TVNZ News reports that hospitals in the UK and the USA are over crowded with Covid 19 patients and the film cameras show 1 patient. In all the reports I still have not seen a single image of a hospital over full with Covid 19 patients.
They also report 100's of dead per day and recently in the USA a 1000 dead per day from Covid 19 and the film cameras show 0 bodies. I still have not seen any evidence of this many dead.
What is the point of film camera's? They just say all this shit and don't show any of it. I feel like I'm still a child being forced to attend church, they just say all this random unbelievable shit and expect me to believe it?
Why does anyone believe this shit when they can't even show it? Seeing is believing, show what's going on or shove your mandatory mask wearing and contact tracing up your arse.
Why don't you go look for yourself and tell us all what you find? After all, video can be faked too. Truthers of all kinds of things like moon landings and the shape of the earth tell us so all the time.
Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, my cousin and her husband and all their medical colleagues are putting in everything they can every single day, and when they finally lay down to get a bit of rest, they're all hoping like hell they'll be able to summon whatever it takes to do it again the next day. With no relief anywhere on the horizon.
It's been following medical people online that's been the most instructive for me in terms of grasping the seriousness of the situation. News reports are useful too, but that frontline stuff has been essential to understand. I limit it more now, but it's alarming seeing the places which are reaching hospital overload *again. Did people in positions of power forget that one of the prime reasons for containing the pandemic was because of all the effects when the health system gets overloaded.
There's some common factors and some widely varying factors for the resurgence.
Common factors include CovidCamacho rage-tweeting nonsense from La Cage aux Fuckups that couldn't have been better designed to make the pandemic worse even if it was a planned strategy (rather than the spur-of-the-moment ad-hoc idiocy it probably was). That's likely a factor for why Repug areas are in general are getting it worse for this wave than earlier. As expected, the surge in infections also coincides with classes starting up and people spending more time indoors as the weather gets colder and daylight shorter.
Variable factors include a lot of places either didn't really get a first wave or only a small one, so they never really got the message about how seriously it needed to be taken. Utah and nearby states like the Dakotas are in this category.
Other states like California and New York that got hit hard in the early stages of the pandemic have possibly suffered from lockdown fatigue, and were slow to respond to upticks in cases. To be sure, they have responded to the upticks, just a day late and a dollar short.
edit: just eyeballing the curves for New York City and New York state certainly looks like the statewide cases are shooting up a lot faster than city cases, compared to the first wave. Make of that what you will, given than the rest of New York is fairly Repug-leaning compared to New York City.
Did people in positions of power forget that one of the prime reasons for containing the pandemic was because of all the effects when the health system gets overloaded.
As NZ has a shortage of ICU beds,which struggle in times of crisis such as CHCH eq,mosques, or white island,mobility had to be constrained as well as physical interaction such as sports etc.
The outcome was a mortality deficit in NZ over the winter months,fewer admissions,deaths, etc.
The significant decrease in accidents, also had the paradox of reducing funding to DHB by ACC.
It apparently hasn't occurred to you that they are not showing the evidence because they know the images will distress people…. especially those who have lost loved ones to Covid.
Do you remember the film footage of people jumping off the roof of the World Trade Centre in 2001 because they preferred death by falling than being burnt alive? Health officials were so alarmed at the psychological consequences of such images they called for media outlets to be banned from showing them.
"Do you remember the film footage of people jumping off the roof of the World Trade Centre in 2001 because they preferred death by falling than being burnt alive? "
I remember catching a bit of that before they started the delayed editing.
I found the written reports (sometimes first hand) of covid hitting Italy in March traumatic enough, no way did I want images or video.
911 was the last time I watched live emergencies where people were dying or suffering extremely. Unless there is a good reason to watch I don't see the point. Some people get traumatised, others develop cognitive dissonance and/or increased tolerance to violence.
When somebody is on life-support or has died, the media have the rightful duty to barge in, poke and prod the body and film up-close, interrogate staff and get their personal contact details and publish it, live, preferentially, in lieu of us checking for ourselves with our own eyes. Do you like Zen kōan?
Perhaps first hand experience of Covid-19 one way or the other, will get you to change your mind quick smart re the awful reality of the existence of the virus!
There is one fact that proves it happened…it was the height of the cold war…so russia/china..plus everyone else on the planet with a telescope tracked the fucken thing through the skies..both there and back…unless of course…they were all in the conspiracy too…to believe the moon-landing was faked is the mark of a true idiot..
Earth-based telescopes at the time and even at present are not powerful enough to make out any detail of the landings on the actual Moon itself. If they had used a monster-truck with giant wheels, it would have been different or a huge flag …
This is from a nurse who will tell you – yes it is real!
I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is Going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that “stuff” because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens. And I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.
You using the width box in the window for embedding the image? I never got that to work for me.
What works for me is not bother with any of the other boxes, and just put in the image URL. Then submit the comment. Then immediately edit the comment to add in width="500" just before the />
Yep I've tried all those work arounds. But for some reason it is not working tonight. Had another image wrt to the tangerine ***** driving past his base today and observing just how much that showed how much he cared.
Famous Painter George Bush Canceled After Early 2000s War Crime Allegations Resurface
McLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — Prolific artist and former U.S. President George W. Bush is facing a firestorm of controversy today after numerous videos emerged online of his alleged war crimes between 2003 to 2009.
“I’ve known him for years and he’s always been nice. He never once declared war crimes on my family, so I have a hard time believing any of these credible accusations are true,” said former First Lady Michelle Obama. “What’s next? Today, we’re cancelling Bush for unjust wars; tomorrow, we’re cancelling my husband just for bombing a hospital? If things keep going this way, everyone will be too afraid to order drone strikes on civilians.”
Jubilant Reaction To Trump Defeat Quickly Soured By News Of Biden Win
"Seconds after the room had erupted into cheers, applause, and a few big sighs of relief, sources confirmed Tuesday that a local group of friend’s jubilant reaction to Donald Trump’s defeat had soured quickly upon the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory. “One moment we’re celebrating our nation’s repudiation of Trump, and the next Biden is declared the winner—what a buzzkill,” said 29-year-old Ryan Lopez"
Unlike you Andre, I actually have a firm set of moral and ethical principles that I live by that are not negotiable, I know that this concept is quite foreign to you…but there you have it.
Yes..satire is a wonderful thing..but I don't think satirists would claim to be telling the truth…so posting from the onion as tho' it is the 'truth'..and using it as a launching pad for an 'i reckon'…is kinda strange…and funny in itself…
Nah it's true because many people voted for Biden as the lessor of two evils – because Biden was not Trump. Basically a lose:lose situation or a Pyrrhic victory.
It's satirical cause it's poking fun at that very notion and at a US society / political system that basically gives you but two choices and it is clearly exaggerating the effect.
unfortunately it is a lesser known bird gets my vote, as out of the sight of the public very soon there will be no chance for those birds at all.
so every year I look for those less known for my vote and to hopefully increase its profile- saying that they all need attention, DOC resources and habitat protection
MatukuBittern
I am pleased to say that I had to dodge a makutu whilst driving down Henderson Bay Road a wee while ago. Rare indeed, and a delight to see one out and about.
Went for the Grey Warbler. Love a description of it I read somewhere – that it cleverly inverts the Victorian maxim that children should be seen and not heard.
Always feel sorry for the grey warbler. It gets parasitised by the lazy shining cuckoos. They lay their eggs in the warbler nests and then their chicks kick out the warbler chicks and make the warbler mum and dad work like crazy feeding them.
I'm fairly sure I saw a pair of Crested Grebe here in Auckland this week, and wonder if the stormy weather might have displaced them (their distribution is in the South Island).
I took a real good look as it was my first encounter with the species. They were on MOTAT land, beside an estuary/stream system.
So we have a $9 billion Hort industry relying on about 15,000 low wage RSE workers. MIQ facilities quite rightly accepting returning NZ passport holders first. NZ workers choose not to do the hard work at minimum pay rates in an industry rife with reports of exploitation by “labour contractors.” It sounds ripe ground for a unionised workforce with much better worker rights and protection. Growers simply have to face the new reality, negotiate with the Kiwi workforce and their representatives or go broke. Employment contract laws are out dated and very one sided. Time for change?
Definitely time for a change. Actually I think it could do with even wider framing. I really don't understand why Labour won't assist workers to empower themselves by making workforces part of the business conversation. We miss out on so much when we don't harness all the ability of the total workforce. We education people then when they join the workforce, rather than creating and contributing, they are told to sit down and listen only to the current managerial cult.
As to the fruit picking – at the minimum this time around I'd like to see an accreditation scheme – just to let potential workers know such things as whether the employer is compliant with labour and tax laws, are they overseas owned because I don't think anyone needs to be slave labour for overseas profit.
We have had plenty of commentary about water bottling and not being about to benefit from mining the resource yet we also have this hort. industry and don’t forget fishing. IMO little different from water bottling 🤬
The use of offshore labour to prop up successful industrial sectors.
Growers simply have to face the new reality, negotiate with the Kiwi workforce and their representatives or go broke.
It may be that they'll do both. NZ labour simply cannot compete with the cheap labour offshore.
Time for change?
Definitely time for a change but the change is actually in trade laws. We, as a nation, need to step up and say that we will only trade with countries that have the same or similar laws and enforcement as ours. This is to ensure that costs are properly accounted for.
Of course, the end result of that will be the minimising of international trade.
The wages in the local (HB) HORT industry are a joke (a bad one) even if you go on contract and prune or pick well above the average, and believe me a worker has to work fucking hard to make that happen, once you take rain days into account that worker will be earning less than minium wage at the end of most months of the season..and then to add insult to injury, getting topped up by winz is far from straight forward, and even if you do make it through their obvious "thinning out process", they will only top up a workers wage to the level of the unemployment benefit, not the wages they lost over those days!
The New Zealand Labour won't be batting for these workers any time soon….no that party of middle class wankers stopped being even pretending to be a workers party long long ago.
The New Zealand Labour won't be batting for these workers any time soon….no that party of middle class wankers stopped being even pretending to be a workers party long long ago.
I posted a few years back about the Labour Party having the cheek to have prominently on their website the 8 hour working day 40 hour working week pointing out that it was ridiculous they highlighted something they no longer believe in.
Coincidently or not it disappeared within a few weeks. That re-inforced their non-belief in it.
They also no longer believed in the right to strike as they have left that to be only at the expiry of a contract and no other time.
Like increasing benefit rates they have done nothing about giving workers a legal right to strike – the unions are just as useless negotiating multi-year agreement which reduce the right to strike to once every three years. Unions are just as fucked up as the Labour Party.
The unemployment rate in Marlborough has been the among lowest in NZ for quite a few years and was 2.6% in June this year or about a few hundred people. At those number you are down to only those who can do quite sedentary work because of age, injury, addiction and other causes. In effect anybody that can work in Marlborough has a job.
RSE workers are about 3000 and those jobs are a huge benefit to the mostly Pacific Islands that they come from. Stop denigrating RSE workers, they are no different from workers coming from Wellington or Auckland, except in one respect, they are a lot more capable and a hell of a lot more motivated.
To label them in a derogatory manner simply because they come from the Pacific to where the work is, is racist.
They are paid at least the minimum wage and mostly a lot more and are housed in good accomodation that has to pass muster by the Department. They are almost without exception bloody nice people.
They are also the highest paid people by a very, very long margin in their own country, equivilant to probably a Cabinet Minister in NZ.
The payments of RSE workers is a drain on NZs balance of payments. Better for NZs economy for that money to be circulated back within NZs internal economy.
If the growers have to take less dividends from the profits to avoid tax in order to pay more to NZers to entice them to pick fruit and grapes and what have you, then that's hardly going to send them to the poor house.
After all, Francine Perry has a house worth 3million, multiple shareholdings, and likely a trust with multiple properties in it too. Can't forget her late model Audi.
Yeah, nah, the growers complaining aren't complaining at the fact they can't get RSE workers. They're complaining about the fact they might not be able to buy an extra rental property or three, or upgrade the Audi to the latest model, this year, if they had to hire NZers at a rate that enables NZers to travel to work, and recognises the hard physical labour involved in horticulture pruning and picking. I mean, it took female care workers years to fight for the fact their work was just as skilled and demanding as other physical labour – horticulture is just behind the 8 ball. In fact, it's so far behind the 8 ball, that the 8 ball hasn't even been made in the factory yet, for horticulture to get behind.
"If the growers have to take less dividends from the profits to avoid tax in order to pay more to NZers to entice them to pick fruit and grapes and what have you, then that's hardly going to send them to the poor house."…too fucking right!
The RSE scheme has been used to undermine wage growth in the horticultural industry that is just a fact, why on earth do you think there hasn’t been a significant rise in picking bin rates for nearly twenty years? and most especially during the past decade when the industry has been booming, every year their returns would increase while wages stayed stagnant…exploiting one labour force ( pacific Islanders) against another(NZ workers) in a text book operation of class war pure and simple.
Because the one rule of growing stuff is that the price you get for it falls just a little bit every year. Consumers expect everything to be on special pretty much all the time and they set the price. Try selling something to a supermarket chain and get a grasp of what producers are facing everyday.
"The packing house provides accommodation too, with four roommates to one bedroom. Two double bunks where there used to be one, a lean pillow on each mattress. An acquaintance of Mum’s, who used to run the administration at the packing house, confirmed that only two people are supposed to sleep in each room. The four-to-one bedrooms are a recent addition for which the workers are charged $117 each per week. Mum’s disgusted by this. She says they have to share the bunks, and some barely fit on the mattress. The springs creak whenever they turn over in the metal bunk beds."
"Work slows down for a fortnight and the packers only work three or four days a week. As a result the Tongans are not earning much money to send back to their families, and they’re hungry. Groups of Tongan packers sit near Mum and Grant’s table, looking at their food while they’re eating. When Mum takes out an apple, Ana asks for a bite"
I can’t see anyone in the above train of comments denigrating RSE workers. They are exploited to the same or worse extent, by Hort NZ, as Kiwis. RSE workers have even less choice and a recent charge of modern day slavery, in Hawke’s Bay, led to a “Labour contractor” being gaoled. The point is, collective bargaining is a real need and a union is the only way to do this.
Whatever is negotiated with the orchards should definitely be the same for the RSE workers. No way should we be exploiting them in our labour market. And the accommodation charging is just a version of the company store and it needs to stop.
They were called slaves, that is derogatory and their ethnicity is often mentioned.
Were Kiwis going to Aussie mines for the last 40 years "slaves ".
It's a dog whistle to make a political point using some of the nicest people you could meet who are, like the Kiwis to Australia before them delighted to be making what amounts to huge money back home.
But then yesterday Elon Musk showed up. He wants to be in the NASA control room, a very reasonable desire, when his Dragon capsule is launched with real people in it. NASA requires a negative Covid test to be there. That seems somewhat reasonable too; this is a high-security area and the people in there are very important to NASA, so if they want a swab up your nose, well, here it comes.
He popped positive. No soup for you, sir, says NASA!
Except…. Musk is richer than God and he also doesn't give a **** about shoving government bull**** right up their ass. So he demanded a re-test, right there, right now. I assume he offered to pay for it too; the privilege of not caring about money helps in a situation like this, you see.
And, because he's not stupid and, as I said, he's perfectly happy to shove bull**** up their ass, he didn't just do this once.
He did it three more times. All on the same day, same nurse, in sequence.
He got two positive and two negative results.
Now Musk is either positive or negative, obviously. But whichever way it is he just dropped a nuclear weapon in the middle of the Covid19 testing industry and blew it to beyond the orbit of Mars. Exactly nobody in the media is reporting that, but that's what he did — conclusively.
Seriously, what is it with this unhinged idea that media don't report stuff? It's reached that point that making that assertion has become a fairly reliable indicator of an idiot conspiracy theorist.
As for the story itself. it's been known for a long time that COVID testing has varying degrees of positive and negative accuracy. Accuracy depends on the method used, current viral load, where the sample is taken from, and a bunch of other factors. The only slight bit of interest in the story is how it relates to Musk's desire to be in the control room, and his past controversial statements and actions with respect to COVID.
What's the accuracy of the test in question? Got a link to the ROC plot?
Dude narrowly failed a screening test. Could be a misdiagnosis, could be that his viral load at the time was borderline – maybe he was getting over it and didn't know.
But he still failed it twice. Would you rather a test that erred on the side of false negatives?
In his big speech the other day Trump once again spoke about the testing. The 'best' tests and the best testing. There was the acceptance and acknowledgement there that there are tests and there are tests.
:SIGH:
This has been known for some months. But in America where quicker is always better..
Fast Isn’t Always Better: What to Know About Rise of Rapid Coronavirus Testing
Earlier this month, shortly before Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was due to meet President Donald Trump at a Cleveland airport, the governor tested positive on a rapid antigen test for the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the disease COVID-19.
