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Extinction Rebellion

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, November 2nd, 2018 - 35 comments

In the United Kingdom, Extinction Rebellion, a new mass direct-action group modeled on Occupy, has emerged with the goal of forcing the Government to take urgent action on climate change.

Getting rid of bitcoin could help save the planet

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, November 1st, 2018 - 39 comments

There is a rather simple way for the world to do something significant about climate change and global warming. All that we have to do is work out how to get rid of bitcoin.

Daily Review 31/10/2018

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, October 31st, 2018 - 33 comments

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 …

What is up with National?

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, October 31st, 2018 - 46 comments

National appears to be rattled and introverted right now.  Is the continuing saga involving Jami-Lee Ross the cause?

National’s very bad day in the house

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 pm, October 30th, 2018 - 86 comments

National had a spectacularly bad day today in Parliament.

National’s Judith problem

Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, October 30th, 2018 - 50 comments

Judith Collins has landed herself in trouble for publicising details of a young couple who just bought a Kiwibuild home.

National badly wants Kiwibuild to crash

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, October 30th, 2018 - 339 comments

National is complaining that Labour is not solving the National imposed housing crisis quickly enough.

Brazil turns right

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, October 29th, 2018 - 90 comments

Brazil has elected as its next President a 63-year-old former paratrooper who built his campaign around pledges to crush corruption, crime and a supposed communist threat.

Democracy and peace in the USA

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, October 28th, 2018 - 115 comments

In the land of the free and the brave there is news of voting machines changing votes from Democrat to Republican candidates, mass stripping of voting rights and closing of voting booths in Democrat areas, and right wing extreme violence caused by escalating rhetoric from the POTUS.

Eye of the storm

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, October 27th, 2018 - 106 comments

Simon Bridges thinks that he is past trouble caused by the Jami-Lee Ross incident.  But the way things are developing he may be in the middle of things.

Nothing to worry about

Written By: - Date published: 7:36 am, October 25th, 2018 - 48 comments

National thinks that it has weathered the storm caused by the Jami-Lee Ross revelations and it has nothing to worry about even though the Police have gone to the Electoral Commission.  And Simon Bridges has been in touch with Cameron Slater.  What could go wrong?

Australia’s refugee problem

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, October 24th, 2018 - 89 comments

The Liberal Party has potentially lost one of its safest seats to an independent who campaigned on doing something about climate change and the Nauru refugees.

Uncharted Waters

Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, October 23rd, 2018 - 175 comments

Trevor Mallard is grappling with the implications of Jami-Lee Ross’s status under the Mental Health Act.

Everything is awesome

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, October 21st, 2018 - 463 comments

National is trying to say that everything is fine with Simon Bridges’ leadership, that he has handled the Jami-Lee Ross crisis well and that his leadership is assured. I beg to differ.

Two Chinese are more valuable than two Indians

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, October 19th, 2018 - 87 comments

The repercussions of Jami-Lee Ross’s expulsion continue to be felt.  Disclosures about complaints regarding Ross’s behaviour are difficult to reconcile with what Bridges and Bennett have said recently. And National’s relationship with ethnic groups has taken a battering.

The Jamilee tweets

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, October 18th, 2018 - 246 comments

Jami-Lee Ross has released the tape of his talking with Simon Bridges where the suggestion was made that two Chinese MPs would be more valuable than two Indian MPs. And Melanie Reid has published an article containing the allegations of four women against Ross of inappropriate behaviour.

Mutually assured destruction

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, October 17th, 2018 - 380 comments

Paula Bennett has broken the understanding that MPs do not refer to each other’s private lives.  And Jami-Lee Ross has alleged that a $100,000 donation was split so that it did not have to be declared and it has been confirmed that National then nominated the donor for a Queen’s Birthday Honour.

National’s caucus meeting today – nothing to see here

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 16th, 2018 - 83 comments

All eyes will be on National’s caucus meeting today.  And Simon Bridges will need to explain what Jami-Lee Ross meant when he said that he had recorded a conversation where he was asked by Bridges to break the law.

National leaks again

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, October 15th, 2018 - 107 comments

Duncan Garner has this morning revealed further leaked information from within National concerning Simon Bridges’ disastrous polling and indicating that he received a donation from a company with links to the Exclusive Brethren.

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For a Better New Zealand?

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, October 15th, 2018 - 44 comments

A new political party has emerged with what could be loosely described as a stunning website.

Light rail in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, October 14th, 2018 - 96 comments

There has been some push back against the Government’s light rail proposal for Dominion Road from some unlikely sources.  But they are concentrating on what is best for airport users, not what is best for the city as a whole.

Simon Bridges is totes relaxed about his leak inquiry

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, October 13th, 2018 - 26 comments

After spending over a hundred thousand dollars on the inquiry into who leaked his travel information Simon Bridges now claims that he is no longer worried about who leaked his travel expense information.

Another reminder that climate change is happening

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, October 12th, 2018 - 63 comments

Hurricane Michael is exactly the sort of weather event that climate change scientists predicted would occur because of climate change.

The leak inquiries

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, October 11th, 2018 - 37 comments

Trevor Mallard has shut down one possible conclusion of National’s leak inquiry by conducting his own inquiry into his office which has concluded that the leak of Bridges’ travel information did not come from there.

National’s firearms forums – what could go wrong?

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, October 10th, 2018 - 125 comments

National has launched a series of public meetings to discuss a major issue.  Not child poverty or climate change or how badly wrong Steven Joyce’s $11.5 billion hole claim was, but guns.

Grant Robertson is a financial genius

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, October 9th, 2018 - 80 comments

Remember the $11.5 billion hole that Stephen Joyce and National said Labour was going to leave the country with?  Well the 2017/18 financial books have been completed and released and the Government’s surplus was $2.4 billion greater than forecast.

Do we have cheaper fuel or do we trash the planet?

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, October 9th, 2018 - 64 comments

On the day that the IPCC has confirmed that the world is running out of time to do something to try and preserve what we have National and associated entities have complained that fuel prices are too high.

At least Labour wants to save the planet

Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, October 8th, 2018 - 46 comments

The Government is consulting on changes to the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Bill to prevent further offshore drilling permits being issued. Locally the right are saying it will make things worse. And in the US of A the Trump administration has conceded that out of control climate change is inevitable.

Banksy piece sells at auction for record price, then shreds itself

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, October 7th, 2018 - 29 comments

A Banksy piece has shredded itself shortly after being sold for a record price.

Meanwhile in America …

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, October 6th, 2018 - 123 comments

America has had an interesting week with Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court all but confirmed, Donald Trump’s finances being the subject of an intensive review by the New York Times and Trump being filmed boarding Air Force One with a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe.

RIP Penny Bright

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, October 5th, 2018 - 33 comments

Veteran Auckland political activist Penny Bright has died.