All posts tagged The Daily Blog

The Daily Bloggers

The Daily Blog is unusual in how many bloggers/authors they have (most have one or a few).

They have just announced the addition of four more ‘bloggers’:

  • Paralympian Aine Kelly Costello
  • Artist and social commentator LaQuisha St Redfern
  • New Green MP and anti-TPPA campaigner – Barry Coates
  • Arts reviewer – Genevieve McClean

They add to an interesting list of current bloggers:

  • Palestinian rights activist – Leslie Bravery
  • Cannabis reform advocate – Chris Fowlie
  • Human rights, justice and equality activist – Donna Miles-Mojab
  • Environmental activist – Christine Rose
  • Author and political commentator – Chris Trotter
  • Enfant Terrible of NZ First – Curwen Rolinson
  • Head of Pacific Journalism at AUT – Dr David Robie
  •  AUT School of Communication – Dr Wayne Hope
  • Chairman of the Otara-Papatoetoe Community Board – Efeso Collins
  • Investigative Blogger – Frank Macskasy
  • Green Party MP – Gareth Hughes
  • Human Rights Activist and anti-rape campaigner – Jessie Hume
  • Political Activist and Teacher – John Minto
  • Unionist Rights Activist – Kate Davis
  • Former Green Party MP & Human Rights Campaigner – Keith Locke
  • Economist – Keith Rankin
  • Labour Party Candidate and lawyer – Kelly Ellis
  • Homeless rights advocates – Lifewise
  • Labour Party MP – Louisa Wall
  • Political Cartoonist – Malcolm Evans
  • Blogger and Broadcaster – Martyn Bradbury
  • Human Rights Lawyer – Michael Timmins
  • General Secretary of Unite Union – Mike Treen
  • Deputy Mayor of the Auckland Super City – Penny Hulse
  • Public Academic and TPPA campaigner – Prof Jane Kelsey
  • Actor and commentator – Simon Prast
  • Child Poverty Action Group Economist – Susan St John
  • Unionist – Tali Williams
  • The Nomad – The Nomad
  • TV reviewer – Tim Selwyn
  • Wellington Activist – Sam Gribbon
  • Auckland based human rights activist – Siân Robertson
  • Unionist – Joe Carolan
  • Living Wage Campaigner – Annie Newman
  • Labour Party MP – Sue Moroney
  • Sex worker rights advocate – Ruby Joy
  • Co-leader of the Maori Party – Marama Fox
  • Protestor – Josie Butler
  • Prisoner Rights Advocate – Arthur Taylor

However most of them are not daily bloggers, they post occasionally at best.

The Daily Blog has a core of regular authors and the rest pop up every now and then.

Having such a big lineup of authors provides diversity of topics and opinions. This can detract from the personality side of the site, which is something some blogs thrive on.

However the diversity is concentrated on one side of the political spectrum. Their About describes their leanings:

The Daily Blog Unites Top Left-Wing Political Commentators and Progressive Opinion Shapers

The Daily Blog is supported by UNITE, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the New Zealand Dairy Workers Union (NZDWU).

The Daily Blog unites over 42 of the country’s leading left-wing commentators and progressive opinion shapers to provide the other side of the story on today’s news, media and political agendas.

‘Opinion shaper’ may be a better description for their moderation, which has tended to filter out opinions that aren’t welcome there.

Editor, Martyn Bradbury says one of the primary objectives of the blog will be to widen political debate in the lead up to the 2014 New Zealand election.

It’s easy to forget about updating your site ‘About’.

With their fairly narrow emphasis on ‘left wing’ and ‘progressive’ they probably don’t do much widening of political debate, as they didn’t do much widening of left-wing and progressive support in the 2014 election.

“Global trends continue to point to blogging and social media as key influencers of mainstream media reporting as well as public opinion. With so much at stake in 2014 we plan to use this online platform to fortify the collective voice of the left and progressive opinions, and enhance the quality of debate across the political spectrum,” says Mr Bradbury.

