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6:00 am, July 19th, 2026 - 40 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 …
Nigel Farage is gone-burger in the UK press. All fallen from grace in a fortnight. Carole Cadwalladr, a UK journalist, lays out how Farage's crooked funding was known for years, but chillingly silenced by editors and via the UK's defamation laws. Cadwalladr lists the numerous investigations suppressed, including her own years ago.
"…George Cottrell [Farage’s £5 mi donor] isn’t a new character. He has operated at the highest levels of UK politics, in plain sight, for more than a decade. And that includes playing a central role in the Brexit campaign. During this time, he’s been completely ignored by most of the UK’s political journalism establishment.
Because this is how UK political journalism works.’
https://www.thenerve.news/p/nigel-farage-carole-cadwalladr-brexit-party-arron-banks-george-cottrell-funding-electoral-commission
Not only were Farage's sins suppressed, but his anti-Brexit and rascist views were amplified by over-exposure on public media like the BBC.
A new book Getting Murdoched describes the strategy of his media arms to relentlessly mob a target into infamy. From The Sydney Morning Herald's book review:
'While it is about the Murdochs, it is really the story of those who, the authors contend, were put under vicious scrutiny resulting in extraordinary injury to their reputations and livelihoods. The News modus operandi is: “To unleash a torrent of articles contesting even the tiniest of points … attacking the critic personally, pitilessly and repeatedly … [if] all else fails, continuing to assert something as true as if no one has ever shown it was false.” '.
Farage has lost his political use and is being Murdoched. And he doesn't like it one bit, unsurprisingly. Although, to be fair, to date only the truth is being dumped.
As our NZ press becomes bought out by rw money and rw politicians removed independence from our public broadcasters, we move closer to the UK's dysfunctional and corrupt media system.
Sorry, ran out of edit time, so correction "rw politicians push to reduce the independence of our" is more truthful.
Victor Billot on Paul Henry – that caption!
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/19/an-ode-to-paul-henry/
According to the ODT there will be 5 new VERY power hungry data centres in the south:
"Five high energy use data centres could be dotted across the South under plans supported by a government investment agency, the Otago Daily Times can reveal.
In March, an AI data centre being built near Invercargill by Datagrid was the first in New Zealand to get the go-ahead in a consent process that did not require public consultation. In response to a query from the Otago Daily Times, the government agency Invest New Zealand, which promotes overseas investment in New Zealand, including from data centre developers, said Twizel, Ohau, Geraldine and Cromwell are four possible locations for data centres.
Consumer NZ Powerswitch manager Paul Fuge said heavy demand for renewable energy from AI data centres could put further pressure on New Zealand’s grid and energy prices."
Meanwhile Australia will require, in 2027 legislation, that data centres pay and supply their own clean energy sources of power:
"Legally binding large-scale data centers to supply their own new clean energy sources of power is one of the Australian government’s official approaches to artificial intelligence, which is expected to be legislated in early 2027…..pay their full share of grid connection, so no costs are passed on to homes or businesses. And to put at least as much energy into our grid as they take out of it. To be net-generators, not net-users. To build new renewable generation – and firming – to strengthen our national energy resilience. And ensure data centres do not increase power prices for Australians.”
New Zealand needs to urgently follow Australia with similar legislation.
Paywalled: https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/more-data-centres-planned-south
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/16/large-scale-data-centres-legally-bound-to-supply-their-own-new-clean-energy-sources/
And a bit more from the ODT article:
‘‘I doubt the data centres would like to have power from LNG and it would be rather ridiculous for us anyway to import LNG for expensive power for data centres, which only employ a few people.’’
Datacentres, like Musk's in Memphis, which illegally used enough methane-powered gas turbines to power 250,000 homes, look to continuity of supply. The NZ development likely want to have turbines as backups. It's probable that this fed into the LPG tank decision. After all, there’s that Alpine Fault.
Datacentre plans are the reason our power prices are going up now between 10-20%. Unexpected/large consumer power price increases are commonly associated with datacentre development in the US.
I don’t know if data centre developments featured in the increases approved by Ardern’s government. I’d be disappointed if so.
On the other hand, this is a time for Labour/Greens to snatch such a policy as a popular USP for their campaigns. Why should we pay the price of developments that don’t appear to generate much tax or many local jobs.
Exactly tWig-agree Labour should have a policy ready to go copying the Australian legislation.
I don't think you can blame the Ardern government for any of this….the data centre issue has only come to a head in the last couple of years as people have realised they are being taken for a ride by the IT companies.
In the USA there is a wave of opposition to data centres.
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-data-center-protests-go-national-backlash-grows-2026-07-18/
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1tbypz4/seven_in_10_americans_oppose_constructing_data/
There are big differences between traditional data centres and AI data centres (aka AI factories) and it’s nothing like comparing apples with apples, more like comparing pineapples with durians.
What would you say those differences are?
I think the main and most important one is the difference in power consumption, which can be orders of magnitude higher with AI data centres, and thus the environmental impact (think local warming effect and need for much more cooling capacity) is quite different too.
We are being hypnotised by AI, PTB see it as some nirvana for the future. Yet it's another way to channel revenue away from ordinary people's needs who could be doing worthwhile modern things that strengthen our society and economy and provide for the future.
This from a recent announcement about charity handout to community-building projects. (I consider it a middle class exercise laden with prejudice for neoliberalism and free enterprise. They stopped funding a very helpful self-employment agency that was very good and successful.)
I try to find on Google the Nelson Weekly news local report of Rata Foundation funding to AI Sandbox; but the month's listings are full of Facebooks, Instagrams, also Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, JimTuckerMedia free site and something called OutX. But not our good local paper report. And of course AI overview gives coverage of it. But I want The Real Monty.
(So nearly a third of that funding to go to AI advancement. When I saw a session in the Nelson public library there were many young Asian faces there so are young Kiwis themselves benefitting much?
There was another funding pool for Nelson-Tasman of $349,385, which helped largely the women's centre, plus 20 other community organisations in the region, likely including the ME/CFS group diminished or disabled by virus interaction now added to from Long-term Covid sufferers. So AI is creaming it while help groups get doled-out funds despite the great need and their good background ongoing support and work.)
Below is the prattle and unreal vision being trumpeted. We are awash in illusions – how can we rise above this Alice'n'Wonderland uberworld?
https://www.topsouthnow.co.nz/editions/fce636c8-099d-46a6-aeeb-2f3e108efdee [pg. 3, i.e., numbered page 5]
Thanks noted that for when needed again.
The data centres are not bound to renewable energy, they were in the original draft of this Australian legislation but the obligation was removed from the law. The public are being played by use of jargon and lack of media understanding:
In this speech Albanese is using the jargon "firming" which means, in most cases, gas fired turbines.
Here is some critical local coverage:
https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260717-is-labor-setting-up-the-pieces-for-a-gas-fired-data-centre-boom
Thanks Arkie…I wasn't aware of that.
Disappointing, but I still think that NZ should require datacentres here to fully fund renewable power and all grid connection charges (if any) in order to gain consent.
Labour should campaign on such a policy.
Spinoff frames our reality like a weather report, then proceeds to jazz it up using a neolib cheerleader to reassure us things aren't as bad as they seem:
Moon shots don't happen often, so his faith that something this country has been doing moderately since the 1960s will suddenly take off like a rocket will come across as loopy to everyone outside of ACT. Yet it's all in the mind…
Mass scolding doesn't work? Perhaps if finger-waggers operated synchronously they could have more influence. I'm sceptical that reorganising is uninteresting to most folk: National & Labour are now into their 5th decade of reorganising everything. They wouldn't be doing that together if sheeple didn't continue to vote for it!
Getting all folk to share mass paranoia about security is a time-tested political strategy, true, so no surprise he clings to it, but reframing it to appeal to opportunists, seriously, turns the thing into a potent cocktail in the mind. Opportunism is the new wave!
This mastermind is a long-time acolyte of Sir Rog, yet he no longer preaches the faith of his guru in purist ideology. He's a team-leader: https://businessdesk.co.nz/about. I counted 27 team members on that page, of which 26 are human.
An opinion piece from a NZ journalist, Tim Murphy, on National's doldrums.
"As it sits right now, within a jaundiced public mood, even Richie McCaw landing his helicopter and offering himself for the party leadership would be unlikely to save much of the list and electorates that are at risk."
Ouch!
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/16/a-governing-partys-lament-why-dont-they-appreciate-us/
It's time to focus on NZFirst. The quality of the former MPs from other parties that they have attracted is certainly not a reflection on those parties' own ability to keep quality- Nash, Tirikatene, Laws, Hipango, Ngaro, Marcroft, Costello- all party jumpers, joining Peters and Jones.
