What a progressive government can do

Diary of the last 36 hours

7.15am

The news is full of America’s looming election. People are preparing for it as though a hurricane is bearing down, getting provisions to last for days because who can say what will happen.

The witty Arizona college student I follow for hilarious reflections about being young in the 21st century writes: i absolutely wish we did not have civil war panic in addition to rising covid cases but here we are....living in hell

Watched those assholes in Texas yesterday, their huge asshole flags trailing from their huge asshole pickups; like Isis fighters, just older and more clueless, monstering the Biden/Harris bus.

For a decent stretch of Trump’s presidency you'd say well you might compare this to the Nazis, but are we really seeing anything like that? If it was hard to see then, it's not very hard now. Those assholes are Brownshirts in pickup trucks.

How good to be half a world away from that kind of thinking.

Or not. WTF is this cluelessness on Facebook? Here's an Auckland man who identifies as ACT-curious calling Jack Tame’s reports from the US unbiased and unbalanced and hate Trump reporting.

Near 50% of US citizens who actually live there every day support Trump. I'd like to know why. Come on TVNZ our govt owned TV you can do better than this.

Another right-thinking New Zealander wails:

We are quickly descending into socialism and the tall poppy /envy/ mode is obvious with the capitalist model about to be replaced. Goodbye NZ we knew

Someone who also identifies as not possessing a clue lays down the gauntlet:

The mainstream media has backed itself into a corner now, either cover the hunter Biden scandal and lose the election for their preferred candidate or lose all / any journalistic integrity left.

If websites can have a Captcha to stop you using your password robot, could Facebook have one to filter for cluelessness?

Here are some questions I would propose to put about Trump into a Facebook cluelessness Captcha.

1. Trump asserts at every opportunity that the nation - even as its covid infection numbers hit new records - is rounding the corner. What is the actual meaning of these words?

a. Ignore it because it makes me look bad if you do any thinking about this at all, because my inaction has been criminally negligent.

b. The darkest hour is just before the dawn

c. What’s important is Hunter Biden’s laptop

2. You know, our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid, you know that right? These are actual words said by the President last week. He said them because:

a. He thinks the rest of the world is as venal and corrupt as him

b. He struggles to understand what words mean unless the words are:

Sir, here is a large amount of money for you that I’m going to slip into your pocket

or

what would you like to see now Daddy?

c. He’s onto those doctors, he's got their number. Especially the ones who worship on Saturdays if you know what I mean.

3. Trump lies on an industrial scale. Not just white lies, but substantial assertions about things he claims to have done that he simply has not and that others have done that they simply have not and and these lies number in the tens of thousands.

   This is:

a: A nightmare

b: A record, even for a crook

c. Freedom of speech, bitch. Respect it and don't you touch my guns. Commie

4. Having a serial tax cheat as your president is:

a. Dismaying

b. What you get when Murdoch owns your media

c. Kickass

5. The spectacle of this guy interfering in federal cases to help friends is:

a. Dismaying

b. What you get when Murdoch owns your media

c. Kickass

6. The spectacle of this guy retweeting footage of Brownshirts monstering the bus with his comment I Love Texas! is:

a. Dismaying

b. What you get when Murdoch owns your media

c. Kickass

7. Presented with the news of Kremlin bounties on US troops, he should have:

a. Imposed sanctions

b. Expressed outrage

c. High-fived Putin

8. How does it make you feel to see him high-five Putin?

a. Ill

b. Uneasy

c. I want to join a convoy with my pickup

9. How does it make you feel to see him call for journalists to be imprisoned?

a. Ill

b. Uneasy

c. I start writing down names

10. How does it make you feel to watch him mock a governor facing an assassination plot?

a. Ill

b. Uneasy

c. I want to join a convoy with my pickup

11. Why do you think he called US soldiers losers and suckers?

a. He is a despicable narcissist

b. He is a narcissist

c. Despicable narcissists in the fake news lamestream media made it up

12. How do you feel about him actively encouraging violence?

a. Ill

b. Uneasy

c. I want to give him a ride in my pickup

13. This is a rock. Do you feel how solid it is? If you bang it against your head fifty times what will happen?

a. It will hurt like hell

b. It will hurt a lot

c. I’ll get to join the convoy, motherfucker

If your answers are A or B, you get to proceed. If you’re a C, you are an existential hazard and you should not be permitted to add words to the internet.

