Right-wing American stupidity is now a global crisis
The Trump regime has begun the process of dismantling environmental protections in America, including those designed to limit carbon emissions / climate change.
International
China is in New Zealand to stay
At a time when the United States is reducing its diplomatic capacity and its willingness to enter into International Treaties New Zealand’s willingness to deal with China places it in an almost unique position in the western world.
NZDF credibility on the line
There were several significant developments on Hit and Run and the NZDF over the weekend. Which version of the NZDF story is it that Bill English backs 100%?
Mosul and Aleppo. They’re spelled differently.
Not so much a tale of two cities as the tales we were spun in relation to one.
Global oil and global decline
Peak oil is being talked again with suggestions that it may be only 5 years away. And Saudi Arabia’s Aramco is thinking of starting to divest itself of its petroleum assets.
Trumpcare down in flames
Good news (for those following the tragedy that is American politics).
Impossible to refuse an inquiry
Bill English should stop being evasive and just get on with an inquiry into the fiasco outlined in Hit and Run. The latest developments make any other outcome ridiculous. The longer English delays the worse he looks.
London attack
A person has carried out an attack on Parliament in London. Guardian: “Four people have died, including a police officer and one man believed to be the attacker, police said.”
Wayne Mapp does not deny civilian deaths in botched raid
Good on you Wayne. Hit just got real.
Hit and Run – time for an inquiry
Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book Hit and Run makes a compelling case for the Government to conduct a full inquiry to see if New Zealand forces were complicit in the killing of innocent men and women and if there was a cover up.
Hit and Run
The book’s synopsis, background, and Q and A from Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson.
What are we America now?
Last night ONE News had an important exclusive on Syrian-born Kiwis who say they are being subjected to “intrusive and unnecessary searches” at our border, including demands to pass over social media passwords. This needs an investigation, and if some officers are crossing the line, it needs to be dealt with quickly.
Mixed result in Netherlands
I guess it’s good that some parts of the world are going nuts at a slower rate than others?
#Trumpcare
The proposed Republican replacement of Obamacare will, surprise surprise, result in lower benefits, reduced coverage and a tax cut for the wealthy.
National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing
Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.
Free market efficiency in health – not
The idea of free market efficiency is not nearly as powerful or universal as its (often fanatical) proponents would have us believe. The sorry state of the USA’s health system is yet another compelling example of its limitations.
Cat Among the Pigeons
Nicolas Sturgeon to seek the authority of the Scottish Parliament to agree the details of a Section 30 Order that will allow the Scottish Parliament to legislate for an independence referendum.
Five ways Donald Trump is wrong about Islam
Donald Trump’s recently announced replacement policy in immigration is wrong. And this is why.
Slightly smug about MMP
2017 will be New Zealand’s eighth election under MMP, over 22 years. With very strong democratically elected governments appearing right across the world digging in for the long term, it’s useful to take a moment for MMP.
The social damage wrought by homes as commoditites
A recent UN report highlights the waste of treating homes as commodities. It should sound awfully familiar in the NZ context.
Trump’s confidence: The kiss of death?
Watching Steve Brannon and his alter ego Donald Trump operate from a long way away is almost amusing. Total confidence == Jeff Sessions needs to recuse himself from the enquiry into unlawful contacts with the Russians..
Jon Stewart skewering Tr*mp and the MSM
Making the most of getting dumped by DT
Two editorials on immigration
Two very contrasting opinion pieces on racism, housing, jobs, and the immigration debate.
Tr*mp and Bannon on the end of the state
not with a whimper but a bang.
English hammered on ‘druggies’ smear
English will be worried that he got hammered like this, when Key got away with all sorts of insults and lies. And if you think your fellow Kiwis are useless workers you’re doing it wrong.
Bill’s bigoted drug reckons vs the evidence
Some folks Bill knows are telling him stuff and he’s basing immigration policy on it. The facts say otherwise. Bill English is full of shit and it’s time that more media called him on it.
Where to now for the left?
With the right in ascendancy throughout the Western World what does the left do to change this?
Trump Whitehouse bans critical media from briefing
It is day 37 of Donald Trump’s reign as POTUS. Today he decided to attack elements of the press that have been critical of him by banning them from a press conference.
Australia’s war
Surprising no one: “A newly declassified report obtained by Fairfax Media reveals Australia’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq was undertaken solely to enhance our alliance with the US.”
1984
That Orwell was ahead of his time.
Jonathan Pie – A Socialist agenda
Jonathan Pie on why being a socialist is actually a good thing.
The Trump bump
This week’s Economist looks at the resurgence in the business of the more effective mainstream media in the US. But the effect reaches all the way over here. Even I’m reading more on a the ongoing debacle that is the incompetent Trump White House. Good reporting and perfect reading for the summer season and I suspect that it is impacting all of the blogs at present.
The new world order
With former adversaries USA and Russia now the best of friends and with China now emerging again as the preeminent economy in the world the question is will the transition of power be handled smoothly?
Watching the journalists
“The obligation of a journalist is to serve the public”
John Oliver returns – calls Trump ‘a pathological liar’
Our long Oliver-less nightmare is over.
Hypocrisy watch – Michael Flynn
Over in the United States of Trumpsville National Security Advisor to the Trump White House Mike Flynn, who famously said that Hillary Clinton should be locked up for threatening national security by having a private email server, has been sacked for threatening national security and for lying to the vice president.