The Daily Blog Open Mic – Monday – 20th April 2020

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.

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13 COMMENTS

  2. “The World’s Energy Order is Changing”

    Excerpts:
    There have been many articles written about the social changes that may occur in the aftermath of the Great Shutdown. But one major change is already upon us, and it’s being powered by forces that began years before the coronavirus emerged. It’s occurring inside the global energy system.

    Since the 1960s, a cartel of 14 oil-producing countries, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has controlled a huge amount of the world’s oil supply.
    ————–

    But the cartel’s oil power won’t last forever. Historians will look back on this period as an epoch in capitalism, when oil-producing nations were powerful because they were necessary to keep the whole engine running.
    —————

    “The efforts to secure [oil], safeguard its shipments, stop enemies from getting or keeping hold of it, and monopolise it if possible, loomed large in 20th century history,” it said. But the global shift towards renewable energy will change all that, as countries become more energy self-sufficient. The Worlds Energy Order is Changing

    • Kheala
      You omitted the second part of that title; “and China is set to reap the strategic benefits”.

      Personally I like the idea of offshore wind turbines that produce hydrogen fuel by electrolysis of sea water. That saves a lot of money running wires out there – and you may lose more power in cable-friction (there’s probably a technical term for that; related to inverse square of wire radius) than you’d lose in the process and fueling a mini-tanker ship to go collect it. That’s something that Aotearoa could do really well, especially in the natural wind funnels of; Cook, and; Foveaux straits.
      What baffles me is why Australia are so dead set on digging up coal to ship to China? Their deserts are great for solar! You don’t even need solar panels, it’s one of the few places in the world you can viably set up big flat metal tanks of water and hook the pressurized fluid up to turbines. Which has the potential of being a lot cheaper.

  4. What now my love? Song. But at 10am I understand there will be notification of a change of Level or not.
    We must go to Level 3, recognising that the health of the economy and our own health are inter-twined, can’t pull those two aspects apart for too long. And going for Eliminatison of C-19 has been an admirable drive and given us an understanding of our situation.

    But now we have to think our way to Level 3 and be prepared at the worst for region lock–downs of a temporary nature with a rush there of testing equipment to gauge the problem.
    And extended family bubbles, a piece in the paper about working parents with a three year old. Hard times for those young people. Let’s care about families, real care, not just that sentimental ooze that has been spread over the reality under neolib. Test the extended family if they wish to be together and help these workers.

    And give a one-off to all the workers during the lockdown of $100 cash, payable now, non-taxable and use the IRD to do it.
    Show that leftie spirit of supporting working people and encouraging participation in the workforce and appreciation of effort. It would be kind and have practical good outcomes.

  5. SARS-CoV-2 is tricky! Say what you may about the Chinese government, their scientists have been really good about sharing data (especially considering the language barrier). Of course, they’d be insane not to (so I guess that means Trump will be forbidding USA researchers sharing data out of that country any day now).
    Anyway, this is a bit on the technical side, but there’s a relatively easy to comprehend diagram down in the Conclusions section, that doesn’t require you to know terms like “lymphopenia”. Though if this goes the way it looks, that’s going to be as suddenly in common usage as; “liquifaction” after the CHCH quakes.
    Basically; once SARS-CoV-2 has damaged the lungs enough to get into your blood stream, it then seems to be able to infect the white blood cells. So that instead of attacking the virus when signalled to do so by your antibodies, these white blood cells instead express deliver more virus to the those areas of the body that are most infected. Importantly, once the virus is in your bloodstream – that’s not just your lungs!

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30920-X/fulltext

    • Re-reading that text I have to note that they do not specifically say that SARS-COV-2 hijacks the white blood cells. Just that it appears to destroy them (hence the lymphopenia).
      However leukocytes are nucleated, so it might be possible for the viral RNA to hack that DNA into replicating itself thus leading to cell death on lysis. But I think white blood cells do require bone marrow for formation (eg leukaemia) – though it’s not really my field, so I am just guessing at this point.

    • Thanks for that blinding light on the problem Fornow, for short! And thanks to all the people working ‘feverishly’ to break the code of this impossible thing. My mind has trouble comprehending this invisible attacker. If we didn’t have science we would be running around stoning people who looked different and evil and burning witches – in fact they are in Mali, I think. I remember I saw something in the paper a few days ago. Boris J has had it, and I am waiting for Trump to get a dose, that on top of whatever he already has, might solve a lot of pain round the heart region in the USA and the whole world.

