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Marc Daalder

@marcdaalder.bsky.social

Senior Political Reporter at newsroom.co.nz covering climate change, health, energy and violent extremism | He/him ✡️

4,446 Followers  |  569 Following  |  1,140 Posts  |  Joined: 03.09.2023
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Posts by Marc Daalder (@marcdaalder.bsky.social)

The authority that Trump has asserted in taking America to war against Iran is, like many of his other power grabs, an expression of the very tyranny the Framers were seeking to prevent.

“Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object,” a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1848. This was “understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.” This quote, incidentally, is immortalized on the House’s website, if any members of Congress are looking for it.

The authority that Trump has asserted in taking America to war against Iran is, like many of his other power grabs, an expression of the very tyranny the Framers were seeking to prevent. “Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object,” a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1848. This was “understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.” This quote, incidentally, is immortalized on the House’s website, if any members of Congress are looking for it.

The design of the Constitution divided warmaking authority between Congress and the executive to prevent a president to take the country to war by themselves for any petty or self-serving reason. You know, like a king would. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

04.03.2026 22:04 — 👍 1643    🔁 416    💬 29    📌 5
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Charting New Zealand's five energy futures Newsroom breaks down a major new report into New Zealand's five energy futures, from AI revolution to solar explosion.

I spent two days delving through Transpower data to understand what the grid owner and electricity system operator thinks our energy future might look like.

Here's what I found:
newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/04/c...

04.03.2026 21:01 — 👍 13    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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requiem for vanished birdsong

03.03.2026 21:01 — 👍 7822    🔁 2674    💬 43    📌 18

the war is unpopular but it's also illegal but it also doesn't serve any purpose but it also undermines diplomacy but it also is set to produce the opposite outcome as intended but it also already has hundreds dead and threatens more but it also will not make anything better for anyone but it also

01.03.2026 06:19 — 👍 4040    🔁 933    💬 12    📌 0

I promise you that the government that murdered Alex Pretti and Renee Good does not give a flying fuck about the protests in Iran.

28.02.2026 08:30 — 👍 19201    🔁 3940    💬 318    📌 119

Do you think FIFA will revoke his peace prize

28.02.2026 08:12 — 👍 1423    🔁 271    💬 56    📌 20

illegal use of force by every measure, domestic & international

28.02.2026 07:05 — 👍 491    🔁 211    💬 4    📌 3

the congressional authorization thing is bad but honestly for me the whole "the crime of aggression is the supreme international crime" thing is what keeps me up at night

28.02.2026 07:51 — 👍 1317    🔁 200    💬 14    📌 3
Post image 27.02.2026 21:24 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0
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This is fake news from RNZ. Unfortunately, G-I-Z is not how the birding term referred to here is spelled.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

27.02.2026 21:24 — 👍 25    🔁 3    💬 4    📌 0

art of the deal, baby

26.02.2026 23:44 — 👍 4510    🔁 644    💬 35    📌 19

Whatever real journalism you like, please pay for it. The stuff you don't pay for is transforming into propaganda with incredible speed.

27.02.2026 00:07 — 👍 186    🔁 36    💬 2    📌 0
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How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account Our national project of elite impunity

After the arrests of powerful men across the world, you might be asking why the US has so much trouble holding its leaders accountable for lawbreaking. Since Nixon, all three branches of government have worked hard to ensure they can break the law with impunity www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

26.02.2026 13:28 — 👍 6839    🔁 2624    💬 152    📌 210
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Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Blind Rohingya refugee dumped by CBP, dies in cold "They just left him."

A blind Rohingya man survived a genocide in Burma, escaped to the United States, and then died because immigration officers treated him with such callousness. This story is a tragedy www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/20...

25.02.2026 23:51 — 👍 711    🔁 333    💬 21    📌 25

democrats should internalize that this is what their colleagues think of them and act accordingly

25.02.2026 03:24 — 👍 15123    🔁 3513    💬 284    📌 1

Never say the American dream is dead. Only in the United States can a Grand Wizard of the Klan give a State of the Union address.

25.02.2026 03:25 — 👍 218    🔁 40    💬 4    📌 1

Is your export graph export from grid to battery? Or export from the BRB0331 node to the grid?

24.02.2026 21:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I think that's probably right. But the data is available in other jurisdictions – potentially they have regulations requiring its gathering and publication?

24.02.2026 01:29 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
Electricity Authority - EMI (market statistics and tools)

This is what I normally use: www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Da...

23.02.2026 23:44 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0

I use the EA's generation stats for a lot of my electricity data work. However, they don't seem to show when grid-scale batteries like Ruakākā are charging up, only when they're discharging. Anyone know of a dataset which would have this? @robertmclachlan.bsky.social @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social

23.02.2026 23:43 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0
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This is the most incredible footage of blue whales I’ve ever seen

22.02.2026 08:55 — 👍 6914    🔁 2267    💬 98    📌 417

Judge Goodwin: "An anonymous government is no government at all. It cannot be held accountable. A masked agent freely uses force without justifying his actions, and the public cannot name him to challenge his conduct. A regime of secret policing has no place in our society."

21.02.2026 02:24 — 👍 7900    🔁 2831    💬 73    📌 62

Just dictator shit

20.02.2026 18:47 — 👍 12    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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Luxon stokes his policy bonfire

Comment: The Govt must thread the needle between dumping unpopular policies and keeping enough to have something to show for three years in power.

20.02.2026 18:34 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Experimenting with some black and white editing. Catching the gannets as they fly overhead makes for some interesting new angles, too, compared to shooting the colony from above or fliers at eye level. 🪶

More: www.instagram.com/mdaalderphot...

20.02.2026 09:26 — 👍 25    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

do we have the same gp

20.02.2026 03:28 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

This is the sort of thing that happens in authoritarian regimes, where people are appointed for regime loyalty rather than merit and abuse their power because they know no one can hold them accountable.

20.02.2026 00:30 — 👍 11    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Once again, I am promising Democrats there are literally thousands of former department of justice people who will crawl over broken glass to prosecute this administration given the chance

19.02.2026 20:37 — 👍 6906    🔁 1634    💬 114    📌 36
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19.02.2026 09:46 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Ctrl+F is free and easy buddy.

19.02.2026 02:22 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0