9.45am

Reading another news story about what Labour needs to do to win the approval of Business or something like that and my word aren’t there so many of these stories being written at the moment as Business waits for Mike Hosking to overcome his choking sobs?

The sad violin they're all scratching is a familiar tune that goes business knows best now write down these instructions here is what Labour must do.

Actually, it doesn’t have to do anything of the sort. The best thing a government can do is be progressive and ambitious, eager for new ideas. Some of those ideas will fail to fire, some will fail to fire spectacularly and some of those ideas will be so good that they will become the new orthodoxy, and at some point even the reactionaries will come around to saying well yes this was the right thing to do actually I always said it was before they go back to droning give us a tax cut and business needs certainty and you don't know what you're doing how could you, you only worked in a chip shop.

Would I have an example of the way the process works? Sure, let’s tune into The Detail.

10.15am

Listening to The Detail.

According to Geoffrey Palmer, ACC is a mess and needs fixing.

Consider the generous amounts of rehabilitation and compensation you'll get if you suffer an accident and compare it to the care and support you can expect for a debilitating illness. It’s a huge anomaly, says everyone to The Detail, it needs fixing.

It takes me back to a time in the PM’s office, a Monday afternoon post-cabinet briefing. Geoffrey Palmer said ACC is a mess. It needs fixing.

It took me a bit of time to process that because a few years previously at law school I had acquired large admiration for the scheme and the clarity of its conception, from Geoffrey Palmer.

He set the scene for us by describing the tortuous and random process of going after compensation for personal injury, long months and years in the courts that might see you compensated and might not: a lottery. It was a mess and it needed fixing.

He had worked with Sir Owen Woodhouse to design a no-fault compensation scheme whose object was to remove that randomness. Also they had proposed treating sickness the same way. That had been a bridge too far for a government. But ACC had been a great improvement.

But your great idea may still become a mess and need fixing. He writes in his memoir Reform about the near certainty of this: a marvellous idea of such scale will almost certainly need to be tuned, evolved, and adapted as you go along.

You can expect aspects to go awry. It doesn't mean you were mistaken to pursue the idea, just that you weren’t able to anticipate every problem.

And here we are, now, asking questions about it again and here is one of its architects saying: it needs a Royal Commission. And if that Royal Commission should carry us forward to remove the lottery nature of how you get cared depending on whether you are stricken by disease or injury, that would be a very good thing. That would be a progressive government doing its job; adequately supporting people who need care

1.00pm

The nice lady from the cover of Time is her to make one barnburner of an announcement. This is quite the radical remaking of an executive and there’s plenty going on, a whole lot of new blood, and real talent here.

If you want a decent show of remaking and fixing the health system, Andrew Little is a great idea.

Deputy PM Grant Robertson; Foreign Affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta; it makes you think of the freshness the Kirk government took out into the world, an original and authentic voice.

And if you happen to be the guy Michael Wood asked to MC his Auckland transport policy announcement at the 2017 election, and you used that opportunity to plug your Auckland Underwater Travelator while he was standing there, would you feel you might have a little bit of an opening to send a little goodwill note through this newsletter. You bet. Don’t you worry about Daggy Boy.

Hello Minister! The best thing a government can do is be progressive and ambitious and eager for new ideas. Some of those ideas will fail to fire, some will fail to fire spectacularly and some of those ideas will be so good that it will become the new orthodoxy. If you have ten minutes I’d love to talk about an underwater tunnel.