Open mike 23/02/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 23rd, 2025 - 70 comments
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For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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

Step up to the mike …

70 comments on “Open mike 23/02/2025 ”

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  1. Morrissey 1
    23 February 2025 at 6:53 am

    The onslaught against the people of Palestine continues, on all fronts

    As American journalist Abby Martin says in this interview, the hoodlums–mostly Americans– terrorising the citizens of East Jerusalem are homicidal burglars, not "settlers."

    • weston 1.1
      23 February 2025 at 2:20 pm

      Yeah we know who the terrorists are and theyre American backed !!

      • Morrissey 1.1.1
        23 February 2025 at 6:07 pm

        A high proportion of them are also American citizens. Plus a lot of really obnoxious British citizens, Australians, Russians, and South Africans like Jonathan Cornricus.

  2. Dennis Frank 2
    23 February 2025 at 7:10 am

    Cause and effect relations produce political changes:

    Campaigning for Sunday's election has been marred by a series of high-profile attacks in which the suspects are from migrant backgrounds, shifting the focus away from Germany's ailing economy and boosting support for the Alternative for Germany. Opinion polls show the AfD is on track to secure second place.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/syrian-refugee-arrested-after-berlin-stabbing-germany-prepares-vote-2025-02-22/

    Strangely, people don't want to be attacked by homocidal radical immigrants. It's almost as if the proliferation of the trend is God's will. We'll probably get a conspiracy theory suggesting that the trend is being organised by whoever. Nonetheless, I think we can be confident that Germans have discussed it amongst themselves and vote on that basis.

    Any political party in Germany that has been pro-immigration in the past is likely to be apprehensive. Cause and effect relations can be inexorable. Some might even say deplorable. Perhaps the German Greens are avoiding public comments on the issue, but all they need do is acknowledge the trend, sympathise with the victims, and inform voters that they are willing to learn whatever lesson is required…

    • Ad 2.1
      23 February 2025 at 7:45 am

      Hitler had 2 goes at elections, then got into government as a coalition partner, then got rid of the partner.

      Was a very close thing in Austria in 2024, and France.

      The AfD will be in coalition power in Germany by May 2025.

      This is how it accelerates.

      • Psycho Milt 2.1.1
        23 February 2025 at 9:39 am

        When voters are aware that left and right parties have consistently either refused to do what voters want them to do, or broken their promises to do what the voters want them to do, and that far-right parties are now the only ones who will actually do what the voters want, far-right parties will inevitably increase their share of the vote. There's no point in blaming the far right for kicking the ball into the open goal that other parties have created for them, blame the other parties for providing the open goal.

        • AB 2.1.1.1
          23 February 2025 at 9:56 am

          Yes, that seems plain enough, but with a couple of caveats.

          We can blame far right parties for what they believe/think, and we can blame them for conning voters into believing that they have actual solutions to voters' problems. But as you say, we can't blame them for exploiting our own dereliction of duty.

      • Mike the Lefty 2.1.2
        23 February 2025 at 11:46 am

        It was my understanding that the CDU/CSU said they would not go into coalition with the AFD but I suppose every man has his price.

      • Bearded Git 2.1.3
        23 February 2025 at 12:09 pm

        No chance. There will be a grand coalition that keeps the afd out that may include the Greens.

    • weka 2.2
      23 February 2025 at 8:56 am

      what Ad said.

      why bother with homicidial radical immigrants, when you can put homicidal radical politicians in power instead.

      • Morrissey 2.2.1
        23 February 2025 at 9:32 am

        why bother with homicidial radical immigrants, when you can put homicidal radical politicians in power instead.

        Well said. Americans just keep doing that, election after election after election.

        “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”— President Barack Obama, 2012

        https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/obama-defends-deadly-drone-campaign-new-book

        https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-said-hes-really-good-at-killing-people-2013-11

      • Dennis Frank 2.2.2
        23 February 2025 at 9:41 am

        We're more likely to get this guy leading Germany:

        Merz says he sees limiting irregular migration as the most important task after the federal election in February 2025. Merz deems Angela Merkel's policy of open borders during the refugee crisis in 2015 to be fatal. In 2024 Merz called for asylum seekers to be comprehensively rejected directly at the border. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Merz

        His trajectory has been soldier, lawyer, judge, politician. His parents are both from influential families going back generations, so he's solid establishment.

        He is likely to enter coalition with the more extreme rightists though, so there'll be a learning curve while they attempt to forge compromise positions on everything. Pragmatists are likely to defeat radicals in this process so anyone involved with swastika flags in the back cupboard from their grandad will be unlikely to run them up the pole again. I expect common sense to prevail in the short term.

        • Psycho Milt 2.2.2.1
          23 February 2025 at 4:38 pm

          Problem: conservative party leaders in European countries (including UK, although technically no longer European) have been saying for 20 years that limiting mass immigration is a priority for them, and then presiding over increased mass immigration when they gain power. Many voters in these countries have had enough of being lied to, which is why far-right parties are polling so high. Their vote share will continue to increase until mainstream parties stop pissing in voters' pockets and telling them it's raining.

          • Dennis Frank 2.2.2.1.1
            23 February 2025 at 4:47 pm

            Yes, that does seem to be the common pattern. Trump's the outlier: took over the establishment rightist party instead of creating an extreme rightist party.

            • Psycho Milt 2.2.2.1.1.1
              23 February 2025 at 5:43 pm

              With truly horrifying success! Still, the USA is itself an outlier among the liberal democracies for its conservatism and religious fervour – hard to imagine it working elsewhere.

          • weka 2.2.2.1.2
            23 February 2025 at 6:47 pm

            right wing nelibs want cheap labour as much as lw ones. It's just the left that doesn't want anyone to talk about it.

    • Obtrectator 2.3
      23 February 2025 at 9:54 am

      Has there been an actual increase in such attacks, or are reports of them just – purely coincidentally, of course! – getting more air-time suddenly? Can't help seeing parallels between this, and the "upsurge" in retail crime, ram-raids, etc, leading up to the 2023 election here.

      • Dennis Frank 2.3.1
        23 February 2025 at 10:07 am

        Good question. My professional experience is that journos will usually cite prior media reports to substantiate a trend when reporting it. This is consistent with human right hemispheric function of the neo-cortex: pattern recognition.

        Learning to survive by discerning environmental patterns is a fundamental skill endowed by evolution, so journos are right to reproduce the traditional stance in covering the story. A pattern evident in a sequence of events is a typical conceptual hook on which to frame a story. Pattern denial is also normal, as in the elephant in the room metaphor. Then most folk use pro & con to form a balanced view.

      • Psycho Milt 2.3.2
        23 February 2025 at 10:33 am

        Having lived in Germany for a while, I can tell you most Germans don't care whether or not the rate of Muslim terrorist attacks is increasing or remaining steady, because the number of Muslim terrorist attacks they want in Germany is 0.

        • tWig 2.3.2.1
          23 February 2025 at 2:04 pm

          This article from the TB Institute for Global Science investigates in detail the drivers in the German election. Germany had a great number of migrants born there, perhaps for several generations, who have permanent residency, but no pathway to citizenship. They come from places like Algeria and Turkey.

          “The Turkish community in Germany reportedly numbers 3 to 5 million, of whom 1.2 million are eligible to vote in elections…According to official figures, 7.1 million people with a migrant background are eligible to vote on February 23. They make up 15 to 17 per cent of all those eligible to vote.” Migrant turnout has been as low as 20% in recent elections.

    • weston 2.4
      23 February 2025 at 2:54 pm

      Unlikely Dennis theyeve learned anything IMO theyre the most fucked up country in Europe starting with the greens turned from so called peace mongers to now war mongers Angelina Boerbok the worst wants to escalate the war at any cost therefore wants to kill as many russians as she can demonstrates total disreguard for th e meat in the sandwhich ie Ukrainian soldjers even tho shell say "its to preserve democracy and all of that crap imo soon as you here the word democracy mentioned by a politition of her ilk you know the opposite is true .!!

      germany is fucked and if they dare fuck with Russia Russia will fuck them …again Germany by the looks hasnt learned nothing

      Rumoured to be the next chanealor is Freidich Mer from the christien dems he wants to fight russia too must be somethin in the water be a bad place to live right now very bad !!!

      ive already explained my prob incog if thats you ive got a tremor etc im on ten tabs of Dexmethsone a day plus a lot of other stuff i got two hrs of sleep last night and prior to seven thirty this morn i hadnt shat for 48 hrs u gettin the picture incog ?

