Let that sink in.

Consider the insane culture war revenge fantasies masquerading as social policy and the venal self interested donor class getting their economic policy rammed through with little democratic oversight:

• A denigrating anti-Māori agenda
• Attacks on worker rights
• Attacks on renter rights
• Slashing public services to afford a $2.9billion tax break for rich landlords
• Slashing $90-$300million in Māori funding
• Slashing $3billion from climate change funds
• Promising cancer patients money for their drugs then reneging on it and only funding half the drugs for twice the cost!
• Race war generating Treaty principles referendum
• Eliminating Māori representation at local council level
• Fast Track Powers that will desecrate environment
• Allowing Gas and Oil exploration
• Building a mega prison
• Draconian war on crime powers
• Getting NZ involved in a new American war
• Allowing News media to die so there is less accountability
• Attacking beneficiaries
• Throwing 50 000 off welfare
• Attacking the disability sector
• Cancelling the IRex Ferry’s for virtue signalling
• $12billion in tax cuts we couldn’t afford
• Massive public service cuts in favour of user pays
• Underfunding Public Health to cause a manufactured crisis
• Pro Gun nuttiness
• Pro Tobacco nuttiness
• Pro Mining nuttiness
• Pushing donor interests above and beyond the common good
• Weaponising our gridlock impatience by lifting speed limits that will kill more people
• Cutting public funding to community sports teams that have trans players
• Grievance Inquiry into Covid
• International think tank Atlas influencing policy
• Postponing WHO reporting to sate anti-vaxxers conspiracy theorists.

That list is like the greatest hits album of an arsehole.

There are of course political winners and losers.

WINNERS:

Weaponising Impatience 

Megalandlords and Real Estate Pimps

Sweet Zombie Jesus what a handjob these rich pricks have been given! 346 Megalandlords who own at least 200 properties will get a tax cut of $1.3m each over five years – the total going to that group: $464m! The total cost for the whole lot, $3 billion less in tax collected over 4 years! The Real Estate Pimps have all self-asphyxiated, died and gone to heaven! There is a class war erupting between the Landlord Class and the Renter Class and this Government who they donate to are on the Landlord’s side. This is a Parliament of Landlords, for Landlords and in the interests of Landlords.

 

War on Crime, Boot Camps & Bullshit Gang Patch Bans

This is the true danger of this Government, they are so ideologically driven they don’t care their foaming mouthed promises of revenge during the election will make things worse…

Government ignores official advice gang crackdown could backfire, increase membership

The government’s gang crackdown could backfire, driving up rates of gang membership, increasing domestic violence and making it harder to exit gangs, according to expert advice from justice officials.

The government is expected to today introduce legislation banning gang patches in public, limiting freedom of association and imposing harsher sentences for crimes, regardless of whether the crime is linked to being in a gang.

…when even Judith Collins tells you the Gang Patch Ban goes against Bill of Rights you know we are in trouble…

Gang patch ban inconsistent with rights — Attorney-General

The Government’s move to prohibit gang patches in public places would be inconsistent with the rights to expression, association and peaceful assembly, a report by the Attorney-General Judith Collins has found.

The Government’s proposed anti-gang laws would ban gang patches in public places and give police extra powers to stop gang members congregating.

Just after 3pm today, parliamentary urgency was accorded for the introduction and select committee referral of the Bill, along with two others. It is now being debated in the House.

In a report also tabled in Parliament this afternoon, Collins’ report on the Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill said it had tested the bill against the Bill of Rights.

“I conclude the proposed prohibition on the display of gang insignia in public places is inconsistent with the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in the Bill of Rights Act.”

…when even Damien Grant can see Gang Patch Bans won’t work…

‘The state should not tell anyone what to wear,’ writes Damien Grant

My position is more fundamental; the state should not be telling some of the worst members of our society what to wear because the state should not tell anyone what to wear.

..when two right wing idealogical vultures like Damien and Judith agree on State over reach, you fucking know the State has over reached!

Here’s my fear with National’s crackdown on Gangs.

The first is that they won’t work.

Banning Patches in public, using dispersion powers, implementing non association orders and increased powers for warrantless searches all sound tough to a public who are frightened and tired and resentful of feeling intimidated but won’t do a bloody thing in terms of curtailing Gangs because it fundamentally misses why there has been a jump in gangs  and gang violence in the first place.

The Royal Inquiry into historic abuse by the State found 80% of gang members were abused in State Care.

Want to stop gang membership? Stop abusing kids in state care!

When you start abusing the power of the State in the manner we are all cheering for against the Gangs you risk radicalising criminals and that is the last thing you want to do in any country!

Look at how the radicalisation of the Parliament Lawn Protestors has metastasized into the dangerous cocktail of resentment that has become.

Imagine putting those pressures on violent organised criminals.

Of course organised crime needs to be challenged at all times by the Police, but what we are doing here is implementing bumper sticker policy that will only cause counter productive outcomes as opposed to smarter Policing.

Hand on heart I don’t think National MPs could tell you what is the difference between the Mongrel Mob, Mongols, Head Hunters, Black Power or Comancheros and that’s deeply concerning because they all have completely different reasons for existence and attempting to tackle the most glaringly apparent elements of gangs with laws that breach human rights will only radicalize those communities.

The problem we have right now with gangs is the unprecedented forced deportation of the 501 criminal elements from Australia who have unleashed a tsunami of violent gang take overs because they are prepared to use a level of violence and sophistication far in advance  of the domestic gangs.

These 501 syndicates are using their contacts with South American Cartels to import a purer, cheaper Meth and it is this turf war for the Meth trade that is shaping the current violence.

Police gaining powers to harass and intimidate the poorest members of this crime pyramid with powers that breach human rights will only radicalise that community.

Look at this.

…what Simeon Brown never points out is that the $2.75million given to the Mongrel Mob came from the proceeds of crime fund! It wasn’t taxpayer money, it was the proceeds of crime that was paying for drug rehabilitation programmes because that is how you move the community Gangs like Black Power and Mongrel Mob away from crime.

This is the exact type of programmes you want to run.

Where the Gang Intelligence should be focused is on the 501 syndicates because their connection to South American Cartels is legitimately destabilising and dangerous.

Nothing National are suggesting has any connection to reality beyond ZB talking points.

Back to the Gang Patches ban in public.

Patched members are never allowed to hand over their patch so Police will need to beat the gang member unconscious to remove the patch.

When the next Gang tangi occurs after the patch ban, Luxon will demand the Police go in and take the patches which will require a heavily armed Police response that will immediately deteriorate into a shoot out.

We don’t need harder policing, we need smarter policing because this cavalcade of tough on crime short on facts crap is going to cause far more damaging blowback.

Q Zealand and Grievance Antivaxxers

The danger that Winston always faced by seducing the Conspiracy Swamp Kingdom Antivaxx Cookers is that they are so bat shit crazy, so radicalised by social media hate algorithms that short of resurrecting Jesus, Elvis and Frank Sinatra, Winston can’t pacify them.

Here are the antivaxxers who Winston has seduced and empowered on social media wanting to go way further than Winston has led them on with…

Bat. Shit. Crazy.

ACT want in on the antivaxx electorate as well and are demanding a wider scope of Covid inquiry by turning it into a grievance carnival with claims Brooke Van Veldon is sitting on the initial report longer to hide the good work that was achieved.

There has to be a means for pulling 10% of the population out of Qanon conspiracy land but social media algorithms are driving polarisation and conflict, not easing them.

Economic pressures will drive extremism.

Anger and resentment are political currency and the Right have International Think Tanks that know how to emotionally target and manipulate Culture War dynamics for political ends.

Of course we need a critical analysis of the Covid lockdown so that we know how to do better when the next pandemic hits.

What is being fed is a grievance carnival for the Qanon fear grifter, antivaxx influencers and Conspiracy Swamp Kingdom devotees.

This is a weaponised process for the grievance fringes to wallow in and the danger is that this virtue signal by ACT and NZ First will arouse the craziest fringes of the antivaxx movement and they will see this Inquiry as the worst kind of sell out making it a target for their insane rage.

Winston’s seduction of Conspiracy Swamp Kingdom Antivaxx Cookers could make Covid Inquiry a domestic terror target.

New Zealand has mutated into Q Zealand.

Trans National Mining Interests

Ummmm, now this is one bad idea…

Lobbyists are back at Parliament – with a new privacy measure hiding their identities

Gerry Brownlee says the privacy of people with ‘lobbying roles’ should be protected, while officials have drawn up a new code of conduct. 

…Trans National Mining Interests line up offshore waiting for law change that will open up conservation land for mining alongside fast track powers for Dr Pork Shane Jones, shouldn’t we be very aware who is influencing NZ Policy, especially when you consider the damage mining can cause the environment?

Especially with climate change?

Abolishing the Treaty Principles would remove obligation to engage with Māori at a critical juncture when Trans National Mining Interests are ready to exploit conservation land.

Chris Bishop and Shane Jones have never met a corporate donor they didn’t slavishly worship, and we now know those benefiting from the Fast Track process donated $500 000 to the Right…

$500,000 in political donations associated with fast track projects

…it’s like the Mining Company in Avatar has taken over the country!

This Government is literally gaslighting us over Gas…

No new gas likely before 2035 despite government’s plans to un-ban exploration

The government’s own advice on repealing the oil and gas exploration ban says no new gas fields are likely to be discovered and developed in the next 10 years.

The latest modelling, urgently released under the Official Information Act and obtained by RNZ, says in the short term repealing the ban is unlikely to significantly bolster gas supplies from existing fields, either.

That makes the climate impacts of the law change smaller, but also shrinks any expected impact on the energy market.

Resources Minister Shane Jones has sold the law change as being needed to keep gas flowing and “keep the lights on”, after supplies from existing gas fields dwindled sharply this year.

He responded to the latest modelling today by saying the repeal was “long term thinking” and a “contingency” in case big growth in renewable energy did not pan out.

They gave Kiwis  days to respond to this change in law.

4 days.

They’ve given ACT 6 months to push their Treaty Principles Referendum that won’t go anywhere, but just 4 days to respond to empower mining and gas exploration.

As for the lies Jones keep spreading about NZ using Indonesian coal…

Shane Jones uses Indonesian coal to defend government policy again – is he right?

Analysis – Resources Minister Shane Jones loves talking about Indonesian coal, and is now using it to justify undoing the oil and gas exploration ban, but do his claims stack up?

In May, Jones used coal imports to justify why New Zealand should open up more coal mining, telling Morning Report that the country should develop more of its own coal, rather than importing “dirty” coal from Indonesia “to keep the lights on.”

It’s always good to fact-check such claims – and when RNZ did, we found the imported coal that Genesis Energy burns at its Huntly power station is of a different, cheaper grade than the stuff New Zealand tends to mine and export.

This week, Indonesian coal is back – and this time it is being used to justify undoing the oil and gas exploration ban.

On Tuesday morning Jones was on Morning Report again, being challenged about whether opening up for exploration was really going to “keep the lights on”, as he had said.

Official advice showed no new gas fields were expected to come online until after 2035 and existing fields would also not push out significantly more gas in the short-term, as a result of the reversal.

Jones has mentioned Indonesian coal repeatedly in defence of repealing the oil and gas ban, a reversal which has outraged Pacific and some European countries and which, according to documents obtained by the website Newsroom, likely breaches New Zealand’s free trade deal with Europe.

He brought it up twice in the first two days of this week alone – first an interview with RNZ on Monday and again, live on radio, the following day, saying: “No-one in 2018 when Jacinda Ardern cancelled the industry told us that we’d be relying on Indonesian coal, but here we are” and “At no time did Jacinda Ardern share with myself or Winston Peters that her decision was going to lead to an increasing reliance on Indonesian coal.”

But is the 2018 ban on exploring for new oil and gas fields off New Zealand’s coasts responsible for the gas shortage facing Genesis Energy and other major gas users today, and the reason Genesis is burning that coal from Indonesia?

Official advice from the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) puts doubt on that claim.

…we are a nation of easily led sheep.

We are being manipulated into changing regulations for the Mining Industry and are ramming through changes that empower the polluters on a Late Stage Capitalism burning planet.

What could possibly go wrong?

Big Tobacco

This spin line that Tobacco is the same as caffeine is total bullshit!

Smoking kills 67% of users, coffee doesn’t and no product that addictive should be allowed to have that hold over the market!

We want people off ciggies and onto vapes without addicting a new generation of vapers while respecting individuals right to choose after 18.

We need to deal with our vices in ways that are different to other industries because of the social harm making them illegal would cause. That’s why we need a Vice Tax on business activity whose social damage doesn’t get covered by the taxation they pay!

Gambling, Tobacco & Booze, all of them need the heavy jack boot of the State on their throats at all time!

The Vice tax would be special super tax on top of the total profits made on products that are a blight upon society.

Why should the Gambling Booze Tobacco Barons peddle their harmful products with the barest of responsibility?

Rather than constantly making it a tax the consumer pays, hit the booze barons, Tobacco Pimps and Gambling dealers with a ring-fenced super tax on their profits margins.

To allow 8000 to die because National want tax cuts for their rich mates is outrageous.

Thankfully the Tobacco industry have the best agents and supporters for their cause, Costello came from the Taxpayers’ Union and they have links to Atlas, which is a point made by Public Health Communication Centre this week…

Tobacco Company	Political connections	Evidence of industry links
British American Tobacco	Casey Costello (NZ First Party) formerly Chair and member of Tax Payers’ Union Board. Now Minister with responsibility for the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990; vaping; smokeless tobacco; oral nicotine.1	Guardian investigation reported TPU received funding from British American TobaccoTPU has links with the Atlas Network, which has received tobacco industry funding.   In 2023, a TPU staff member received an Atlas Network competition prize. TPU was described as an Atlas Network partner.

…it also notes that Nicola Willis is a former Nazgul at the NZ Initiative…

British American TobaccoImperial Brands Australasia	Nicola Willis, Deputy leader National Party, formerly Board Director New Zealand Initiative	NZI list tobacco companies British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands Australasia as members.

 

…so Tobacco interests are fostered and loved by this Government because this Government is being influenced by the Atlas Network!

They’ve given Phillip Morris a $200million subsidy FFS…

‘Most benefit’ of government’s tobacco tax cuts will go to tobacco company Philip Morris, officials told Casey Costello

Officials told New Zealand First minister Casey Costello that Philip Morris would be the biggest winner from tax cuts for Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs), which they said were toxic and more harmful than vaping.

Despite a long list of problems Treasury identified with the proposal, Costello claimed she had got her own “independent” advice to the contrary and went ahead with a 50 percent excise tax cut for HTPs, at a cost of up to $216 million.

…what does Costello have to do to get sacked for clear conflicts of interest between her former Tobacco mates and implementing;ementing policy that directly benefits her former Tobacco mates!

Submachine Gun Fetishists 

TDB warned you that the Gun Fetish Glee Club inside the ACT Party was going to try and bring back every sociopaths favourite machine gun fantasy and lo and behold it comes to pass…

Semi-automatics on the table in gun laws shake-up

Semi-automatics could make a return to gun ranges with New Zealand’s firearms laws in for a major shake-up this term.

National and ACT agreed to rewrite the Arms Act – in place since the early 1980s – as part of its coalition arrangement.

Everything is on the table, including changing the existing licensing regime and re-introducing the military-style weapons used in the 15 March terror attacks.

…look.

Farmers and hunters need guns and use them like tools.

I have zero time for ‘collectors’ or people who need sub machine guns for ‘defence’.

The Gun fetishists scream every time you use the word ‘sub machine gun’ and pull some nonsense technical garbage to claim you can’t call them that.

Let me be clear.

If it looks like a sub machine gun, sounds like a sub machine gun and kills human beings like s sub machine gun, it’s a fucking sub machine gun!

David Seymour 

He can’t believe his luck at having Luxon to manipulate. His anti-Māori pro Cracker Treaty Principles Bill is a master stroke of screwing over National and cements him in place to hit double figures at the next election. The Woke always underestimated David and spent 7 years providing him with the culture war ammunition that he has used against us.

Imagine if the woke middle class activists hadn’t done that.

Just imagine.

American Military Industrial Complex 

They rally around the family, with a pocket full of shells! Warmongers on parade!

Well I don’t think anyone had ‘Join US war in first 100 days’ on their bingo card!

Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing War Crimes we are fine with, shipping lanes is where we make a moral stand???

Let’s be very clear what we’ve signed up to. In the words of one of the best analysts in NZ, Dr Paul Buchanan…

…that’s right.

We are in the “kill chain” now. That’s what our NZDF deployment will be doing.

We are helping select targets for America to bomb.

We may as well be pulling the trigger ourselves, so don’t you dare flinch when hear ‘kill chain’, don’t you dare pretend we won’t be killing people and destroying shit.

Again – want to keep sea lanes open, but bombing the Houthis isn’t the solution!

REMEMBER: We claim we are doing this to support the Rules based Order, yet Israel is committing an active ethnic cleansing war crime and we aren’t doing jack shit about that!

REMEMBER: The Houthis are attacking Red Sea shipping lanes BECAUSE Israel is committing a current ethnic cleansing war crime! If we want the shipping lanes open, we should be demanding an immediate Israeli ceasefire!

REMEMBER: Bombing the poorest country in the Middle East is not a solution, it’s an act of war!

Aside from the moral crime, the whole strategy is counter productive!

The Washington Post isn’t a card carrying member of the Communist Party, and their assessment is that the current bombing campaign we have just enabled and signed up to will actually only strengthen the Houthi…

Analysts contend that this new phase of hostilities may strengthen the Houthis, rather than weaken them. The aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas has seen Israel conduct an operation unprecedented in its scale and ferocity, reducing much of Gaza to rubble, killing more than 23,000 people and immiserating Gaza’s population. The Houthis are part of the so-called “axis of resistance,” a network of Iran-aligned militant groups around the Middle East. While militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah seem to want to avoid a direct escalation with Israel, the Houthis thrust themselves into the spotlight by taking up the mantle of the Palestinian cause. They insist their actions in the Red Sea will stop when Israel ceases its bombardments.

…so we are bombing a poor country and using tactics that will only strengthen the group we are attacking?

Well that’s all splendid isn’t folks?

This entire adventure is an escalation in a region that desperately needs de-escalation and because Luxon is so weak, we have war dogs like Judith Collins and bloody Winston Peters (who loves America almost as much as he loves himself!), signing us up to a conflict where we are enabling interests that aren’t righteous.

What are we doing getting involved in this orgy of malice?

What happens if we wrongly target something?

What happens if us targeting something escalates this conflict?

What happens if we kill civilians?

See we all need answers now because Judith and Winston signed us up and we need to know what the hell the exit strategy looks like.

I love you all, I really do, but sweet Jesus we are an easily led and easily distracted people!

Winston Peters

Spot the Prime Minister

The sly silver Fox is having a field day smearing the entire media as bribed and passing Qanon Conspiracy Theories as social policy. He plays Luxon as well as Seymour does and Shane Jones is lining up the Crony Capitalism Pork Crackling to ensure Winston gets his favourite slice first.

Tobacco, mining, gambling and fishing all get Winston’s tender loving caress and we all have to pretend this is normal.

 

 

Atlas Network 

TDB was recently threatened by the Atlas Network.

Their agenda funded by dark money is to influence countries to change regulations that counter their interests under the guise of Free Market activism.

The Atlas Network is a shadowy hard right international think tank powered by Polluter Industry and redneck billionaires.

Here is George Monbiot from the Guardian on who the Atlas Network is…

And who, in turn, are the junktanks? Many refuse to divulge who funds them, but as information has trickled out we have discovered that the Atlas Network itself and many of its members have taken money from funding networks set up by the Koch brothers and other rightwing billionaires, and from oil, coal and tobacco companiesand other life-defying interests. The junktanks are merely the intermediaries. They go into battle on behalf of their donors, in the class war waged by the rich against the poor. When a government responds to the demands of the network, it responds, in reality, to the money that funds it.

…Oil, coal, tobacco, right wing billionaires, the fucking Koch brothers, dark money influencing our political system so much so that we see the exact same agenda being rolled out here!

There is enormous over lap between The Atlas Network and the astroturf right, and when even the Washington Post can see it…

New Zealand, once a utopia for Trump-weary exiles, turns to the right

The populist National-led government is undoing many of Jacinda Ardern’s progressive initiatives, including gun control and environmental protections.

LOSERS:

Unions 

At some stage Unions must wake up to the fact this Government means them harm.

David is planning to privatise half our schools and it is a right wing experiment,ent that will cost us over $100million!

Charter schools $153m ‘experiment’ won’t deliver, union says

Key points:

Pay parity legal action has been the main go to for the Union movement in NZ, it’s easier than actually growing Union Membership and going on strike, which is fine and dandy until it’s not.

The sheer scale of the hard Right’s agenda demands a response greater than, ‘we will take you to Court’.

The policy required to win the 2026 election is going to need to be more than, ‘we will roll back all National’s roll backs’.

It must be far more visionary and strong than that.

When the Treasury Nazgûl’s are warning against free market union busting, you know the policy is a fucking nightmare!

Destroying the Fair Pay Agreements is a direct attack on working people, we are witnessing a class war with none of the political vocabulary to fight it because the middle class woke activists have sucked out all the oxygen for their identity politic virtue signals!

So what are the Unions doing.

Sigh.

This.

Broadly, there is a general consensus that working people in Aotearoa New Zealand want secure, well-paid jobs, better working conditions and fairer economic policies.

At the NZCTU, we are focused on developing a suite of policies that can be picked up by any political party that keeps the needs and voices of working people at the core.

The feedback we’ve heard so far for how we can achieve this included:

• • • Protection of pay equity
    • Need for increased flexible work arrangements
    • Calls for rent control and capital gains tax
    • Fairer taxation to address wealth disparities
    • Accessible education on employment rights
    • Housing affordability and instability as critical issues
    • Advocacy for climate action and investment in public infrastructure
    • Stronger worker participation in industry planning
    • Fostering union awareness and addressing workplace inequality.

All very worthy and good for you like vegan tofu, but zero spark, passion or vision, which I suppose for a movement that keeps getting smaller is the grim mercy of low expectations.

We face the most extreme hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government with an extremist anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-Worker, anti-Renter, anti-Beneficiary, anti-Environment agenda and the best the CTU has is ‘Reimagine Aotearoa Together’???

What are you going to fight ACT with? Cuddles and a motion from the Hui?

Yeah.

Look, we are in real fucking danger from this extreme hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government and I’m not sure anything as toothless as this will excite anyone to defend the Left.

We need bold vision on actual policy.

We need the CTU to be demanding that the Greens, Māori Party and Labour sign up to a shared policy platform that the CTU itself develops.

The CTU should be hiring Max Harris to put together a 10 point shared policy platform that they then heavy Labour, Greens and Māori Party to adopt and then start using for the 3 to use MMP strategically the way the French Left just did in France.

We need more democratic infrastructure, we need universal union membership for every migrant worker with a 30%-70% cut in membership fees to CTU and the Migrant Unions so that every Migrant Worker is covered by a union to ensure there is zero exploitation of these migrant workers.

We need universal union membership at Universities and tertiary Institutes so that young people have an access route to politics.

We need universal left policies.

We need a new taxation structure that taxes the rich and not the poor! Financial Transaction Tax, Wealth Tax, Sugar Tax, Ghost House Tax.

We need to lower GST.

We need Renters Rights.

We need free public transport.

We need free dental.

We need the Right to Strike!

We need a national economic strategy towards total electrification from renewables and a food security infrastructure.

We need far bigger ideas and vision to bring a people together who felt betrayed by Labour’s incremental bullshit which the fucking Unions blessed and did nothing about.

Voters handed Labour an unprecedented political majority under MMP and that was squandered, so they now want to see solutions that will be forced upon the political establishment.

A wish list from a national hui seems terribly underwhelming of the challenge in front of us.

This Government represents an existential level threat to our political and economic agenda and this is the response?

Wow.

We have some way to go to get this Revolution moving Comrades.

Meanwhile, this unhinged right wing Government plunders and destroys the incremental steps Labour did manage.

Middle Class Woke Activists 

The Woke have all been very quiet since the Cass report eh?

The amount of culture war ammunition that the Woke have handed to the Right and the enormous damage this has caused the Left should now be abundantly clear to even the dumbest Left Wing Political General. As I have argued many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, times that Identity Politics only leads to pure temple politics, and not Broadchurch politics. Woke Middle Class activists have alienated an enormous chunk of the electorate with fringe identity issues that demand dogma.

The fear being expressed that Marama and Chloe being two women co leaders will push away male voters is ridiculous because most male voters were alienated away from the Greens way before Chloe took over, there literally isn’t that many males left to alienate inside the Greens now.

The woke’s pronouns are ‘I’ and ‘Me’ where as the Class Left’s pronouns are ‘Us’ and ‘We’. As the reality of what a hard right Government looks like, the Woke’s increasingly weird cul-de-sac issues look brittle and farcical. Poor people are not sitting around the kitchen table cancelling each other for mispronouncing Te Re or suggesting women comedians aren’t funny, they are trying to pay the fucking bills!

The demarcation of power in a liberal progressive capitalist democracy is between the 1% richest and their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us. We need 51% to win back power, Woke Politics can’t do that.

Christopher Luxon

‘I’m wealthy and I’m sorted’: PM makes no apology for capital gains on Wellington apartment

• • Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he anticipated scrutiny over the capital gains from selling his Wellington apartment.
  • According to 1News, Luxon is expected to make a capital gain of $180,000 by selling the apartment for $975,000.
  • He added that he is not doing something unusual and many PMs, including John Key, have sold their apartments upon moving to the Premier House.

Remember when he claimed the $52000 housing allowance and the Press Gallery said he had ‘misred’ the room.

Luxon didn’t misread the room, the room misred him!

Luxon sees his privilege through his prosperity theology paradigm where he has 7 properties because Jesus loves him!

His accomodation allowance is a prosperity given to him by Jesus – that’s why he took so long to u-turn!

What’s interesting about his refusal to immediately admit mistake and change is that he did it with the EV subsidy as well. While he was damning Labour for the EV Subsidy, he was intending to use it for himself and apparently the rumour is they really had to argue internally against him taking it because it was such a bad look.

He clearly used it for his wife’s car, but his intent to get it for himself and the amount of time it took to convince him was astonishing.

The 7 property Prime Minister just made four hundred and sixty thousand in untaxed capital gains from selling two of his properties while attacking the ANZ Boss for proposing a capital gains tax!

Is this venal self interest or naked self interest?

How is a PM criticising a bank for suggesting a capital gains tax while benefiting directly from the lack of a capital gains tax anything other than class war?

Seeing as Chris is a fundamentalist Christian, what would Jesus do with the sale of those apartments?

Having browsed Scripture, Jesus seems very against owning 7 Properties in the first place.

Here’s a taste:

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Luke 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 9:11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Galatians 2:10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Ephesians 4:28  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Jesus seems pretty keen on a capital gains taxes and doesn’t sound like he wants to create loopholes for property speculators.

I don’t think Jesus would cut benefits or abuse the disabled the way National do.

Now the drapes carpets and paint are up to his preferred standards, Luxon has moved into Premier House after a $170 000 spend up, while earning almost as much from property speculation as he does his actual job as PM.

Meanwhile…

Public Housing Futures has produced a map of stalled and empty Kāinga Ora sites throughout the motu, showing thousands of half-finished or bare land where work has stopped, despite close to 100,000 people being registered as homeless

…isn’t it great that Chris is sorted while his privatisation agenda pushes more homeless onto the streets?

‘I’m wealthy and I’m sorted’ isn’t the egalitarian war cry the ANZACs used going over the top eh?

Environment

With the fast tracking of Trans National Mining Interests to Dr Pork Shane Jones, the environment is fucked.

As catastrophic climate change produces more extreme storms that will compound upon one another in never ending seasons of misery, blight and damage, let’s start naming the Storms after the NZ Political Parties and Companies that are causing them!

Seeing as our Political Class and Corporate class continue to water down environmental legislation, they should be named for the storms they generate!

Hurricane Fonterra

Cyclone Luxon

Typhoon Winston

Super Typhoon Shane Jones

Hurricane BP

Cyclone Todd Energy

Typhoon Silver Fern Farms

Hurricane Air NZ

Cyclone NZ First

I don’t think people understand the terrible place we are with climate change now…

Long stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:

1. 1. The month of August was 1.49˚C warmer than pre-industrial levels, tying with 2023 for the warmest August ever, according to the EU’s Copernicus climate dataset. This is despite the absence of El Niño’s heat amplifying effects that were present last year.
   2. The Government’s National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) plans on executing a U-turn, taking us back in time to a car-dependent past, according to University of Auckland academic Timothy Welch in The Conversation. The worst thing, he suggests, is that most of the $8 billion in planned spending will go on planning, design and preparatory work, rather than actual construction.
   3. Debate about whether ‘climate intellectuals’ should focus on disinformation and misinformation underestimates the political versus the technical obstacles to decarbonisation, according Aaron Regunbergin the Jacobin. The critique was ‘story of the week’ on the website skepticalscience.com, who argue that systematic climate mitigation is an inherently political matter.
   4. The population effects of climate displacement are causing increasing concern in the US. “When multiple cataclysmic disasters strike one region in quick succession, climate change-driven phenomena called “compounding events,” they create overlapping ripples of displacement, making the movement that much harder to track. If it was tracked in real time, local officials would see disturbing trends,” according to this gnarly tale in The Grist.
   5. Glaciologists are in a race to collect ancient virus specimens from fast-melting glaciers after finding 1,700 mostly new-to-science ones in Tibet. Meanwhile other scientists are coming up with massive geo-engineering plans to try to slow the collapse of the so-called Doomsday Glacier in Antarctica.
   6. The chart of the week is putting the terrors into gulf coast communities in the US.

…THAT’S JUST ONE WEEK!!!

Here’s the chart…

…no one is talking about what this means.

Name the Storms after the companies who are locking us into this polluter capitalism and the political class who enable them!

 

Māori

They became the political punching nag last election and are so angry at the way they have been abused, have started the resistance against this Government’s racist agenda. By attacking the Treaty Principles Bill, this Government will destroy the framework in which this Government works with Māori.

Seymour has manipulated a weak Luxon into undertaking this attack on the Treaty Principles while pretending this isn’t an attack on the Treaty.

By removing the framework for the State’s obligation to work with Māori, which is what Seymour wants, it would end any obligation to work with Māori.

This isn’t about one person one vote democracy or overblown fears of an ethnostate, this is a calculated attempt to attack the Treaty and kill it off.

The political backlash to this by māori can not be underestimated.

Workers 

The first thing this Government rammed through was killing off Fair Pay Agreements and allowing corporations to use 90 day right to sack powers. Exploitation of migrant workers is at an all time high. The move to force everyone into being a contractor would equate to a 16% loss for the worker.

Renters 

Second thing this Government did was give rich landlords their tax loopholes, plus a tax cut plus the right to evict as Renters continue to get crushed.

Beneficiaries and the Disabled

Beneficiary bashing is back with vengeance. Sanctions, penalties, obtuse spitefulness, it’s all coming back because the Right love to bash the bennies. Poor families lose $555million and the disabled will lose $2300 per year. We have become an ugly and mean people.

Children in poverty 

New ACT Party school lunch policy

Tax cuts for the rich will push between 7000 to 13 000 children into poverty while taking $555million from the poorest families. By slashing food in schools, we are literally taking out of the mouths of hungry children to fill the pockets of the rich. We deserve to be hit by an astroid and smote from the face of the Earth. There needs to be a special place in Hell for countries that do this.

Chippy and Labour

Time is ticking on Chippy’s Leadership

Labour won’t budge in the Polls until voters some actual policy that meets their realities.

When Labour dumped the wealth tax that would have seen everyone get $10 000 tax free, voters intellectually saw no reason to vote Labour.

When Labour dumped the Capital Gains Tax and locked into place the privilege of the mega landlords, voters intellectually saw no reason to vote Labour.

When all Labour had to offer was GST off your bananas, voters intellectually saw no reason to vote Labour.

Labour either reset the agenda by holding a ‘Rebuilding Aotearoa New Zealand’ weekend overseen by Labour that brings forward the best minds in NZ to give their ideas on how to move forward or Labour don’t look like they have learnt anything.

Chippy needs to meet and hear some of the best progressive visionaries NZ has.

Māori Legal Expert Annette Sykes – No one can give insight into the righteous anger of Māoridom like Annette can.

Documentary Film Maker Bryan Bruce – knows more about free market capitalism and poverty than the Reserve Bank Governor.

Economics Professor Tim Hazeldean – Has actual economic solutions.

Visionary Revolutionary Max Harris – His vision for a Ministry of Green Works is ahead of its time.

Greenpeace director Russel Norman – His insight and oversight on how we move to a sustainable economy is essential.

Child Poverty Action Group and Auckland Action Against Poverty – They are at the coal face of child poverty and their advice are the only ones that matter.

CTUs Craig Renney – His leadership from the CTU on economic issues has been unparalleled.

If Chippy can’t organise a reset and present Labour policy that pushes for Left Universalism and Economic Justice, then all eyes turn to Kieran McAnulty to step up as a challenger to his Leadership.

It’s as naked and as obvious as that.

Chippy either generates a reset or he gets crushed in the gravity of Labour”s failures.

What does NZ Labour stand for because we have a Party that is more right wing than the British Tory Party!

Luckily for Labour, the Greens are consumed with Darleen Tana and the Māori Party are more focused on performance art than actually winning an election so Chippy’s leadership is the least of the Left’s worries.

 

Public Broadcasting

Public Health

I don’t think people appreciate just how radical our neoliberal reforms were to public services and no where can you see the grim truth of throwing out egalitarianism and progressive fairness for money and profit margins better than this brilliant Stuff article that highlights the terrible legacy of fucking over our public health system.

Look at these stats and gasp in horror at what we have wrought…

…people claim this can’t be true, but the facts stack it up and it is true.

We have progressively decreased taxing the richest to fund out public services until the public services fall over and the public scream ‘something must be done’ and the Right ‘here’s something’ and they privatise a little more and you get even less.

In the Budget, National allocated just 2.9% increase to health services but inflation was 3.3% and population growth 2.6% while an ageing population adds more to costs!

National gave 2.9% for health but we needed 8% to stand still, is the electorate dumb enough to fall for National’s latest manufactured public service crisis to introduce more failed free market reforms?

The Minister says we can’t afford $1.4billion for health but we could borrow $12billion for tax cuts???

Public Housing

The manufactured housing crisis Bishop has embarked upon by stalling public housing builds while promising to underwrite private landlords is causing economic carnage…

Public Housing Futures has produced a map of stalled and empty Kāinga Ora sites throughout the motu, showing thousands of half-finished or bare land where work has stopped, despite close to 100,000 people being registered as homeless

…this is why the Government are now suggesting underwriting private industry to step up and provide certainty because they have gutted the public building industry!

