Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Monday, March 30, 2026
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Artist says he's the man for Paul Henry role - 2010
Artist says he's the man for Paul Henry role
By MICHAEL FOX
The artist advocating unemployment is using his newfound notoriety to plump for axed Breakfast host Paul Henry's job.
Wellington beneficiary Tao Wells, 37, sparked controversy – and a heated reaction from Dominion Post readers – when it was revealed he was setting up a taxpayer-funded "beneficiaries' office" to promote the virtues of being unemployed.
Creative NZ provided a $3,500 grant for the Manners St office, which is open to the public for at least two weeks from today as part of the Letting Space public art series. The Beneficiary's Office urges people to forsake jobs they don't like rather than endure eight hours of "slavery".
Wells' benefit has since been suspended as Work and Income investigates him for receiving income above the maximum allowable as a result of the grants – something that he denies. He said it was an "absolute lie" to suggest he benefited personally from the Creative NZ funding, as it all went to the Wells Group, of which he is the director. He admitted the funding let him and five colleagues work on the exhibition.
Wells said the anger prompted by his argument was a response to the issues he raised, not an attack on him. "The anger is very real and it's not about me. It's about feeling ripped off – we are collectively being ripped off."
He disagreed that beneficiaries were getting paid for "doing nothing". "Everyone who is alive works to live. Now what is that work? Is it just purely financial? It can't be – we all rip off our jobs, we all participate in other things that we're not supposed to at work.
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"If we didn't, society in itself would collapse. If we didn't notice our neighbour, if we didn't say hello, if we didn't do the extra things – I feel ridiculous even having to make those points but this is the state of things."
He was not advocating for people living off the state but "living for the state". However, he did not have any ideas on how this would be achieved, admitting "we're making this up as we go".
When asked what he'd learnt from the experience, he said: "That I want Paul Henry's job. I'm outspoken, I'm not afraid to speak my mind, not politically correct – and if all those people thought that that was important about Paul Henry, then they should feel the same way about me. And I am unemployed."
An earlier version of this story said the Beneficiaries Office art programme, Letting Space, received $40,000 from Creative New Zealand. In fact, it was only given a total of $3,500.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4242452/Artist-says-hes-the-man-for-Paul-Henry-role
Saturday, March 28, 2026
Midnight Oil - Dreamworld
The Breakfast Creek Hotel is up for sale
The last square mile of terra firma
gaveled in the mail
So farewell to the Norfolk Island pines
No amount of make believe
can help this heart of mine
End
your dreamworld is just about to end
end
Fall
your dreamworld is just about to fall
fall
Your dreamworld will fall
So shut that buckle and turn that key again
Take me to a place they say
the dreaming never ends
Open wide
drive that mystery road
Walk through Eden's garden
and then plunder as you go
End
your dreamworld is just about to end
end
Fall
your dreamworld is just about to fall
fall
Your dreamworld is just about to fall
Sign says honeymoon to rent
Cloudland into dreamland turns
The sun comes up and we all learn
Those wheels must turn
End
your dreamworld is just about to end
end
Fall
your dreamworld is just about to fall
fall
end
Your dreamworld is just about to end
fall, fall, fall, fall
your dreamworld is just about to fall
Thursday, March 26, 2026
new investigation revealing how billionaire Leslie Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein built a corporate welfare state in Ohio, creating a model of "public-private partnerships" that privatized government, funneled billions in taxpayer money to big tech data centers, and is now driving up electricity bills while gutting public schools and healthcare. Webb details how Wexner created a de facto private government in his hometown of New Albany, Ohio, which evolved into Jobs Ohio—a private corporation that controls the state's liquor tax revenue with zero public accountability—and has become the blueprint for a techno-feudal state promoted by the "dark enlightenment" figures like Peter Thiel and JD Vance. She warns that Ohio is a petri dish for a nationwide takeover, where data centers are replacing public infrastructure, digital IDs are mandatory, and federal legislation is stripping local governments of the power to resist. Webb also dissects the coordinated effort by Compact Magazine, Peter Thiel, and Soros-funded outlets to dismiss the Epstein scandal, and raises concerns about Joe Kent's emergence as a potential controlled opposition figure designed to manufacture a "domestic terrorist" profile the government can later use against anti-war populists."
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
I'm reaching out to me hero's, well one in particular, I dried direct message, but I don't think he uses it, I know how to contact him if I really want to, but I haven't felt like going directly to that, I'm trying to invent and enjoy the creation of a meeting. I am such a fan already, I'm satisfied. But this time, I've tried contact him through his fiance, on her comments page. Just my right mix of hopelessness and ambition based in recognized yet repressed actual community
Monday, March 23, 2026
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Monday, March 16, 2026
Saturday, March 14, 2026
The Smiths - This Night Has Opened My Eyes
In a river the color of lead
Immerse the baby's head
Wrap her up in the News Of The World
Dump her on a doorstep, girl
This night has opened my eyes
And I will never sleep again
You kicked and cried like a bullied child
A grown man of twenty-five
Oh, he said he'd cure your ills
But he didn't and he never will
Oh, save your life
Because you've only got one
The dream has gone
But the baby is real
Oh, you did a good thing
She could have been a poet
Or, she could have been a fool
Oh, you did a bad thing
And I'm not happy
And I'm not sad
A shoeless child on a swing
Reminds you of your own again
She took away your troubles
Oh, but then again
She left pain
Oh, please save your life
Because you've only got one
The dream has gone
But the baby is real
Oh, you did a good thing
She could have been a poet
Or, she could have been a fool
Oh, you did a bad thing
And I'm not happy
And I'm not sad
Oh oh
Oh
Oh la la
And I'm not happy
And I'm not sad
Oh oh
Oh
Oh la la
And I'm not happy
And I'm not sad
Tracey Tawhiao "(Jacinda Ardern) The “do gooder” she identifies with is clear in her book but the shadow side of that identity remains completely ignored. Unfortunately for her it was revealed to many others in her reign."
Reflections on Jesse Mulligan’s Interview with Jacinda Ardern on her autobiography.
World leaders say something has shifted in people over the last five years. There is talk of rising anger, radical activism, and distrust.
What is missing from that conversation is the obvious question: what happened in those five years that might explain the shift?
Covid dominated Jacinda Ardern’s time as Prime Minister. New Zealand adopted one of the most tightly controlled responses in the world — lockdowns, border closures, and vaccine mandates that affected people’s ability to work, travel, and participate in public life.
Supporters saw these measures as decisive leadership during a crisis. Critics saw something else: the state exerting unprecedented power over everyday life.
That divide has never really been acknowledged in full — let alone understood.
In the interview Jacinda says the anger directed toward her is not part of her everyday experience. That may be true from where she now sits — in international institutions and universities. But distance changes perspective. Many people who lived through that period remember it painfully, and differently. And now her move to Australia leaves some feeling that New Zealand is no longer her place.
Some ministers have suggested that misogyny explains the level of opposition she faced. Misogyny certainly exists in politics, but reducing public criticism to that single explanation risks ignoring legitimate grievances — and the many women who were also in opposition.
In a democracy, leaders become the focal point of both praise and anger. They govern the economy, public health decisions, and the use of taxpayer money. When people feel those decisions have harmed them, they respond. That is the real world.
Jacinda frames her leadership as empathy-based — a new kind of political power grounded in kindness and service.
When the conversation turns to Donald Trump, she says it goes without saying that she is not a supporter, with little more to add except that Trump represents a type of leadership that has become endemic in politics — one that draws power from force and prominence.
Jacinda speaks instead about empathy-based leadership and the importance of mentoring and uplifting others.
Yet critics point to a contradiction: where was that empathy for those who said they were harmed by vaccine mandates? Or for those who chose not to vaccinate and lost their jobs and their homes? Those that lost loved ones and couldn’t see them.