Maybe it's time to also focus on who else parties are attracting as 'high-profile' candidates. Include here Paul Henry, former All Black Taine Randall. This is a topic for an opinion piece in the Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-rise-of-the-celebrity-politician-the-front-page
Is it coincidence that six of the NZ First candidates above are Maori (besides Peters and Jones) who are joining a party that is racist and scorning of immigrants and other cultures?
Richie Rich has a helicopter???
Didn't he play thugby?
Is that a rich man’s sport?
Strange days.
Don't know if McCaw owns a helicopter but he became a helicopter pilot after finishing his rugby career.
So England finish third overall after winning the play-off by an old-style rugby score.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/jul/18/france-v-england-world-cup-third-place-playoff-live
"Luxon, do you know Mike Smith threatens our profits?"
"You hum it Fonterra, I'll play it."
Time for another ‘entertaining’ Paul Henry story? What a hoot – but who gives a hoot?
https://mikejoy2.substack.com/p/carbon-offsets-are-an-obstacle-to
https://planetaryfacts.com/
CEO-PM Luxon just can't stand the vile skullduggery of holding big bu$ine$$ to account.
He's a lying prick, imo 🙂
Our CEO did seem a bit fearful in that interview – c'mon Luxon, nothing to hide…
Luxon's worried us shareholders will vote to turf him in the Triennial General Meeting in Nov.
A trainwreck of an interview….Henry exposed….Jack is a very talented interviewer……
Tough interviewer & crowd – Henry was so much better received on The Platform.
"providing a platform for which people could springboard, to excel ….the state championed these people…."
Oh the irony…. the very things that Henry claims all the great things that govts put in place when he was growing up are now the things the ACT party wants to tear down………maybe its those glasses he wears….. he needs to go to Specsavers…….maybe he meant to join Labour….
Henry talks trash.
Paul Henry is living proof of the saying. "Only the truly ignorant can be so sure of themselves"!
Fun for us kids with the Sesame St kids – 'There's a hole in the bucket – so fix it dear Henry.'
National could have acted during this term (because of support from Labour and Greens), but now says it will after the election.
One wonders how its coalition partners will respond, they know National is suffering the consequence of their pay equity decision, but have a toxic masculinity vote to cater to.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/crime-and-justice/741708/national-promises-stricter-rules-on-sexual-consent
The issue is of course one of safety for women.
But how will it impact marriage, where the wife does not really want sex but accepts it as part of maintaining the relationship. Will that continue as now? No active consent, just no denial of consent?
Will the defence be, if she does on a subsequent occasion object to what happened and makes a complaint – that before and after the marriage there had never been any verbal consent and thus he had no reasonable grounds for belief that consent was not given (as before).
As for the wife, would being asked for explicit consent to do something she does not really want to do and giving it be harmful to her mental well-being?
Or finally being able to say no, empowering?
One risk might be greater domestic violence, another that husbands will have to be better men.
That is an important discussion to be had between partners in the marriage about their sexual expectation of each other and how that fits in their overall partnership. Sex therapists, hormonal treatment options and couples therapy can contribute positively. The days of lying back and thinking of England should be past us.
Ohhhh, yes – the comments thread under their announcement of the policy on X is really something. But yeah, that would be a tricky thing for the opposition parties to exploit.
I preferred Labour's proposal that if an alleged rapist claims to believe there was consent he should be required to argue the basis for that belief to the court. It generated a lot of blather about 'innocent until proven guilty,' but it's also a fundamental principle that the burden of proof is on the person making a claim. The idea that 'innocent until proven guilty' means you can make a claim you don't have to substantiate is antithetical to justice.
I was sought of inferring that the coalition partners would hoover up the naysayer votes from National (while National tries to get women voters onside) and would then later block it after the election.
In the end this sort of adjustment in the law will occur 2026-2029, either from a Labour led government, or National doing the deal with them they refused to do this term.
Well, in that case, National will have to fill up the alleged multi-billion pothole created by the callous repeal of the pay equity claims & law.
Where the Coalition of Cockups are getting their inspiration from.
'Trump Is Trying to End Our Democracy': Alarm as President Attacks Elections Ahead of Midterms | Common Dreams
We've had our own voter suppression tactics by the government. 5 min summary here from Paul.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr3lqEDk70g