Warning: Some images may be disturbing. Also, this is a personal rant so please ignore this newsletter if personal notes aren’t of interest. Thanks for your patience.
I’m pretty angry today.
Yesterday, I was told that I had a “political agenda” when making comments in a political discussion, and it floored me for a minute.
Do I have strong opinions after studying this government for over 18 months?
Absolutely. I do!
And I’ve never been shy or reticent in sharing it.
Who I am and what I do has always been obvious, consistent, true to myself, and my analysis.
The only reason I usually take so much time to structure and research topics is to help others see and review matters for themselves - and to point out things that might be missed, yet could impact our country deeply.
I do it because I care.
The other thing people miss is everything is political - everything that affects us originated in politics from workplace culture to who gets the pay rise, to development approvals, to the price we pay for power, to the quality and motivation of the our teachers, to whether you can get a good GP or not.
You see, I’m someone who’s not as interested when fate is sealed, when the meal is cooked, so to speak.
On the day, Donald J Trump won his second Presidency, I wrote on this Substack that America had become a fascist state on that day.
And everything that has happened since - while hurtful - is no surprise to many of us1
The time to fight is before the inevitable, before our energy prices spike again, before the next calamity, before the health system is destroyed, before our water assets are sold off to Saudia Arabia, before we get dominated by another aspiring Fox media.
That’s why I do it.
The other thing I’m angry about is the state of media.
I highly rate Newsroom and NZ Geo. I am grateful RNZ and TVNZ exist, or we would know much less, and I think there are amazing independent journalists around, many whom I recommend from my Substack2 but then I look around and also see dereliction -
BBC drops Gaza medics documentary over impartiality concerns
“The BBC has scrapped plans to show a documentary about medics in Gaza after concluding it “risked creating a perception of partiality” over the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.”
Here is a media platform with a responsibility for proper journalism yet recoils from its responsibilities because it wants to protect itself and its self-image. And probable political pressure.
The coverage on Iran also shows how propaganda is deeply embedded in Western media.
A few days ago, Iran told the US it sought to talk and hold negotiations as Donald Trump teased the bombings.
Even Trump admitted it, telling media:
“They [Iran] want to talk”
Yet after the US launched missiles, most outlets repeat US propaganda that all Trump wants is negotiations.
Excuse me?!
This action by the nucleur power USA, to aid and abet another nuclear power (Israel), in attacking a country which has willingly submitted to international nuclear inspections for decades - and which even US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said has not escalated or advanced those plans - is mindblowing idiocy.
Who else would ever put down their nuclear weapons or advancement under international law again?
Look at what they do to you when you comply.
(Ukraine also learned this lesson after it abandoned its plans when the USA and NATO promised they would protect Ukraine if it did)
Last week, Israel launched separate airstrikes on a refugee camp and another encampment, killing at least 26 people. In another incident the same week week, medics said at least 59 people were killed by Israeli tank fire near a World Food Program site.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident and regretted “any harm to uninvolved individuals”.
What?!
These are innocents - most of them are.
Dereliction of duty is dereliction of responsibility for caring about this world and others - especially those that cannot help themselves, and especially if it fundamentally weakens and harms the public good, and puts us on a negative trajectory.
People like me share information only because I care - not for any other reason in the world - and if that’s a devious political agenda, I’m all for it.
Thanks for reading my rant - I will be back to my regularly programmed schedule soon.
Cheers,
Tūī
Post Script
If you haven’t seen already, Melanie has another great interview - this time, with Sir Geoffrey Palmer who says ACT’s dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill is “unworkable, unconstitional and unacceptable”. In it, constitutional law expert and former NZ PM Palmer notes that it’s like “nothing I’ve seen before” - a fourth attempt by the former Business Roundtable / NZ Initiative to squirm their way into making NZ a dysfunctinal, libertarian hellscape.
Dr Ganesh Nana and NZ Council of Civil Liberties also have amazing and cogent submissions.
Looks like I wasn’t off the mark when my instinct told me last year that ACT’s dangerous RSB was “one law / one ring to rule them all”
Thanks for participating.
Or anyone who was even mildly familiar with who Trump is, and the right wing think tank playbook his donors prepared for him i.e. “Project 2025”, which I’d summarise as a Christo-fascist fossil fuel, anti-environment, libertarian, dream (with hints of white supremacy)
I think that this group should forge together for a collective newsletter -
Hey Mt, it is people like you that have the courage & nous to write this stuff that makes it all worth while. Thank you for doing what you do and keeping those of us who have a (at least) reasonable level of intelligence informed about the shit happening, cheers.
You’re demonstrating true leadership MT and that’s what the world desperately needs. Keep up the fantastic effort. It isn’t easy maintaining a work ethic at the level you’re operating at. It’s inspiring to me and many others.
What’s been going on around the world is almost the stuff of geopolitical science fiction. So many people are angry, including me and we should be angry. Global events are a page turning suspense thriller in the making. Instead of getting forensic and doing actual journalism, many in the media have been completely sucked into the flood-the-zone attention distraction ecosystem. Their ‘news’ output resembles nothing more than the flotsam and jetsam from dysfunctional communications, sketchy PR, and political spin. Their words are as meaningless as their messaging. They deliver very little insight, not much rationale, and the truth remains elusive.
And that’s sad because what’s going on here in New Zealand, particularly with regard to Christopher Luxon’s very direct impact on the nation and its people is criminally under-discussed by the media. Luxon is THE enabler. He enabled the coalition, he enabled Seymour, he enabled Willis and he enabled Brown and van Velden. Rather than lead, he acts like a low level Project Manager, whilst thinking he’s bringing much needed top tier CEO skills to governing. It’s a clown show that Bozo and Krusty would be proud of.
Luxon’s true belief system was deliberately hidden from view pre-election. Now, in the light of his prime ministership, his right-wing predilections have been revealed along with his arrogance and disdain for bottom-feeders. And in that regard, this ‘golf-ball’ impersonating attention seeker - with a TikTok fetish - has used ‘entitlement’ as a barrier to truly connecting with New Zealanders. He has completely lost the room because of it. He is just too weird to connect with everyday Kiwis who don’t run around chunking down and big rocking. They just say what they mean and mean what they say. Not a word salad in sight.
Nothing makes me angrier than watching the wealthy-and-sorted ignore the poor-and-struggling. Sometimes the difference between those two positions is just down to pure luck. Someone got a job promotion and someone got fired. Someone’s business won a huge contract, someone else’s lost their biggest customer and cannot replace the revenue in time to stave off closure. Life is life. Once upon a time, New Zealand was world famous for its egalitarian society. It was living the Scandinavian miracle before the Scandinavian miracle. What happened? That question is not hard to answer, just look at the current government, and take a really good, long, hard, look at its PM and then look at his cabinet.
And yes, there’s lots to talk about regarding the treaty and the RSB, and the health system, and that’s helpful. It’s important, and critical work too, but that said, hiding in plain sight is genuine poverty, people struggling, and many New Zealanders are giving up…on New Zealand. And where is the empathy, the care, the leadership? Absolutely nowhere to be found.
And so I directly accuse Luxon of failing to lead. More grievously, I accuse him of failing to care. And angrily, I say to him, just be honest with us mate, you don’t really care about Kiwis do you, unless they’re wealthy and sorted?