Public Education

I love this so much…

Secretive legal advice argues charter school rules likely to breach FTA, labour rules

A select committee report has revealed previously confidential legal advice that charter school rules will likely breach international labour and free trade agreements.

The advice was sent to MPs and sector groups in a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), but they were later told it was a legally privileged draft. Another version was then released with some of the advice redacted.

RNZ did not publish it at the time due to legal sensitivity, but the Public Service Association referred to the advice during its submission to the Education and Workforce Select Committee and RNZ published those comments.

Labour, in its minority report on the Education and Training Amendment Bill published on Thursday, revealed the advice – and the attempts to prevent MPs and the public from seeing it.

…so when the Left ever suggest policy that runs foul of free market Treaties, the Right are very quick to point out this will lead us into legal conflict, but when ACT are suggesting deregulating teaching standards so Charter schools can get cheap deals, a move that puts us immediately in conflict with International Labour laws, suddenly David wants to gamble?

There is no doubt at all that the Unions will mount a legal challenge to watering down teacher standards and they will take this channel of dispute.

ACT are trying to hide this because they know it will draw more scrutiny of their neoliberal experiment in education.

I’m not sure this is the flex David Seymour seems to think it is…

…well Duh! Of course there is huge demand for Charter Schools, THEY ARE A RORT!

So Private Education interests who will be able to rort the system and get more public funding at the cost of the actual public education system are rushing to get their snouts in the trough?

That’s what David is boasting?

Isn’t it funny how it’s ‘wasteful taxpayer dollars’ when it’s going on welfare, yet when it’s going to private interests who back ACT, then it’s suddenly excellent use of public money?

New Zealand, Free Speech and our Democracy

“Now this is classy! I wish they did up Premier House like this, but these days you plate everything in gold & they call you ‘entitled’ as if it’s a bad thing! When’s your boss coming? Can I get a Shirley Temple please? No ice cubes, I know you people use local water for them”

As much as we are collectively shocked and horrified at the brutal right wing draconian madness that is being rammed through Parliament with bugger all over sight, can I assure you all, it’s about to get waaaaaaaaay worse once the lobbyists fleshed their election talking points into actual policy.

I do not think we are ready for this jelly.

New Zealand, Free Speech and our Democracy all suffer under this hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing disabled abusing Government. Democracy demands more than majoritarianism and the cavalcade of culture war revenge fantasies masquerading as social policy demeans us all.

We are a better people, a better country and a better society than National, ACT and NZ First are mutating us into!

PREDICTIONS:

Comrades, Brothers and Sisters, Fellow New Zealanders – Your enemy isn’t a trans kid playing sport in a community sports team or a vaccine or te Reo in the weather report or bike lanes, your enemy are the Banks, Oil Companies, Billionaires and Property Speculators who continue to pillage this country and distort the common good into a profit margin.

We need to be kinder to individuals and crueller to corporations.

Until Labour, Greens and Maori Party short their shit out and work together, this blitzkrieg of far right revenge fantasies masquerading as social policy will continue to produce counter productive outcomes while their donor class laugh all the way to the bank.

We need more Left Universalism.

We need to lift the tax yoke off working people, beneficiaries and the middle classes and we need to put it on the Banks, the Corporations, the Billionaires and the mega wealthy.

We need more Democratic Infrastructure, not less!

Why do we need these things?

Because the climate is shutting down and we face a bleak future where Billions will suffer and die thanks to catastrophic climate change.

This change will be forced upon us whether we like it or not.

This demands more connections, more bonds that bind us together to emotionally, socially,  economically and politically survive what is coming.

Māori communalism is going to teach us a lot.

Here are some thoughts:

Iwi backed new Supermarket: Bring in a 3rd player into the supermarket duopoly that is Iwi backed with a focus on cheap prices for consumers, best prices for producers and high wages and work conditions for workers. Take 30% of the Supermarket Industry by force (allowed under the Commerce Commission powers) and use this as the backbone for a new food security system.

Mārae Civil Defence: Use Marae as the backbone of Civil Defence throughout NZ with resources based there alongside new building grants to strengthen those Marae.

Ministry of Green Works: We need to be able to build our own infrastructure.

New Mental Health First Responders: A whole new branch of first responders to deal specifically with mental health issues to talk people down and seek help rather than calling then Police and arresting people.

Artist Benefit: As part of a degrowth Capitalism model, pay Artists to make public art, use that art as a means to deal with the wondrous grief caused by the destruction of the planet.

Māori Parliament: An indigenous Parliament that amplifies Māori political voices.

Universal Student Union: Allow Student Unions to be the incubators for tomorrows politicians and stop students simply being cash cows for corporate education.

Universal Migrant Union: Stop migrant worker exploitation with universal student membership.

Retirement Village Unions: These scumbag retirement villages abuse their elderly and sick clients, universal Retirement Village Unions would stop them being exploited.

Pensioner Unions: Give our elderly a voice!

We don’t comprehend how bad things are going to get environmentally, the speed of heat that is happening right now shocks scientists and with research suggesting AMOC will shut down BEFORE 2050, we are in a a realm of violent change whether we want to acknowledge that or not.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.