Yes Nick. The other interesting news today is that report from ERO which talked about the declining behaviour of students in schools. We have two adult daughters who are experienced teachers and they have repeated this sentiment for a while now. To me it is totally understandable as I look at the behaviour of the adults, who are no doubt parents, and their anti-social and anti everything, public antics on a daily basis. The same ones who protested at parliament are now painting out pedestrian crossings, so give me a break when we ring our hands and have concerns about student behaviour because it is a truism that children reflect their parent's actions. Properly address the poverty in this country , stop the promoting of the actions of nutters and adequately fund schools to employ support for students and maybe we won't continue to be at the bottom of the OECD rankings.
From my reading of what has happened in the US with the sinister presence of Steve Bannon, the alt right and organisations like the Atlas Network, and probably the nefarious activities of super powers such as Russia and China, the deliberate fanning the culture wars is a strategy devised to distract people (bit like the way pickpockets work) and to deepen divisions. It's been hugely successful there and we watch its inexorable creep into western democracies and of course, little old New Zealand. The scary thing is that it is working here too.
I strongly suspect all is not well in the Coalition of Cruelty. Uncle Winston may well be digging his toes in about tax cuts. He knows he is the real Prime Minister as does the opposition, why won't Christopher face facts. All young Christopher can hope for is a huge surge in the polls for the Nats (very unlikely) and a drop off for Winston's party (also unlikely, too many daft old white people love him). If that would only happen Christopher could call a snap election and become prime minister. Uncle would need to fit in over the other side of the house with all those other people he has been nasty to. As a daft old white person who is still in touch with my conscience I live in hope for a miracle.
I am asserting that it is extremely likely that Tamaki is being funded by NZF or Act (or both without the other's knowledge ;-) ) so that they can be the distraction while all the legislation gets shoved through parliament under urgency and without any oversight by the media.
Divide and conquer - it's worked before and it will continue to work as long as we have the haves and the have-nots, and as long as we have a convenient hook of Māori for entitled whites get get hung up on.
Tamaki and his coterie are remarkably similar to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in the US - bullies, one and all, and the comparison with 19 year old incels is excellent, given they all seem to detest LGBTQ+, women and people of colour - and I don't include Tamaki as Māori, I'm sorry - in my view he's a grifter and a thug.
Nick, have you caught up with the K Rd rainbow crossing being painted white overnight?
And how symbolic is it that they use white paint???
I am doing far too much in the way of primal screaming these days ... AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
The way I see it, I don't believe in God and I think there's plenty said and done in the name of that ideology which is actively harmful to children. However, I still think some churches look really nice, and their brightly-coloured stained-glass windows can really liven up communal spaces, so no need to throw rocks or white paint at them.
It’s crazy alright Nick - you’re quite correct Martin Luther King would have been horrified to think his words would be used in things way! Some people just hateful horrible people and Seyless Luxon Willis and drunken Winston are the very epitome of hateful and horrible! I think they are as contemptible as Slater and Plunkett - although Plunkett has stooped to a new low 🤬
Māori and Pasifika students, whose study room was posted by ACT on social media, are being threatened, pushed shoved and spat upon by white students. This. Today. In our beautiful Aotearoa and to our beautiful rangatahi, our precious mokopuna .😥
Wow-just wow Nick.I will comment again on this but my first thought when I had finished reading this was that what all of the people you have mentioned here and were judging others, was a sense of entitlement. They were entitled to commit fraud and break the law, entitled to judge others, entitled to endanger dolphins because what they stood for was so important and would make some people a lot of money.Have to go. Great article-thank you.
It's been an unreal week with bizarre happenings most days. This has to be the most surreal time in Aotearoa NZ politics surely, although I still vividly remember Muldoons drunken ramble live on TV! Over in Twitter I spotted this gem yesterday
Hey Brian Tamaki, lets play a game...lets play child sex offenders in the Drag Queen community versus the church community...we'll keep sharing names until one of us runs out.
The Spinoff also did a brilliant piece of satire over the Willis budget debacle. There's enough satirical material with that lot to keep it going for decades! Sadly it's also people's lives getting smashed over. Thank you for your kind compassionate insights Nick with just the right amount of assertive calling out the terrible behaviour of these elected morons.
Hey Nick, if we did not have the NATNZ there would not be much to write about? I need an economic view of the what government are for? We do want inflation, (because that increases GDP), but not too much, as that devalues our currency. At the same time we want jobs and services, health care, public transport, water management, low rates, low tax, police services, but how can we have those things without paying? So who pays? the people or the govt, what other option is there? Surely as long as we can service a debt, with taxes and govt income, what does debt matter? A big joke on someone!
I had intended to include this post Rainbow Storytime NZ made last night:
"Kia Ora everyone!
We have received an overwhelmingly huge amount of support messages. We’ve been reading them but it will take some time for us to respond.
Going to take some time to be at home and regroup.
Cannot thank you all enough for the positivity and being there to encourage and protect not just us but all the community.
Keep doing it, things are real out there so keep that support going and try to avoid the ick! Shield yourself for a little bit.
Love to you all!!
E&C"
I see more small minded bigots did it to K Rd. K Road!!! FFS.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350228773/karangahape-road-rainbow-crossing-auckland-covered-white-paint
Yes Nick. The other interesting news today is that report from ERO which talked about the declining behaviour of students in schools. We have two adult daughters who are experienced teachers and they have repeated this sentiment for a while now. To me it is totally understandable as I look at the behaviour of the adults, who are no doubt parents, and their anti-social and anti everything, public antics on a daily basis. The same ones who protested at parliament are now painting out pedestrian crossings, so give me a break when we ring our hands and have concerns about student behaviour because it is a truism that children reflect their parent's actions. Properly address the poverty in this country , stop the promoting of the actions of nutters and adequately fund schools to employ support for students and maybe we won't continue to be at the bottom of the OECD rankings.
From my reading of what has happened in the US with the sinister presence of Steve Bannon, the alt right and organisations like the Atlas Network, and probably the nefarious activities of super powers such as Russia and China, the deliberate fanning the culture wars is a strategy devised to distract people (bit like the way pickpockets work) and to deepen divisions. It's been hugely successful there and we watch its inexorable creep into western democracies and of course, little old New Zealand. The scary thing is that it is working here too.
I strongly suspect all is not well in the Coalition of Cruelty. Uncle Winston may well be digging his toes in about tax cuts. He knows he is the real Prime Minister as does the opposition, why won't Christopher face facts. All young Christopher can hope for is a huge surge in the polls for the Nats (very unlikely) and a drop off for Winston's party (also unlikely, too many daft old white people love him). If that would only happen Christopher could call a snap election and become prime minister. Uncle would need to fit in over the other side of the house with all those other people he has been nasty to. As a daft old white person who is still in touch with my conscience I live in hope for a miracle.
I am asserting that it is extremely likely that Tamaki is being funded by NZF or Act (or both without the other's knowledge ;-) ) so that they can be the distraction while all the legislation gets shoved through parliament under urgency and without any oversight by the media.
Divide and conquer - it's worked before and it will continue to work as long as we have the haves and the have-nots, and as long as we have a convenient hook of Māori for entitled whites get get hung up on.
Tamaki and his coterie are remarkably similar to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in the US - bullies, one and all, and the comparison with 19 year old incels is excellent, given they all seem to detest LGBTQ+, women and people of colour - and I don't include Tamaki as Māori, I'm sorry - in my view he's a grifter and a thug.
Nick, have you caught up with the K Rd rainbow crossing being painted white overnight?
And how symbolic is it that they use white paint???
I am doing far too much in the way of primal screaming these days ... AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Marilyn
The way I see it, I don't believe in God and I think there's plenty said and done in the name of that ideology which is actively harmful to children. However, I still think some churches look really nice, and their brightly-coloured stained-glass windows can really liven up communal spaces, so no need to throw rocks or white paint at them.
It’s crazy alright Nick - you’re quite correct Martin Luther King would have been horrified to think his words would be used in things way! Some people just hateful horrible people and Seyless Luxon Willis and drunken Winston are the very epitome of hateful and horrible! I think they are as contemptible as Slater and Plunkett - although Plunkett has stooped to a new low 🤬
Māori and Pasifika students, whose study room was posted by ACT on social media, are being threatened, pushed shoved and spat upon by white students. This. Today. In our beautiful Aotearoa and to our beautiful rangatahi, our precious mokopuna .😥
Bloody Hell, it's one heck of a rabbit hole we have stumbled down into....
Thx again Nick; I do appreciate getting this in. my in-box every day when the rest of the world seems to have gone troppo.
Wow-just wow Nick.I will comment again on this but my first thought when I had finished reading this was that what all of the people you have mentioned here and were judging others, was a sense of entitlement. They were entitled to commit fraud and break the law, entitled to judge others, entitled to endanger dolphins because what they stood for was so important and would make some people a lot of money.Have to go. Great article-thank you.
I now know what going to hell in a hand basket means.
It's been an unreal week with bizarre happenings most days. This has to be the most surreal time in Aotearoa NZ politics surely, although I still vividly remember Muldoons drunken ramble live on TV! Over in Twitter I spotted this gem yesterday
Hey Brian Tamaki, lets play a game...lets play child sex offenders in the Drag Queen community versus the church community...we'll keep sharing names until one of us runs out.
The Spinoff also did a brilliant piece of satire over the Willis budget debacle. There's enough satirical material with that lot to keep it going for decades! Sadly it's also people's lives getting smashed over. Thank you for your kind compassionate insights Nick with just the right amount of assertive calling out the terrible behaviour of these elected morons.
I am waiting for SOMEONE in our media to point out that Nicola Willis will be borrowing to fund her tax cuts...
Hey Nick, if we did not have the NATNZ there would not be much to write about? I need an economic view of the what government are for? We do want inflation, (because that increases GDP), but not too much, as that devalues our currency. At the same time we want jobs and services, health care, public transport, water management, low rates, low tax, police services, but how can we have those things without paying? So who pays? the people or the govt, what other option is there? Surely as long as we can service a debt, with taxes and govt income, what does debt matter? A big joke on someone!