Search Results

1. 

   Pollwatch: 9th June 2019

   Written By:  Matthew Whitehead -  Date published: 4:00 pm, June 10th, 2019 -  27 comments
   Categories: act, greens, labour, national, nz first, polls
   Tags: hung parliament, labour government, labour-green government, labour-green-NZF government, poll watch, pollwatch

   We had both major polls out yesterday, as noted in previous stories, and boy were the results a doozy! In addition to twice my usual talk about models, we’re going to get into the assumption some people are no doubt already making- that one of the polls is “wrong,” or more technically, rogue. For those […]

2. 

   Deranged Jacinda syndrome

   Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:14 am, June 10th, 2019 -  105 comments
   Categories: Carmel Sepuloni, Dr Deborah Russell, jacinda ardern, labour, making shit up, Media, phil twyford, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, uncategorized, you couldn't make this shit up
   Tags:

   Mike Hosking has chosen to criticise Jacinda Ardern for touring the country and speaking to communities about the Wellbeing budget rather than flying across the world to take part in a photo opportunity.

3. 

   Politics is like a Traffic Jam

   Written By:  Incognito -  Date published: 7:00 am, June 9th, 2019 -  45 comments
   Categories: Politics, transport
   Tags: analogy, light stuff, metaphor, traffic jam

   Traffic jams are frustrating, waste time and money, have no cause or purpose, and they are all the same.

4. 

   Government under FiveEyes

   Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 9:48 pm, June 7th, 2019 -  11 comments
   Categories: afghanistan, australian politics, China, Deep stuff, democracy under attack, human rights, journalism, law, Media, police, Russia, Spying, uk politics, us politics
   Tags:

   Australian Federal Police chief Neil Gaughan told media after raiding the ABC that “if police did not investigate the leaking of classified information, Australia would no longer be entrusted by FiveEyes partners with intelligence that saves lives.” FiveEyes didn’t save Muslim lives in Christchurch.

    

5. 

   The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand

   Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 8:45 am, June 3rd, 2019 -  49 comments
   Categories: australian politics, business, capitalism, China, class war, debt / deficit, Donald Trump, Economy, Financial markets, Free Trade, housing, International, us politics
   Tags:

   With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.

6. 

   Whale Oil – the book

   Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 11:45 am, May 29th, 2019 -  15 comments
   Categories: blogs, law, Media, police, Social issues, uncategorized
   Tags: cameron slater, Dermot Nottingham, Marc Spring, margie thomson, matt blomfield, pete george, warren powell, whaleoil

   Whale Oil by Margie Thomson is about the Blomfield vs Slater case. Lost by Cameron Slater because after 7 years of trying to delay it, he was unable to mount a credible defense before a judge. But there is a lot of detail behind that that is worrying in an internet age..

7. 

   Run Brian Run

   Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:30 am, May 23rd, 2019 -  103 comments
   Categories: abortion, Abuse of power, brethren, Deep stuff, democracy under attack, Politics
   Tags: Brian Tamaki, destiny church

   Brian Tamaki is set to announce the launch of a new political party today.

8. 

   Zero carbon bill – let the battle commence

   Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:21 am, May 9th, 2019 -  102 comments
   Categories: climate change, Environment, farming, global warming, greens, labour, national, nz first, same old national, science, sustainability
   Tags:

   The Zero Carbon bill is already being attacked by farming groups who are clearly concerned at the implications for their industry.  And National is already showing signs that it will play politics with the issue.

9. 

   The Herald paywall

   Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 11:43 am, April 28th, 2019 -  59 comments
   Categories: clickbait, facebook, internet, Media, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, twitter
   Tags: nz herald

   The Herald is getting ready this week to install a paywall.

10. 

    Letter From the United Kingdom

    Written By:  BLiP -  Date published: 2:50 pm, April 24th, 2019 -  116 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags: jeremy corbyn, United Kingdom

     
    Jeremy Corbyn’s class  performance has been driving the MSM, the Tories, and the Blairite remnants crazy
11. 

    Walking the Human Rights Tightrope in NZ Prisons

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 8:45 pm, April 1st, 2019 -  114 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, Christchurch Attack, crime, Deep stuff, Ethics, Media, prisons, Social issues, terrorism, violence against women
    Tags: civil rights, crime, human rights, prisoners, prisons, rethinking crime and punishment

    The question of prisoners’ rights has hit the news today. That’s rare because we don’t normally care.

    A new Guest Post from Maggie puts the case that we walk a tightrope when we seek to simplify the complex issues at play in prison.

12. 

    Xi-ing Jacinda

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 8:32 pm, March 29th, 2019 -  73 comments
    Categories: China, climate change, Europe, jacinda ardern, overseas investment, tourism, trade, uncategorized
    Tags:

    Jacinda Ardern will get a very warm welcome in Beijing based on immense respect for her and for New Zealand.  Xi Jin-Ping has just returned from a very successful visit to Europe, joining Italy to the Belt and Road initiative and buying 300 jets from Airbus. Pepe Escobar outlines the implications for Eurasia. Much food for thought.

13. 

    Simon Bridges is distancing himself from Simon Bridges

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:01 am, March 13th, 2019 -  44 comments
    Categories: electoral commission, Media, national, same old national, Simon Bridges, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags: jami-lee ross

    Simon Bridges did the remarkable thing yesterday of distancing himself from his own party over events he had major involvement in.

14. 

    Magicked-Up Weapons

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 10:30 pm, March 11th, 2019 -  116 comments
    Categories: australian politics, China, Deep stuff, democracy under attack, kremlinology, making shit up, Propaganda, spin, uk politics, us politics, war
    Tags:

    I’m glad Anne-Marie Brady will get the chance to present her “Magic Weapons” paper to the select committee examining the last election. At long last it might get given some proper critical examination, of its content as well as it provenance. In my opinion it reads like a long list of the blindingly obvious, mixed with a large dose of conspiracy theory. It certainly doesn’t show much sign of the sort of critical thinking one might expect from an academic.

15. 

    Venezuela, China and Russia

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 1:41 pm, March 4th, 2019 -  54 comments
    Categories: China, Deep stuff, democracy under attack, International, us politics
    Tags: venezuela

    In the new world order of robber barons in which most states are collectively so weak that they no longer effective resistance against large corporations, we should start to view states as diplomatic fronts for corporations.

16. 

    The Green’s electoral law reform petition

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:47 am, March 4th, 2019 -  389 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff, democracy under attack, democratic participation, electoral systems, greens, labour, making shit up, Media, MMP, national, Politics, referendum, same old national, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful
    Tags: Golriz Ghahraman, matthew hooton

    The Green Party’s launching of a petition to seek changes to the electoral system has met with some Trumpian style rhetoric from the right.

17. 

    Cameron Slater slithers into bankruptcy

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 7:15 am, February 27th, 2019 -  51 comments
    Categories: blogs, internet, law, Media, Politics, Social issues
    Tags: cameron slater, defamation, matthew blomfield, Professor Doug Sellman, whaleoil

    Yesterday Cameron Slater announced that he would be seeking bankruptcy. It is unlikely to help him to avoid the stress of dealing with the legal consequences. The three current defamation cases that he is defending so badly have very little to do with money and a lot to do with making sure neither he nor any other arsehole dares to use his vile tactics again.

18. 

    GCSB head Hampton gazumped by Pompeo

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 1:15 pm, February 22nd, 2019 -  18 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff, interweb, Spying, surveillance, us politics
    Tags:

    On Wednesday GCSB chief Andrew Hampton told a Select Committee there was absolutely “no pressure” publicly or privately on his decision to block Huawei. On Thursday US Secretary of State Pompeo publicly warned that “United States would not be able to partner with or share information with countries that adopt Huawei Technologies Co Ltd systems.” What a difference a day makes.

19. 

    Daily review 21/02/2019

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 5:30 pm, February 21st, 2019 -  40 comments
    Categories: Daily review
    Tags:

    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 …

20. 

    Pollwatch: Colmar Brunton 18/02/2019

    Written By:  Matthew Whitehead -  Date published: 8:29 pm, February 19th, 2019 -  13 comments
    Categories: greens, labour, national, nz first, polls
    Tags: labour government, labour-green government, poll watch, pollwatch

    Do good things come in twos? This Pollwatch suggests that perhaps they do, and that maybe the news is rosier than the last one suggested.

21. 

