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.
Heres a good outline of where the yarn about covd19 virus escaping from a Chinese lab originated and its total debunking by all actual virologists. The story has been run down the same channels as Russiagate and WMD except that this time its by the Trump administration. Just because the story is now being run in Australian papers because it has run out of steam in the rest of the world doesnt make it any more real. In fact the Sydney Morning Herald ran stories categorically denying that the lab fantasy had any factual basis in the intelligence community.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/trump-media-chinese-lab-coronavirus-conspiracy/
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australian-intelligence-knocks-back-us-government-s-wuhan-lab-virus-claim-20200504-p54pk3.html
It has been a couple of weeks since Earth Day, so I feel able to discuss this; Planet of the Humans doco, without worrying about spoiling (it’s free to viewing You Tube and 100 minutes long if you haven’t seen it already):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE
My personal view is that it is fascinating as a story of one person’s growing disillusionment with PR tricks, and the distrust that stems from that. Criticism seems to largely be a circling of wagons around public figures reputations. With the timing, I couldn’t help comparing it to the loss of faith by Catholics with the realisation that; the church cared more about protecting its own (eg Pell), than the well-being of its congregation.
However, I felt that the documentary, whilst criticising others for playing fast and loose with the truth, was itself rather manipulative. Which is not new for Moore projects; not lying exactly, but presenting information so out of context, that the effect is similar.
A particular omission was the lack of detailed alternatives. For example; much was made of the rise in fossil fuels’ use in Europe despite the increasing renewable projects. But not showing the projections of such fuel use if those renewable sources had not been available. Likewise, expecting one single action to fix everything is misleadingly simplistic.
What I found most valuable was the insistence that; nominally Green projects be rigorously assessed for environmental and economic impact. There are certainly counterarguments about the need to phase in necessary infrastructure despite not being presently effective. However, even then, it is necessary to have a destination that is worth the journey.
A THOUGHT –
Everyone has been very good at working with the government in the covid-19 restrictions for the good of themselves AND th country. Why – it has all been well explained to us there have been discussions with the right people and most has been revaled to us. We have been wanting to know and been advised.
Isn’t this a great opportunity to do the same with our normal political processes. We, take an interest and have input and get quick follow up where needed and planning for the future.
Let’s keep this process going now we have the present example to follow – going forward>>>>>>!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/416174/work-and-income-acts-unlawfully-over-benefits-and-redundancy-payments
Work and Income has been acting “unlawfully” and ignoring its own legislation by telling people paid redundancies that they are not eligible for a benefit till that money runs out.
1st operative – What the hell is this, we are just doing BAU and getting dumped on for it?
2nd operative – Don’t worry, they’ll probably have forgotten this by tomorrow, it will be buried in the Covid-19
news for the day. Or else we’ll just say it was an error with an incorrect message from a junior.
Farmers have to be looked after. They would be top of our priorities if their story hadn’t got blotted around the edges by Big Farma with multiple holdings and I have the notion possibly wrong, that their stock imports brought in m. bovis. Also they are probably up to their neck in debt while their stock are up to their knees in mud. But in Hawkes Bay mud would be a luxury.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/416175/hawke-s-bay-farmers-help-us-feed-our-livestock
There are enough farmers in Hawke’s Bay who farmed through the 1982-83 drought and learned from that, and the same will be said for this one.
But what could not be prepared for this year was the combination of drought and a pandemic, which has caused chaos for the wider industry and created issues such as reduced processing capacity and a sudden decline in demand from our international markets that we rely heavily on.
On top of that, Mycoplasma bovis continues to have a significant impact both within Hawke’s Bay and other regions, and positive TB results have also been a devastating blow for some farmers.
Help the farmers when they really need it, and that is the family farms as well, the lifestyle blocks too which have diversified the country scene. Perhaps we could get something organised – this blogger has an idea.
https://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/forum/your-place/12998-lawn-cuttings-to-silage
After reading the news from one Peter Wilson reported on Radionz I feel like Don McLean – Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn’t take one more step’. But it may be time to consider that the had news could be worse, and not wallow too much. I note this long-time press gallery member:
*Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament’s press gallery, 22 years as NZPA’s political editor and seven as parliamentary bureau chief for NZ Newswire
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/416195/week-in-politics-a-bad-news-budget-like-no-other
Making political capital out of possible problems with legal provisions when we are going through a nation-trashing pandemic, (which would be bad whatever we did, make no mistake about it) is I think dishonourable and almost treasonous, and Bridges crowing about National and its abilities to turn gold into straw shows them as parlous, not peerless.
“Next week’s Budget will show New Zealand is in the deepest recession in a generation and our country needs a government with a strong record of economic management,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Opinion polls consistently show voters favour National when it comes to managing the economy and the party will make the most of that in the months ahead.
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