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6:00 am, June 14th, 2026 - 18 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 …
."…he has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me "to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers." I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to see them…" – Gulliver's Travels.
Jonathan Swift's prescient satire of the Space X IPO.
Sanctuary you are such an old soul!
The listing reminds me more of the scene in The Big Short where Ryan Gosling is trying to explain Collateralised Debt Oblighations …
The Big Short (2015) – Jared Vennett's Pitch to Front Point Partners (Jenga Blocks Scene) [HD 1080p]
… with the high rated business of X chucked in to prop up the decomposing XAI over top of the shitsandwich Xrocket nonsense.
and then the listing tries to sell it as a superb business to invest it.
Just like the poor, the spivs, shysters and charlatans are always with us. And those two facts may not be a coincidence. And still no arrest warrant issued by the UK government for his incitement of violence in Belfast.
https://maps.greenpeace.org/maps/aotearoa/know-your-nitrate/
Ah Well, Simeon's hands are tied. Corporate polluters have a Get Out of Jail Free card.
In other news, Switzerland is holding a referendum.
In the UK, six pro-Palestinian activists broke into an Israeli arms factory on UK soil and damaged weapons destined for the Gaza genocide. They were first acquitted completely of criminal damage in a jury trial, where the jury were fully informed of their citizen right to acquit on the basis of 'greater good' and conscience.
The UK State (Starmer has family in Israel) then called a second trial where the jury could not be informed of their right to acquit on the basis of a conscience argument. That trial found them guilty of property damage. The sentencing judge then changed the guilty property charge to one of terrorism. Four people now face 26 years in prison between them.
https://defendourjuries.net/savinglives/ The video clip gives the story. At the sentencing hearing, 43 people were arrested for peaceful protest.
Meanwhile, following firebombing with pre-cordinated lists of coloured migrant families in Belfast, only 19 people have been charged. Circulation of a hit-list means the violence was a pre-planned terrorist action incited by the UK right. There is no word from Starmer or the Labour government denouncing this violence, including pulling people from cars, as terrorism.
Seems like UK Labour is heavily pro-Israel and pro-racist.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/palestine-action-jailed-arrests-protest-court-b2994780.html
Sorry, 72 protesters, not 48, were arrested at the sentencing.
National Land Transport Fund 2024-27 – current allocation – total funding allocated to public transport services (infrastructure is separate) = $1,937,422,300 over 3 years or about $646 million per year.
Business Case for National Ticketing Solution – page 57 has other options besides ticketing, one of which is free public transport at an estimated cost of an additional $385 million per year. That would put the total at about $1 billion per year.
I looked through the business case and it takes into account Covid disruptions, and total trips hasn't changed much from pre-Covid to now, so I don't think the current cost would be significantly more even with National's more recent reductions in public transport subsidies.
Hard to say if $65 p.a. million net additional cost is definitely accurate, but it's more accurate than National's initial claims of $1.2 billion given that would be the total cost of free public transport.
Nicola Willis is a tragic figure.
She today confessed that National chose not to afford the pay equity it supported while in Opposition, so had an ACT Minister end pay equity when in government.
The fact is National went into the 2023 election with a policy they knew they could not fund and kept this hidden from voters.
And their tax changes for landlords were unfunded (as they never applied a stamp duty on foreign buyers).
National with no credibility left have Willis point look at them, do not look at us because well, the shame.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360992641/willis-claims-labour-has-182b-hidden-bill-election-funding-row-escalates
National is on the attack and Labour aren't ready for the fight.
Edmonds said we will release a fully costed fiscal plan later this year.
I think most voters will find that response a cop-out.
National are snarling at their own shadow. Labour are patiently waiting…
Song for Labour today – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ1ZMVDN458
The Bachelors with: I wonder why you keep me waiting – Charmaine (with lyrics)
The longer Labour takes to answer, the longer the notion (Labour has a 18 billion dollar gap) will sink into voters mind before voting
The nACTf CoC and their agents will certainly be beating up this ‘concern’, seeing as how they're such good managers of the economy ‘n’ all – HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
https://www.ipsos.com/en-nz/ipsos-new-zealand-32nd-issues-monitor
The CoC has a cost-of-living credibility issue – austerity for thee, but not for ‘me.’
https://yeehawtheboys.substack.com/p/luxon-tells-unions-theres-no-bottomless
Labour's first response should be, "Did you see Sunday's unhinged performance from Nicola Shrillis!"
Not only the Nats – it's the whole 'strong & stable' CoC, plus assorted cheerleaders.
A(t)las, our nACTf robopaths are wrecking NZ and selling it off for parts, which the sorted here & elsewhere greedily gobble up – "Reach your global wealth potential."
National has been on the attack against Aotearoa New Zealand since the day they signed the ill-fated Coalition Agreement. It’ll take more than barking at every RoNS to unseat them.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/598149/kiwirail-contractor-stood-down-over-faulty-track-welding-working-for-organisation-after-retraining
If only we could do this with governments and politicians when they have low productivity in matters of value to citizens, and/or obviously a screw or few loose.
In reoly to incognito above. This government has been enshittifying NZ from its first day in office.