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6:00 am, March 14th, 2026 - 20 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 …
Winston Peters NZF shutting down the Greyhound Racing Industry will he shut down the Thoroughbred Industry next ???
Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops into the Ukraine, expecting a speedy victory. That didn't happen, thousands are killed, the conflict drags on and the world grain supply is threatened.
Trump and Israel attack Iran, expecting a speeding victory. That didn't happen, thousands are killed, the conflict drags on and the world oil supply is threatened.
It is hard to see any positives from either.
It's not a big positive given the horror of the two wars, but I think Trump will now lose control of the House AND the Senate in November because of his dumb war.
He will be a lame duck president.
I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks Trump will risk having mid-term elections (and probable impeachment) is living in a fool's paradise.
Whether he'll succeed in avoiding/nulling them, is another matter. Also, watch the status of the Save Act – our Natz are amateurs indeed when it comes to voter restrictions.
After the demise of Jeff Epstein Trump could be called a lame, .'uck' president
https://thestandard.nz/open-mike-12-03-2026/#comment-2057406
A twerking wretch is acting PM, and the dire cyclone of charlatans is clueless in Cook Strait. Willis: If the peasants have no ferries, let them wing it – that's how a CoC rolls.
Willis must be freaking out about the unreliability of the current fleet. Long time before the replacements arrive and already there are massive disruptions to freight and tourism.
Nicola No Boats and Winnie Shift Like the Wind Peters have put themselves in a quagmire with the ferries. Labour will have to tidy up the mess.
Golly, the nut jobs are rattled. This is an astonishing grizzle, notable for contradictions, really poor logic, and hypocrisy from start to finish.
It's just a massive sob story about the media being mean to Luxton when he fumbles and polls poorly:
https://archive.is/cx5ei
This is why beneficiary rules for couples need to be modernised (two income economy).
1.If there is a FT working partner, the dole for up to one year.
2.If neither has FT work, two UI payments at the dole level (with abatement on extra income).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/589581/benefit-rules-confuse-employed-partner-given-job-search-obligations
tbf Hegseth and co are likely too fucking stupid to realise that giving no quarter is a war crime.
Rights groups have slammed United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for saying that “no quarter” will be shown to Iran, as the US and Israel continue their military campaign against the country.
“We will keep pressing. We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” Hegseth told reporters on Friday.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/14/analysts-say-us-threat-of-no-quarter-for-iran-violates-international-law
Approaching politics from different directions is necessary as we seek understanding. It is under the control of shapeshifters, we're at the point where we no longer know what to expect. So here is another POV that is relevant to the mystification.
What imagination. In 1832 could Lord Tennyson envisage our Nicola Williswont.
The Lady of Shalott
Pt.2: No time hath she to sport and play:
A charmed web she weaves alway.
A curse is on her, if she stay
Her weaving, either night or day,
To look down to Camelot.
Tirra lirra, tirra lirra:' Sang Sir Lancelot.
She left the web, she left the loom…
She look'd down to Camelot.
Pt 4: They cross'd themselves, their stars they blest, Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire, and guest.
There lay a parchment on her breast,
That puzzled more than all the rest,
The wellfed wits at Camelot.
'The web was woven curiously, The charm is broken utterly, Draw near and fear not,—this is I,
The Lady of Shalott.' (See Poetry Foundation)
Where is our doughty knight; is he in sight? Where is our castle of French Taunting standing puckishly against the malign. Where is all the practical value and wise humanity from all our advanced education; those with a 'classical education' from which intelligent action and thought might spring.
Has it sprung and gone away, gone to ground, a foxy foe, transmogrified into David Seymour?
Waiting for the ships to arrive.
Will the port facilities be ready.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834
Can we call Winston Peters the 'ancient Mariner" because the InterIslander ferry number is now two after the Aratere retired?
"It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three."
