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| New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly. |
IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X bureaucrats and asking them to justify their salaries. “Come on, dude, just tell me what it is that you do!” All the time knowing that the hapless federal employee at the other end of the call is fighting for his job, his status, his self-respect.
Except, this scenario is no fantasy. Such conversations have been going on for days: proof that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is every bit as real and scary as its critics predicted. Musk’s twenty-something “tech geek” hires are cutting a swathe through the federal bureaucracy with the implacable determination of the Grim Reaper.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world struggles to make sense of the Trump Administration. What is its ultimate purpose? What is the nature of the political dynamic driving the raging torrent of Executive Orders pouring out of the Trump White House?
It is a testament to the essential mildness of their country’s politics and politicians that New Zealanders struggle to make any kind of sense of Donald Trump. Can he really be serious? Is there the slightest method to policies that strike so many Kiwis as utter madness?
There is – but it’s in the service of an agenda so completely foreign to the thinking of the vast majority of the world’s politicians, administrators and journalists, that even conceptualising it requires considerable effort.
Consider the following self-characterisation, offered-up to a puzzled world by one of Trump’s most hardcore supporters, Steve Bannon:
“I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too.”
Seriously? How can a MAGA Republican possibly cite the Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin, as his inspiration? Wasn’t Lenin responsible for establishing one of the most ferocious states in all of human history?
He certainly was, but Bannon’s Leninist sympathies amply confirm the old French aphorism: Les extrèmes se touchent. (The extremes find each other.)
Certainly, that is what the world is currently witnessing in the United States. The deliberate destruction of the 80-year-old state machine arising out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” policies of the 1930s – by right-wing revolutionaries determined to create a new one?
It’s what Bannon attempted to do in 2017, when he was, briefly, Trump’s White House chief-of-staff. But, he failed.
The strength and resilience of the old state machine was simply beyond the First Trump Administration’s powers. The “Country-Club Republicans” had yet to be purged from the Republican Party. The Supreme Court was not yet fully harnessed to the Right’s agenda. Most importantly, Trump and his MAGA court had seriously underestimated the obstructive capabilities of the ancien regime. Transformative regime-change clearly required an “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” battle-plan – and Trump 45 didn’t have one.
The crucial difference between Trump 45 and Trump 47 is that the forty-seventh president of the United States does have a battle-plan, Project 2025, and one of its principal authors, Russell Vought, has been safely installed as the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget. If the American ship-of-state has a bridge, then the OMB is it.
Trump’s greatest challenge, over the next four years, will be working out how to smash the status quo without, simultaneously, smashing the working-class Americans whose votes carried him to a comprehensive (if narrow) electoral victory. That Trump’s MAGA movement expects him to unleash holy vengeance upon the “Deep State” (aka the old state machinery) is indisputable. Less certain, however, is whether those same working-class voters appreciate how effectively the old state machinery has protected them and their families for the past 80 years.
If Elon Musk is to keep his promise to carve one trillion dollars off the Federal Budget, then the health, education and welfare services currently available to working-class Americans cannot avoid taking a massive hit.
Trump’s Democratic Party opponents simply cannot understand why American workers don’t get this. But, the very fact that the Democrats don’t “get it” is the very reason so many of those workers gave their votes to Trump. The extraordinary cluelessness of Democratic Party politicians when it comes to communicating effectively with ordinary Americans, let alone understanding their grievances, explains entirely the latter’s indifference to the plight of those federal bureaucrats on the receiving end of Musk’s tech geek interrogators.
Revolutions happen when, at roughly the same time, both the elites and the struggling masses arrive at the same conclusion: things cannot go on as they are. That the respective solutions advanced by these two groups are likely to diverge spectacularly only begins to matter after they have, between them, brought the failing system to its knees.
New Zealanders who shake their heads in disbelief at the speed and breadth of the Trump Administration’s changes are either too young to remember “Rogernomics”, or too embarrassed to acknowledge how fulsomely they embraced its breakneck “reforms”. If the machinations of Elon Musk seem sinister today, then so, too, should the machinations of Bob Jones and all the other ideologically-driven members of New Zealand’s elites back in 1984.
Those who argue that the “quiet revolution” of the 1980s simply represented New Zealand’s rather belated recognition that the world had changed, can hardly now object that the USA has collectively made the same determination. The economic and geopolitical doctrines that have dominated the policy-making of the last 40 years have been recognised, by billionaires and “deplorables” alike, as no longer fit for purpose.
Globalisation. Free Trade. The International Rules-Based Order. Donald Trump’s black felt pen has confirmed the death sentences of all three. Likewise the entrenched institutional power of the professional and managerial classes which emerged out of the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 70s.
The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly. Faster and better than anybody else, Trump has grasped the possibilities of a world which is more in tune with the nationalist and imperialist marching songs of the Nineteenth Century, than the Kumbaya globalist singalongs of President George H. W. Bush’s and President Bill Clinton’s “New World Order”.
A President who openly canvasses the annexation of Greenland, Canada, Panama and the Gaza Strip, to the applause of an admirer of Lenin who once, rather incautiously, confessed: “Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power”; should alert us to the fact that, like Dorothy and Toto in The Wizard of Oz, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
This essay was originally posted on the Interest.co.nz website on Monday, 10 February 2025.
43 comments:
If Elon Musk is to keep his promise to carve one trillion dollars off the Federal Budget, then the health, education and welfare services currently available to working-class Americans cannot avoid taking a massive hit.
Education and welfare are largely supplied by each of the 50 states. Even in healthcare Medicaid for the poor is largely a state-funded operation with the Federal's kicking in a portion.
Social Security and Medicare (healthcare for the retired, not working class), plus the Federal portion of Medicaid are funded out of specific taxes on income (FICA) and not income tax. They're all heading for bankruptcy as the worker ratio continues to drop but those specific taxes could be increased.
And if there was no income tax then workers would have more room in their pockets for those program-specific taxes.
Having said that I can't see the income tax being dumped, given that it's the 16th Amendment to the Constitution and 2/3 of Congress and 3/4 of the states.
But it could be reduced a lot with no impact. After all, the US Federal budget was about $4.5 trillion as recently as 2019 and there's no population increase that justifies it now being $6.8 trillion in 2025. And of course it's far beyond the tax revenue of $4.9 trillion anyway so isn't sustainable in the long-term even before the $36 trillion debt and the interest payments on that are considered.
It might be worthwhile to check out quotes(and context) before building a post about it.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bannon-leninist-destroy-state/
There are similarities between Trump and our Coalition. The aim is the same at a business level. Get rid of waste, get business moving and the economy cracking. Of course with trump it’s so much more than that. He has to play and win the game that is world politics and he is in that powerful position to play that global game of chess. Like in NZ the US is split with stark opposing ideas on how the country should be run. The ordinary people tend to like the state support on just about everything, whereas Trump supporters believe he will create an America where everyone gets to work and have a fair go. Cleaning out the waste has a different interpretation here. Luxon just wants the place to work efficiently with a minimal government. Trump wants to smash deep state and what he perceives to be the corruption that has pervaded it. Like Luxon, Trumps plan is only good if it works and that is by no means a done deal. Everything can go wrong. The peace deals and world stability can remain unsatisfactory and at home the trade war is by no means a golden bullet to lift the economy. Like Luxon he is in danger of making his own government ineffective with the massive personnel changes and cuts, and although Trump has temporarily convinced enough of black and latin Americans that he is a better choice for them, that will change if their lot doesn’t improve. Here Luxon has the cultural disaster to deal with where he is annoying his own voters with weak leadership on sovereignty and other issues while still antagonising Maori with his decision to let the bill get this far. Where Trump is really different is his authoritarian style of leadership, his absolute power, and his unpredictability. What could go wrong. His supporters see this as his strength which they see as good, but to me is only good until he uses this power to do something the majority don’t want but he does it anyway. Then we may have to use words like dictator or tyrant and nobody wants to see that but it could happen. From what I can see Trump believes the low paid disenfranchised American who can’t afford health care or anything else, is going to benefit from the trickle down affect we call neoliberalism. A buzzing economy that will fix all the problems. The people he has surrounded himself with are the wealthiest and weirdest group you could put together. Will these people care about Americas poor. I don’t think so. Whatever happens he has limited time in power, or does he. Maybe he has had a chat to Xi and Putin about his longevity in power and politics. Interesting times if we survive them. Or if he survives it.
One forms the impression that President D. Trump has determined to make good on his promise 'to drain the swamp'. This time, he seems to have taken ownership of policy. If he can shake the 'Deep State' monkey off the back of the US, that can be no bad thing. He might not be able to do all that much about Wall St and the Military Industrial Complex, but perhaps he can purge bureaucratic corruption and change the locks on the revolving door between Washington DC and Wall St.
Maybe. Trump's rhetoric is appalling, but I'm wondering just how much his rhetoric matches up with policy. It appears that his 'programme' anent Gaza, horrific as it is, has galvanised some effective responses from the Levantine neighbours... I was inclined to think he was 'flying a kite' - I sure lord hope he was.
Meanwhile, this country has to learn to swim in a multi-polar world. That means our governments have to shake off their lazy torpor, and start doing real policy, instead of flapping around with trivia.
Cheers,
Ion A. Dowman
"Trump's greatest challenge ...." Your sanewashing him. For crying out loud the man is:
1. Venal as hell.
2. Absolutely corrupt.
3. Showing many of the signs of senility or Alzheimer's.
4. As dumb as a box of rocks.
5. At the same time as cunning as a shithouse rat.
6. Surrounded by people who are just as crazy, just as venal, and often outright fascist.
He doesn't deserve anyone treating him with dignity. The only reason he should be taken seriously as the damage that he is likely to do to the US and the world.
1. You're confusing Millennial and Gen Z. Trump's base is Gen X and Gen Z. His opponents are Boomers and Millennials - almost as though the kids of the Boomers and the grandkids of those who lived through Depression and War turned out differently from the kids of Gen X and the grandkids of those who came to adulthood in the 1950s.
2. If you think Trump and his allies remotely care about not hurting working class Americans and their own voters... well, you aren't paying attention.
3. For all the many faults of the US Democratic Party, one thing this past month has proven is that it actually respects the validity of Trump's win. There was no equivalent to what Trump pulled in January 2021.
Hi Chris
You would be surprised how many New Zealanders are totally behind Trump and his VP JD Vance, along with his appointments to justice and health just to name a few. The reforms Trump is undertaking are long overdue, and we could do with the same effort here. I believe the present Government promised to roll back the overstaffing of Government departments prior to the election, and reduce expenditure. The former has been minimal and expenditure has exceed that of the former Labour Government!!
You cannot be unaware of the grift supported by USAID, whom it is on record sending $500m to support the media in New Zealand. You will recall how our media was in ‘lock step’ with their global counterparts during covid-19. Perhaps international funding is a contributing reason.
The great irony is the left talks on and on about the Atlas network yet is completely silent about Trumps dismantling of USAID and the suspect NGO’s and other organisations it has been funding to the tune of $50 billion per annum. That is serious money and buys a lot of political influence. Apparently overseas funded progressive influence is fine in NZ. Thank God it’s going and all but gone.
America is broke and is facing either default (which won’t happen) or devaluation through serious inflation which is more likely. If Musk and his team of young recruits can go some way to turn this around, albeit at cost to the swamp then all strength to them.
Trump is supported not just because of his dealing with Government waste and grift, but because he has said ‘NO’ to DEI in Government departments and their external suppliers, has exited the Paris Accord, and the WHO. Meanwhile Luxon and his team ensured that New Zealand is one of just nine countries out of 196 who signed the Paris accord to resubmit their plans for carbon emissions and consequently expose us to a $23 Billion liability. And for what? To ensure countries still trade with us? Do they think countries will refuse to trade with China, India or the USA none of whom are complying?
Luxon needs to understand we now live in a different world, and continuing to run with the woke Globalist WEF program is going to ensure National is the minor coalition partner in the next Government.
Number one, first and foremost. Hipkins, for almost polar opposite reasons, will not keep NZ safe. Far from it. He and his woke entourage will unleash the ethno nationalists demolition of democracy of New Zealand. That accompanied by their trademark incompetence. This government only interrupted their plans temporarily.
But the reason that Trump 47 is the unstoppable machine he and his entourage have become is because, ironically, the Hipkins of this world. The puritanical progressive woke elite left have shown us that their world is insane, dysfunctional and miserable, distilled in pure nihilism. They just would not stop their madness, their "progress", they just kept pushing, abandoning men, then white people, then heterosexual people. No genders, no logic, no peace, no end to causes, no end to the identity politics , they just didn't know when to call it a day.
The licence the modern progressive movement have given a man like Donald Trump is almost limitless. Virtually nothing he does is worse than the progressives, in fact it's emancipatory. 30 years ago most of us would have been aghast at Trump. But in 2025 he is pure common sense. Today he is our friend, the man who broke the shackles, who set us free finally from the misery of the woke religion and it's clergy.
Someone just needs to tell the buffoon Luxon!
The revisioners of history who continue to deride and demonize Roger Douglas's economic revolution of the eighties are a product of their selective collective amnesia.
Douglas et al did us all a hugh favour. Two examples.... our rail network and the old MoW. Any sane 2025 commentator lacking in blind faith for these monstrosities of socialist dementia will recall the hopeless jobs for life and gliding on management styles back then.
A comprehensive economic analysis comparing then and now favours only one horse in this race. Keeping this simple ... please stand up to be counted any genuine Kiwi citizen after all the past decades who still would argue for the old NZR and the MoW to be running the show. No takers? thought so.
Gliding On was way more than a comic satire. It's underlying truths were and still are that government's govern but fail in running line operations. Their putatve notional chain of corner dairies would have gone the same way as their other failures ... of DOING stuff. Pity Ardern and Chippie thought/think ... otherwise.
Sunflowers in Babylon by Joshua Luke Smith.
The poem that made 4,000 people cry at ARC 2025.
https://youtu.be/fsiB9uCMZ68
Trump clearly laid out his plans. In plain and simple and English. People liked what he said and voted for it. Now he's doing what he said he would. What other nations get? Isn't that how democracy works? Or is democracy only fair when democrats win? God, to even call themselves democrats is a crime! For my money, Luxon could do with bit of trump and get on with shit instead of waffling on and on and on and on about growth. Shut the fuck up Luxon, we're sick of slogans. Grow some balls, we want action!
Yes Brendan. Luxon is seemingly oblivious to the winds of change; not that that is a bad thing in itself (see Chesterton's Fence) but when what's being swept aside is complete waste and nonsense he needs to wake up for all our sakes. There are two sexes, "diversity" is not our strength and nor is pouring money into delusional climate change policies.
