tomo,
Can't be much fun for her, living in constant melodrama. When her favourites are in power it's all about climate catastrophe, stop the genocide, etc., etc., and when the right wingers take over she switches to they're coming to get me. If we still had the men in white coats, maybe they should.

I suppose our friend TinyCO2 won't be happy to hear that Jay Bhattacharya is being mooted as a possible head of the NIH. Adjusting the metaphor that Guardian-types will probably reach for, this is putting a hen in charge of the fox-house. Here's hoping he does a lot more than just cluck.

Pcar,
Good to see an old face back again. Article on the crumbling consensus was good; hope it continues.

Trump's election may have given the crumbling an extra push. Particularly like the look of his pick for Energy Secretary. Another who does not have any political experience. Good idea.

Thought this dry and rather polite parliamentary probe revealed some of what is rotten today. $16m handed out to local Palestinian organisations to assist social cohesion initiatives.

I think it's safe to add social cohesion to freedom of information, privacy, and inclusivity as words that have turned into their antonyms.

Mailman,
Never met him (never even been to New Zealand), but he seems to be a kind of Talleyrand character, keeping hold of authority regardless of which side is in power. I like the way he speaks, but then he was there right through the COVID excesses, so there seems to be a gap between words and actions.

At Judith Curry's there's a fairly sober look at the recent loss by Friends of the Earth in their case against Shell. A battle won, but the rational side is still losing ground in the war.

And a Non-Crime Hate Incident recorded on Remebrance Day, just to prepare you for the Thought Police, coming soon to Airstrip One.

I met Winston Peters many years ago when out on the town in Wellington in the early 90's. The thing that stood out the most about meeting the fella is that he was very...veeeeery popular with the ladies ;)

Also, bloody good chap to talk to. Very easy going, personable and a good laugh over a few beers.

Mailman,
Fully agree, but that legal result only says that Catholics should not have been compelled. I'd prefer something more comprehensive. NZ's Foreign Minister lambasted Australia's COVID inquiry in appropriate terms. I want to see similar forthright language about lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the other COVID stupidities.

DaveS,
In context, Champion was saying much the same as you:

We are left with serious concerns about the diligence and competence of our energy planners.

We didn't have such concerns at all 40 years ago, but they've grown step by step with renewables dogma.

What I particularly enjoyed in that article was the way the BoM provides wind figures for generators:

the Bureau of Meteorology used the average velocity of the wind for weeks and months to measure wind resources

I've previously joked about averaging wind vectors over the planet to give a global windspeed and direction; that's only slightly dafter than averaging windspeeds in week-long periods. A three-day gale doesn't make up for the previous three days of dead calm. A yachting-hell where six days of calm follows a one-day hurricane would average out as ideal for yachting.

Averaging is of no planning use, but handy for the wind is always blowing somewhere political story.

Rafe Champion is being a tad optimistic if he thinks there is any 'diligence and competence' to be found amongst our energy planners.

Robbo,

We should NEVER ever have been in the position of being FORCED to take the Chinese Death Shot! Thats the ridiculousness of all of this and look how thats all turned out.

Thanks god the adults are coming back in January!