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6:00 am, June 8th, 2026 - 27 comments
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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 …
The list is always a tough moment. Some interesting upward movers.
Sitting Labour MP dropped, senior cop jumps in on Labour list | Stuff
No. 7 is surprisingly high up the list
Yup, one above 8 and one below 6.
Some of the placing is a bit performative (in this election there is likely to be no difference in outcome for someone placed at 15 and 30 – both will get in on the Labour list).
But even so. What is so great about Shanan Halbert to put him at 19 – in front of Jenny Salesa, Deborah Russell & Camilla Belich?
To understand list placings, not only in Labour but any political party, you must first understand factions.
Ah yes, "But even so." It's an interesting question B – do you have any ideas?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanan_Halbert
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/19-02-2026/one-mp-one-pint-shanan-halbert-on-mafs-and-the-massive-job-ahead-to-win-2026
No. I welcome your input. Although MJR puts it down to factions.
A Google search for Luxon + corruption found this 'Aotearoa New Zealand History' post:
Hmm, so Luxon reckons a wealth tax would cover the cost of keeping the NZ Super age of eligibility at 65. No wonder official nACT party policy is 'Make it 67' – hands off ‘our’ wealth.
Anyhoo, I do like: 'Luxon Lies' is about as surprising a headline as 'Water Still Wet', and my only quibble is the "Aotearoa New Zealand" word order, when, as ACT's Brooke van Velden showed, this should be 'New Zealand Aotearoa' to avoid any incendiary kerfuffle.
Re FonterraGate, CEO Luxon was simply hustling a little law change so climate-polluting corporates can continue to pollute with impunity – such a ‘role model.’ Our CEO didn't get where he is today without a few backroom deals – just sweep this one under 'the rug' and give Sir Chris his reward for services to business.
The sorted robopaths of the nACTf CoC have enacted one solution: Move-On, and bring them another investment opportunity – they’re soaking in wealth.
When you combine smoke & mirrors with pork-barrelling you’ll get Coalition bacon strips waving in the crisp austerity wind making crackling sounds. It seems that the Coalition has been squirreling away taxpayers’ money to pull the Clown card instead of the Joker closer to the election.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/budget-2026-labour-fumes-as-government-secretly-spends-1b-from-next-years-budget/premium/TYUPVCNTPNGPFIA7BQD2RSUK7M/ [behind paywall]
Wegovy for every CoC MP?
1b seems a lot…
What FTA?
//
https://bsky.app/profile/olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social/post/3mnp4twlotk2r
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has roiled energy markets. Consumers are calling out for alternatives to unreliable fossil fuels. And yet we are in a world of surplus solar panels. Let that sink in.
After a huge surge in investment since 2020, Chinese companies have the capacity to produce a vast 1,000 gigawatts of panels per annum. The world cannot absorb the supply. More than 40 Chinese solar manufacturers have gone bust, been bought out or delisted. A third of the workforce at the top five survivors has been made redundant.
Clean power, on a scale that would have seemed utopian at the time of the Paris climate treaty in 2015, is now within reach. The price of solar panels has fallen to rock bottom. And yet factories are idling.
https://archive.li/VeXps (ft)
https://theconversation.com/australia-wants-social-media-to-be-safe-by-design-what-does-that-actually-look-like-284424?
”The proposal signals Australia’s position that it is platforms, not just individuals, who should be responsible for actively preventing online harms.
At the heart of the proposed digital duty of care is the principle that social media platforms should be “safe by design”.
But what does that mean in practice – especially for those who are most at risk? Our research with women and gender-diverse Australians offers six concrete recommendations for what safety by design could look like in practice.
I’m not sure where our digital harm legislation is at. But as some who still works with 11-13 year olds, the harm is often palpable.”
Yep and batteries are starting on the same path.
Sodium ion batteries from CATL are going in to major production.
At least someone is trying to stop the war criminals and their illegal invasion of Lebanon.
Netanyahu has astonishingly just utterly humiliated Trump, and utterly humiliated the United States. He has openly defied a direct request from the president of the United States, and has basically told him he doesn't give a shit what Trump thinks. He talked Trump into the war and he clearly thinks Trump is an easily manipulated imbecile and Israel is completely unaccountable to anyone, including it's chief patron, because via AIPAC Israel owns the US politcal class the United States under no circumstances will stop funding Israel's state of perma-war.
Meanwhile, Irans murderous Mullahsare also thumbing their nose at the US, they've got their boot on the worlds wind pipe, and they can project themselves as the sole Islamic power hitting back at Israel while a powerless US is exposed as being led by a vindicitive, dementing octogenarian narcissit and his administration of bumbing incompetent sycophants and fanatics.
Astonish how quickly the chickens are coming home to roost for this particular bunch of Fascists.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jun/07/israel-lebanon-southern-beirut-hezbollah-idf-ceasefire-iran-latest-news-updates
Al Jazeera reports that no hits on Israel have resulted
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/7/iran-fires-missiles-at-israel-after-beirut-attack-crossed-all-red-lines
And Israel has responded – with hits on Tehran.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/6/8/iran-war-live-trump-urges-restraint-after-iranian-missile-attack-on-israel
Looks as though the war is hotting up again.
Not sure what Iran thinks it has achieved.
Ya what now…
Whilst the west sits on it's collective ass, Iran stood up to a war criminal state hell bent of attacking civilians. I see that civilian targets is exactly what the IDF went after in Tehran.
That said at it's base it was a moral decision.
I know most in west, have you forgotten what that type of action looks like. When their governments lie so often or use some sort of moral cover for their evil bullshit. Then there's the other western vice – is profit involved? Or is it just so many people in the west are so ill informed, or they'd rather not have to think to hard they are backing the bad guys.
Not sure there are too many 'good guys' among the parties to the current Israel/US vs Iran+proxies conflict, but Israel and the US have been nuclear-armed to the teeth for decades, whereas Iran's nuclear capability is an effective boogeyman akin to the fictional Iraqi WMDs. My sympathies lie more towards those Iranian civilians who are being assalted from all sides.
People never change.
Remember that song by Sonny and Cher called "The Beat Goes On"?
One line says "And men still keep on marching off to war"
A couple of weeks go I made a lighthearted comment that NZ was missing progressive commentary, that the likes of Novara Media were miles ahead compared with our Bradbury Group & BHN.
I retracted, they have value, and recently found Public Interest NZ on YouTube. For example, an interview with Rob Campbell, Oliver Neas, and Justine Sachs covering our health system:
This channel covers some very interesting and current topics, and deserves many more than the 116 subscribers and low viewing numbers.
Here's a link to their website
https://www.publicinterest.nz/
This is a sensible and necessary thought which needs to inspire response from the Kiwis who have a working brain in all its compartments.
Southland Times front page headline: "What Farmers Actually Want", 8 June 2026.
The published list has items like:
* "guaranteed flexible land use in every region" (additional intensive dairying I guess)
* "restore grazing to 500,000ha of Dept of Conservation land"
How do we know the list is complete? Is there an unpublished list for use by their lobbyists?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2606/S00055/federated-farmers-launches-election-priorities.htm
Thanks for bringing some realism to the farmers' priorities. They have other ones, of course, but those will be discussed with Andrew Hoggard behind closed doors.