He's more gutless wokester than Christian conservative.
All these "arguments" failed with American voters, including Hispanic and Black, in 2024. Democrat talking points.
But they're still using them because they have nothing else. And so, of course, are you.
"however, is whether those same working-class voters appreciate how effectively the old state machinery has protected them and their families for the past 80 years." THIS IS A DILUSIONAL STATEMENT. Look at USAID spending.. totally corrupt, politicians worth hundreds of millions of dollars, funding of wars, regime change, left wing ideology, CIA narratives. All with stolen money from the tax payer! The state machinery has robbed the working class, NOT protected them!!
Interesting Brendan. You people spent quite a bit of energy excoriating Bill Clinton, because apparently "character matters". When Trump arrives, apparently it no longer matters.
Perhaps as a Christian you could explain to me why you would support a serial adulterer, a fraudster, and someone who had sex with a porn star while his wife was pregnant. Because I wouldn't do that and I'm an atheist – does that make me more moral than you Christians?
Musk and his team of young people–one of whom apparently was 19 when appointed, had not had a proper job –calls himself big balls.Would you seriously want to give this guy access to sensitive private information? If so why?
Not to mention that they have managed to cause chaos and saved very little money. They fired everyone who looks after the atomic weapons. I don't know about you, but it seems a little crazy to me. One story that's going round is that they lost the emails of all these people and so couldn't rehire them – all I suspect that probably isn't true, but it sort of fits in with their general incompetence.
None of these people have gone through a proper appointment process, none of them have got or could even get in many cases clearance to access secret material. And yet they have it.
They claim that – depending on who you read – 80% of people who receive a benefit are doing soIllegally. I somehow doubt that.
At cost to the swamp? Trump is the swamp.
lastly, do you even know what ddI stands for? Diversity, Equity and inclusion. Would you like to tell is which if any of these 3 you are against?
You talk as if somehow there are only maybe 6 applicants for every top government job and they always appoint the black lesbian. I'm beginning to doubt you've ever had anything to do with appointing people to jobs given how little you understand about it.
Ah, I remember the good old Ministry of Works. I remember when the Wainui Hill Road was upgraded and they use private enterprise because the Ministry of Works had been gutted. 6 months after they did it, they had to redo it.The Kapiti expressway wasn't much better.
Jesus wept, if you think Trump speaks plain and simple English, you're crazy.
"“You know, Argentina, great guy. He’s a big Trump guy. He loves Trump. I love him because he loves Trump. Anybody that loves me. I like them,”"
It only sounds simple because he is.
Because we explicitly went where Britain went, it is often overlooked that it was Nazi / German Government policy to take back their old colonies. This, of course, included what was then Western Samoa which NZ administrated. If Poland was not invaded there are numerous hypothetical scenarios as how this may have played out.
It is interesting to read those normalizing the current American executive rule. Yet we may have to ponder what we would do in the position of countries that have been in the gaze of the President. If there was a demand to hand over the three Tokolauan islands which are part of NZ (the USA have Swains) because he considered this strategic, how would we respond? The Kermadec Islands if they had minerals? The Chathams? The sub-Antarctic? If NZ came under threat, what would we do if the United States President said they would only help if we signed over our Antarctic claim?
I have written many times to this blog about the requirement to respect and maintain the levers of civil society. In America the question is being asked as to the courts power. If, and it is an if, the Courts rule against the executive, then what are the options if the court is simply ignored? Trump famously has the painting of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, after Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v. Georgia", Jackson was reputed to say - "John Marshall [Chief Justice] has made his decision, now let him enforce it".
Of course the United States has checks and balances, including co-equal governance between the executive and the elected Congress and Senate. However, the current President has been following a theory of "unified executive". This means the supremacy of the office of President, and the ability to rule without question on executive order. That the President is also the commander-in-chief shows the vulnerability of the system of the United States to be overturned to authoritarian rule.
Where to from here? The best we can do is to ensure we strengthen and respect our pillars of civil society, because there will be a daily reminder of what happens to a nation that undermines its safe guards.
https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/480646695_1877244553061898_2602747796797505217_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=eTkwErghzgQQ7kNvgEl_a1o&_nc_oc=Adj_vfovgf6mCbv3dRbWSooSYm4lLXqQoSs_qgE_sYdifqxXyQwvP-WxL9WHs_bjbCo&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&_nc_gid=ArZqfL7aXh_x_Icw8Yv6yX_&oh=00_AYA2mV0dZjR28Vr8l4KzJMfUgYiI0JdhRLwvv0JqxfXn6w&oe=67BDB3DA
With respect, what you're doing is cherry-picking. The old NZR and the old MoW might well be shining examples of privatization but the bigger picture is more nuanced.
Hi GS
It’s against my better judgement to reply to your post critiquing my support of Trumps policies and political actions, but (sigh) it’s a quiet Sunday evening and I’m five minutes away from picking up a Pizza.
First from memory I have never publicly criticised Bill Clinton, but like all politicians I’m sure there is much to critique. Second, I don’t get to vote in the US Elections so my thoughts on Trump are largely immaterial. To my knowledge the Apostle Paul was not standing for President, so the choice was between Trump with all his failings and Kamala Harris. That is an unserious choice.
You are correct that character matters and God knows I do pray for our political leadership from time to time. I suggest you do the same.
Anonymous 14.09 So Trump and admin are all achievers of your list. What's new. Which church do you belong to and what set of illustrious precepts are embraced by it? Other adults have noted that political power is very tempting to the go-getters who can spiel prissy, prosy stuff with a smile and spit it out in the direction of recipients who will absorb it.
Hey Guerilla Surgeon - If that was a transcript of a Trump speech could you dissect it for us?
Mr The Barron, you add a missing piece to a huge jigsaw puzzle, thank you.
The huge puzzle to make sense of was the war in the Pacific - NZs cobbled together 3rd Div which no one knows about now or then saw horrible duty. The glamorous feted troops in the sands of Libya mentioned by Rommel were prob no happier for being ( relatively) tonguebathed, but, ( for your benefit, Mr Guerrila Surgeon) ‘history’ is cheapened after being personalised in the hands of almost all.
The vast canvas of the Pacific, the armies assembled ( the Americans had 4 Divisions marshalled at Rockhampton alone, prior to diving in) are hard to encompass. The Australians under Gen Thomas Blamey did and suffered things that Australians to this day remember. NZ does not remember the 3rd Div- sent in droplets compared to the deluge of others - the relative nearness meant nothing compared to ‘stories’ from far off Sidi Rezegh.
It was an enormous barfight with the top generals at times debutantes in a slapfest, pulling each others hair and stomping in their opposites ball gowns. The Americans from MacArthur down were aghast at the disrespectful Australians, military and government. MacArthur has a reputation for being imperious now, but the Ozzies basically told the ‘Muricans, while the Americans dying in jungles, that it was all Australian afterwards and would they kindly F. O. promptly when done.
American brass got hives for years after the war over, at mention of Australians.
Frank Sinatra had a taste of glorious old fashioned ‘Strine when he swanned in many years later, not knowing what kind of people these were. Fewer now than then, sadly.
So, before thinking about the Germans and W Samoa, far far more entertainment to be had with ‘Allies’.
There’s no fury like Big Girls in ball gowns mad at each other.
Nothing else? Jesus Christ, do you live in a cave? I hesitate to leave a list because arguing with Trump fans is foolish in itself as the Bible says.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
Or you will also be like him.
Answer a fool as his folly deserves,
That he not be wise in his own eyes.
However ... I'll risk it.
Surely even the biggest fan of Trump must realise that he's managed to fuck up much of the American bureaucracy and lied about the savings? I know you people are against bureaucracy, but much of it is devoted in the US case to protecting people – maybe from people like you?
The prime example of course was in firing all the people devoted to looking after the atomic weaponry, losing their email addresses, so they can't get them back when they realised what they'd done.
There cutting jobs, but there is no strategy behind it. Not to mention his minions are beginning to argue among themselves now. Patel has told his "employees" to ignore Musk's instructions for instance
Americans voted for him because he promised them all sorts of things, and now he hasn't come through. Some of them are beginning to realise this. The price of eggs for instance has not come down, and he promised to get it down on his first day. I mean this was a stupid statement to make in the first place. He's supposed to be a populist, but he has no policies which would benefit the populace at large.
I hesitate to say his voters were stupid, because they were lied to, but if they bothered to check on his record of achievements they would have found nothing in them to suggest that he is going to be any better this time round. So I guess they are.
I'd say you're being wilfully ignorant myself. Nothing else my arse.
You people spent quite a bit of energy excoriating Bill Clinton, because apparently "character matters". When Trump arrives, apparently it no longer matters.
Although I wanted Clinton to win in '92 and '96 I didn't ignore the attacks on his morals and ethics. I just shrugged my shoulders and figured he'd do a better job than Bush and Dole.
But my attitude, mirrored by a majority of the rest of society, taught the US Christians a lesson; they'd lost; new rules were in place.
In 2016 and 2024, presented with a guy on their side of the political and ideological fence (mostly) they simply decided to play by the new rules set by the Left.
This has been happening a lot across many issues and it doesn't surprise me to find the Left whinging about it since they've always operated in the "Rules-For-Thee-But-Not-For-Me" world and are very unhappy when their opponents refuse to play that game any longer.
BTW, in hindsight I wish GHW Bush had won re-election. The 90's would have roared away successfully anyway, Clinton might have made a real "Comeback Kid" effort in 1996 and in any case a Democrat almost certainly would have been President when 9/11 happened, perhaps with a different response than Bush 43.
Jesus, so there IS someone here who can talk sense. I was beginning to worry.
Barron,
As per usual, a most thoughtful post.
