Archive for July, 2016
Thursday, July 28th, 2016
What is going on? Donald Trump got confirmed as the Republican presidential candidate at a bizarrely chaotic political convention… and promptly received an upwards bump in the polls to where he’s now rating ahead of Hillary Clinton, for only the second time this year. Likewise, John Key’s government had quite ...
Posted in Articles | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
Column - Gordon Campbell
S o Trade Minister Todd McClay is unavailable for comment because – reportedly - he has gone overseas on a private trip. (Siberia? Outer Mongolia?) Any skepticism on this point reflects the credibility problem that McClay is going to face in future ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
Column - Gordon Campbell
T he International Olympic Committee has made the right decision by leaving it to individual sports federations to decide whether particular Russian athletes will be eligible for Rio. Collective punishment was bad enough when applied to all Russian ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the IOC’s treatment of Russian sport
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
Column - Gordon Campbell
C an there really be there any link between the US presidential elections and yesterday’s RBNZ signals on interest rates and the NZ dollar? Well, maybe. And it would be this: the improving US economy is reportedly putting a tailwind behind the US dollar, and ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell: the Reserve Bank, the UN shortlist, & Trump
Wednesday, July 20th, 2016
First published on Werewolf
No doubt, US Vice-President Joe Biden will be updating Prime Minister John Key on the chances of a TPP vote taking place in the ‘ lame duck’ session of Congress that’s held between the November’s election and the inauguration of a new President in January. Whether there ...
Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, July 19th, 2016
First published on Werewolf
Over the course of the past decade, MFAT had managed to concoct a China policy of infinite subtlety, a gossamer illusion that – alas – China has just stomped into the dust. Apparently, if we object to their cheap, subgrade steel being jettisoned here, they’ll attack our ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 15th, 2016
First published on Werewolf
Clearly, New Zealand is in no position to criticise the performance of any other country’s state broadcaster. (On Tuesday night, state broadcaster TV ONE lead its 6 o’clock news bulletin with a long report on the Pokemon Go game. Go figure. ) Even so, South Africa’s state ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 11th, 2016
First published on Werewolf
Driving round Dunedin South yesterday was an interesting place to be hearing the news of Labour’s new housing policy launch. In Corstorphine and Kew came street after street of state housing built in a previous era by an effective government response to housing need, yet all of ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Labour’s housing policy, and TPP rewrites
Thursday, July 7th, 2016
Seven years in the making. Twelve volumes, and 2.6 million words. The Chilcot report into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war in 2003 is indeed a blockbuster, and it dole out some harsh criticisms of former British PM Tony Blair - who led Britain into this disastrous action, which has ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Tony Blair and the Chilcot Report
Tuesday, July 5th, 2016
First published on Werewolf
As history records, the last foreign dignitary seen by Chairman Mao before he died was a New Zealand Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon. With British PM David Cameron now on his political death bed, there’s a certain grim resonance in the fact that New Zealand PM John Key ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on John Key’s weird pilgrimage to Europe