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The NRA declares war on reality

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, June 30th, 2017 - 39 comments

The National Rifle Association in America has released a video which essentially advocates for violence against liberal resistance to conservatism.

Thiel shows commitment to New Zealand by spending 12 days in it

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, June 29th, 2017 - 49 comments

Following an intervention by the Ombudsman the Government has been obliged to disclose the number of days that Peter Thiel spent in New Zealand in the five years leading up to his grant of citizenship.  The answer is very few.

Brighter Future Delivering the Cusp of Something Special for New Zealanders

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, June 28th, 2017 - 8 comments

That’s a mish-mash of Nat soundbites past and present. For the reality underlying it all, check out the excellent RNZ series “Is this the Brighter Future?”

The Todd Barclay debacle enters the sixth day of the news cycle

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, June 26th, 2017 - 61 comments

Through his never ending changing of the description of what happened in the Todd Barclay issue Bill English has kept the story prominently placed for six days in a row.

Over egging the scandal soufflee

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, June 24th, 2017 - 97 comments

Team Nat were desperate to try and divert some attention from their floundering leader, and to a certain extent they succeeded. But compare and contrast Labour and National’s handling of the issues, front up and fix vs lie harder.

English still digging

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, June 24th, 2017 - 44 comments

Burying the last shred of his credibility in a deep hole forever, Bill claims that nobody realised Todd Barclay recording of secretary might be a crime. It’s like the events of 2008 and 2011 never happened.

Bill English is no John Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, June 22nd, 2017 - 37 comments

During Dirty Politics John Key was able to stand in front of a group of reporters and with complete confidence make a series of statements the veracity of which was dubious.  Bill English has shown this week that he does not have that ability.

Barclay/English cartooned

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 am, June 22nd, 2017 - 8 comments

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

Barclay debacle recap

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, June 21st, 2017 - 73 comments

From twitter, Holy shit, someone in NZ did some journalism and all hell breaks loose.

National’s Todd Barclay problem

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, June 20th, 2017 - 113 comments

Newsroom has released details about how National handled the police investigation into Todd Barclay’s alleged illegal wiretapping suggesting that Bill English thought it had occurred and that the complaint was dealt with in part by a payment from John Key’s Prime Minister’s fund.

New Zealand folds and apologises to Israel

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, June 14th, 2017 - 81 comments

New Zealand has completely backed down from its original position of opposing the illegal occupation by Israel of Palestinian land and apologised to Israel for damaging the relationship.

Owen Jones’ and the Guardian’s Corbyn mea culpa

Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, June 11th, 2017 - 57 comments

Owen Jones of the Guardian has posted a mea culpa about his pessimism that Jeremy Corbyn would succeed as Labour leader.  But meanwhile blairites are claiming that Corbyn missed an open goal while at the same time calling for unity.

Dirty Politics 2017 style

Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, June 8th, 2017 - 27 comments

Latest polls and some anecdotal evidence from the doorstep are showing a move back to the Tories in Britain. If so it may in part be due to last-minute dark and dirty personally targeted Facebook advertising to voters in marginal seats. They cost so will need to be watched later on here.

Herald’s little oops…

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 pm, June 4th, 2017 - 12 comments

What a surprise! Not sure how long it was up, but Google cache still has a copy.

It is not “clever politics” to burn the planet (you pair of fools)

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, June 3rd, 2017 - 41 comments

Guess which two NZ broadcasters have disgraced themselves by lining up behind Trump’s lunatic fringe denier posturing.

Madman Trump withdraws America from Paris Accord

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, June 2nd, 2017 - 213 comments

Donald Trump has announced that the USA will be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Change Accord.

National’s social media is starting to suck

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, May 31st, 2017 - 46 comments

National’s social media have chosen a picture that sums up its policies well.

Dumbest tweet – Collins vs Seymour

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, May 27th, 2017 - 14 comments

Each in its own way a masterpiece character study.

Keith Ng’s four tax myths

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, May 25th, 2017 - 23 comments

A useful piece from Keith Ng on myths about tax. It’s an extract from The PSA’s “Progressive Thinking: Ten Perspectives on Tax” booklet.

Strong and Stable – guess National’s campaign slogan!

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 36 comments

We’ve had the Brighter Future (it sucks). We’ve had The Cusp of Something Special (it wasn’t). What will National’s soundbite slogan be this time?

Slater v Craig – battle of the has beens

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, May 21st, 2017 - 22 comments

The High Court this week has been asked to dissect the decline of the Conservative Party and of the 2014 form of dirty politics.

Someone please give Patrick Gower a hug

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, May 18th, 2017 - 62 comments

Poor wee chap is obviously desperate for some attention, if this latest incoherent thrashing on the dead TPP is anything to go by – Bill English has saved TPP.

The other conference

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, May 18th, 2017 - 26 comments

Richard Harman on the Politik blog: “Overall, to use a favourite Government saying, it was an ‘untidy’ weekend capped by a flat speech from English which saw delegates ignore placards they’d been given to wave when he finished speaking.” The B-team is missing John Key.

National’s messy Israel position

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, May 16th, 2017 - 20 comments

National’s shifting position on Israel suggests all is not happy within National’s ranks.

Alfred Ngaro reprimanded for being “naïve”

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, May 15th, 2017 - 53 comments

Alfred Ngaro has apologised to the Prime Minister for threatening the funding of voluntary organisations critical of the Government, not for expressing the views or even thinking them but for being naïve.

National threatens Government critics with loss of Government contracts

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 14th, 2017 - 78 comments

Alfred Ngaro has told a National Conference that critics of the Government can expect to lose Government support for proposed contracts.  And that Labour prompted concern about families living in cars.

How much information is being withheld from us?

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, May 13th, 2017 - 13 comments

Covering up inconvenient truths is an old pattern for this government. What percentage of their effort goes in to obfuscating and hiding the facts?

The Trump White House descends into chaos

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, May 12th, 2017 - 80 comments

Recent events suggest that Donald Trump has lost control of his administration.

There is no housing problem!

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, May 11th, 2017 - 19 comments

But only in Nick Smith’s head. See the finally released government Housing Affordability Measure (HAM).

Fuck the homeless

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, May 6th, 2017 - 187 comments

Those compassionate conservatives of the National Party have a message for the increasing number of homeless who occupy our Brighter Future.

Eminem case could cost Nats big

Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, May 2nd, 2017 - 82 comments

Eminem’s lawyer on the Nats’ email chain – “Also, the focus is on not just whether it’s an infringement. But whether they can shift liability to someone else.” Typical.