Some initiatives have been worth trying, like Waatea 5th Estate, they have hardly set the quality of debate on fire on the left let alone across the political spectrum.

Like most blogs The Daily Blog caters for a useful niche in political discourse, but that just a small part online discussion.

Most online authors don’t last long, but if The Daily Blog gets more ongoing contributions it will help with their aims.

18 Comments
by Pete George on September 24, 2016  •  Permalink
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Posted by Pete George on September 24, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/09/24/the-daily-bloggers/

The biggest left wing blog?

A few days ago The Daily Blog posted a fund raising drive – July Contributions drive – last days

Brothers and Sisters, if you think The Daily Blog is an important voice in the NZ media landscape, then we need your contribution.

The Daily Blog is the largest left wing blog in NZ and you know how dire the mainstream media has become so these few platforms left to fight back at the Government and corporate power are more essential than ever before.

Asking for pocket money from brothers and sisters aside, the largest left wing blog in New Zealand?

Yesterday The Standard made a slightly different claim in Offer to NZLP candidates:

As the most widely read left blog in New Zealand, the Standard is a regular stop for most Labour Party members who spend time online.

Whether the largest or most widely read blog doesn’t really matter, a lot of political discussion happens on other types of forums anyway, especially Facebook.But the two posts highlight the different niches that the blogs are trying to cater for.

The Daily Blog:

Putting together a 5 night a week 7pm current affairs show and co-ordinating 40 of the best left wing progressive voices each month don’t come cheap.

A lot of Bradbury’s and The Daily Blog’s focus is now on Waatea Fifth Estate streamed talk show. It is quite a commitment and a big task rounding up participants for that every week day. It can sometimes be interesting but I doubt whether it makes impact beyond a fairly small audience.

Meanwhile The Standard and Labour have both moved in new directions – more openly campaigning for local body elections.

We think that offers candidates for Labour Party positions a great platform to get their ideas out to members and to debate them. Which is why, with nominations for various significant party positions closing soon, we’re offering candidates the opportunity to provide guest posts ahead of the conference in Auckland this year.

Democracy works best when people know who they’re voting for and the Standard is about democracy. So if you’re planning to stand for a Labour role and you want to speak to thousands of Labour members, contact us via thestandard@gmail.com

We’ll make sure that your post is at the top of the site for at least half a day and will moderate comments.

In the past The Standard has been adamant it represents the ‘labour left’ and not the ‘Labour Party’. Despite this they have dabbled in party politics at times, but is the most hard out Labour campaign approach I have seen there. This looks to be a significant change for both the party and the blog.

Will The Standard offer similar campaign support for Green candidates, especially now that Labour and Greens are promoting themselves as a joint election deal? Or are Greens not labour left enough for them?

There’s an opportunity for attracting more Green blog discussion now that Frog Blog has shut down comments.

by Pete George on July 30, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs, General, Politics
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Posted by Pete George on July 30, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/07/30/the-biggest-left-wing-blog/

War for Auckland

The Spinoff has announced ‘the war for Auckland’ (they now have a separate ‘Auckland’ menu):

War?! We know, we know. But what else would you call the vastly differing visions for Auckland presented by Auckland 2040 and Generation Zero? We feel like the next few months will define this city’s future, and will thus cover the Unitary Plan and the subsequent election with a rare fury. Read on to hear our justification – and to find out how you can help.

Today The Spinoff launches a new pop-up section. For the next three months, alongside Television, Sports, Politics and all that, we will also have an unashamedly campaigning new part of the site called The War For Auckland.

The name is a little provocative, sure. But we think it’s what we’re living through.

Today Auckland Council will receive a final set of recommendations from its Independent Hearings Panel on the Unitary Plan. That sounds like a wonky, impenetrable thing. But we think it happens to be a pivotal moment for the Unitary Plan – the single most important publication for this city in our lifetime. Potentially the most important it will ever know.

What I’m saying is: if we lose this fight, we might as well all leave. We think that’s a deeply depressing thought. We don’t want it, and won’t give up the city without a fight. That’s why we’re getting worked up and belligerent in naming the section.

They are also seeking funds to run finance the war.

So this post is to announce our intention. But it’s also to say that, if you believe this is important too, then we’d love your help. We’ve funded every part of our coverage of this election and the housing crisis ourselves to this point – from satirical takes to deeply reported features. It’s part of how we give back to the community which raised us. But it’s also exhausting, and expensive.

So for the first time we’re opening up the opportunity to contribute to The Spinoff financially via our PledgeMe campaign. We’re asking for money for this specific project, from both businesses and individuals, to chip in either publicly or anonymously. What we’re saying is: if you think it’s important that we live in a modern city which is fit for purpose into the future, then we would love your help to cover this election with that in mind.

The money we get will be ploughed into paying contributors, increasing the social reach of election-specific posts, creating collateral, developing election-specific parts of the site, paying fact-checkers, creating video – basically anything we can think of to make the young and the interested care more about the election, and get them voting.

But someone has tried to bomb the war effort.

SpinoffVersusBomber

Chloe King is right, Bradbury and The Daily Blog have long had a reputation for censoring comments that don’t fit their narratives and for banning people they don’t like, so that’s very ironic.

And yes, Bomber’s tweets are unavailable to me as well as The Spinoff and probably a lot of others that are seen as in the wrong army to the far left revolutionary’s.

The Spinoff ‘war for Auckland’ seems to have sparked a war on online fund seekers and attention seekers.

by Pete George on July 28, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in General
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Posted by Pete George on July 28, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/07/28/war-for-auckland/

More on the Morgan poll

Apparently continued silence by Martyn Bradbury on the latest Roy Morgan poll which came out a week after he posted BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: UMR SECRET POLL – National 41% Labour/Greens 45%

Since the Memorandum of Understanding, the First Past the Post mainstream media have had to start reporting the results as MMP ones. This perception change now allows Opposition voters to see they can win.

National is in trouble…

Once these private internal polls start becoming reflected in the TVNZ and TV3 Polls, National will start to implode with a power struggle.

The Roy Morgan poll has National on 53%, Labour on 25.5% and Greens on 11.5%. No word on what Bombers perception of this is.

One perception at The Daily Blog though, from Cleangreen. On the UMR ‘secret poll’:

Yes joy rings out finally National are on their way out hooray.

But in a comment yesterday on the Open Mic thread Cleengreen said:

Latest Roy Morgan and any other political poster companies we think we should trust! – well don’t – read below.

The Politicians are all under orders from the Bilderberg Group and are simply minion’s that carry out orders for the global elite and that is why you see a clear hard nosed similarity over every issue now, and the media is the same parrot for these cabals also as the pollsters are to!!!!

Does anyone understand how flimsy and vulnerable and easily rigged results of Pollster’s polling data can occur where the companies cannot verify their results or edit them to see if they are changed?

Poll result good, pollster good. Poll result bad, pollsters bad.

There was a lot of talk about the 10% bounce back for National (but interestingly no one seemed to bat an eyelid at Labour dropping 2.5 to 25.5%).

Chris Keall has posted Roy Morgan manager defends *that* poll at NBR:

The chattering class was quick to scoff when at the new Roy Morgan poll which showed a 10% jump for National (864 eligible voters were surveyed by phone).

There was eye-rolling from the left and the right, and I can see why: there were no political bombshells during the survey period (June 17 to early July) to warrant such a shift.

In a press release, executive chairman Gary Morgan pegged the Nats’ bounce on John Key’s announcement of a $1 billion housing infrastructure fund.

I’m not so sure.

Keall “asked Mr Morgan if he was confident of the poll result” and the RM poll manager responded:

We are very confident these results reflect a shift in voting intention in New Zealand towards the incumbent.

That is very likely to be correct. The questions are by how much, and why.

Andrew Little has had nearly two years to cut through and even before this poll, had really made little headway.

The New Zealand economy is booming at present with Kiwis returning to the country after years of outflows across the Tasman.

Also, specifically with this poll we conducted some additional research during this period which indicates that Housing Affordability/ House prices/ Shortage of Houses/ Homeless etc. has increased significantly as an issue in New Zealand this year.

The announcement of the $1 billion housing infrastructure fund is perfectly timed to take advantage of this sentiment. There are a large number of Kiwis out there who believe they will see the benefit of this $1 billion infrastructure fund personally.

It could be that housing has been a significant factor – perhaps a lack of confidence in Labour’s policies, or a desire by many voters to retain the capital value increases.

There was also a discussion at Dim-Post: Roy Morgan wild guessing game

No doubt Labour will start leaking that their secret polls show them getting a major bump after their conference. If you added all the bumps they’ve claimed from their private polls they’d be on about 500% by now.

Danyl has been quite cynical about Labour lately.

My guess about the swing – if there was a swing – is that the news recently has been dominated by horror, fear and uncertainty. Terror attacks, racial violence in the US, Brexit, and so voters are looking for political stability and supporting National. If they are.

Swordfish, a regular poll commenter at The Standard, joins the discussion. Another pseudonym I’m not familiar with, Pollster,  joined in.

It has nothing like the spikes the Roy Morgan does, and when it does it’ll be an occasional 2-3% shift, not a 5-10% (or in this case 16%) swing as the Roy Morgan has. What the UMR has shown since the election has been a pretty static political environment. The Roy Morgan suggests that from month hundreds of thousands of people are swinging wildly from Labour and the Greens to National and back again. It’s why no one in the business takes them seriously.

As the UMR polls aren’t published their claims can’t be verified, although Swordfish says:

Last 4 UMRs had Labour on 28-33%. Over the same period, the Public Polls put the Party in the range of 26-31%. Not an enormous divergence.

That’s a 5% range from UMR, the same as for ‘public polls’.

The last four RM polls for Labour were 25.5, 28, 29,5, 26 which happens to be a smaller range of 4%.

Pollster also said:

As for Labour staffers briefing internal polls, that’s not something I’m aware of, but I wouldn’t assume that’s why the UMR poll occasional finds its way into the public arena.

Frequently it’s Hooton who claims to have had a leak of Labour’s secret internal polling, when actually he just gets the UMR Omni from one of his clients as I do. I can also confirm he often makes up the figures, because he is a shameless liar.

Hooton bit back:

I think I have mentioned specific quantitative numbers from UMR polling data twice in the media. UMR polling is what “Labour’s secret internal polling” is – or, has been historically. It is also sold to corporates as you indicate.

Unless you think UMR does one quantitative study each month for its corporate clients and then another one for Labour. Perhaps it does. I don’t see that point in that though. Whenever I have mentioned polling of any kind the numbers have been correct.

Pull your head in with your lying accusations, whoever you are, anonymous guy on the internet.

Anonymous people on the Internet who appear to have a vested interest, and who promote polls only when their cherries are ripe, but never publicly publish any poll details, and make lying accusations about people with different political leanings, barely deserve to be taken with a grain of salt.

by Pete George on July 24, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in General, Politics, Poll
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Posted by Pete George on July 24, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/07/24/more-on-the-morgan-poll/

Is anyone terrified by MANA?

Anger. Fury. Fear. Bomber talks up a terror campaign at The Daily Blog:

It’s MANA that the elites fear turning populist anger against them

Bryce Edwards covers off the anger that is simmering in the electorate and the fear by elites of where that anger will erupt, but I think he misses a very important part of the spectrum which is open to radicalism.

And that is MANA.

To date the fear is that angry hordes of the disaffected and under educated will elect some type of Trump-esk figure who will take the nation to hell in a hand basket.

Maybe.

But if you look at who is bleeding here, it is young, poor and brown. The middle classes are getting nervous about the inequality and the pundits are scrambling to understand a poverty that is beyond their suburbs.

The furious response at Hone announcing his re-entry into politics suggests the elites fear those who are being hurt most by the housing crisis and growing inequality will rejoin the debate and demand a welfare state that isn’t as cruel and draconian as the current one has become.

I don’t recall seeing any fury. Bemusement was more apparent.

Radically demanding a reorganisation of the neoliberal state is what makes the elites nervous, not some old warhorse like Winston making ‘two wongs don’t make a right’ styled 1970s retro-racist jokes.

Given their lack of anything close to success to date radicals demanding a revolution will not be threatening many nerves.

If the poor and those on benefits re-engaged under a radical MANA brand demanding dignity, that would scare the bejesus out of the elites.

In the last election MANA attempted to gain representation using Kim Dotcom’s cash. The electorate punished Hone for trying to be too clever and screamed sell out, the grim reality of poverty however now howels at the door and those being hurt most by Key’s elitist economy are scrambling for a radical solution to their ever decreasing living standards. If MANA provides that, the elites will be terrified.

I doubt that many people will be terrified by Bradbury or by MANA.

Combined with the Internet Party and Dotcom’s millions they got 1.42% of the vote last election, they have no MPs, they barely register in polls, and Labour and the Greens have moved on without them. Labour never wanted to be seen with them.

Voters are likely to see another Bradbury promoted campaign not with terror but as terrible.

by Pete George on July 8, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs, Politics
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Posted by Pete George on July 8, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/07/08/is-anyone-terrified-by-mana/

Bomber promotes war, fear and terror in NZ

Fear, terror, hate, evil, war.

Don’t worry, what this Bomber promotes is unlikely to be felt by anyone. He is as lethal as a water bomb using a hundred year old balloon.

From a Martyn Bradbury post at The Daily Blog: Andrew Little + John Key declare war on Hone Harawira and MANA movement

There has been no official declarations, just more wishful thinking. But the language used is trying hard to promote conflict.

John Key and Andrew Little have immediately opened up a war of words…

No they haven’t, they responded to news that Harawira was standing in next year’s election with more like ‘yeah, so what’.

Both Little & Key have very specific reasons for attacking MANA…

…it highlights how both political parties fear a populist peoples movement…

For Little, his attack on Hone is part of Labour’s terror…

…Labour who illegally sent the terror squad…

Labour hate being reminded…

For Key. his attack on Hone is fuelled…

The fear Hone has caused by just announcing he is back…

…a reminder of how terrified the establishment are that the poor could gain genuine political representation.

…to overthrow this evil Government

Bomber against the world. The same old revolution repackaged with rusty old rhetoric.

Someone recently referred to him as Cadbury, but his chocolate mind has been in the sun too long.

Morphing the Mana Party into the MANA Movement may make some headway, but with friends like Martyn there won’t be many parties quaking in their political boots.

Not much to fear here.

by Pete George on June 21, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs, General
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Posted by Pete George on June 21, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/06/21/bomber-promotes-war-fear-and-terror-in-nz/

Filling the Fairfax/NZME gap

Talk of a merger between Fairfax and NZME has prompted discussion about opportunities to fill the gap left by an expected further contraction of MSM news and analysis.

The Daily Blog was launched as a left leaning alternative several years ago, and Waatea news (also driven by Martyn Bradbury) is trying to provide a new way towards a so-called 5th estate. While Waatea is useful it is not providing much new nor balanced.

Regan Cunliffe is still hoping to launch Freed. With a close association with Cameron Slater that will be seen as right wing whether it is or not.

Scoop continues to fund raise for it’s crowd funded model.

In a Scoop post Gordon Campbell on the proposed media merger:

To state the bleedingly obvious: the blogosphere does not have the resources to compensate for the reduction in competition (and the loss of journalistic resources) that will be the inevitable outcome of this merger.

Why not? Sure, online startups are lively, thriving and multiplying : there’sScoop, The Spinoff, the Daily Blog, , the Hard News stable, No Right Turn, The Standard, Pundit, the Dim-Post, Eric Crampton’s Offsetting Behaviour,Paul Buchanan’s 36th Parallel….to name just a few. Theoretically, the merger opens up a market opportunity for them. In reality, all of them will be damaged by the merger.

