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6:00 am, May 23rd, 2026 - 27 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 …
Santana Mines Non-Executive Chairman Peter cooker Cook was recently in the news regarding his thoughts on Australian Indigenous people (Aboriginals…or Abos as he might privately think..and say).
Link is subscriber. But IMO does contain offensive (to any Rational person) comments
I note that Santana CEO Damian Spriggs..wouldnt comment…
Anyway, I was reminded of a certain NZ company board of directors member…..
There is a Santana mine supporters FB page (which I wont Link)…..IMO a nest of cookers/conspiracists,racists, Jacinda haters,etc; etc;….
Suffice to say they now count
poison dwarfex Auckland Mayoral contender Leo Molloy as a valued supporter !And of course Shane drill baby drill Jones. Some of these same supporters (massive Shane fans) who have now reworded it to dig baby dig… have also made threats against opponents..incl Sam Neill
IMO disturbing.
When Shane Jones says "drill, baby, drill" he means "trash, baby, trash".
He obviously thinks it is politically advantageous to be anti-green and work the West Coast feral vote.
Its maybe not so obvious Matua Shane thinks….but whatever… is swirling inside his head…means absolutely no good for our NZ and its Environment.
Often lost among the commentary on the COC's redistribution of dosh from state housing subsidies to private housing is that (over 4 years) $388 million more is being charged to people in state houses while only $192 million extra is being given in private housing subsidies.
So this measure results in a CUT of $196 million of the government subsidies for housing for poor people.
Of course the landlords who get the additional private housing subsidies belong to the richest 5% so they are happy.
This has to be a one term government.
Bomber is right about Sunfields. It is a planning disaster facilitated by the profoundly undemocratic and massively pro-developer fast-track process.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/how-sunfields-sums-up-everything-wrong-with-political-corruption-in-nz/
Fast-track should be dumped by the new government on November 8.
Remove all subsidies , freeze rents at the level they are without the top up for 4 years.
It was done to farmers on the 80s despite the pain it was the right thing.
The DNC commissioned a consultant to do a review of the last US presidential election. It's head sat on it too long, so the party became angry.
I sympathise with them on the latter point. Listening to all voters would induce such tedium it is no surprise nobody has ever attempted it.
Well, obviously the intent there is to keep reminding the reader of the disclaimer, due to the expected difficulty of retaining the message whilst reading each page. Politicians get mentally constipated, so their memory stops working.
Obviously that's because they don't want to keep on wearing stripes, and would rather wear polka dots instead. Oughta commission a design consultant fast. Shift everyone back to the 1950s asap. Cuba already has the right cars, so diplomacy on that front will suddenly ease into improvement. Rubio for next pres, if he campaigns on making Cuba the 51st state. His Democrat opponent will likely campaign on making it a territory, as per Guam & Puerto Rico (to do political marketing differentiation).
Carney is leading from the front on fossil fuels: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/22/canadas-carney-says-alberta-is-essential-as-province-mulls-separation
He is demonstrating his expertise as a left-wing role model. Meanwhile, Albertan separatism is rearing its ugly head…
Politicians rejecting judges is a cool way of doing one-upmanship in the establishment pecking order, so good on her for that. Where petition warfare looms, democracy comes alive, so all dance to a binary tune…
Being pro & con Green simultaneously has never been easy so Carney's tip-toeing thro the tulips is a thing to behold. So far so good…
Kiwi guy creates democracy game: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-05-2026/introducing-democrasee-the-political-board-game-tested-by-politicians
Seems like an effective way to get kids thinking politically. eh? Politics has always been a performance art, so learning the artistry young makes more sense.
Can anyone show me where this would be on the NZ government website?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-leaders-of-the-e4-canada-australia-new-zealand-on-the-situation-in-the-west-bank
Because of the time zone difference and slow uptake of AI, Kiwis will have to wait for the official release here, it seems. It may be on Peter’s X-account.
Luxon tweeted it.
The rest of NZ can wait until Monday I guess.
Well this was present yesterday on a NZ Govt website for MFAT
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/media-and-resources/united-nations-security-council-arria-formula-meeting-on-the-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-canz-statement
Is this what you are looking for?
Edit. Changed “posted” to “present” in the first sentence. I don’t know when it was first posted but it is dated 12 May
It is not the same statement.
True. However it seems to be variants on a theme rather than a different matter.
I personally find the one that is on the MFAT site to be stronger than the shorter one that Weka has quoted.
Just up on RNZ, a Reuters article on it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/596130/western-powers-press-israel-to-rein-in-settlers-halt-expansion
'Hapai Te Hauora and The Budget.' Putting Maori names to everything just confuses the issues that are to be revealed, as not everyone knows Maori. First we need to understand pollie-speak; while at the same time, learning Maori, all over the motu.
And the cynical in me sees Scoop release and comes up with Happy Te Hauora.
A Budget that 'Glistens' I would imagine – covered in shiny slime, smelling slightly; further alliteration – soporific, sly, cynical?, satirical, sarcastic, pseudo-sham?, spurious.
And I haven't even seen it, so am just ignorant. But then how can NiCocaCoala 'Make a silk purse out of a sow's ear', as in the old saying?
Budget Day 28 May – that'll be a foggy Friday!? Will anything get budged is the cry rising to the heavens?
(AI shows that we perhaps should move in our thinking from 'budge' along to 'hudge' which sounds more in keeping with the present-day considerations. So I call for Hudget Day! We must have largeish scoops of money required to manage our awful requirements, needs.)
So foggy that you can’t even tell the day of the week.
Yeah right! If NActF really wanted young people to "more easily play their part in how our country is governed", then why disenfranchise young voters? Good game CoC, good game.
Stephen, what I would say to you is that as self-serving wreckers of NZ Aotearoa, NActF MPs are absolutely committed to alienating young Kiwis from the voting process.
https://thestandard.nz/this-trick-of-national-could-win-them-the-2026-election/
An Interesting RNZ article which covers a wide and IMO sadly, topical range : AI, NZ Public Service job cuts, Future NZ, and NZ's Internet /Data Sovereignty(I was trying to think of an appropriate word?)
I note sir Brian Roche thinks NZ is deserving ?….If you are one of the soon to be gone...you might think sir Bri is deserving of..something : (
The Article has two Professors giving brief..but IMO thoughtful, takes on it all.
Ah, I knew Dr Alexandra Andhov would have something more substantial (Good on Newsroom again : ) And for myself (purely as a Layman) she voices many of my concerns….
Before AI we had an introduction (brief) to Generic Management. Hello, nice to meet you, you are fired. 'I don't know anything about your work and ethos here but I have been taught how to manage and my horizon is 'the bottom line'.'
We live in recognisable times, but that is just a vision in a changing un-reality. Keep in touch with thinking, practical people, with humane ethics and watch your back, for even disagreeing relatives. The detail about the warring religions and political machinations looking for increasing lands, is a salutary lesson. But since then we have had two World Wars and in the second, icy efficiency in killing helpless people for, I think, vile pecuniary and dominance advantage. We must review this side of our characters, a behaviour and thinking that arises in certain conditions.
We can become locusts, ordinary beings until some change in conditions, and then snapping, devouring hordes. We have to understand ourselves, because our destructive resources have grown exponentially. So I suggest read this and keep it in mind when looking at our, and world politics and business practice.
At the back of my mind now is some reports of the medieval Crusades. This from France where good people who had founded a religious group, built churches and were seemingly ok people, annoyed the established churches (Protestant and Catholic, each fighting for dominance). They had influence with local nobles who were prepared to burn them alive on the spurious error of them believing in a different outcome for people's spirits when they died. Which was something no-one knows to this day.
Once people in power go bad, they have broken the bounds of reason and respect. Note the way that religion is an excuse for cold domination, fighting and death and Mary Queen of Scots was tied into such.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenots#Wars_of_religion
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But earlier were the Cathars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
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Persecution, fighting and unconscionable deaths had been practised for decades, finally…
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https://historic-times.com/the-cathars-and-the-albigensian-crusade-a-tale-of-heresy-and-persecution/
https://www.cathar.info/cathar_inquisition.htm
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[Too many links triggered Auto-Spam filter that required manual intervention by a Mod. Far too much copypasta deleted while I was approving the comment – Incognito]
Mod note
It seems to me that we are in cartoon territory – the Jetsons*. A few hours work pushing buttons a day and then they had the rest of the day to muck about in. Homer did the same on the Simpsons satirical one; feet up controlling a nuclear facility didn't he? What is our world about, is any techie allowed/able to think?
Why are all those people in my neighbourhood, they aren't needed? It's mine and the rest of you can go to Hades, but we live in a world largely made by others. What little, tiny, minuscule minds and understandings of the miracle life we have, so prosaic, so cleverly stupid and self-satisfied we are. Self-made men and women still fighting battles for dominance as in early times, wanting possession of more while the resource grows less.
Sorry for the rant folks but really how many of us stop from our pre-set lives and look at each other and wonder and enjoy at being here at this moment and get the most out of life. Also giving some excess back out of our togetherness and community so spreading unneeded wealth, maybe thin as vegemite sometimes but enough for need?
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYUJ4IVqsNQ – Jetson at work
Hi GWS….no rant there ?. Its sometimes good to let it…out : )
Re the Future (which kinda ironically is now), I had always been interested in History,SciFi/Future….and Engineering/Mechanicals , so this was pretty cool. (and I do indeed have some old Pop Mechanic mags..I think… Collectors Items : ) Anyway..some reading.
And also Design (something I greatly appreciate, but no skill, sadly)
Frutiger Aero….
@PsyLA – I've got a Pop Mechanics from 1950's I think and was interested at how quickly some drug was being used widely on animals. Big changes which I regard as being part of the Chemical Century or such.
But have just been reading something from NZ Geo Newsletter about moa and pre-NZ – they were strong then a millenia ago or so. Before my time! And I thought are we going to pass through leaving the land denuded etc not using even a quarter probably of our brain capacity as we bulldoze through?
Anyway here is interesting excerpt: