Post truth politics – White man behind a desk
Robbie from WBMAD analyses the current trend to make politics a truth free phenomenon, offers funny yet incisive comments on the effect of social media on politics and finishes with videos of cats.
Politics
Deep stuff
The manipulation of burglary statics
Reporter Eugene Bingham who broke the story on how Papakura police were doctoring crime statistics by recoding burglaries as other offences two years ago has written about how his attempts to get to the truth of the matter has effectively been thwarted by the police.
Festival of Dangerous Ideas
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) brings leading thinkers and culture creators from around the world to the Sydney Opera House stages and online to discuss and debate the important ideas of our time.
Things other than States
What are the New Zealand institutions other than the State who can achieve good for New Zealanders?
Refining an existing capacity to make the rubble bounce and bounce
UK Labour continues to embarrass progressives throughout the world after a majority of MPs voted to support renewal of the Trident program.
How to collapse liberal society
Liberal society is in reverse in many parts of the world. What do we do to arrest this?
God Botherer
God’s been a bit of a let down recently. Is it time for Him to retire?
GPS
GPS may offer the perfect way to enforce a fuel tax but how do we feel about the Government knowing where we are and where we are heading every minute of the day?
Guest Post: Dancing to the Neo-Liberal Songbook
In a guest post, regular commenter Tony Veitch takes some learnings from Noam Chomsky’s latest documentary Requiem for the American Dream. The neo-liberal plan has been in place for over thirty years. How come we’re only just starting to understand it?
Climate Change Change Pt 1: What are we waiting for?
Before government spending cuts there was The Riot for Austerity, a grass roots Climate Change movement that showed how it was possible for ordinary people to change and significantly reduce their carbon emissions without someone forcing them to.
Can We Trust Winston Peters?
Recent polling makes it clear that neither National or Labour can win power without the support of NZ First. So should the left be worried that Winston Peters will take his party back over to the blue team?
The Gun Club
In the wake of the shooting of four police officers in Kawerau, it’s time NZ had a cold, hard look at our gun culture. We need an inquiry that addresses both legal and illegal gun ownership. But there’s a related matter that also needs looking at …
Homosexual law reform happened 30 years ago
Some thoughts on yesterday’s gay pride parade and why National has in the space of 30 years changed from being deeply anti gay rights to being superficially in support.
Minister sacked over Chinese business trip
In Australia Stuart Robert has been dumped from Cabinet for mixing Ministry and personal business on a trip to China. Imagine what would happen if a Minister did that over here?
What was National’s role in the police raid on Nicky Hager?
Justice Clifford’s decision that the police raid of Nicky Hager’s home was illegal raises serious questions about what political pressure was applied on the police.
When Animals Attack!
Crikey! My Little Ponytail meets the Parnell mind meld. Cancel Xmas, I’ve already got my pressie!
Protection of National Security Information
At the heart of the project is the tension between national interests and individual rights. Questions about how to balance these interests are not new, but they have been brought into sharp focus by recent international events.
CERT: the partial privatisation of the GCSB
A public private organisation with the acronym CERT was announced this week along with the new cyber security strategy. CERT’s role is to provide information to government so it can protect against cyber threats. Which is one of the roles of the GCSB.
Imperator Fish: the Terrorist Test
Following from a tweet from Josie Pagani Imperator Fish has designed this handy quiz so that protesters can work out if they prefer ISIS to the TPP.
A Government of spin redux
The Herald has withdrawn a story that reported on Government pressure on the ERO to rewrite a report after what appears to be pressure from the Government to do so.
The threats facing NZ
Some buzz this morning about an official list of six “threats” facing NZ. For some reason most of the actual threats aren’t on the official list.
Congratulations Jane Kelsey
The High Court has upheld Jane Kelsey’s application for a declaration that the Government and Tim Groser improperly considered her application for information concerning the TPPA negotiations.
Anat Shenker-Osorio on the creation of left metaphors
Communications Anat Shenker-Osorio has some simple messages for Labour in its quest for Government. The left’s strongest advantage is its care for people rather than the economy and the message that will resonate is a positive one emphasising the care of people and the environment.
Future Jobs
I’m going to get to reviewing Labour’s next 3 Future of Work papers, honest.
But in the meantime, I have something to share from Andrew McAfee.
Just a great Ted Talk on YouTube.
The problem is child poverty not CYF
The Rebstock Panel inquiry could be read to confirm that Child Youth and Family is unable to perform its job properly because of it is not properly resourced to provide the job. But it is clear that National is loathe to provide it with any more resources. And the elephant in the room is that the Government fails to understand that escalating child poverty is the cause the crisis.
All the left wants is a clean contest of ideas
Josie Pagani yesterday chose as a left wing commentator to condemn Jeremy Corbyn’s politics as being based on narcissism where hard decisions never need to be made, and the unpopularity of a policy was evidence not of its failure but of its virtue. She should have analysed his history before making these claims. And in the interests of balance the media really needs to choose left wing commentators who will proudly stand up and support progressive ideals rather than repeat right wing attack lines.
Forget worm farms the Health and Safety Reform Bill proposes secret trials
The Government has snuck into the Health and Safety Reform Bill a provision that allows for withholding from the parties to court proceedings of classified security information and for decisions affecting their rights to be made on the basis of information they have no access to. This was not in the original bill and you have to wonder why such a contentious provision has been introduced so late.
Dirty Politics: Police refuse to charge Slater
The police are refusing to even let the Courts rule on whether Cameron Slater and Jason Ede hacked Labour’s server despite there being a serious issue to be considered and despite the need for our justice system to be transparent.
John Key – Snake Oil Salesman
John Key has tried to suggest that we have nothing to worry about planned changes to Pharmac caused by TPP. But a recent further release by Wikileaks on the effects of the Trans Pacific Partnership on State Owned Enterprises makes you wonder if the implications of TPP on Pharmac are as limited as he says.
Guest Post – What is Little’s vision for New Zealand?
A guest post from Ad following up from Mandy Hager’s recent post on Andrew Little exploring the question on what should be Labour’s, the Green’s and New Zealand First’s vision for New Zealand’s future.
The Cyber bullying law and Dirty Politics
The cyber bullying legislation is a cynical piece of law which allows National to claim that it has left dirty politics behind.
Edwards on politics and the media
It won’t come as a surprise to any Standardista, but it’s good to see Brent Edwards being up front about some of the systemic problems in politics and the media.
Is this progress?
Richard Harman has broken a story about the formation of a Blairite third way think tank within the Labour Party. Those involved include Stuart Nash, Phil Quin, Josie Pagani and Nick Legget.
Coup Coup Ca Choo!
So why was Maurice dancing with ACT? Why was Borrows bullshitting about bikes? Does Judith Collins sleep with a copy of the Art of War under her pillow? I don’t know, but I think we should be told.
The unusual case of the disappearing blog
Giovanni Tiso has discovered that Cactus Kate’s blog is slowly disappearing from the Internet.
Trends in America
Here’s some slow Monday reading to ponder, on political trends in America.