How come? Well for starters – and as this RNZ report explains here – and also here the blogosphere is poorly positioned to pick up the slack. It is run on a shoestring. It has few resources – or no resources at all, in most cases – to do news gathering. Its strength lies in its analysis and commentary; an essential role that the mainstream has carried out timidly, or not at all. In other words, a genuine symbiotic relationship currently exists between the blogosphere and the traditional . We rely on their news gathering and increasingly, they rely on our analysis and commentary. So… if there’s a decline in news gathering capacity, this will damage the ability of the blogosphere to carry out its valuable contribution to the public discourse.

David Farrar responded to that suggesting he was considering expanding Kiwiblog and has followed that up with Can blogs pick up the slack?

…I have been thinking about what I would do if Stuff and NZ Herald combine and go behind a paywall. The initial impact would be a hassle. Rather than quote stories from their sites, and comment on them, I’d might have to use other sites such as Radio NZ or Newshub. But they have far fewer stories.

But the other thing I can do is start reporting the news more directly. 80% of stories seem to originate for PRs. I know this as I now get all the PRs. They tend to go into a folder I check once a day or so (if I have time). It is rare I’ll do a story based on a PR, as easier to quote a media story already summarising it.

But if two million NZers get blocked from most content on the Herald and Stuff sites, they’ll look elsewhere for it. I doubt many will pay for it.

I could hire someone to write a few news stories a day on interesting NZ issues. I already have good sources for overseas news.

I could also hire someone to cover parliamentary news and try and get them accredited to the press gallery.

Hiring people costs money, so the business aspects of that would be a risk.

If DPF has a crack at it I’m sure who would do something worthwhile and aAny addition to news and analysis is a good thing, even if I can hear the spluttering from TS and TDB from down here.

How ever well DPF does it Kiwiblog News will be deemed by some to be a National/right wing/Crosby Textor mouthpiece with a Dirty Politics smear.

What’s missing from these options is a relatively neutral (politically) approach.

I’ve considered what else I could do to expand on what we’ve established here but I’m not in a position to put in much more timer or resources. It’s already equivalent to probably a half time job, albeit unpaid. It will be quite a few years before I can retire and put full time into it.

Trying crowd funding or attracting and managing volunteers also diverts time and attention.

I could only manage it if I could give someone a specific task, like reporting on Parliament, or reporting on political media releases, or reporting on political social media, or aggregating blog posts and Facebook posts, and leaving them too it.

Farrar has already tried some of that and it hasn’t really taken off. There are not many people around with the political interest, time and passion to give it heaps.

Perhaps we just have to accept that media will continue to both consolidate and fragment, and international players like Google and Facebook will increase their growing domination.

by Pete George on May 16, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs, General, Media, Politics, Social Media
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Posted by Pete George on May 16, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/05/16/filling-the-fairfaxnzme-gap/

You can’t just whack wings on the devil and call it an angel

Another lament from Chris Trotter, who seems to have resigned himself to needing divine intervention to rescue the mess of the left.

An Opposition Worthy Of The Name?

IT IS ONLY NOW, thirty years after the event, that the full effects of Labour’s 1984-1990 betrayals have become visible.

Still blaming today’s problems on a last century government that rescued New Zealand from Muldoon induced economic disaster.

The party’s inability to respond coherently to John Key’s National-led government has allowed the latter to escape, Scot-free, from economic and social policy failures that daily grow more intractable. All over New Zealand, voters shake their heads in frank disbelief at National’s extraordinary run of political good luck. Everywhere their cry is the same: “If only we had an Opposition worthy of the name!” How right they are.

Key’s successes and National’s successes are not an “extraordinary run of political good luck”, despite the left’s disbelief that they could do anything well.

But Trotter is probably right to an extent at least about “If only we had an Opposition worthy of the name!”

The bitter truth is that if a beneficent angel were to uplift the best politicians from Labour, the Alliance (before it disappeared) the Greens and the Mana Party, and drop them into a divinely crafted political entity that might – or might not – continue to exploit the still potent Labour brand, then the Government of John Key would be in real trouble.

