Open mike 27/09/2021
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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 ...5 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
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 ...7 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 ...9 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 ...18 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 ...21 hours ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
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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 ...1 day 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 ...1 day ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
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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
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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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For mary
Here comes my girl
Cheers Gez🤗
Ann Salmond on using pine monocultures for "carbon forests"
Anne Salmond: The case for nature-based forests (msn.com)
And. From the "evil Marxist" Government of China.
'Coal Is Dead': New Global Pact Announced After China's Bold Step (commondreams.org)
Dame Ann Salmond would be more interesting if she stopped splitting hairs about how long and with what species trees ought to be grown, and went hard against New Zealand's reliance on the intentional mass murder of highly sentient beings for meat. We will look back in less than 20 years on New Zealand's major part in all forms of meat manufacturing as one of the worst mass crimes we have ever participated in. Not only a crime in straight cruelty, but also in waste, environmental degradation, and health. That would be a revolution in our land use worth having a crack at.
There may well be a market for indigenous forest harvesting as she claims, except we stopped that with Timberlands in the Clark administration at significant cost. Native wood use in houses is now only the preserve of the super-elite with CAPEX over $2.5m per house. You can still get some Beech from Southland but OMG it's not a substitute for anything the faster-growing woods can do.
On your second point, rather than praise the autocratic China for massively increasing its domestic coal production into the future, it was the open democracies of Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Montenegro, Sri Lanka, and the U.K. which signed the No New Coal agreement and sunk the lid on national coal use.
Really the UK?
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/public-inquiry-new-cumbrian-coal-mine-begins-today
Good article that, im aware that some very large farms in the Wairarapa have purchased with a veiw to planting in pine monculture for carbon etc.
It will no doubt be an ecological disaster, acidifcation of soil and waterways etc not to mention in 40-50 years a real fire risk in a very dry windy part of NZ. We really need to be learning from the likes of Germany and planting mixed forest especially when the intention os to leave it in place.
We have enough of a problem with wilding pines as it is.
Fully agree with that.
Yeah let's spend millions cutting wilding pines on marginal land cause they obstruct ads views when hes jetted in to his holiday home down south, but let's let ad tick a box to offset his jet planes pollution,and kill off rural communities.
Rural communities are declining all by themselves. Those that survive are propped up by precisely such second-lifers from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. You can thank us later.
Only the trendy ones , and yet again you sidestep your hypocrisy,
The trendy ones are doing well, because they have the money cityfolk subsidise them with. The others are stagnant or declining. 13% non-urbanised and falling.
You're lucky people pay for views. It's still most of what New Zealand has to sell.
Problem, or opportunity? 🙂
Seen the effects on the central plateau. Definitely a problem. Spreading faster than natives can seed amoungst them.
Cut heaps down on the central plateau, , growing on raw pumice the supported a few shrubs otherwise, and some old man pines in regenerating native . Neather would be an issue really , but hell it was a job I enjoyed mostly.
Under Pamu and iwi farmer entites, much of the central plateau plantations have been turned into drystock and dairy farms. They did their job.
Yip the clark government let them RIP it all out and fill it with cows,
I was told alot of the land is owned by overseas outfits , and pamu had a 40 years lease , which is about how long it's going to take to turn that hungry old pumice into decent soil ,according soil scientist on my course 5 years ago.
Problem.
Pulling wilding pines has been a thing in these parts for 50 years.
https://www.wanganuitrampingclub.net/history
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/local-focus-wilding-pines-cleared-from-mt-ruapehu-by-volunteers-and-conservation-workers/FEFOLECFD4CCCUBPJRGDKKBULA/
Depends on the alternative farming system problems.
If a pine monoculture is left in place..not harvested..it will eventually become something else.Wind throw, natural senescence , makes gaps in the canopy for birds to drop seed into that with extra light have a chance of germinating .Depending on the proximity of a local seed source, and geography,you would find broadleaves and possibly rimus , miros, beginning to appear.
Pine forests that are not clear felled are not naturally self regenerating, they inevitably give way to something else.
Not sure that is the case My observations are that the pines self seed and spread faster then the natives take over. Maybe a forester can tell us?
Probably depends on geography KJT, as I alluded to
Definitely in our mild, wet winter, high rainfall area, natives are starting to establish at 30 years under pines.
Different further down south where its drier and colder.
At the risk of helping the other side to me .
Tokoroas forests were thick with young native by the time the pines were loggable.
