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6:00 am, March 10th, 2026 - 21 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
https://open.substack.com/pub/deanblundell/p/breaking-trumps-next-pretext-to-break?
Would anything surprise us?
”The Pretext Is Already Built. Here’s What It Looks Like.
Stop for a moment and put yourself in the room. You are a Trump administration official — let’s say a senior NSC staffer, or a comms director who reports to Stephen Miller, or an operational planner at the kind of interagency meeting that doesn’t get written up in official minutes.
The Iran war is going sideways. American troops are dying. The Strait of Hormuz is closed, and gas prices are spiking. The midterms are coming. You need a narrative that explains why this is not a disaster of your own making. You need a pressure lever that forces Canada to fall in line — on CUSMA renegotiation, on Arctic sovereignty, on the Golden Dome missile shield, on the 51st state question that hasn’t gone away, no matter how many times Carney tells Trump to stop bringing it up.
Now look at what you have available to you:
You have documented the Iranian regime's presence in Canada. Real. Sourced. Defensible.”
Then what would the world do? Stand and watch? Pretty sure Luxon and Winnie would find the appropriate weasel words.
Calling Wayne.
The government is going to make money out of applying tax on the rising price of imported oil.
The government denied Auckland its own tax for transport revenues.
Calling Andrew.
The government is going to make …
Can the government afford to pay its rates bill now?
(the mind of Christopher Luxon, this new impost on the people will help us sell ourselves as competent budget administrators – we never really funded the removal of the landlord tax)
The government wants to look good, but has no intent of doing good.
It is
1.transferring costs onto people (often on those in the worst position to do so) to get the budget deficit down (lower tax on the well to do).
2.being seen as for lower rates bills while the cost might fall on the poorest in society
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/589089/local-government-minister-simon-watts-can-t-guarantee-rates-cap-won-t-increase-social-housing-rents
Explainer
They have more beneficiaries and they have insufficient staff to manage their data information system.
Incompetence excuses here.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/589104/ministry-of-social-development-apologises-for-broken-data-system
People not completing the purchase of a property and yet making a CG?
What the story does not cover, if this is a method for avoiding the bright line test (as well as buying without having any money – or buying multiple properties at the same time).
There was hardly any flipping in 2023 and this emerged last year as a practice.
Can IRD collected tax on the CG in these cases?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/589133/it-s-quite-deceptive-complaint-laid-about-the-rise-of-property-flippers
Looks like a regulation issue which was tightened up about 20 years ago according to the complainant who was engaged in such practice at the time a forced to stop as were all the others operating as private individuals outside of new Real Estate license legislation.
Now they are back at it and she's not happy. It shows how amateur NZ's relationship with property is. I wonder if there's been any pressure from Nicola Willis on the REA to turn a blind eye because of course if this unregulated practice is encourage then the property market accelerates much quicker.
With Shane Reti retiring, I sincerely hope he is not lost to the health profession in Whangarei and Northland generally.
Take a break Shane for a bit but make sure to come back refreshed.
Reti had the opportunity to resign on principle over the tobacco fiasco right at the start of the Coalition. Had he walked away from politics then, he would've had the respect of his profession, and the public, and we'd have one more much needed GP. Instead, he chose to go along with it, at which point, he lost pretty much everyone's respect.
Maybe as a Cabinet Minister.
Retiring as a politician he has too many medical and administrative skills to leave behind.
The number of Maori as qualified as Reti would struggle to fill a phonebooth. Northland needs him back.
Seem odd that a conflagration in the Middle East that could disrupt oil supplies to most countries and go a long way to damaging the world economy should result in a lesser price reaction to the Russia – Ukraine war. Probably a long way to go yet, but makes one wonder what were the underlying reasons back in 2022, when there was far less supply issues. Today's price falls in particular – surely the markets are not listening to the delusional statements coming from the White House.
Brent Crude
My quibble about the Auckland lockdown was not when they came out of it. It was that they did not use the opportunity it provided to
1.open up Auckland to people overseas (already vaccinated) to return to their homes
2.free up Auckland hotel spaces for others, before they were moved on out of Auckland.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360964025/auckland-locked-down-longer-advised-royal-commission-covid-finds
Ignore that link above.
1:15pm:
https://oilprice.com/oil-price-charts/
The Sunday Times both notes that the Labour government had a better week after showing independence from Trump (attack on Iran) and that they are not happy about this.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/world-news/360963422/war-rages-long-strategic-relationship-may-be-casualty
FYI, AI confirmed my opine that the Sunday Times and The Times were journals of record for the government narrative about the invasion of Iraq.
This is something we should be aware of. The world is in a Very Dangerous Place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
As mad as the mullahs.
/
https://www.thedriftmag.com/the-masada-option/
Looking forward to two meaningless hearings about how this government handled the 2026 oil shock, now that we've done two meaningless hearings about COVID response.
They are still trying to win the 2020 election. They have never forgiven Ardern – no, the voters – for everything National got wrong.
If they think that will help them in 2026, they are seriously out of touch. The most useful finding from the reports is the essential question: "Are we prepared for a pandemic now, and if not, what are we doing to become prepared?".
They don't want to answer that one.
There's that saying along the lines of "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy". Also it aligns with "Men plan, God laughs".
That's what happened in 2020 when the existing (from 2017 I think) nicely prepared and wrapped up pandemic plan was thrown out and a new one invented on the fly.
By all means spend lots of money to draw up a new pandemic plan, but don't expect it to be used.
This is the kind of pathetic hand holding by a former Prime Minister with the current one which completely undermines the current one:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/sir-john-key-spoke-with-prime-minister-christopher-luxon-over-weekend-amid-leadership-speculation/JES7T3X3UZHFHCDMNPF4GQEFXI/
Worse for Luxon is that right there in the article he still doesn't get it. Jong Ki was quoted as being honest about the times he and Luxton spoke but wouldn't divulge the contents of the particular emergency conversation over the weekend. While that stupid thumb we are burdened with as a PM tried to lie yet again by saying they talked about golf.
This is why the country hates him, he is not genuine nor honest about even the simplest things and he really needs to go.
I hope the media makes sure this happens.
Israelis using White Phosphorous on residents in Lebanon:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/589192/hrw-accuses-israel-of-unlawfully-using-white-phosphorus-in-new-lebanon-attacks
And deliberately seeding acid rain over Tehran:
https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-acid-rain-in-the-wake-of-us-bombings-in-iran-an-atmospheric-scientist-explains-277849
.
“Country Joe” McDonald, a hippy rock star of the 1960s whose protest track I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag rebuked the Vietnam war and became a highlight of the Woodstock music festival, died on Sunday. He was 84.
McDonald died in Berkeley, California. His death from complications of Parkinson’s disease was reported by Kathy McDonald, his wife of 43 years, in a statement issued by his publicist.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/09/country-joe-mcdonald-woodstock-star-and-anti-war-singer-dies-aged-84