The current Labour Party bleats on (and on, and on, and on) about being a “Broad Church”, but the sad truth remains that its reservoir of recruitment has never been shallower.

He may also be right about that. But then he goes into dream land.

A genuinely “broad church” party of the Left would balance off Andrew Little with Hone Harawira, Jacinda Ardern with Laila Harré, Stuart Nash with John Minto, Kelvin Davis with Annette Sykes, Grant Robertson with Julie Anne Genter and Annette King with Metira Turei.

The whole spectrum of alternative power: from Soft Centrists to Hard Leftists; would be covered.

a) Can anyone apart from Trotter realistically see  all or even most of those people being able to work together on a common cause?

b) Can anyone apart from Trotter see that one of Labour’s big problems is who they would need to make up the numbers to form a government. The electorate has rejected them for the last two elections.

That Labour’s fatal apostasy [the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle] has rendered such a divinely appointed caucus little more than a pipe dream is the besetting tragedy of progressive New Zealand politics.

Its embrace of neoliberalism in the mid-1980s left Labour with the political equivalent of syphilis. Sadly, every one of the many attempts to administer the Penicillin of genuine progressivism (God bless you Jim, Rod, Laila!) was rejected.

Consequently, Labour’s bones have crumbled and its brain has rotted. Small wonder that the other opposition parties are reluctant to get too close!

Trotter finally reveals his actual dream.

He doesn’t want a broad centre to far left left joining of forces. He seems to want Labour to leave the centre and hand itself over to the activist far left.

He fails to recognise that the mass of voters who can make a different government don’t want his far left to be seen as being too close to a centre-left party.

Labour are in serious trouble and are not inspiring hope of success on the left.

But trashing the centre and ceding to the far left is not the divine star leading to the promised land of the left.

The big plan last election was for the far left tail to wag the Labour dog, but the tail fell off.

Now they seem to be kicking an ailing dog thinking that a magnificent tail will morph out of the mess.

You can’t just whack wings on the devils of 2014 and call it an angel.

by Pete George on April 28, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in General, Politics
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Posted by Pete George on April 28, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/04/28/you-cant-just-whack-wings-on-the-devil-and-call-it-an-angel/

‘Town hall meetings would fix Labour

Alex Coleman ‏@ShakingStick

Lord but Bomber talks some nonsense. ‘Town hall meetings would fix Labour’. Most people couldn’t tell you where their townhall even is

Bradbury is a century after his time, politically.

Labour desperately needs to modernise and adapt to vastly changed demographics. Going back to how things were when the party formed in 1916 is not a sensible solution.

Bradbury has also suggested a social media campaign to work around the mean mainstream media but his efforts to date there haven’t been a raging success.

The Daily Blog was launched as a great new political activist alternative and now it chugs away in a corner without making much impression beyond a few faithfuls.

The Daily Blog certainly didn’t help the Mana Party nor the Internet party succeed, despite Bradbury’s at times paid for promotions.

The Fifth Estate streamed daily forum was another attempt to be a great new alternative. It’s still going but I never get around to checking it out any more (I watched two in the first week).

It may be a valiant attempt but it’s unlikely to make a big difference in New Zealand’s media landscape unless they score a controversial news making interview subject. No sign of that so far.

Most people with big social media ambitions are likely to be disappointed with the results.

Mainstream media, with all their resources, still struggle to make a significant mark amongst an ocean of forums waving for attention.

Ambitious new media has failed to find a magic formula yet.

Cameron Slater and Whale Oil were innovative and expanded rapidly, but become overburdened with bully boy attacks and inevitably someone attacked back. Dirty Politics was a return of mud that has swamped Slater’s ambitions.

Slater also promised a new enterprise, Freed. That was initially announced as a goer prior to the 2014 election but soon after switched to the back burner. It occasionally gets a forlorn mention but appears to have fizzled out.

While Whale Oil keeps up the clicks it has diminished substantially as a political activist arm.

It looks like Kiwiblog will only ever be a blog for David Farrar who is sustaining his input but only as a sideline – which is inevitable for people who have to earn a living elsewhere.

