Open mike 16/03/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 16th, 2025 - 38 comments
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38 comments on “Open mike 16/03/2025 ”

  1. Drowsy M. Kram 1

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

    A complete history of New Zealand’s one-term governments [20 June 2024]

    Luxon = Canute? If our CoC govt wants to turn the tide, they'd better get a wriggle on, but a certain sorted Sir needn't worry – his knighthood will be in the post, eventually.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Nash#Honours_and_awards

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rowling#Honours_and_awards

  2. Incognito 2

    Is this the sound of one hand clapping? At least there was one to witness it but did it make a sound?

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/16/when-the-pm-claps-is-it-applause-or-agreement/

    I’d love to see the Coalition change its spots on this (e.g., the Firearms Law Reform) but I have a hard time imagining it.

  3. Joe90 3

    They're going there.

    Senate State of Minnesota, Ninety-Fourth Session – S.F. No. 2589

    Senate Authors: Senator Eric Lucero (R-D30), Senator Steve Drazkowski (R-D20), Senator Nathan Wesenberg (R-D10), Senator Justin D. Eichorn (R-D06), Senator Glenn H. Gruenhagen (R-D17)

    Date 03/17/2025

    Official Status: Introduction and first reading – Referred to Health and Human Services

    A bill for an act relating to mental health; modifying the definition of mental illness; adding a definition for Trump Derangement Syndrome; amending Minnesota Statutes 2024, sections 245.462, subdivision 20, by adding a subdivision; 245I.02, subdivision 29, by adding a subdivision.

    BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

    https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=senate&f=SF2589&ssn=0&y=2025

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry

    • alwyn 3.1

      I read that and started to really worry about the state of Minnesota. The people I knew who came from there had always seemed to be quite reasonable.

      Then I read, and was cheered up by, the results of the last election. For the 13th time in a row Minnesota had voted for the Democrats. The last time a Republican won was, apparently, Gerald Ford in 1976. These Senators really do appear to be whistling in the wind.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_Minnesota

      • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.1

        I read that and started to really worry about the state of Minnesota.

        The last time a Republican won was, apparently, Gerald Ford in 1976.

        Alas, alwyn, that’s another fail in your “wish to bring some enlightenment to the ignorant.” The last time a majority of Minnesotans voted for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1972 – Nixon.

        And I wouldn't worry about the state of Minnesota – sounds like a relatively sound place. Its 2019 GDP, US $383 billion, compares favourably with NZ – US S213 b.

        It is the 12th-largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd-most populous, with about 5.8 million residents. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"; it has 14,420 bodies of fresh water covering at least ten acres each. Roughly a third of the state is forested.

        Minnesota's rapid industrialization and urbanization precipitated major social, economic, and political changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the state was at the forefront of labor rights, women's suffrage, and political reform.

        Minnesota ranks highly among national averages in terms of life expectancy, healthcare standards, and education, and above average in income per capita … in recent decades, Minnesota has become more multicultural, due to both larger domestic migration and immigration from Latin America, Asia, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East.

        In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, 78.2% of eligible Minnesotans voted – the highest percentage of any U.S. state – versus the national average of 61.2%. That figure was surpassed in 2020, when 79.96% of registered voters participated in the general election. Voters can register on election day at their polling places with evidence of residency.

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

        • alwyn 3.1.1.1

          Why thank you, you are quite correct. It was Nixon. I read the comment about the 13 time and miscalculated when it was last Republican. I should have looked it up as you did.

          I only visited the state once. Minneapolis in February and it was about -15 degrees!

          Even the locals thought it was a bit chilly.

  4. gsays 4

    I recall reading here recently, that the transport costs for Gordon Brittas lunches from Australian aren't included in the price.

    Can someone pop a link up that verifies this plz?

    The incompetence of this scheme is beyond belief.
    Totally smashes the efficiency myth that ACT likes to litter the airwaves with.

  5. aj 5

    Good grief.

    The state of South Carolina presented Sigmon with three options: be burned to death in an ancient electric chair, endure prolonged spasms and seizures as poison is injected into his body or have his heart blown apart by a firing squad

    These politicians want to make punishment by the state cruel and usual. This is what we have come to as a society in regression, a rogue nation, drunk on its own perverse piety–and there will be much more of it to come, as Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho and Mississippi have all re-legalized executions by firing squad with other states set to follow suit

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/14/barbarians-at-the-death-house-gate-the-return-of-the-firing-squad/

  6. joe90 6

    How the rule of law works in tRump's America.

    /

    .

    Elizabeth Oyer claims justice department senior ‘bullied’ her due to Trump’s relationship with actor sentenced for domestic violence in 2011.

    […]

    According to the Times, Oyer was also sent a January letter from Gibson’s lawyer addressed to two senior justice department officials, James McHenry and Emil Bove, “arguing for [Gibson’s] gun rights to be restored, saying that he had been tapped for a special appointment by the president and that he had made a number of big, successful movies”.

    On 16 January, four days before starting his second presidency, Trump said the 69-year-old star of Mad Max, Braveheart and other blockbusters had been named, alongside two other veteran actors, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, “special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California”.

    Oyer told the Times: “Giving guns back to domestic abusers is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly, because there are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/doj-official-fired-mel-gibson-gun

  7. joe90 7

    Apartheid Clyde's boer is showing.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bpc7nm4rtcchhdq5sfxyrujl/post/3lkgkyeemg22i?

    As the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. “No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,” Elon Musk said. “No one.”

    That is not true. In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and President Trump are already leading children to die.

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/15/opinion/foreign-aid-cuts-impact.html

    • joe90 7.1

      And now the good news.

      It is estimated that if Tesla shares fall to $114, Musk will experience margin calls on those loans, forcing him to liquidate shares to pay off the loan, thus driving the stock price even lower.

      https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/13/2309934/-The-Tesla-Takedown

      The current backlash against Tesla across the U.S. and Europe likely has no comparison in the history of the automobile industry, the bank warned, slashing its first-quarter delivery forecast to 355,000 vehicles and reducing its price target to $120 per share.

      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-fall-grace-may-no-180054813.html

      • alwyn 7.1.1

        Unfortunately a fall to $114, although possible, doesn't look to be imminent. Tesla shares closed on Friday up 3.9% to $250. They have got a very long way to go before they get low enough to hit Musk with margin calls.

        • Macro 7.1.1.1

          Which is where it was on election day – still a major reduction from $430US.

          The target value still remains at $120 though because there are not the sales to support the value of the stock. So at the moment those folk buying are buying a share essentially worth half of what they are paying. But then they probably also voted for Trump.

          • alwyn 7.1.1.1.1

            The prices for all the Tech stocks as well as Tesla all seem to me to be ridiculously high. They seem to be based on the premise that they are as safe, and stable, as Government bond prices.

            It is as if people are sure that they are all going to rise at a steady 20% per annum sales increase for ever without any fluctuation at all.

    • AB 7.2

      a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding

      Is this a new thing on the far right – the idea that you cannot know beforehand what the actual constraints on your actions really are? You have to just do stuff anyway, and then see what happens in order to discover those constraints, if there are any. And in the final step: now that the thing you always wanted to do has been done, you can just ignore or belittle most of the bad things that result. To me, it seems like a playbook for social and economic blitzkrieg.

  8. Barfly 8

    s the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. “No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,” Elon Musk said. “No one.”

    perhaps he meant to say no "white person"

    • weka 8.1

      It's the twitter take over strategy, only this time he's a sociopath who thinks compassion is a liability and who is dealing in people's lives.

  9. Ad 9

    My bet is Luxon comes back from India with no trade deal.

  10. joe90 10

    The richest man in the world is saving money.

    /

    “DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.

    I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.

    Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.

    “You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”

    […]

    Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.

    “We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”

    At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.

    “We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote. “We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”

    “There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/

  11. joe90 11

    They've always been cooked.

    (thread)

    Seth Cotlar 8h

    In 1798 the Federalists rallied behind the Alien and Sedition Acts–laws designed to punish journalists they deemed unfairly critical and deport immigrants they saw as a threat to the nation. The conservative media of its day built support for these laws by circulating batshit conspiracy theories.

    https://bsky.app/profile/sethcotlar.bsky.social/post/3lkh7ncogi22j

    unrolled (for those without a bluesky account)

  12. SPC 12

    inflation fell from around fifteen percent in the late 1980s to one percent by the early 1990s. … This was the legacy that Orr inherited

    FACT CHECK.

    1.6% Dec 2017 – 1.5% Mar 2021 and 2.2% now.

    It was higher 2021-2023, but so it was, in all 5Eyes nations.

    And since Brash earlier periods

    4% June 2006, 5.1% Sept 2008, 5.3% June 2011.

    https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-inflation-at-2-2-percent/

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360614756/damien-grant-adrian-orr-did-something-i-can-get-behind-he-resigned

    • SPC 12.1

      Slight change, Orr was appointed Dec 17, but began March 2018 when inflation was 1.1%.

    • Psycho Milt 12.2

      The idea that high inflation 2021-2023 was peculiar to NZ and caused by NZ govt policies is one you'd thing would be so daft no-one would try to peddle it, given all the countries suffering the same problem at the same time. And yet people do, and there's an audience so daft it believes it.

  13. SPC 13

    Meanwhile. Mr Orr can now take the time to finally complete that PhD. I understand Otago has an excellent economics department.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360614756/damien-grant-adrian-orr-did-something-i-can-get-behind-he-resigned

    From 1997 to 2000, he was chief manager of the Economics Department of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

    He has worked as an economist at the OECD and the New Zealand Treasury, and was Chief Economist for the New Zealand National Bank and Westpac Bank (2000–2003).

    In 2007, he was appointed Chief Executive of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (the NZ Super Fund).

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

    Dec 2017

    The NZ$37b Fund has returned 10.5% p.a. since inception (after costs, before NZ tax). Over the last five years it has returned 16.2% p.a

    https://nzsuperfund.nz/news-and-media/nz-super-fund-ceo-take-governorship-reserve-bank-new-zealand/

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