Corin is in Singapore trying to work out what the hell Trump is doing.
Jacinda is on for her last interview before the birth of her baby.
The panel is the ever excellent Dr Jennifer Curtin, that lovely Max Harris and Sir Don McKinnon.
Corin is trying to decipher the madness of Singapore. Trump is so erratic at this stage, trying to second guess whatever revenge fantasy brain fart he blurts out now isn’t helpful because there are no parameters any longer under Trumpism.
Trump wants a win so he can throw it in the face of the establishment whom he equally despises and wants respect from so he’s prepared to cut any deal.
North Korea are at the table because they have been convinced by China that Trump really was intending to launch a military strike against North Korea and that his erratic geopolitics demanded a completely different strategy. Their economy is in ruin, they need this deal as much as Trump does.
China can’t believe how utterly crazy Trump is and are too monolithic in their size and design to be anything other than terrifying and powerful so can’t do nuance in diplomacy. Whether they want to or not, china is being pulled into a geopolitical war with America and they are walking a fine line between preventing Trump from launching a military strike on their own border and allowing North Korea to give too much away.
Japan must be aghast at Trump’s idiocy but they have a President who seems willing to go to war to prevent Chinese annexation of the Pacific which will impact them the most so they have no choice but to back Trump.
South Korea just want peace and the fear that Trump seems to have no idea how North Korean artillery could flatten Seoul in 48 hours keeps them driven to cutting a deal, any deal.
How this meeting of desperate minds will end is anyones guess, and that is what is so frightening.
Jacinda’s reflection on her first 10months is helpful. She understands that transformative takes time, and I think that’s important. She must know now that the neoliberal public service is set against her, she must know now that they are doing everything in their power to shut down and kill off any actual Left wing agenda, how does she play chess against a political industry utterly opposed to real obligation and provision of services by the State?
She bides her time is what she does.
It must be dawning on Labour that Jacinda’s inclusivity is only going to get them so far. Grant bent over backwards with this budget to prove Labour will serve our corporate overlords well and not spook the horses, yet business hasn’t reciprocated and are still throwing tantrums.
At some point Jacinda has to stop showing she can take a punch and will need to start throwing some punches. We are talking power here and the right in NZ are invested in a free market neoliberalism that borders on religious, they won’t dump those visions for inclusivity.
There is a chat about the weird cult of motherhood we have in NZ. Every aspect of being a parent is photographed and judged and debated as if its all deeply significant and meaningful. Mummy bloggers will be in heaven.
That poor baby of hers will have been patted through her tummy about a billion times by now, it will be a child that everyone feels ownership in and it does give a spark of hope and significance towards the kind of change Jacinda needs to embark upon now.
An unmarried millennial juggling life balance with a stay at home fishing bloke dad, Jacinda and Clarke have managed to symbolise a generation change. For the sake of her winning 2020, that generation change better usher in a culture change and value change because if the poor who gave her their vote in the hope of real change are still homeless, are still picking up food parcels, are still concerned about climate change and still can’t buy a house.
Excellent. It will be the millennial’s who bring change but it has to happen across the political divide. In a recent contract role in Auckland I worked with a young National voter and – of course – we talked politics and economics. What I found remarkable was that – unlike older National supporters I talk to – this youngster agreed with higher progressive taxation and investment in public services, he also understood that there was more to economics than trickle down theory and supported the Keynesian model.
In other words he was a Millennial National supporter (I’m assuming from his family) but he knew more and was open in enough in his thinking to see beyond the BS of the ideologies of his own political party.
Fame, too, gets too much respect and character not enough.
Being known doesn’t mean being wise.
These shortcuts we use to evaluate a person’s importance need serious reconsideration.
A priority has to be the teaching of civics in NZ Secondary Schools and even Primary Schools
….And an absolute MUST is that every young New Zealand person is ENROLLED on the GENERAL ELECTORAL ROLL or Maori ROLL before they leave Secondary School
Just look at the fiasco of the P beatup in State houses and NZs poorest of the poor victimised for no reason except to support Nactionals agenda of making propaganda and perhaps real monetary profits out of the poorest NZers and throwing them out of their State houses…the real culprits behind this crime have yet to be fingered and exposed
( sorry RNZ and the mainstream media journalists…for all your protestations to the contrary that you did a good job on exposing this farce….you did not ask the HARD questions!…WHY and WHO was profitting and what links they had to Nactional politicians and the Nact Party ?….and why were the poor in NZ so poorly served by the mainstream media to allow this farce to happen?….)
Until the POOR in NZ can vote and do VOTE ….they are sitting ducks and so is this Labour coalition governement
( and for Christs sake why did the Greens give the Nacts their question time?)
100% Red B.
Why don’t we know who introduced this Meth Clean Up Scam?
Why don’t we know why this scam was introduced?
Why isn’t Twyford getting to the bottom of this scam?
Why are those tenants who were seriously disadvantaged by this scam being compensated for this scam?
