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Covid-19 – a political problem

Written By: - Date published: 11:08 pm, March 14th, 2020 - 103 comments

Juice Media on the essential facts about the spread of Covid-19. It concentrates on the United States, where personally I’m picking the US, by the end of the year, as being the biggest medico-political screw up world wide after Iran. Early wishful thinking and a lack of transparency cost lives. Pathetic bullshitting simply doesn’t help.

How does the government handle a pandemic induced world recession?

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, March 13th, 2020 - 152 comments

With the world’s economy in turmoil and infection rates continuing to surge the responses of different countries to the crisis shows markedly different results. And the issue could be the determining issue of this year’s election.

Coronavirus and the State

Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, March 11th, 2020 - 37 comments

A few weeks ago I slagged off the Chinese government for its response to the Corona virus and presumed that authoritarian states could never be as good as democratic states in responding to a pandemic. I want to revisit my opinion.

Corrupt US

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 pm, March 10th, 2020 - 60 comments

That’s not a request by the way. This post is a kind of  “confessions of a cynic who allowed optimism to creep up and have a hand in thought processes” post.

Buttigeig 2020?

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, March 5th, 2020 - 33 comments

Allowing for a Biden victory in the Democratic Party primary process, then come November, voters in the US will be voting on whether Buttiegieg or Trump will be the next President of the USA. That’s what I’m picking, and here’s why…

Can Bernie find a clutch and change gear?

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, March 5th, 2020 - 33 comments

The basic problem with Bernie Sanders campaign is that his sole political role since the start of his career has been as the archetypal outsider. He injects ideas into the political debate that didn’t get play time, but he didn’t concentrate on making those things happen. Now it is costing him.

Democratic Party Encounters Cliff. Jumps.

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, March 4th, 2020 - 45 comments

Just like Blairites in the UK and the ABC club here…the Democratic Party elites in the US seem to be the dumber type of  parasite that willfully kills their hosts.

Super Tuesday

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 4th, 2020 - 61 comments

In the US of A today is Super Tuesday.  California, Texas, North Carolina and 11 other states and one territory will be voting for their preferred candidate.

Afghanistan pushes the US out

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, March 4th, 2020 - 16 comments

I have really no idea who to cheer for about the Afghanistan peace
agreement. If the Taliban were the answer, it was a pretty fucking
stupid question.

Starmer, Biden and Benji

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, March 3rd, 2020 - 21 comments

Two leadership races and a General election appear to be going to conservative candidates. What does that mean for parliamentary democracy?

Climate change – the right schemes and the left despairs

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, March 2nd, 2020 - 27 comments

The Australian Liberal Government has signalled a movement away from solar and wind power  to untested technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen and lithium. Meanwhile the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement is calling for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis.

The Herald creates a panic and Trump says Coronavirus is a hoax

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, March 1st, 2020 - 65 comments

If a society ever wanted to set out how to handle a pandemic the Herald’s media response and Donald Trump’s handling of the situation provide perfect examples of what not to do.

A Welcome Change Coming.

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, February 29th, 2020 - 16 comments

There’s an increasing number of progressive and conservatives who are rediscovering their moral compass in these, the final days of unfettered liberalism.

Do not deport your people and your problems to New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, February 29th, 2020 - 53 comments

Jacinda Ardern has trashed traditional notions of how New Zealand Australia relations are conducted when making the clear point that Australia should not be exporting Australian made problems who are barely kiwis to New Zealand.

The Corona Virus and the Car

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, February 28th, 2020 - 27 comments

We just saw the stock markets lose their composure, but the stocks taking really big hits are the carmakers who have baked their profitability future into this largest growing car market.

A Democrat Senate Majority

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 26th, 2020 - 21 comments

So many left-leaning people around the world are looking to the United States election in November this year. We need to pay attention to the thing that enables the Presidential winner to get things done: a Senate majority.

Shattering

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 pm, February 25th, 2020 - 9 comments

When things fall apart, the disintegration can reach such a speed that it’s hard to keep an eye on everything that’s happening. Is liberalism on the cusp?

The Wave Crashing In…

Written By: - Date published: 6:02 pm, February 23rd, 2020 - 67 comments

The race to win the most support from Democratic and Independent voters in the Democratic Primaries is over bar the shouting, but…

To Kill Democracy…

Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, February 22nd, 2020 - 12 comments

If major Democratic Party donors and ‘big business’ lobbyists wanted to monkeywrench democracy in the US, then here’s how they could go about it.

Back in the U.S.S.A.

Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, February 18th, 2020 - 31 comments

The onslaught launched against Trump from sections of corporate media and liberal institutions will look as nothing next to the unified onslaught that will be unleashed against a President Sanders.

The death of Holden

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, February 18th, 2020 - 43 comments

Thousands of households across New Zealand heard the announcement of the complete death of the Holden marque this week, as the death of one of the greatest binaries and one of the most closely teased and contested brands of all: Holden versus Ford.

China: Guns, Germs, and Steel

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 14th, 2020 - 34 comments

The coronavirus outbreak that exploded three weeks ago in the central Chinese city of Wuhan has prompted the most severe Chinese government actions in three decades.

This result could lead to the break up of the United Kingdom

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, February 10th, 2020 - 13 comments

Originally posted onNick Kelly’s blog

Nick is a Director of Piko Consulting and works as a Political Adviser in The House of Lords. 

Listening to the results being reported while driving on that California freeway, I recall thinking ‘this result could lead to the break up of the United Kingdom’. On hearing that both Northern Ireland and Scotland had voted to stay part of the EU, in contrast to the rest of the country, it was hard to imagine that this would not become a significant issue.

Oh Look! (What. a. surprise.)

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, February 8th, 2020 - 20 comments

Mainstream media yet again aiding and abetting the character assassination of whistle blowers.

Will Bernie Sanders unseat Donald Trump?

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 8th, 2020 - 52 comments

It will take a full renewal of democracy in the United States.  So how does Bernie beat Trump?

Bernie by 6K.

Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, February 7th, 2020 - 35 comments

Iowa and beyond.

Trump survives

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, February 7th, 2020 - 35 comments

Donald Trump has predictably been acquitted by the US Senate on the impeachment charges laid against him by the House of Representatives.

Trump’s Middle East peace plan

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, January 29th, 2020 - 21 comments

This news shows how strange International Relations has become.  Donald Trump, currently on trial in the Senate for withholding approved funds from the Ukraine in an attempt to get the Ukranian authorities to dig up dirt on his possible opponent Joe Biden, and Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and […]

How low will Bridges go?

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, January 28th, 2020 - 23 comments

Simon Bridges has wondered out loud if anti semitism stopped the Government from sending a senior representative to a Holocaust memorial in Israel.

The Fourth Estate struggling in the social media world

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 pm, January 27th, 2020 - 30 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Ahead of the 2020 General Election in New Zealand, Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that her party is committed to run a factual election and has signed up to a social media tool to help prove it. The 2020 NZ election will be an interesting case study of whether in the social media age there can be honest political debate free of misinformation and manipulation of facts.

Steve Mnuchin, not Greta Thunberg, needs to go back to school

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, January 27th, 2020 - 11 comments

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has attacked Greta Thunberg for not understanding the economics of climate change.  But he has then been roundly criticised by a number of people, including his wife.