The Daily Blog Watch – 4/5 March 2014

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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 and on-line satirists…

NZ Left Blogosphere

Open Parachute has the latest NZ blogs sitemeter rankings!

More on climate change/global warming on Hot Topic, as Gareth talks about  Living in a warmer world,

This year really has started with a bang. An unusual concatenation of weather extremes — 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.

Steffan Browning, on Frogblog, explains why Dusky dolphins are a ‘canary’ for fisheries issues,

 Canaries were used down coal mines to warn workers about dangerous gases. If the canary died, the miners knew to get out. The Marlborough Sounds have their own “canaries” – including king shags and dusky dolphins…

For an alternative look at the Ukrainian situation, check out Chris Trotter’s on Bowalley Road. Chris raises an intriguing point how we seem to be experiencing a rash of Coup d’état By Crowd where nominally democratically-elected governments have been toppled by mob-uprisings. Which puts Les Misérables in a whole new light.

Also in Chris’ sights, he describes Matt McCarten’s appointment to David Cunliffe’s office as A Lurch To Sanity,

Cunliffe’s challenge is to make middle-class New Zealanders understand that it is not the policy package of a Labour Party determined to return to roots that they have to fear, but the extreme policy prescriptions of the neoliberal Right. He needs to explain that between 1983 and 2013, the policies which caused the number of Kiwi kids living below the poverty line to nearly double were not the policies of Richard Seddon, Mickey Savage or even Rob Muldoon, but of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson.

Some deep insights there. I’d expect nothing less from the moral shepherd of the Left.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

On Open Parachute, the blog offers Fluoride and the 5 easy steps of a conspiracy theory,

 …the internet has been a real blessing to conspiracy theorists – especially those who are attacking scientific consensus. In Hyping Your Conspiracy Theory In 5 Easy Steps. She  is using the anti-vaccination movement as an example. But it is just as applicable to the anti-fluoride movement.

Gordon Campbell on our response to Russia’s actions in the Ukraine,

To  the Russians, the current crisis in the Ukraine must seem like a no-brainer. Ukraine has always been treated as vital to Russia’s self-defence, and to its role as a modern world power. (Russia has had a fleet stationed in the Crimea since 1783.) The Crimea had been gifted by Russia to the Ukraine only 60 years ago and it is now being taken back, apparently with the enthusiastic support of the pro-Russian population of the region. In the process, the territorial integrity of the modern Ukraine now seems doomed. We seem headed for a re-run of the crisis in 2008 when the Russian military annexed parts of Georgia (namely, the regions of Abhazia and South Ossetia) after the pro-Western leadership in Georgia over-reached itself, only to find that the response of the European Union and United States was limited to expressions of deep moral outrage and hand-wringing regret. Similarly, the interim government in Kiev is about to discover that the support shown to it by that nice Catherine Ashton of the European Union will be of little use in stopping a Russian tank…

Gordon outlines a measured recent history of the history and why the Russians are flirting with WW III in their actions in The Crimea.

No Right Turn offers his point of view on the crisis – How predictable

With Russian troops occupying Crimea, Europe is planning sanctions. And naturally, Britain is planning to stab them in the back to protect its London money-laundering business….

And is there an end of the occupation? in Afghanistan, asks Savant?

Right on cue, Scott over at Imperator Fish relays A message from Vladimir Putin. When a letter starts like this;

I send warm greetings to you decadent and morally corrupt Western perverts.

Was not Winter Olympics most wonderful event? As Russian, I am very proud of my nation’s efforts in staging such magnificent event. Not only do we top the medal table, but we also stop homosexuals from ruining event.

– it bodes no good. Or does it?

On Polity, Rob Salmond looks at how ridiculous National can be at blaming Labour for Christchurch’s earthquake-related problems. So little wonder that  Brownlee climbs high horse; falls off,

He thinks that calling attention to a person the system has ignored is “despicable manipulation” rather than, say, the exact role Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is supposed to play in our democracy.

Brownlee also thinks – get this – that Labour is somehow to blame for Mrs Boyd’s suffering. Seriously, get real Gerry. When you spend three years failing to help someone, don’t be surprised when they try something other than asking you for help.

Phillip Ure on Whoar describes how  “..Seagulls lured – stunned – run over..”

Fightback declares that  Capitalism: Not Our Future, in an up-coming conference on Queen’s Birthday weekend.

Porcupine Farm offers some laffs from  Tales From the Rockstar Economy

And from The Standard

After having the past five and bit years with National’s negative policies about anything to do with new technologies, it is really nice to see some effective red-tinged morning ideas appearing on the sky’s horizon.  Of course that they were accidentally released because of a technology screw up does make them somewhat more delicious. And no it wasn’t Clare Curran who screwed up. She just took the hit….

But then I heard Adams’ weird and defensive interview on Checkpoint. So I took a look at the actual paper and realised just why she was so awkward and nervous on what should have been an easy political hit. The stuff Curran has been looking at is actually really very good. So good it shows National up for the backwards and self-interested lot they are….

Colin Craig has announced that he has commenced proceedings against Russel Norman, or at least I think this is what he has done….

John Key’s rush to support the US-EU positions on the Ukraine “crisis” seems a little like a repeat of NZ’s rush to support Britain in the first and second world wars.  In those days New Zealand was still considered to be a Dominion of Britain. Yesterday, One News reported a statement from Key that condemns Russia’s actions in the Ukraine.  For him the connection seems to have a lot to do with trade….

Judith Collin’s endorses a company, Orivida, that her husband is a (presumably paid) director of. That same company has previously made political donations to the National Party.  That’s a conflict of interest. One that’s particularly sharp given the previous use of John Key’s image to promote the same company….

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Blogpost of the Day

For a brilliant assessment of National’s policies over the last five years, check out Government Spin and Hidden Secrets on Local Bodies,

This National led Government has seriously mismanaged things and is desperate to hide the true effects of its governance over the last five years. I half suspect many of the retiring National MPs are jumping ship because they don’t want to be around when the proverbial hits the fan.

National have carefully constructed showy facades that hide flimsy realities and I have attempted to give some examples…

 

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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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