Pretty confident if Luxon's "Chuck & Mary" come from the US they'll already be inured to public homelessness. OTOH they'll also be used to the state gleefully imprisoning folk with darker skin tones on pretty much any premise.

Apropos of all the chat about X these past few days. As someone who left twitter in 2022, I'm honestly surprised anyone still uses it. It's like a cool cafe changed hands and relaunched as a Nazi bar. Why would you keep going back? Unless you're into Nazis, of course...

Today's podcast is free to listen to, and I highly recommend you do this. Absolute banger.

Aotearoa 2020: "Be kind" Aotearoa 2026: "It's OK to jail a 14 year old for 3 months if it means cruise ship visitors won't have to see homeless ppl on Queen St"

If you're able to listen to this podcast, you really should. Behind his sober facts and figures BH is absolutely LIVID about this terrible new policy! thekaka.substack.com/p/govt-threa...

This Govt has built more prison cells than social houses in its 2 years in power. [screengrab from the excellent Bernard Hickey's podcast this morning]

Quite apart from anything else, imprisoning homeless people ($550/night) IS A HUGE WASTE OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY? Pretty much ANY other solution is cheaper, eg, a state house or private rental ($100/night), or a night at the Novotel ($299/night)...

Remember back when we were all going to flying around in electric Uber air-taxis? Then Uber had its very lucrative IPO and went back to running a clip-the-ticket ride booking service... What does this have to do with AI, you ask?

Hi Aotearoa just wondering where does "imprison the homeless" sit on the social democracy - capitalism continuum? Coz apparently, that's where we're at.

I hereby declare *Game Over* on the ruling elite / finance sector's decades long gaslighting campaign over public debt. STOP LYING TO US AND JUST BORROW SOME FARKING MONEY TO FIX OUR CRUMBLING EVERYTHING WHY DONCHA!

Think what that $552/day could do to counter homelessness...

"Hey corporation: in this time of a cost-of-living-crisis here's some free stuff courtesy of everyday taxpayers."

BUY YOUR OWN SOLAR PANELS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE YOU FUCKING LEECHES.

If you're not familiar with this guy, he's a very very good doco maker. Interesting topics, well researched, delivered in a quirky fun & very idiocentric way. Yes, fun. This one in particular is fantastic. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIR8...

Am I the only one seeing King Charles' statement about Andrew as a powerful indirect attack on Trump? An *actual* king saying the rule of law must prevail, and no-one is above the law. Not a monarchist, but I think we should give the man his due.

Super late New Year's resolution: I'm going to listen to a LOT of Béla Bartók this year! youtu.be/Z50Ooqv1GFg?...

Bit of a Friday dinner ritual for us these days. 2 mins from home on the scooter

The Gen X urge to be heroes, just for one day.

Power is out today from 8 am to 5 pm as the power company replaces a pole down the road. Fortunately Callie’s your car allows us to plug the coffee machine in for emergency espressos.

This is definitely bigger than that time they arrested Cliff Richard.

Trump's aggression on China has forced the latter into a fight for primacy in the global economy. China will win. Because it's not about 'values' or 'freedom'. It's about capitalism. USA's crack addiction to quarterly earnings reports is heading for economic & social collapse. China? A 100 year plan

Cool, $70 billion of business activity NOW TELL US HOW MANY JOBS, HOW MUCH CORPORATE TAX PAID, HOW MANY SCHOOL AND HOSPITALS THAT WILL PAY FOR - or just maybe fark off somewhere else, doofuses.

EXCUSE ME?????

[every NZ motorist] WE WANT BETTER ROADS...Y'KNOW...LIKE THE ONES THEY HAVE IN AUSTRALIA! [Govt proposes big road building programme, inc tolling the harbour bridge to part-fund a 2nd crossing] [every NZ motorist] NO NO NO! THE NEW ROADS NEED TO BE FREE LIKE ALL OUR EXISTING CRAP ROADS.

Dreaming of a parallel news universe where our print journalism has the same potency as our cartooning. [outstanding work from both scribblers, next to each other on my tl this morning]

In today’s NZ Herald

Was looking for this website for a rellie and thought "maybe some people on bsky would like a car sticker or fence sign or whatever." So here you go. Also they look great! toitutetiriti.co.nz?syclid=cc6e7...

Apparently Hipkins has committed to canceling the $2.7B LNG terminal and yet I can't find the story on any of the news sites. Would have thought this was newsworthy?

Say what you will about this Govt, but disestablishing the Ministry for the Environment is actually a rare example of honesty in politics.

This is what a real National Champion jersey looks like 👏 🇳🇿 George Bennett 📸 NSN Cycling Team

Actually the idea of Luxon being followed round by an AI content generator that constantly describes his every action in heroic terms could be fun.

Ex-comms person here and that rando National MP with her tongue up Luxon's bottom should've asked for a Hemingway tone in her Chat GPT query.

STANDING IN THE PISSING RAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IN AN EMTPY STADIUM ARE THEY ON PSYCHEDELICS FFS

HEY NZ MEDIA CAN YOU STOP IT WITH ALL THESE LOCAL CLIMATE-RELATED DISASTER STORIES? IT'S BEEN OVER.....SIX HOURS!!...SINCE THERE'S BEEN A CATASTROPHIC EVENT! THANK YOU.

Failing to check the weather forecast ahead of their outdoor promotional event, then declaring themselves heroes for having to run out with an umbrella when it rains, seems symbolic of this government.

This was 3 weeks ago. Pity Henry Cook is too busy lapping up Seymour's turds to follow up I guess?

Those exec teams sure have earned their bonuses this year WELL DONE BOYS!

BREAKING. the PM & his social media team are heading to Lower Hutt in a helicopter with one box of KFC.

This clown polls 8% and yet he gets the lead politics story every time he farts. That’s democracy for ya.

Saw this guy's YT cat town videos last year and though "sooo much detail, what great fun!" Now he's just done one for Chinese New Year and IT'S ABSOLUTELY BANANAS!!! Maybe it's possible to visit his place in China. Gonna Google. youtu.be/i1savUPr-yU

Haha Paris is such a small city, footprint-wise, that when I looked at that pic and thought "I know that street" I was right. Ii's in the 12e, just round the corner from the marché d'Aligre.

Using the wayback machine to read some old boy's long-since-deleted 2004 blog about his narrowboat journey from France to Germany. The internet archive - another rare relic of a time when it seemed the internet was making the word a better place, sigh.

NOT AN INTERNET EXPERT BUT... It’s a damning sign of our collective total cynicism towards tech that exactly NO PEOPLE are suggesting AI should be used to build us personalised filters to keep bots/cookers/AI slop out of our internets.

“This is not a duck.” Absolute classic from Sharon Murdoch.

2026: In the Land of the Free you're banned from buying Chinese EVs coz they're too good & too cheap. Competition is bad. Meanwhile in the One Party Dictatorship over the ocean you CAN buy a Tesla or EVs from anywhere in the world. If you have the money, you're free to choose.

Valentining at the new Hamilton hotel public bar and bistro. Meanwhile the riffraff statue is being re-unveiled next door in the theatre’s public square. Loads of cops. Rumours are they were forewarned that the Tamaki thugs may be turning up. Edgy shit here Kirikiriroa.

Wandering around the living room like a sleuth at a crime scene, killing flies, with Elton John’s rocket man playing through the stereo

Remember, this useless Govt and its evil money men backers CHOSE to make our right to drinkable water, safe sanitation & clean waterways a political football to win the 2023 election and that is one of the major reasons we are here, literally in the shit, now.