Let's Go Crazy
Trump, the PMO, and the well and truly cooked.
Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Look for the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go
Songwriters: Prince Rogers Nelson.
I must have listened to that Prince Song a hundred times, but I never noticed that he was singing about purple bananas. That’s pretty loopy, but not compared to this lot…
Trump goes nuts.
Although Trump has repeatedly declared that the US is on the brink of a deal since his attack on Iran, which no doubt had strong encouragement from Israel, peace has thus far remained elusive.
This has led some to speculate whether all the on-again, off-again announcements are simply about manipulating the markets, or whether Trump, the supposedly world’s top negotiator, is nothing of the sort and, in fact, couldn’t negotiate his way into a paper bag.
Facing pressure to resolve the situation before the US Midterms later this year, Trump was less than pleased after Netanyahu’s ground operation in Lebanon derailed his efforts once again. “What the fuck are you doing?” the US president reportedly shouted at the Israeli prime minister during a phone call yesterday.
A US official summarised Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu as, “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
Just for once, Trump was speaking the truth, although pretty much everything he said also applied to himself.
As for Netanyahu, I’m sure he’s heard it all before, but in any case, if you’re wondering who is boss, as of this morning, Israel has recommenced bombing of Lebanon, despite it being a sticking point for peace with Iran. I’m not sure who will look away first, but does Netanyahu even blink?
Isn’t it reassuring to know that the most powerful man on the planet talks like a playground bully who should be told to sit on the naughty step?
After advertising my $1 per week subscription deal yesterday, one reader wrote, “Please stop discounting the subscription to your very wonderful korero. It is worth far more than $1 per week.”
I certainly hope it is, and to that end I’ve decided this will be the last discount I offer at such a rate, so if you want to subscribe and read all my paywalled content, you have five days left to subscribe for just $1 a week, and after that you would need to pay full price to subscribe. I hope you’ll join me. 🙂
Please note that this article would have been paywalled here next week, so if you do want to keep reading, now is your last chance to grab a bargain.
The PMO debacle.
“This stinks to high heaven. It very much looks like the Prime Minister’s Office is actively trying to conceal the extent to which big businesses are influencing government policy” - Chris Hipkins.
Closer to home, it emerged, drip by drip, that the lost physical documents provided by Fonterra and Z Energy to the Prime Minister’s Office were also received via private email. Which is quite a revelation this late in the game, and I wrote:
This one is ripe and makes it look as if the government simply does whatever lobbyists tell it to. Luxon should take responsibility and resign.
Vicky replied, “No wonder Luxon’s being sheltered at present, and hidden away from hard interviewers! The Nats know he’s utterly incapable of thinking on his feet or spinning the narrative on this in any believable fashion; he’s never been able to deviate from his corporate jargon and cue cards! ... hope he’s hung out to dry about this.”
Niccola asked, “When has he ever taken responsibility for anything?”
When interviewed, Luxon said that “Having people transact and communicate through their private email doesn't help build transparency or public trust.”
Which is correct, but it’s your own office, Christopher!
The PM likes to distance himself from everything else by not having any ministerial responsibilities, but he can’t duck this one - it’s his bloody office, which seems to be operating as a Fast Track for corporate-polluter-friendly legislation.
You can watch the Prime Minister here:
After watching that, I wrote:
If this were a Labour PM, the media would be screaming for Luxon to go, but he stands there with his gumboots and his hands in his pockets, as if it were someone else’s office.
Benedict Collins summarised the situation on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme this morning, saying:
“What we had here is a really senior member of the Prime Minister’s staff meeting with some of New Zealand’s biggest companies, Fonterra, and Z Energy, receiving documents from them, having meetings with them, and absolutely none of this was recorded, and now yesterday we’ve also found out that he actually, according to Fonterra, specifically asked Fonterra to communicate with him via his private gmail account. It looks by all accounts to be a deliberate effort to get around those things like the Official Information Act, to remove transparency from what was going on in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
So we’ve gone from a situation where there was a level of deniability based on negligence, with the PMO simply not keeping records properly, to one where it looks clear that the PM’s chief policy adviser Matt Burgess deliberately tried to keep communications hidden, and who knows whose idea that was?
It may seem crazy that we have the PM’s office bending over backwards to assist corporates while covering up the evidence, but that is what appears to have happened here, and for once the buck must stop with Luxon.
NZ First, beyond cooked.
Yesterday I saw the following headline and wrote, “Good lord, just when you thought NZ First couldn’t get any more cooked. Elliot Ikilei is a deranged racist and the last person we want in parliament.
As per the headline, NZ First already has one Minister who came from Hobson’s Pledge, Don Brash’s abhorrent anti-Maori group that has pushed for measures like removing learning about te Tiriti in primary schools, namely Casey “ciggies” Costello.
Elliot Ikilei makes Costello look relatively raw. He used to be deputy leader of the New Conservative Party, a supposedly Christian party whose primary interest seemed to be bringing back a parent’s right to bash their children. Since then he has been an outspoken member of the Pledgers, that bitter group of self-flagellating opponents to Māoridom.
Ikilei has called ‘Trans women’ men with dysphoria/disorder; he has backed Israel Folau’s homophobic stance, and he opposes co-governance, Māori seats, and what he calls “racist separatism” or preferential treatment for Māori.
And this is a guy that Winston Peters wants to bring to parliament. I thought he was crazy enough when he selected Stuart Nash, let alone this guy.
Needless to say, Elliot has also been outspoken against the previous government’s Covid response and supportive of NZ First’s obsession with defining a man and a woman.
As we look nervously across the Tasman at the rise of Pauline Hanson and back to Blighty with the spectre of Farage, it is crazy to think how many of these cookers Winston might not only get into parliament but into government.
Absolutely nuts!
Have a good one, folks, and take care, all of you lovely people. 🙂
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
Here is that deal again:
To end today, here’s Prince, one of the greatest musicians who ever lived, in my opinion, with Let’s Go Crazy.
Any voter that considers the oddballs on the lists of Act and especially NZFirst must acknowledge that a vote for any of the coalition parties is actually a belly flop into future chaos.
If we're going to be optimistic, we could also look at the rise of the UK Greens. They are beating Reform in many electorate.