How this may play out
Developments on Covid-19 are happening at pace as we enter the make or break stage concerning the virus’s spread.
International
australian politics
Covid-19 – a political problem
Juice Media on the essential facts about the spread of Covid-19. It concentrates on the United States, where personally I’m picking the US, by the end of the year, as being the biggest medico-political screw up world wide after Iran. Early wishful thinking and a lack of transparency cost lives. Pathetic bullshitting simply doesn’t help.
Climate change – the right schemes and the left despairs
The Australian Liberal Government has signalled a movement away from solar and wind power to untested technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen and lithium. Meanwhile the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement is calling for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis.
Do not deport your people and your problems to New Zealand
Jacinda Ardern has trashed traditional notions of how New Zealand Australia relations are conducted when making the clear point that Australia should not be exporting Australian made problems who are barely kiwis to New Zealand.
The death of Holden
Thousands of households across New Zealand heard the announcement of the complete death of the Holden marque this week, as the death of one of the greatest binaries and one of the most closely teased and contested brands of all: Holden versus Ford.
The right is splintering on climate change
The right appears to be splintering on climate change, with former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull describing Donald Trump as the world’s leading climate change denier. And locally National MP Andrew Bayley has talked the profound effects of climate change on Antarctica’s ecosystems at the same time as Paula Bennett is attacking educational material designed to make children think about climate change.
Australian fires and the climate crisis everybody wanted to ignore
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog
Australia is no longer the lucky country
Australia is arguably no longer the lucky country. And if it does not resolve its addiction to coal it may not have a future.
He wasn’t here to help us, was he
The utter failure of the Australian Prime Minister to lead during the bushfire crisis reminds us that it’s care for our children and communities that drives climate action. When people mobilise politicians will follow.
Goodbye 2019
Throughout the world 2019 was the worst year for the left since 1979. What will 2020 bring?
What Cheeto, Bojo and Scomo are up to
It has been a tough week for conservative leaders with Trump impeached and the evangelical magazine Christianity Today calling for his resignation, Johnson in the UK announcing voter fraud measures reminiscent of the American deep South, and in Australia Morrison being criticised for missing in action, upstaged by a 13 year old girl and pushing through protection for religious bigotry that Israel Folau would be pleased with.
How to counter angry boomer campaigns
The UK election was won not by Russian bots but by older voters with limited technical skills circulating poorly designed ads. What can be done in New Zealand to counter what is clearly a right wing campaign tactic?
Strike Force Raptor for the win
National has proposed significant changes to the Criminal Justice system to create a Police group without evidence that it works, and that if enacted would make our prisons less safe and plug holes in our law that do not exist.
Learning to win fast
While Australia burns its conservative politicians still refuse to accept the enormity of the climate crisis and are acting to hinder and prevent measures that need to be taken to address what is a clear threat to the country’s future.
NZ First Youth drags party screaming and kicking into 20th century
At New Zealand First’s weekend conference the party’s youth wing has forced the party to rethink its ultra conservative view on pill testing services being offered at festivals.
Australia gets tough on climate change activists
Following on from Weka’s post yesterday concerning attacks on the right to protest in the United Kingdom, Australia has also shown a concerning tendency to attack and undermine that most important of rights.
Burning down the house
Why is it that conservative politicians throughout the world engage in rhetorical attacks on laws that in many situations actually serve important purposes?
Lying : the preferred denier behavior
In a striking example of the typical climate change denier, the “Australian Young Coal Coalition” released a photo bemoaning the mess left by […]
China, Climate Conference, and New Zealand
At the United Nations Climate Action Summit next weekend the question may be asked what would happen if China stopped buying Australian coal?
Legitimate target, daft war
The war that Saudi Arabia and its allies has been waging against the Houthi side in the civil war in Yemen took a […]
The Far Right’s Winning Narrative Superiority
Why is the right winning so many elections?
NRA: a international terrorist organisation
I was joyful to see that the San Francisco board of supervisors has declared what I have long thought; that the National Rifle Association in America has for many years been acting as a terrorist organisation. We should add them to our register of terrorist organisations as well.
Cmon Aussie …
In the last week Australia has insulted Pacific nations by refusing to commit to a 1.5 degree maximum increase in global temperatures and by claiming that Pacific Islands will be fine because they can pick Australia’s fruit. And Alan Jones has almost lost his job through misogynist attacks on Jacinda Ardern.
Slowing economy?
In May this year the New Zealand Treasury was projecting growth accelerating from 2.4% to 3% in 2019-20 while the Reserve Bank has pessimistically cut interest rates to 1%. Both can’t be right.
Nuclear chickens coming home?
The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty between the United State and Russia signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987 formally ended on August 2nd. On Sunday the new US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper dined privately with Winston Peters. Before and during his trip to the Pacific, Mark Esper called for placement of intermediate-range US missiles in Asia.
Arnhem Land and Ihumātao
A Recent High Court decision in Australia suggests that protection of indigenous land rights may be better than we think.
Dutton engages in weaponised brutality
Australia is responding to New Zealand’s concern at the forced repatriation of New Zealand citizens from Australia who fall foul of the law by dramatically increasing the potential for this to occur.
The weasel accurately dissects National.
Matthew Hooton has a piece on National’s chances in the next election this morning entitled as “National stumbling to defeat”. Personally I think he is a PR weasel who is on the border to dirty politics. But he did cover the salient points that will be on the mind of the National party conference.
Australian right wing commentators suffer from deranged Jacinda syndrome
Australian right wing commentators are losing their shirts at the thought that Jacinda Ardern may be in the running for a Nobel Peace prize.
National supports 47% tax rate for top income bracket *
* this is one possible interpretation for National’s praise of the Morrisonn Government’s change to Australian tax system.
FiveEyes on our elections
Andrew Little’s letter to the Select Committee on election interference puzzled me – it seemed to be out of the blue and not particularly relevant to our system. Then I read about a meeting on the Gold Coast last year and it became clear as to why – FiveEyes pressure.
Government under FiveEyes
Australian Federal Police chief Neil Gaughan told media after raiding the ABC that “if police did not investigate the leaking of classified information, Australia would no longer be entrusted by FiveEyes partners with intelligence that saves lives.” FiveEyes didn’t save Muslim lives in Christchurch.
The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand
With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.
Death tax fake news
Social media was responsible for the repeated broadcasting of the claim that Labor in Australia intended to bring in a death tax. What should happen when claims that are clearly wrong are made?
Will the Christian Conservatives rise again?
Simon Bridges has conceded that his claim that talk about Alfred Ngaro setting up a conservative party was “rumour and speculation” was not actually true. And Ngaro has gone on the offensive describing abortion as an unholy holocaust.
Aussie oi?
Overnight in Australia there was meant to be a change to a Labor Government. But something happened …