Thursday Morning Coffee

Last night Maiki Sherman did a good job covering the Budget Policy Statement by featuring a dude who held up three Chuppa Chups saying this is what National's tax cuts add up to for me.

At $2.15 per week, these Tax Cuts are a waste of time, especially when the costs to fund them include scrapping free public transport, scrapping free prescriptions if you have an ongoing illness, a $500 Million cut to ECE funding, pushing 7000 children into poverty by indexing benefits to wages and of course making thousands of good people redundant, killing 8000 non smokers who take up smoking, and driving up rates and rents by scrapping Three Waters.

"It's the most responsible thing to do", said Nicola Willis stretching credulity until it SNAPPED - and now nobody except hard core clowns agree with National and it's narrative nightmare.

It should be remembered that for five weeks before the 2023 election nobody in media challenged Luxon and Willis who promised $250 per week in tax relief - until finally Craig Renny did the math and told media that only applies to a tiny 3,000 people. For most these tax cuts suck hard so presenting them as "we care deeply" comes across as Gaslighting by Luxon and Willis.

Shamubeel mocked Willis' BPS ( Budget Policyt Statement ) by saying it was more like a pamphlet which was very light on details and very high on electioneering and he emphasised that this determination to deliver tax cuts at the wrong time was ideology trumping rationality.

Luxon refuses to be lectured. So does Willis. What could go wrong?

Shamubeel says that Willis is going to make the recession worse and interest rates will remain higher for longer.

Perhaps that is the hidden agenda here but based on everything I have seen, this looks like incompetence magnified a billion - as Luxon and Willis adopt Trump tactics and deny reality in a confidence game of bluster and spin.

They fear their voter base will collapse into the twenties if they don't do the wrong thing and forge ahead. So it's all about selfish motives.

Somebody mentioned Brad from the Flat and how he used to say the sky was falling and the end was nigh - every week - when Labour were in power - but now Brad is far less visible and where is the consistency?

Smells like a big blue backhander there Brad?

BeenADick also did a good job on TVNZ 1 News last night highlighting all the former National MPs who have been granted cushy jobs by their friends.

Erica gave her mentor Murray McCully a job as an independent reviewer for an inquiry into the state of school buildings, Chris Bishop gave Bill English a job reviewing Kāinga Ora ( privatisation gig ), Simeon Brown gave Simon Bridges the chair of Waka Kotahi, and Paul Goldsmith chose former National minister Roger Sowry to help lead an investigation into the state of our Cook Strait ferries.

Yes it was a virtual revolving door of National Party crony contracts as Parliament seethes with this kind of corrupt practice and the Green Party called for greater public scrutiny of the recent appointments.

BeenADick drew a long bow suggesting Trev got an appointment and so did Louisa Wall - so all was equivalent - but overall his segment was good and Erica looked like a knob as did Simeon the weasel.

We've been watching Winston, Seymour and Luxon attempt to provoke a culture war for some time now and I wrote about how they must all be aware of the Bill of Rights Act ( section 19 clause 2 ) that spells out why the designated areas at Auckland University are not discriminatory - and it's a sick joke that Luxon made out it was.

Worse Winston was flinging around wildly outrageous comparisons between affirmative action and the KKK and it just goes on and on - race baiting of the worst kind.

Naturally there's always a hateful bigot out there that agrees with Winston. Which is what he is counting on.

We woke up this morning to hear how three people in hoodies driving a white/grey car with black ski rails painted over a rainbow crossing on KRoad last night. The police have released pics.

Yes - and if anyone strikes back - then white NZ clutches their pearls in horror - so we've got to stay calm and let the police do the job.

The provocations continue and will likely carry on until Seymour's Treaty Principles Legislation comes to the Select Committee later this year. I see it all as an attempt to rile up low IQ white bigots about equal rights - and imaginary fears - with pictures of cars and motorbikes on their social media profiles in a repeat of the "hate campaigns" driven on social media by outsiders while Jacinda was protecting us from Covid. Naturally the Grand Eftpostle is just a useful pawn in that wider game. Bigotry repeating.

We were all disgusted in Oliver Sean Plunket and his Platform and his remarks about children with Downs Syndrome who he dragged into his remarks about Maui Dophins.

Really all MPs should boycott the Platform because we have seen what it stands for now, under the banner of free speech. When a person shows you who they are - believe them.

There should be consequences. Shame on Plunket and the Wright Family that backs him to do this. That was such a bad new low - no more Plunket - he has to go. Cancel that. Take away his microphone and send him to Gaza.

Lastly, G News reader David Stewart from Whakatane is getting active about protesting the tax cuts. You may recall David hit the news in the Bay of Plenty Times for standing on the road with a sign that read "Thank you Jacinda, best PM ever" in a stand against hate last Summer.

Here is David's plan ...

"I'm going to stand on our local roundabout heading to town with a sign that says 'Postpone the Tax Cuts' I'm going to invite my mates here in Whakatane to join me on week 2. So it will be 1 person making a stand this Friday, then more next Friday, and in more places nationally, and it will culminate with a protest outside parliament on May 30 Budget Day, if they haven't surrendered by then."

Good work David that's the spirit.

Thursday Morning Coffee

Morena

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