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Today’s Daily Blog Watch Round-Up of matters that have attracted the attention, assessments, and articulations of this country’s leading bloggers…
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NZ Left Blogosphere
On Whoar!, Philip Ure reports that “..Small NZ banks on notice over housing risk..” (ed:..so much for englishs’ ‘govt.-on-track’/’surplus’-bullshit..eh..?..) – a startling piece of news that must be putting the shits up English and his Tory mates. Especially since we no longer have the bank deposits guarantee scheme to protect these firms.
Mickey Savage on Waitakere News has a word or three to say about The Government’s not so good faith bargaining on affordable housing.
Mayor Len Brown and Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse has expressed concern that the legislation may not match the pre legislation accord that Auckland Council signed up with the Government. It looks like he is right.
The Jackal reports on John Key’s peculiar references to Labour being “the devil beast”, by Putting the fear of god in them. When Key has to resort to bizarre talk like this, it suggests that our pathetic Prime Minister is losing the plot.
The prospect of an election defeat in 2014 will do that to a man.
There is now Scientific consensus on climate change, writes Jackal, and comments on a report in The Guardian on the issue.
I wonder how long it took for sceptics to acknowledge that the Earth was, undeniably, a globe and this version of “reality” was little more than a pretty picture,
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Who sez that public pressure doesn’t work? Hell yeah, it sure does. Just check out The Hand Mirror, where Supdate on merida makeover by the Disney corporation. The sexualised imagery is out and Merida may even get her bow and arrows back. Excellent!
I know I covered Danyl’s blogpost on The Dim Post regarding Judith Collins’ Voight-kampff test of the day – but it’s just too creepy to let go. Check it out. Hey, feel free to leave a comment below, what you think about it…
Sometimes The Civilian presents satire that is scarily close to mirroring society… Read why Air New Zealand bans disabled passengers from all flights and snigger at the sheer nastiness and rank stupidity of some people. This is one of his best satirical pieces.
On a more serious note, Grant Robertson exposes National’s budget cuts to Arts, Culture and Heritage. All that Glitters is Not Gold, he says, and Finlayson’s claims to the contrary were met with derision.
As the media, political parties, and community groups delve further into the Budget, the ‘stings’ become more apparent.
And speaking of the Budget, there’s some Frankly Speaking on How NOT to deal with Student loan defaulters. Evidently, Bill English has plans to turn New Zealand into a South Pacific Gulag, complete with Border Guards arresting student loan defaulters!! Bizarre stuff!
Can you imagine the frenzied outrage if the previous Labour Government had tried to pull a stunt like this. This ain’t “Nanny State”, peeps, this is outright quasi-fascism. What next – armed troops on every street corner in Wellington, Auckland, and elsewhere?
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Frank also reminds us that previous laws and current proposed law changes are creating a scary picture of modern day New Zealand.
Smith’s Dream is rapidly becoming Smith’s Reality.
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QoT in Ideologically Impure makes a short, but blisterering critique on Diane Vivian, from Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, in Unwarranted Budget-related cattiness incoming. See why.
No Right Turn also launches several (deservedly) harsh critiques on aspects of the budget;
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National’s “innovation” agenda – exposes National’s cuts and money-shifting from one area to another. As Idiot/Savant sez, “That doesn’t buy a hell of a lot of scientists, or a hell of a lot of science. But announcing it does buy headlines, which is all National is after“.
- This National government is also on track to become the most prolific user of “Urgency” to pass laws. In yet Another abuse of urgency, I/S points out two bits of legislation which have no reason to be passed under “Urgency”. But that doesn’t stop National, which has a penchant for abusing the democratic process. Let’s see how loud Key’s replacement as National’s Leader screams when the Labour-Green government do it after 2014. (It’s gonna take a lot of work to unravel National’s bullshit ‘laws’.)
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Austerity kills – according to a new book out , The Body Economic by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu. Basically, the book reinforces what we already new in our heart of hearts – austerity measures are destructive to societies as well as economies. (But try telling that to RWNJs…)
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Who’d have thunk it? – Guess what the oil companies have been up to? Sprung, you miserable bastards!
- I/S blogs that National is Turning ex-pats into exiles with their arrest-on-sight policy for loan defaulters. Like Frank Macskasy, I/S also points out the bleedin’ obvious; “and what National’s policy will do is make sure they can never come home ever again“. Crazy shit. But this is National, after all…
Scott on Imperator Fish is giving Ben on The Civilian a run for his money. Yeah nah. Both are excellent satirists. Cases in point,
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Labour responds to “Devil-Beast” claim. I could quote David Shearer, but the Horned One has commanded me to find him new souls to feast on…
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Sherlock Shearer? That, of course would make John Key, Dr Moriarty? Nah, Moriarty was a genius at his evil craft…
- And for The Post Of The Week, Scott and Judith Collins have a Clash of Wits. Guess who wins? Find out why Scott reckons that I didn’t think John Key’s speech was that bad. (Note to Collins; don’t bring a spoon to a knife fight.)(Note to Reader: don’t be drinking anything when you read this. Not unless you can control a reflex action to spray & laugh.)
RobertGuyton questions the Right Wing/MSM assertion that Water storage ‘should not become political football’ – and wonders how long critics of National’s policies will be labelled as “economic terrorists”.
Oh, wait…
In Free market corruption, RobertGuyton writes,
“Far from being “free”, our markets are just gangs of organised criminals engaged in price-fixing and market-distortion for profit. And ordinary consumers like you and I are their victims. We pay more for food, we pay more for petrol, we pay more for electricity, we pay more for our homes because of their criminal profiteering. The question now is whether governments will actually do anything effective about this, or whether they’ll blame a few bad apples, deliver a few token slaps on the wrist with a wet bus-ticket, and let it continue.”
I guess it boils down to one, simple issue; who do governments fear the most? The wrath of corporations – or the wrath of the people?
And on Brian Edward’s Media, this bit of visual humour; Perfectly Timed Photos (An Occasional Series).
The Standard is on form this evening,
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When an “accord” is not – writes,
“It’s good that social (especially community) housing gets a boost. But it should not be at the expense of the divestment of state housing. It now has created a climate of fear and insecurity for state housing tenants, most of whom are on meagre incomes and with limited resources to resist a a callous and ideologically-driven government.”
Read more to get the full story.
- Key’s “Devil Beast” speech…
- Budget, and it works pretty damned well. You have to wonder why the Nats bothered in the first place? Just write out a few cheques to Big Business (blank for the amount, of course) and be done with it.
- “Project Choice” – foisting bad faith by a Guest Author outlines a cunning attempt by Air New Zealand to de-unionise AirNZ staff and cut their conditions. It’s a nasty preamble to the partial privatisation of Air New Zealand (again) by National. As the author states,
“On 17 April 2013 Air NZ (as part of their ‘Go Beyond’ strategy) announced “Project Choice” as a way to reduce the labour costs of the flight attendant workforce by 20%. The method being used is to shift the work to another company (Tasman Pacific) as part of the group and advise workers that they can choose to have a job with that entity. This deliberately places staff in an insecure position. If staff stay with Air New Zealand under the collective agreement they risk being made redundant in the future. If they choose to go to Tasman Pacific then they lose their current entitlements.”
Finally, on the Green’s party website, Gareth Hughes reports that, Govt abuses urgency to extend Anadarko Amendment,
“The Government is trying to pass legislation under urgency which would make the Anadarko Amendment – which limits protest at sea – apply to an additional 1.7 million square kilometres, the Green Party said today.”
More “Urgency”. This time, to steal our democratic right to protest at sea…
National – a Bleaker Future.
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Action of the Day
The Government has negotiated a deal with SkyCity that means SkyCity will be allowed to have 230 extra pokie machines, with an exclusive licence extended until 2048 in return for SkyCity building a convention centre. The Green Party considers this deal is an unconstitutional attempt to block future Governments from regulating gaming for the next 35 years. The John Key Government will have to legislate to ram this unconstitutional deal through.
The Green Party believes gambling laws should not be up for sale. We are campaigning to stop the Government completing this deal.
We are promoting a petition opposing any moves to change the law to permit SkyCity to install more pokies and gaming tables.
Download the petition, print it off and ask others to sign it
Read more background information about this.
It’ll take three minutes, max. Promise! (Hey, I write politics – would I lie to you?)
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Thought for the Day
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~oo~
