Unbelievable

And yet somehow true.

The things, you say
Your purple prose just gives you away
The things, you say
You're unbelievable

Writers: Ian Dench, Mark De Cloedt, Zachary Foley, James Atkin, Derran Brownson.

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Things are a bit strange right now. Don’t you think?

With the right emboldened, the usual standards of decency, evidence, and logic have been abandoned, lying in hibernation until a change of government.

What’s in a name?

Not just here but overseas, where we see MAGA minions celebrating Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, even though it will harm many of them, and benefit few.

Naming is all important, maybe they’d celebrate less if it were more accurately titled “Billionaire tax cut bonanza, and say goodbye to your health insurance bill.”

Now that’s the sort of tax reform David Seymour would be keen on, and he’s also following the name change lead too.

With the avalanche of negative submissions on his Regulatory Standards Bill, he is now calling it the Red Tape Bill, because no one likes bureaucracy, right?

Maybe he could’ve called it the “International corporations are going to love us for giving up our sovereignty for free bill”, and by “us”, he’d mean himself, the TPU and the rest of the ATLAS cabal, not, you know, “us”.

If you’re interested in hearing more about just how good Trump’s bill isn’t, Jon Stewart had a good segment on it last night:

Arresting children.

This article caught my eye:

Now I have no idea what the hell Heather is going on about at the best of times, but what does this even mean?

Many people who work in retail are teenagers. Should they be arresting criminals? Or does Heather mean shopkeepers should be arresting kids? Then what? Sit on them for half an hour until the police arrive at a crime they only recently said they weren’t even following up on?

Heather moans that the Children's Commissioner has argued that kids should be off-limits in citizens' arrests. Which seems sensible, even based on what Heather herself has to say:

“These things can go badly, especially if you've got the worst case playing out like we've seen, which, when you've got weapons involved with kids turning up with hammers and knives and so on to raid a store.”

Yes, Heather, that’s why it’s a terrible idea for shopkeepers to start apprehending them rather than leaving it to the police. Someone will get badly hurt, or worse.

Or is that all part of Sunny K’s plan, make a few sacrifices, so that arming shopkeepers can be sold to the electorate?

In what world is having people working in shops, with no training, making citizen’s arrests of groups of kids with hammers and knives, sensible?

And the answer is, in Newstalk ZB land: no thinking, no evidence, no experts, just angry knee-jerk reactions for the listeners. It could almost be their slogan.

Image: BeFunky.

No more diversity.

Another article from Newstalk ZB bemoans the fact that some of our government agencies have not fully complied with President Trump’s anti-DEI measures.

Sorry, that should say Judith Collins, who is copying the measures we see in the States that reaffirm the ascendancy of the most privileged groups in society.

When asked about this, Collins said, “No one should go to work thinking they got picked because of their ethnicity, their gender, their sexual orientation, or their age”.

Judith Collins, presumably quite some time ago. https://x.com/JudithCollinsMP/header_photo

That got me thinking. What about Christopher Luxon? Isn’t she worried that he might feel like that, assuming he still works here?

Does Christopher Luxon still work here?

He had no relevant experience, barely knew his way around the house, and yet became Prime Minister entirely without merit. Can anyone seriously suggest that his ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age were not part of that?

Like many other organisations, National are inclined to put middle-aged white men in the top roles. And if anyone claims it’s just a coincidence that the best candidates are in those demographics, I have two words for you - Todd McClay.

I mean, c’mon. Merit?

The National Party is a clear example of why diversity measures matter, with 82% of their MPs being pākehā and 68.8% being male. How’s the diversity? It sucks, guys?

Photo Opportunities.

If there is one thing the National Party loves, other than middle-aged white men, it’s a good old photo opportunity.

Someone gets murdered at a shop, and they’re there faster than the emergency services: sad expressions, service station flowers, and their own camera crew for social media purposes.

Not now, obviously, I mean before the election, these days they wouldn’t go near the place. It’s a sad state of affairs that has seen our PM resorting to attending NATO meetings for the photo opportunities, and we’re not even a part of that organisation.

Meanwhile, a man with eyes on the top job, Chris Bishop, the guy who got drunk and shouty at the music awards, has raised the bar by attending the opening of a car park!

“Checking out the new EV chargers at Z Petone.” Image: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisBishopMP/photos

Paddy’s latest Brain Fart.

Not content with praising billionaires, now Paddy wants to throw Jacinda to the frenzied mob of cookers for the Covid Inquiry - Part 2. He says, “It would be really good for New Zealand, in my opinion.”

I think you mean for Stuff’s ratings, Paddy, there is nothing good in this for New Zealand. The first inquiry may be, as a retrospective to learn from, but this second phase is entirely about revenge.

Paddy Gower. Image: Stuff.

I’m not sure what Paddy’s ambitions are, populist shock jock for garbage he doesn’t mean? Sorry to say, Mr Gower, you’re going to have to do more than that to keep up with Ryan Bridge; he makes Mike Hosking seem intelligent and informed.

Seriously, is this the way it’s going to be from now on? Is each new government holding an inquiry into the actions of the previous one that they pretty much went along with at the time? What a crock.

Will there be an inquiry into the ferry debacle, funding tobacco companies, fossil fuel climate terrorists, or borrowing for tax cuts? That last one is economic vandalism bordering on treason, and all Jacinda and the previous government wanted to do was keep people safe.

Both NZME and Stuff are happy to push anti-Jacinda messages for clicks, even now. Perhaps reconsider any subscriptions, as you may be inadvertently helping to fund organisations that continue to spread messages of hate against our Jacinda, and we’ve had more than enough of those.

For goodness’ sake, both media outlets are even gloating today that the Kind Cafe and Eatery has gone bust, as if that were somehow her fault and not the guy running the economy, whoever that is.

Mmm Mushrooms.

I haven’t commented on the case of Erin Patterson, who was just found guilty of multiple counts of murder, as I found the coverage incredibly dull and repetitive. I mean, it’s an interesting enough case, but did we need daily updates with bugger all new information? Still, this headline made me think - are you serious?

Sorry, what? It turns out that prison authorities decided the best place for Patterson to work was in the kitchen. I’m not making this up.

“Patterson is reported to have been given a job in the prison kitchen while awaiting trial. Accusations that she tampered with the food in the facility emerged this week, after her conviction was announced.”

I’m all for people being considered innocent until proven guilty, but really, would you give someone whose cooking had resulted in multiple deaths a job anywhere near food? I don’t want to even think about what David Seymour might make of this idea.

Right, that’s about it for this morning, have a good one, folks - anyone for mushrooms on toast?

Ngā mihi,
Nick.

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To end today, here’s EMF with Unbelievable, some might say that the song has aged better than the “fashion”: