I can see this becoming a regular post. Checking up on the accuracy of National's advertising and pointing out the most egregiously inaccurate examples. Yesterday Bridges was schooled in Parliament by Jacinda Ardern. If it was a boxing competition they would have called it off…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Help my head hurts. Just over a week ago Simon Bridges ruled out working with NZ First after the next election. From Henry Cooke at Stuff: National leader Simon Bridges has ruled out working with NZ First after this year’s election, telling voters he can’t…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Three more National Party MPs have announced their pending retirement from politics. David Carter was not a surprise. He has been list only and it was easy for him to go. Nicky Wagner was also not a surprise. Her heart has not been in it…
There is this humdinger of a post by David Farrar about breaches of electoral law relating to donations. He says this: I blogged a few days ago that there was almost no doubt that electoral donation laws had been broken, and the only question was…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
On the June 23 2016, Dad and I were driving back to San Francisco from Sacramento, where we’d visited our relatives. We were fairly late, so had on US public radio to help keep us awake for the drive back to our motel. In the…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
The Government has set us a strong challenge, for our country to become carbon neutral by 2050. The rationale is simple. Increasing levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses are cooking the planet. And we are beyond the theory stage. We are now seeing in…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
This post is a place for positive discussion of the future. An Open Mike for ideas, solutions and the discussion of the possible. The Big Picture, rather than a snapshot of the day’s goings on. Topics rather than topical. We’d like to think it’s…
So this predictable crap was in The Guardian today. I'm not going to go through the evidence brought to light by two whistle blowers who were involved in collating evidence from the scene of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma. (I'll leave links to…
It will take a full renewal of democracy in the United States. But not in the Queensberry Rules-regulated affair that got Omaba there. No, this is going to be the political equivalent of an MMA fight (think George St Pierre v Matt Serra). The Sanders…
Looks like there’s a ways to go before New Zealand gets an integrated state-backed broadcaster. But the Government's recent proposal is a big step in the right direction. On our little platform and many others, complaints have arisen about the massive alteration to our media…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
So finally we have a winner of the popular vote in the Iowa caucus. The 6000 margin for Bernie Sanders in the title may go up a little, or may come down a little, but the recanvassing of Iowa that DNC Chairperson Tom Perez is…
The repercussions from Simon Bridges' disastrous Waitangi performance continue to reverberate. He did not show up for Waitangi Day itself an chose to mark that most important of National days by engaging in some dog whistling. From Charlie Dreaver at Radio New Zealand: National Party…
It was utterly predictable that the US Senate would vote to acquit Donald Trump after the House of Representative's impeachment motion. But I still held out hope that he would not be exonerated. Unfortunately the Republican Party had to trash the US constitution and the…
Here’s a wonderful, short, explanatory piece from Johannesburg chef and food writer Andrea Burgener on why the environmental farming choice isn’t meat vs plant-based, but industrial vs regenerative. Burgener leads with the example of concern about the Amazon rain forest being expended to grow meat, or…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
The floods in Southland over the past few days were being reported as the biggest in 35 years. A state of emergency was declared mid afternoon on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning people were being evacuated. The rain had stopped but the rivers were set…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
What might an entire establishment that loathes and fears the prospect of a particular nominee being successful do if that nominee was about to confound their well publicised expectations? As of the time of writing, the Democratic machinery in Iowa is not giving a reason…
Waitangi Day and the days leading up to it is a very important part of our country's political and cultural calendar. For a couple of days a year we shake off our holiday slumber and get ready for the year to come while at the…