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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, January 8th, 2026 - 27 comments
Categories: open mike -
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Just for fun, but it does make you wonder where Mr Sorted, Strong and Stable stands.
Caption competition anyone?
Any passing resemblance to Mussolini is totally in your mind. I'm simply incapable of being that staunch. Plus I've been instructed to act so as to make Hipkins look good by comparison. Apparently he's incapable of doing that all by himself. Goddam control system, you can never figure out their agenda!
Weird. Who's instructing Luxury Lux thus – Seymour? Bishop? Stanford? Not Collins?!!!
And good work getting in a dig at the opposition Dennis – still ‘chippying’ away 🙂
Many are ‘called’, even the cerebrally challenged, but few are chosen.
The laziest PM ever tells RNZ that he is working from home and they report it as fact.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/583521/christopher-luxon-working-from-home-as-year-gets-underway
Brinkmanship? Or just closer to the brink : (
"Man of Valor" threatens…Does this mean that other countries could blockade
VenezuelanAmerikan oil tankers?I also note the blithely unaware irony of the New Amerikan dictatorship…
Luis G Portillo is the lead video content producers at TVNZ. https://[www.1news.co.nz/2025/12/31/as-the-year-ends-i-look-back-to-my-troubled-homeland-and-miss-it-more-than-ever/%5D
One presumes his official lack of singularity at the SOE is a status conferred by a non-journo, due to showing on the TVNZ Opinion page. No point putting a high-paid journalist in charge of grammar when anyone pulled in off the street will do instead…
Yet his compelling personal/political history of Venezuela through recent decades comes across as authentic, insightful, informative.
The difference is in your mind: an effect of framing. So what went wrong?
We see here a blend of authenticity and simulation. Voters can't assess that a few social programmes cost less than hundreds of billions of dollars. They can't even get economists to provide public information of the true cost of govt policies. The likely ratio between govt expenditure on those and money from oil is likely to be 1:100, 1:1000, or even more, depending who's guessing. Fortunately for the regime, Swiss bank accounts are private, so the truth can never be known.
And here's another view of what went wrong with the Bolivarian revolution .I like his interviewee's "ancien regime"thesis.I feel a lot of explanations come with a simplistic goodie/baddie take .Owen Jones has adhd and its on full display,makes you wonder if you've inadvertently boosted the playback speed, but in general a respectful and even handed interview
He's a good source: https://www.globalsov.com/en/equipe/temir-porras-2/ – I agree that Owen remains well-attuned despite the ADHD, so the synergy in the interview seems optimal. I've watched half the i/v and may get back to it later.
Took 20 mins to reach a point of significance, so viewers must be patient! Chevron remained despite the Chavez extortion ploy whereas the other 2 US oil corps got out 20 years back. The govt take negotiation will therefore proceed on the basis of what Chevron accepted, with sufficient alteration to induce the other 2 to get back in.
T must use their advice to force the arm of the Bolivarian devil down onto the tabletop. His other interesting point was that the Venezuelan military decided not to fire any rockets against the yanks due to survival necessity. Very sensible!!
Hmm. Interesting section 42-48 mins. After Owen reports being satisfied that the election of 2012 was valid (he was there as int'l observer), Temir says Maduro's presidency was legit due to having enough popular support, but the right had never accepted the constitution produced by the Bolivarian revolution – despite that it was massively endorsed by the people there in a referendum.
Haven't checked on that personally so correct me if I got it wrong! So it looks like their old aristocracy decided to try to defeat the people. There was a rebellion in Feb 2014, he said, and Obama imposed sanctions on Maduro, so Maduro's regime had to circle the wagons to survive. Things went from bad to worse.
On a different issue:
https://transport.vic.gov.au/news-and-resources/campaigns/travel-freeeeeeeee
I don't now whether other states also have free transport for youth. Compared with NZ, Melbourne has greater population density and volumes of travellers – and Australia generally has higher taxes than NZ that result in a higher overall standard of living . . .
Tim Shadbolt has died. I remember him when he was a publicly visible speaker & activists for the NZ 70s hippyish counter-culture.
The world seems to have gone backwards politically since then.
RNZ (link above)
The Minnesota shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a ICE agent is different for the US because she's white, not black.
But she was also in a same sex relationship which is what MAGA and their affiliates are now focussing on.
What a frightful place that is, yet some apparent lefties argue we should nod and agree.
All power to the Minnesota mayor for saying it like it f*****g well is:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/07/minneapolis-shooting-immigration-crackdown
Edit see video clip.
which lefties is that?
RNZ video.
The Noem narrative derived from this one
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/583541/another-violent-death-in-minneapolis-lays-bare-the-nation-s-fractured-politics
The BBC video one exposes the lie.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jvnl4j1n4o
The RNZ one blocked out the visual at the scene at the time of the shooting.
Some good news.
A dual citizen, who ICE and HS claimed was a Mexican is released after 25 days in 5 facilities.
https://wapo.st/44Zs2TH
Manage My Health
Deep Dive
Record
1.standard vaccinations and childhood illnesses
2.opened up foot (tetanus shot), bitten by dog (tetanus shot)
3.Played Maori tetherball (sharp wood holds pole) – gash on leg, scarring
4.not disclosing
5.tonsils out
6.cyst lanced
7.frozen shoulder
(recommendation physical therapy)(used the public pool to restore movement)
8.Hutt Hospital (dentistry) advised to remove tooth
(given codeine, swilled cold water around tooth instead)
(private dentist, to avoid obvious drooling before young Asian woman)
9.lumbar sprain
(walked around so it did not last long – strong advice to do so on flat surface areas)
(last visit to a GP surgery)(none since 2015 merger)
10.heart check (good results)
(not done at surgery)
11.COVID vaccinated (no booster)
(no reported infection)
12.no prostate test result
13.refuses to send offensive substance through the mail to Auckland, despite requests
Fool not on the hill.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360925728/manage-my-health-dont-mind-if-i-do
bother – missed the right elbow bursitis (6-7 era)(no treatment required).
Fine for you but a lot of Gay men are worried.
so many people. Imagine women having an abortion history that their husbands don't know about.
I don't even know what that articles was trying to say. Choose not to be shamed by medical details being made public? As you said, fine for those where that's the only issue.
full article,
https://archive.is/l8V6v
yes, I know, I read the article. It's idiotic. People's lives can be harmed by sharing data, irrespective of how one feels, but also, again privacy laws are written to protect the people who it matters for not the ones who are happy to lay out their medical records in the media.
In the 21st C?
There's still a lot of homophobia about. And it probably depends a bit on where people work, family background etc.
good for her if she's ok with it. Meanwhile, privacy laws are written to protect vulnerable people who aren't ok with it, not the people who are ok.
I'm not so much concerned with my health record becoming public – 1 issue I'd find a bit embarrassing but i wouldn't lose sleep over it being made public. And I'm retired so not worried about any workplace issues.
Also, as far as I can see my records on MMH don't go back before 2020. Is that usual?
But I was concerned about other details eg phone numbers, address, email addy & NHI number, and password. Could that result in identity theft, potential hacking of email/phishing, etc?
I changed my password.
However, I also understand how people who've had some issues: eg abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, mental health issues likely wouldn't want them to be public.