Open Mike 02/10/25
Open Mike 02/10/25
Written By:
- Date published:
6:00 am, October 2nd, 2025 - 57 comments
Categories: open mike -
Tags:
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 …
CommentsOpinions
Today's Posts (updated through the day):
The Department of War
Things go from bad to worse for the criminal Netanyahu.
"Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting in New York on Friday with a group of pro-Israel influencers, we learn that Israel is likely paying them a whopping $7,000 per pro-Israel social-media post in a desperate drive to bolster plummeting support of Israel among America's young conservatives."
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-paying-us-social-media-influencers-7000-post-right-wing-support-craters
This is what happens when you are responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally attacking a civilian population. Not to mention genocide.
Apparently (see link) only 24% of Republicans under 35 sympathise more with Israel than Palestine.
Environment Minister, Penny has dropped Simmonds, doesnt think there is any problem or conflict….well of course she wouldnt !
And notwithstanding Ol' Penny's helpfulness, this is the Environment Minister FFS !
Green MP Lan Pham calls it..
Or, to paraphrase Taika Waititi; New Zealand is corrupt as fuck.
Nice work by Lan Pham.
Yet another Green caucus member who is doing a good job.
Absolutely BG. IMO, contrary to some on the Standard who never miss a bag the Greens opportunity….
Simmonds is MP for Invercargill and Santoft is an area in Manawatu-Whanganui. That means she cannot have been acting as a local MP supporting her constituents. Instead, it appears that she was acting as the Environment Minister. And, by placing pressure on a Regional Council to expedite consents that are subject to the laws and regulations her own Ministry has put in place, is she therefore encouraging the Council to ignore those regulations, or interpret them as weakly as possible?
That is my take on it.
I find it fascinating and deeply ironic at the same time that that self-proclaimed Law & Order brigade never fails to bend the rules as they see fit and when it suits them and at the same time loves to enforce more and more stringent rules on the great unwashed that’s apparently the breeding ground and root cause of all socio-economic ills and an unfair burden on self-proclaimed law-abiding upRight taxpayers. More specifically, Cabinet obviously is supreme over the Cabinet Manual and they cannot, must not, and will not be held back or down by some notes scribbled down by previous politicians.
It's the right wing way honesty is only expected from subordinates, of course the subordinates must turm a blind eye if the boss wants to rort the insurance company or bend environment laws, or mislead an inspection
Yes a conflict of interest. I am not aware that she even declared a POTENTIAL coa. Poor stuff.
The 1 percenters. Not the gang members per se..(well, not officially), but IMO responsible for an out of proportion negative effect on Society….
IMO crux to this…Housing assets some have.
Further to this….all good if you are sorted…not so good if you are feeding at the bottom : (
I cut through..to the quick.
And this….an imbalance ?
A comprehensive capital gains tax is needed.
There is a still a covid problem, the long covid victims.
This is more likely after repeat infections (here after the second one for those under 21 children)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/health/long-covid-children.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qE8.Mtuc.VV20UupoAmHl&smid=url-share
Great link SPC…needs to be known.
With that in mind, who here is still up to date with their 6 monthly boosters?
Is it still 6 monthly?
Mrs D and I are. Regularly every 6 months.
I've had 9 covid jabs to date.. another scheduled for Nov
Seems such an obvious…but still some diehards persist in Vaccine Mis/Disinformation.
And consequential….article includes Expert Medical opinion.
David Slack has written a stunning piece challenging the awful energy decisions made by Willis and Co.
"What we could do instead." Includes not spending huge money building gas import but instead beefing up renewables and storage. Finland has built sand storage batteries. Yes ordinary sand.
Not sure how to link to it. Maybe under "David Slack from More Than A Feilding"
Yes. That links.
https://subslack.substack.com/p/what-we-could-do-instead (paywalled)
Which may not be quite the good news story it appears to be.
https://protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2022/07/21/a-sand-battery-not-obviously-a-great-idea/
we are, as always, bounded by the laws of physics (or nature)
Thanks for the Link Joe. A debate but the proof would be in the effectiveness or not of the sand trials in Finland and others, underway. I wonder how big a unit would be to use excess power from a house solar unit, to drive say a heat pump at night?
If all new builds used passive solar tech (space and water heating), and active solar tech that was grid tied (electronics, cooking, lights), and the power companies didn't profit control buying solar from households, then much of the issue would be solved. Many houses could be retrofitted.
there's a principle here of using small solutions first, because they generally are more efficient, more resilient, and less costly to the planet.
Another example of local solutions tend to be correct solutions.
that's the one. Trying to decide whether to write a post on the whole power generation and limits of physics thing. Mostly I want the people ignoring the limits to explain themselves, but they never do, lol.
I'm gonna out myself as a hypocrite but not really.
23 years ago, we relocated a villa and rather than pay something north of $20,000 to connect to the grid (there had to be a transformer) we decided to go off grid.
I knew a couple of families in the Tararua OG so it wasn't a mystery.
People assume it was a Green decision. Far from it, it was purely political.
That's where one of the tensions runs, clearly it's Greener to have as many as possible to be hooked up to hydro.
As opposed to lots of panels, batteries, inverters spread around.
But I agree with BG's suggestions of solar arrays and battery backup.
Resilience and independence being the main two.
The bonus is that if these systems are grid tied, you have the benefit of using the sun straight off the array during the day. Laundry, pumping water, charging EV etc.
A government has to realise that neo liberal energy markets fail the people.
Then they have to find the courage and foresight to make electricity more of a right than a commodity.
In line with BGs idea, arrays on every school, marae and public building for a start.
I know you were talking about a slightly different angle but I wanted to get that off my chest.
I think the nitty gritty of where the panels should go would be a local design issue. Some places it might make sense to put them on as many houses as possible, other places it might be commercial buildings etc.
I'd like to see the analysis of the impact of smaller panels vs big solar farms. In reality we probably need both, but the reliance on think big projects like large scale farms instead of localised generation is a problem. Possibly tied to the commercial nature of the power companies.
Completely agree about using power straight off the array or panel, make hay when the sun shines! It takes behavioural change, the days of unlimited power at our finger tips are coming to an end. It's ok to learn how to use power when it's being most generated. Some of us are old enough to remember when the laundry got done at night to take advantage of the off peak prices.
We waste large amounts of electricity too.
The equation comes out differently when one takes into account the Alpine Fault rupturing and the South Island grid failing. On this alone we should be designing localised power. But I think climate events will dictate this too. Hydro is good, but we should have multiple options for resiliency. I'm a fan of passive tech.
Lots of work being done on using pv/thermal solar driven/assisted air to water heat pumps to deliver hot water to a thermal store, a rather large hot water cylinder, to provide energy for low temperature hydronic heating.
https://hydrosolar.ca/blogs/news/solar-and-air-to-water-heat-pump-combination
https://www.genless.govt.nz/assets/Business-Resources/Electric-thermal-storage-for-low-carbon-building-process-heating.pdf
low temperature hydronic heating
A lawful blockade?
"Violating a lawful blockade". Yeah, right.
"The Department of Internal Affairs has previously suggested New Zealand get an online safety commissioner as part of an online safety package – but this work was stopped by van Velden amid fears about its impact on free speech."
van Velden's worried about free speech. Tell that to Andrea Vance.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360841193/what-elon-musks-sexual-chatbot-said-nz-ministers-brooke-and-erica-youre-cute
AI-generated/manipulated videos stitching people up and threatening to start a nuclear war. Cool.
/
@drewharwell.com
OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:j5fbnzh57rn7xz65yjc36gxb/post/3m23ob342h22a?
A video of a former Iranian general went viral on X, in which he claimed that if Tel Aviv were to attack Tehran with nuclear weapons, Pakistan would retaliate against Israel with nuclear action. While Pakistani media denounced the English-dubbed clip as false and manipulated with AI, the original footage in Farsi is authentic. However, Islamabad firmly denies making any threats against Israel. Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fak
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20250618-israel-iran-war-did-pakistan-threaten-a-nuclear-bomb-against-israel
It's a bit like AI, or some other method, generating Israeli badges on a soldiers uniform and fooling some folk…😉
Of course, shopped.
