Today’s Daily Blog Watch Round-Up of matters that have attracted the attention, assessments, and articulations of this country’s leading bloggers and on-line satirists…

NZ Left Blogosphere

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On Frogblog,  Eugenie Sage reports that there are Big defects in Environmental Reporting Bill,

Government introduced its long promised  Environmental Reporting Bill (ER Bill) last week. It reneges on its previous election commitments for independent state of the environment (SOE) reporting and instead proposes a poorly designed halfway house. This would see the Ministers for the Environment and of Statistics choosing what topics the reporting should cover, the Ministry for the Environment (MFE) and Department of Statistics doing the work, and Parliament’s environmental watchdog, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) able to comment…

Which seems to conflict with something John Key said back in 2008,

So, today I am announcing that National will expand the existing Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) into an Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) combining Erma’s existing powers with new powers.

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So, National will invite stakeholders to work with us to reach agreement on up to 20 national environment goals to be achieved by specific dates, at the latest by 2030. To give those goals some real resonance we will introduce a new Environmental Reporting Act.  This will require the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment to conduct independent five-yearly State of the Environment Reports. 

And Gareth Hughes outlines why The future is brighter for solar,

Here in New Zealand, we are seriously lagging behind and missing the opportunity. That’s why we’ve launched the Solar Homes policy, to help Kiwis take advantage of low-cost loans paid through rates to make it easier to install their own panels. With the Government bending over backwards for the oil industry offering tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies, criminalising protest activity at sea and removing any public say from risky exploratory deep sea they are looking to the fossil fuel past and ignoring the smarter, greener clean energy future.

As the planet hurtles toward World War 3, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Phillip Ure on Whoar  quotes “..Malcolm Fraser:.Ukraine: there’s no way out – unless the west understands its past mistakes..”

Chris Trotter on Bowalley road suggests that we have witnessed a  Coup d’état By Crowd in the Ukraine,

What have we just seen? A revolution? It certainly looked like one. There were crowds, vast crowds, singing patriotic songs in Kiev’s Independence Square, their collective breath rising up like smoke in the freezing winter air. There were Riot Police, too, naturally. Hundreds of them – looking for all the world like Roman Legionaries lost in time and space. There were even barricades – just like in Les Miserables.

Josie Pagani writing on The Pundit has a differing view, when she sez it’s Time to put the punch into ‘punch above our weight’, and,

Patrick Gower’s recent  performance on TV3’s The Nation has kicked open a wasp’s nest within the Left, amid accusations of political partisanship. On Frankly Speaking, Frank Macskasy asks if the TV3 journo shows his true colours?

Phillip Ure posts his own critique of a  review:..the nation:..the far-right come out to play..

And Rob Salmond is more restrained on Polity with his Heads, talking.

For good measure, Frank on Frankly Speaking  wonders if Key will be arranging    A coincidental photo-op? when the royal couple arrive in New Zealand next month. What are the chances? Fucking near 100%, I’d say.

Brian Edwards tries to soothe  John Key – ‘There There’ Prime Minister, and looks at how Key has maintained his popularity with at least half the population,

I suspect that Key may in reality be the most focused and ruthless Prime Minister New Zealand has seen, the total pragmatist. When principle and pragmatism collide, principle invariably gives way. By comparison the oft-derided Rob Muldoon was a naive idealist, his bullying manner obscuring a genuine man of the people, genuinely concerned for the ordinary person. You might not like Muldoon’s principles, but he stuck to them.

We are  Living in a warmer world, explains Gareth on Hot Topic,

Britain’s stormy and wet winter – the wettest since records began, 250 years ago – the warm winter in Russia and Alaska, drought in California and Australian heatwaves — has caused many people to consider the role that climate change might have played in driving those weather events. For once, public debate has moved away from the tired old is it/isn’t it happening frame and into concern about what living in a warming world might actually mean for us all.

On Imperator Fish, Scott Yorke demands answers to who narked on Green MP, Mojo Mathers’ junket, all-expenses-paid,  staying in a Five Star Hotel in Eketahuna, luxurious trip, to the – Wairarapa! Scott asks – Did Pete George do it?

Danyl at The Dim Post has Slightly more thoughts on the Taxpayers’ Union  at how the Herald was tipped off on Mojo Mathers trip,

Jordan Williams has posted about the Mojo Mathers story. He writes:

The Taxpayers’ Union did not seek media attention on this story. There is no associated press release. The Herald called yesterday evening asking for comment, as happens often.

Here’s how I’m guessing this works. The (taxpayer funded) opposition researchers in the National Party find a smear story they like. They pitch it to an editor at the Herald and – because they can’t provide comment themselves for obvious reasons, such as John Key’s taxpayer funded golf game – they say, ‘Call Jordan Williams at the Taxpayers’ Union and he’ll give you comment.’

Or, Danyl, Jordan Williams simply lied and he was the source.

From The Standard,

• Taxpayers Union – concentrating on the banal and ignoring the big issues –  mickysavage

• Shooting Messengers with Wonky Long Bows – Bill

The reason I became bemused was because Ames used to write stuff I considered informative and worth reading. Now, it seems, he’s on a mad crusade to assassinate the characters of Glen Greenwald and other reporters at ‘The Intercept’…

• How short are memories? – Bunji

Do no reporters remember John Key, Hollow Man, or anything about National’s funding structure?  It’s just trusts obscuring any knowledge of their donors from one wall to the other.

• A tale of two journalists – karol

• The retirement age debate – mickysavage

Regrettably the financial analysis is quite clear.  The current entitlement to superannuation will drain more and more of the state’s resources and Aotearoa will face a financial crisis in 10 years or so due to the baby boomer bubble approaching retirement.

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Blogpost of the Day

On the Mojo Mathers issue, check out The Pundit, where Andrew Geddis suggests  Let’s all pick on the deaf girl!

A chill wind of fear will have blown through the corridors of power in Wellington with the publication of this Sunday Herald story about Green MP Mojo Mathers’ decision to travel to take part in a radio show about people with disabilities.

A brilliant, cutting expose of a very right wing front organisation for the Nats. This election will be getting dirty!

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Thought for the Day

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~ Joe Blogger,

“The Daily Blog Watch” Editor, Imbiber of Fine Sugary Drinks,  & Moa-whisperer

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