that the algorithms in FB and even google have changed his feeds in the last week of so to push more rw anti-woke material, and that finding certain stuff is harder, or you have to be more careful to not be shadow-banned for innocuous statements. Meta looks to be pivot to a more partisan pro-Trump approach.

    Time to change to bluesky and nsearch engines like duckduckgogo.

    • tWig 12.1
      4 February 2025 at 1:21 pm

      An effect of Meta's removal of fact-checking and switch to a community notes model for policing objectional material is to shift the algorithm. This article backgrounds how Meta's political bias setting has changed over the years.

      ‘But then last year, Meta started to change its tune, with Zuckerberg penning a letter to Congress in which he expressed regret over his company’s decision to censor COVID vaccine misinformation, at the behest of Biden administration officials, and the mistaken blocking of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

      At that stage, Trump looked to be gaining in the polls, on the way to his subsequent re-election. That could be coincidental timing, but it did seem like Zuckerberg may have been setting the table for last week’s switch-up based on the poll projections.

      Also of note, Trump had threatened to jail Zuckerberg for life if he was ever re-elected, due to what he viewed as political overreach by Facebook in suspending his account.’

  13. PsyclingLeft.Always 13
    4 February 2025 at 1:09 pm

    Not quite a "get out of jail free card" , but free carbon credits for..these polluters?!

    Climate Change Commission backs 'reviewing' free carbon credits for big polluters

    The Climate Change Commission has given support to a campaign to end free carbon credits for big polluters such as Methanex, Rio Tinto and NZ Steel.

    In a letter released overnight, the independent body pointed to serious problems with the subsidy scheme, after MPs asked it to comment on a 6000-signature petition before Parliament.

    The 'Don't Subsidise Pollution' petition seeks an end to hundreds of millions of dollars in free carbon credits given each year to manufacturer/exporters under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/540864/climate-change-commission-backs-reviewing-free-carbon-credits-for-big-polluters

    Signed, and was proud too !

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 13.1
      4 February 2025 at 1:12 pm

      And….Green party looks to our Future.

      Greens claim they can better NZ's emissions reductions five-fold and improve the economy

      Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said acting in the best interest of both the environment and the economy was possible.

      "Our plan outlines an economy that supports people and the planet, instead of exploiting and exhausting both.

      "That means a Green Jobs Guarantee, planting native trees instead of pine, efficient public transport, sustainable food production, restoring our wetlands, designing our cities better, distributed and resilient renewable energy, real just transition plans led by local communities, and so much more.

      "He Ara Anamata not only reduces the cost of living, but increases quality of life. A better world is possible, and this is how we build it."

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/536003/greens-claim-they-can-better-nz-s-emissions-reductions-five-fold-and-improve-the-economy

      Onya Chloe : )

  14. SPC 14
    4 February 2025 at 1:48 pm

    It has been decades since a National government increased public housing stock and there will be no change.

    It was about 1979-1981

    https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/32421/total-state-housing-stock

    There will be less social and or public housing than in 2023.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/housing-minister-chris-bishop-to-speak-to-media-about-kainga-ora/EMWE3MFNGRBIROMJ6CIQ7UUDII/

    • KJT 16.1
      4 February 2025 at 7:23 pm

      "Competent white men" looking rather rare at present.

      Certainly in the USA, they are having trouble finding any.

  17. Ad 17
    4 February 2025 at 4:42 pm

    I'm getting a sneaky feeling this Luxon lot are our first 1-term government since 1972.

    There's now nothing they can deliver that will turn their tide.