smithmatt.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

YOUNG MAN, there's no need to feel down i said YOUNG MAN, pagliacci the clown you can SEE HIM he is playing in town you should go and have a good time

submitted 14 hours ago • 41 comments

Some of the most fervent pushback to Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is coming from the same people, institutions, and newsrooms that refused to challenge, and even supported, the mass slaughter of Palestinians during the Biden administration. https://buff.ly/3D4I2ca

submitted 23 hours ago • 5 comments

An honour to speak at the remembrance event for Ukraine today and reiterate our commitment to stand with them and their sovereignty #nzpol

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

"It's kind of been sad, because I've been trying to prove to people that it's a really awesome truck that's not falling apart, and then mine starts to fall apart, so it's just... Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate and sad."

submitted 2 days ago • 58 comments

again: "ICE operates by Vampire Rules" is an objectively true and also funny statement

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

"Let's figure out why men become Nazis" isn't a particularly rewarding game, in my opinion. Yes, everyone has reasons for what they do, but the answer to "why does a white man embrace a political system in which white men alone hold power" is fairly self-evident.

submitted 2 days ago • 20 comments

May I present some ways that we might ask for our users' sex/gender on our forms in order to comply with new EOs: codepen.io/buttermilkbi...

submitted 3 days ago • 18 comments

Wellington Water is improving repair times on water leaks. Our investment in water is working, and we're one step closer to ensuring our most precious resource is protected. There's still heaps of mahi to do, but this is true progress. More info below 👇 www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3605...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

If a senior #NZpolice officer repeatedly breaks the law he is sworn to uphold, he's in the wrong job. It'd be up to the Court whether he went to prison for assaults but he shouldn't be a cop. Yet again showing cops can't be trusted to enforce laws against their own. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

I provided some comment for this piece - put on my "judicious and fair" hat and tried to be as diplomatic as possible. But, honestly, this + Fox Meyer's Newsroom piece today on personal ministerial picks for inclusion on the "straight to fast track approval list" makes for pretty ugly reading.

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

So if I'm understanding correctly after asking a few questions, the lower payments could go to any farm which has lowered emissions since 2017/18 by management practices - eg the comparatively easy to control things like feed, genetics, production per cow etc (1/2) www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

And here we have the IPCA's real target: climate protests. Of course. Reminder that this is an international effort coordinated by Rimmer's good friends the ATLAS network www.desmog.com/2023/09/12/a...

submitted 6 days ago • 6 comments

Hard no to Police demands for protests to seek permission. Discretion is discrimination, and this is simply a bid to criminalise protests for causes the police or council or the govt of the day would rather ignore Which is the whole point of protest www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3605...

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

IPCA pretends ignorance of 35 years of post-BORA jurisprudence, which tell us exactly what a "justified limitation" is, and what it looks like in a protest context. The "problem" here is that police don't like what the Supreme Court has repeatedly said.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Almost as if 'core business' and 'the basics' are entirely subjective to one's own values and priorities

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

Israel sure killed a lot of journalists

submitted 8 days ago • 18 comments

AUSA Hagan Scotten, former clerk for John Roberts, really put some mustard on his resignation letter.

submitted 9 days ago • 853 comments

Don't think the quiet part has ever been louder than in the "Palestinian refugees accidentally allowed into Ukrainian refugee program" story

submitted 10 days ago • 6 comments

I learned a bad thing today about the American constitution

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

La Vita Bella (1997)

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Tesla's stock is ridiculously overvalued, and even a modest consumer boycott could tank the company, which accounts for the majority of Elon Musk's wealth. The divestment movement weakened apartheid South Africa. Let's do that again. slate.com/business/202...

submitted 11 days ago • 240 comments

The Government has refused to join 79 other countries condemning US sanctions against the International Criminal Court even though NZ has long been a member of the International Criminal Court, which impartially prosecutes serious war criminals for atrocities. Silence is assent?

