Search Results

  1. Inequality: Fallow vs Rashbrooke

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:44 am, July 20th, 2013 -  139 comments
    Categories: class war, poverty
    Tags: , ,

    Yesterday The Herald ran two pieces on the latest Ministry of Social Development’s report on household income. They have very different conclusions – Brian Fallow’s Rising inequality largely a myth and Max Rashbrooke’s Rich get richer. The poor? Have a guess.  So who’s right?

  2. No free speech at convention centre

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 8:30 am, July 19th, 2013 -  51 comments
    Categories: activism, blogs, democracy under attack, national
    Tags: , , ,

    National’s dirty deal with Sky City includes the right for the government to ban groups it doesn’t like from booking the convention centre.

    Free speech. Use it or lose it.

  3. A problem of “masculine” values

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 8:01 am, July 7th, 2013 -  121 comments
    Categories: benefits, class war, democratic participation, feminism, john key, labour, Left, news, poverty, sexism, spin
    Tags:

    The MSM coverage of the Labour Party remit, led by right wing propagandists, is riddled with sexism and the same traditional masculinist values that marginalise the poor and those with least power. I repeat my post that critiques a speech on gender & politics at the 2012 Labour Party Conference.

  4. The flat patch

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 10:18 am, July 5th, 2013 -  17 comments
    Categories: election 2014, greens, labour, national, polls
    Tags:

    I’ve been having a look at the Roy Morgan trend. Oddly, I don’t see this Labour ‘flat patch’ that people are claiming is happening. What is happening is that the Greens are trending slightly down (as it usually does mid-term) and Labour isn’t rising fast enough to offset that. We’re still some way off the safe-zone for Labour+Greens, and the question is whether we’ll get there.

  5. John Key’s disdain for democracy

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 9:02 am, July 3rd, 2013 -  43 comments
    Categories: accountability, capitalism, copyright, greens, john key, national/act government, russel norman, slippery, Spying, telecommunications, us politics
    Tags: , ,

    Norman criticises John Key for showing complete disdain for democracy at yesterday’s public hearing on the GCSB Bill.  Kim Dotcom is expected to provide a challenge today. Paul Buchanan is critical and argues for a full inquiry.  Gordon Campbell proposes some questions. [update]: TV3 Livestream 3.30 pm [update] Dotcom -Key knew about him prior to GCSB spying on him TV3.

  6. ImperatorFish: An apology from the Law Society to John Key

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 1:30 pm, June 27th, 2013 -  20 comments
    Categories: john key, Satire, Spying
    Tags:

    Dear Prime Minister, It appears that we may have made a terrible mistake. We made a detailed submission outlining our concerns about your government’s plans to increase the powers of the GCSB. But it looks like we were wrong. You have told Parliament and the media that you disagree with us. You haven’t said why, but we now accept that you know better than us. What use is all our combined wisdom when arrayed against your everyman common-sense?

  7. OP: Fluoridation – it does reduce tooth decay

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 2:59 pm, June 21st, 2013 -  306 comments
    Categories: health, making shit up, public services, science, water
    Tags: ,

    Ken Perrott at Open Parachute has been debunking some of the nonsense around fluoridated water by investigating claims (his background is in scientific research). It is refreshing after reading some of the recent misinterpreted drivel around about the science.

  8. Tory journalist of the year

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 3:44 pm, June 8th, 2013 -  16 comments
    Categories: spin
    Tags: ,

    And the winner is – Tracy Watkins.

  9. Frightened old men

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 9:20 pm, June 1st, 2013 -  33 comments
    Categories: Politics
    Tags: ,

    Granny Herald pulled out the wedgie omnibus today with old man Armstrong and old man Roughan both taking their best shot at helping Key’s attempts to wedge the Greens and Labour.

  10. The shameless Nick Smith

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 10:43 am, May 24th, 2013 -  31 comments
    Categories: ACC, accountability, auckland supercity, Conservation, greens, housing, john key, labour, Mining, same old national, slippery, sustainability
    Tags:

    Nick Smith has a long history of slippery dealings.  He apologises but accepts no blame, then is resurrected: contempt of court, a defamation case, the Pullar-ACC “conflict of interest”, bad faith negotiations with Auckland Council, the Denniston Plateau deal. Yesterday on RNZ, Smith exposed the government’s agenda on mining conservation land.

  11. Anatomy of another Key lie

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:32 am, May 22nd, 2013 -  37 comments
    Categories: accountability, energy, john key
    Tags: ,

    John Key has been caught in yet another lie, over his claim that Solid Energy asked for a $1 billion injection of taxpayer’s money.

  12. Digital democracy: Fair Deal goes global

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 10:20 am, May 21st, 2013 -  2 comments
    Categories: accountability, activism, capitalism, community democracy, International, internet, Spying, telecommunications
    Tags: , ,

    NZ’s Fair Deal Coalition launched a new website, ourfairdeal.org, networking globally with others concerned about intellectual property & the TTPA. The FDC includes those supporting global “neoliberal” commerce, & others supporting community & public sector activities, democratic freedoms and privacy rights.

  13. Constitutional arrogance

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 5:05 pm, May 18th, 2013 -  86 comments
    Categories: accountability, democracy under attack, national, Parliament
    Tags: , ,

    The invaluable Andrew Geddis has yet another good post on Pundit, describing National’s latest outbreak of constitutional arrogance. Add to the long list. These are the actions of politicians who are drunk on power, and not being held to account for it.

  14. The budget’s flawed premise

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 1:02 pm, May 15th, 2013 -  27 comments
    Categories: class war, debt / deficit, economy, national
    Tags: , ,

    The whole austerity driven focus of the budget and National’s economic policy is based on a premise which is in turn based on a spreadsheet error.

  15. John Key’s disaster capitalism

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 1:07 pm, May 9th, 2013 -  31 comments
    Categories: capitalism, grant robertson, jobs, john key, national, poverty, uncategorized, unemployment, wages
    Tags:

    The latest Household Labour Force Employment statistics are out, and on the surface, look good for John and Bill.  But this is driven by improved employment in Canterbury over the last quarter.  Grant Robertson says, “Disaster recovery is not a plan for jobs”.

  16. Poverty Watch 29

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 8:34 am, May 4th, 2013 -  13 comments
    Categories: national, poverty
    Tags:

    Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week we continue with the 2012 report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. We also take a look at Mana’s Feed the Kids campaign, and the difference between the Nats’ glib promises in opposition and their actions in government.

  17. Key goes negative

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:15 am, May 2nd, 2013 -  156 comments
    Categories: election 2014, greens, john key, labour, spin
    Tags: ,

    John Key has gone hard negative, with his rants about North Korea and communism, and now an attack on the Greens. Negative is where you go when you don’t have a positive story to tell the electorate. I wonder if the Nats’ internal polling has got Key spooked…

  18. The NZ Herald – advancing Auckland backwards

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 10:52 am, May 1st, 2013 -  32 comments
    Categories: accountability, auckland supercity, class war, democratic participation, housing, infrastructure, local body elections, national, newspapers, progressives, public transport, spin, sustainability, vision
    Tags: ,

    To the Herald the Fourth Estate must be a greenfield development on the outer margins of Auckland: a Dickensian space, hiding the poor from the upper middle-classes. The Herald lacks critical balance & equal weighting for diverse views: it scaremongers about the Akl Unitary Plan & undermines public transport.

  19. Why Allan Miller wants you to keep paying too much for power

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 11:03 am, April 30th, 2013 -  46 comments
    Categories: capitalism, energy
    Tags: , ,

    Hot on the heels of electricity industry funded Lewis Evans publishing an op-ed about how terrible NZ Power is, another academic has popped up to claim the policy is the end of the world.

  20. Economic apocalypse – not

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:15 am, April 29th, 2013 -  15 comments
    Categories: energy, making shit up, spin
    Tags: , , , ,

    National and their proxies have claimed that Labour / Green NZ Power announcement has crashed the stock market and wiped out savings. Lies lies lies. Here’s the data.

  21. Loss of wealth? No, a redistribution of wealth

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 8:50 am, April 23rd, 2013 -  29 comments
    Categories: capitalism, class war, energy
    Tags:

    Eddie explored yesterday who stands to lose from falling asset values in electricity companies resulting from lower power prices. The answer: the Crown and foreign investors. Now, JBWere has estimated those book value losses at up tp $1.4b for Contact and Trustpower, meaning $4b all up. But, despite the cries from the Right, that doesn’t mean wealth is being lost, it’s moving.

  22. The “socialist” vs capitalist PR war: NZ Power

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 8:19 am, April 21st, 2013 -  123 comments
    Categories: assets, capitalism, david parker, energy, greens, infrastructure, labour, mana-party, news, privatisation, russel norman, same old national, socialism, spin
    Tags: ,

    The Key government and its allies are playing the “red scare” gambit, the Greens get to the heart of the reason for NZ Power, Parker goes Third Way, while Bernard Hickey and Matt McCarten weigh in to support the (alleged) “socialist” NZ Power policy. Bomber Bradbury adds some words of caution. [updated title]

  23. Reaction to NZ power

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:09 am, April 20th, 2013 -  98 comments
    Categories: capitalism, economy, energy, spin
    Tags:

    The Labour / Green electricity proposals picked up very significant support from Vector CEO Simon Mackenzie. Other analysts and commentators have weighed in with support, while some of the reaction from the business community has been (like the Nats) bordering on the unhinged.

  24. Poverty Watch 27

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 8:27 am, April 13th, 2013 -  12 comments
    Categories: national, poverty
    Tags:

    Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week we continue with the 2012 report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. In current news a new UNICEF report stresses the huge impact that the choices of governments can have on poverty. Our government quite literally does not want to know…

  25. Sums it up, really

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:56 am, April 12th, 2013 -  134 comments
    Categories: Economy, exports, jobs, privatisation, same old national
    Tags:

    National’s 3 quarters of the way through its time at the crease now. And what has it achieved? A record debt pile. 300,000 jobless. 100,000 underemployed. Rising poverty. 1,000 a week fleeing to Australia. A new housing bubble. A record high dollar that’s killing our businesses. And falling household incomes. A list of articles on Stuff sums it up.

  26. ImperatorFish: A statement from the Prime Minister

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 11:55 am, April 11th, 2013 -  2 comments
    Categories: john key, Satire
    Tags:

    The Government Security (Doing As They Please) Bill will be introduced next week, and this important piece of legislation will make it clear that our security and law enforcement agencies must operate within the framework of doing anything they want.

  27. The Scoop Foundation Project

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 8:53 am, April 11th, 2013 -  4 comments
    Categories: accountability, Media
    Tags: ,

    scoop-foundation

  28. More pay for them; bigger bills for us

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 1:09 pm, April 4th, 2013 -  24 comments
    Categories: accountability, capitalism, class war, national/act government, Privatisation, russel norman
    Tags: , ,

    Ryall has announced that Might River Power top brass will be receiving massive pay rises, in relation to the sale of the powercos. The directors have multiple positions, and questions have been raise about the past of one or two of them. They benefit; we pay.

  29. More BS Numbers from the Right

    Written By:  RedLogix -  Date published: 10:25 am, March 24th, 2013 -  27 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags:

    Today we again have the Herald’s resident ignoramus Damien Grant sounds off about something he knows nothing about. As usual just looking at numbers without understanding what they represent and leaps to wrong conclusions. For a start he tries to compare the $8000  Watercare charge for a new water supply connection with the much smaller […]

  30. Key’s Venezuelan snub

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 8:07 am, March 8th, 2013 -  277 comments
    Categories: International, john key, Minister for International Embarrassment, Minister for Overseas Holidays
    Tags:

    John Key’s decision to not attend Hugo Chavez’s funeral is a snub of a major trade partner at a crucial time. Remember, this junket’s justification is that, for some reason, Key’s presence in these countries will improve trade. But, in snubbing Venezuela, he is insulting our largest export destination in South America. Venezuela matters more than all the countries Key is visiting combined.

  31. Low priority: pedestrians & wheelchairs

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 11:00 am, February 26th, 2013 -  41 comments
    Categories: infrastructure, public transport, transport
    Tags: , ,

    A wheelchair got caught in the rail tracks, resulting in critical injuries.  Pedestrians are low priority, and people with disabilities even lower, making them/us vulnerable: poor pavements, hazardous road crossings, some inaccessible public transport… and more.

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