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6:00 am, August 22nd, 2026 - 30 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 …
This 6 minute video is Americans that have migrated to Aotearoa.
I post this link for a few reasons.
We need reminding sometimes about who we are as a society. It often takes an outsider's lens to contrast with their experience.
What we take for granted, other folk value highly, find unique and endearing, eg going barefoot and morning tea breaks.
This is a great country, fantastic culture and good people. Not that means we can relax. We must continue to talk, organize and uplift others, make sure they are enrolled and voting. We need to resist this drift towards US style politics, business and society.
But mainly because I found it heart warming.
https://youtu.be/02qY8U2sYRI?si=oCGSTozC-EKydSKQ
The bit that got me was the nurse who, in the US, did 12 hour shifts as the norm working until exhaustion, had never heard of a tea break, and who would have to work until she no longer could in the US if she went back- no possibility of retirement!
Don't worry.
The Coalition of Cockups is trying to make us into little USA, as fast as they can get away with it!
How much do we owe to Samuel Parnell? https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/eight-hour-day-movement
How much to the Liberal government? https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/social-security
How much to the 1935 Labour government and the unions? https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21540/michael-joseph-savage
The last cited ends with these words- "The welfare state was paid for by raising taxes."
Well don't ever search "Why I Left New Zealand".
You'll need a whole datafarm for them.
There's a bro popping up on my Youtube "Still Human". He's an American (tattoos & piercings anti Trump variety). His partner is a dentist and he's done a before, during and after family-relocation-to-NZ channel. His most recent worry… "what is/isn't speeding..what's the tolerance?" cos he'd got a ticket.. I weighed in .. "the tolerance is def.. don't do more than 9 over.. 9 km over keeps you in the same decade". I've had 3 tickets in 40 years driving ..not too bad.
I got 3 x tickets in one day 5,6 & 7kms over the limit, none since thank god, in the Pukekohe, Waiuku Area which has weaponised Speed Ticket Collecting I am lead to believe. Camera's everywhere.
You've hit the bullseye Ngungukai – our main sources of business are related to housing, parking fines, general and especially road fines, (and road making and unmaking and fixing), as you've noticed.
(I've just remembered reading some time ago about an American small towns that set a low sped limit and caught visitors passing through as a valued revenue raiser. I think Yank cunning has caught us – by the throat.)
@ mac above.
Ironically my nurse wife has done 12 hour shifts and loves it.
She works 6 12 hour shifts and an 8 hour each fortnight. Saves 3 commutes but it ain't for everyone.
I agree with KJT, the direction of travel that
Atlas Group acolyteACT leader Seymour wants is very closely aligned with the US.How to [redacted] a data centre 1.40.16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVYmNJGjFnI
We're in Hell internet site. This vid is newly made. and seems really up with it. Get while it's hot. It may stay hot though because it may be true that we're in hell. And the question might be Where in hell?
Is this listing AI generated? Paranoid eh?
x.com https://x.com › wereinhellyt We're In Hell (@WereInHellYT) / X
Seymore is an Atlas Disciple and preeches from the Atlas Bible/Manual of Misinformation.
I guess Northland supporter Ad will be relieved.
His beloved team do not have to play the Hawkes Bay squad during the round- robin part of the competition this year.
Meanwhile another 50+ score for the Magpies.
Hey Hawkes Bay had to play Manawatu last night, and everyone knows that Manawatu is a wretched hive of scum and villianly so spare a thought for those who had to physically interact with them!
I dream of a day where the Turbos win more than 2 games a season,,,
Is Luxon’s relationship with Mike Hosking a textbook example of transference?
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/08/22/the-secret-bond-of-mike-and-christopher/
"Christopher was late for work because the cycle lanes made it difficult to cross the road."
Classic
Luxon is slow thinking on his feet, as he could have used the duck crossing.
True.
Willow Jean Prime cracked up on RadioNZ when asked about the cycle lane crossing issue. She was quick to say Luxon also took a limo across the road to Parliament on his first day as National Party leader.