These are essential questions.
Critics also point to moments that contradicted that image: the refusal to meet protesters at Parliament, and the perception that people who reported vaccine injuries were dismissed or stigmatised rather than heard and treated. Much of this rested on the idea that vaccination would stop the spread — an assumption that later proved far more complicated.
Over time it became clear that the strongest protection was needed for the elderly and medically vulnerable, while the risk profile for children and healthy adults was very different, both for Covid and for the vaccine.
Hindsight is great, but foresight is better.
Which raises the question still sitting underneath all of this:
Where is the line between “collective protection” and individual autonomy?
The interview does not ask that question. Instead Jacinda touches on her upbringing in the Mormon church and how it shaped her sense of service. She now describes herself as agnostic, leaning more on family and friends than formal faith in God during Covid.
Yet some habits of that upbringing remain — even small ones, like the Mormon tradition of keeping months of food stored in the home. And perhaps bigger ones we come to see later, like fear distortion.
Like all institutions, faith communities contain both ideals and contradictions. Stories of paedophilia and institutional protection within the church remind us that moral authority is always more complicated than public narratives suggest.
Maia’s experience is one example — speaking up as a teenager about paedophilia within the church and finding herself ostracised from both the church and her family for telling the truth. Lies were protected.
In those moments she said:
“God was not in the room with those men. They believed they were God.”
It shows how easily the language of service and doing good for others can slide into destructive authority over them — something societies wrestle with and are uncovering everywhere.
Jacinda also recounts a childhood memory of seeing a homeless child in Murupara — a moment she says shaped her commitment to children’s wellbeing. Critics sometimes view these kinds of stories as political narrative-building, but she insists the memory is genuine and central to her story.
What becomes clear through the interview is how leadership stories are constructed. Certain experiences are highlighted; others fade into the background. What is included forms the narrative.
What is left on the edit floor will tell a different story.
The interview eventually drifts into lighter territory — the cry-laugh emoji, fan moments over Lorde, admiration for Michelle Obama, and anecdotes about Grant Robertson and hangover sausage rolls. The handing over the reins to Winston while she stepped away to have her daughter.
It all feels friendly and humanising, the kind of details that round out a public figure. But interviews often move this way. Personality softens politics. Charm fills the space where harder questions might otherwise sit.
Because the anger that emerged during the Covid years did not come from nowhere. It is deeply felt. It came directly from lived experience — economic strain, social division, and censorship.
Understanding that anger requires more than identifying it. It requires examining the conditions that produced it — and doing so with full awareness.
Jacinda believes she represents a new model of leadership: empathy over force, service over authority.
Yet declaring the government the “single source of truth,” and later mandating vaccines to fulfil their goal of total elimination — “zero Covid” — sent another message entirely:
force over empathy and authority over service.
Whether in religion, politics, or social movements, many thinkers argue the healthiest systems maintain three safeguards:
Transparency.
Accountability.
Freedom to question.
Without those, any system — sacred or secular — can and does drift toward control rather than guidance.
This must be examined if we are to build a stronger future.
You will not find that examination in her book. Instead, the book — like the interview — leaves me with more questions, not fewer. The “do gooder” she identifies with is clear in her book but the shadow side of that identity remains completely ignored. Unfortunately for her it was revealed to many others in her reign.
Full interview: Former NZ PM Dame Jacinda Ardern on her life in and out of politics | RNZ
Friday, March 13, 2026
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Monday, March 9, 2026
Sunday, March 8, 2026
Saturday, March 7, 2026
Friday, March 6, 2026
Thursday, March 5, 2026
" ... if I cut off oil and these countries no longer have access to US dollars, they're forced to spend whatever resources they have on protecting themselves. And then guess what happens? The stock market collapses. The stock collapses. The stock market is the real growth engine of the US economy. The entire US economy collapses with it." - America Started a War They Can't Win | Prof Jiang Explains
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Monday, March 2, 2026
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