    What China crisis?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 12:58 pm, February 18th, 2019 -  52 comments
    Categories: australian politics, China, Europe, Globalisation, International, Media, national, Politics, same old national, Simon Bridges, uk politics, us politics
    Tags:

    Claims that New Zealand is at a crisis point in terms of its relationship with China appear to be somewhat overegged.

22. 

    Dead cats and silly sausages

    Written By:  Matthew Whitehead -  Date published: 8:15 pm, February 14th, 2019 -  125 comments
    Categories: labour, national, trevor mallard
    Tags: attack ads, david carter, dead cats, KiwiBuild, obstruction, outcomes, select committees, state houses, written questions

    Today in distractions: David Carter is covering for Simon Bridges’ polling results by upsetting the whole idea of non-partisan accountability of the Government to Parliament in select comittees, I give some free advice to the National Party comms team knowing they won’t pull it off, and Mallard has lost patience with non-answers

23. 

    $58 billion verses democracy: Bouganville

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 8:30 am, February 14th, 2019 -  5 comments
    Categories: Conservation, employment, Environment, jobs, Mining
    Tags:

    There’s trouble on the horizon in Bouganville with its government proposing significant changes to its mining law to allow wide scale mining on the island.

24. 

    Spark vs Spooks

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 1:47 pm, February 13th, 2019 -  66 comments
    Categories: China, interweb, military, Spying, surveillance, tech industry, telecommunications, trade, us politics
    Tags:

    Spark wants Huawei’s 5G technology because its the best and the cheapest. The GCSB spooks don’t want us to have it because 5Eyes and because the US has yanked their chain. The Prime Minister says no decision has been made – the media and the world think it is a goneburger. We should support New Zealand’s Spark, not US corporate interests.

25. 

    Sheepgate the final chapter

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:38 am, February 12th, 2019 -  44 comments
    Categories: david parker, national, same old national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, trade, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags: matthew hooton, murray mccully, sheepgate

    The final chapter of the Saudi Sheepgate saga has now been written with David Parker pulling the pin on the deal and saving the country $1 million.

26. 

    Simon Bridges twitter game

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 2:40 pm, February 11th, 2019 -  27 comments
    Categories: alcohol, Media, national, Politics, same old national, Simon Bridges, social media lolz, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, twitter, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags:

    Simon Bridges’ twitter account has been tweeting about unusual subjects lately.

27. 

    What does the right have against Venezuela?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:10 am, February 9th, 2019 -  131 comments
    Categories: International, jacinda ardern, labour, national, Politics, Propaganda, Simon Bridges, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags:

    Simon Bridges has claimed that the Government is going to follow a “Venezuela model” in making much needed reform of the Polytechnic sector. But no one knows what he means.

28. 

    Venezuela Coup

    Written By:  te reo putake -  Date published: 8:54 am, January 24th, 2019 -  280 comments
    Categories: class war, International, us politics
    Tags: coup, maduro, venezuela

    A coup attempt is underway in Venezuala. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó has declared himself interim President. There is no immediate response from President Nicholas Maduro, who appears to still retain the support of the military.

29. 

    President Peaches

    Written By:  te reo putake -  Date published: 11:22 am, January 12th, 2019 -  150 comments
    Categories: class war, Donald Trump, im/migration, International, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags: peaches, the wall, trump

    I’m moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches! Donald Trump has yet another bizarro, almost Freudian, moment as his threat to invoke a national emergency to fund his wall falls flat. Peaches, people! Not impeachment, peaches!!!

30. 

    National has lots of questions

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:30 am, January 12th, 2019 -  38 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, democracy under attack, Gerry Brownlee, Judith Collins, national, Parliament, Politics, same old national
    Tags: alfred ngaro, melissa lee, todd muller

    National asked 40,000 questions of Ministers last year. This seems excessive.

31. 

    Julian Assange and the Streisand Effect.

    Written By:  te reo putake -  Date published: 6:45 pm, January 7th, 2019 -  161 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, capitalism, class war, crime, Deep stuff, Ethics, International, law, Media, suppression orders, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags: alleged rapist, julian assange, law, wikileaks

    Wikileaks has tried to silence media organisations on behalf of Julian Assange. Why is a ‘transparency’ organisation opposed to free speech and have they made things worse for the Aussie hacker?

    UPDATE: The list has been leaked. Link in post.