Covid-19: Important… satire
The latest status
Discuss…
It is a bit of a problem when this was often more accurate than the statements from many governments.
Social issues
Rebuild better post COVID
A Guest blog from E tū Assistant National Secretary, Annie Newman. “Democracy creates a space for the market, civil society and the government but it doesn’t guarantee a balance between these spheres. That is government’s role. Right now, there is an opportunity for our government to do more than protect the future of business; it can address the imbalance in our democracy where the market dominates the agenda.”
His work here is not yet done
Former Prime Minister John Key has said that under current conditions employers are going to sack 20 per cent of their workers even if the company is doing well and that employers should never waste a crisis.
UFOs are real
The Pentagon has confirmed the existence of videos which pretty well prove the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects and released the videos.
How to kill the car
What would you do so that instead of wandering endlessly through tilt-slab monstrosities soaked in 80s music and fluorescent lighting, surrounded by oppressed minimum-wage slaves who hate being there and you hating being there worried about your wheeled asset damaged in their carpark instead you get freedom?
Covid =/= Rogernomics
Using neoliberal ideas to try and remedy a situation where neoliberalism is very sick indeed is kind of like pouring salt on the wound. Fortunately we have new, emerging models of how run society that can also serve us well in a covid and climate world.
The class politics of the Covid-19 pandemic response
National economics spokesperson Paul Goldsmith has advanced a plan to address the Covid 19 pandemic which includes union bashing and privatisation.
Green Party: COVID-19 recovery and investment in people and nature
Most of the funding will go directly to employing people – the tools needed for wetland restoration such as spades and seedlings are far cheaper than big excavators and asphalt.
Draconian Tourism or no Tourism?
If overseas tourists want to visit NZ, they may have to give up a little bit of their privacy to keep all of us safe.
dear sysop: on covid-19 debt
We put in guest posts occasionally. These days I’m the person who runs the email account and sees the general ones. Mostly I don’t give any feedback as much as anything else because a lack of time. But I should. This is the first to get that editorial attention. The topic itself is worth discussing. What is the process of raising debt for the cobid-19 economic response.
The “Others”.
“Othering” has long been a staple of Governments that want to remain in power for the benefit of an Oligarchy, an “Elite”, a small ruling class, or the ones with, “the money”. Deflecting blame for economic and social issues on, an ethnicity, a class, the elderly, the poor, the young, the unemployed, young solo mothers, the disabled, immigrants, or any other convenient group that can be demonised. Very soon more of us may become the “others” we didn’t care about.
Trump’s not so bad: the inject bleach edition
an occasional series.
Russel Norman: Climate change is harder to visualise than coronavirus, but no less dangerous
Executive Director of Greenpeace NZ, Russel Norman writes about the different responses to climate change and covid-19, and the things we can learn from the pandemic.
“The government will never do that”
Say it out loud: Degrowth.
Our damaged rivers and streams
A new report out from the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics NZ showing that New Zealand’s fresh water system is getting worse, all over the place, but particularly in the South Island.
Will National roll Bridges before or after the election?
It appears that the National Party is engaged in a bitter discussion of when Simon Bridges should be rolled, not if. Will it be before or after the election?
Pandemics and our privacy
The Ministry of Health is checking with the GCSB to enable full tracing of people to slow further outbreaks. Should we be afraid?
Eat the rich
Richard Branson, who has arranged his affairs so that he pays tax to no government, is upset that Governments are not bailing his empire out. And an idea has been floated to allow billionaires to set up boltholes in New Zealand.
Running for cover
More 1% Americans are heading our way, according to Bloomberg. The Texas company building underground bunkers is getting more enquiries. They’re not running from the virus but fear the aftermath when the breadlines turn.
When Bridges’ social media goes wrong
Simon Bridges’s Facebook post criticising the extension of lockdown level 4 has been met with overwhelming opposition, including from people who are clearly National Party supporters.
New electorate boundaries
I missed it, but we got the new electorate boundaries on Friday. Now electorate boundaries simply don’t matter as much as they used to because of MMP. These days mostly the only people who notice them are electorate MPs, political parties that are too close to the 5% list party boundary, and of course sock-puppet parties like Act and their National party hand. Plus of course political blog sites.
Covid-19 decision day
Decision day for the Covid-19 lockdown and my personal view is that although the country has done well it is not quite in a position to ease the lockdown.
Greens push for large intercity rail infrastructure to ensure sustainable post-COVID-19 rebuild
“The Greens are highlighting fast intercity rail improvements as the type of climate-friendly, job-creating project that should be prioritised for post-COVID-19 economic stimulus investment.”
Don’t plan on a vaccine or persistent natural immunity.
Don’t plan on a vaccine or persistent natural immunity. Unless we’re incredibly lucky, neither are very likely for much of the coming decade. We don’t have the bat immunity systems. Learn to embrace the bets of the future rather than the clinging to the comfy blanket of the past that has now gone.
Time to Pivot?
It would appear NZ and much of the rest of the world has made a first rather coincidental step on the AGW front.
The plan for Monday
Even if New Zealand gets out of the immediate Covid-19 infection better than most other countries, the result is still a wrecked world […]
A little relief.
Level 3 restrictions
Matthew’s Magic Numbers
Matthew Hooton has tweeted a series of numbers. They add up to good news for the Government.
UPDATE: Curia Polling reckons it’s even better for Labour!
A response from the Rosa Luxemburg wing of the Labour Party
According to Stephen Mills on Nine to Noon yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation as Labour leader will only be mourned by “the microscopic Rosa Luxemburg-worshipping far left sect in New Zealand.” His outburst was deliberate, gratuitous and way over the top.
Lockdown 4 – do we stay or do we go?
Over the next few days there will be an intense public debate about whether the lockdown should be continued or loosened.
How Not to Engage in Public Debate
The best way to engage in public debate on the lockdown is to be open, clear, and transparent and show the facts. A press release full of beliefs and reckons is unhelpful and irresponsible.
What Is This Moment Teaching Us?
What is Covid-19 telling us about our response as a nation?
Better footpaths and cycleways are a socialist inspired plot?
National MP Simon O’Connor thinks that making under used streets safer for walkers and cyclers is a Socialist inspired plan for world domination.
Are the Vultures Already Circling Above?
We cannot go back to business as usual after the lockdown but can we shape the way things will be for the greater good?
Please sort this out MoH
Frontline home care workers and their clients still don’t have adequate protection from covid.
Greenpeace’s Green Covid Response
Oil giant OMV finally leave New Zealand, and Greenpeace releases its Green Covid Response plan to the government.