Random Politics

[Juju]

Originally Posted by Ab

far more sensible to just kick the tenants out, lock the door, save on renovations, avoid penalties, and watchthevalue of the derelict empty property continue to skyrocket.

Is it though? What's going to pay the mortgage on said property?

Oh, it's mortgage free? Then they are earning 10's of thousands per year in rent, I think they can afford a $5k heatpump.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Ab

#smollett

Ellen Page: it doesn't matter if Jussie Smollett made it all up or not, marginalisation is real and as a famous white American moviestar millionaire let me lecture you about it

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...column-1191006

[CCS]

Originally Posted by Juju

Is it though? What's going to pay the mortgage on said property?

Oh, it's mortgage free? Then they are earning 10's of thousands per year in rent, I think they can afford a $5k heatpump.

And if it's not mortgage free? Then the rent earnings go to the mortgage. Also, the rent earnings get taxed.

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by CCS

And if it's not mortgage free? Then the rent earnings go to the mortgage. Also, the rent earnings get taxed.

So add on $5k to the mortgage if they're that much of a broke ass. The house they provide needs to be fit for purpose.

[CCS]

Never said it doesn't need to be fit for purpose. But govts can keep deciding on new benchmarks for what constitutes fit for purpose. People have this idea that owners of rental properties are some kind of fat-cat tycoons.


Also, that $5k will come at least partially from a rent increase.

[Juju]

Originally Posted by CCS

And if it's not mortgage free? Then the rent earnings go to the mortgage. Also, the rent earnings get taxed.

My argument was in response to Ab's vacate the house & reap capital gains situation.

The gubbernment announced the rental home insulation mandate in 2016. If someone bought an un-insulated property for investment purposes after that time, then it's all on them. They should be getting no sympathy.

If someone already had an un-insulated investment property before 2016, then there property already has gained a solid 10% in capital gains and a solid $50 per week in rent increases since 2016, so as DrT said.. extend the mortgage.

[Ab]

Yeah, conceded.

[fixed_truth]

A.I. may replace most of today's jobs, but this start-up investor sees global GDP increasing 50 percent a year within decades

"There is in some true sense right now — we don't have nearly enough people for all the jobs," Altman said. "It'd be great if every student had an individual teacher. It would be great if every time you go into a doctor's office you'd never be waiting. I do think we'll see a lot more jobs like that. Sort of human to human jobs."

I hope it does go this way.

[DrTiTus]

Reserve Bank of New Zealand proposes raising the minimum capital levels of banks from 10.5% to 18%

Sounds good to me

[Ab]

So it turns out that there's no Santa Claus. In other news, Justin Trudeau has been revealed to be just another corrupt politician.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...andal-canadian

[DrTiTus]

Oh and Israel killing children, disabled, medics, journalists, but don't be anti-semitic!

[pxpx]

Why are we having a referendum in 2020 to legalise cannabis, when 5 years later we're going to be smokefree?

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by pxpx

Why are we having a referendum in 2020 to legalise cannabis, when 5 years later we're going to be smokefree?

Smokefree Aotearoa 2020 was the vision of the Quitline when I worked there in 2008.

It'll just get pushed out again.

[DrTiTus]

Because smokefree is about eliminating tobacco and ganja free is about allowing marijuana?

We're not eliminating fine particle emissions with smokefree, it's specifically targeting the very expensive, unhealthy addiction of smoking tobacco.

A referendum on cannabis is to update our drug laws to stop making criminals out of people who just want to relax with a joint, rather than sip the poison we all love to deny we are addicted to.

[fixed_truth]

Class action: Thousands of students to march over climate change

[pxpx]

Shane Jones is so confusing.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12213830

"It's positive. Obviously, it's an addition to New Zealand tourism infrastructure, taking a lot of low-value forest wasteland and converting it to a higher-use and enabling tangata whenua to try to realise some of their settlement assets," Jones said of the twin-course plans."

"low-value forest wasteland"

"forest wasteland"

come again?

[Lightspeed]

Shane Jones is a wasteland.

[StN]

Oh come on - he pulls his weight!

[Nich]

My aunty is Mangawhai local and is fighting this hard because the golf course has dammed up rivers that are critical feeding ground for fairy terns endemic to the area. The fish cannot swim up the dam, so no breeding, no food source. Fairy terns are at risk of extinction.

[pxpx]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12214799

Here we go.

"A senior Auckland doctor has been immediately stood down pending an investigation by his employer into vile anti-Islamic rants which were posted on the right-wing blog Whale Oil."

"it appears that [the doctor] made these comments two years ago in response to an international incident"

I don't agree with what the doctor is saying, but this just reeks of leftie outrage censorship.

[StN]

Thanks Forrest Hill Motors!

[BoyWonder]

So if you want someone stood down pending an investigation, you just need to contact the Herald "in disgust". Good to know.

[Lightspeed]

So is it leftie outrage, or the NZH mimicking leftie outrage?

[Ab]

We're at the point where everything is so meta now I can't keep up. I don't even know if nutbag was a white supremacist or just mimicing a white supremacist for the lulz.

[pxpx]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

So is it leftie outrage, or the NZH mimicking leftie outrage?

Who knows anymore

[blynk]

Originally Posted by Ab

We're at the point where everything is so meta now I can't keep up. I don't even know if nutbag was a white supremacist or just mimicing a white supremacist for the lulz.

Too true. He was probably just a fucked up troll that took it from Online to RL

[Deadmeat]

Originally Posted by Ab

We're at the point where everything is so meta now I can't keep up. I don't even know if nutbag was a white supremacist or just mimicing a white supremacist for the lulz.

In times like this I look to Popehat's rule of Goats: even if you say you're only fucking goats ironically, you're still a goatfucker.

[Lightspeed]

In a sense, absolutely. However it's much more worrying if people are acting out of pure nihilism than twisted ideology. You can expose flaw ideologies for what they are. But what fucks does a nihilist give?

[Lightspeed]

If New Zealand really wants to make a change, we might want to consider increasing pressure on China over the Uyghur Muslims and other minorities being held in concentration camps for "re-education".

China hasn’t been happy about calls to explain and has been slow to respond to media queries. But publicly they have stated they want to re-educate the Uyghur community on all things Chinese, including speaking the language. It also says that their camps are for re-education and training as well as reducing any chance of radical Islamist terror attacks.

But Amnesty International community manager, Margaret Taylor, has a different view.

“Up to 1,000,000 of those people are held in transformation through education centres but actually they are detention centres – it’s really alarming. In those centres, at best they will be brainwashed but at worst they will be tortured, but there’s a real possibility of death.”

In August this year, the United Nations said it was ‘alarmed’ by reports of possibly a million Uyghurs and other minorities from the region being held in what China calls re-education camps. There is also credible satellite footage of these areas that show clearly the camps have been set up under tight security.

[Lightspeed]

West Coast rubbish wash-out could be biggest eco-disaster since Rena spill - Forest and Bird

Sounds like the government has been slow off the mark responding to this. I get they've got a few things to juggle right now, but I'm not sure what the Minister for Conservation's got tying them up.

Of course, when it comes to climate change "slow off the mark" doesn't begin to cover it...

[Lightspeed]

Aww noes, censorship!

Breach upheld over Kiwi talkback host Heather du Plessis-Allan's Pacific leeches comments

Seriously though, here we have an example of a context where a person cannot say whatever they like without consequence.

Is this it? Are our hands otherwise tied? Does this go too far already?

[pxpx]

"It noted the public condemnation of Ms du Plessis-Allan and acknowledged the Authority's responsibility to reflect the values and attitudes of New Zealand."

There's the main problem. So-called public condemnation.

[Lightspeed]

Fair, it's not something we accurately measure, we just notice the loudest voices.

[Lightspeed]

And in fact, we don't even know if they're our voices in all cases, where opinion is communicated via or regurgitated from the Internet.

[fixed_truth]

Good. Hopefully she thinks before speaking next time.

[Ab]

If “public condemnation” = “things I read on Facebook”, choke yourself

[Lightspeed]

Fiji arrest experience was 'bizarre' - Newsroom editor Mark Jennings

The trio were then taken to Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama under guard. He also apologised and they were then released.

That's right motherfucker.

[Lightspeed]

Australian blogger is bringing her controversial anti-vax tour to New Zealand

Excellent. Her foolish ideas will be exposed to the light and people will start vaccinating their kids again.

That's how it works, right?

[fixed_truth]

Climate change denial comes to mind also.

I wonder if tested a fact finder would consider this type of speech crosses some legal threshold where it needs to be restricted to protect public health?

[xor]

It would come under as a public health issue I would think.

re: freedoms of speech. Hasn't Christopher Hitchens gone over this time and time again? He used the example of David Irving in one of his debates about the need to have free speech despite about abhorrent it might be.