Just envision that a Government came to power and cancelled a whole raft of essential programmes which would reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels, only for there to be a once in a century oil crisis.

“Providing the homeless with a place to live may seem like a high taxpayer cost. But the alternative, it turns out, is more costly, research shows. Subsidized accommodation could actually be a bargain for the public, in purely economic terms.” Housing the unhoused saves money. Via @fastcompany.com

They seem to think that being reactionary on climate policy will only have political upsides, when the whole purpose of being bought by the fossil fuel industry is that the material upsides accrue to the fossil fuel industry. Which has political downsides. People gonna be mad bro.

#nzpol More than double!! Vote for a government that will take proper harm reduction action ASAP. #TooManyCows #ReduceNitrates #ProtectWater #SwimmableRivers

Problem is, if you like that kind of logic, a lot of countries could say the same thing about the United States.

This could easily be bigger than dairy, but we're beholden to the teat #nzpol

Nicola Willis - along with the rest of the National government - has a performance review on 7 November this year. And the choice is pretty simple: either we vote for the ultra-rich, or we vote for ourselves. /end

Urban sprawl is bankrupting us. Applies to NZ (and Auckland gets a mention)

Minister Upston says nothing suggests Gloriavale children unsafe. Commonsense says otherwise. #NZpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic... Visitors won't see abuse or culture silencing kids www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic... Is abuse leader Temple back at Gloriavale yet? www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

And Steven Joyce former National Party Campaign Chair and Minister is chair of the board of NZME which owns the Herald and ZB

great thread @kentduston.bsky.social. Even if as we wish, it is 'short'..., surely the lesson here is that this will happen again (climate crisis?), making the remedies you refer to earlier in this thread just as urgent as they would be if, perish the thought, the war were to go on, and on,....

There are plenty of things we can and should be doing, as fast as humanly possible, to buffer these entirely predictable shocks. But in the absence of that, our entrenched neoliberal dogma is going to take us down a very bad road

This is, of course, set against a backdrop of two years of utter economic mismanagement. We already have high prices, wage increases below inflation, and high unemployment - for exactly no structural reason at all. All these things will get much worse with expensive oil

The first thing to remember is that every product and every supply chain is literally drenched in oil - from the food on our table to everything in the supermarket to the entire transportation sector. Nothing happens in AoNZ without fuel (typically diesel) being burned

If Luxon DOES go it is a VERY clear indication to NZers that there's a leadership group that is able to both oust a sitting PM AND direct media to *suddenly* decide they're going to pull the trigger across basically every major outlet Luxon is horrific, but he was THEIR guy. Someone else is now

The IRD report that laid bare this state of affairs came out in 2023, and there was an election later that year. So the incoming National government did two things: it told IRD to stop reporting that data; and then in her very first Budget, Nicola Willis gave those families a tax cut

it would be a lot more useful to get Americans to treat all groups as equal. Then whites wouldn't have to fear being a minority. And a lot easier than deporting 43% of 250 million people and expecting the country to function afterwards.

Shot through the heart!

Wanna guess which Senators and House reps have this in their portfolio?

Time to go to Covid spending. Purchasing only what is necessary to survive. Grocery shopping once a week. Working from home if you can, or taking public transportation. If Covid taught is anything, it's how to yank down oil prices by using way less.

SelfCare and Wellness, presidential edition talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/war-a...

NZ must swiftly reevaluate its ties with this violently aggressive country that has no respect for sovereignty or international law. #nzpol

"The strikes mark what is believed to be the world’s first military attack against the US “hyperscalers” that dominate the global cloud computing market." www.ft.com/content/09fa...

This is why you had the development of the modern welfare state. Elites back then weren't better people. They were just running so close to chaos that they had to use the power of the state to make life better for people. WW2 rationing and price controls were needed for them to keep their power.

If "it's real; it's us; it's bad; there's hope" isn't quite enough for you, here are the basics of climate change in 90 seconds.

#NZGreens Budget •Free GP & Dentist •Free ECE educ=35hr/w •Income guarantee=$395/w •Good jobs,pay,housing, economy,environment,climate-action,etc •91% pay LESS #tax •CorpTax: 28%➡️33%=pre 1980s •WealthTax=Australia’s •Private-Jet tax www.greens.org.nz/green_budget... thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-...

Cutting dialysis just to save a couple of dollars is truly toxic behaviour. But let's ask ourselves the question: where did the money that used to be available to keep people alive actually go? A short thread. #nzpol

Responsibility for the health cuts and the harms being done to vulnerable people by rationing their dialysis rests with one person: Nicola Willis. She's the one that decided a tax cut for families with an average of $276 million in assets is more important than healthcare

So if we want to know why dialysis is being rationed, there's a clear answer: it's so the 311 richest families in the country can enjoy one of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. We're killing people in order to make the ultra-rich ultra-richer

And remember, that $8.5 billion only pays 9% tax. If the 311 richest families paid - say - 29% tax instead, like just about everyone reading this thread, then ran addiitonal $1.7 billion a year would arrive in government coffers to help pay for things like dialysis

But that $85 billion in assets is going to produce some pretty serious income. If the cash and capital gains on that huge pool returns about 10% per annum, then it's around $8.5 billion a year, or maybe $27 million per family per annum. Plenty of cash, in other words

Chorus out: Luxon says won't resign after poll shock; Oil over US$90/bbl overnight; Petrol over NZ$3/l in some areas; Freight cost warning after diesel rises 44c/l; Pak n'Save buying US butter; Dialysis rationing at Christchurch hospital #nzpol. thekaka.substack.com/p/dawn-choru...

“Welcome to Abnormal Psych 102. Our first image is a bunch of deluded grifters giving narcissistic supply to a psychopathic grandiose narcissist.”

😳 Evil is the absence of empathy.

This is going to be a HUGE issue for this year and next year. The tropical Pacific is the heat engine of the planet. This is the engine going into overdrive. You WILL notice this in your day to day lives.

There's only 2 countries in the world with illegal unchecked Nuclear Weapons. North Korea and Israel. One of these countries has attacked 9 countries in the last 2 years and is committing a genocide. It isn't North Korea.

Shameful behaviour to begin with, topped off by this act of callous disregard: "Upston's office declined an interview request and declined to respond to written questions about Gates' criticism." #nzpol

I'm not suggesting this is an open secret within the climate science community, but it's remarkable how little impact this sort of research is generating. Because if the rate of warming really has *doubled* then you can kiss goodbye to 2°C. www.carbonbrief.org/pace-of-glob...

We’ve already kissed 3.0C goodbye. 2.0C arrives between 2028-2034 2.5C arrives between 2032-2039 3.0C arrives between 2037-2049 Energy imbalance is stored away from the surface. Surface temperatures take 10-15 years to catch up with new imbalance. 2015’s GHG content becomes temperature by 2030.

When we say this government has engineered a bad job market. They won’t even do their polls locally. Luxon hates us for real.

Pakistan went from 1% solar to 25% solar in just 2 years. And had to cancel Qatar LNG import contracts for 2026 as a result. The penalties were high but the solar panels and batteries were so cheap that it didn’t matter

Trump's Iran war makes the case for the energy transition to renewables for most countries much clearer and immediate. @pkrugman.bsky.social 1/

Lawyer calls for Louise Upston to resign after being 'duped' by Gloriavale leaders

It's going great www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Labour even leading on inflation However disconnect still there Economy is basically all those measures in the Graph and Labour is leading in So for National to be better at economy but sucking at measures which make the economy is a disconnect that need to be whacked out people very hard

Is this 'public' in the room with the journalist?

When people say National are good at managing "the economy" but trust Labour more on environment, housing, safety, taxes, education, inflation, poverty and health...exactly what part of "the economy" do they think National are good at managing?

Charted: Oil Trade Through the Strait of Hormuz by Country 🚢 https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-oil-trade-through-the-strait-of-hormuz-by-country/

I have zero love for the Iranian Navy, so let's just get that out of the way. The ship was basically hors de combat with no offensive or defensive capabilities. There was no need to do *anything* at that point beyond messaging the ship to return to India. What the hell are we doing here?

So apparently the Iranian frigate was unarmed per requirements of the Milan 2026 naval exercises, and we knew the ship was unarmed and defenseless. I really cannot understand the decision to fire on her accept as performative sadism. www.middleeasteye.net/news/iranian...