Slice of Life - One toke over the line

I sat at my desk holding a pen over a blank paper, and I laid it down flat, it was red and was from Qantas, a present from a G News reader - who sent me a huge bag of pens - knowing I had run out.

What a thoughtful thing to do, I smiled warmly and felt a kind of glow inside like hot chocolate - as I turned on some meditation music that sent alpha waves to my brain and I decided to free style type in a stream of consciousness ...the one you are now reading as my fingers race over keys and we wait for what comes next...

They say a bottom line comes down to what is already sold when it comes to pork barrel politics, which means if you took money from the Big Tobacco firms via crooked streets, wearing a thin disguise - you better deliver the promised goods on time buddy.

Those lovely chats with Petroleum lobbyists were not just about the extent of environmental harm measured with certainty ...in return for fast tracked exploration and drilling permits - they included an unwritten "what's in it for me - if I do this for you" - clause.

The art of the deal - the stuff that has already been sold - it's a bottom line in a coalition negotiation which is why we saw interest deductibility and a shortening of the Brightline Test to 2 years in that first 100 days...along with that repeal of Labour's RMA 2.0.

It's why the squeezed middle were left to last ...as more pressing obligations dominate the Cabinet table.

There's people waiting for pay back and they want the delivery as soon as possible.

Big Property and Big Tobacco stood beside Big Oil and Gas like gangsters ...and I noted these guys were all members of the Atlas Network think tank ...you know the NZ Initiative...but in my imagination they were all dressed like gangsters in a Guy Ritchie take on this sort of mob.

"I thought we had a deal", they all said in unison...in some imaginary warehouse as politicians tried to reassure them that they would deliver on time.

Yes this picture was like a Guy Ritchie movie where serious people want their money's worth - and now the elected Government must deliver to their mafia like sponsors - and so, to someone like Winston I imagined, he would not care much if Willis had created a problem for herself over tax cuts - he was not going back to his donors, cap in hand, a beaten down dog - with some sorry excuse about a delay to delivery.

Kind of like in Broken Bad. That is not my problem, that is your problem Willis. Don't you delay the delivery of my goods.

That's not how this Rodeo works sunshine - said Winston dressed in black feathers in my mind as he scratched the ground and looked up at the arrogant Willis ...but the Guy Ritchie reference made me imagine a car with a boot full of - bags of cocaine in it as the lid lifted ( yes it was green and yes it was a Maserati ) - but those bags in the boot in NZ - were bags full of pork - and all together they would have filled a pork barrel worth $1.2 Billion.

The Pork Barrel Slush fund in return for votes was way bigger money than small time gangsters do evil deeds for - over on Netflix.

$1.2 Billion of pork barrel promises and hopeful "wheelers and dealers" waiting for the delivery of their goods...that's what I imagined would be on Winston's mind as he sat at the Cabinet table and Willis threw up her hands in despair and said no way can we afford to start doling out pork to the regions...not this year.

"Not this year" screeched a Willis rooster - her feathers speckled and she had - a massive derriere as she clawed the ground and circled the old black rooster, Winston who had so much money riding on that barrel of pork making it's way on time to the right people.

Cabinet had become like an illegal cock fight where paid up punters leaned over the boundary and cheered on the warring roosters in slow motion footage shot at 120 frames per second ...and after the show...where feathers flew and claws tore ..., a bald Luxon, wearing red bands, walked out of an old rural barn and up to camera - with his hands in his pockets - and he said ...in that annoying way...

"I can tell you everything is going incredibly well, we are working incredibly hard to get things done at pace. I disagree strongly with rumours that there's a cock fight going on in cabinet, with the greatest of respect I won't be lectured and we'll have that 100 day plan next week. Watch this space.".

You know the rest about "six years of economic vandalism that can't be fixed in one budget", but we will avoid the boredom of unpacking that - and having established the framework in our Guy Ritchie take - about the gravity behind pork barrel politics and paying your dues to very serious people ...it was time to get back to the stream of consciousness..

I suddenly remembered that Erica had publicly stood up and contradicted Winston in the mainstream media this week - about those designated areas in Universities.

It snapped me back to the exterior world.

Yes I sat at my desk looking at the red Qantas pen and I wondered if Erica had secretly hated the illegal cock fight she had just witnessed in cabinet - and I remembered that Erica was the type who might cross the floor on matters of standards - and I sat up straight in my chair.

"The Education Minister says she doesn't believe a designated area for Māori and Pasifika students at Auckland University is segregation" said the media as I recalled Winston said it was segregation and just like the KKK...

This crossing of swords in public suggested something was spilling over...like boiling water in a pan on a hot stove ...as tribal loyalties frothed and seethed ...while Luxon cleaned up behind them - making uncharacteristic concessions about how it looks like discrimination...and how he was very disappointed...all to placate Winston.

I am not sure Erica got into politics to watch Winston and Seymour start a culture war in an illegal cock fight behind closed doors - dividing the nation and - just perhaps - those with a small shred of integrity were still capable of redemption?

Was Erica one of those few?

The ones who held back from the fighting ring and turned away in sheer disgust. When to speak out in this conspiracy of silence?

Signing up can only go so far. Hadn't Erica done enough recently?

She'd handed that working group over to the Atlas Network with Dr Michael Johnson ...and recently Erica had paid her dues by skilfully relying on short memories - as she alternated between crying for Visas over Ukraine and now claiming nobody can get out of Gaza - so no need for Visas for people fleeing Gaza - while over a dozen people literally just got out - and fled to Canada - a nation who had bothered with issuing the Visas for people fleeing Gaza.

Who was controlling Erica here?

It's unclear but we've noticed her answers did not add up.

This must have eaten into her conscience and one wonders how she sleeps at night somewhere over on the Shore - where no bombs blow your children to pieces and people are not watching children starve to death...as they dig out their dead.

We all know Luxon had no time to participate in that debate about Gaza and the protestors recently stood at his gate in Rem-wah-rah.

So perhaps Erica had had a gutsful of eating political crow in these first 100 days - and decided to publicly push back on Winston - as the news she had "crony hired her mentor" - Murray McCully with a $2,200 per day present - went down like a cup of sick with those now being told they have lost their jobs in the public service.

They say a bottom line comes down to what is already sold.

I picked up that pen and decided it was time to write something worthy as the alpha waves nursed my brain and somewhere in the kitchen - the coffee filter sang a song of a time when I visited it more often.

I love the way I have this pen - a gift from someone I had not met.

It works really well, so I better say something worthwhile with it.

"Thanks"...I wrote across the page.

Slice of Life - One toke over the line

G