Who could have ever imagined it would be a disastrous decision to attack Iran and that it would set off a set of consequences including economic crisis and a broader regional war besides everyone who ever paid the slightest bit of attention

Caterpillar is a masterpiece. Hardly a trace of sentimentality, full of wit, humour and compassion. Best film drama I've seen in ages, anywhere. Transported back thru grief of losing mum. The grief in dementia is confusing & painful. They're gone long before they leave. tinyurl.com/3ct72akz

GDP quarterly figures Dec 23 - Dec 25 - Stats NZ 9 quarters. 5 positive, 1 followed prev Govt, 2 qs barely growing. Why does it feel so bad, folks? We're going backwards. Population has not grown as so many left the country. Ave growth of 0.2% since Sept '23 is same as the total sum!

GDP quarterly figures Dec 23 - Dec 25 - Stats NZ 9 quarters. 5 positive, 1 followed prev Govt, 2 qs barely growing. Why does it feel so bad, folks? We're going backwards. Population has not grown as so many left the country. Ave growth of 0.2% since Sept '23 is same as the total sum!

Another dose of hand wringing NZ Super affordability, completely ignores the $92BN Superfund. Would be well over a trillion dollars if Key/English had invested in the future. The economy has barely grown 0.5% since Sept 2023, maybe look at that structural deficit. tinyurl.com/ym8r2td3

Who has actually been "growing the pie"? Pretty obv from Treasury stats that 1999-2008, 2017-2023, NZ became materially more wealthy. GDP figures and GDP per capita tell a similar story. The whole point of obsessing about debt is to shrink the wealth, influence of the state to improve our lives.

yeh, but ideological obsession with Gov debt, deliberately misses our net worth. Japan has assets 192% of GDP. NZ has $179BN, 40% GDP, offsetting core debt. Our net worth shrank in 3 years. Cullen/Clark net worth $10BN-$105BN Key/Eng $105Bn-$110BN Ardern/Robbo $110Bn-$183Bn Now, $4bn worse off.

Wrote a Listener column about playing records for the kids and remembering the places that were where Goblin is now. The print headline (at my request) was '3am Eternal'. Look out for another great Mum 'n' Dad Disco outing soon! www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener...

Angela Rayner was dragged through every front page for weeks... HMRC's verdict: NOT deliberate. NOT even careless. Farage pockets £5 million and chooses not to declare it So where's the wall-to-wall coverage? Tell me this isn't a rigged game.

🔥 “The last gasp breath of the confederacy”

1st, let's talk about economic illiteracy & vandalism & the lost billions in NZ Super. There's $92Bn in NZ Superfund, b4 worrying about deficits & affordability. $92bn net worth the Nats are embarrassed to include in our assets, to offset net core debt, of $180bn. Lost billions?.. /n

Who burned down Parliament lawn, immigrants or local cookers?

Still the best film adaptation of The Odyssey

“We’re not doing this double standard shit anymore… this is a prime example of being able to dish it but not take it. Scott Jennings has built a career out of being a smug, condescending asshole on TV.” @adammockler.com responds to @GeraldoRivera’s absurd defense of Jennings

Historians will note this is exactly what millions of Americans wanted, no matter the consequences: to retaliate against the country for electing a Black President by putting a huge racist in the White House who would constantly refer to every Black person he doesn't like as "low IQ."

A real banger from @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/o...

Americans waking tomorrow: right royally mugged & roasted by the umpteenth grandson of George III, he who lost the colony. Spellbound by ancient class privilege and erudition, asinine reverence rendering them vacant needy, robber barons. Adams, Franklin, Washington all weeping in their graves.

China is installing the wind and solar equivalent of five large nuclear power stations per week www.abc.net.au/news/science...

Yes. But never underestimate how vacant you need to be to write this slop. Even mediocre intellects can identify inconsistency, signs of potential hypocrisy in their own copy. The absence of shame at promoting naked double-think shows just how thick the WaPoo Ed board are.

some apple exec: I spent twenty million on an ad campaign and he just tweeted it out

Undocumented immigrants contribute $97 billion yearly in federal, state, and local taxes. They paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022. Bessent is galactically stupid. www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/b...

The Pope has cancelled his visit to the US. The state visit by King Charles must be cancelled too. Anything else is an endorsement of Trump. Your move, UK government. #nostatevisit #

A vital watch for everyone, especially all New Zealand Journalists from all sides of the political spectrum. If your not going to use the word "Fascist" "... is hell bent on becoming more like the Trumpist United States today. ..." ( Bluesky "trumpist" search link [ tinyurl.com/NZHtrump ]) #nzpol

Joy Division and New Order are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. About time, considering Blue Monday is the best-selling 12-inch single of all time.

Prague Spring and Suez Crisis 2.0

There is something in my eye. Sound on.

“The reason why the Artemis mission has everyone so fascinated is because it is a showcase for the efforts of people who are very, very good at their jobs, at a time when the news cycle is dominated by people who are not merely terrible at their jobs, but awful human beings as well.”

“Is your background in corporate incompetence transferable to public sector incompetence?” From the latest Private Eye, out now.

4/8/99: Pedro Almodóvar's All About my Mother - Peak PA for us More: @rmbodenheimer.bsky.social: www.rogerebert.com/features/an-... @janetmaslin.bsky.social: archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.... @jimlaczkowski.net: directorsclub.substack.com/p/episode-8-...

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

In Korea, when the president declared martial law after midnight and erected barricades in Seoul, congressional reps from all parties ran into the streets, yanked ak47s from the army at the barricades, broke down the locked door to Congress, repealed the martial law order, and arrested the president

Flora on sand https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-klee/flora-on-sand-1927

Dubai’s top British influencers have been fulsome in their praise for the UAE Government as the Iran war continues. Speaking from jail, one said, “They quite rightly locked me up for tweeting a video of a drone blowing up my apartment.” From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

At last, a coherent NatSec strategy from MAGA/GOP: more hats.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars found that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza “meet the legal definition of genocide.” Doctors told WIRED the public-health crisis they witnessed looked to them more like a new phase of genocide than its aftermath. www.wired.com/story/gaza-w...

niiiiiice

Gauze https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-klee/gauze-1940

Israeli opposition leader: IDF troops *over extended*, on 7th rotation, (after 32 months slaughter). No incentive for Iran to stop when they see weakness and clown show antics. This ain't ending 'soon', after 28 days. 46 days of fuel? US troops, ground war? www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/...

You can hear it without volume

What he say? For those that been keeping up with ChuckART… they know id been here . …

G.O.A.T. 🔥🔥☮️

The Net Zero brigade have been agitating for a war with Iran for some time.

More crime

@flavorflav.bsky.social State of the Union 911!! Remember when they put warning labels on rap music

you wouldnt believe this big wooden horse, oh it’s so beautiful you wouldnt believe and theyre saying “mr trump youll never get that horse in.” look at em back there. the fake news. but we’re gonna bring in that horse folks and we’ll say “thank you, bye bye” but they don’t think we can get it in

Fragile US airspace, not just NY Guardia crash. 2 weeks ago unidentified drones breach jamming & defences over Barksdale, Louis. B52, nuclear base. "Flights lasted *4 hrs a day* and drones used varied routes of ingress & maneuvering in restricted airspace." abcnews.com/Internationa...

Paris has elected a new Mayor that's promised to accelerate the conversion of the city to micromobility and ped first. It's clear to everyone why this guy won, right?