Today Feels Like D-Day

Plus: NZ political updates from the day

Except it’s not.

D-Day was in 1944 when over 156,000 Allied Forces, including individual Kiwis, stormed five beaches in Normandy to fight the Nazi regime.

The thought of the reality of war makes me feel emotional. It’s the height of human conflict and violence and the culmination of ignorance over coming together as human beings.

There are always sparks though:

In World War 1, German and British soldiers spontaneously put down their weapons and animosity in an unplanned ceasefire on the Western Front.

They stopped fighting, and came together to enjoy songs, drinks, and even a game of soccer, in what is now known as the Christmas Truce.

British soldier Bruce Bairnsfather said of that time:

“Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side.”

Military commanders put an end to that possibility after that though - no fraternizing with the enemy. No spontaneous peace.

And today is US election day and to me, it feels consequential too.

One choice on the ballot is a convicted rapist and fraudster, Donald Trump - with a high chance to win. Despite the left’s enthusiasm for Kamala, I worried - but will be happy to be wrong with every cell.

He plans to hire Elon Musk as his top government “efficiency” man, and Robert Kennedy Junior as his Health Czar.

Now, in New Zealand we have Lester Levy - a part time IT professor - a man with multiple directorships in private healthcare and who believes health should be run like a business, whose style is reportedly “top-down, controlling and destructive”, and lives in “la-la land” running Health - but RFK Junior still has one up on him.

RFK Junior is a vaccine skeptic, conspiracy theorist, a “science denialist”, and a health freak who says that a worm “ate part of my brain” by way of explanation for his speech.

Donald Trump has told RFK Jr. that he can “go wild on health” if Trump wins, and take control of multiple public health agencies.

Health expert are of course alarmed, but that doesn’t seem to matter much.

There’s simply too much noise and too many contradictory facts for ‘pesky’ experts to matter anymore - sort of like in New Zealand where the might of doctors, public health experts and health practitioners and officials could not stop the force of this right wing government’s pro-tobacco policies - no matter how hard they tried, and try, to warn Kiwis.

In the USA, Elon Musk with his efficiency hat on, says he wants to cut US$2 trillion from the US budget.

He probably can.

Musk famously “drove efficiency” into Twitter (now “X”) and saved costs by firing more than 80% of Twitter’s staff.

Correspondingly - he’s left X worth ~80% less than when he bought it.

Musk bought Twitter for USD$44bn in 2022 and it’s now worth just USD $4.2 million.

Musk has driven achievements in Twitter though: he’s successfully reversed hate speech bans, used X to amplify his voice and opinions, and boosted Twitter into a pro-Donald Trump “chamber”.

And invested over US $120million to boost Trump.

In return, Trump has promised Musk can lead a new government role and efficiency commission.¹

Does this remind anyone of how David Seymour got Christopher Luxon to give him the title of Minister of Regulation and a brand new Ministry with a start up cost of $76mn to taxpayers?

And this could be all worth a lot to Musk: power.

Government force. State finances. Unimpeded control. Policy influence. Competitive benefit. Influence at the highest echelons of power.

Where am I going with all this?

My point is things are close - more close than any one can call.

And at this point I have to almost smile at the nature of human nature - because what other choice is there here?

After millions died fighting a fascist regime in Europe, a very large proportion of voters are considering voting for an authoritarian choice with strong fascist signals.

Trump is not only going to instill dubious characters to lead serious decisions in the USA, his Atlas Network Heritage Foundation has Project 2025 ready to go.

And that involves the same steps we see in New Zealand:

• Centralising power through friendly appointments irrespective of qualification - such as the improper appointment of Dr Stephen Rainbow to the role of Human Rights Commissioner (In short: Rainbow wasn’t shortlisted and was not recommended for the role. He is also on record as singularly pro-Israel and anti-transgender)

• Decimate science and environmental protections - The National led government is doing the same here but in a progressive and steady manner. Trump won’t be so bashful in his second term.

• Attacking and sidelining experts: academics, health practitioners, public servants (As we saw Casey Costello and Christopher Luxon do to our Health officials this week)

If Trump wins, it’s extraordinary.

And a massive coup for the right. The years of harvesting out of context mis-information and curating messages of fear and anger into their voters has worked.

If Trump loses, expect to see lawsuits that may end up gaining him the Presidency anyway.

What does this mean in New Zealand? Besides the tariffs, US dollar variability, and security implications - the latter of which is significant - there is the constant impinging of the large corporate and right wing money that seeks not only to win in the States, but all over our world.

EXTRAS

Luxon apologises to Chris Hipkins in Parliament - you’ll never see this again

NZ Political News Bites

• Luxon will be out of the country during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill next week

• The Hikoi from the top of the North Island to Wellington will still proceed despite the government pulling their stunt to bring the TPB early. The TPB reading was communicated originally as 18 November. And this government pulled the same stunt when they repealed the Maori Health Authority when they tried to get ahead of the Waitangi Tribunal hearing.

• Don Brash is trying to get the Waitangi Tribunal disbanded - just don’t call him racist though.

• Chris Luxon confirms that force will be allowed in youth boot camps but only as a “last resort” even as Chhour admits the risk of abuse in custody would increase.

• Today, Chief Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad urged the government to carefully consider the implications before making a final decision on using force in the boot camps

• In September Judith Collins tried to hide NZDF criticism of boot camps

• Corrections axes mental health contracts for jails

• Senior nurses with special authorisation for assessing and detaining mental health patients have quit over safety fears as police pull back from mental health call outs

• Unemployment rises to near four year high but this hides the fact that many have left our shores in considerable “brain drain” and others have given up looking

1. This has all led him to be Donald Trump’s effective US Presidential running mate.