Open mike 30/07/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 30th, 2024 - 25 comments
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For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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25 comments on “Open mike 30/07/2024 ”

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  1. PsyclingLeft.Always 1
    30 July 2024 at 7:38 am

    Hey Luxon ! You and your cancerous cronies blurt about fictional "14 layers". Smoke and mirrors.

    However more is being revealed on the actual 14 layers of deception and collusion you NACT1 creeps are involved with.

    Govt set aside $216m to pay for heated tobacco product tax cuts

    Costello's office had not publicly disclosed how much that would cost the government but a Cabinet paper, released without fanfare on the Health Ministry's website, shows Cabinet agreed in May to set aside $216 million as a contingency fund to cover the estimated lost revenue.

    The excise tax cut is something tobacco giant Philip Morris has lobbied for in the past. Its IQOS product is a dominant player in the New Zealand HTP market.

    And interestingly….Tobacco Influence

    Links between the company and New Zealand First have been highlighted by media and tobacco researchers since the party gained concessions in its coalition agreement with National to repeal recent changes to tobacco laws.

    Two senior corporate communication positions at Philip Morris are held by people who previously held senior roles in the New Zealand First party.

    David Broome, chief of staff for NZ First between 2014 and 2017, is external relations manager at Philip Morris.

    Apirana Dawson – who was director of operations and research in the office of Winston Peters between 2013 and 2017 and led the election campaigns for the party in 2014 and 2017 – has been director of external affairs and communications at Philip Morris since January 2021.

    Dawson was a guest of New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones at the swearing-in ceremony for government ministers last year and Jones told Stuff he had taken "soundings" from Dawson on the party's tobacco policies.

    NZFist Minister Casey Costello. Would you buy anything from her ?

    Costello has said she has no links to the industry and had not spoken to tobacco lobbyists about the formulation of policy.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/523526/govt-set-aside-216m-to-pay-for-heated-tobacco-product-tax-cuts

    NACT1. Liars and deceivers.

    • William 1.1
      30 July 2024 at 9:37 am

      And let's not forget Chris Bishop's former employment at Philip Morris. From wikipedia

      "Bishop's work for Philip Morris attracted headlines and comments when he stood for parliament for the National Party, given he worked against the party's plans to increase tobacco excise and introduce plain packaging. On the day of his selection as a candidate he announced that he supported both policies."

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 1.1.1
        30 July 2024 at 11:45 am

        For sure. Bishop, Costello and NACT1 cronies are deep in the Tobacco pouch…

  2. Jenny 2
    30 July 2024 at 8:32 am

    Us human amoeba really need to start thinking about what we are doing to our petri dish.
    One day it might wobble right off the table.

    https://www.space.com/earth-wobbling-causes-days-to-get-long-because-humans?

  3. Ad 3
    30 July 2024 at 9:55 am

    Not even the Olympics news cycle is protecting the government now.

    Luxon can fire ublic servants or Assoc Minister people but he's going to get eaten with citizen healthcare woe stories.

    And the story on near horizon is low lake levels generating huge power bill spikes and then brownouts.

    It is dire.

  4. SPC 4
    30 July 2024 at 10:50 am

    Biden – on no one is above the law and reform of SCOTUS.

    • SPC 4.1
      30 July 2024 at 11:42 am

      Mr Biden hopes to pass an amendment to the US constitution that would reverse a 1 July ruling in which the Supreme Court said that Donald Trump and other former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution.

      Mr Biden said that the proposed amendment – which he has dubbed "No One is Above the Law" – would "make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office".

      "I share our founders' belief that the president's power is limited, not absolute," he wrote. "We are a nation of laws – not of kings or dictators".

      Also

      Mr Biden has proposed a new justice is appointed to the court every two years, who would then serve for 18 years. Reform advocates have previously suggested that such a staggered system would help depoliticise the court.

      The president also want Congress to establish a new code of ethics that would force justices to disclose gifts and avoid overt political activities.

      The GOP opposes it … this after they blocked the appointment of Garland and LATER had Gorsuch installed in his place – cheating to get a majority on SCOTUS.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4yz3nw0vyo

  5. PsyclingLeft.Always 5
    30 July 2024 at 11:42 am

    Air New Zealand pulls the plug on 2030 climate targets

    Air New Zealand has pulled the plug on its climate targets saying the resources needed to meet them are unaffordable and unavailable.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/523578/air-new-zealand-pulls-the-plug-on-2030-climate-targets

    Oh really.

