The Daily Blog Open Mic – 25th August 2024

1. Oops – READ THIS OR DIE! Made you look? This is important – keeping ahead of the money-mad tech entrepreneurs and their Frankenstein concoctions!!!? How do you rate?
   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/526067/why-internet-searches-are-serving-up-ai-slop

2. Sad to see that a number of people have been murdered by the CIA coup plotters in Venezuela. God bless the martyrs!
   https://orinocotribune.com/president-maduro-declares-activist-women-murdered-by-far-right-violence-as-martyrs/

3. Bowalley Road has given us something we should think about when looking at the direction of our foreign policy.

   MAYBE IT’S A GENERATIONAL THING? Andrew Little, born in 1965, qualifies (narrowly) as Generation X, while Helen Clark, born in 1950, is, indisputably, a Baby Boomer. Gen-Xers have a “thing” about Boomers, a strange mixture of envy and resentment, that manifests itself in their determination not to be seen following in their predecessors’ footsteps.

   If Helen Clark was one of the prime movers of Labour’s anti-nuclear policy, and principal author of New Zealand’s independent foreign policy, then Andrew Little has come out swinging in favour of AUKUS Pillar 2. If Helen Clark negotiated the Free Trade Agreement with China that has kept the New Zealand economy afloat through a global financial crisis and Covid-19, then Andrew Little has cast our largest trading partner as a dangerous geopolitical disruptor in urgent need of Anglophone “containment”…
   https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2024/08/in-whose-footsteps.html

   Little was once a centre for admiration and expectation of the Left,.

4. This comment on Bowalley Rdpost* was interesting. John Hurley put up within his comment something he’d picked up from the Herlad. And this political thinking based on petty dislike. disapproval or condemnation is noted and too common.
   *https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2024/08/this-ones-just-for-you-chippie.html

   I subsribed to the Herald ($149), just so I could read what Mathew Hootten said in response to Chris Bishops suggestion that Auckland double it’s size to make everyone (including Stonewood Key) richer. Paul Spoonley (the growth spruiker) responded with:

   There is a school of thought that sees productivity gains coming from the concentration of populations and activities in a city like Auckland as size and scale increase, especially in relation to knowledge-based sectors. But various negative externalities such as traffic congestion or housing availability/affordability also need to be factored in.

   There is also a school of thought that says climate change isn’t happening, is just as erudite as far as an explanation goes.

   Helen Clark and Tony Blair haven’t gone away with be like Barcelona and be like Paris. Paris is a myth. These days it is full of the sort of people progressives distance themselves from; they dress at the Warehouse (or Temu); apartments are small and expensive.

   People are guided by intuitions, the sort of intuitions that saw Jacinda as the mother archetype with her lemon drink, (over Covid). In fact, she turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing: we will bow down to the Maori Carving and “open borders” (heretics will be thrown into the Tower of London or Asylum).
   Bottom line: the red necks know the importance of community and value living with nature just just as much as the beautiful people who love to associate themselves with it in their social media profiles.
   https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2024/08/this-ones-just-for-you-chippie.html?showComment=1724269005502#c7920468695811098489

5. Something new after Covid.
   …The rapid spread of a new offshoot, clade 1b, was the main reason behind his decision to declare mpox a global public health emergency on 14 August.

   “In the past month, cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighbouring DRC, which had not reported mpox before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. This week, cases have also been reported in Thailand and Sweden,” he said….
   https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2408/S00221/who-seeks-135-million-to-defeat-mpox.htm

6. Kiwirail wants you to know they are good and trying. We need to keep them in place and continuing.
   https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2408/S00381/rail-freight-saved-230000-tonnes-of-emissions.htm

   …KiwiRail’s latest data shows that in the financial year ending June 30, 2024, goods carried on rail reduced transport CO2 emissions by 229,434 tonnes (based on national average emissions factors), compared with the emissions that would have been created carrying those products by trucks.

   Rail also avoided a million heavy truck trips, easing road congestion, reducing road maintenance costs and saving 84.7 million litres of fuel…

7. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2408/S00117/mayors-proposal-to-avoid-mill-closures-welcomed-by-first-union.htm

   Is this a sign that unions are putting on their cloth caps again, after they had been to uni or interned elsewhere, learning how not to support manual workers and material handling jobs? Whatever – sounds bright and promising.

   FIRST Union has welcomed the initiative of the three Central North Island regional mayors in adding their weight to the FIRST and E tū unions’ call to keep two WPI-operated mills (Tangiwai sawmill and Karioi pulp mill in the Ruapehu region) open and save the 230 jobs under threat during the current two-week consultation on the mills’ future.

   Under the terms of the FIRST Union and E tū members’ Collective Agreement with WPI, the company presented a proposal to close the mill to workers and unions on Tuesday this week. The Agreement provided for a consultation period for unions and workers to make the case for the mills to remain open.

   “It’s great that a strong union Collective Agreement has allowed the opportunity for mayors, iwi, and community to come up with alternate proposals to keep the mills open,” said Dennis Maga, FIRST Union General Secretary….

8. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2408/S00583/poll-finds-people-want-more-localism-in-local-government.htm
   People see councils as more effective if they practise greater localism, a poll released by LGNZ today has found.
   “New Zealanders do not want Wellington to run their lives. Instead, they’ve told us they want more decision making delegated down to the local level, where that makes sense,” LGNZ President Sam Broughton said.
   “We have the evidence that localism delivers better value for ratepayers, gets better results and best meets the needs of communities. Now we have clear public support for more localism.”

   This is not a passing fancy, the thinking is following observation and experience of citizens.
   (Chinese – Confucius – three ways of wisdom):
   “By three methods we may learn wisdom:
   First, by reflection, which is noblest;
   Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
   Third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
   12 famous Confucius quotes on education and learning
   The Open University https://www.open.edu › openlearn › 12-famous-confuci…
   

9. One of my interests – which should be everybodies’ – is jobs that pay enough to support the worker and maintain health and wellbeing. How nice if that was widespread!!

   https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2408/S00583/poll-finds-people-want-more-localism-in-local-government.htm
   “The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ) programme is a proven example of localism in action, devolving youth unemployment solutions to the grassroots.
   “Despite worsening employment conditions, the locally delivered MTFJ programme has beaten targets to get more young people into employment, with a $5.60 return for every $1 invested.

   “We want to see follow through on the Government’s promise of genuine localism,” Sam Broughton said.

   Those self-satisfied comfortably-off , if they don’t give a stuff about others and our declining future – poor young people in every sense – then please note how effective the outcomes are of this undertaking by Mayors and Councils in a money sense!!!

10. Cash – money in NZ. What gives – and some info on M1, 2 and 3.
    
    Currency control? Why Reserve Bank of NZ and other …
    NZ Herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz › … Whakamāoritia tēnei whārangi
    18 Hūr 2024 (19 July 2024) — The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is considering launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This episode explores why and how it could work …

    Digital cash
    Reserve Bank of New Zealand
    https://www.rbnz.govt.nz › … Whakamāoritia tēnei whārangi
    We’re looking at the possibility of issuing digital cash. It would be an electronic version of cash, issued by us, but it would not replace cash.

    https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/money-and-cash/digital-cash
    What you need to know…

    What stage are we at?
    We’re in Stage 2 of a four-stage process to decide if digital cash is right for New Zealand.
    Timeline for digital cash
    ***********************************

    https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/money-supply-m3
    Why is M3 called broad money?
    The money represented by M3 and M4 includes time deposits. It means they cannot be withdrawn or used by the people immediately like M1 and M2, which represent narrow money. Therefore, M3 and M4 are termed as broad money.
    Which of the following are identified as broad money? – BYJU’S
    https://byjus.com › question-answer › which-of-the-follo…

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/moneysupply.asp
    Table of Contents
    What Is the Money Supply?
    Understanding It
    Effect on the Economy
    M1, M2 & Beyond
    Determinants
    FAQs
    The Bottom Line
    Economics Macroeconomics
    Money Supply Definition: Types and How It Affects the Economy…

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/m1.asp M1 Money Supply: How It Works and How to Calculate It

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/m1.asp
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply

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