Ripples in History
Question: What is the difference between Free Trade and Fair Trade?
Answer, later.
Setting the Agenda
Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
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Winston Peters and Neo-liberalism, Beat Compassion and Cool.
No wonder Winston Peters objected to the Coalition Government being called Labour-led. Because, on matters of most importance, it’s led by New Zealand First. And even though Fortune Magazine this week said Jacinda Ardern was the second most powerful leader in the world, that would make Winston the first.
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Farewell and Thanks to a Rangatira
Last Thursday at Mangamuka we buried Rua Rakena, a quiet revolutionary who had an extraordinary, but largely unsung, influence on Maori and Tiriti politics from the 1960s to the 1990s
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Grasping the chance to do it better.
While CGT might have been a one-way ticket to oblivion for this government, the original problems that the Minister of Finance asked the TWG 2019 to address have not gone away. These are housing unaffordability and increased inequality, both of which are highly damaging to New Zealand’s future stability and prosperity.
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There is a lot of noise but little light being shown on the debate over a capital gains tax (CGT)
What the middle-class liberals who dominate the leadership in the Green and Labour Parties don’t have any recognition of is that working people in New Zealand are radically overtaxed and deeply resent that. This is especially true when considered in relation to the benefits we are able to access through the public health, education, housing systems.
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Resist Zionism – defend international law
With US President Trump’s rejoicing, Israel has re-elected Netanyahu for a fifth term. An Israeli public relations firm took credit for placing hidden cameras at polling stations on election day, successfully reducing the voter turnout in non-Jewish communities. Netanyahu’s Likud Party admitted that it was behind the deployment of a reported 1,200 hidden cameras. In a previous election in 2015, the Israeli Prime Minister published a video, warning that ‘Arabs’ were “voting in droves” with the help of left-wing organisations.
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Brief statement from Waikato DHB Board member Dave Macpherson
Dave Macpherson became an Elected Waikato DHB Board member after the DHB killed his son, he is TDBs mental health blogger.
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Indonesia’s political system has ‘failed minorities’ – like West Papuans
“Violence on post-Suharto Indonesia, from Aceh to West Papua, from Kalimantan to the Moluccas, is evidence that Java-centric nationalism is unable to distribute power fairly in an imagined Indonesia. It has created unnecessary paranoia and racism among Indonesian migrants in West Papua.” – Andreas Harsono
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Recognising Hate Speech When You See It.
In that universe, Ghahraman would be calming down her more zealous followers: warning them that unreasoning zealotry is always the problem – never the solution. She would also be reassuring them that New Zealand’s statute books already contain plenty of legal remedies against dangerously hateful expression.
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Dr Liz Gordon – The speed of school reform
Under the third Labour government, Roger Douglas ran a reform process of the Blitzkrieg variety. Essentially the idea (which came from the Right in the US) was to carry out state sector reform (and destruction) so quickly and so seamlessly that it would take the public years to understand what had happened.