Climate change – beyond the politics and the maths and the fear
Climate change is the most important issue of all time. Beyond the politics and the maths and the fear there is simply doing the right thing.
Mixed result in Netherlands
I guess it’s good that some parts of the world are going nuts at a slower rate than others?
TS Book Club this Sunday
We will be discussing Small is Beautiful – Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher.
Nats’ attack on Ardern backfires
National’s nasty, obvious, hamfisted attack on Jacinda Ardern has backfired on them big time.
Open Mike 17/03/2017
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 …
Andrew Little’s speech on housing
Excellent speech from Andrew Little in Parliament yesterday, on the government’s willful blindness to the housing crisis.
Daily Review 16/03/2017
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 …
Parata overrules Bennett – consent not taught in schools
In the followup to the rape culture protests, Hekia Parata has overruled Paula Bennett, and consent will not be taught in schools.
#Trumpcare
The proposed Republican replacement of Obamacare will, surprise surprise, result in lower benefits, reduced coverage and a tax cut for the wealthy.
Breitbart Bill
Who has been feeding Bill English the latest alt-right attack language?
“All show and no substance”
The attack on Ardern as “all show and no substance” is a curious one for a party that was led for so many years by John Key.
Open Mike 16/03/2017
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 15/03/2017
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 …
Murdoch on the tax-cut striptease (NSFW)
Bye John!
Key’s act was was well and truly blown, and he’s moving on without, I suspect, a backward glance, at a job that his heart was never really in.
Dear Izzy
Married couple, increase after tax $8.36 a fortnight each or $4.18 each a week!!!!! Disposable Income, 0.5971428 each a day !!!! Goes up on April 1st, how the hell did they arrive at this sum?
I find out.
Some flaws of the Resource Amendment Legislation Bill
The Resource Amendment Legislation Bill is being debated in Parliament this week. It is a total re-write of the Resource Management Act 1991. It has some good points in it, but it also includes a number of matters which will have a severe impact. This is a critique of those points.
National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing
Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.
Free market efficiency in health – not
The idea of free market efficiency is not nearly as powerful or universal as its (often fanatical) proponents would have us believe. The sorry state of the USA’s health system is yet another compelling example of its limitations.
Open Mike 15/03/2017
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 14/03/2017
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 …
Nick Smith is a disgrace
In a functioning democracy Nick Smith’s handling of the Resource Management Bill should result in him losing his ministerial warrant.
Cat Among the Pigeons
Nicolas Sturgeon to seek the authority of the Scottish Parliament to agree the details of a Section 30 Order that will allow the Scottish Parliament to legislate for an independence referendum.
There are no surpluses
There are no surpluses in NZ right now, not in any real sense. There is only debt, negative externalities and deferred costs.
Anthony Rimell – why I am standing for Parliament
Anthony Rimell is Labour’s candidate for the Ilam seat. In this post he sets out the reasons why he is standing for Parliament.
Call to teach consent in schools
Yesterday evening saw a well attended rally at Parliament to protest rape culture in NZ, and call for the teaching of consent in schools.
Open Mike 14/03/2017
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 13/03/2017
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 …
Marwick on dirty politics, leaks and the OIA
Marwick: “The other thing you can deduce from a three year battle over access to correspondence is that the most senior politician in the land probably had something to hide.”
Welcome newsroom!
The shiny new newsroom website is now up and running. They have a strong team, and a great first scoop on the sale of falsely labelled “free range” eggs.
English flogging National’s one-trick pony
Never mind the record debt, the dropped contributions to the Cullen fund, the housing crisis, rising poverty, the deteriorating health system, the costs of quake rebuilds, the filthy water, the need to prepare for climate change – never mind all that, have an election bribe!
RIP Murray Ball
Open Mike 13/03/2017
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 …
Justin Lester: Why Wellington, why Labour, and how did he make conference cry?
Via Noted, the Mayor of Wellington talks about his city, his mayoralty, and why he’s Labour.
Climate change, weather bombs, and the infrastructure that we need
The effects of climate change are here, now, playing out in the flooded north. We should be preparing, we should be hardening critical infrastructure like Auckland’s fresh water supply. Instead of building – you know – more roads.
A tenant’s tale
“And when I saw that article in the NZ Herald this morning , in light of whats been happening to so many New Zealander family’s having to sleep in cars and the like over the past few years – I thought ”FUCK IT !!”… Im going to say something.”