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Open Mike 14/09/2026
17 comments on “Open Mike 14/09/2026”
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Nifty video promo of Naomi Klein's new book called End Times Fascism.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/13/naomi-klein-astra-taylor-end-times-fascism-video
Thanks, tWig. That preview video was awesome.
Naomi does some really good work.
The chances of the US either industry-regulating AI or federal-regulating AI are as high as either of them regulating the social media platforms as publishers.
true, unless something makes it worth their while.
The neat part is they probably don't.
All it really requires is for the EU to regulate it.
GDPR is the obvious example. The EU set a privacy standard for access to its market, and large multinationals often ended up treating that as the default baseline globally because maintaining entirely separate compliance models is a pain in the arse.
Sometimes, the lord market works for us.
that makes sense, but it's only going to take one stupid state to keep overdeveloping AI to either break the industrialised world, and/or undermine regulation.
More akin to the arms race.
Lord market has determined that the US and China, not the EU, will continue to lead the world in AI development. The EU AI Act has the capacity to fine up to 3% of annual global turnover.
The largest fine the EU ever handed out against any tech company was EU4.3 billion against Google for Android dominance. That's maybe the price of two datacentres.
Unfortunately AI regulation remains a mirage in the US and China.
What a greasy slimeball Sam Altman is.
"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggests Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping could secure a Nobel Peace Prize by establishing shared AI safety standards."
Guaranteed to tweak Trump's interest/weakness. Xi not such a dupe.
https://theoutpost.ai/news-story/sam-altman-proposes-u-s-china-ai-safety-pact-as-industry-leaders-call-to-slow-development-30778/
People in the ai industry have pointed out that such regulation would benefit the current ai board-leaders by stifling ai firms in the next tier down.
This piece puts the nail into political polls.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/09/14/campaign-cut-through-political-polls-have-a-science-problem/
But those polls provide infinite talking points, as TS can attest. So, nothing will change.
One quick question:
In the event of a left win on 7/11, and labour implementing a CGT, would landlords suffering capital losses be entitled to tax rebates in respect of those losses.
This seems a pertinent question given that property prices seem to be heading south.
https://www.labour.org.nz/media/pfvguai5/labour-cgt.pdf [pg. 8]
I’m surprised that you don’t seem to know this!?
Thank you for spelling it out Incognito – it is hard to concentrate the mind on important points these days.
Another quick question:
Would a capital loss still be ring fenced if tax has been paid on a previous capital gain.
There are people who call themselves "share traders", and who are prepared to pay tax on any gains they make, but they expect to be allowed to deduct any losses for tax purposes. These are people who would be liable for tax on any gains they make because the IRD deems those gains to be profits.
I don’t think that shares come within the ambit of the Labour’s proposed legislation, but the same thing could occur with repect to property sales,
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361033078/luxon-praises-erica-stanford-after-winston-peters-demands-portfolio
Winston's already yelling luxon how it's going to be if the get back in government
Of course Putin and Xi will follow suite. Insane.
/
A new nuclear policy is taking shape in secret, crafted by a small group of Pentagon officials, that will give President Donald Trump more ways to start a nuclear war. Little is known about the strategic nuclear review now under way in the Trump administration, but officials’ comments suggest that it may bring back one of the most dangerous policies of the Cold War: the proliferation of battlefield nuclear weapons and their early use in a conventional war.
https://thebulletin.org/2026/09/pentagons-secret-plan-reviving-cold-war-doctrines-to-lower-the-threshold-for-nuclear-war/
ACT playing on the mistaken image people have of it again, by putting it self forward as the bright hope for NZs future.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2609/S00135/act-reveals-team-to-unlock-new-zealands-potential.htm
…“There are three major challenges ACT’s team will be campaigning on fixing. One, ending Government waste so we can grow the country. Two, cutting red tape and deleting stupid rules so Kiwis can build their businesses and livelihoods. And three, ensuring one law for all and one future together.
“Our Ministers have had an outsized impact on the Government’s direction. They’ve reformed employment law, fixed the Holidays Act, improved school attendance every year, cut red tape across multiple sectors, funded or widened access to 133 medicines, simplified AML rules, fixed the Arms Act, smashed court backlogs, reduced youth crime by 25 per cent, got rid of red tape for farmers, halved methane targets, cracked down on wilding pines, passed the Regulatory Standards Act and replaced the RMA with a property rights system.
“They’ve prevented three new taxes from being enacted and together they’ve cut $14 billion of waste, helping put New Zealand on a faster path back to surplus….
When they say ‘One law for all’ the image of a mincemeat grinder should come to mind. We aren’t all the same – people who think stress that ‘equity’ is the word we should think about and react to, not ‘equality’ though it has a good emotional response.
I have heard Sam Stubbs from Simplicity on the radio several times over the last couple of days getting stuck into Labour's Kiwisaver policy, with the implication that National's is much better.
It turns out that they are almost identical. Over a working life Labour's would leave you with a Kiwisaver balance of $951,075. National $1,084,658.
But under Labour's policy there is no reduction in take home pay; under National there is a reduction of $52,000.
In addition Labour has, importantly, banned new total remuneration contracts that absorb employer KiwiSaver contributions into salaries.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361079715/kiwisaver-calculator-how-labour-and-nationals-plans-would-affect-your-retirement-savings
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1356180/labour-to-make-employer-contributions-to-kiwisaver-compulsory-if-elected