The December blog rankings are out and The Daily Blog has retained its position as NZs largest progressive blog.
Selwyn and I would like to thank the talented bloggers who blog and our audience who visit us daily.
This month we welcome Journalist Neesha Bremner and Documentary film maker and poverty campaigner Bryan Bruce as bloggers.
Here’s to 2014 and changing this Government.
Congratulations to the Daily Blog may you go from strength to strength.
The Daily Blog will keep going up as it continues being a platform for open democratic debate free from personal attacks and threats. And the The Standard will keep going down, as long as they maintain their policy of sectarian censorship and self censorship. The Standard will go down as long as they tolerate personal ad-hominem abuse and death threats against people on the Left they disagree with, and ultimately of course, the Standard will go down while they maintain their policy of climate change ignoring.
Ummm Jenny …
The Standard has a more open debate policy than any other progressive blog that I know. And death threats or other threats for that matter are not tolerated.
And as for climate change have a look at any of the following tagged posts and then say that there is a policy to ignore the subject.
http://thestandard.org.nz/tag/climate-change/
Then you mustn’t know The Standard very well, Greg.
HERE and HERE are Te Reo Putake and Pascal’s bookie discussing how much CO2 my body would produce if they burned me to death.
And HERE is Lynn Prentice comparing me to Goebbels for having the effrontry to question The Standard’s silence over the Solid Energy bail out. A huge climate crime and betrayal of the people of Pacific with whom we had just signed a treaty agreeing to seek to cut down our CO2 emissions.
Greg The Standard has many posts on climate change, I would have to be an idiot to miss that. (leaving myself open there, eh QOT)
This is not what I meant.
The Standard authors are all well informed on the issue of climate change.
So there should be no excuse for them to try and actively prevent any examination of where the political parties stand on climate change, or object to anyone making demands of our government and political leaders to do something about it.
This is what I mean when I say that The Standard are climate change ignorers.
It is all very well to accept the reality of climate change, and even bemoan it. But to claim as Lynn Prentice did when him and I were discussing worst case possible scenarios, that it is irreversible (ie nothing can be done), is what leads The Standard author’s editorial line. Either consciously or unconsciously The Editorial line of The Standard is to ignore and deny climate change solutions, or even look for them. (Except for one recent notable exemption that I commended at the time.[i])
For example look at how The Standard reacted to the Bail out of Solid Energy.
The Green Party actively condemned the bail out saying that the $155million that was loaned and gifted to keep our failing state owned coal miner afloat, with no guarantee that we would get any of it back, would have been better spent on providing a just transition for the Solid Energy workers “to jobs that don’t fry the planet”.
The Labour Party was silent. As was every single author at The Standard. Labour did put out a statement saying that the bail out was too little too late. But when you think about it, actually says nothing.
When I asked why the bail out of Solid Energy was going unremarked at The Standard.
One Standard author did say that they would do a post on the bail out. But as I predicted, never followed through. He was either pressured not to, or just simply decided it was better to just toe the party line and keep his silence.
“The solid energy post is a post that I am working on”.
I predicted that this author would find this a very agonised subject to wrestle with, before, “finally deciding to leave it in the too hard basket”. (Which he did). I knew he would do this, because like Lynn Prentice, Labour activist mickysavage would be reluctant to allow any discussion of the divisive Labour Party support for new coal mines, (or for fracking or for deep sea oil), to be brought out into the open.
For another example of what I mean, let’s look at a recent post by TS Author karol, who is one of the most avid proponents for actively ignoring climate change.
karol recently posted a list of the issues which she wants a Labour led government to consider. For brevity’s sake I have summarised them.
More state houses
Affordable rents
Safe houses
Jobs
Fair employment law
Social Security
Respect for all
ACC and WINZ no longer punitive but a public service
Recognition of unpaid work
Living wage
Make education available to all, throughout life
Quality housing and education and/or work for all young people
Democratic local authorities
Democratic governance at a national level
Broadcasting as a public service
Ensure New Zealand sovereignty is not over ridden by trade agreements
No secrecy for TPP
Stop state assets sale
Quite an impressive list of items.
