Open Mike 14/07/2017
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Daily Review 13/07/2017
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 …
Good message – good messaging
Non-news News and News Non-news
A politician said their party would insist on being a part of government depending on the vote falls in September, while another gets called out for his habitual stirring at the pot of ethnic division. In a place like the South Africa of old, we all know which one would be the story. But this is New Zealand and this is now.
Labour coming in from the cold
Amongst all the hooha of the political week, Labour did something pretty cool with its winter heating announcement. They made a policy for all beneficiaries. We should be paying attention to what underpins that because there is potential here.
NRT: National’s new Muldoonism
I/S at No Right Turn: “at its core, the National Party is an anti-environment party, dedicated to destroying our natural heritage and impoverishing future generations for the profit of their cronies”.
Nat / ACT don’t think poor people should have kids
ACT’s David Seymour thinks that poor people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids. If that sounds familiar it should – the Nats have said more or less the same thing over the years.
Open Mike 13/07/2017
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Daily Review 12/07/2017
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 …
Trump’s Russia smoking gun
Some of the best tweets on the latest chapter of the Trump tragedy. We never expected the smoking gun to be friendly fire. Will Republicans meekly swallow this too?
Nats’ poll fall 2014 2017
Toby Manhire on The Spinoff has an interesting analysis of the recent Colmar Brunton poll. Comapred to the same poll in 2014 National are 5% down, with the Labour/Green alliance unchanged. The fall in the preferred PM rating from Key to English is huge. The Nats are highly vulnerable.
National’s plans for mining and development of conservation land
Forest and Bird: ““The Government is seeking to give themselves the powers to push through controversial and damaging projects that would otherwise fail because they breach environmental limits.”
Journalism matters
Who will tell us the truth in election year?
Open Mike 12/07/2017
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Daily Review 11/07/2017
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Labour’s Targeted Families Package
As covered by Vernon Small on Stuff: “Labour is promising to scrap National’s Budget tax cut plan. Instead it will funnel the cash into higher Working for Families payments and extra help for those with young children. It’s a package it says will deliver up to $48 a week extra to middle income families.”
Generous donation – why was it necessary to get a hospital built?
Thank you Mark Dunajtschik. But why did it take a generous private donation to get a badly needed public hospital off the drawing-board?
Brexgrets
Seems the tide of sentiment in the UK is turning against Brexit. Do the tories have what it takes to turn back from their self-destructive path?
Narratives out of noise
Another poll, another round of narratives out of noise.
That’s cold
What’s wrong with a few mid-winter power cuts down south?
Open Mike 11/07/2017
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Daily Review 10/07/2017
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 …
Peters posturing
As usual in election year, Peters is posturing left and right.
The Rainbow Warrior was sunk 32 years ago today
Thirty two years ago today the French Government committed an act of Terrorism on New Zealand soil on a peaceful organisation dedicated to protecting our environment.
G20: Trump isolated and friendless
ABC news political editor Chris Uhlmann’s brutal takedown of Trump goes viral.
Open Mike 10/07/2017
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Green Party announcement: charging on water bottling and a moratorium on new plants
As part of their water policy the Greens intend to charge bottling companies for water take, and to put a moratorium on new bottling plants until NZ decides what is the best way to protect our water. They also want to improve regulations across the board to make drinking water safe.
The Game
If a Rugby series was an election campaign.
“Ongoing cover-up” on Operation Burnham
David Fisher in The Herald exposes yet another NZDF “error” on Operation Burnham. Intelligence analyst Dr Paul Buchanan: “I’m absolutely certain that what we’re seeing is part of the ongoing cover-up.”
The Government is misrepresenting the effect of the Ruataniwha Dam decision
The Government has responded to the Supreme Court decision which puts a halt on the Ruataniwha Dam by claiming wrongly that the protected land was of low quality and by stating that a law change, possibly retrospective, will occur.
No Right Turn: Climate change: Ending oil
I/S at No Right Turn writes: “Fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change. A significant chunk of those fossil fuels are burned in cars, so if we want to beat climate change, we need to stop doing that. And today, the French government signalled that it would do just that, announcing that it would ban the sale of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars by 2040″
Open Mike 09/07/2017
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What happened to the Newshub article about Nick Smith and the Pike River film?
A Newshub article where Nick Smith contradicts the Police and Solid Energy about the existence of video showing a body in Pike River has disappeared …
Barclay goes to ground as police investigation widens to include Nat board member
Updates from the #debarclay – Under-investigation MP Todd Barclay has dropped off the public radar and Police to investigate board member over Todd Barclay saga.
Skepticism cynicism lies and hypocrisy
There’s a very good / depressing long read in The Guardian on the dangerous “weaponising” of cynicism by climate change deniers. One of the most interesting sections was a discussion of the way that voters are more forgiving of lies than hypocrisy.
Open Mike 08/07/2017
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