By the Twelfth Day of Christmas National Gave To Us

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Date published: 7:36 am, December 10th, 2015 - 22 comments

Sing along as we count our gifts . . .

Open mike 10/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 am, December 10th, 2015 - 119 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily Review 09/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 pm, December 9th, 2015 - 32 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Sayonara Serco

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Date published: 12:16 pm, December 9th, 2015 - 80 comments

Serco’s contract to run the Mt Eden Corrections Facility will not be renewed when it expires next year.

Political interference in the OIA

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Date published: 8:15 am, December 9th, 2015 - 14 comments

Yesterday saw the release of the Obmudsman’s review of the operation of the OIA. I think it makes clear an unacceptable level of political interference in the process – albeit not at the level that was rampant in Dirty Politics.

John Key’s hedge fund mate behind Teach First (NZ)

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Date published: 7:36 am, December 9th, 2015 - 195 comments

Julian Robertston, a US billionaire who made his money with hedge fund Tiger Management, Merryl Lynch’s largest customer when John Key was working there, is the man behind privatisation trojan horse Teach First (NZ).

Open mike 09/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 am, December 9th, 2015 - 108 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Judge scammed by a legal idiot and his pet pest

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Date published: 8:29 pm, December 8th, 2015 - 36 comments

Thank the deity of your choice for that. Judge Harrison has found and courageously, in a timely manner, corrected his mistake of granting an interim court order under s18 of the incredibly badly written Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015. The problem for a judge being requested to give any injunctive order is that they only hear one side of the argument – that of the plaintiff. And in this case the plaintiff and his associates seemed to have deliberately lied to the judge.

Daily Review 08/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 pm, December 8th, 2015 - 28 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Donald Trump does not like muslims

Written By:
Date published: 11:54 am, December 8th, 2015 - 64 comments

Donald J Trump may have reached peak craziness or peak political opportunism with his call to ban all Muslims from entering America.

Paula Bennett, Climate Change Minister?

Written By:
Date published: 8:27 am, December 8th, 2015 - 68 comments

Despite having no scientific background, no relevant experience and no related portfolios Paula Bennett is the new Minister in charge of Climate Change Issues.

Hey Tracy Watkins – Judith Collins was not “cleared” of dirty politics

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Date published: 7:02 am, December 8th, 2015 - 33 comments

No, Judith Collins was never investigated, let alone “cleared”, of the serious issues raised by Dirty Politics. After a token year off Key is happy to have her back because he has precisely as many principles as she does.

Hard Numbers to Remember.

Written By:
Date published: 7:00 am, December 8th, 2015 - 32 comments

This post is essentially a distillation of two presentations given by Kevin Anderson at the Earth 101 gathering in Iceland earlier this year. You can view them here and here I highly recommend that you do as they are packed with high quality, no nonsense information. For those who don’t know, Kevin Anderson was the director of the Tyndall Centre, the UK’s leading academic climate change research organization and is a professor of energy and climate change in the School of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester.

Open mike 08/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 am, December 8th, 2015 - 115 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily Review 07/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 pm, December 7th, 2015 - 45 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Carter’s last fan

Written By:
Date published: 11:26 am, December 7th, 2015 - 15 comments

How fitting that Audrey Young is Speaker David Carter’s very last fan in the world.

Collins and the “monster” board

Written By:
Date published: 10:21 am, December 7th, 2015 - 43 comments

Idiot turn of phrase or deliberately inflammatory? You be the judge.

The Anthropocene

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Date published: 8:35 am, December 7th, 2015 - 21 comments

Heavy flooding in Chennai and the North of England is the latest in a long line of recent extreme weather events. Welcome to the Anthropocene.

Use of Teach First (NZ) illegal

Written By:
Date published: 8:02 am, December 7th, 2015 - 113 comments

To date, TeachFirst(NZ) has received more than $6.4 million dollars of public money and, as a result, has infested 18 schools with dozens of so-called “teachers”.

Key’s Xmas Reshuffle; UPDATE + bonus Winston Peters zinger!

Written By:
Date published: 7:24 am, December 7th, 2015 - 49 comments

John Key has announced that there will be a minor cabinet re-shuffle. Could this mark the return of Judith Collins? If so, what does this tell us about how the post-Key National Party will look?

Open mike 07/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 am, December 7th, 2015 - 134 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Rabblerave: New Zealand’s Next Top Model Politician

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Date published: 10:00 am, December 6th, 2015 - 33 comments

Invisiphilia analyses events of last week where environmental collective responsibility is finally gaining control over neo-liberalist philosophy and the old notion of an environmentalist being a sandal wearing, mong bean eaters has finally been given a decent burial.

Key should apologise to Tania Billingsley and Slater should be ashamed

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Date published: 9:24 am, December 6th, 2015 - 72 comments

The disputed facts case involving Tania Billingsley’s complaint against the Malaysian Diplomat suggests the diplomat was engaged in some bizarre drug induced behaviour and completely exonerates Ms Billingsley.  John Ken will have to reconsider his petty refusal to apologise to her.  And Murray McCully’s actions will be closely monitored as soon as the completed report into the invocation of diplomatic immunity is released.

Open mike 06/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 am, December 6th, 2015 - 112 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Left Internationalism

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Date published: 8:55 pm, December 5th, 2015 - 39 comments

Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle have invoked “Labour’s proud internationalism” to support their votes for bombing ISIL in Syria to keep Britain safe! As Michael Chessum points out in the LRB, this view of Labour’s internationalism is statist rather than socialist. We can be proud that Kirk, Lange and Clark have all shown a different  version of left internationalism that is much more genuinely “labour’s answer to capital’s global power.”

Offending comment was made from Giltrap!

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Date published: 6:20 pm, December 5th, 2015 - 56 comments

The court order obtained by the internet pest Marc Spring against the YourNZ blog and Pete George to remove references about Spring AND his employer the Giltrap Group, was obtained using a comment made from the place of work of Marc Spring. It was probably made by Marc Spring in a deliberate perversion of the course of justice.

Collision course Syria

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Date published: 1:03 pm, December 5th, 2015 - 81 comments

Russia is backing anti-Islamist Kurds in Northern Syria to control their own territory, and acting directly against the interests of the jihadist groups that Turkey, a NATO member, is supporting. The temperature will only rise from here.

TiSA reduces COP21 to a charade

Written By:
Date published: 10:04 am, December 5th, 2015 - 13 comments

That National Ltd™ is currently in the process of giving away New Zealand’s sovereignty in areas such as energy resources and related regulations, explains its contempt for the environment and the talking down of expectations regarding climate change.

Helen Clark on A Zero-Carbon Future

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Date published: 8:10 am, December 5th, 2015 - 48 comments

Good piece by Helen Clark on Huff Post: “Paris must be a catalyst for stepped up climate action. The world must move towards a zero-carbon future. There is no room for short-sightedness or a lack of ambition.”

Open mike 05/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 am, December 5th, 2015 - 62 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily Review 04/12/2015

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Date published: 6:00 pm, December 4th, 2015 - 55 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

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