Two follow-up tests, using a more accurate polymerase chain reaction, or PCR test, showed the governor didn’t have the virus.
This kind of false positive with an antigen test isn’t an isolated incident.
Dozens of people who took a rapid SARS-CoV-2 test developed by biotech company Quidel at a Manchester, Vermont, clinic in July were told they had the virus.
Subsequent PCR tests run by the state’s Department of Health found that only 4 out of those 65 were positive.
With people across the United States returning to work and school — and flying and eating out — companies, businesses, and universities are turning to rapid tests as a way to identify people who have the virus.
But no test is completely accurate, which means that some cases will be missed (false negatives) and some people will be told they have the virus even though they don’t (false positives).
This can create confusion, especially when people aren’t aware of what type of test they’ve had done.
But some experts say that widespread testing, even if it’s less accurate, can still help contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Although antigen tests are faster and the number of tests being run can be easily scaled up, they have a high false-negative rate — with as many as half of negative results inaccurate.
There's the old tradies' rule that work can be fast, good, or cheap, you pick two out of three.
Medical tests are similar, with the proviso that "good" can be "specific" or "sensitive".
NASA wanted sensitivity as a priority. That often means a trade-off against "specificity" – sometimes it will confuse something else for what you are testing for.
Meh. I had wondered why Musk was going apeshit over it. Apparently he can send people into space, but he can't watch it over zoom lol.
You can come up with all the excuses… it's neo-liberalism… it's free trade agreements taking away their jobs and… people are entitled to their views etc., but the truth is:
These people are one dirty great screw loose and they're dangerous.
Here we go again. The suits find it suits them to sign up to these constricting trade agreements and if we upset any of the ‘partners’ the suits will fly.
Fifteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal.
It's the world's largest free trade agreement, has been eight years in the making and came into fruition today via a virtual summit hosted in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Australia went from relief that it had had several days without any community transmission to a certain smugness, with eyes cast over the ditch at NZs recent leakage from quarantine…..until today. A new cluster has emerged in Adelaide, the first in the community since April.The source is a worker at a quarantine hotel, who appears to have passed the virus on to family members who work in places where further transmission is likely – no room for complacency as the Chief Health Officer reminds everyone in SA. Mind you, compared to the horror figures coming out of the U.S. and Europe (and just about everywhere else) these little leaks seem pretty insignifcant on a world scale.
Tegnell is admitting that his PlanB-style non-lockdown infectious disease control plan did not mitigate the second wave. His math was a little bit off initially, fair enough. But he committed to the plan even when it others said it was going pear-shaped.
If it were fiction, he'd be a bit of a tragic figure – reminds me of Kodos the Executioner. Similar body count so far, too.
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In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
“Show us the bird,” I found myself muttering at times while reading Hard by the Cloud House by Peter Walker, a deeply thoughtful, often hilarious, at times rambling – but somehow delightfully so – search for the story of a big bird. But not just any bird: the bird. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition DPVUE .images/Shutterstock Your home was probably designed for a climate that no longer exists. As long as humanity continues to burn fossil fuel, padding the heat-trapping blanket of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the ...
A senior lawyer has filed a complaint about tikanga becoming a required law school module. Law lecturer Carwyn Jones explains what he’s getting wrong. “…the first law of Aotearoa, a law that served the needs of tangata whenua for a thousand years before the arrival of tauiwi.”– Ani Mikaere ...
In 2019, an Auckland woman woke up from surgery to find that she had undergone a treatment she didn’t consent to. She tells Alex Casey about her experience. From her very first period at the age of 14, Laura experienced “debilitating” levels of pain that forced her to withdraw from ...
In the gloom following director-general Al Morrison’s job cuts in 2013, the Department of Conservation restructured its operations arm. Eleven conservancy districts were whittled into six new “conservation delivery” regions, under which the Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands area, comprising 40 scattered islands more than 800km east of Christchurch, was tethered to the ...
One of th e country’s top litigation lawyers says New Zealand is seeing a lift in court action between companies. Chapman Tripp partner Justin Graham, who oversees a team of around 80 litigation specialists, says the courts are now so log-jammed that it’s taking over two years to get cases ...
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Comment: Concerns about the state of the economy are creeping up to the top of firms’ list of challenges. That’s evident in both surveys and the tone of our recent client discussions. Skimming the past few weeks of eco-news, it’s not hard to see why. – Retail card spending fell ...
Opinion: Could former co-leader James Shaw still make a difference to working with National? The post How the Greens could be contenders appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: What if we got rid of our existing drug laws and replaced them with a new law that legalised and carefully regulated all psychoactive substances, from cannabis to MDMA, methamphetamine and LSD to magic mushrooms? And which also included legal drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. “Wow,” you might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
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An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
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TVNZ News reports that hospitals in the UK and the USA are over crowded with Covid 19 patients and the film cameras show 1 patient. In all the reports I still have not seen a single image of a hospital over full with Covid 19 patients.
They also report 100's of dead per day and recently in the USA a 1000 dead per day from Covid 19 and the film cameras show 0 bodies. I still have not seen any evidence of this many dead.
What is the point of film camera's? They just say all this shit and don't show any of it. I feel like I'm still a child being forced to attend church, they just say all this random unbelievable shit and expect me to believe it?
Why does anyone believe this shit when they can't even show it? Seeing is believing, show what's going on or shove your mandatory mask wearing and contact tracing up your arse.
Maybe the dead and dying aren't there for your entertainment purposes. Have you heard of the internet? It has lots of awful stuff you can fap to.
Why don't you go look for yourself and tell us all what you find? After all, video can be faked too. Truthers of all kinds of things like moon landings and the shape of the earth tell us so all the time.
Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, my cousin and her husband and all their medical colleagues are putting in everything they can every single day, and when they finally lay down to get a bit of rest, they're all hoping like hell they'll be able to summon whatever it takes to do it again the next day. With no relief anywhere on the horizon.
It's been following medical people online that's been the most instructive for me in terms of grasping the seriousness of the situation. News reports are useful too, but that frontline stuff has been essential to understand. I limit it more now, but it's alarming seeing the places which are reaching hospital overload *again. Did people in positions of power forget that one of the prime reasons for containing the pandemic was because of all the effects when the health system gets overloaded.
There's some common factors and some widely varying factors for the resurgence.
Common factors include CovidCamacho rage-tweeting nonsense from La Cage aux Fuckups that couldn't have been better designed to make the pandemic worse even if it was a planned strategy (rather than the spur-of-the-moment ad-hoc idiocy it probably was). That's likely a factor for why Repug areas are in general are getting it worse for this wave than earlier. As expected, the surge in infections also coincides with classes starting up and people spending more time indoors as the weather gets colder and daylight shorter.
Variable factors include a lot of places either didn't really get a first wave or only a small one, so they never really got the message about how seriously it needed to be taken. Utah and nearby states like the Dakotas are in this category.
Other states like California and New York that got hit hard in the early stages of the pandemic have possibly suffered from lockdown fatigue, and were slow to respond to upticks in cases. To be sure, they have responded to the upticks, just a day late and a dollar short.
edit: just eyeballing the curves for New York City and New York state certainly looks like the statewide cases are shooting up a lot faster than city cases, compared to the first wave. Make of that what you will, given than the rest of New York is fairly Repug-leaning compared to New York City.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data-trends.page
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/new-york/
Did people in positions of power forget that one of the prime reasons for containing the pandemic was because of all the effects when the health system gets overloaded.
As NZ has a shortage of ICU beds,which struggle in times of crisis such as CHCH eq,mosques, or white island,mobility had to be constrained as well as physical interaction such as sports etc.
The outcome was a mortality deficit in NZ over the winter months,fewer admissions,deaths, etc.
The significant decrease in accidents, also had the paradox of reducing funding to DHB by ACC.
https://mpidr.shinyapps.io/stmortality/
It apparently hasn't occurred to you that they are not showing the evidence because they know the images will distress people…. especially those who have lost loved ones to Covid.
Do you remember the film footage of people jumping off the roof of the World Trade Centre in 2001 because they preferred death by falling than being burnt alive? Health officials were so alarmed at the psychological consequences of such images they called for media outlets to be banned from showing them.
"Do you remember the film footage of people jumping off the roof of the World Trade Centre in 2001 because they preferred death by falling than being burnt alive? "
I remember catching a bit of that before they started the delayed editing.
It was f-ing awful
I found the written reports (sometimes first hand) of covid hitting Italy in March traumatic enough, no way did I want images or video.
911 was the last time I watched live emergencies where people were dying or suffering extremely. Unless there is a good reason to watch I don't see the point. Some people get traumatised, others develop cognitive dissonance and/or increased tolerance to violence.
When somebody is on life-support or has died, the media have the rightful duty to barge in, poke and prod the body and film up-close, interrogate staff and get their personal contact details and publish it, live, preferentially, in lieu of us checking for ourselves with our own eyes. Do you like Zen kōan?
@Non-Personal
Are the dying non-personal persons?. When are the dead non-persons – just before, or the moment after? Do you need to see the nail-holes in the hands?
Because, my conspiracist leaning friend, sick people and dead people have rights of privacy! Duh!!
I have seen evidence of over full hospitals on Aljazeera TV channel 16 and the storing of bodies. As well the pressure health care workers are under.
Just on AJ TV 180,000 Covid infections in the US in the last 24 hrs. Britain has a high as well.
I will not comment
I will not comment
I will not comment
I will not comment
I will not
aaarrrrgghhhhhhh!
@ Non Personal … Are you for real?
Perhaps first hand experience of Covid-19 one way or the other, will get you to change your mind quick smart re the awful reality of the existence of the virus!
I realise I am wasting my own good time by responding to you. Your level of ignorance defies belief. Please get some help
D'yareckon the moon-landing was faked..?
Heh! Had the same thought but concluded that the fake was faked, which kinda makes the real thing real in a surreal kinda way, for real.
I remember many a happy hour at Vic in our Philosophy III tutorials with Prof Hughes discussing that very moot "What is 'real'?"
Hangovers are real and the good nights before are surreal. Like a good Groundhog, we keep repeating the same type of behaviour over and over again.
There is one fact that proves it happened…it was the height of the cold war…so russia/china..plus everyone else on the planet with a telescope tracked the fucken thing through the skies..both there and back…unless of course…they were all in the conspiracy too…to believe the moon-landing was faked is the mark of a true idiot..
Earth-based telescopes at the time and even at present are not powerful enough to make out any detail of the landings on the actual Moon itself. If they had used a monster-truck with giant wheels, it would have been different or a huge flag …
This is from a nurse who will tell you – yes it is real!
I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is Going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that “stuff” because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens. And I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.
https://twitter.com/JodiDoering/status/1327771329555292162
You sound like Billy T the fuckwit.
[Image resized]
Tried to adjust this image to fit (eg with 450) – it appears ok in the preview, but when submitted it always reverts to the original size 🙁
You using the width box in the window for embedding the image? I never got that to work for me.
What works for me is not bother with any of the other boxes, and just put in the image URL. Then submit the comment. Then immediately edit the comment to add in width="500" just before the />
Yep I've tried all those work arounds. But for some reason it is not working tonight. Had another image wrt to the tangerine ***** driving past his base today and observing just how much that showed how much he cared.
Ha! Fixed it – I'd been missing a space :blush:
Add this before the end of tag: width="100%"
Heh..!…very good..!…
[Removed stray letter from e-mail address]
Famous Painter George Bush Canceled After Early 2000s War Crime Allegations Resurface
McLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — Prolific artist and former U.S. President George W. Bush is facing a firestorm of controversy today after numerous videos emerged online of his alleged war crimes between 2003 to 2009.
“I’ve known him for years and he’s always been nice. He never once declared war crimes on my family, so I have a hard time believing any of these credible accusations are true,” said former First Lady Michelle Obama. “What’s next? Today, we’re cancelling Bush for unjust wars; tomorrow, we’re cancelling my husband just for bombing a hospital? If things keep going this way, everyone will be too afraid to order drone strikes on civilians.”
https://thehardtimes.net/culture/famous-painter-george-bush-canceled-after-early-2000s-war-crime-allegations-resurface/
Anyone else gong to EcoDay? Trackmeet of all activist beings in western Auckland?
https://www.ecomatters.org.nz/event/ecohub-market-day-2/
Jubilant Reaction To Trump Defeat Quickly Soured By News Of Biden Win
"Seconds after the room had erupted into cheers, applause, and a few big sighs of relief, sources confirmed Tuesday that a local group of friend’s jubilant reaction to Donald Trump’s defeat had soured quickly upon the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory. “One moment we’re celebrating our nation’s repudiation of Trump, and the next Biden is declared the winner—what a buzzkill,” said 29-year-old Ryan Lopez"
https://politics.theonion.com/jubilant-reaction-to-trump-defeat-quickly-soured-by-new-1845551327
…the reaction of every single person I have talked to about the US election, Trump and Biden both universally despised by all right thinking citizens.
You do realise that The Onion is a satirical comedy dhow don't you?
…you do understand that most good satire and especially political satire are based within unsaid truths..don't you?
Like the unsaid truth (in liberal press) that Biden is corporate whore and well known war monger amongst other things..
Politically, poor Mr Thornton is like a vegan stuck in a town where the only place to get a feed is Carnivore Carl's House of Dripping Bloody Steaks.
Unlike you Andre, I actually have a firm set of moral and ethical principles that I live by that are not negotiable, I know that this concept is quite foreign to you…but there you have it.
And relying on the onion for yr political news/information is one of them..?…heh..!
I'm on Adrian's side here.
Good satire is so often truthful at the same time as being satirical.
Yes..satire is a wonderful thing..but I don't think satirists would claim to be telling the truth…so posting from the onion as tho' it is the 'truth'..and using it as a launching pad for an 'i reckon'…is kinda strange…and funny in itself…
Nah it's true because many people voted for Biden as the lessor of two evils – because Biden was not Trump. Basically a lose:lose situation or a Pyrrhic victory.
It's satirical cause it's poking fun at that very notion and at a US society / political system that basically gives you but two choices and it is clearly exaggerating the effect.
Closing 5:00 pm today Bird of the Year Vote: Exercise your rights 😉🤔
https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/
As a bird lover I want to vote for all of them. 🙁
Do you reckon the Fairy Tern would be a good pick?
Surely it's its turn?
Done.
unfortunately it is a lesser known bird gets my vote, as out of the sight of the public very soon there will be no chance for those birds at all.
so every year I look for those less known for my vote and to hopefully increase its profile- saying that they all need attention, DOC resources and habitat protection
MatukuBittern
I am pleased to say that I had to dodge a makutu whilst driving down Henderson Bay Road a wee while ago. Rare indeed, and a delight to see one out and about.
Yes, I think it is the bittern's turn.
Went for the Grey Warbler. Love a description of it I read somewhere – that it cleverly inverts the Victorian maxim that children should be seen and not heard.
Always feel sorry for the grey warbler. It gets parasitised by the lazy shining cuckoos. They lay their eggs in the warbler nests and then their chicks kick out the warbler chicks and make the warbler mum and dad work like crazy feeding them.
Hutton's Shearwater for me, obviously.
I'm fairly sure I saw a pair of Crested Grebe here in Auckland this week, and wonder if the stormy weather might have displaced them (their distribution is in the South Island).
I took a real good look as it was my first encounter with the species. They were on MOTAT land, beside an estuary/stream system.
So we have a $9 billion Hort industry relying on about 15,000 low wage RSE workers. MIQ facilities quite rightly accepting returning NZ passport holders first. NZ workers choose not to do the hard work at minimum pay rates in an industry rife with reports of exploitation by “labour contractors.” It sounds ripe ground for a unionised workforce with much better worker rights and protection. Growers simply have to face the new reality, negotiate with the Kiwi workforce and their representatives or go broke. Employment contract laws are out dated and very one sided. Time for change?
Definitely time for a change. Actually I think it could do with even wider framing. I really don't understand why Labour won't assist workers to empower themselves by making workforces part of the business conversation. We miss out on so much when we don't harness all the ability of the total workforce. We education people then when they join the workforce, rather than creating and contributing, they are told to sit down and listen only to the current managerial cult.
As to the fruit picking – at the minimum this time around I'd like to see an accreditation scheme – just to let potential workers know such things as whether the employer is compliant with labour and tax laws, are they overseas owned because I don't think anyone needs to be slave labour for overseas profit.
We have had plenty of commentary about water bottling and not being about to benefit from mining the resource yet we also have this hort. industry and don’t forget fishing. IMO little different from water bottling 🤬
The use of offshore labour to prop up successful industrial sectors.
It may be that they'll do both. NZ labour simply cannot compete with the cheap labour offshore.
