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Mark Bregman's comment on this should be its own article @newsroom.co.nz @tmurphynz.bsky.social newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/31/g...

During the china FTA negotiations he made sure to contract it out to other NZF MPs. The difference now seems to be the lack of self-control in leaving it to shane jones et al.

Yeah, but given I'm pretty clearly talking about their *self* conception, this thread doesn't really relate to the post it's replying to. Obviously you're all free to grumble about TOP - I have my own concerns about them - but it's not really relevant here.

🙃

Please do direct me to something that proves me wrong if I've missed it, but what's felt *missing* to me is exactly zero institutional pushback. Fair play to Hipkins & Lawrence's own party leadership, but where's the HRC, where's ANY op ed plainly calling this fucking disgusting (which it is) etc?

Comment: In the collective obsession to avoid every little mistake from the Covid-19 response, we risk failing to learn from what went *right*. newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/30/b...

What's the point of writing for an audience if you can't be occasionally self-indulgent, really.

The opening to my review up tomorrow is "This is a book about murder and fungus-assisted forced labour as well as the cost of beef." This is a deliberate and specific reference to something very famous in my day job's field and approximately 3 people will get it.

I'm sorry, a data breach last year included your face. You should get a new face as soon as possible. It is best practice to use different faces for different businesses

Absolutely not.

Like I'm a fan of techocrats in service to democracy. The problem is the number of technocrats who think they can replace it. "Everyone agrees xyz is correct right?" Fuckin no, that's why we have a competitive political system. Disagreement on ends and means is the fuckin meat of it.

Useful lens through which to think about TOP in NZ.

I keep seeing people saying stuff like "The lesson of Covid is most people would rather die than help each other out" and that is completely wrong! Most people understood the severity of the situation and acted accordingly. Do not let the loud minority convince you that everyone else is selfish.

I continue to find it distressing that substack has managed to capture such a big chunk of literary discussion/energy--mainly lit fic but some genre focused folks as well We need something that's open source, easy to spin up, more communal/connected than blogs, but less messy than discord servers

You get isekai'd but it turns out the laws of physics are too different and your atoms tear themselves apart, causing you to detonate. The fantasy kingdom's mages investigate and determine the cause. Soom isekai nukes are the dominant interdimensional weapon.

To Burn the Walls of Troy; To Break the World Entire - Christopher Nolan's Odyssey Another take on mythology's most complicated man, and the world he lived in A very rich and detailed piece from @chloroformtea.bsky.social at the NOAF blog: www.nerds-feather.com/2026/07/to-b...

I'm not owed free books - and I'm happy to buy books as I always have and review them - just interesting just *how much* difference the two platforms have on approaches to handing out review copies. (This may be a regional rights thing in which case I get it (even if still frustrating).)

Coming up on a year of serious novel reviewing, & it's been interesting & frustrating to see the different approaches of different review copy platforms. Short version is one typically has a decent punt on Netgalley, but at least for those of us outside the US, Edelweiss success rates are very low.

Lmao. Business school methodologies.