from Carol Sawyer

Amazing — our country faces economic turmoil, but this bunch of crazies have to keep pouring 1080 poison from the air; 43,000 hectares, so that will be approximately 86 tonnes of 1080 baits and, again, millions of dollars wasted as though there is no tomorrow to worry about.

In fact it’s more likely from French quarante, the same word but with a silent e on the end.

(Thanks to Margaret Stevenson-Wright.)

The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in the first quarter of the year as the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the country and began triggering a recession that will end the longest expansion on record.

Yet the drop in the January-March quarter will be only a precursor of a far grimmer report to come on the current April-June period, with business shutdowns and layoffs striking with devastating force. With much of the economy paralyzed, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that economic activity will plunge this quarter at a 40% annual rate.

That would be, by a breathtaking margin, the bleakest quarter since such records were first compiled in 1947. It would be four times the size of the worst quarterly contraction on record set in 1958.

Full story

Looking east,  viewed from the boardwalk.

During the daily press conference at Parliament yesterday, a news reporter described Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield’s explanation as to comments made the day before that NZ had achieved elimination, but, actually, no it hasn’t, as being “as clear as mud.”

One of his previous answers that “we’ve achieved [elimination] through alert level 4” — and PM Jacinda chipping in that New Zealand “currently” had eliminated the virus — resulted in yesterday’s confusion.  Radio NZ story

Another cause for confusion was what the difference between “elimination” and “eradication” is.  It seems they do not mean the same thing.  Er, um, OK.

Said Jacinda, “Elimination doesn’t mean zero cases… we will have to keep stamping Covid out until there’s a vaccine.”

Even your editors are confused about all this, so pity the poor reporters at Parliament.

The other questions yesterday, however, were fairly typical.  For example, was Dr Bloomfield not concerned with the big lines yesterday morning for takeways from outlets like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC about people now becoming obese?  Groan.

Needless to say, the Left-Wing media not only here, but overseas were delighted by the earlier impression that PM Jacinda had eliminated the virus and it was enthusiastically reported by the BBC, CNN and the New York Times among others.

They’ve all now had to backtrack.

On that subject, while the pro-Jacinda sycophancy by the Mainstream Media here is quite understandable (see earlier posts), one wonders why the international Left-Wing media have seemingly promoted her to Sainthood.

Freelance journalist Karl du Fresne has analysed this issue and as usual, provides a very perceptive explanation:

Many of the journalists cooing with approval are young(ish) women, like Ardern. It would hardly be surprising if they felt an affinity with her and wanted her to succeed. The same is probably true of the female journalists in the Wellington press gallery, which may explain the largely uncritical coverage Ardern gets domestically. The old journalistic notion that reporters should try to distance themselves emotionally from their subject has been suspended.

But an additional factor comes into play when the journalists are outsiders. Many overseas journalists’ perceptions of Ardern are coloured by their disdain for their own leaders. They look at Ardern – young, female, left-wing, intelligent, articulate, empathetic (that word again) and attuned to concerns like climate change and multiculturalism – and lament that their fellow Americans (or Brits, or Australians, or whatever) are too dumb or racist or myopic to elect someone like her. Behind every homage to Ardern penned by a star-struck journalist from overseas, there’s a sense of hurt and resentment that they’re saddled with leaders they see as yesterday’s politicians – male, stale, pale and worst of all, conservative.

Full piece.

The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the Prime Minister’s comments in Question Time (09:18) today that local government should be working with central government to lessen the burden on taxpayers and ratepayers.

Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Prime Minister is now saying what we have said since the start of the lock-down. With the current economic carnage, now is not the time to increase the financial burden on Kiwi households and businesses.”

“It’s not often the Prime Minister is more financially conservative than her humble Taxpayers’ Union, but today she suggested that the financial burden of councils should be ‘lessened’. That would mean a rates cut. This recommendation goes further than our rates freeze campaign, but it’s a signal that Labour-led councils such as Auckland cannot now ignore.”

To our knowledge, four KCDC councilors are Labour Party members — will they heed their leader? —Eds