Luxon could have asked Chris Penk to commandeer NZDF to provide him with an air bridge to get to work on time but he sacked him and Paul Goldsmith is too busy juggling his 11 portfolios.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/19-08-2026/technically-possible-how-paul-goldsmith-can-fit-11-ministerial-roles-into-his-schedule
Air NZ would have parachuted him to work if he were still the Prime Manager.
The ancient Romans had a lectica, a canopied couch carried by men at each corner when the wealthy wanted to navigate the streets crowded with foot traffic. Maybe that would get Christopher Luxon sorted. https://www.vroma.org/vromans/araia/litter.html
They also were more comfortable on potholed roads, it seems…..
They used to have 'chairmen' in the Regency period – around early 1800s – according to Georgette Heyer. Chris and David S or 'Hiss' as I think of him, could have New-est Age eager beavers waiting at every door for their largesse. And a special large one for Brownlee and his ilk with extra largesse.
AI tells me there are 66 distinct ministerial portfolios inside cabinet and 15 outside.
Given that Luxon clearly trusts almost nobody in the cabinet after the one-person coup
, I predict that Goldsmith will have around 50 portfolios by November 7.
Indeed, the CPI (Cabinet Portfolio Inflation) is running at a record high, and the CCPI (Cabinet Capability & Performance Index) is at an all-time low. My conclusion is that this Government is in a self-inflicted political recession with several quarters of shrinkage and downward pressure on the Coalition Partnership & Integration (CPI).
The National Trust's Holnicote Estate in Somerset where rewilding and letting rivers revert back to their natural course has seen welcome pockets of green amongst the terrible drought conditions currently in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/21/somerset-rewilding-holnicote-estate-wetlands-rivers-resilience
Something to be concerned about and that we could all do in our spare time; plant a tree; but find a group, a community to do it in a planned way. I have done an exhaustive comment with info but will check as to what to do with it before presenting the 'blockbuster'.
The answer, begrudgingly: Yes
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1079849/the-54-nurses-dodgy-stats-and-the-real-health-workforce-data
Simon Brown’s decisions, in my opinion, are the worst among the many bad ones made be the Coalition Cult, and a fitting descriptor is dangerous, dystopian, and dysfunctional.
If you happen to be tribal/partisan, then wrap your head around this and weep if you see the light or weep if you don’t:
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/08/19/simeon-brown-health-reform-bill-puts-political-whims-ahead-of-public-safety/
Thanks for the links, Incog. Now that I've calmed down a tad…
The nursing numbers are what we all know from experience and anecdote.
You say it all and I agree “Simon Brown’s decisions, in my opinion, are the worst among the many bad ones made be the Coalition Cult, and a fitting descriptor is dangerous, dystopian, and dysfunctional.”
For these
prickspoliticians to obfuscate, spin and mislead the figures shows that they know what they are doing is morally and politically wrong.I am particularly filthy on them as my elderly and frail Mum has had a fall. We have chosen to tend and nurse her in her home. To go into our hospital which is bulging with patients, riddled with RSV and Influenza A and under staffed is a no go.
I do give thanks for our fortunes in having a knowledgeable nurse wife and a compassionate employer for assisting in making leave easy and flexible.
There are other terms one could use to describe the consequences of actions taken by the Coalition and particularly, by Simeon Brown, e.g., homeless people freezing to death in the streets, people dying in hospitals, people suffering at home because they’re hungry and/or cold (and often (feeling) ill). It’s Ministerial dereliction and the banal bureaucracy that enables those immoral actions.
Big stuff : https://www.pbs.org/video/do-silicon-valley-billionaires-want-to-end-democracy-hezktt/
Links Peter Thiel and JD Vance. RAGE – 'Retire All Government Employees' Other term ‘The Network State’.
In his new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, journalist Gil Durán warns that Silicon Valley’s richest and most powerful technologists are working to replace American democracy with a corporate-run authoritarian order. Marisa Lagos speaks with Durán about Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, the rise of “tech fascism,” and how we can fight back… 8/14/2026
Thanks Grey.
Was just watching him last night being interviewed by Amy Goodman