However, having just read Richard J. Evans' "Hitler' People", I would dispute the idea that Nazi Germany had a policy to take back their colonies. While some Germans may have been keen on the idea, Hitler was not even vaguely interested. He wanted Lebensraum in eastern Europe, not Tanzania or Samoa.
Years ago I saw a very disturbing photo of a Samoan fale decked out with swastikas. Some Samoans even attempted to contact the Nazi government (Goebels from memory) but they did not get a reply.
New Zealand took Samoa off the Gernas at the request of the British government, to take out a long-range (Telefunken) radio transmitter. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, our sole representative, Bill Massey, made it clear that NZ did not want to administer the place. NZ wanted the British to take on the mandate. The British were not interested. However, the Japanese were.
It is interesting to imagine how the Samoans would have fared under Japanese rule. The Mau would not have lasted five minutes. The samurai swords would have come out at the slightest hint of resistance. I suspect the Japanese would have reacted with extreme violence to the mob murder of a police officer (military police) at the hand of "peaceful" demonstrators, as happened in 1929.
Well thank you for replying Brendan, slightly unsatisfactory though it was. I realise you prefer to ignore me, and I appreciate the reply. I didn't say you personally had excoriated Clinton I said "you people". Not a nice phrase but one that's been used on me by conservatives quite a lot so I rather enjoy giving it back.
But if your thoughts on Trump are largely immaterial, why do you keep putting them into written form here? And given that Harris, in spite of "you people" again– suggesting that she is left-wing she is in New Zealand terms probably about as left as National. And certainly more Christian than Trump who isn't a Christian at all.
I mean, interested in American politics or not did you look at her policies before you condemned her? Did you look at Trump's? Have you looked at them since he took office?
One example – apparently Elon musk sent out emails to all government employees asking them to explain what they did over the last week or resign. To the CIA, to the intelligence community, to the army. Do you not see that this is crazy?
And given that the order has been rescinded by Patel, Gabbard, and that alcoholic in charge of the military whose name I can't be bothered looking up ........ how does that look to you? Trump's government is obviously at odds. What on earth could Harris have done that is worse than that?
Could it be that like many Christians you don't like to see women in positions of power? You don't seem quite that conservative to me but who knows. Many conservatives can't stand to see a strong woman anywhere. But if character really does matter, Harris' seems just a cut above Trump's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-b4BcuC_k
Something for you to think about.
Funny Tom, I once went to a conservative Christian website and ask them quite politely why they could vote for someone of Trump's character. They said nothing about changing the rules, or the left as such. There was some talk about Hillary Clinton being a witch, which some of them seriously believed.
But the overwhelming consensus was that Trump had promised to get rid of abortion. And they compared him to Cyrus who I do believe was some Persian king or something who helped the Jews even though he wasn't a Christian. Seemed a bit of a stretch to me.
And I know many of them worry that Roe v Wade will be federalised so that's possibly one reason why they voted for him again.
Of course conservative Christians have a pathological hatred Of anyone to the left of Emperor Tiberius – I would have said Ghengis Khan but I felt like a change – so I guess if you play by those rules ... anything goes.
Thanks Shane. NZ continued in the '20s the racial hierarchy the Germans had in place, this privileged afakasi, those with European heritage. The result of the mishandling of the influenza pandemic and Samoan protest, led many to have nostalgia for German rule (which had some enlightened leadership).
As with WWI, a number of Samoans were sent to Somme's. Michael Field has noted a number of card carrying Nazi members and flag flyers amongst the German decended Afakasi.
Thankfully, Peter Frazer reset our relationship with Samoa.
Brendan:
"It's against my better judgement to reply to your post"
I know the feeling Brendan; that was a fine reply nevertheless.
You've always struck me as a real gentleman; one who is naturally uncomfortable with those that are anything but. Pearls before swine?
Hi GS
Thank you for your gracious reply to my brief comment on your reply to my post about Trump. It’s true I had chosen to ignore your goads in the past largely because (to be honest) I felt they had become toxic and unhelpful. Your recent comments are a welcome exception.
Your question, ‘why bother commenting’ is a good one. Why Trump over Harris is also reasonable from the perspective of personal character, albeit that’s not the only lens through which we view a political candidate.
Trump, despite his failings has captured the majority of American voters because he speaks to their deepest concerns about illegal immigration, about DEI and Critical Race Theory, about open borders, about the loss of manufacturing jobs, about the inability of the political elites to identify with their concerns.
All of this along with his bravery under fire and his conservative instincts (rather than his well thought through philosophy) won him his majority. Kamala Harris would be a fun person to have at your BBQ for about 5 minutes, but she was so far out of her depth it was difficult to watch her drowning. She was in every respect an unserious candidate and highlighted the vacuousness of the Democratic party in its current state, as if four years of Joe Biden’s dementia driven presidency was not enough.
I don’t know if Trump or Harris is a Christian. I cannot see into their hearts, and I don’t keep the books (you should be glad about that!).
You could successfully argue the Tump/Musk team is a wreaking ball, but so much of the deep state was and is seriously dysfunctional it had to be addressed.
When it comes to women in leadership I’m of the view that a persons gift makes room for them regardless of their gender. Note: for the sake of clarity there are only two genders. That said, there are some rolls in life best suited to one gender or the other. I’m not a fan of women in front line military roles, but that’s another story.
I choose to comment here mainly because I enjoy the articles and they occasionally prompt a response.
Musk and his team of young people–one of whom apparently was 19 when appointed, had not had a proper job –calls himself big balls.Would you seriously want to give this guy access to sensitive private information? If so why?
On July 4, 1776, the Marquis de Lafayette was 18, so was James Monroe. Alexander Hamilton was 21 and James Madison was 25.
The 19 year old in question has not only had jobs he's started three companies so he doesn't come across as a nitwit. In any case his IT skills are needed to find out where the money is going - rather than the President and his team being stymied by all the Sir Humphreys in answering the same questions. Just go to the payment systems and you'll know, which is why the bureaucracy (and their partners the MSM and the Democrat Party) are so angry.
As the old Incredibles character had it when he cried out They're penetrating the bureaucracy".
As for security, in recent days we've found that:
- FBI agents revealed ICE raids to targets, including drug gangs.
- The CIA is concerned that threats of agents being fired might cause them to deliver classified information to China and others (oaths? What are they?).
- An IRS employee released the private details of 400,000 taxpayers.
Yeah. The DOGE boys, led by a guy who already has a Top Secret security clearance and who would be keen to keep it, are the least of my worries.
Well David, I suppose I could have put that question to you, except of course you never answer me these days having decided that I am beneath contempt, or in an attempt to preserve what little dignity you have. At least Brendan gave me an answer – a pretty disingenuous one mind which didn't actually answer what was a genuine question rather than an attempt to score political points which you seem to think it was.
Funnily enough, American evangelicals were quite happy to answer the exact same question very honestly. They didn't care about Trump's sexual peccadilloes, or his repeated attempts to defraud people as long as he gave them what they wanted, they were honest enough to state what was wanted – the abolition of the right to an abortion. Cynical but.
But you are supposedly a Christian™ who also supports a man lacking in character, and I can't help but be curious. I mean your slobbering sycophancy at the president and his good lady wife at the time of the inauguration was beyond what I got from the USA, some of whom didn't like his "lifestyle" at all and were prepared to say so but were also prepared to make the – sacrifice if you want to call it that – of voting for him. Some of them were even honest enough to say that they would never vote for a woman, no matter how Christian she might be.
I guess I should be mildly insulted at being called a swine in your comment, but perhaps not given that you seem to worship one.
And if miracle of miracles you should deign to answer this – don't bother I probably won't be around here for a while.
While I agree with Shane that former colonies were not a priority for Hitler, there remains hypotheticals in which it could be in play.
If Halifax had taken the premiership instead of Churchill, it is suspected that he would have sought terms with Germany. This is before our signing of the Statute of Westminster, so Britain conducted our foreign policy.
The return of former colonies likely on the table.
Ever wondered why there is no populist movement in Canada, Australia or NZ?
Vested interests control the discourse
Post in thread 'Sean cuts me off' https://nzissues.com/Community/threads/sean-cuts-me-off.66593/post-2738311
Thank you Brendan, that clarifies much for me. I'm glad you don't see religiosity as the only lens that is worth looking through, although many American evangelicals and fundamentalists believe it is. Or at least they pretend to.
I would rather suggest that Trump has captured the majority of American voters because he has consistently lied about many of the things that you mention. For instance there are no "open borders". Illegal immigration attempts spiked under Biden but so did expulsions. The loss of manufacturing jobs has been going on for years, and was actually started – or perhaps just made worse by Republican Ronald Reagan. Biden increased the number of jobs, including manufacturing jobs, increased wages compared to inflation for the first time in 30 odd years, and had started rebuilding infrastructure. Voters seemed to ignore this in favour of Feelings. On the contrary, jobs were lost under Trump. And I notice that just now they are predicting a contraction in the US economy of 1.5%.
I must confess I lost much of my faith in the US mainstream media when they concentrated on Biden's mental decline and completely ignored Trump's. Which seems to me to be worse – but one could argue that we both see what we want to in that case.
Probably the same for Harris, given that I thought she was quite a respectable candidate, certainly more coherent than Trump. And talked about proper policy rather than vague generalities. She never promised for instance to lower the price of eggs and fix the Ukraine war on day one.
I think seeing into their hearts is a bit of a copout to be honest. It's obvious Trump isn't a Christian, he doesn't even know which way up to hold a Bible. He doesn't lead any sort of Christian life, he never goes to church regularly, he knows nothing about Corinthians.😇
I'm not a great fan of the use of the word deep state. It has a very technical meaning and is largely meaningless in terms of United States, where the bureaucracy has a wide variety of political opinions, and generally keep them to themselves. But if you're going to reform them, you don't put it in the hands of 19-year-olds who call themselves "big balls". You at least put it in the hands of people who can analyse what needs doing and make judgements based on that. None of Trump's team has a clue what they are doing, and they are destroying people's lives for no particular reason except idiotic enthusiasm for wrecking the "deep state".
I'd like to know how you know that the bureaucracy was dysfunctional. I suspect you take it for granted because it is the opinion of the sources you get your news from. Any large enough organisation is to some extent inefficient and sometimes even ineffective. But wading in and slashing and burning jobs without figuring out which ones need to go is not the way to go about it.
Robert Reich reorganised his department when he was secretary of labour and cut the number of jobs by about 1/3 if I remember correctly and did it all while increasing effectiveness – which is not efficiency but what you need in a government department – while not ruining people's lives. You should look up his substack where he explains what he did.
I realise that you find some of my posts goading, they are not necessarily meant that way any more than your posts are necessarily meant to be patronising – which I often find them to be. I try to put it down to the fact that there are none of the non-verbal cues that you get when you're talking to someone face-to-face, but I sometimes forget that. My apologies.
This is what Christ said "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Matthew 7:6.
Christ also said "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
Christianity is, conceptually and fundamentally, a doctrine of forgiveness and redemption. To turn that virtue into a stick to bash Christians is perverse.
GS: "I probably won't be around here for a while"
Is this merely theatrical again?
"So, Elon Musk and his team on that wall of receipts say that their total cuts equal $65 billion in savings. They base that on contract cancellations, firing workers and — quote — "fraud detection."
But as The New York Times first reported, five of DOGE's biggest contracts that they say have resulted in savings ended up being deleted from that wall of receipts after outlets pointed out that there were errors. And some of the biggest errors in savings are, as CBS first reported, a USAID contract for $650 million that was listed three times, as The Intercept first reported, a Social Security contract listed as $232 million, instead of $560,000, and an ICE contract that DOGE listed as $8 billion, when, in reality, it was $8 million.
And it's important to note that $8 million ICE contract was a credit line. That means that ICE may have never ended up paying out that total $8 million. And some of these contracts were — on the wall of receipts were either already paid or canceled under the Biden administration.
So DOGE is essentially taking a lot of credit for some of these contracts that don't appear to be actually the savings that they say they are."
"DOGE deleted the top five highest savings claims on its “wall of receipts” leaderboard after various news outlets pointed out multiple errors in its calculations, The New York Times’ David Fahrenthold reported Tuesday.
The savings, deleted with no explanation from DOGE or the White House, include: a $232 million cut to the Social Security Administration that actually amounted to only $560,000; an $8 billion cut at Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was actually only $8 million; and three $655 million cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development that ended up being a measly $18 million. These mistakes all seem to be completely avoidable human errors."
"The Department of Government Efficiency, the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk, published on Monday a list of government contracts it has canceled, together amounting to about $16 billion in savings itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website.
Almost half of those line-item savings could be attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. But the DOGE list vastly overstated the actual value of that contract. A closer scrutiny of a federal database shows that a recent version of the contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation."
They're lying like schoolboys. And making basic maths errors. I think the marquis de Lafayette would have been ashamed of them.
Pretty sure it was Homan that made the accusations against the FBI, not yet substantiated I might add.
The CIA are worried? One of them gave information to China in 2020. I can't see how this is groundbreaking information. Unless your handle happens to be big balls I guess.
AFAIK it was the IRS that found out about the leakage of taxpayer information.I think the guy was sentenced to 5 years before doge Even existed., Though I might be wrong about that.
Sorry to disappoint you Brendan, but my wife just had a couple of operations to remove a cancer and until she is well again I won't be hanging around here very much. Because jousting with you has to some extent lost its savour. Feel free to make one of your usual passive-aggressive remarks about that.
If you think the Christianity is a doctrine of forgiveness, you haven't read the bible.
Your God killed off – according to you anyway – almost all of the human race at one time, including innocent children. Not much redemption there.The list of god ordered slaughters by the chosen people is too long to write down here. But perhaps you should read about them. I certainly wouldn't dream of worshipping such a sadistic being, even if one existed.
As far as theatricality goes, I have needed to escape from this place and some of the more toxic right wing commentators such as yourself from time to time. As you note I have pretty much always come back. Not sure I'd necessarily describe it as theatrical though. Just detoxing.
The Biblical flood is a story about the consequences of lies and corruption; allow it to takeover (your society and you individually) and you will drown in chaos. Call it cosmic justice if you prefer but there is no escaping it. Sadism doesn't come into it.
"The Trump administration’s massive federal cuts and swelling feelings of economic uncertainty helped fuel a recession-level spike in layoff plans last month, new data showed Thursday.
US-based employers last month announced plans to slash 172,017 jobs, a 103% increase from a year ago and the highest February total since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s latest monthly job cuts report released Thursday.
It’s the 12th highest monthly total in the 32 years Challenger has been tracking job cuts. The 11 others (four came during the Covid-19 pandemic) all occurred when the US was in a recession, Challenger data shows."
I guess the jury is still out on Trump? 🥸
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