Search Results

  1. Make the film and be damned

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 8:58 am, June 18th, 2021 -  23 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff, film, Media, religion
    Tags:

    A company wants to make a film about the Christchurch mosque massacre on 15 March 2019. Maybe it should do.

  2. The Government’s Feebate scheme

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:00 am, June 14th, 2021 -  70 comments
    Categories: climate change, Environment, global warming, greens, labour, michael wood, national, science, transport
    Tags:

    Labour and the Greens have announced the establishment of a Feebate scheme to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles and disincentivise the purchase of gas guzzlers.

  3. The Climate Commission Report

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 5:19 pm, June 9th, 2021 -  54 comments
    Categories: climate change, ETS, labour, science
    Tags:

    As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.

  4. Where Did Business Go?

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 8:56 am, May 22nd, 2021 -  34 comments
    Categories: budget 2021, business, david seymour, Economy
    Tags:

    Back in the day when we had useful Opposition, business leadership could be relied upon to think as if they had interests in common as business. This budget, their ability to think let alone lead has deserted them.

  5. Hang Facebook

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 11:15 am, May 9th, 2021 -  30 comments
    Categories: democracy under attack, facebook, human rights, Media, Politics, Social issues
    Tags:

    The decision by the Oversight Board of Facebook to continue banning Donald Trump is one of the biggest moves against free speech and the modern definition of its limits that the world has seen.

  6. About the public service pay freeze

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:40 am, May 6th, 2021 -  45 comments
    Categories: chris hipkins, grant robertson, Living Wage, uncategorized, Unions, wages, workers' rights
    Tags:

    A few of us on the left have issues with the public service wage freeze announced yesterday. By setting the salary level so low, at $60,000 per annum, the threat is that previous gains for teachers and nurses will be undermined.

  7. Regenerative agriculture and climate solutions

    Written By:  weka -  Date published: 6:05 am, May 6th, 2021 -  94 comments
    Categories: climate change, economy, farming, food, sustainability
    Tags: , ,

    Research is now showing the advantages of regenerative agriculture. Are we wise enough to make best use of them?

  8. Boris Johnson’s and Dominic Cummings’ very public fallout

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 10:54 am, April 27th, 2021 -  17 comments
    Categories: boris johnson, uk politics
    Tags:

    Over in the UK Boris Johnson and his former chief advisor Dominic Cummings have had a very public fallout.  And ever since it happened there have been very public leaks of damaging information which incredibly have not as yet damaged the Conservative Party’s standing.

  9. The politics of the Covid vaccination roll out

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:15 am, April 12th, 2021 -  91 comments
    Categories: chris bishop, covid-19, health, national, same old national
    Tags:

    Poor National.  Faced with a Government response to Covid that has been superb it is reduced to criticising the Government for not rolling out the Covid vaccine quickly enough.

  10. Click bait frenzy

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:04 am, April 8th, 2021 -  69 comments
    Categories: jacinda ardern, Media, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, uncategorized
    Tags:

    Media has been awash with discussion about Mike Hosking’s recent interaction with Jacinda Ardern.  She was invited onto his show, agreed to appear, was grilled on isolation facility beds, and gave responses.  End of story you would think.

  11. National’s leadership problem

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:48 am, March 30th, 2021 -  42 comments
    Categories: Christopher Luxon, Judith Collins, national, Parliament, same old national, uncategorized
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    Chris Luxon’s maiden speech last week and another example of multiple leaks of details of a caucus meeting highlight how precarious Judith Collins’ tenure as National Party leader is.  But does someone have the numbers to replace her?

  12. Dirty politics denouement

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 10:27 am, March 4th, 2021 -  29 comments
    Categories: blogs, Dirty Politics, the praiseworthy and the pitiful
    Tags:

    Another chapter of dirty politics has reached its conclusion with Carrick Graham offering an abject apology to Doug Sellman, Boyd Swinburn and Shane Bradbook for smearing their reputation via the Whaleoil website.

  13. The case for mandatory legislative review

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 9:12 am, February 24th, 2021 -  15 comments
    Categories: covid-19, Parliament
    Tags:

    You can’t read legislation for very long without finding instances of weird edge cases. But is also why we have kids trying to walk or bike on gravel roads with no sidewalks to get to school. When modern cars travel these narrow lanes at up to 100km/hour. Parliament has no systematic way to review obsolete legislation.

  14. Who’s the wokester?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:57 am, February 24th, 2021 -  41 comments
    Categories: Judith Collins, national, police, same old national, Simon Bridges
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    Simon Bridges has repeated claims that Police Commissioner Andy Coster is “wokester” and has underlined how weak National’s caucus discipline is.

  15. Texas’s power crisis

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:26 am, February 18th, 2021 -  89 comments
    Categories: climate change, making shit up, science, spin, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags:

    Over in the US of A in the great state of Texas and in surrounding states locals are experiencing unusually cold weather and are suffering from the effects.  But instead of blaming their not fit for purpose electrical systems they are blaming the Green New Deal, even though it has not been implemented.

  16. Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi …

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:30 am, February 17th, 2021 -  144 comments
    Categories: Andrew Little, australian politics, jacinda ardern, scoundrels
    Tags:

    Yesterday Jacinda Ardern chose to use decidedly undiplomatic speech to address Australia’s removal of its citizenship from a Jihadi bride leaving her as New Zealand’s problem, even though her link to New Zealand was tenuous and she was for all intents and purposes Australia’s problem.  And even though Ardern had previously asked Scomo to be careful with the issue.

  17. Will Technology Solve Climate Change?

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 6:01 am, February 14th, 2021 -  87 comments
    Categories: climate change, sustainability
    Tags: ,

    What if we actually planned to reduce energy usage significantly while revamping the economy to promote happiness and well-being? Then it would be far easier to replace our remaining energy usage with renewable sources. – Richard Heinberg

  18. Parliament’s tie issue

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:29 am, February 10th, 2021 -  90 comments
    Categories: maori party, Parliament, twitter
    Tags:

    Not wearing a tie in Parliament is a weird issue for the Maori Party to get ready to die in a ditch about.  But the rules should be changed.

  19. Reasons to abandon NZ’s Five-Eyed Folly

    Written By:  khaki -  Date published: 2:35 pm, February 4th, 2021 -  29 comments
    Categories: australian politics, China, Culture wars, defence, economy, Free Trade, john key, spin, Spying, surveillance, telecommunications, trade, uk politics, us politics
    Tags:


    Wayne Brown’s recent suggestion “Is it time to sell our seat on FiveEyes?” is from someone well placed by experience to form an educated opinion. “Trade sanctions of the type Australia is facing are a weapon used by both USA and China. So let’s have a debate on whether we need Five Eyes, or whether it’s time for us to trade on independently.”

  20. Trifold Politics and Boundaries

    Written By:  RedLogix -  Date published: 8:47 am, January 30th, 2021 -  34 comments
    Categories: conservatives, democratic participation, liberalism, Politics, social democracy, uncategorized
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    Over the past year I’ve outlined in the comments an alternative triplet political model to the standard left/right description that’s the usual default. It’s the default for a reason, it’s simple and most of the time it’s a ‘good enough’ approximation to reality, and nothing I’m going to suggest below is intended or expected to […]

  21. The fascinating story about when some redditors took on Wall Street

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:26 pm, January 29th, 2021 -  22 comments
    Categories: capitalism, Financial markets, internet, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, uncategorized
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    The world has been watching, mostly with amusement, as some redditors have brought a Wall Street merchant bank to its knees, by buying stocks in a company, GameStop who has seen better days and whose business model is antiquated.

  22. Anatomy of a failed coup

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 8:58 am, January 8th, 2021 -  175 comments
    Categories: democracy under attack, Donald Trump, making shit up, Politics, spin, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags:

    America’s descent into chaos was almost completed yesterday.  An amazingly inept display by local police saw a takeover of Congress and a temporary disruption of the confirmation of the clearly expressed view of the majority of Americans.

  23. An Introvert’s Guide to Spending Money*

    Written By:  Incognito -  Date published: 1:38 pm, December 29th, 2020 -  30 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff
    Tags: , , , , ,

    Don’t waste your money on shit, spend it on good shit.

  24. Nanaia Mahuta – Peacebroker

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 6:07 pm, December 16th, 2020 -  22 comments
    Categories: australian politics, China, culture, human rights, Maori Issues, Nanaia Mahuta, us politics
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    “Do I believe that there might be an opportunity for New Zealand to create a different environment and have a conversation? Yes, I do.” Nanaia Mahuta told Reuters on Tuesday the country would be willing to help negotiate a truce between neighbouring Australia and regional heavyweight China, who are caught in an escalating trade and diplomatic spat. Great idea.

  25. Brexit revisited

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 7:19 am, December 13th, 2020 -  19 comments
    Categories: boris johnson, Brexit, Free Trade, spin, trade, uk politics, uncategorized, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags:

    With Brexit looming there is talk of unfinished customs software and the possibility of chaos around ports, the UK’s food supply being compromised, and potential skirmishes with France at fishing spots.  And Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are refusing to talk to Boris Johnson.  Hang on England, this is going to get wild.

  26. The Speech From The Throne

    Written By:  advantage -  Date published: 7:35 am, November 27th, 2020 -  21 comments
    Categories: climate change, covid-19, Economy, farming, health, housing, labour, Parliament, uncategorized
    Tags:

    I’m sure one needs a particular depth of political nerdiness to give a flying fig about such things, but since I am one of those, these are my highlights from the speech from the throne to Parliament this week.

  27. National’s annual conference

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:47 am, November 22nd, 2020 -  64 comments
    Categories: election 2020, Judith Collins, national, same old national
    Tags:

    National has heeded the calls for change and rejuvination by returning Peter Goodfellow as its president.

  28. Covid and contact tracing

    Written By:  weka -  Date published: 4:46 pm, November 12th, 2020 -  32 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags: , ,

    News of a new community case in Auckland, and the need for us all to be taking precautions and keeping track of our movements and contacts.

  29. A tsunami of wing clipped kiwi?

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 9:52 am, November 9th, 2020 -  45 comments
    Categories: Economy, exports, immigration, International
    Tags:

    The rush back home has definitely been happening and appears to mainly be constrained at present by the limits on quarantine facilities. It has already helped to mitigate the drops in immigration and probably will in the future. Nowhere near as economically important and productive as our exports. But useful for reducing unemployment for those not exposed to the export economy.