    Colour me surprised..and following on NACT1's Climate leadership

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 5.1
      30 July 2024 at 12:07 pm

      Just been trying to look at Air NZ's earlier 2030 blurbs. However they "site under review". I suppose they are quickly updating..to 2050.

      There is this one..Climate Action …. ha : (

      It is clear that the climate crisis is continuing to accelerate rapidly. We are acutely aware that in order to continue to connect Kiwis to the world and the world to us, we must work hard to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

      In July 2024, Air New Zealand removed its 2030 science-based carbon intensity reduction target and withdrew from the Science Based Targets initiative.

      https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/sustainability-carbon-reduction-management

      Science Based…obviously not an Air NZ priority !

      Maybe I am just Aware ?..But Ive never been sucked in by these kind of companies feel good ads/greenwashing.

      Its just a means to make money.

    • William 5.2
      30 July 2024 at 1:28 pm

      They have a long history of being overly optimistic. From 2008 there's this story which included;

      "It forms part of the airline's plan to source 10% of its fuel from sustainable sources by 2013."

      That plan crashed because it was reliant on growing a crop that proved to have much lower yields than envisaged.

      More recently they've been pumping the coming electric planes! They're beating their head against physics on that idea.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 5.2.1
        30 July 2024 at 3:05 pm

        Aye. There are many a futuristic idea…that awaits a future..maybe. Bit like Hydrogen powered cars..or trucks for that matter.

        Its all kind of "look over there at that green idea" and completely ignoring the here and now of what can be done,

        Anyway good on you matey. Keep aware.

        • Michael P 5.2.1.1
          30 July 2024 at 7:00 pm

          "that awaits a future..maybe. Bit like Hydrogen powered cars"

          ?? – Toyota and Hyundai both already have a factory production hydrogen powered car.

    • Hunter Thompson II 5.3
      31 July 2024 at 8:57 am

      In Stuff, 31 July 2024, a headline notes Air NZ's dumping of the 2030 target, while another next to it reports on the decline of Canterbury's Lake Camp.

      Signs of the times.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 5.3.1
        31 July 2024 at 6:02 pm

        Re the Stuff link Air NZ….there was some good responses from Experts.

        Robert McLachlan, a mathematics professor at Massey University who specialises in climate change, said it is “disappointing” the airline has withdrawn from the network less than two years after joining

        NIWA climate scientist Sam Dean :“It is important that businesses like Air NZ are transparent with consumers, who in turn must recognise that flying is not currently a climate-friendly activity. The existence of long-term targets to achieve net-zero does not absolve us of responsibility for the choices we make today.”

        And Kevin Trenberth, I have followed some of his work, tells it :

        Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research and an honorary academic at the University of Auckland

        Trenberth said that, in New Zealand, shipping is more effective than flying for bulk freight from a climate perspective, albeit slower.

        “This is true even within New Zealand for coastal shipping. Trains can also play a role there. Again, there is a cost of a delay of a day or two, but mostly that should be manageable with a well-run system that is much better integrated (and where the inter-island ferries are reliable).”

        Shame about the ferries !

        https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350360018/air-nz-dumps-2030-carbon-intensity-reduction-target

  6. tWig 6
    30 July 2024 at 11:59 am

    Pork-barrelling that doesn't actually deliver any pork. For those here who voted for the Nats for a Dunedin Hospital upgrade – the Coalition are reconsidering the project funding – and not in a good way.

  7. tWig 7
    30 July 2024 at 12:10 pm

    Nesrine Malik in the Guardian cautions about 'ushering in an age of total immorality' in the war in Gaza, the generation of 'necropolitics', 'vast populations subjected to living conditions that confer on them the status of the living dead'.

  8. Subliminal 8
    30 July 2024 at 12:27 pm

    US doctors and nurses that have worked in Gaza are now demanding, in a letter to both Bidens as well as Harris, an end to the barbarity in Gaza:

    “We cannot forget the scenes of unbearable cruelty directed at women and children that we witnessed ourselves,” they wrote.

    “Every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head.”…

    Mark Perlmutter, an orthopaedic surgeon, wrote: “Gaza was the first time I held a baby’s brains in my hand. The first of many.”

    Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma and critical care surgeon, said he had “never seen such horrific injuries, on such a massive scale, with so few resources”.

    Asma Taha, a paediatric nurse practitioner, described the challenges of maternity care.

    “Every day I saw babies die. They had been born healthy. Their mothers were so malnourished that they could not breastfeed, and we lacked formula or clean water to feed them, so they starved,” she said in the letter.

    The medics said that those who worked with pregnant women regularly saw stillbirths and maternal deaths that were easily preventable in normal circumstances.

    “Women underwent C-sections without anesthesia, and were given nothing but Tylenol afterwards because no other pain medications were available,” they wrote.

    The letter said that “Israel has directly targeted and deliberately devastated Gaza’s entire healthcare system”.

    The medics described their Palestinian colleagues as “among the most traumatized people in Gaza, and perhaps in the entire world” who kept working despite losing family members and their homes. Many were malnourished while working grueling hours without pay.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/25/israel-gaza-war-biden-letter

    On top of all this evil, and through the deliberate targeting of sanitation, hospitals and water, Polio has been found, and due to conditions and highly infectious nature, will run rampant through the whole community.

  9. SPC 9
    30 July 2024 at 2:36 pm

    Baby boomers came after 1945. The life expectancy of the younger cohort is to around 2050.

    Home ownership is now the lowest since 1945, back below 60%.

    It is forecast to fall below 50% by 2050.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/07/22/home-ownership-rates-fall-below-60-report/

  10. gsays 10
    30 July 2024 at 3:45 pm

    If this ain't yr cup of tea, scroll on by.

    For those of you with an open mind, this is an interesting, at times funny and informative interview.

    Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk.

    They touch on AI, especially Musk's Grok, China, Trump etc.

    https://x.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1815427698703090085

  11. adam 11
    30 July 2024 at 3:51 pm

    "Why could it not be a fruit loop" Jon Stewart strikes again.

  12. ghostwhowalksnz 12
    30 July 2024 at 4:03 pm

    Venezuela election exit polls predicted an opposition win.

    Maduro later claimed victory and said he had the numbers

    Guess who did the exit polling, Washington DC based research outfit, some are saying is infiltrated by 'The Firm' also based in DC

    https://www.edisonresearch.com/edison-research-conducts-exit-poll-in-venezuela/

  13. SPC 13
    30 July 2024 at 4:07 pm

    Once upon a time in 1840 there was a Treaty of Waitangi, at the time women could not vote, or own property and only men who owned property could vote.

    The Married Women's Property Act 1870 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed married women to be the legal owners of the money they earned and to inherit property.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married_Women%27s_Property_Act_1870

    So we know what rights the Crown did not guarantee to citizens in 1840.

    As for the Hon David Seymour, all he says here (link below) is that we have the same citizenship as New Zealanders – something no one disputes. He seems to think this (one part of a three article Treaty) sanctions a concept of settler majority deciding for the Crown as per article 2 (such as legislating whenever courts make a decision in favour of Maori claims).

    It would appear to be of the New Plymouth school – they wanted the Taranaki land and if resistance was based on some idea of Kīngitanga in the Waikato, then that had to be defeated militarily.

    Belich on the King Movement

    Historian James Belich argues that the emergence of the Kīngitanga did not represent a radical change. Rather, the profile of Māori independence was raised from a level which the British disliked but tolerated to a level which they found unacceptable.

    The second phase of assimilation was manifest in the Hunn Report of 1962 (useful workers and others into urban areas) and reducing further Maori land ownership (so those rejected could not return to the marae).

    This has led to a revival of Maori nationalism in both the provinces (iwi settlements) and in urban centres.

    Seymour seems to think we have once again reached peak tolerance for resistance to settler majority will. And thus wants the public Crown state to exert power over the Treaty rights (and or claims) of Maori.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/david-seymour-my-letter-to-the-organisations-who-wrote-the-prime-minister-about-acts-treaty-bill/MV4FLWPVFJCPVC73NAWUEXSJXM/

    • ghostwhowalksnz 13.1
      31 July 2024 at 1:54 pm

      "at the time women could not vote, or own property .."

      Single women could own property , inherit , sign contracts and all that. Not vote of course.

      Your law mentioned married women which was a different situation. As the husband had all legal rights including that of the children