  3. Dennis Frank 3
    23 February 2025 at 8:51 am

    James Murdoch is a Maoist Jesus freak, if you believe in symbolism:

    Although he has largely kept his counsel since resigning from the News Corp board in 2020, James has been happy to talk to journalists. In 2000, when he had just joined the family firm, I interviewed him for the Guardian in New York. There was a poster of Chairman Mao and an icon of Jesus above a framed picture of James with Rupert behind his desk.

    Future screenwriters have been gifted a whole load of new Murdoch material in the past few days, after two astonishing stories in the New York Times and the Atlantic lifted the lid on the dysfunction, paranoia and despair at the heart of the most powerful family in global media.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/feb/22/were-clearly-heading-towards-collapse-why-the-murdoch-empire-is-about-to-go-bang

    Basically a children being naughty story, with media tycoon inheritance, court cases and global media providing 2nd, 3rd and 4th dimensions to the nexus.

  4. Ad 4
    23 February 2025 at 10:17 am

    The US Department Of Government Efficiency is an important lesson to Luxon's same Department:

    Gut the state enough and it's functions start to grind to a standstill.

    And it will salt Republican earth in the mid-terms.

  5. gsays 5
    23 February 2025 at 10:26 am

    Having a crack at supermarkets part two.

    Back in the day -80's 90's, diesel miles used to be a thing that were undesirable.

    Like the nutritional and fat/sugar/salt guidelines, the fossil fuel embedded in products should be mandated on products. Not just the transport but fertiliser inputs and packaging too.

    What is the justification for sultana biscuits from Ukraine?

    https://www.newworld.co.nz/shop/product/5119790_ea_000nw

    • Kay 5.1
      23 February 2025 at 11:07 am

      The Warehouse home brand macaroni (not sure about other pasta types) comes from Latvia, of all places. i.e even further away than Ukraine. And the 500g packs are also cheaper than the 400g (shrinkage) budget brands now sold at Pak n Save.

      AFAIK, packets of dry pasta isn't made in NZ, but it certainly is in Australia. While I don't mind indirectly supporting the Latvian economy, I don't like the idea of how far it's travelled.

      I'd love to see 'food miles' on packaging here, but this is NZ, and there's no obligation to let the consumers know where their food comes from. So good luck with that.

      • satty 5.1.1
        23 February 2025 at 12:08 pm

        Or something basic like rolled oats, which we eat every morning. Harraways came in an easy recyclable paper packaging. They changed it to soft plastic, which can’t go in the usual recycling, but has to be taken back to selected shops. Shops, we don’t go to and haven’t bought the oats from. Result: Recycling went from 100% to 0%.

        Now we try to get it from refilling shops, like Common Sense… the rolled oats are from Finland!

    • tWig 5.2
      23 February 2025 at 3:37 pm

      These are the old skinny Golden Fruit biscuits I loved that disappeared five or so years ago (there was even a brief stage where they had an apricot filling, yum).

      These are known as Garabaldi biscuits in the UK, apparently created by Huntley and Palmers to celebrate Garabaldi’s visit to Britain. As they never appeared in any Edmonds cookbook, I never knew you could easily make them at home. But I have been making reasonable copies for a year or so since I twigged about the name.

      Essentially flakey pastry you sandwich currants between, roll out thin, and brush with milk to get the golden crust. Will return with the recipe, but not at home near my cookbooks, if you want, gsays.

      • Matiri 5.2.1
        23 February 2025 at 3:42 pm

        AKA fly cemeteries!

      • gsays 5.2.2
        24 February 2025 at 7:10 pm

        It would be disingenuous of me to take up yr offer of the recipe, I haven't baked meaningfully for years.

        BTW, you are right about fly cemeteries, we used to do them on the baking shift at the junior ranks mess. We had a bulletproof German Shortbread recipe that would be done in bulk (20kg batches) at the start of the week and used in all sorts of goodies.

        Bases for lemon meringue pie, apple shortcake and the aforementioned fly cemeteries.
        Soaking the dried fruit is a key to success.

    • Graeme 5.3
      23 February 2025 at 9:05 pm

      My local 4 Square must have moved several pallets of those biscuits, I bought more than my fair share, they were bloody nice, and at a good price. Initially bought them because they were Ukrainian but want back on quality and price (and to in some meagre way support the Ukrainian economy)

      We are a trading economy, if we want the world to buy what little we produce, we have to be willing to buy what the world produces. I'd rather see the container ships that carry our exports bring good quality and well priced food products from Europe than consumer tat that ends up the landfill within a year.

      • gsays 5.3.1
        24 February 2025 at 7:14 pm

        "…we have to be willing to buy what the world produces."

        Do we though?

        Why not have the sultana biscuits that are made in NZ? I can't help but feel that the fact we are eating this sort of product is a sign we will not make meaningful change on CC.

        The diesel embedded in those tasty treats is unnecessary. But the middle class will do what the middle class does.

        • weka 5.3.1.1
          24 February 2025 at 9:19 pm

          it's definitely a sign that we're not taking cc seriously. I mostly wonder these days what people think the climate crisis is. But giving up the global economy scares many people because they can't see the alternatives and think it's about nasty brutish and short.

          Otoh, NZ's ecological footprint has massive internal food and other miles. We burn miles like there's no tomorrow. Climate change change is always someone else's responsibility.

  6. joe90 6
    23 February 2025 at 2:38 pm

    Life imitating art.

    /

    First there was the dream, now there is reality. Here in the untainted cradle of the heavens will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens. You have been selected as its progenitors. Like gods, your offspring will return to Earth and shape it in their image. You have all served in public capacties in my terrestrial empire. Your seed, like yourselves, will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created. From their first day on Earth they will be able to look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens.

    Hugo Drax

    https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1893339509204394392

  7. Dennis Frank 7
    23 February 2025 at 3:05 pm

    Crikey! Okay, I'm puzzled. Last time I looked, Albanese was still popular. Anyone know what he did wrong??

    The Australian led overnight on its latest Newspoll, which suggests Albanese’s approval rating has hit a “record low of minus 21”, while “a majority of voters do not believe the federal Labor government ­deserves to be reelected”. The paper does say that its polling, like YouGov, does not show voters swinging behind Dutton enough to deliver the Coalition a majority government. https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/02/17/2025-federal-election-yougov-poll-peter-dutton-pm/

    Here's a stab at answering the question:

    Albanese went to the 2022 election with a “new politics”, collaborative style agenda that sought to bring all Australians, including business, labour, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians together. It was a small target strategy based on assumed common interests, kindness and compassion rather than divisiveness. As a result, Labor successfully countered Scott Morrison’s populist, “us versus them” campaign strategy. However, Labor’s approach was to prove easier to implement as an election strategy than in government, as three examples show. https://theconversation.com/failure-to-launch-why-the-albanese-government-is-in-trouble-239730

    Albanese’s response to the Voice loss was to go even more “small target” in ways that alienated progressive supporters. He abandoned key commitments ranging from the Indigenous Makarrata commission process of Treaty and Truth-telling, to protecting LGBTQI+ teachers and students from being sacked by religious schools. The debacle over including gender identity questions in the census was another result.

    So just being typical Labour – timid, unsure, hooked on pretence. Oh well. [Live, '69: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yq-Fw7C26Y%5D

    • tWig 7.1
      23 February 2025 at 3:46 pm

      Nothing to do with The Voice. Before a well-funded anti-Voice campaign, most Australians supported the initiative, and it was a near thing. The people behind that same secretive campaign are the same people funding those rw sites you like to get your information from.