And no doubt, all very worthy.
A metaphor for karol’s list, would have been if such a list had been drawn up for the crew and third class passengers on board the Titanic. You know the sort of thing, ‘Better food’, ‘Less hours’ for the crew, ‘On board instruction for the third class children’, more time on deck. etc etc etc.
That would have been just as worthy an exercise at the time, for any Leftists or Socialists who happened to be on board, but unfortunately, just as ridiculous as if the Senior Ship’s Officers organised a ball or party for the wealthy first class passengers, as their ship ploughed full steam ahead into a known ice field. When what was really urgently needed was; immediate action to slow the ship’s reckless blind onward rush to disaster.
In the ship of state that is New Zealand, forty, or fifty years from now when the climate crisis hits, full lifetime education, or more tolerant ACC and WINZ will be just memories. And Karol no matter how well intentioned her wish list, even whether it is fulfilled or not, will be condemned by history for leaving out, TAKE URGENT IMMEDIATE ACTION TO SLOW CLIMATE CHANGE.
Just like the Titanic, in our global ship, there are not enough life boats for everyone, and the majority of the poorer people of the world just like the third class passengers on the Titanic will be left to die.
And of course karol and micky are not the only ones to adhere to The Standard’s editorial line on climate change.
In a post currently up on The Standard by QOT, HEREthe closest Queen Of Thorns comes to saying anything about our dangerously threatened biosphere, is to say that we should have financial disincentives on property speculators to implement environment and accessibility standards.
Crazy stuff Greg. And is this what we can expect going into the elections?
Will any discussion over climate change ever be allowed or just like the US presidential election will any mention of climate change be actively ignored. The signs are that it will be.
Frankly Karol and QOT and micky and the other author’s at The Standard’s callous indifference and deliberate ignoring of this current and pending disaster puzzles me.
Have they forgotten Tacloban so quickly?
The most powerful storm ever recorded in human history to strike land
James Hansen has said, “Our Parents did not know that they were causing a problem by burning fossil fuels.
But we can only pretend that we don’t know about it.”
In my opinion Karol and her colleagues at The Standard are “pretending”, displaying the sort of First World wilful blindness and lack of moral responsibility that President Aquino complained of. Personally I think the authors at The Standard are not just acting immorally, their actions in ignoring climate change are also irresponsible. They can’t claim ignorance of the threat, as I mentioned The Standard often publishes articles on climate change. But notice there are never any solutions forwarded or suggested course of action.
No demands are ever put on the Labour Party, or even the National Party in Government, to do anything.
Why?
Do they think that if they put demands on National to take action against climate change it would meet putting demands on their own choice of Party as well?
Are they frightened that the oil and coal companies and their powerful lobbies will use their power and influence to keep Labour away from the treasury benches?
[i] http://thestandard.org.nz/public-transport-vs-private-transport-and-wasting-money-on-motorways/
Well how about that.
Greg Presland is mickysavage. I didn’t know that.
There are no secrets on the internet.
Myself and Greg have many friends in common, some who know both our online call signs. That they respected their confidences is to their credit.
As you know Greg, I am a great admirer of your electorate MP. Maybe we could sit down together some time, and have a chat about what you really think about the bail out of Solid Energy, coal mining, deep sea oil drilling, the Majuro Declaration, and climate change.
As you know Greg the Green Party official policy is “No New Coal Mines”.
If the Greens stick with this policy this will preclude them from joining a cabinet bound by majority vote to approve such things.
From my side of the argument I feel that it is up to Labour to soften their stance and not the Greens.
If nothing else, Hurricane Haiyan, should also inform you, of the same thing.
If something drastic is not done to rein in global CO2 emissions before the end of the decade, within the following 20 to 50 years, a storm the size and power of Haiyan will strike New Zealand. If it follows the traditional path of such storms, it will smash into the East Coast of the North Island probably somewhere in the Bay of Plenty. Needless to say the death and destruction will be enormous. And these sorts of events will continue, and repeat, and worsen, all around the world.
This is the crisis we face.
I am sorry that you saw fit not to publish your post on the Bail Out of Solid Energy, I am sure it would have been informative.
Not only that, it would have started the conversation on what a Labour led government should, or shouldn’t do, about climate change.
I am sorry that this debate has still not been had out yet.
But it needs to be.
Polls show that action on climate change is extremely popular, more than 60% of the population want the government to do more.
What is bad news for the Prime Minister should be good news for the Opposition. But only of course, if the Opposition and their Leader take up the diametrically opposed viewpoint.
In practice this means that David Cunliffe needs to make a statement, right now, or at the earliest opportunity, that a Labour/Green administration will halt all deep sea oil drilling, and fracking, and will prohibit any new coal mines, and most importantly of all, explain why.
John Key and the National Party will have no response. There can be none.
“No New Coal Mines”
“No Deep Sea Oil Drilling”
No Fracking
These are the three absolute, minimum, things that a Labour/Green administration must do about the “weather”.
Failure of the next administration, whatever its make up, to do even one of these three things, will sentence them to be condemned by history.
Greg, this is the conversation that the Labour Party and The Standard authors are ignoring, refusing even, to allow to be discussed.
For overt censorship and covert self-censorship, is why I term ‘The Standard’, climate change ignorers.
Talking about self censorship. Greg, still awaiting your promised post on the Solid Energy bail out.
Greg if you think that The Standard is not a good place to put up your post on the Bail out of Solid Energy, maybe you could put it up on The Daily Blog. After all, it is a more popular website.
How long before TDB doesn’t meet your high standards and you start hating on it, Jenny? To paraphrase Winnie, I’d drink the tea.
Strangely, Winston Peters is the NZF spokesperson for climate change.
Ovicula, I think that even Winston, may need something a bit stiffer than tea, to face up to what’s coming.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9573316/Extreme-weather-sweeps-globe
How about some brandy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHxEnS1G344
(Marianne Faithful)
Will you take me across the Channel,
London Bridge is falling down.
Strange a woman tries to save
What a man will try to drown.
It’s the rain that they predicted,
Its the forecast every time.
The rose has died because you picked it
And I believe that brandy’s mine.
And all over the world
Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world
It’s the same
It’s the same
The world is getting flatter,
The sky is falling all around.
And nothing is the matter
For I never cry in town.
And a love like ours, my dear,
Is best measured when its down.
And I never buy umbrellas,
For there’s always one around.
And all over the world Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world It’s the same
It’s the same
It’s the same.
And you know that its beginning,
And you know that its the end
When once again we are strangers
And the fog comes rolling in.
And all over the world
Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world
It’s the same
It’s the same
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world
It’s the same
It’s the same
The world is getting flatter,
The sky is falling all around.
And nothing is the matter
For I never cry in town.
And a love like ours, my dear,
Is best measured when its down.
And I never buy umbrellas,
For there’s always one around.
And all over the world Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world It’s the same
It’s the same
It’s the same.
And you know that its beginning,
And you know that its the end
When once again we are strangers
And the fog comes rolling in.
And all over the world
Strangers
Talk only about the weather.
All over the world
It’s the same
It’s the same
It’s a great blog and goes some way to restoring the faith in human nature that writers like Bob Jones consider it important to destroy.
Well done all! And it’s brilliant to have Journalist Neesha Bremner and Documentary film maker and poverty campaigner Bryan Bruce on board.
Whilst I haven’t read anything by Neesha (yet!), I’ve read Bryan’s posts on Facebook, and they are always witty and insightful. Highly recommended!
Public Address would be pretty high up as well, but it appears to have ditched its site meter.
@ deepred..
..maybe they dropped out because this ratings system is a pile of steaming horseshit..?
@ whoar i have 22,000+ subscribers…from 96 countries..taking everything i post..
..yet am nowhere to be seen..from these rankings..?
..heh..!..
..phillip ure..
22000 subscibers eh? How come noone ever posts a comment to one of your posts then?
@ gosman..zeald did an audit of my website..they gave me that figure..
..and what i find quite interesting..
..is that despite being a progressive-politics news-aggregation website..
..posting about 40-50 stories/links/commentaries each and every day..
..how those efforts have been so studiously ignored by both of those ‘biggest’ left-blogs..
..the daily blog..and the standard..
..’they smile in my face’..etc..
..that puzzles me..
..phillip ure..
but then again..that doesn’t really matter any more..
..there is a certain freedom in owing nobody anything..
..and wait ’till you see what i am going to be doing this year/soon..
..i am gonna have so much fun this year..
..phillip ure..
@ gosman..
you deserve a fuller answer to yr question..
“..22000 subscibers eh? How come noone ever posts a comment to one of your posts then? ..”
that also has puzzled me somewhat..the relatively light commenting compared to subscriber number..
(i didn’t think i was that scary..)
..and i think it is mainly down to the fact that i am doing a news-aggregation website..
..and i am doing 40-50 stories/posts/links per day..every day..
..that these subscribers are taking like an ongoing/often updated news-feed..
..does not in itself invite commentary..
..and maybe that most of the links i have added no original material to..
..is another factor..
..and whoar is really a different beast from most ‘blogs’..
.that put up a small number of posts..
..and invite comment/debate as their main raison d’etre..
..(and i guess the radical/vegan arguments i make..scare off most from left/right..in their studied group-denial..)
..and i guess that studied ignoring/not linking to/not mentioning of whoar by the biggest progressive blogs would also be a factor..?
..how aside from a couple of mentions on nat-rad..the corporate/access-media also studiously ignore..
(of course the general contempt i hold most of those hacks in..as being access-media..and how i voice that..could be a valid reason for that ignoring..in their eyes..eh..?..heh..!..)
..an example being that edwards the younger..
..in his political-commentary hack-work for the herald..
..despite whoar being the only entity doing commentaries on every question-time in parliament..for quite some time..
..and having i wd submit..valid commentary/p.o.v on a range of pertinant-issues..
..edwards the younger has never/ever mentioned whoar..
..(of course..relatively scathing reviews focussing on his naked-ambitions to get to sit on the telly-couches..wouldn’t have helped my case..eh..?..)
..hope that helps clarify that for you..
..and another stat in that report/audit that had me jumping up and down a bit..
..is the news (to me) that over 20,000 other websites..
‘point at me/whoar’..
..which i think is pretty cool also..
..and what i am going to do soon..(as mentioned/hinted at in earlier comment..)
..is that i am going to animate the character in the whoar-logo..
..(that brilliant piece of artwork from chris knox..)
..and use it to speak thru..
..won’t that be fun..?
..heh..!
(and as an aside..chris did that for me as a favour..saying it depicts his memories of me in my twenties..
..and i wd like to go on the record as confirming that if/when i am able to monetise my 22,000 subscribers/20,000 ‘pointing’ websites..
..that a serious wedge will be going the way of chris..
..i would just like to put that on the record..)
phillip ure..
update to above..
..in the earlier days of the daily blog..frank macskasy said some nice things about my efforts..
..and more than once..
..chrs 4 that frank..
phillip ure..
The meteoric rise of The Daily Blog, reflected the real very real gap in the market for political web site to the Left of The Standard.
In my opinion, that The Daily Blog’s success has been so phenomenal, is because it has filled that need.
And, success breeds success, the gathering respect for the TDB is shown in the many top writers and authors that are attracted to become contributers here.
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