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5:30 pm, August 24th, 2026 - 14 comments
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Daily review is also your post.
This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
AI is the new Covid-19.
Horribly cynical move by National to pretend the government is taking action on social media ban for under 16s, when it isn't. Not agreed by the coalition, not going forward in the House, not getting to first reading, nothing at all.
But National calculated correctly that the dozy dimwits at One News would dutifully report it as something that is actually happening, and of course they duly did.
National have also calculated that Labour will help them out, and I'd like to believe Labour aren't that feeble, but we'll see.
Three News a bit more on point about it being only a Natz initiative.
Incidentally, NoRightTurn succinctly sums up my attitude to the Labour Party!
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/
have they said how it would be done?
Here is Helen Clark attempting to bring some good and practical matters to the fore for policy consideration for our future.
Aug.24/26 https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2608/S00683/rural-nz-at-a-crossroads-as-agritech-reshapes-farming-new-discussion-paper-from-the-helen-clark-foundation-finds.htm
New Zealand's $64.3 billion food and fibre export sector is being reshaped by agricultural technology – and how the country responds in the next few years will help determine whether rural communities thrive or continue to shrink, according to a new discussion paper from The Helen Clark Foundation….
There are now more than 500 AgriTech firms operating in New Zealand, generating an estimated $2–3 billion in annual revenue.
But the paper finds the sector's potential is being held back by financing barriers that favour large operators over family farms, gaps in rural connectivity and services, fragmented data ownership, and a slow regulatory environment. Meanwhile, the number of farms in New Zealand has declined by 33 per cent in recent decades, and farmable land by 15 per cent – a consolidation trend AgriTech could either accelerate or help reverse.
A central argument of the paper is that technology which ignores the deep intergenerational knowledge held by New Zealand farmers will fail – while technology designed in genuine partnership with rural communities can transform the country's agricultural future….
Interest free loans to family scale farms repayable when the farm is sold – for desirable improvement (environmental and tech upgrade).
We have to protect arable land for farming. Also arable farming (not advantaged by the rising price of beef and lamb and dairy).
Otherwise it is a matter of encouraging R and D on the wider food sector, more mixed land use farming and an alternative to planting pine monoculture.
SPC Hear hear.
Belated awareness, but the right call.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/361069112/time-take-forestry-out-emissions-trading-scheme-environment-watchdog
What you describe SPC sounds very interesting and more people who understand our land thoroughly should have more control over it. Fewer wealthy types treating their land like ancient nobility with tenant farmers, not aware of what should be done to maintain and improve.
We need moreover to have methods for recovery after landslides. What about the wide use of miners lettuce, which grows on a short stalk and will expand leaf to leaf, and take some of the brunt from heavy rainfall limiting landslides. It is self-sowing for quick greening over the scars of bare earth left and ALSO is a good food.
(AI search assist: 'Miner's lettuce is rich in vitamins C and A, as well as iron'.)
https://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/products/miners-lettuce
https://organicnz.org.nz/magazine-articles/minerslettuce-mayjune24/
Better can only start, when one stops doing the wrong things – that list is so long.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361067061/opportunity-shapes-kingmaker-yet-another-poll-tis-time-rnz-reid-research
We need to stop burning carbon.
The direction of governance.
Back in 2017 both the Labour and Green parties pledged to keep core Crown expenditure at around 30% of GDP as part of their formal Budget Responsibility Rules
This time Labour wants to make core crown spending and revenue align at about 33% of the economy. National wants 30%.
Now
A new honesty, rising health care needs for the aged and aged care housing costs are not being accounted for by government/Treasury.
It is a pity there is not talk about Burnham's idea of an insurance charge against the estate to provide a new funding source.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361066987/labour-makes-clear-it-wants-tax-more-and-spend-more
Listening to discussion on the hard facts about Russia and Ukraine and Putin. Russia seems to be in a pickle. The assessment says that sanctions are causing problems and one well is causing difficulty and the ability to fix other old wells and do more drilling, they can't do. It's sick-making that we have this endless war and conflict-making.
https://www.thegeopoliticaldesk.com/putins-multipolar-dream-stuck-in-neutral/ Aug.8/26
…Vice President JD Vance, who had argued in the Senate that continued funding for Kyiv made little strategic sense, became the most visible face of that retrenchment once in office, later calling the decision to halt direct American arms transfers to Ukraine one of the administration's “proudest achievements.”…
Sky News https://news.sky.com › story › ukraine-war-latest-russia-putin-zelenskyy-12541713
Ukraine war background: UK giving Kyiv blueprint for missile that can … Today The UK "will not back down" from its support for Ukraine, Andy Burnham has vowed as he visits Kyiv for the first time as prime minister. He will announce that Ukraine will receive classified …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYezJ_harcY 3.32m 7 days ago Aug.17/26? Peter Zeihan – Putin is sacrificing Russia for a war he cannot win.
33.19m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwMXWMhWt_Y 6 days ago Aug.18/26? Putin's Dream was to restore Russia, He's Destroyed it instead. Peter Zeihan
4.19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyzjlwn0ZsI 8 Days ago Aug.16/26? Ukraine has ended Russia as an Energy Superpower
4.04m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCAh2e2lt9k 2 wks ago Aug.10/26? Pyotr Kurzin The Moment Putin Completely Sealed His Fate | Sarah Paine
Sadly those commentators are getting it wrong. Ukraine was doing really well, both in destroying oil refineries and logistics centres deep into Russia. Alas, the US is no longer topping up Ukraine with Patriot missles, having rather stupidly emptied its armoury against Iran. Therefore Ukraine can't now protect as easily against Russian rocket attacks into its cities and arms production sites.
Meanwhile, knowing that the next Ukraine military initiative will increase conscription, if it hopes to retake Crimea and Donbas, Zelenskyy is under pressure from parts of his military and around a third if the population to hold war-time elections.
So, interesting that heavily pro-US Zeihan, who has been predicting the collapse of Russia and China since forever, Murdoch mouthpiece Sky and 'neo-hawk' US military historian Paine have decided now to pedal a line of 'Russia is toast'. In fact, Ukraine is in its most perilous position in the last two years. It depends on how quickly more missles and fighter planes arrive from the EU and Britain.
https://bsky.app/profile/osintradar.bsky.social/post/3mttcaqeosk24
Not only that, but Russia is poking at all seams of the EU within its reach, eg, against Romania, and Russian troops are practising for general mobilisation in the north.
It's not the end of Russia, it's the start of a new stage in its strategy, from a slow war of attrition with Ukraine to something more decisive, possibly also against exposed EU nations.