Definitely time for a change but the change is actually in trade laws. We, as a nation, need to step up and say that we will only trade with countries that have the same or similar laws and enforcement as ours. This is to ensure that costs are properly accounted for.
Of course, the end result of that will be the minimising of international trade.
Love to read your 'pungent' comments on the recently signed RECEP (or whatever it's called) 'free' trade agreement.
Nothing in it for the average kiwi, but the big players will make some bucks!
Yes. Time for a change. I think though that the Hort industry will hold out expecting the government to come to their rescue.
The wages in the local (HB) HORT industry are a joke (a bad one) even if you go on contract and prune or pick well above the average, and believe me a worker has to work fucking hard to make that happen, once you take rain days into account that worker will be earning less than minium wage at the end of most months of the season..and then to add insult to injury, getting topped up by winz is far from straight forward, and even if you do make it through their obvious "thinning out process", they will only top up a workers wage to the level of the unemployment benefit, not the wages they lost over those days!
The New Zealand Labour won't be batting for these workers any time soon….no that party of middle class wankers stopped being even pretending to be a workers party long long ago.
QFT
I posted a few years back about the Labour Party having the cheek to have prominently on their website the 8 hour working day 40 hour working week pointing out that it was ridiculous they highlighted something they no longer believe in.
Coincidently or not it disappeared within a few weeks. That re-inforced their non-belief in it.
They also no longer believed in the right to strike as they have left that to be only at the expiry of a contract and no other time.
Like increasing benefit rates they have done nothing about giving workers a legal right to strike – the unions are just as useless negotiating multi-year agreement which reduce the right to strike to once every three years. Unions are just as fucked up as the Labour Party.
No use having power you can't actually exercise.
@a.t…Yep..!
The unemployment rate in Marlborough has been the among lowest in NZ for quite a few years and was 2.6% in June this year or about a few hundred people. At those number you are down to only those who can do quite sedentary work because of age, injury, addiction and other causes. In effect anybody that can work in Marlborough has a job.
RSE workers are about 3000 and those jobs are a huge benefit to the mostly Pacific Islands that they come from. Stop denigrating RSE workers, they are no different from workers coming from Wellington or Auckland, except in one respect, they are a lot more capable and a hell of a lot more motivated.
To label them in a derogatory manner simply because they come from the Pacific to where the work is, is racist.
They are paid at least the minimum wage and mostly a lot more and are housed in good accomodation that has to pass muster by the Department. They are almost without exception bloody nice people.
They are also the highest paid people by a very, very long margin in their own country, equivilant to probably a Cabinet Minister in NZ.
Whomst labelling RSE workers in racial epithets?
The payments of RSE workers is a drain on NZs balance of payments. Better for NZs economy for that money to be circulated back within NZs internal economy.
If the growers have to take less dividends from the profits to avoid tax in order to pay more to NZers to entice them to pick fruit and grapes and what have you, then that's hardly going to send them to the poor house.
After all, Francine Perry has a house worth 3million, multiple shareholdings, and likely a trust with multiple properties in it too. Can't forget her late model Audi.
Yeah, nah, the growers complaining aren't complaining at the fact they can't get RSE workers. They're complaining about the fact they might not be able to buy an extra rental property or three, or upgrade the Audi to the latest model, this year, if they had to hire NZers at a rate that enables NZers to travel to work, and recognises the hard physical labour involved in horticulture pruning and picking. I mean, it took female care workers years to fight for the fact their work was just as skilled and demanding as other physical labour – horticulture is just behind the 8 ball. In fact, it's so far behind the 8 ball, that the 8 ball hasn't even been made in the factory yet, for horticulture to get behind.
@ James Thrace +1
"If the growers have to take less dividends from the profits to avoid tax in order to pay more to NZers to entice them to pick fruit and grapes and what have you, then that's hardly going to send them to the poor house."…too fucking right!
You have missed the point that there are no workers to do the work . And who the fuck is francine Perry /
The RSE scheme has been used to undermine wage growth in the horticultural industry that is just a fact, why on earth do you think there hasn’t been a significant rise in picking bin rates for nearly twenty years? and most especially during the past decade when the industry has been booming, every year their returns would increase while wages stayed stagnant…exploiting one labour force ( pacific Islanders) against another(NZ workers) in a text book operation of class war pure and simple.
Because the one rule of growing stuff is that the price you get for it falls just a little bit every year. Consumers expect everything to be on special pretty much all the time and they set the price. Try selling something to a supermarket chain and get a grasp of what producers are facing everyday.
"The packing house provides accommodation too, with four roommates to one bedroom. Two double bunks where there used to be one, a lean pillow on each mattress. An acquaintance of Mum’s, who used to run the administration at the packing house, confirmed that only two people are supposed to sleep in each room. The four-to-one bedrooms are a recent addition for which the workers are charged $117 each per week. Mum’s disgusted by this. She says they have to share the bunks, and some barely fit on the mattress. The springs creak whenever they turn over in the metal bunk beds."
"Work slows down for a fortnight and the packers only work three or four days a week. As a result the Tongans are not earning much money to send back to their families, and they’re hungry. Groups of Tongan packers sit near Mum and Grant’s table, looking at their food while they’re eating. When Mum takes out an apple, Ana asks for a bite"
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/hard-labour-in-paradise
How many ex P.I. Cabinet Ministers you think amongst that lot?
I can’t see anyone in the above train of comments denigrating RSE workers. They are exploited to the same or worse extent, by Hort NZ, as Kiwis. RSE workers have even less choice and a recent charge of modern day slavery, in Hawke’s Bay, led to a “Labour contractor” being gaoled. The point is, collective bargaining is a real need and a union is the only way to do this.
