A letter to my middle-class, well meaning, professional, liberal friends and family
A post about the responsibility to advocate for change in a visible way.
Politics
activism
Lefties on The Standard #3
Another post on The Standard providing a discussion space for left-wing and progressive people only.
National MP Jian Yang was investigated by SIS for possible ties to Chinese Government
Newsroom and the Financial Times have reported that National MP Dr Jian Yang was educated at a Chinese University specialising on training spies and was investigated by the SIS for possible links to the Chinese Government.
WINZ and Super Scandals
Here’s the scandal.
Lefties on The Standard: MMP
Another experimental post on The Standard, providing a discussion space for left-wing and progressive people only.
Getting out the vote
Tips on helping people to enrol to vote.
The subversive power of joy
The subversive power of collective joy is maximised when it occurs in public, politicised spaces as an affirmation of collective identity.
Dylan Horrocks cartoon fundraiser for the Greens
…the original black & white art for page 152 of Dylan Horrocks’s graphic novel Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen (published 2014, nominated for an Eisner Award)
Lefties on The Standard
An experimental post on The Standard, providing a discussion space for left-wing people only.
This is no ordinary election (f*ck the polls)
This isn’t a set in stone election, it’s one that is in the midst of change, quite possibly big change. The Greens opened a door, what can we do to step through?
Digitally shaping the election
Social media offers a rich tool for profiling voters and targeting election advertising or informal messaging. There’s a good piece on RNZ today looking at the issue. How long before we see the methods used by Brexit and Trump campaigns employed in NZ?
Climate Change actions for the middle classes
It’s time to put our money and resources where our hearts and minds and values are.
Raging at Metiria is not about the fraud – it’s that she sided with the lepers
Graham Cameron cuts through the obsession over fraud to the cultural values of the last 30 years and the fear beneath.
Did English break the law during Dotcom debacle?
David Fisher on the Dotcom spying debacle: “But the legal action which disclosed the extended spying also targets English specifically, saying he acted “unlawfully” when he signed a ministerial certificate intended to bury the spying operation forever.”
Who are the real enemies of the centre left?
Simon Wilson recently claimed that left wingers and party members are problems for and enemies of Labour and the Greens. This is why I think he is wrong.
The left bites back
A little bit of feel good for a Sunday morning (plus a very clever cat!).
30 Years nuclear free!
Kiwis send a message to Tillerson
As Patrick Gower puts it, “English tries to hide from the reality of Trump’s America”. Fortunately ordinary Kiwis were not so supine.
UK Labour campaign ad
Prefigurative politics: being the change you want to see
In election year, we have some choices about how to proceed.
Rivers of poo protest
Photo: Fairfax / T Manch
A young person’s view on why we have to change the Government
At Labour’s North Shore candidate Romy Udanga’s recent campaign launch a fourteen year old young man spoke about why he wants to work to change the Government.
NRT: Spying for the whales
I/S at No Right Turn: “spies are corrosive of our values. Its one thing to spy in wartime, out of military necessity. Its quite another to do it in peace, on your friends, for self-advantage.
March for Science
“We, the people, march for science and knowledge to be reaffirmed as fundamental to the democratic decision making that supports society in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We add our voices to the chorus supporting US and international scientists who oppose recent political events that damage and undermine science and its use in the public interest.”
Mental health needs vs. cuts
The People’s Mental Health Review report puts the deterioration of our mental health system firmly in the spotlight. Despite a 60 per cent increase in demand since 2007/08 National has been slashing funding. Lives are at risk.
Thank you health care workers
This is a huge victory for health care workers, and for women. It is also a huge victory for “resurgent unions”. Will it alarm the private sector? I certainly hope so!
(Kristine Bartlett, photo Herald Mark Mitchell)
Climate change, political heroes, political culture
How ironic that Parliament is to debate climate change today, as the latest in a torrent of warming-fueled extreme weather events bears down on the country, and as the government charges Russel Norman and the other heroes trying to end oil exploration in NZ waters.
Greenpeace’s Taitu confronts oil exploration ship
Thank you Greenpeace, and specifically thank you Russel Norman and the crew of the Taitu, for taking to the seas to fight this little battle in the most important struggle of our age.
MSD and our privacy
National’s plans for our privacy and access to social services are a perfect cocktail of over-reach and incompetence.
Oil prospecting on the shores of Lake Te Anau?
The Nats are buying another fight with NZ’s nature lovers. Last time they tried something like this 50,000 marched in Auckland and they were forced to back down.
Greenpeace protesting oil conference in New Plymouth
Greenpeace protestors are blockading an oil conference in New Plymouth. “If we’re to have a future, oil can have no future.”
Climate change – beyond the politics and the maths and the fear
Climate change is the most important issue of all time. Beyond the politics and the maths and the fear there is simply doing the right thing.
Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed
Some very quick initial thoughts on expected reactions.
Social investment meets the surveillance state
First they came for the budgeting services. Now we know that every social service agency has to provide clients’ private personal data to […]
2017
The left is facing the possiblity of its fourth election loss in a row. What type of campaign should it run this year to win?
Willie Jackson on democracy
Willie Jackson is using his return to the political spotlight to good effect.