Really good Mac1 and shows what an erudite bunch are found on The Standard. (I bought 'The Black Swan' by Taleb for $2 from an op shop, a demanding read, and the bibliography at the end in small print runs p.401-429. This indicates to me how much there is to know out there, and yet how few read such erudite stuff. That the majority of the world have no idea of the hidden currents as well as the outward forces that move our world. The writer is contemplating being buried with the rest of his clan in Amioun, Lebanon. That was in 2007, but 2026, now, Lebanon is being attacked. When and where to go to die?
He has risen from his homeland, learned English, learned about hard sciences, mathematics, etc and society, philosophy. Written thoughtful and detailed books, and how many of us have read them or anything philosophical? (He advocates what he calls a "black swan robust" society, meaning a society that can withstand difficult-to-predict events. See Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Wikipedia).
Are we common people only vulgar, thrusting, primary scholars with pretensions? Can we be expected to understand matters of nationhood when we have not been educated for it? Is that why we can have pretenders to 'class' leading us when so obviously neither their heart nor their creed or talents are drawn to serving their fellow people's best interests?
I dunno about erudite. I got this from the nickname of a less than adequate English village cricket wicket-keeper- the Ancient Mariner who stoppeth one in three.
Thanks for the Black Swan references. I often walk around a lagoon with hundreds of black swans floating upon it. For me they do exist. I came upon references as I looked into Nassim Taleb and others to John Ruskin's 'Unto This Last" which I last read at Uni in 1968, a signal year. I see his work was influential with Ghandi and with the early British Labour party. Some reading and rereading to be done.
@Mac1 Late in life my curiosity leads me to read large, cut TV and no social media – visit local filmhouse. Therefore there is a green field far away stretching to the future for me to dig up interesting stuff. But so late in life. But never more needed. I'll pass on a site seen when I touched google search. About the planet – ecoticias – seems truthful.
The graph accusingly placed with the column, show this to be utter tosh.
For nearly.
So he means from the 2008 GFC & earthquakes.
One was worldwide, the other was local – neither debt increase that followed was caused by our relative productivity (debt had been falling for the nearly 2 decades before then, despite ordinary productivity performance).
After rising because of these two events, debt began to fall again.
As I said utter tosh.
He then makes a separate claim that we have a higher risk profile – when the major impacts have been global ones – GFC/COVID/Gulf Oil blockade, so we must have lower debt than other nations (we already have done this and still do).
ACT wants less government and lower taxation, so they peddle their talking points.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360950668/damien-grant-john-key-and-jacinda-ardern-both-turned-debt-when-disaster-hit
The thing about debt of course is that it always has to increase if you want economic growth. Economic growth means more jobs, more goods and services, etc. the amount of money in the economy has to increase to facilitate that economic growth, (pay more salaries, buy more goods and services, etc).
So where does all that new money come from? It has to be 'borrowed' into existence, that is the only way new money is created. (not including paper and coins). So looking at the graph you mentioned, when public (government) debt was reducing from 1992 to the early 2000's, private debt increased massively from 70% of GDP in 1992 to 160% of GDP in 2007ish. Same again when the drop in government debt occurs from 2008 there was another big increase in private debt.
To grow the economy, you have to increase debt. Whether that is an increase in public debt or private debt or a combination of the 2 doesn't really matter, the overall debt must increase otherwise no economic growth. This is the entire basis of our debt based monetary system. If the government decides to stop borrowing and lower debt then the private sector has to borrow more or the economy tanks and vice versa.
So when the writer states "We have maintained our living standards through debt."
Yes but a strawman really because we maintain our entire economy and maintain economic growth through debt. The largest economies in the world (the USA and China) have GDP's of roughly 35 trillion and 20 odd trillion and what do you know, they are also the worlds 2 largest debtors at roughly 30+ trillion and 20 odd trillion.
The whole debt = bad thing is a complete distraction from the reality of our economic and monetary system.
Money = debt. No debt = no money.