  6. Just listening to a lovely young Maori girl who has got over worries about her life with the help of a group and a program called Bounce I think, or Balance.
    She was given help, and funded for school needs and could have more but was happy with having the basics – enough to help her stand and go forward. She said ‘ something like ‘When you have had nothing, having something is great’.

    This is the way to go for the young – let’s multiply this exponentially and show fingers to the Covid-19graphs with something really positive for our country’s future and its young adults.
    Kathryn on Radionz 9toNoon:
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018743314/lifting-their-game-jody-hamilton-and-tyler-taurima-brown
    Kathryn meets two people who’ve been doing everything they can to help young people in the Hawke’s Bay get up on their feet. Jody Hamilton set up the social enterprise Lift, which connects rangatahi and helps them into meaningful work. One in five young people in Hawkes Bay are neither in education, employment or training – the highest rate in the country. In the past two-and-a-half years, Lift has worked with almost six hundred young people, who get life skills training through Bounce, one of the programmes offered by the social enterprise. Local employers have fronted up with more than sixty-five jobs. The LIFT office is currently closed for lock-down but Jody is continuing to work with rangatahi remotely. Kathryn chats with Jody and 17 year old Tyler Taurima-Brown, who’s life changed after going through the Bounce programme, and is now running courses there herself.

    If NZ wants to start measuring growth in something of value to people, especially those strugglling, let’s start measuring individuals giving us their rating on how they have been able to move forward. Let’s start a pilot scheme doing this, with just 100 who choose to go through a mind strength and positivity building project shaped around their wishes and taking them towards empowerment and employment.

    Empowerment used to be a common word but neoliberal oppression seems to be disempowering to people, wanting user pays, wanting to limit everything that government funds for citizens, wanting always to have people distressed and upset on the basis that this makes people try harder. That is a dangerous tool, because if you are going to smack people with a bunch of barriers to achieving the goals that set them up for a self-supporting life, each person will respond differently and some will not have the wherewithal at that time to overcome the barriers.

  7. Thinking about Jeremy Corbyn and Labour in the UK, a memo or such has come to light illustrating that the UK Labour administration worked against Jeremy Corbyn*. Has the left there got any credibility now? Here they are hanging on a rope I think. Careful not to drop the trapdoor you political players!

    *https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leak-report-corbyn-election-whatsapp-antisemitism-tories-yougov-poll-a9462456.html

    And much has been heard about anti-semitism and Corbyn who didn’t please a Jewish faction – probably centres on his support for Palestine to have a voice and be fairly considered.
    This from Muslim thinker – Posted by: Dr Izzadeen Chowdhury. No date – 4 days ago so 16 April 2020?
    https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/leaked-dossier-anti-corbyn-labour-officials-worked-to-lose-elections-to-remove-leader/
    The 800-odd page document, which emerged over the weekend, contained a huge collection of WhatsApp messages and emails. The messages demonstrated how Blairites despaired as Labour scaled the polls during the 2017 election campaign.[1]
    During the election campaign, the report reveals that senior officials from the right-wing of the party channelled funds to other like-minded right-wing candidates within the party. Not only that, but they also refused to share information with the leader’s office as would have been expected of them. They came into the office to “do nothing for a few months”.

    What one Jewish media outlet had to say:
    https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/how-members-of-labours-senior-management-team-campaigned-to-lose/

    Another link is too weak to come through to my computer, perhaps it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny:
    w3.labouragainstthewitchhunt.org Apr.12/20
    Apr 12, 2020 – The BBC’s David Grossman tweeted a 105-second video clip of the … The vast majority of Labour MPs are clearly deeply hostile to Corbyn and his politics. … are interested in building a democratic and transparent Labour left;; start planning for … At a time when Jewish communities in the UK, and indeed throughout Europe, …

    Malicious and mean undermining after Corbyn’s loss:
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/03/jeremy-corbyn-accused-planning-vanity-tour-stepping-sir-keir/
    Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of planning a “vanity” tour after he steps down as Labour leader, as Sir Keir Starmer this looks set to be crowned his successor on Saturday.
    With the shadow Brexit secretary expected to win the contest with a comfortable majority, thoughts among Labour moderates are already turning to reorganisation and the push to bring the party back to the centre ground.
    Sir Keir has made reunifying Labour’s warring factions a key priority of his leadership campaign and has already begun to rebuild bridges with marginalised elements of the party, such as the Jewish Labour Movement.
    Should he win, Sir Keir is also expected to offer frontbench jobs to his two rivals Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey, the pro-Corbyn favourite, who it is hoped will help heal divisions….

    ( Religious differences in another country – in India used to stir and simmer a nasty brew:
    https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/modis-india-hospitals-refuse-to-admit-muslims-as-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-target-muslims/)

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