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

'Take the Israelis to Alaska’, Saudi official mocks Netanyahu and Trump - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-official-mocks-netanyahus-proposal-palestinian-state-saudi-arabia

submitted 15 days ago • 10 comments

Every review of AI is like: This isn’t very useful and it makes it harder to do simple tasks than if I just did it myself. Riddled with errors. Can’t see anyone using this. I feel stupider having tried this. That said I believe it will soon make human cognition redundant and eradicate us all.

submitted 17 days ago • 137 comments

Is there a word for when random people show up at a government building and announce that they're in charge

submitted 20 days ago • 109 comments

In Nov 2024 the Environment Committee asked the CCC to comment on a petition to phase out industrial allocation in the NZ ETS, alongside support for firms to decarbonise (including a CBAM). Our submission to the committee is available now: www.climatecommission.govt.nz/our-work/adv...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Been thinking about this a lot. A local meteorologist was fired for criticizing Musk's Nazi salute, and calling it what it was, on her own personal social media. Seems outrageous. Unbelievable. Just like people losing their jobs for supporting Palestine or criticizing Israel.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

“Once you decide that a single vulnerable minority can be sacrificed, you’re operating within a fascist logic,” they said. “That means there might be a second one you’re willing to sacrifice and a third, a fourth. Then what happens?”

submitted 67 days ago • 71 comments

Like … is not one democratic lawmaker willing to go enter a building and demand illegal activity stop? Even if they get arrested? Especially if they get arrested?

submitted 22 days ago • 18 comments

Yes. Not a dunk. QT for visibility. "several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers"

submitted 22 days ago • 16 comments

Hey when serious allegations about a high ranking party member were made to the Greens, which were denied by that party member, they initiated an independent investigation and stood that member down. This was seen as a bad decision by the media.

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

More money for a worse outcome having stopped the process. Hospitals, ferries, this govt in a nutshell.

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

Labour: not in government, not in opposition, but some third, weird thing

submitted 24 days ago • 3 comments

A lot of the #CivilizationVII @civgame.bsky.social quotes really try to bring a sense of gravitas. And then there’s this.

submitted 24 days ago • 12 comments

Every safety regulation was written in blood, frequently with a body count higher than one, and it’s not political to put the blame on people who want to “move fast and break things” when they start breaking human lives.

submitted 24 days ago • 46 comments

@mehdirhasan.bsky.social - It'd be good to get Zeteo off Substack given its open support for nazis (This isn't particularly new either. Their links have been talked about for a long time)

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

All I can really say at this point is if everyone isn't watching how trans people have lost basic rights and protections on a scale that hasn't been seen in decades in the span of 72 hours and realizing that even if you aren't trans there's nothing stopping it from happening to you, you're a fool

submitted 25 days ago • 25 comments

What are the Democrats doing right now to resist all this, you ask? Don't worry, their best and brightest are currently negotiating a bipartisan deal to sanction the ICC for issuing arrest warrants for genocidaires. Now that's how you defend democracy. www.semafor.com/article/01/2...

submitted 26 days ago • 16 comments

I wish I could give some words of comfort to trans people in the USA; what can I even say that wouldn’t seem trite? Survive any way you can.

submitted 26 days ago • 105 comments

There’s a particularly evil strain of liberal/progressivism that is rooting for things to get worse in Gaza simply so they can do an “I told you so.” At any point in time Biden could’ve actually flexed US muscle and said knock it the fuck off but he just kept adding fuel to the fire. Own it.

submitted 27 days ago • 103 comments

At Google, I asked why they were fixated on building THE LARGEST model. Why are you going for size? What function are you trying to achieve? Why is the thing you were upset about that you didn't have THE LARGEST model? They responded by firing me 🤷🏼

submitted 27 days ago • 39 comments

The New Zealand Climate Change Comission is hiring a senior GM on evidence and advice. They'll need a strategic expert who understands what questions to ask, what tools are needed, within constrained resources. It's also open to overseas applicants and non-citizens. Closes 31 Jan (NZ time).

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments