Search Results

  1. Terry Pratchett has gone to meet Death

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 6:31 am, March 13th, 2015 -  48 comments
    Categories: death with dignity, humour
    Tags: ,

    “It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.”
    ― Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

  2. A Bright Spark Burning…

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 1:39 pm, March 11th, 2015 -  40 comments
    Categories: activism, community democracy, democracy under attack, democratic participation, International, Left, patriarchy, political alternatives, political education, Politics, Revolution, Syria, vision, war
    Tags: , , , , , ,

    A further piece on the peoples’ revolution within Northern Syria.

  3. UPDATED: Developers will save Kauri – for a Price

    Written By:  tracey -  Date published: 12:30 pm, March 11th, 2015 -  40 comments
    Categories: capitalism, Conservation, Environment
    Tags:

    Was driving through Henderson today toward the City centre and spotted a car with screen painting on its bumper…

    “Keep Kauri standing”…

  4. Discussion starter for the day…

    Written By:  mhager -  Date published: 7:49 pm, March 10th, 2015 -  116 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, International, monetary policy, overseas investment, Politics, us politics, war
    Tags:

    I’d love to share these two posts with you and pick your brains on what you think!

  5. Key’s credibility and the Snowden leaks

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:03 am, March 8th, 2015 -  71 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, Deep stuff, election 2014, Globalisation, john key, journalism, national, Politics, same old national, us politics
    Tags: , ,

    The Sunday Star Times has reported on the set up and reach of the Waihopai Spy Base.  Key’s statement that the GCSB does not have the physical capability to conduct mass surveillance appears to be not true.

  6. Dita de Boni on zero-hour contracts

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 1:30 pm, March 6th, 2015 -  7 comments
    Categories: employment, workers' rights
    Tags: , , ,

    When Michael Woodhouse and the bosses’ lobby are talking about “workplace flexibility”, you know who’s flexing their muscles.

  7. NZ spies on its Pacific neighbours

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 6:29 am, March 5th, 2015 -  170 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, Deep stuff, International, john key, national, Politics
    Tags: , , ,

    Nicky Hager and the Herald have reported that the GCSB has been collecting data en masse from New Zealand’s pacific neighbours and handed it over to the Americans for inclusion in xkeystore.

  8. Key folds on pay rises

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 4:41 pm, March 2nd, 2015 -  82 comments
    Categories: Parliament, wages
    Tags: ,

    Key has folded on MPs’ pay rises. Vernon Small and others are covering events on Twitter.

  9. Do the young really lack concentration?

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 1:23 pm, March 1st, 2015 -  85 comments
    Categories: admin, blogs, humour, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, The Standard
    Tags:

    Now that I can no longer call myself young, the old adage that younger people simply lack concentration does appear to me to be correct. I look to the numbers on The Standard to see if there is a correlation and if I can argue a causation based on age. Are the younger readers without concentration, or are they just busy…

  10. Carmel stood down for possible conflict of interest

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 6:48 pm, February 25th, 2015 -  231 comments
    Categories: Andrew Little, labour
    Tags:

    Carmel Sepuloni’s mother has had charges of benefit fraud being laid against her. Andrew Little has done the sensible thing and stood down her as its social development spokesperson. While I’m sure that we will still get the dribbling trolls, this is how potential conflicts of interest should be handled. Updated.

  11. Polity: Excluded middle

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 2:59 pm, February 25th, 2015 -  24 comments
    Categories: national, same old national
    Tags: , , , ,

    National counterattack line on Iraq is now out and about, courtesy of National’s tester and parrot of lines – National pollster David Farrar at Kiwiblog. It consists of two contradictory lines about Labour. Also neither line is true. But they are just there for the ‘journalists’ to mindlessly repeat in the evening news.

  12. SkyCity Insider trading?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 2:36 pm, February 18th, 2015 -  24 comments
    Categories: national, winston peters
    Tags: ,

    SkyCity’s share price went up just before the recent Government announcement of the deal with SkyCity.  Winston Peters wonders if some insider trading was involved.

  13. The truth about The Standard

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:50 am, February 15th, 2015 -  258 comments
    Categories: The Standard
    Tags: , ,

    There are some persistent lies and a lot of nonsense written about this blog. The truth is really simple…

  14. The Sabin issue timeline

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 12:08 pm, February 3rd, 2015 -  277 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, Andrew Little, john key, journalism, Media, national, national/act government, news, same old national
    Tags: , ,

    An analysis of the timeline and a reading of Cameron Slater’s comments concerning Mike Sabin raises real questions about the veracity of what Key has been saying to the media.  Update:  It appears that David Garrett and Rodney Hide have expressed views wondering if Key’s statement about when he was told is actually correct. Update:  And Matthew Hooton suggests that the Police may have advised the Government of the invesigation.

  15. Queensland and Northland

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 5:30 pm, February 1st, 2015 -  49 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags:

    The conventional wisdom re the Queensland election late last year was  ”that converting (Labor’s) current tally of nine seats into the 45 needed for a majority will be a bridge or more too far.”  Anastascia Palaszczuk was obviously not conventional but was wise enough to dare to win on community issues. A community-issue based campaign in Northland could also spring a surprise here.

  16. Green Party announcement – Russel Norman to stand down as leader

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 10:50 am, January 30th, 2015 -  237 comments
    Categories: greens, Politics, russel norman
    Tags: , , ,

    Twitter has gone berserk about an announced Green Party press conference for 11 am today. Initial speculation is that a Green MP may be standing down. Update: One News has tweeted Russell Norman has resigned as leader. Update: Russel’s Norman’s statement added.

  17. Andrew Little State of the Nation in 2015

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 8:00 am, January 28th, 2015 -  302 comments
    Categories: Andrew Little, labour, Politics
    Tags:

    The speech notes from Andrew Little’s State of the Nation speech delivered this morning

  18. can we just ignore it?

    Written By:  stargazer -  Date published: 1:11 pm, January 27th, 2015 -  11 comments
    Categories: Media, religion
    Tags:

    somebody says something stupid about muslims.  then it has to be picked up by every media organisation who rush around for comments.  of course they’ll find some muslims who will be angry and upset, given the serious stupidity of the comments.  then the media report how OUTRAGED those muslims are, as well as interviewing the original culprit to give more air to his views.

  19. The image of farming

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 10:10 am, January 25th, 2015 -  98 comments
    Categories: Conservation, farming
    Tags: ,

    Farmers are copping stick for doing what the rest of us are doing. We all need to change, not just them.

  20. Armstrong and Small on Nick Smith’s RMA reforms

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 9:05 am, January 24th, 2015 -  26 comments
    Categories: journalism, local government, Media, national, newspapers, Politics, same old national
    Tags:

    Senior political reporters Vern Small and John Armstrong have both chosen to pan Nick Smith’s proposed RMA changes using remarkably similar logic.  Update: and Fran O’Sullivan has a go too.

  21. Metiria Turei’s speech prepared for Ratana

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 8:00 am, January 24th, 2015 -  88 comments
    Categories: greens, john key, Maori Issues, Metiria Turei, Politics
    Tags: ,

    Metiria Turei’s speech prepared for delivery at Ratana has attracted some attention for her strong criticism of John Key’s revisionism of Aotearoa’s history in suggesting that Aotearoa was settled peaceably.

  22. Advertisements pretending to be news

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:45 am, January 13th, 2015 -  25 comments
    Categories: journalism, Media, newspapers
    Tags: , ,

    No surprises to find that The Herald is sliding in to the muddy waters of “advertorials”.

  23. The Hypocrisy of Hate

    Written By:  mhager -  Date published: 4:07 pm, January 11th, 2015 -  223 comments
    Categories: cartoons, democracy under attack, Dirty Politics, Ethics, Europe, International, john key, military, national/act government, news, Politics, twitter, uncategorized, war
    Tags:

    You’d think that with all the WW1 commemorations going on at the moment it would make us more vigilant about our freedom and security, not sleep-walking towards another Holy Crusade (in the name of the God of Money and Father of Fossil Fuels), seduced by slick liars and the gods of commercialism and greed.

  24. Free speech and surveillance online

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 12:00 pm, January 7th, 2015 -  46 comments
    Categories: Abuse of power, human rights, internet, interweb, Spying
    Tags: , , , ,

    A long, fascinating piece by Glenn Greenwald on The Intercept this morning.

  25. Guest Post: from a Fairy Godmother

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 6:50 pm, December 29th, 2014 -  36 comments
    Categories: jobs, unemployment, workers' rights
    Tags:

    How can young unemployed people get help in finding a job, when they have been trying to get one for some time?

  26. SkyCity’s expected subvention explained for John Roughan

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 9:28 am, December 27th, 2014 -  42 comments
    Categories: accountability, Economy, journalism, Politics, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, The Standard, you couldn't make this shit up
    Tags: , ,

    At last, some of our conservative short-term thinkers have woken up to the elephant in the room with the SkyCity convention centre subvention. Years late and their previous support has cost taxpayers dearly already. Perhaps they could learn to read reports? And think before committing us to be suckers?

  27. Bill Gates on Piketty and inequality

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 10:00 am, December 26th, 2014 -  64 comments
    Categories: blogs, books, capitalism, class war, discrimination, tax
    Tags: ,

    Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century came to the strong conclusion that capitalism left by itself will increase inequality and cause increased risk of social, economic and democratic upheaval.  He has an unlikely supporter, albeit critical, in Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world.

  28. One word away from needing food parcels

    Written By:  tracey -  Date published: 1:05 pm, December 24th, 2014 -  71 comments
    Categories: class, Economy, jobs, national/act government, workers' rights
    Tags:

    The smug middle class National voter seems oblivious to how close they are to financial hardship…

  29. We need to talk about the F word… closely followed by the V word.

    Written By:  mhager -  Date published: 1:43 pm, December 19th, 2014 -  70 comments
    Categories: families, feminism, human rights, sexism, Social issues, uncategorized
    Tags:

    Feminism is a reaction. A position. A belief that women should, by right, be entitled to all the same ‘privileges’ as men: fair pay, high quality free education, control of their own money (and bodies), freedom to choose who to love and how to act. Freedom of movement, association, dress, beliefs. Respect as an equal. Opportunity. Equity in decision-making. A voice.

  30. So what is happening with the price of oil?

    Written By:  mickysavage -  Date published: 10:00 am, December 18th, 2014 -  137 comments
    Categories: climate change, Economy, energy, Environment, Europe, global warming, International, iraq, us politics
    Tags:

    The price of crude oil has nearly halved in the past six months and is causing massive repercussions throughout the world with both the Russian economy and the American Shale Oil industry under threat.  The geopolitical implications are complex.

  31. Bill English reviews the economy

    On the economy and tax cut bribes

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:24 am, December 18th, 2014 -  9 comments
    Categories: bill english, debt / deficit, economy, national
    Tags: , , ,

    National are not responsible for the eventual recovery, they are responsible for delaying it.

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