Phil Stevens

he/him
vi/vim
Vintage 319 ppm CO2

Musician since the beginning, oddball, techie-but-luddite, biochar entrepreneur/evangelist, MMT proponent, deep green, outspoken, cantankerous and slightly twisted.

Life goal: to see billionaires go extinct.

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phil_stevens_at_mastodon.nz@mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-10-14 19:01:57

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It will be framed as another exercise in There Is No Alternative: "We need this stuff but we're too broke to afford it."
Bullshit. Aotearoa has uncommonly low public debt rates for a developed country. And more importantly, we are a monetary sovereign, unlike EU nations. We could, if our leaders understood it, use that superpower to invest in future-proofing this place and making it somewhere our tamariki and mokopuna want to stay rather than flee.

2024-10-14 18:58:24

Looks like Winston's handbrake on the coalition's insane desire for foreign investment is failing. The carrot dangled in front of him is undoubtedly a concession to projects for the regions.
It's another asset grab. Whether private capital buys existing infrastructure or builds it, the end result is that the public is made poorer by not owning the basis of the services that we rely on. Investors only show up because they smell money.
We must resist. Again.
#nzpol

2024-10-10 18:56:42

More proof from overseas that govt spending is not linked to consumer prices: US inflation rate back down to early 2021 levels and the amount of money that has been pumped into the economy to boost infrastructure and jobs is unprecedented.
Nicola Willis, meanwhile, celebrates the RBNZ rate cuts as "proof" that brutal austerity is the way to go, rather than the hurried response to slash-and-burn tactics that they are.
Right wing parties are economy destroyers. Every time.
#nzpol

2024-10-07 21:11:57

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@npub1ke3…xcva Luxo wants to flog off more hard-working houses. Got to get those KPIs up.

2024-10-01 03:08:14

Repeat after me: Capital gains are unearned wealth.

2024-09-11 07:36:49

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@npub19xu…e8yd <-- I TURN OFTEN -->

2024-09-10 20:27:50

I see the Tobacco & Petroleum Union has come out swinging at Hipkins' renewed talk of wealth taxes. They are trotting out the "envy" line yet again.
Thing is, most normal folk emphatically do not envy the wealthy. We just want them gone. Disparity drives dysfunction and in our early evolution into social creatures hoarding was an aberration, so we selected against it.
Time to revisit the old wisdom.

2024-09-08 23:46:10

"What Millan fears most are the feedbacks.
"Every unrealized summer storm, every failure of the system to eject its heat and release its water to the life below, not only diminishes that life, but leads to more powerful storms in fall, winter and spring.
"Those storms then further erode what’s left of the land, deepening the cycle, as the land drifts ever closer to the critical threshold at which it collapses to desert."
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-07-17/millan-millan-and-the-mystery-of-the-missing-mediterranean-storms/

2024-08-27 05:41:03

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@npub12nm…wh2s Burn the rich to run the turbines.

2024-08-26 06:56:41

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@npub1f2j…l32v Which repressive backwater regime are we going to buy all that gas from? The Saudis or the Texans? Or Putin?

2024-08-15 19:51:35

Of course the entrenched players want more business as usual. That's their money machine. Pretty infuriating that this is sounding like a done deal already and little or no attention is being paid to the climate breakdown that is behind the increasing "dry year problem."
Ramping up PV and battey buildout could be done in a similar timeframe and then we would not be tethered to repressive petrostates and their pricing whims. The sun shines for free.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/15/marsden-pt-and-taranaki-ports-to-vie-for-100m-plus-lng-import-terminal/

2024-08-14 20:54:48

Of course Loser Luxo and his minions are taking credit. But let's be honest about what they're patting themselves on the back for:
Tanking the economy with brutal austerity and immiseration of thousands of already marginalised families.
Throwing all of our investment eggs in the property speculation basket. House prices can only go up, eh.
Gleefully omitting the transfer of costs (rates, power, insurance) that are eclipsing the paltry tax cuts.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350378992/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-triumphant-over-ocr-cut-and-good-reason

2024-08-13 07:55:40

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@npub1t00…kx23 You are truly on a mission from God.

2024-08-07 07:08:25

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@npub1qk5…jlda To be fair, the latter becomes the former given time. Even better if you add wood chips.

2024-08-04 21:12:08

So the Free Market galaxy brains of the coalition didn't just guarantee Rio Tinto a rock-bottom price on our cleanest electricity (thereby making it harder and more expensive to decarbonise the rest of the grid), they gifted them a whole bunch of carbon credits that had been taken away for really good reasons.
We pay double for this level of corruption. The bills will come due when we fail to meet our Paris commitments.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/02/smelter-sought-assurances-about-46m-carbon-subsidy-before-signing-power-deals/

2024-07-19 20:07:10

Just reading about the Crowdstrike clusterfuck. Is this a case of extreme dependency on an upstream vendor yet again?

2024-07-14 21:23:13

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@npub19xu…e8yd I might drag out Faure's Requiem.

2024-07-01 22:32:01

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@npub17nc…9dam Our per capita emissions are in the top 3 globally. Jones is plain wrong.

2024-06-20 10:14:19

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@npub19xu…e8yd The real threat came later with Napster. That killed the entire industry.

2024-06-14 00:23:32

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This might only confirm what we already assumed, but it's nice to know that they're not asking for scientific advice only to ignore it.
They're just not asking:
"Kingham says he doesn’t know where transport minister Simeon Brown is getting his advice. 'I don’t know anyone in the research community who thinks what he’s doing is a good idea. It would be interesting to know if there was someone.' "
https://www.carbonnews.co.nz/story.asp?storyID=31737

2024-06-14 00:20:02

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@npub16uk…pv7k Haters and wreckers are certainly having their day in other parts of the world. Given my druthers, I'd put them all on their own island and give them all the guns.

2024-06-13 21:27:46

The other shoe dropped, just as I predicted. The road toll will keep going up, along with emissions and pavement damage.
And because these ideological hacks do not understand physics, let me point out that all the increases will be exponential.
I can't believe how stupid this is. I will make it a point to drive no faster than 90 on the affected roads (if I ever traverse them).
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-reverse-blanket-speed-limit-reductions

2024-06-11 07:59:22

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@npub12nm…wh2s HWEN was set up to fail. It was a designated scapegoat for a primary sector that otherwise needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into accordance with biophysical limits.

2024-06-05 08:30:48

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@npub19xu…e8yd Under Eisenhower, the top tax bracket in the US was 90%. Corporations actually paid, too.

2024-05-28 21:50:34

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@npub1qk5…jlda Is this the arrival of the monsoon?

2024-05-28 00:28:11

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@npub1zg9…nh26 I might change my plans and nip down to the capital then. He's got some nerve.

2024-05-16 03:16:48

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@npub147m…7rue I'm hearing J Frank Parnell as I look at this.

2024-04-14 22:57:16

PSA to the neighbour who sprayed the flowers planted around our letterbox: I hope the corner of hell that you get installed in is nothing but concrete.
Fuck the coloniser aesthetic that says our shared spaces require scalped lawns and dead margins. And fuck all the people who enforce this toxic worldview on the rest of us.

2024-04-08 01:06:54

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@npub12nm…wh2s Remember: Every worker who dies or gets maimed in the workplace is one less that you have to worry about!

2024-04-04 02:48:14

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@npub19fc…ay3c And where does the buck stop? After 30K civilian deaths I would expect every officer up to and including the C in C to hand in their resignations and await prosecution for war crimes.

2024-04-04 02:42:31

It's horrific and inestimably saddening that after the IDF has intentionally killed over 30,000 civilians and is actively starving the remaining survivors, the last straw that appears to have galvanised the fence-sitters of the world was when they intentionally killed seven humanitarian workers.
#gaza

2024-03-27 06:04:23

Nitrate levels in drinking water around the motu:
https://maps.greenpeace.org/maps/aotearoa/know-your-nitrate/

2024-03-25 21:58:08

I'm seeing an increase in greenwashing accusations against biomass energy projects that cite carbon "emissions" as part of their basis for opposition.
There is a huge gap in carbon accounting literacy (numeracy?), not just among the general public, but among scientists, policymakers, and journalists, and these claims are not being critically dissected as a result.
It boils down to a simple, inescapable difference: fossil versus atmospheric (current) carbon.
#climate
1/

2024-03-20 22:18:58

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@npub14z2…ap47 It's performative cruelty with a nasty racist streak, because we all know that Māori and Pasifika kids will be disproportionately harmed.
Lower the voting age to 10.

2024-03-20 19:54:09

It would be funny if it wasn't so grim. Don't like the fact that councils are exercising prudence with a real-world forecast? The start doing something to shift the numbers.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/03/20/govt-warns-councils-against-picking-extremes-in-climate-decisions/

2024-03-20 02:11:29

Vale, Rod Oram. You will be missed by many, and our gratitude for what you did is beyond measure.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/03/20/prominent-columnist-and-environmentalist-rod-oram-dies/

2024-03-15 01:54:48

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@npub12nm…wh2s Really glad we decided against sending our son there. Where's the Freeze Peach Union in all this kerfuffle?

2024-03-07 21:37:17

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@npub12nm…wh2s I'll add another pertinent feature: A state that fails to limit the influence of money in its political processes is not a democracy and should not be referred to as such.

2024-03-05 22:49:51

We knew you were going to do this, Shane. It doesn't make it any less despicable. Global temperatures are higher right now than they have ever been throughout human existence, let alone the blink of an eye we call civilisation.
You are on the wrong side of history as well as out of step with science and morality. I hope the kids of the future are able to find your grave and dishonour it.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/petroleum-exploration-permit-grant-welcomed

2024-03-05 20:09:43

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@npub1zg9…nh26 Secondhand vape is a thing, too. I'm an ex-smoker and I notice the incipient nicotine buzz if I'm around it.

2024-03-04 09:40:55

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@npub12nm…wh2s The brazen manner in which they are burning down years of evidence-driven policy is amazing. It's like they look for everything that is proven to work and say "nope, that's woke and reduces demand for oil/coal/smoking."

2024-03-03 19:48:23

Jeez, why bother having a health ministry at all...cut costs and just have industry lobbyists write policy and deliver on metrics. I'm sure British American Tobacco and Philip Morris would have our best interests at heart. #nzpol
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/in-depth-special-projects/story/2018928347/smoke-signals-the-tobacco-industry-language-that-found-its-way-into-ministerial-papers

2024-03-01 21:08:32

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@npub1xj8…egqe Our far right parties hired Topham Guerin to do this on Tiktok and Insta.

2024-02-28 18:44:25

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@npub1ksv…7h3s Of course they would. Key's crowd (Collins, I bet) probably started the process.

2024-02-28 08:50:25

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@npub12nm…wh2s Stopped clock principle strikes again.

2024-02-21 23:06:52

Nicola WIllis is either a complete idiot or an ideologically driven liar. A dangerous one, at that. She is using a false premise to justify crippling austerity.
Anyone who says that the finances of a monetary sovereign are just like those of a household is categorically unfit to be in a position of public policymaking at a state level.
Let alone finance minister. FFS.
#nzpol

2024-02-14 18:37:07

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@npub17nc…9dam Fingers crossed that it calmed down overnight and that the winds ease off today.

2024-01-25 23:51:00

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@npub1t7d…pqpp @npub1sq0…6ss0 There's not. The number of things that can be computer controlled in an EV is far lower than in a modern ICE car. Which is not to say that some manufacturers won't put in way too many wizzy "features" and pointless driver distractions.

2024-01-23 00:14:41

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@npub1v9k…prpm @npub16uk…pv7k It's funny to note that just four brief decades ago the old-fashioned right wingers were deriding trickle-down as "voodoo economics" and actually believed that there was a place for the welfare state.
The Overton window has moved so far it's now in orbit.

2024-01-22 19:09:40

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@npub16uk…pv7k @npub1drn…qz4p "we're just saying what everyone else is thinking"
No, you're a regressive, small-minded and broken person who revels in the marginalisation of others and it's about time you were marginalised instead.

2023-12-23 20:48:30

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@npub1mmf…eknq Let's hope it spreads to other countries.

2023-11-29 04:18:14

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@npub1fha…3ru0 @npub10zx…jdsr We'll have far less regulation, but what remains will be the very best lobbyists can buy.

2023-11-24 03:07:46

Did not need that last text. Not today especially.
The pipeline from antivax conspiracies to full-on climate denial is very real and someone who considered a friend and ally in climate action now sends me sporadic SMS messages trying to "wake me up."
I may as well block the number before the full-on Nazi messages start arriving.

2023-11-23 23:42:12

Aotearoa, assume the position.
An openly bigoted bunch of magical thinking, science denying corporatist thugs is running the joint now.
Resist. Make their tenure as short and ineffectual as possible.

2023-11-22 18:47:25

Don't make me tap the sign.
Private sector delivery of public goods fails. Every. Time.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/503040/confusion-over-who-is-responsible-for-transmission-gully-s-environmental-impacts

2023-11-15 19:30:39

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@npub1q5q…6sct @npub1psd…9sr7 A heaping helping of blame has to land on midcentury SF editors and publishers. As gatekeepers of the new, hot genre, Gernsback and Campbell personified the very worst of so many regressive traits and knowingly enforced their worldviews.
I wonder how different the intersectional landscape of technology and politics would be today had more nerdy teenagers of the 1970s and 80s been steeped in Ursula Le Guin instead of Heinlein.

2023-11-07 07:35:52

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@npub19xu…e8yd @npub1pq0…5585 I flashed my NAS with Alt-F since I'm a control freak with three decades of sysadmin heritage who despises the crippleware that comes from the factory. Same story with the router and DD-WRT. You can get so much out of these little devices when you put decent firmware on them.
Is your device compatible with Alt-F, Bill?

2023-11-07 05:11:00

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@npub19xu…e8yd Please tell me that those days have not passed. OK, two-bay is a requirement for me, and my DNS-320 is showing no signs of advanced age or ill health, but these should be commodity items now and forevermore.

2023-10-31 22:35:53

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@npub16uk…pv7k Very nice looking buds there, man.

2023-10-25 01:48:11

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@npub16uk…pv7k The way those wide-eyed toddlers believed Groser's baldfaced lies. "The US will buy our dairy products!"
They produce 5x times as much as we do. They never did want to buy our milk and they never will.
"ISDS only sound bad when leftie law professors assume worst-case scenarios. None of that would actually happen!"
It's happening now, and it was then (San Luis Potosi under NAFTA, for example). Corporations are amoral and will never do the right thing if it means lost profits.

2023-10-25 01:39:49

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@npub16uk…pv7k As long as it says "Trade!" on the wrapper, everyone assumes it's going to make us wealthy or something involving unicorns. No one stops to think about the extractive nature of globalisation, and how it's just another emergent property of catabolic capitalism.

2023-10-25 01:09:38

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@npub16uk…pv7k It's not like we didn't see this coming. Prof Kelsey explicitly warned that ISDS would make legislation against and regulation of climate-damaging activities fraught.

2023-10-24 21:42:29

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@npub1zg9…nh26 It's been a whipsaw sort of spring, hasn't it? Not as severe here in NI but we are facing lows of 2-3 degrees this weekend, after 20+ norwesterlies tomorrow. I'm suddenly feeling vindicated in not having planted out the summer veges yet.

2023-10-23 22:03:12

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@npub16uk…pv7k That's exactly it, and in almost the same words I used to assess the situation with my colleagues earlier this year when I debriefed them after the conference.

2023-10-23 21:55:59

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@npub16uk…pv7k I have a dog in this fight and it is profoundly disappointing that the NZAGRC has pissed away millions chasing the Jesus Vaccine, among other low-ROI pursuits, while effectively blanking biological and low-tech interventions (e.g. biochar) that could be scaled up to make agriculture a climate-negative proposition.

2023-10-14 06:36:11

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@npub1xes…sfk6 What happened to the Greens is all I want to know. Their numbers were going nuts the past couple of weeks.

2023-04-04 19:49:14

So, all the dots that some of us have been joining for the past year or two are not just hypothetical. Our august spooks appear to have gathered a bunch of evidence that it's happening:
Foreign entities are pushing far-right disinfo narratives and organising violent chaos actors in an effort to destabilise our society and pave the way for authoritarians (fascists) to assume power.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/sis-identifies-several-spies-in-nz