The Standard continues to promote ‘the labour movement’, which means mainly Labour interests, but is another activist bubble that is blighted by it’s regular overblown political attacks via posts and it’s persistent politically motivated attacks on visitors deemed enemies regardless of their intent.

Every blog is little more than a bubble bouncing on a small part of the ocean.

Forums like Facebook and Twitter have become dominant in social media, and no one is likely to be able to use them to dominate political discourse due to their fragmented nature – they are effectively vast numbers of bubbles frothing independently, with the occasional Nek Minit flurry that is more trivial than substantial.

There is still a place for town hall type meetings. I have been to a few in Dunedin, including a recent TPPA gathering which was little more than a Jane Kelsey rant to a mix of faithful and bemused onlookers.

The biggest two hall meeting in recent years was Kim Dotcom’s big reveal leading into the 2014 election. Bradbury was a big promoter of that and predicted it would lead to  Internet-Mana holding the balance of power this term. It was a disaster.

Town hall meetings and social media enterprises require credible people with winnable causes.A touch of charisma helps.

Bradbury is just too much seen as from the frothing far left to appeal widely, no matter whether he uses last century meetings or modern media methods.

Rather than trying to be the next big thing in politics I think the future is in finding a way of working with a growing fragmentation of ideas and forums.

by Pete George on April 28, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs, General, Media, Social Media
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Pete George on April 28, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/04/28/town-hall-meetings-would-fix-l/

Why Bomber’s claims are totally meaningless

In his latest rant against our intelligence agencies Martyn Bradbury has bombed with a mass of misfires.

The headline: Why the ‘protections’ in new spy bill are totally meaningless

There is no new spy bill. And Independent Review has just released a report that makes observations and recommendations.

Let’s get this straight – our intelligence agencies have been caught illegally spying on NZers, were caught helping the PMs Office smear the leader of the Opposition months before the 2011 election with falsified lies, were caught being racist, were caught spying on our trade partners to try and get John Key’s mate a job, were caught out by Edward Snowden telling the NSA that legislation had loopholes to allow mass surveillance, were caught out by Edward Snowden planning to tap the Southern Cross internet cable and were caught possibly aiding the CIA rendition torture program.

Most of those claims are questionable. Some of those issues are still under inquiry so it isn’t know whether anyone has been caught doing what Bradbury asserts.

So how does Key respond to intelligence agencies drunk on their own power?

Bradbury is drunk on hyperbole. The intelligence agencies are being reported on, not requesting changes.

Why he is suggesting even more power.

No he isn’t. He is suggesting a multi-party approach to assessing the recommendations of the independent review and deciding what might be done.

Why the hell would we give the GCSB and SIS more power when they can’t manage the power they currently have?

The report says “It was clear to us from our discussions with GCSB staff and from the GCSB’s own internal policy documents that these restrictions are interpreted and applied conservatively.” Is Bradbury wanting them to apply policies more aggressively?

The reality is that the so called 3 tier system of protections being suggested by the new legislation are utterly meaningless. The loophole built into the suggested legislation allows the spies to disregard all 3 of those tiers IF they believe there is an emergency or risk to life,  they then get 48 hours of warrantless surveillance.

This allows fishing expeditions for the spies.

Again, there is no new legislation. It should not allow fishing expeditions.

We must demand more protections for ourselves from this ever growing ultra secret deep state. A modern day stasi that answers to the NSA doesn’t make our democracy safer, it makes it far more dangerous.

Demanding more protections for ourselves is fine, but protecting ourselves from others requires some secret surveillance powers.

Likening New Zealand to a “modern day stasi ” is just pathetic.

Bradbury has bombed this with his hyperbole – “an extreme exaggeration used to make a point”. The problem is this sort of hyperbole doesn’t make any point other than the lack of credibility of the ranter.

by Pete George on March 13, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs, General
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Pete George on March 13, 2016

https://yournz.org/2016/03/13/why-bombers-claims-are-totally-meaningless/

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