The facade of local democracy in Auckland
The fundamental problem of engagement in local democracy comes down to the grim reality that most of the democracy at a local level is a facade.
politics
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“Better Now Than Later!” – Nato Deploys 4,000 Additional Troops To Eastern Europe
The decision to deploy an additional 4,000 troops to Russia’s eastern borders has been undertaken in an attempt to both intimidate and deter Putin from contemplating a lightning-fast repossession of the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
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NZ Herald/Fairfax merger and the burning of the public square
From Paul Henry in the morning to Mike Hosking at night with a merged right wing newspaper monopoly in the middle. An unbroken chorus of neoliberal mythology masquerading as successful fact.
We have become a one media state.
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Spiralling Inequality Proves National Not To The Left Of Labour – But Someone Arguably Is…
There’s nothing wrong with operating to the economic left of Labour. But it seems fairly patently obvious that that’s not what National are doing. If there’s any dyed-in-the-wool Cold Warriors out there in the audience, they may perhaps choose to disagree – but running a fairly broadly social-democrat economic policy is not supposed to substantially increase inequality by benefiting economic elites at the expense of just about everyone else.
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Build The Surge For Chloe Swarbrick!
I remember meeting Helen Clark for the first time when I was an undergraduate student at Otago. She was just six years older than me, but I could tell, even back then, in the early 1980s, that this junior political studies lecturer from Auckland was going to play a major role in New Zealand’s political history. I defy anyone to watch Swarbrick’s performance on last Sunday’s Q+A and not reach exactly the same conclusion.
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The actual differences between Lianne Dalzeil and John Minto – For Christchurch Voters
Christchurch whanau are still reeling from all that has happened to them. First they survived the actual natural disasters and then they have gad to survive National’s disasters in cleaning it up.
It’s been textbook disaster capitalism – a vote for John Minto reverses that.
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MUST READ SUNDAY: Corporate Conspiracies
Calculating the harm done by the American sugar industry is difficult. But the number of people who, since the 1960s, have had their lives cut short by heart attacks, strokes, and the deadly consequences of undiagnosed and untreated Type 2 Diabetes, must run into the tens-of-millions.
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As NZers scramble to comprehend that their justice system is racist – a Maori gets threatened with arrest for speaking Maori
That it’s taken almost 2 centuries for us to discuss how racist the system of NZ really is should be the shocking part of this issue.
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Liquor Licensing Elections Provide Opportunities for Trailblazing Cannabis Control
Election papers have been issued to decide representatives for local government, health boards, and liquor licensing trusts. Among the candidates some eccentricities shine through making the candidates’ book quite entertaining reading. There are some good people and policies too.
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Israeli population control and child victims
Thanks to digital technology, the manner in which the Israeli Army goes about its population control activities is now often captured on video devices and widely distributed. Netanyahu Uncensored is not alone in providing evidence of assaults upon Palestinian children by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers.