Author Archive

The strange case of the astroturfed Energy Voices organisation

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 3:34 pm, November 13th, 2018 - 18 comments

It has been discovered that the person behind the Energy Voices website is a National Party operative and former staffer.

American midterms – revenge of young people and the decline of the NRA

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:00 am, November 12th, 2018 - 51 comments

In the midterm US elections a number of candidates supported by the NRA have lost out to opponents with strong anti gun views. And the youth vote surged. Were these events related?

All that is wrong with America’s democracy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:46 am, November 10th, 2018 - 40 comments

In Georgia, despite the Repbublican candidate who oversaw the election process engaging in the mass disenfranchisement of Democrat voters, the removal of voting machines to make voting in Democrat areas more difficult and baseless smearing of the Democrat candidate, the result is on a knife edge and a second vote is a possibility.

Latest poll results – National in freefall

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:11 am, November 9th, 2018 - 81 comments

A recent UMR poll has put National support at 37%, deep in danger territory for Simon Bridges.

Jeff Sessions resigns as Attorney General

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:57 am, November 8th, 2018 - 27 comments

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned at the President’s request and has been replaced by someone who thought that Mueller’s investigation into POTUS went too far.

ScoMo’s flying bus tour

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:28 am, November 8th, 2018 - 20 comments

In an effort to revive sagging support levels Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is on a bus tour of Australia involving him flying and being picked up by the bus, drinking lots of beer, wearing different hats and saying fair dinkum a lot.

Triumph the insult dog meets Beto and Cruz

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:47 am, November 7th, 2018 - 6 comments

If you have 10 minutes to waste and enjoy laughing uproariously I can recommend this video. Warning should not be watched while you are drinking coffee and the contents may be sprayed on your screen …

Simon’s sure fire way to deal with difficult questions

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:37 pm, November 6th, 2018 - 45 comments

Simon’s strategy is that cunning you could be tempted to pin a tail on it and call it a weasel.

The Jami-Lee tapes

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:22 am, November 5th, 2018 - 141 comments

Newshub has released a further Jami-Lee Ross tape which contains a promise by Simon Bridges that if Ross stood down for health reasons he could come back in the new year and be promoted.

Morongate

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:29 am, November 4th, 2018 - 13 comments

In America a young 20 year old Trump supporter has been branded with the hashtag morongate for the most inept dark op smear you could ever imagine happening.

Extinction Rebellion

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:31 am, November 2nd, 2018 - 35 comments

In the United Kingdom, Extinction Rebellion, a new mass direct-action group modeled on Occupy, has emerged with the goal of forcing the Government to take urgent action on climate change.

Getting rid of bitcoin could help save the planet

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:09 am, November 1st, 2018 - 39 comments

There is a rather simple way for the world to do something significant about climate change and global warming. All that we have to do is work out how to get rid of bitcoin.

Daily Review 31/10/2018

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 5:30 pm, October 31st, 2018 - 33 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 …

What is up with National?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:53 am, October 31st, 2018 - 46 comments

National appears to be rattled and introverted right now. Is the continuing saga involving Jami-Lee Ross the cause?

National’s very bad day in the house

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:33 pm, October 30th, 2018 - 86 comments

National had a spectacularly bad day today in Parliament.

National’s Judith problem

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 4:54 pm, October 30th, 2018 - 50 comments

Judith Collins has landed herself in trouble for publicising details of a young couple who just bought a Kiwibuild home.

National badly wants Kiwibuild to crash

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:34 am, October 30th, 2018 - 339 comments

National is complaining that Labour is not solving the National imposed housing crisis quickly enough.

Brazil turns right

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:39 pm, October 29th, 2018 - 90 comments

Brazil has elected as its next President a 63-year-old former paratrooper who built his campaign around pledges to crush corruption, crime and a supposed communist threat.

Democracy and peace in the USA

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:54 am, October 28th, 2018 - 115 comments

In the land of the free and the brave there is news of voting machines changing votes from Democrat to Republican candidates, mass stripping of voting rights and closing of voting booths in Democrat areas, and right wing extreme violence caused by escalating rhetoric from the POTUS.

Eye of the storm

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:31 am, October 27th, 2018 - 106 comments

Simon Bridges thinks that he is past trouble caused by the Jami-Lee Ross incident. But the way things are developing he may be in the middle of things.

Nothing to worry about

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:36 am, October 25th, 2018 - 48 comments

National thinks that it has weathered the storm caused by the Jami-Lee Ross revelations and it has nothing to worry about even though the Police have gone to the Electoral Commission. And Simon Bridges has been in touch with Cameron Slater. What could go wrong?

Australia’s refugee problem

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:45 am, October 24th, 2018 - 89 comments

The Liberal Party has potentially lost one of its safest seats to an independent who campaigned on doing something about climate change and the Nauru refugees.

Uncharted Waters

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:59 am, October 23rd, 2018 - 175 comments

Trevor Mallard is grappling with the implications of Jami-Lee Ross’s status under the Mental Health Act.

Everything is awesome

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:28 am, October 21st, 2018 - 463 comments

National is trying to say that everything is fine with Simon Bridges’ leadership, that he has handled the Jami-Lee Ross crisis well and that his leadership is assured. I beg to differ.

Two Chinese are more valuable than two Indians

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:05 am, October 19th, 2018 - 87 comments

The repercussions of Jami-Lee Ross’s expulsion continue to be felt. Disclosures about complaints regarding Ross’s behaviour are difficult to reconcile with what Bridges and Bennett have said recently. And National’s relationship with ethnic groups has taken a battering.

The Jamilee tweets

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:49 am, October 18th, 2018 - 246 comments

Jami-Lee Ross has released the tape of his talking with Simon Bridges where the suggestion was made that two Chinese MPs would be more valuable than two Indian MPs. And Melanie Reid has published an article containing the allegations of four women against Ross of inappropriate behaviour.

Mutually assured destruction

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:17 am, October 17th, 2018 - 380 comments

Paula Bennett has broken the understanding that MPs do not refer to each other’s private lives. And Jami-Lee Ross has alleged that a $100,000 donation was split so that it did not have to be declared and it has been confirmed that National then nominated the donor for a Queen’s Birthday Honour.