Andy O'Brien

@spadge.bsky.social

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Originally from Scotland. I'm a guest in Aotearoa, who works in public service. I try to do IT Security stuff. He/Him. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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Andy O'Brien

This is a disgrace. The ministry’s advice could not have been clearer - don’t do it - but still, the Assoc Minister for Health threw OUR health under the bus. Time to push harder - what does NZF gain? #nzpol

NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco productswww.rnz.co.nz Casey Costello's order to halve the tax is "something that tobacco companies would have been keen to see," an expert says.

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Andy O'Brien

if a Electrical engineer tried to do civils, they would lose their registration. Lawyer advises outside their competence they go before a tribunal. Heart surgeon takes a crack and brain surgery and take a wild guess. Treasury wonks and other economists 🤷‍♂️ www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Interislander: Officials' mistrust of KiwiRail led push to scrap projectwww.rnz.co.nz Analysis - Documents show officials were actively encouraging the new government to shut the Interislander replacement project down after years of mistrust about KiwiRail's goals.

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Andy O'Brien

New: The Government has somehow produced an Emissions Reduction Plan that will see New Zealand do *less* than its predecessor, including fail to meet the 2050 net zero target. newsroom.co.nz/2024/07/17/n...

NZ no longer on track for net zero under Govt's new climate plannewsroom.co.nz Tree-planting and carbon capture technologies are at the centre of the Government's new climate change plan.

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Andy O'Brien

Kaspersky offers free security software for six months in U.S. goodbye

Kaspersky offers free security software for six months in U.S. goodbyewww.bleepingcomputer.com Kaspersky is offering free security products for six months and tips for staying safe as a parting gift to consumers in the United States.

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Andy O'Brien

We profile Pōneke artist @pepperraccoon.bsky.social and talk Ratbag Market happening this Sat at Thistle Hall "More opportunities for talented artists to earn a living are necessary for Wellington to flourish as the creative capital it hopes to continue being!" wellingtonista.com/2024/07/17/m...

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Andy O'Brien

Well researched article here: "The problem is, Simeon Brown is wrong. Not just wrong in my opinion, but wrong in regard to the facts". www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/07/17/a...

A blanket of misinformation - Greater Aucklandwww.greaterauckland.org.nz Two old sayings have been on my mind lately. The first is: “The pen is mightier than the sword”, describing the power of language and communication to help or to harm. The other, which captures the sp...

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Andy O'Brien

This 🧵is tu meke 😂

Peter Thiel doesn't even know what peach teats are...

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Andy O'Brien

Valuing my brain cells, I didn't listen to the RNC at all. Learning that this woman was up there doing an entire speech about the "Biden crime family" is truly amazing given nobody would know who she is if not for the lavish lifestyle funded by fraud for which her parents were sentenced to prison!

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Andy O'Brien

The National Party today announced its new crime-prevention strategy, 'MP Fast-Track.' Luxon said "if someone commits the right type of crime we really want them to be doing that to the nation," decrying the loss of opportunity presented by crimes being perpetrated only on local communities.

A prominent National Party figure Siva Kilari, who this month heaped praise on the party’s crime reduction record, once “duped” a couple out of $125,000, court documents obtained by Stuff reveal. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3503...

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Andy O'Brien

Lost in the ongoing Trumpapalooza is the excellent news that a malaria vaccination developed at Oxford Univ. over the last 30 years and costing only £3 per shot is being unrolled in malaria-prone countries. If it fulfills its promise, this will make an enormous difference to so many lives.

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Andy O'Brien

This episode aired in 1994 and no other joke about American politics has held up that consistently for so long.

ADORABLE CUTENESS ALERT! (Just what we need right now)

I challenge you to send me a photo of a more adorable baby animal than a gentoo penguin #penguinpicoftheday #PPOTD, one of the species that is "invading" the Antarctic Peninsula and moving its way south as the sea ice trend retreats. They like open water. 🧪🌍🦑🦉

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Andy O'Brien

There’s some evidence that Trump’s core support is people with a grievance against the modern world, which took away the time when they were the top dogs. Anyway, here’s another group: divorced men.

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Andy O'Brien

Reply to

Pwnallthethings

This election, everyone must confront it. We know who Trump is. We know how damaging he is and was to the fabric of society. He wants to target your neighbors. He's shattered basic institutions and checks on his power. Is that what we want America to be? Because this time it will not be repairable

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Andy O'Brien

lil bump for the Americans in the house 🥹

These new pin designs are my sweet babies, all redraws of classic bestselling designs with fresh detail :3 Support my art and snag some goodies from pepperraccoon.com, it's been a slow month <3 #Art #Kikorangi

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Andy O'Brien

What utter heartless, mindless bullshit are these fools up to now?! National are slaves to slumlords! Government considers rolling back insulation standards www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Government considers rolling back insulation standardswww.rnz.co.nz The changes made last year were the first significant upgrades to minimum requirements for housing in more than a decade.

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Andy O'Brien

Turns out this was the most accurate infographic for Covid in #AoNZ

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Andy O'Brien

No, discussion is NOT closed - the Minister used his office staff and ministerial title to arrange a dinner with mining companies invited to submit fast track applications. Which wasn’t diarised. Then blamed his staff. Um, WHAT? Great work by Newsroom here. #nzpol

Jones’ staffer arranged undeclared dinner with mining companiesnewsroom.co.nz Resources Minister Shane Jones refuses to answer fresh questions about an undeclared dinner on the South Island’s West Coast which, newly released emails reveal, was arranged by his staff.

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Andy O'Brien

Well Simeon Brown your ideological, fact free policy on raising speed limits is a bust: The experts said no The evidence says no The public says no Auckland Council said no in an 18 to 3 vote

Large majority of Kiwis want slower speeds, despite Govt policy to raise themwww.nzherald.co.nz A survey by NZTA has found that Kiwis like the lower speeds the Government is changing.

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Andy O'Brien

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Andy O'Brien

If you care about women's rights, protecting Medicare and Social Security, or safeguarding democracy on the whole, you should be concerned about Project 2025. Last week, writer Jay Kuo broke down this radical agenda for a second Trump term in a piece of essential reading from The Big Picture.

Breaking Down Project 2025thinkbigpicture.substack.com We took on Project 2025 issue by issue so you don't have to.

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Andy O'Brien

The weirdest thing about learning about Grenada last year was learning that the US invaded them. We felt we had the right to intervene in the sovereign affairs of a tiny country of 100, 000 people because their elected government was "too" left

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Andy O'Brien

Reply to

HappyToast

Also what's the best cheap alternative to Wacom these days? I need to replace a ten year old Cintiq 22

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Andy O'Brien

Cannon's dismissal has nothing to do w the case's merits, but given the news I'm re-upping my 2023 piece about the Espionage Act case against Trump and Trump's hypocrisy in railing against it after his administration used the Act repeatedly www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

The Espionage Act After the Mar-a-Lago Indictmentwww.lawfaremedia.org The Trump administration’s record of Espionage Act prosecutions further casts doubt on the idea that his own indictment is a witch hunt, but both should lead us to rethink the Espionage Act’s capaciou...

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Andy O'Brien

AOC is right.

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Andy O'Brien

An important reminder: Trump is the one often invoked in attacks — not the subject of attacks. abcnews.go.com/Politics/bla...

'No Blame?' ABC News finds 54 cases invoking 'Trump' in connection with violence, threats, alleged assaults.abcnews.go.com President Donald Trump insists he deserves no blame for divisions in America.

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Andy O'Brien

Now I'm starting to really get upset Why are we stuck with a government going backwards on the climate, the UK are now also showing us up

Labour’s ‘rooftop revolution’ to deliver solar power to millions of UK homeswww.theguardian.com Ed Miliband sets new rules on solar panels and approves three giant solar farms as Labour seeks to end years of Tory inaction

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Andy O'Brien

Chloe has worked tirelessly on behalf of workers, women and survivors of sexual violence through years of coal front advocacy. She recently suffered an aneurysm and needs her community to rally behind her recovery. Please give if you can: givealittle.co.nz/cause/recove...

Recovery for Chloegivealittle.co.nz Support Chloe's recovery from a brain aneurysm

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Andy O'Brien

Good illustration of two points: 1) American political history is a lot more violent than we're taught in schools, and the era that's ending now is the aberration 2) one reason why that higher baseline level of political violence is left out of the narrative is because of who the victims were.

#tdih July 13, 1863: New York City Draft Riots and Massacre “[Rioters] set the city’s colored orphan asylum on fire…[and] shot, burned, and hanged African Americans…[and many] people were thrown into the rivers to drown.” www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/dr...

July 13, 1863: New York City Draft Riots and Massacrewww.zinnedproject.org The New York City Draft Massacre (“Riots”) were the largest civil insurrection in U.S. history besides the Civil War itself. White mobs attacked the African American community — committing murder and ...