Open mike 18/09/2023
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6:00 am, September 18th, 2023 - 27 comments
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- Treasury warns deeper recession worsening Budget deficit
The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...4 hours ago - Weekly Roundup 22-November-2024
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Activists are such easy scapegoats. The right and center have been conditioned for decades to roll their eyes at all protests. The left are easily aggravated over students leading movements they see as belonging to grownups, who have more important concerns like the economy and whether the trains come on ...6 hours ago - Cutting Through An Inundation of Dipshit Racists
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The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...8 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2024
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances: Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...17 hours ago - Chicken Kiev
Chatting in the supermarket this morning, I found I needed to lunge for the chicken drumsticks.Coping mechanisms: who hasn’t felt a greater need for them lately?When it all gets too much, I turn to demonstrating handy butchery hacks.It wasn’t that she’d said anything wrong, our friend, not at all. We ...20 hours ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
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The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...1 day ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
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The government's Treaty Principles Bill is up for its first reading today - bought forward in a rush in a desperate effort to avoid the hikoi which is currently marching on Wellington. But the Prime Minister won’t be there for it – he’s literally running away to Peru! But he ...1 week ago
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- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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- Better coordination of anti-scam efforts
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- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
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The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
Ryan Hamilton. Nat candidate…and maybe MP. A worry.
I well remember Ryan Hamilton from this…the anti 20 minute City …nutbar conspiracists, who took over a meeting.
And..props to RNZ Undercurrent
Apparently he's also an ex-member of the Destiny Church too!*
Alarm bells should be ringing loudly! Another cranky fundamentalist like Luxon et al?
Edit:
*Can’t find where I read that so may not be true.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/101626168/prostitution-bylaw-a-catalyst-for-city-councillors-interest-in-politics
Confirmation.
https://twitter.com/MxDEJ/status/1703541739452268777
Shane Te Pou says his mate's got it right. Looks pretty spot on:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/shane-te-pou-election-2023-acts-budget-has-the-cuts-national-needs-to-pay-for-its-tax-package/4UZQHFBISFC5PPQ7IJCLTKOZ4Q/
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/actnz/pages/2652/attachments/original/1620723316/15813_A_Budget_for_Middle_NZ_Document_%282%29.pdf?1620723316
and also
(this would be around $40 a week less in the first year and $120 week less by the end of 3 years).
Hope Hipkins hammers this at the televised debates.
A spiked ACT launch 3 weeks from voting starting is useful for a plateau in their rise.
Chippie handled it better.
Seymour 2022: PM should meet with protesters at Parliament, they are peaceful.
Seymour 2023: Get these protesters outa here!
Same people, David. Reap what you sow.
Well observed Observer.
Credit where credit is due. A great policy from Labour with respect to a $4000 grant for people to install Solar on their homes. This is something I have argued for a number of times here. So, it would be hypocritical for me to be political and criticise the idea now.
Damn good idea.
Personally I run a number of UPS'es here at the end of Ponsonby Road because the power tends to be somewhat flaky both in voltage and blackouts. I run workstations and servers in my apartment. But the system shows no real signs of getting much better. It feels like it is steadily moving back to when I moved here in 1998 when we had some severe blackouts.
That is despite the cost of power in real terms increasing by about 40+% in that time despite the dropping in my kWH usage with more efficient hardware (even with my partners showers).
For peace of mind and reliability, when I move out of here to a house, I want to put in solar + small wind, some much bigger batteries than my UPS. Start shifting to a 24VDC household and see if I can get off relying on a flaky power grid that isn't getting fixed up to spec. Besides, I can see some fun in writing code to optimise the house grid (if I ever stop working).
I don't mind staying on the grid and selling off surplus stored power. But at present it sounds like that won't be worth while. The line charges look like they will be moving towards costing more than the price paid for power off my system.
I guess that is what happens after decades of deferring grid maintenance and upgrades.
I think part of the subsidy going towards battery storage is also a good idea. That should help solve some of the load issues that power companies don't like.
Probably the biggest concern is that the increase demand pushes up the price of installs so the value of the subsidy is diluted. Hopefully that isn't the case though.
It has always seemed a no-brainer to me because the cost of putting solar on people's roofs must be a lot quicker and cheaper than say building a new dam. So, the idea would hopefully be self-funding through reduced need for other infrastructure expenditure.
I actually suggested this idea to the energy guy in National. But, I haven't seen anything come of it yet.
Hopefully, they will see it as a good idea as well so it happens whoever is in government.
Don't hold your breath!
Unless there's a buck or several to be made by one of their big donors, I doubt the Natz will entertain the idea.
FWIW, if yr looking at going off grid I would recommend leaving wind out of the mix and get more solar. Ideally if you are able to get a property with running water – creek or spring and go with a pelton wheel.
Consider how you will heat water, gas califont or solid fuel and maybe solar hot water.
Refrigeration is the other use that needs to be ameliorated, there are some good European fridges and freezers. Elcold and Gram are what we have.
Anyone advising on this will tell you to do an energy audit. Look at the wee sticker on any electrical appliance that says what wattage the appliance is and multiply that by the time used a day (in minutes).
From family in Oz they had large communities built with every house with solar hot water and after two to three years to connections from the panels to the water supply crapped out in the sun causing quite a bit of water damage in some cases and high repair costs or disconnection and being left will a small back up electric hot water cylinder.
They said basically the developers put them in every house to get certification with no consideration at all to longevity.
I'm fortunate to benefit from refurbished, old school drain back solar panels. Borderline bulletproof.
A possibility in the example you cite is that componentry is of an inferior quality for the reason you gave.
tsmithfield Good for you!! Couldn't agree more.
Wait for the price of a battery install to increase…..by $4000
You don't think such a profit margin would incentivise others to set up an install business? Really?
As soon as government applied the policy (post election) people would be making plans to get in on the action.
Te Pāti Māori have dropped their Disability policy
The main points
Establish a Mana Hauā Authority
Reallocate 25% of all Disability funding to the Māna Hauā Authority
Establish Kaupapa Māori disability organisations and rehabilitation facilities.
Abolish ACC and establish a Māori ACC Authority.
Ensure that Māori disability organisations are formally included in the development of all disability-related policy and legislation.
Reform building standards to require that all new housing builds are fully accessible.
Remove all barriers for Tangata Hauā to access health services
Ensure that antenatal screening programmes are not biased towards termination of pregnancies if a disability is diagnosed.
Recognise Te Reo Rotarota as an official language in Aotearoa.
Require te reo Māori proficiency to be assessed in NZSL qualifications.
Provide pathways for te reo Māori speakers to learn Te Reo Rotarota and NZSL.
Abolish abatement rates on benefits for Tangata Hauā and their careworkers.
Immediately abolish the minimum wage exemption for Tangata Hauā.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V1fVe2hhe5eNDVBuJYmxu3_07igGSiyo/view
With Uffendal and co ACT candidates plus Nationals lies about costings of tax cuts the Wellsford Tuhoi $2.3 billion under estimate of construction.Remember John Key with his deal of the century the sky casino conference centre ! It nearly caused the bankruptcy of One of NZ's largest companies.National over inflate there policy and ignore their massive mistakes.National would release there cost analysis if it were true!
National is promising $14.5 billion in tax cuts and at the same time promising 13 major roading projects while saying that Labour has left the cupboard bare.
These simple (ridiculous) facts are worth a poster/advert from Labour. Hipkins should be repeating this a few times in tomorrow's TV1 debate.
Why is the MSM not asking more questions about this?
Not clickbait worthy?
A big majority of MSM want a National Government because they are RW? (especially managemant)
The Coalition of chaos? Audrey has a look.
And so on with mostly cuts and undoings.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2023-national-and-act-where-the-policy-differences-lie/5RBFT3A4MJF5LL3PCYRLYJ5HBM/
Tim Murphy (former Herald editor, hardly a leftie) puts Luxon's media shambles in historical context.
As he correctly points out, in their different ways Hipkins, Ardern, English, Key and Clark could all cope with reporters' questions. It's a basic requirement of the top job. Luxon fails the test.
Luxon And Media Playing Intense Game Of Hide And Seek | Newsroom
So Luxon dressed as a Pirate…
has 25 days of walking the reporters' plank and repelling questions.???