      Albanese has not dealt to inflation or a significant housing crisis in his term.

      • Dennis Frank 7.1.1
        23 February 2025 at 4:42 pm

        Yeah some conspiracies are real cool, true. Yet you haven't cited evidence that the same people are doing it. You have merely asserted that it is so. Lest you are seeking to establish a reputation onsite here as a conspiracist, it would be better to prove that the same people are controlling everything. Doing so makes it real.

        So you think inflation plus a housing crisis was sufficient to evaporate the public support he had when he took office, huh? The public, being irrational, blame him for importing inflation. Others think the capitalists always produce it & blame the market. I agree it's rational to blame him for their housing crisis though: Labour has worked steadily for years with National to maintain our housing crisis (using migrants). Perhaps his govt has been copying ours.

        • tWig 7.1.1.1
          24 February 2025 at 2:10 pm

          The vastly inflated increases in rent in the past 3 or 4 years, in all western countries without rent control, can be attributed to documented cartel activity by landlords, particularly corporate landlords, in price-fixing.

      • Michael Scott 7.1.2
        23 February 2025 at 9:02 pm

        The pro voice campaign received more than 5 times the donations that the anti voice campaign received so I don't think that was the reason Australians voted No.

        https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/02/voice-referendum-australia-donations-yes-no-campaign-groups-funding

        Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was extraordinarily effective in explaining the issues and asking voters to vote No in the last weeks of the campaign and her arguments were persuasive.

        You are right about the housing crisis issue. Albanese has been completely ineffective in delivering a solution to the now two generations disenfranchised and unable to realistically save a house deposit.

        • SPC 7.1.2.1
          23 February 2025 at 9:55 pm

          calling the push for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament a symbolic gesture that could divide black and white Australia

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

          Powerful argument … .

          White centrists receiving advice from a member of the National Country party on how to vote on matters of their society arrangements …

          • Michael Scott 7.1.2.1.1
            23 February 2025 at 10:14 pm

            Yes… white centrists receiving advice from an educated aboriginal woman member of the National Country party on how to vote on matters of their society arrangements.

            That is my point.… she was incredibly effective in getting Australians to vote no

            I don't have the evidence but remember reading that ( because I was in Oz at the time) 37% of aborigines voted no also.

            • SPC 7.1.2.1.1.1
              23 February 2025 at 10:18 pm

              If they wanted more, voting against the symbolism of inclusion was the wrong way to go about it.

              Civil unions did not delay same sex marriages they normalised it.

            • Scud 7.1.2.1.1.2
              23 February 2025 at 11:22 pm

              She's a member of the NT’s Country Liberal Party,as the National/ Country Party has not based in the NT.

              One of the reasons why the vote failed-

              Is that people in the bush, regional & Cities like Darwin when we had a large indigenous population had a complete gut full of the crime committed by the indigenous population!

              The working class vote also voted no because there was nothing in it for them, but in the more well do areas of the Australian electorate vote yes!

              Thirdly, almost all referendums in Australia conducted either by the State or Federal Governments go against Government!

              The Indigenous Voice. referendum was on a hiding to nothing before it even left the gates Randwick!

              • SPC …
                23 February 2025 at 11:55 pm

                The hydra-headed party, a little bit different in NT and Queensland.

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

                • Scud …
                  24 February 2025 at 1:56 am

                  The CLP, actually the Liberal Party & Federal CLP members have a bob each way by able to sit in both caucuses!

                  The LNP here in QLD is definitely a two headed hyena with more in flighting than fractional warfare of the ALP 😂

                  Going to be interesting to see if the cut State LNP Government gets a 2nd term? As they are already wanting to cut back some Public Transport Works which are long overdue & against not public opinion but the various Local Councils incl the Gold Coast Council which are mostly LNP hacks.

        • tWig 7.1.2.2
          24 February 2025 at 2:15 pm

          The Guardian did a good backgrounder on why the Voice was lost, specifying poor communication by the yes campaign. Shades of Three Waters.

