Open mike 24/11/2021
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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 ...3 hours ago - Weekly Roundup 22-November-2024
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Record Numbers: The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, which began at the tip of the North, and the tail of the South, on 11 November, culminated outside Parliament on Tuesday, 19 November 2024, in one of the largest demonstrations in New Zealand’s political history.ACCORDING TO TE ARA, the Ministry of Culture ...4 hours ago - The Rush To Blame “The Activists”
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 ...4 hours ago - Cutting Through An Inundation of Dipshit Racists
Hi,Watching New Zealand from afar offers a strange perspective. It can be a good thing — distance from Aotearoa helped keep me sane while I reported on abuse at New Zealand’s biggest megachurch over the course of a year. It helps fuel my silly podcast. But it can also be ...5 hours ago - This is bad news
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 ...7 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 ...16 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 ...19 hours ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
This is written in response to the highly significant open letter from a group of economists that was today addressed to Christopher Luxon. The year is 2024, and it’s 1984. The country is reeling from a record Olympic medal gold haul, while the globe grapples with the choice of the ...20 hours ago - The IPCA has failed
Back in 2022, RNZ took an in-depth look at the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority and its handling of killings by police. These are the most serious test of oversight, and you would expect the police's use of lethal force to receive the most severe scrutiny. But despite the police regularly ...24 hours ago - Thursday 21 November 2024
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 ...24 hours ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
I spoke to former Productivity Chair Nana this morning about the letter he and a group of other economists sent to PM Christopher Luxon to urge the Government to urgently suspend cuts to spending and investment for the sake of the economy, struggling businesses and the wellbeing of vulnerable ...1 day ago
- ACT’s Astroturfing & A Co-ordinated Attack on Te Pati Māori
Unity on the Streets / Unity at the TableAfter the Hīkoi, all three right wing Coalition leaders came together to push the idea that the 42,000 - 50,000 + strong Hikoi was somehow less potent and brave, and more illegitimate than the energy and crowd displayed.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon 20-November: ...1 day ago - Durability of carbon dioxide removal is critical for stabilizing temperatures
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- Economists call on PM to suspend budget cuts for the sake of the economy
Nicola Willis’ budget cuts are under fire from economists for having no clear rationale and worsening the recession. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, November 21: The news at ...1 day ago
- The end of policing by consent
National has appointed a new police commissioner. And he explicitly rejects policing by consent: Asked if he subscribed to policing by consent, he said he did not. “I don’t talk about policing by consent. I talk about trust and confidence, and it is fundamentally important that the police have ...2 days ago
- The Treaty Principles Bill: A Who’s Who
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- 27% of kids going hungry, up from 21% in a year
One in four Kiwi children live in households where food runs out often or sometimes. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, November 20: The lead: The official annual Health Survey found sharp ...2 days ago - Transport modelling is an illusion
This guest post by Tim Adriaansen, an advocate for accessibility and sustainable transport, originally published on LinkedIn and cross posted here with permission. People prefer cars, right? Probably not. Here’s why. Granted, most people in English-speaking countries use a car to get around. This simple reality underpins our transport ...2 days ago
- Young Maori take over
Neither Wellington nor Parliament has ever seen anything like it before. The Police said there were more than 40,000 but however many there were, yesterday’s Hikoi to Parliament was a monumental event. It was almost three times the Foreshore and Seabed martch of 2004 and many,many times bigger than ...2 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Aftermath
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Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...3 days ago
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There were urgent moves yesterday at Parliament to try and defuse the tension building up over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. The Bill’s author, ACT leader David Seymour, told reporters that he understood the Justice Select Committee met yesterday to discuss how long it should take to consider submissions on the ...3 days ago
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7 days ago - More lawlessness from National
On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...7 days ago
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Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of outrage were performed. David Seymour got to play the victim card. Willie Jackson got kicked out of class. A comically red-faced Mr Speaker bellowed “Order, ...1 week ago
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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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Good morning, and I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days.I’ve been focusing on the Hikoi, and also testing out sentiment on the Treaty Principles Bill. It’s complicated, and the Treaty Principles Bill will be debated in the House today. The Government’s own lawyers have told them the ...1 week ago - Government must vote down ACT Members Bill that would undermine workers’ rights
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The Treaty Principles Bill is set to have its First Reading in the House today, as the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti continues. More than 40 KCs have written to the Prime Minister and Attorney-General outlining their “grave concerns” about the substance of the Treaty Principles Bill, while an academic and ...1 week ago
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The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...1 day ago
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Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
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...1 week ago
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Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
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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
- 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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The Green Party says the need is greater than ever for Aotearoa New Zealand to pursue an independent foreign policy. ...2 weeks ago
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The coalition has "absolutely no intention of listening to the evidence that comes out of their experiment", Labour MP says. ...6 hours ago
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 22 November appeared first on Newsroom. ...7 hours ago
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The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
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Robert Reich has this to say on polarizing events like Rittenhouse:
The Week Ahead: The big split – Robert Reich (substack.com)
Some good news for Leftists….
Venezuela ruling socialist party, allies sweep regional elections
President Nicolas Maduro’s allies win 20 of 23 governor posts in elections that saw the return of opposition to ballot after four years.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/22/maduro-allies-win-big-in-venezuela-regional-vote
Even with international observers present the West will still call it corrupt and unfair. The results were hard to find, certainly hard to find in mainstream press.
And very bad news for Venezuelans living in abject poverty and rampant inflation,
What a surprise that the allies of the President swept the polls, nothing to see here.
Yea, thanks to yankee sanctions and puppet OAS subservient line.
"Many in the media have blamed Venezuela’s worsening humanitarian crisis on corruption, mismanagement, falling oil prices, or U.S sanctions—anything but the rise of socialism in what was once the wealthiest country in South America. Yet corruption and mismanagement were the direct result of increased government control of the economy—socialism—and in reality, lower oil prices and U.S. sanctions have little to do with the crisis. Instead, the mass starvation and exodus faced by Venezuelans are the natural consequence of the socialist policies implemented by dictators Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro."
Utter rubbish
"The nation’s economy and political structure collapsed even though it possesses the world’s largest known petroleum reserves. More than 5 million people have now fled the country and an estimated 91 percent of those who remain live in poverty. Nearly a third of all Venezuelans—more than 9 million people— are food insecure or malnourished. "
"For several years now, public protests have swept the country as people denounced the government’s poor policies and other shortcomings that led to an economic collapse and food shortages. "
https://www.bread.org/blog/fragility-and-hunger-venezuela
Says who?
Well I provided a link. How long a list do you want? I'm surprised it's even debated.
gsays appears to believe only what Maduro says.
Hence he really does manage to convince himself that Venezuela is a paradise on earth and Maduro in Jesus reincarnated.
This site has gone to the pack, it opposed trans right, supports Jordan Peterson and now supports Kyle Rittenhouse.
There is nothing left wing about machine gunning civil rights protestors, or returning to 1950's social norms.
[You’re just back from premod for making assertions without back up, and now you are doing it again twice in one post. Off you pop for a week. Not even going to bother telling you to read the Policy because I don’t think you will. I also take your previous withdrawal of assertions to get out of a ban as disingenuous and a waste of moderator time. If you want this site to be better, try following the rules of robust debate instead of throwing out random FB reckons, and make some actual political arguments – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Please start your own blog Millsy – I love the laughs you provide.
For the longest time I thought 'millsy' was a clever reverse satire of some twisted kind. But no-one is that good
I always enjoyed Randal with this 'Hardly Davisons' and 'flat screen teevees"
" …it opposed trans right…"
Link?
mod note.
WTF?
A really interesting jury verdict against the organisers of the Charlottesville rally in 2017. The article does a little summary of each of the charges. They clearly argued and deliberated hard on each one, which is a relief:
Jury finds Unite the Right organizers liable for millions in damages – CNN
I'd image a few other protest organisers will have taken note.
Having heard apoplectic rants from National for months about open the border, give us a date, get rid of MIQ, vaccinations, and whatever else they can drag up, it was almost comical to see Chris Bishop and the "other opposition leader" now complain at the speed of the traffic light legislation. The Government is obviously wanting this legislation enacted so people can have certainty over the holiday period which is what National/Act said they wanted.
Yes, its almost as if they are not sure about what they want.
Obviously only one thing.
Get back into power by any means possible. Especially by sabotaging the covid response.
Judging by their poll results, their constant indescission and flip flops haven't impressed many.
The immediate resignation of Kiwirail Chief Executive Greg Miller is going cause a substantial internal earthquake of role reshuffles and restructures.
KiwiRail group chief executive Greg Miller quits – NZ Herald
Given the billions of capital works they have in the pipeline, the succession plan had better be outstanding.
It appears The Herald was part of this? Or did I misread that?
Lots of internal smoke, not a lot of clarity.
Just for what it is worth I have long been of the view that moving either way CEO to Board Chair or Board chair to CEO is a bad move. The skill sets are different, the climate behind the changes is often not conducive and it shows a blinkered vision for a company.
By blinkered I mean:
a happiness with the status quo and a lack of exploration of what may be offering in the outside world.
a circularity in that direction promulgated by a Board including the CEO becomes the direction that the company goes in. CEOs while not on the board do have special links and relationships to/with the board and can point up misgivings around policy ethos etc. Difficult if you were previously the wolf (Chair)
an non acceptance of what is happening outside ie if there were no suitable applicants other than the former Chair, why was this? Is the position description favoring a status quo position. This is fine if that is what the board wants ie a safe pair of hands but if that is what they got through mis-advertising then the whole position description/advertising, interviewing process needs to be looked.
often Charis moving to CEs have no idea about the minutiae of running a big business. Very odd that exit interviews and other investigations are happening seemingly after the fact ie after problems with high turnover or unexpected staff members leaving happened.
A strong HR focus would have seen these happen routinely, that a figure for staff turnover would be a measure of competency in the role. Many Boards get anonymised exit data in monthly or quarterly reports.
I wouldn't be holding my breath on a competent succession plan being in place. Without a chair who is in for the long haul, as much as you can be for these types of positions, it will be very difficult.
'Oh joy' though for any competent consultancy firm with a focus on strategic HR followed by experience in rebuilding the day to day HR practices, while keeping staff. Sounds like they may have good staff underneath who may just want to do their jobs competently and once the externals happen will be able to do this.
https://www.kiwirail.co.nz/about-us/governance/
https://www.kiwirail.co.nz/about-us/leadership-team/
The Board Chair had nothing but praise for him. I don’t know him personally to judge otherwise.
It helped a lot with the big and successful Kiwirail budget bids over the last two terms that Mr Miller got on famously with Minister Jones and his successors. That investment stability has put Kiwirail and its assets on a much stronger footing.
They are doing OK for national freight share given that coal is decreasing and likely to continue downward.
Yes these are all good points. The aim would be to continue the external work while also working on the internal (organisational) dimension.
A Dr Boros catches Covid after going to an antivax conference at the World Equestrian Centre in Florida.2 days later he and 5 other Doctors have Covid.
Dr Boros claims at the conference he has been taking ivermectin for 18 months and that 1 of his patients was cured of covid after taking ivermectin.
Boros-world equestrian centre-ivermectin.
Irony personified.
I do hope he is the sharing type and gave his horse have some too
link. But the must have gotten somewhere else, according to the organiser of the meeting.
they did develop symptoms within days of the conference, so it's possible they did already have it. And passed it on to people at the conference (can't remember transmission likelihood pre-symptom).
Not a single mask in sight.
Can't help thinking that 7 will be an undercount, unless they've all rushed to get covid and what we see is literal survivorship bias.
It's one thing to think there are alternatives to lock downs and vaccines. But getting together with no masks suggests they're in the 'it's just like the flu' camp. Or I guess they believe in the powers of ivermectin?
I do find it weird the idea that 18 months of ivermectin is benign but vaccines are evil.
Yes but the point is that this is a group who were unlikely to have been vaccinated, did not wear masks and some had been taking Ivermectin as a prophylactic for months.
yes, I was just being pedantic about the timing.
Mmmmmmm New York or Michigan or some other outlandish place like that according to the organisers
https://www.yahoo.com/news/seven-anti-vax-doctors-covid-100319230.html
('a high-end tabloid')
I mean they may have been non vaccinated, non -mask wearing crammed intot an arena so those aspects wouldn’t have had anything to do with it. /sarc./
If Boros lives – down the memory hole with this story. If he dies you get to gloat over his still warm corpse.
Fun kind of moral perch you're clinging onto there.
One always hopes they will see the light and hop off the anti vax perch they have been on. Some do
https://abc17news.com/news/2021/11/05/he-survived-severe-covid-19-now-hes-getting-vaccinated-but-losing-friends-2/
What must you think of those people in the US, mainly, who are absolutely tired of the shenanigans & misinformation about Covid and vaccinations and who look at this site?
https://www.sorryantivaxxer.com/post/dr-bruce-boros-md-71-key-west-fl-cardiologist-anti-vaxxer-seriously-ill-with-covid
It's probably better to describe a lot of these people as vax-skeptical. That conference had a fair number of seriously qualified medical people present and I don't think it's reasonable to write them all off as uninformed idiots.
What I am fairly certain of is that the establishment story is no longer coherent. Many people sense this at various levels and have lost trust in the institutions.
One thing to keep in mind however is – who benefits from all this othering and conflict? One way or another we've been intentionally divided along lines of class, sex, race, religion, politics and religion. Do we really need yet another fault line?
In other news, apologies if someone's already linked to it: people involved in organising the Charlottesville rally in 2017 have been successfully sued alongside the thug who drove his car into the crowd, killing one person.
Fun detail for people still unclear as to the alignment of the rallyists, the jury deadlocked on two complaints made under the auspices of a federal act in 1870 enacted to suppress the original KKK.
I posted on it at Comment 4.
my mistake.
Not even a big OM thread today, must be actually working for a living lol
I'm still working from home. I use the Essential Worker status only when I really need to.
I've got to go to a semi-public meeting tonight – which means a large zit has appeared on my nose, of course. But the mask will sort it out, so "yay" I guess lol
They're going to need an all-time gofundme effort.
Hipkins clearly wants New Zealand to have a Singapore-style outbreak. MIQ is literally the only thing saving our health system from the sort of calamity you see overseas… and the Government (under pressure from the media) are messing with it.
At this point, only a massive overseas wave over the next few months will save the New Zealand Government from its own stupidity.
Yeah right, I'm sure that is correct….NOT.
So …
As of today it's now 6 gunshot injuries in or around New Lynn in just over a month.
The one this afternoon is in Glen Eden.
Anyone going to do something useful?
I was just about to say, it is Wednesday, and we have not had a firearms incident in Auckland. But seems like I spoke too soon…
Sounds like it may have been a machete…my apologies
'Blood-curdling screams, gunshots': Resident describes terrifying daylight attack in Auckland suburb – NZ Herald
The gang related gun violence in and around New Lynn has never been seen there before. In fact before this year I struggle to recall any gunshot incident in or around New Lynn.