/
https://www-inn-co-il.translate.goog/news/651364?_x_tr_sl=iw&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Like other interviewees, he was stationed on the Netzarim corridor. "It was quite calm for us. A few mortars, some patrols were shot at, but I don't think I made a significant contribution," he says. "But I saw how the army has become messianic. The number of people with patches saying 'Messiah' or 'Greater Israel' to the Tigris and Euphrates – it's absurd, and no one says anything. When I began making a fuss about it, I was told that they'd remove me from the company WhatsApp group and I should stop talking politics. I said: 'This is politics; you're engaging in politics. Do it or don't do it, and I'll wear a "Peace Now" and "Two States for Two Peoples" patch.' I annoyed a lot of people over that."
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-10-09/ty-article-magazine/.premium/this-isnt-a-country-ill-sacrifice-my-life-for-the-israeli-soldiers-refusing-to-serve/00000192-7157-d478-adf7-755f7bb00000
https://archive.li/AaxvO#selection-1289.0-1289.708
Training their toilet thieves for assaults on horseback because they reckon horses have instincts to avoid landmines. Cruelty is their thing.
Russian sources claim that mounted troops are being trained for active assault operations, with each horse carrying two soldiers — one to control the animal and another to provide covering fire. The concept is intended to increase mobility and survivability in areas where vehicles are vulnerable or immobilized by mines and difficult ground conditions.
https://defence-blog.com/russia-trains-cavalry-units-for-battlefield-operations/
Latest Roy Morgan:
Lab 28.5 Gre 13.5 TPM 5.5 =47.5
Nat 31.5 Act 9.0 NZF 8.0 =48.5
Not great for Labour, but all to play for.
I just hope TPM voters remember that their party vote is wasted voting for TPM, so they could use it to vote Green or Labour to change the government.
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10034-nz-national-voting-intention-september-2025
The poll was taken before the disastrous power policy announcement.
Even though it's 1 poll it's right direction again. Still needs more daylight between Greens and NZFirst.
Opinion polling for the next New Zealand general election – Wikipedia
was it you that posted the NZ polling that showed how people changed votes? Do you have the link handy?
the real question is why is the left bloc not polling better given how disastrous the NACTFirst government has been? That's a real worry.
Labour policy (esp tax) radio silence prob not helping.
I agree, but I'd like to see some polling on why swing voters are currently choosing one side or the other.
Too early to start worrying and life is too short for that, anyway – GE 2026 is a good year away still.
CPI will be trending down, OCR is likely to go down further (how much will depend on CPI), GDP will grind upwards, and unemployment rate will slowly come down. Government is likely to provide some ‘economic boosts’ to create a short-term stimulus to correct and patch over its self-inflicted austerity, which will increase government debt. These things may start to happen and/or gain traction in 2026 and just in time to set the scene for a vigorous RW election campaign for another term proposing more skilled immigrants, more private/overseas investment, and more cost-cutting. I think sufficient voters will (again) be swayed enough to make it a very tightly contested election and the Coalition will just have to hang in there – and they know it!
Isn’t that an argument for the left to start thinking about it now?
Maybe that in a choice between bad and bat-shit insane people will choose bad?
Here's hoping
But Kerre, NAct1 is govt by the sorted, for the sorted – it's all going to plan.
I do think this might be a factor. I expect it will change closer to the election, but I wish someone would do some polling on this.
Undoubtedly, the opposition parties have been thinking about this. They’ll have to adapt their narrative [according] to the ever-changing environment (for want of a better single word) that’s largely outside anybody’s control. The same applies to the coalition parties. For me, the question is to what extent do the core values & principles come through in the narrative, the rest is (superficial & subjective) detail and subject to change (literally).
largely agree. For instance this week any of the opposition parties could have spoken up about the importance of democracy and the voting franchise (without having to go into policy). Because of values and principles.
I would like to nip in the bud the 'wasted vote' argument before it gets echoed too often for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, there is a general consensus that Labour failed to gain enough support last election partly because of incrementalism.
I see voting for anyone other than the party that accords with your own vision as the same sought of thing. 'It' s not what I want but it will have to do'.
Reinforcing that is Labour's constant refusal to accommodate any Epsomesque deals that may work in the wider Left's favour
Secondly a vote for TPM that doesn't go to Labour gives Labour a signal that it's Overton window 'needs looking at'.
No need to give party vote to Labour, give it to the Greens. Same result of increasing the number of left of centre MPs/
There are 7 Maori electorates.
While Labour does not do deals, it does lose the seats.
And TPM tends to lose some votes on the party list to Greens and Labour.