Biggest issue is the needles theyre an incredibly effective very slow to decompose mulch which prevents other seeds from germinating, the quick growth rate will see them crowd out natives at least in the short to medium term 100 years down the track you might see a few natives peaking through although would be a massive fire risk by that time in certain parts of the country.
Don't tell anyone but those pine needles are great mulch for strawberries.
Strawberry fields forever
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Al Jazeera's The Listening Post this week. The first half talks about the New York Times' exposé on that recent Reaper drone missile attack that killed most members of an innocent family in Kabul.
And also looks at US media reporting – or rather the lack of it – on America's use of drone warfare in places like Pakistan & Yemen, where such tragedies are quite common but routinely go unreported.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=23he_ZGo-ic
But wait, there's more – anti-vaxx trash is a nazi.
https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1442089184206934016
Joe McCarron, 75, who was featured in a video being removed from Letterkenny University Hospital against the advice of his doctors, has passed away.
McCarron's funeral is set to be held in his native Dungloe, Co Donegal this Sunday, according to an announcement shared on RIP.ie on Friday afternoon.
Video of McCarron leaving Letterkenny University Hospital with the help of Antonio Mureddu Gravegliu began to circulate on social media on September 14.
"We are saving Joe's life," Gravegliu says in the video. "Today is a winning day for Ireland." He goes on to thank Dr. Dolores Cahill, a prominent figure in Ireland’s anti-vaccination movement.
A doctor pleads with McCarron in the video to stay in the hospital: “You have the right to decide what you want to do.
“You’re barely able to breathe,” the doctor says. “We want you to stay to help you.”
Gravegliu, who was wearing a mask under his chin, tells McCarron, “If you stay here, they going to f***ing kill you, Joe.”
https://www.irishcentral.com/news/joe-mccarron-covid-donegal
Gravegliu? As in actual 'grave'? Fair enough I suppose since it seems to be his business.
That must be heading towards manslaughter charges.
You would hope to think so.
Just bloody wrong man.
Yet another candidate for r/HermanCainAward
I don't subscribe to the NZ Herald but today I bought the paper, and here are some polling results that might interest people:
Source: Talbot Mills (was UMR). Like most (proper) polls, 1050 and 3.1% margin of error. Aug 31 – Sept 6 (i.e. during lockdown).
Results: 64% say only relax borders with 90% vac. This includes 60% of National voters.
26% say relax once people have had a chance to get vac (soon, presumably).
On getting vac, 89% have either had one/two doses (56%) or definitely will (22) or probably will (11).
Def/prob not is down from 16% in Aug to 10% now.
The results speak for themselves.
The def/prob not suggests that a 90% rate is dreaming.
Disagree. Downward trend.
They went into detail on the 10%, which is very useful. Of those, 15% (of the 10) say they are anti-vax, so we probably won't reach them. But other responses include "no need/ too lazy" (also 15%). Very reachable.
Assuming that is 90% of the whole population and other measures remain in place that would seem to be the direction the government is moving in.
Personally I would prefer that we waited a little and opened the borders in, say, October next year at the earliest (with 90% of whole pop). This because so much more information still seems to be being discovered about Covid 19 and vaccine uses and efficacy.
Whats happened with housing in New Zealand, affordability, record gains, record rent increases, increased numbers in emergency housing (and I use that term loosely) is imo a far bigger and longer term problem for NZ society than covid.
Consider the health effects of overcrowding, financial stress, the effect of unstable housing on children etc etc
This govt has been an absolute fucking disaster outside of Covid and I fear the damage is permanent.
Cricklewood speculation ,shortages of land,labour,materials,and covid have all compounded a longterm problem.
Record numbers of houses are being built existing unoccupied dwellings being done up .
Still not enough .
Printed money should only be used on new builds and upgrades to poor quality housing.
Yes long term problem that has got far far worse in the last few years in a large part due to govt and teserve bank ineptitude, coupled with no real attempt to address the issue… just empty words and the issue now is reaching crisis point unless you have wealthy parents or already own.
Need to stop treating housing as an investment vehicle and that can be done its not impossible.
Perhaps a tax or duty of some sort. Lets say you are able to own 2 homes without attracting tax but say the 3rd you need to pay a duty of 5% percent of the purchase price, the 4th 7.5%, the 5th 10% percent and so on. Would really get speculators using equity out of the market.
Progressive tax. 1% on your second property. 4% on your third. 9% on your fourth. 16% on your fifth.