Whatever is negotiated with the orchards should definitely be the same for the RSE workers. No way should we be exploiting them in our labour market. And the accommodation charging is just a version of the company store and it needs to stop.
And the cost of airflights,visas etc?
denigrating?…perhaps not…justifying exploitation definitely.
15 November 2020 at 2:38 pm
They were called slaves, that is derogatory and their ethnicity is often mentioned.
Were Kiwis going to Aussie mines for the last 40 years "slaves ".
It's a dog whistle to make a political point using some of the nicest people you could meet who are, like the Kiwis to Australia before them delighted to be making what amounts to huge money back home.
It's been happening all day ref.
This is an i trresting development in testing accuracy….
From https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?blog=Market-Ticker
But then yesterday Elon Musk showed up. He wants to be in the NASA control room, a very reasonable desire, when his Dragon capsule is launched with real people in it. NASA requires a negative Covid test to be there. That seems somewhat reasonable too; this is a high-security area and the people in there are very important to NASA, so if they want a swab up your nose, well, here it comes.
He popped positive. No soup for you, sir, says NASA!
Except…. Musk is richer than God and he also doesn't give a **** about shoving government bull**** right up their ass. So he demanded a re-test, right there, right now. I assume he offered to pay for it too; the privilege of not caring about money helps in a situation like this, you see.
And, because he's not stupid and, as I said, he's perfectly happy to shove bull**** up their ass, he didn't just do this once.
He did it three more times. All on the same day, same nurse, in sequence.
He got two positive and two negative results.
Now Musk is either positive or negative, obviously. But whichever way it is he just dropped a nuclear weapon in the middle of the Covid19 testing industry and blew it to beyond the orbit of Mars. Exactly nobody in the media is reporting that, but that's what he did — conclusively.
… Exactly nobody in the media is reporting that …
Except Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NBC, Reuters, Washington Post … and that's just half the media that just show up in the first page of a search.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=musk+covid+positive+negative&tbm=nws&source=univ&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-067J9YPtAhVbyjgGHdFeCnEQt8YBKAF6BAgKEB0&biw=1920&bih=966
Seriously, what is it with this unhinged idea that media don't report stuff? It's reached that point that making that assertion has become a fairly reliable indicator of an idiot conspiracy theorist.
As for the story itself. it's been known for a long time that COVID testing has varying degrees of positive and negative accuracy. Accuracy depends on the method used, current viral load, where the sample is taken from, and a bunch of other factors. The only slight bit of interest in the story is how it relates to Musk's desire to be in the control room, and his past controversial statements and actions with respect to COVID.
On Friday, he had questioned the veracity of rapid antigen testing, tweeting: "Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse."
Fake
outragenews.I think you may have slightly miss interpreted the final paragraph,
How much would you pay for that test….and how badly poor accuracy test results are giving a false picture of what is actually happening,
That is the issue he is commenting on as not being reported, not the news that Musk test results were so random.
"Poor accuracy"?
What's the accuracy of the test in question? Got a link to the ROC plot?
Dude narrowly failed a screening test. Could be a misdiagnosis, could be that his viral load at the time was borderline – maybe he was getting over it and didn't know.
But he still failed it twice. Would you rather a test that erred on the side of false negatives?
In his big speech the other day Trump once again spoke about the testing. The 'best' tests and the best testing. There was the acceptance and acknowledgement there that there are tests and there are tests.
:SIGH:
This has been known for some months. But in America where quicker is always better..
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/fast-isnt-always-better-experts-worry-about-rise-of-rapid-covid-19-testing
That was reported on 26 August. The inaccuracy of the antigen tests has been well understood within the health community for some time before that.
There's the old tradies' rule that work can be fast, good, or cheap, you pick two out of three.
Medical tests are similar, with the proviso that "good" can be "specific" or "sensitive".
NASA wanted sensitivity as a priority. That often means a trade-off against "specificity" – sometimes it will confuse something else for what you are testing for.
Meh. I had wondered why Musk was going apeshit over it. Apparently he can send people into space, but he can't watch it over zoom lol.
Oh Dear! How Sad! lol Maybe he could take a ride in his Tesla up there
I hope the UK does it, and I wish the NZ govt. would do it too. In fact I wish all countries would do it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/54893437
You can come up with all the excuses… it's neo-liberalism… it's free trade agreements taking away their jobs and… people are entitled to their views etc., but the truth is:
These people are one dirty great screw loose and they're dangerous.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430670/opposition-as-nz-joins-world-s-largest-free-trade-agreement
Here we go again. The suits find it suits them to sign up to these constricting trade agreements and if we upset any of the ‘partners’ the suits will fly.
When is our new government supposed to actually start work?
I mean great to see the new Minister of Civil Defence out there with a shovel and all, but seriously team where's the momentum?
They just kept moving so you won’t sense a change of momentum.
Sunday, 15 November 2020. Auckland.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430670/opposition-as-nz-joins-world-s-largest-free-trade-agreement
Australia went from relief that it had had several days without any community transmission to a certain smugness, with eyes cast over the ditch at NZs recent leakage from quarantine…..until today. A new cluster has emerged in Adelaide, the first in the community since April.The source is a worker at a quarantine hotel, who appears to have passed the virus on to family members who work in places where further transmission is likely – no room for complacency as the Chief Health Officer reminds everyone in SA. Mind you, compared to the horror figures coming out of the U.S. and Europe (and just about everywhere else) these little leaks seem pretty insignifcant on a world scale.
Tegnell is admitting that his PlanB-style non-lockdown infectious disease control plan did not mitigate the second wave. His math was a little bit off initially, fair enough. But he committed to the plan even when it others said it was going pear-shaped.
If it were fiction, he'd be a bit of a tragic figure – reminds me of Kodos the Executioner. Similar body count so far, too.