Sir Lynton Crosby and Dame Paula Rebstock
The British Conservative Government and the New Zealand National Government have both rewarded their friends with titles.
International
Kim Dotcom to be extradited?
The District Court has ruled in favour of Kim Dotcom being extradicted.
Treachery and silly season political snippets
There’s still a few MPs “on duty”. Their function is to maintain the semblance of active government and to roll out a bunch of announcements they hope will escape full scrutiny.
Apparently solar panels suck up all the sun’s energy and cause cancer
Elected representatives in Woodland North Carolina were persuaded by arguments that solar panels were sucking up all of the sun’s energy, were preventing plants from photosynthesising and were causing cancer to ban a proposed solar panel farm.
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.
COP21 making history
Big news from COP21 in Paris, with a final draft of the agreement just released. It is sounding surprisingly good, 1.5 degree target, “fair, durable, balanced and legally-binding”.
Eagle vs. Trump
“Jihadi brides” and Peter Dunne
Like a stopped watch, Peter Dunne sometimes gets it right.
Le Pen, Trump, dark times
As the world meets in Paris, in desperate need of sanity and unity, the tides of political madness seem to be rising everywhere.
Donald Trump does not like muslims
Donald J Trump may have reached peak craziness or peak political opportunism with his call to ban all Muslims from entering America.
Collision course Syria
Russia is backing anti-Islamist Kurds in Northern Syria to control their own territory, and acting directly against the interests of the jihadist groups that Turkey, a NATO member, is supporting. The temperature will only rise from here.
TiSA reduces COP21 to a charade
That National Ltd™ is currently in the process of giving away New Zealand’s sovereignty in areas such as energy resources and related regulations, explains its contempt for the environment and the talking down of expectations regarding climate change.
Helen Clark on A Zero-Carbon Future
Good piece by Helen Clark on Huff Post: “Paris must be a catalyst for stepped up climate action. The world must move towards a zero-carbon future. There is no room for short-sightedness or a lack of ambition.”
Hilary Benn: we never should walk by on the other side of the road
UK MP Hilary Benn has given one of the finest speeches Westminster has heard in years in the debate over Syria. It will go down as a defining moment in the fight against Daesh and proves that bombing alone is not the answer. Watch it. It’s how politics can be, when done right.
UK votes to bomb Syria
Deportee
Standard Exclusive:
Te Reo Putake interviews one of the first batch of deportees from Australia under the Liberal Government’s hardline approach to Kiwis who serve jail time in the lucky country.
The official New Zealand COP21 negotiating guide
The Youth Delegation at COP 21 has secured a copy of the Government’s negotiation guide and has published it …
Allahu Quackbar!
4chan bombs Isis. Now that’s the way to hurt them!
International law and the Turkish shootdown of the RuAF Su-24
Assuming the Russian jet did enter Turkish airspace for 17s, was there really no recourse for Turkey other than using lethal force?
Corbyn – no convincing case for UK bombing of Syria
An alternative view to Te Reo Putake’s post concerning Jeremy Corbyn and the bombing of Syria.
Corbyn’s Isis Crisis
UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn faces his first big test. Can he command the majority in Labour over Syria? Or should he accept he is on the wrong side of history?
Refugees to be settled in Dunedin
As reported yesterday Dunedin has been picked as the new settlement location for refugees. May they find a warm welcome and a future of peace and security here.
Andrew Little in Australia
Contrary to Key’s scaremongering about “making things worse” Little’s, visit to Australia seems to have been positive and constructive.
Turkey shoots down Russian jet
Late yesterday Turkey (a NATO member) shot down a Russian jet, either inside its airspace (Turkey claims) or over Syria (Russia claims).
Key doesn’t like being shown up by Little
Andrew Little is planning to speak up for the rights of Kiwi expats on his trip to Australia. Key clearly doesn’t like being shown up, so out come the desperate accusations.
Graph of the day
Please don’t go there America
Donald Trump won’t rule out “tracking Muslim Americans in a database or giving them “a special form of identification that noted their religion””. Brings to mind an F word.
Ground troops to Iraq – PM please explain
PM please explain, what the hell good would sending a few Kiwi ground troops to the ongoing disaster of the Middle East achieve? Is it the whole cost of being in the club thing again?
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.
The third Industrial Revolution
The Paris climate change talks will force leaders to confront climate change and the threat of terrorism at the same time. Can they show the same determination to deal with the gradual but inevitable threat of climate change as they purport to show to deal with the immediate threat of terrorism.
Paris as an excuse for more useless surveillance
The Paris attacks are being used as an excuse for another ill informed debate about surveillance and encryption – which doesn’t address the communication channels that terrorists are actually using. The tools that our governments want can be used very effectively to spy on you and me though (as Key effectively acknowledges in passing).
Paris 3 – common sense from Democrats
The fallout from the Paris attacks continues. The American political reaction is as important as it is predicable.
Slack on our craven human rights record
David Slack is on fire this morning with his take on our craven human rights record – in the form of imagined NCEA questions.
Paris 2
From Hollande’s reaction it seems likely that the terrorists will accomplish their goal.
Paris
Hopefully not ushering the beginning of the end for the European public’s recent empathy for refugees.
Groser flips the bird to the Judiciary and NZ Laws
The Law? That’s not for Cabinet Members, the Law is for the lazy malcontents who don’t want to work hard.