Doesn't penalize folk significantly for extra houses from marriages or inheritances, but renders the slumlord model unprofitable.
Fran apologises to Prof Hendy, and it's a spectacular grovel …
https://twitter.com/MrJonathanKing/status/1442223004407119874/photo/1
🙂 Too funny
O'Sullivan can apologise all she likes. She called Hendy 'bogus.' She cannot unsay it.
All sorts of people were named in a Herald article published on Saturday. Rob Fyfe, Jacinda Ardern, Mike Hosking, Don Braid, Adrian Littlewood, Sir Stephen Tindall, Sam Morgan, Craig Heatley, Nick Mowbray, Grant Robertson, Donald Trump, Ashley Bloomfield, Chris Hipkins, Brett O’Riley and Michael Barnett all got a mention.
I wonder how many on that list she thinks are bogus. I wonder which she thinks are 'bogus' and tweets that.
Her private view of Hendy is now public. I think that is good.
Someone should also explain to the bewildered woman that Hendys model is almost entirely maths. She seems to have a very odd idea of where weaknesses in such models may arise, but nobody is saying the model lacks for using algebra, equations and arithmetic.
Fairly sure the right wing have got hold of Rodney Jones to now do their bidding. Watch for his name to be prominent in the National Party's
plan Balternative Covid response plan.I would say that the Herald's lawyers have been hard at work.
She really has to be more careful when she sends private messages, or at least messages that are meant to be private.
Thats why their paid the big bucks because, "Sorry seems to be the hardest word."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/chloe-swarbrick-cutting-through-the-1pm-spin
I take Chlöe’s point that minority interests such as renters aren’t getting referred to at the 1pm’s. But isn’t that the job of the journalists to ask those questions?
It is a political podium after all.
No, Tova and Susie represent the hospitality industry, bars and restaurants, Tourism, Big Business, and Bars.
"Deluge Raises Doubts about Building Houses on West Auckland Floodplain."
Hilarious headline in the Herald today..(.my italics)…highlighting both our lack of understanding, let alone progress or governmental (local and Central) policy in preparing for climate change ..oh, yeah, and inability to actually house our people in a sustainable manner.
Poll out on TV1, 6 pm.
It will have been taken before the weekend (and Key's performance) but that won't stop a bunch of brainless commentators saying it's a response to something that hadn't happened yet.
Anyway, it's win-win really because Nat MPs need an excuse to roll Judith so it would be quite funny if her numbers are up and they have to delay the inevitable.
OR – Slippery John will be blamed for the Natz low poll ratings. Double whammy. Love it.
Very interesting article in the Washington Post about the housing crisis in Alaska and how their housing built many years ago isn't coping with climate change. I know we have a lot of regions in NZ which are flood plains and still there are housing developments planned or being built on them. Napier Council is planning a flash new gated community on land below sea level. It beggars belief really. Also out West in Auckland more housing is planned on land which floods frequently.
This is a different problem – permafrost and how it is collapsing and houses are subsiding because of it. This article is really worth a read as it shows there is a lot more to worry over besides cows farting although I do know this is serious. The inhabitants of Planet Earth have serious problems to deal with in the future. Mother Earth is fine she will carry on as she always has done. The task ahead is huge.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/09/24/alaska-housing-climate-change/
Councils are the issue IMO. Failed at water management, sewage treatment, roading etc across NZ whilst rubber stamping developers requests.
Raglans stuck with a single lane bridge whilst hundreds of dwellings get built beyond it.
`Areas in the World with perma-frost have put buildings on them. Climate change can thaw the land and buildings collapse. Is that happening in Alaska?
Yes Ianmac that's what is happening. Entire settlements are having to be relocated and they are creating homes now that will adapt as the climate changes. It is an interesting read and sheets it home about the many and varied ways the earth is changing and how its inhabitants will have to change to survive. It's our children who will be be suffering if we don't pull finger soon.
Switzerland has just voted 'yes' to same-sex civil marriage and the right to adopt children by same-sex couples.
Another win for the team at Operation Libero … and all who rise with them.
https://www.operation-libero.ch/de/medien-mitteilungen/2021-09-26/marriage-all-victory-equal-rights-only-stage-victory
That's good to see.
edit: @AD comment 12
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news
Some up some down.
The left still easily rule.
The right vote getting a 3 way racist split.
I'm assuming a 3% margin of error?
How does the 3% refusal and 6% don't know measure against earlier polls?