          'The no campaign was able to “shape the conversation” because “very few people” knew what the voice was. Sheahan said the anti-voice group settled on its central argument – that the referendum would cause division – because that theme had been popular in focus groups. He said Advance’s strategy was to win three states to deny the yes campaign its required double majority of a national majority plus four of six states.'

  8. SPC 8
    23 February 2025 at 6:53 pm

    Locally

    Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has announced the Government's plan to make it easier for New Zealand businesses to receive international investment in a reform of the Overseas Investment Act.

    He wants capital to labour growth while enabling untaxed CG on property. Allowing foreigners to buy our land on those terms is unwise.

    He wants foreign capital for our residential land ownership, coastal land, river and lake land and high country land – he wants New Zealanders and foreigners to make untaxed CG on this.

    This is a policy to enable those with wealth to become wealthier and all of it untaxed. And pretending it is about the economy.

    He lies that wages will rise because of it.

    Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the reforms were a "significant shift" from the current rules and that they were "not in the best interests of New Zealanders".

    "It seems the Government’s new slogan ‘Everyone Must Go’ has been interpreted by David Seymour as ‘Everything Must Go’, including New Zealand’s essential assets."

    She said foreign investors would find it even easier to "snap up key assets without clear protections for Kiwi jobs or incomes".

    "Investing in New Zealand is a privilege, not an open invitation for profit-chasing investors to exploit our resources and siphon off the returns overseas.

    Yet, this Government is throwing the doors wide open, without ensuring our assets serve the interests of Kiwi workers, businesses, and communities."

    Edmonds said that "rushed reforms like this put our economic future at risk".

    "This Government is making it easier for foreign companies to buy up key assets while shifting profits offshore. That doesn’t strengthen our economy, it weakens it."

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/02/23/govt-announces-reform-to-boost-overseas-investment-in-nz/

  9. SPC 9
    23 February 2025 at 7:06 pm

    Social Investment (our public commons)

    1. Primary Health Care access (lack of capacity and or funding) is in crisis.

    2.State Housing has to gave more capacity for the aged who can no longer work/pay rent (future demand is growing and the government is selling off land for more building – is the money put aside or not?)

    3.Public health needs more money.

    4.We still have undeveloped access to dental care.

    5.The government have undermined the school food programme and food banks have their funding cut.

    Then there is this

    6.Child poverty is growing again.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/02/23/advocate-to-govt-spend-the-billions-needed-to-improve-poverty/

    In the name of all that is good on earth and in heaven …

    https://theconversation.com/in-the-name-of-god-go-the-history-of-a-speech-that-has-brought-down-parliament-and-a-prime-minister-175368

  10. SPC 10
    23 February 2025 at 7:57 pm

    The Cook Islands deal opens up the entire South Pacific to Chinese dominance.

    The Chinese presence in the Tasman is a threat to not get in the way – it is their version of Trumpian primatancy (new terms for regional/empire hegemon).

    The Cook Islands is part of the realm of New Zealand, we have a security partner in Australia. We do have room to move, as this involves our territory.

    Planning to spend money in the future, and inaction otherwise is a message in itself to the wider region (as to past and future).

    China's actions in both are akin to in the sea atolls are our islands and are economic zones claimed into Beijing's orbit, but we will not use them for military purpose – then they did. Breaches of trust. Again a deliberate insolence.

    And doing so in the age of Trump as part of their own approach towards him – a cowardly bully will get it. Appeasing the strong Putin and appeasing the strong Jinping. Impose cession of Ukraine territory on "Kiev", accept loss of the South China Sea (USA humbled before ASEAN) and the South Pacific (USA humbled before Oz and us) and hand over Taiwan and retreat to the eastern Pacific behind Hawaii.

    We have to make a decision now, not just plan to spend more on defence in the future.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/542733/cook-islands-deal-opens-up-pacific-to-china-expert

    • SPC 10.1
      23 February 2025 at 8:39 pm

      1.WP talks to the EU about South Pacific and European international co-operation.

      2.He needs to be seen as in a meeting Macron and Starmer.

      3.The Europeans invited to a South Pacific gathering.

      4.New Zealand and Australia call a South Pacific gathering to discuss Cook Islands 5 year agreement – as one in breach of the South Pacific programme. And suspending the China-Cook Islands agreement (as arbiter for its realm within the South Pacific) until it conforms to a wider South Pacific wide plan.

      • SPC 10.1.1
        23 February 2025 at 8:53 pm

        1.WP talks to the EU about South Pacific and European international co-operation.

        2.He needs to be seen as in a meeting with Macron and Starmer.

        3.The Europeans (EU, France and UK) invited to a South Pacific gathering.

        4.New Zealand and Australia call a South Pacific gathering to discuss Cook Islands 5 year agreement – as one in breach of the South Pacific programme. And suspending the China-Cook Islands agreement (as arbiter for its realm within the South Pacific) until it conforms to a wider South Pacific wide plan.

        In form for MFAT to "fax" to Riyadh de à destination.

  11. joe90 11
    23 February 2025 at 8:00 pm

    Doing what it takes to ensure Tesla monopolises charging infrastructure.

    /

    The Verge reports it’s been told by a source that plans will be officially announced internally next week, and it’s seen an email that GSA has already sent to regional offices about the plans:

    “As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA-owned charging stations are not mission-critical.”

    The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and “turned off at the breaker,” the email reads. Other chargers will be turned off starting next week.

    “Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”

    Colorado Public Radio first reported yesterday that it had seen the email that was sent to the Denver Federal Center, which has 22 EV charging stations at 11 locations.

    The Trump/Elon Musk administration has taken the GSA’s fleet electrification webpage offline entirely. (An archived version is available here.)

    https://electrek.co/2025/02/21/trump-to-shut-down-all-8000-ev-charging-ports-at-federal-govt-buildings/?

    • Obtrectator 13.1
      23 February 2025 at 9:30 pm

      A lot sooner than (a) economically-feasible thermonuclear fusion or (b) a self-sustaining human colony on the Moon or Mars.

  14. SPC 14
    23 February 2025 at 8:31 pm

    A humanoid interface to host AI being developed.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8d4p90j7e7o

  15. joe90 15
    23 February 2025 at 8:43 pm

    FAFO.

    /

    “Antivaxers, cranks and fantasists thrive in safe, stable societies but the days of consequence-free idiocy may be ending”

    A yokel’s bulbous nose erupts grotesquely into a cow-shaped boil. Another woman, eyes popping with the effort, vomits up a miniature bull. An obese matron, her face a bloated mask of misery, sprouts little yellow horns. More cows burst surreally from arms, ears and britches..

    […]

    I cannot read about modern antivaxers without recalling Gillray’s picture. The pre-modern, anti-scientific absurdity of their position was apparent in an age of stage coaches and rotten boroughs. And yet in 2025, after more than two centuries of what seemed like progress, Texas is gripped by its worst measles outbreak this century. Inevitably, the state contains some of the least vaccinated areas of America.

    Ironically, it is precisely the safety and rationality of modern society that has allowed anti-vaccination beliefs to flourish. Gillray’s contemporaries feared the deaths of their children and were haunted in their drawing rooms and city streets by faces deformed by pockmarks. Modern antivaxers are exposed to no such monitory horrors. They indulge their stupidity in ignorance of real suffering; their good health guaranteed by the “herd immunity” provided by the mass of sensible citizens who do get vaccinated.

    https://www.thetimes.com/article/b3bbc99e-e2dc-480e-92fc-bbd7c7c3abc0

    https://archive.li/bZW77

  16. newsense 16
    23 February 2025 at 10:10 pm

    Where was the Transport minister? What was he doing for two years?

    RW attack on rail as slowing other traffic. Wedge incoming!

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/city-rail-link-delay-congestion-fears-as-bridge-plans-pushed-to-2032/NFJNSAGGPBESHGDPFJDZA3MJAE/

    • SPC 16.1
      23 February 2025 at 10:16 pm

      What's the wannabee second term Mayor got to say about this bollocks. The NP cannot sort our urban roading, little wonder they cannot work out ferries.