I wait with bated breath for action – I bet it will be a long long breath.
If you whisper to them to aim for 37% they’ll cluster around 37%
If you whisper to them to aim for 50% they’ll cluster around 50%
If you shout out them they’ll freeze.
Sorry last question should read – Why are those tenants who were seriously disadvantaged by this scam NOT being compensated for this scam?
They do. It’s called welfare.
Mind you that does not solve the central political challenge for this government which is kindness. The cruelty and viciousness of our welfare state and justice system – which your blog alone covers in depth – are the big political elephants in the room that our new PM and cabinet has not so far been willing to confront.
But this is not new and it is not exclusive to National. The question is why.
Why did the Working For Families tax credits exclude not only beneficiaries but also people (looking after children) working less than 20 hours per week? In other words the poorest of the poor. We know why a National government does this sort of thing – we tell ourselves that they hate poor people. Why would a Labour government do it? Because running through the collective heart of NZ’s middle and working class voters is a strong conservative world view when it comes to the poor – how do you convince the middle class that paying more in taxes is better than buying the latest Holden or BBQ cooker? How do you stop the working class resenting the provision of support to people that can’t work? It will take enormous leadership and courage to begin to change that. The sort of leadership and courage a young mother might bring to the world.
There are two types of things to accumulate in life:
Abilities to create value.
Scarce things to store value.
Love too is not something you accumulate (that’s more like glory or fame). Love is something you do. And love certainly creates lots of value so it’s an ability worth learning.
Also competence in one sphere does not necessarily translate to competence in another. Hubris is thinking this applies to others, but not to you.
Last time I heard, Japan still has an Emperor, and NOT a president, albeit a Prime Minister by the name of Abe.
And I doubt China can and will ‘annex’ ‘the Pacific’ (region, I presume), as the US has overwhelming naval, air and other forces in the region.
But it must be feared, that over North Korea, a war of sorts may eventuate, and that could drag China into a conflict nobody really wants.
As Trump has just sent the G7 into a crisis, refusing to sign a communique, something NO PROTESTORS managed to achieve over so many years, he is capable of wrecking so much more, the only certainty is more uncertainty and more risk and potential for war.
Name one policy Labour have enacted that benefits working Millennials.
I mean the most important thing the wise can teach them is how to be a good husband or wife. Everything else is just noisy charlatan educators trying to make a buck and scam them. And I ain’t talking about no 1950’s get up honey I’m home jive. They need to be tech savvy because there’s no telling what form technology might take in order to disrupt there lives. Capital takes many forms and you can’t stop it from accumulating, so you can’t stop a building or house from forming any more than you can stop volcanoes from forming or stars forming, and each with unique disruptions. They can not be stopped from going outside anymore than nature can be engineered safe. But we can show them how to navigate a changing environment properly. Just so they don’t feel scammed in retirement.
Here’s two things.
Voting must be compulsory.
Adern must woo the Farmer/Agrarian over to the fold.
( Excluding cowsploiters in their current form. )
How? Promise protection from foreign bankster manipulation.
It’s always out there for our Rich to take the American route, put aside reality and love of country and benefit themselves at our cost by ‘selling what can be sold’. We’re from the same strain. Only Hosking’s ankles, deep in the Welfare State prevent this. Sales is the prevalent ethos of this media age, as it always has been America’s — thank fuck b.a. Christians (quite a few of my immediate family) are only 5% of us. American salesmanship is about to take all of us down with it. And we are sluicing into it.
How despicable the US ruling class is, how loose-bowelled the US ruled class. I recognise the violence of that society as a virtue in a ‘guided’ democracy (plutocracy with democratic pr elements). Violence is predestined, as JFK pointed out, without democracy. That’s the reward of the US ruling class’s successful manipulations.
Yet, without plutocracy, America would be a 2nd rate Canada. Just a shame they’ll take us down with them. They were meant to be a sci-fi Dickens’s London.
Or Jacindaa (photo opp girl) is really a true child of Clark and Blair. In which case, the only progressive policies she will espouse are of the identity politics type – so beloved by The Guardian newspaper in the UK. Neoliberalism will continue to beat down widening/deepening democracy (the masses are not to be trusted with serious decision making!), and economically will continue to serve the elite (idiotic fiscal surplus being just one facet). Class politics is old hat – don’t believe it!
The Labour party had plenty of time in opposition to make up its mind about its stances and about the forces that would be ranged against a Labour Government. So there are no excuses for the pathetic lack of boldness, particularly the signing of the TPP.
It is always said that the best time to do the bold things is at the start of a period of administration. You then have time for these to bed in and become naturalised in public perceptions. After that its time to cruise a bit so that any anger dies away, you don’t stir up new angers, and the furor is forgotten/leaves the news. So do you really believe that our centrist Labour Party/Government are genuinely going to start being boldly Socialist any time soon?
Oh, how I hope this pessimism is misplaced.
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