Archive for 2020

What is wrong with postal voting?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:48 am, August 16th, 2020 - 73 comments

Judith Collins’s and National’s ridiculing the proposition that New Zealand could safely hold an election using postal voting has some disturbing similarities with Donald Trump’s approach in America.

Open mike 16/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, August 16th, 2020 - 149 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 …

Covid-19 vs 1918 influenza

Written By: lprent - Date published: 5:29 pm, August 15th, 2020 - 67 comments

Reading a number of articles in the NZ Herald in recent days calling for change in how we handle outbreaks of covid-19 in NZ. The implied precept is the damage covid-19 poses to the population of NZ over time is less than the immediate economic damage. That covid-19 is like the flu and results in herd immunity. However it is far worse than the influenza pandemic of 1918, much longer lasting and we probably won’t reach herd immunity naturally for generations.

Open mike 15/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, August 15th, 2020 - 379 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 14/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 14th, 2020 - 104 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 …

test post

Written By: weka - Date published: 5:10 pm, August 14th, 2020 - Comments Off on test post

https://twitter.com/TheAlanRichards/status/1304896549399547912

The top seven things Covid has changed

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:45 am, August 14th, 2020 - 47 comments

Covid has fundamentally changed society for the better in surprising ways.

Joe Biden’s Four Surprising Vectors for Success

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, August 14th, 2020 - 15 comments

He’s old, boring, uninspiring, and offends no-one: surely he’ll fail miserably as President? But he has a stronger chance than any Democrat President since LBJ of getting very strong domestic reforms done.

Open mike 14/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, August 14th, 2020 - 302 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 13/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 13th, 2020 - 38 comments

TheY aRe onlY aSKing qUestiOns

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:32 am, August 13th, 2020 - 112 comments

Yesterday National suggested a wide based and interesting conspiracy theory involving the Government and the Ministry of Health and all of the Health Boards suppressing news of community spread of Covid 19 for political advantage while at the same time complaining that the Government should be consulting with them on decisions.

Open mike 13/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, August 13th, 2020 - 257 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 12/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 12th, 2020 - 28 comments

UMR Poll August 2020

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 3:36 pm, August 12th, 2020 - 34 comments

The latest Rogue Poll™ is out. This time it’s UMR’s turn and Judith Collins is on the rise.

Will National politicise the new Covid outbreak? *

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:38 pm, August 12th, 2020 - 182 comments

*Rhetorical question. Of course they will.

Biden/Harris

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 8:50 am, August 12th, 2020 - 53 comments

Joe Biden announces his VP pick.

Open mike 12/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, August 12th, 2020 - 175 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 …

Well that is a bit shit. Auckland level 3. Rest of NZ level 2

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:14 pm, August 11th, 2020 - 48 comments

Four cases of community transmission from the same family – presumably without an obvious cause. Lock down for 3 days in the Auckland super city area at level 3 starting noon Wednesday. Level 2 for everywhere else outside of Auckland. Allows time for contact tracing and a later decision once facts are known. Good response.

Daily review 11/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 11th, 2020 - 60 comments

Should the government replace sex data with gender (identity) data?

Written By: weka - Date published: 10:07 am, August 11th, 2020 - 110 comments

Stats NZ want to use gender rather than sex as the default for data collection. But they’ve neglected to ask women about that.

The strange tale of the Auckland Central selection and Merv from Manurewa

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:01 am, August 11th, 2020 - 57 comments

News has emerged that a senior National Party figure rang talkback radio and made derogatory comments about National’s only Sri Lankan candidate in an apparent attempt to reduce her chance of being selected as National’s Auckland Central candidate.

Why you should vote Labour this election

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, August 11th, 2020 - 146 comments

Four very good reasons why you should vote Labour in this election.

Open mike 11/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 am, August 11th, 2020 - 77 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 10/08/2020

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 10th, 2020 - 45 comments

Vote No to Cannabis Reform

Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:25 am, August 10th, 2020 - 118 comments

Ten reasons to vote against cannabis law reform this election.

Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Government: Style over substance or a guiding light for progressive politics?

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 8:42 am, August 10th, 2020 - 33 comments

Critics have dismissed the Jacinda Ardern government as being one of style over substance. This is unfair given the challenges this government has faced and the policy achievements it has had. However, it is a government that has much work to do if it wins a second term. And its over-reliance on Jacinda as party leader is a huge strategic risk, especially when the governments front bench is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be lightweight.

IT doESN’t aDD up

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:49 am, August 10th, 2020 - 57 comments

For a few days now Gerry Brownlee has been peddling this dog whistle conspiracy campaign that the Government is hiding bad news about Covid and we should all be really concerned.

Covid recovery and bouncing forward

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:05 am, August 10th, 2020 - 21 comments

Central to the Transition movement from the outset has been the idea of resilience. Usually framed as the ability to ‘bounce back’, it is seen in the Transition movement as being better imagined as the capacity to ‘bounce forward’, i.e. to use it as the opportunity to move forward to something better. How then to ‘bounce forward’ from COVID-19 in such a way that we also move to a way of doing things consistent with the scale of the climate crisis?