Carnage. American Carnage, to be specific. That’s what DJ Rump announced eight years ago to the day, and what he will deliver in buckets over the next four years. It’s deja vu all over again.
I know, I know, this blog is meant to be about Wellington and Urban Design and Architecture, and yet here I am talking about the orange Rumplestiltskin and his infantile, egotistical, narsisistic ravings once again. I’ll try not to, I promise, but it is hard to look away from a car crash in progress. Even harder to watch a helicopter and a jet plane crash in mid-air, which is what I think will happen under this second reich of the Furyer. Will America even exist at the end of this next four years? Will it have split in two? Or maybe even three parts? An East Coast collection of states to one side, California on the other side, and then a vast swathe of low-IQ idiot bible-banging states making up the Rump supporters in the middle?
Will Rump really declare war on Panama, annex Greenland for their oil and minerals, and casually invade Canada, abandon Ukraine to the Russians, order all those pesky Palistinians out of Gaza and tell the Israeli settlers to grab it for themselves? How much of it is lies, and how much is just more bluster? Does anything even matter any more seeing as we know he lies all the time? Is he lying now? Of course, you betcha he is! But which bits are lies? All of it? Or just every second word? As I write this, he is apparently making his swearing-in speech, and he has just said this: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” Well, that will simplify matters on the census form, and be a great relief to all those Trans and Intersex people out there. There will no longer be various shades of grey, from now on, there will only be black, or white. And certainly no rainbows.
But there will be tariffs, and Aotearoa will not be spared. That bullshit he spewed about how Hollywood is going to be great again? That’s a direct barbed attack on our industry in Wellywood and Auckwood, as he clearly is not a fan of Weta’s encroachments onto Industrial Light and Magic’s turf. Tariffs! More Tariffs!! Actually, I like the way that Rump is too stupid to understand how tariffs work, where he think that the offending nation pays a tax to the USA. Nope, dope, it is the people of the USA that end up paying.

He wants to stop the rising sales of EVs worldwide, but especially in ‘Murica, despite the ICE already being a sunset industry. Will we see a world in which EV technology will rule in Europe and Asia, while just the USA remains with black smokers in tractor-pulling contests and an endless supply of pick-up trucks? And which direction will NZ follow? I know which one I would like NZ to follow – but who knows what will happen. Will Elon influence Rump to eventually understand that the infernal combustion engine is dead? That Tesla rules for a reason, and that reason is electric? Currently, it seems not…:
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth. And we are going to use it. Let me use it. We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.”
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it with my actions. Today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers. In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”
“We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. And thank you to the auto workers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. We did tremendously with their vote. I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”
“For this purpose, we are establishing the external revenue service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources. The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before to restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand new department of government efficiency.”
Well, there goes a liveable planet. Only one we have, buggered for all time.

But enough of this. I’ll try and stay focused on Wellington and its Architecture, for one more year. Welcome back, to 2025.
You should join Gordon Campbell as another esteemed commentator on politics … I’ve always agreed with Gordon, and I certainly agree with what you’ve written today.
Ha ! I don’t know about “esteemed” – I certainly have no qualifications or experience in politics (but hey, neither does Rump, and look where it got him!!) and find it all rather repulsive. Rump is certainly a dictator, or plans to be one, and sometimes a benign dictatorship can work out OK, but he is certainly not going to be a benign dictator, but an active one. Look at the actions he has done / will done / has stated he will action:
• Ignoring the Rule of Law
• Lying and cheating about elections
• Lying continually, about everything
• Just making shit up and pretending that it had already happened
• Serial sexual misbehaviour
• Rape and bullying
• Never paying his bills
• Sending people to Death Row
• Freeing the rioters who ransacked the Capitol
• Lying about the rioters and saying that they were good people
• Forcibly separating mothers and children at the border
• Exporting immigrants back to other countries – mind you, also being done in OZ and UK
• Building a bloody big wall that fails dismally at keeping people out
• Putting puppets and muppets in place as heads of departments and ministries
• Claiming other people’s work as his own
• Putting his silly name on all sorts of things – buildings, planes, steaks, tacky trinkets
• Installing family members as heads of things they have no place being involved in
• Possibly ending voting and starting a family dynasty of Trump family only – watch this space
• Requiring people to swear allegiance to him as some Uber-Fuhrer banana republic leader
• Staging pretend assassinations to raise public support – all “assassins” were registered Republicans…
• Annexing other countries – Panama, Greenland, Canada
• Destroying wildlife via many means
• Destroying the earth, generally
• Having a tiny penis
I mean, really, the guy is a walking disaster. Good luck America ! Nice knowing ya !
“Well, there goes a liveable planet”
I think you are being overly pessimistic, Total US emissions have been falling since 2005 and are now 16% below that peak, – (and during that time US GDP has gone from 13 T to 30 Trillion.. and the population increased by 50 million from 295 to 250 million… they even fell over the last Trump – This has been driven by fracking creating boatloads of Natural Gas, which is pushing coal out of the US power grid, (coal use has more that halved in the last 20 years)
Gas will continue to displace coal over the next 4 years and US emissions will continue to fall because of this, – yes this will mean that gas will need to eventually be replaced by renewable,- but its not doom and gloom,
Coal use in India is still booming, and showing no signs of stopping,
https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/india-now-consumes-more-coal-than-europe-and-north-america-combined
Boosting LNG production could help displace Indian Coal use, which would be a Major win,,,
Indian emissions have basically doubled since 2005,
The Future of the climate isn’t in the hands of the US, China+ India are over 1/3 of 2022 emissions- the US is just over 10%. Its estimated that China peaked last year-so the best thing we can do is find ways to the slow/lower Indian emissions…. ( basically coal burning)
https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/report_2023
Even his script-writers lie !!!
“Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness, they crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the wild west, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand.”
There’s no way that Rump wrote that – he could barely even say the words! Oh Lordy, another 4 years of this shit, till Ivanka gets made President or Queen or Prize Pumpkin.
So out of idle curiosity, what was so wrong with Harris to make voting for Trump look like a good idea?
Ummm, she was a black woman, and there’s still a shit load of racists in the USA that find that idea abhorrent. And apparently she laughs too much. Plus, she didn’t lie incessantly like Rump does, and so his followers only listened to him, not her, so it’s sort of inevitable really.
I think that about covers it.
After all, they didn’t really talk about policy at all, or how they would do the things they said they would do.
Like: Executive Order number One.
Exactly HOW do you put a million people on a plane to another country when they arrived without any papers or ID ? Most of the people arriving via Mexico started off somewhere else.
Well the US managed to deport about two and a half million on President Obama’s watch, so I guess it’s just a matter of scaling up a bit.
Interesting ! You don’t hear either the Democrats or the Republicans talk about that statistic very much ! I thought that I would run the numbers – so, 2.5million works out at about 1712 people deported per day, which equals 5 or 6 airliners full at 300 people each, every day, for every single day in Obama’s rule. I’m sure that someone would have have noticed that during his 4 years – so, while I’m not saying you’re wrong, I really think those numbers may be incorrect.
But it still goes to reinforce my question: how do you export a million people on day one, as Rump intimated – but more importantly – how do you do this when they have no ID? If Mexico lets people from Guatemala through to the USA – and then they destroy their passports – its going to be pretty difficult to make Mexico take them back.
Similar problem happening in Europe of course. In summer, thousands of people a day coming from war-torn regions of Africa (Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Mali, Congo, etc – ie much of it), arrive in Italy and pass on through to France and then to England – last report I saw said that the UK had 900,000 illegal entrants arrive last year. That’s unsustainable, both for the UK, and Italy, but also for Africa. It destroys the countries that are losing people as much as it destroys the country that are gaining them. Much like our brain drain from here to Oz, but in massively larger scale.
Air Traffic Control is kept pretty busy, and has been for a long time.
Herewith a link to US deportations (removals and returns – they are different) by year since 1892.
https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook/2019/table39
Happy counting!
“Trump administration plans to reimpose rule allowing immediate expulsion of migrants
Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser to Donald Trump and an architect of his hardline immigration policies, said the administration is looking for a way to reimpose a federal rule allowing for the immediate expulsion of border crossers, even if they are seeking asylum.”
Stephen Miller really is a nasty piece of work. HORRIBLE MAN. And def not an Architect.
I’m no Trump fan and have even have less time for the GoP, but I am going to play devil’s advocate here, at least on immigration.
I don’t think its an unreasonable position for any country to decide who does and does not come into its country to live, to say “if you came here illegally, you are going back”. If anything, it respects those who followed due process.
Pretty much agree KLK.
It is a countries sovereign right to determine who can and can’t come into their country.
If the US could do anything positive, it could help those countries where the immigrants are coming from, to better their circumstances and make staying in in their own country a nicer prospect.
(I mean they used to do that, in a roundabout way, by trying to break the power that gangs/dictators had in Central/South America. But we’ve all seen how well that worked out.)
Absolutely agree with both of you – and we sit here in the privileged situation of having 1600km of sea between us and our nearest neighbours. We are incredibly lucky in that respect. Europe and America are bedeviled by their problem. Poorer nations (African and South American) are effectively dissolving in chaos as their economies collapse. Climate driven economic hardship drives people towards places with more prosperity and so if they don’t want to stay and work in a mine digging up cobalt and lithium for the wealthy nations to purchase at bargain basement prices, then their only choice really is to emigrate out of there.
Nemo, beware TDS Trump Derangement Syndrome
Firstly try ignoring most of what he says
There is a gunfighting rule- “Watch the hands” which essentially says ignore the bullshit and focus on what people actually do
Please keep in mind that The Orange One comes from Wrestling and is a generator of Kayfabe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe
Also note he has two years then midterms happen and because of term limits he’s a dead duck
The President’s power to actually do things is slightly more curtailed than is generally recognised and I believe that a lot of leftwing media reaction to Tramp is a bit more pearl-clutching hyperventilation than the situation actually calls for
Yes he lies like a rug and I personally wouldn’t cross the street to piss on him if he was on fire but I think that he was/is right to serve notice to GER/FRA/ITA that if they want to defend Europe from Putin’s expansion in UKR then they need to stump up some money and increase their defence budgets and pull finger
Nemo try to ignore what the permatanned shyster says because it’s predominantly bollocks but by all means take him to task for what he does and yes he should have been impeached for his treasonous insurrection support on Jan 6th but as my Primer 2 teacher told me back when I was 6 – “Life isn’t fair”
Netanyahu is as guilty too and yet he’s also not in jail
Cheer up – there is a theory about that this promotion of nationalistic insularity will enhance supply chain robustness which will probably save lives come the next wave of birdflu so there’s that possibility to look forward to
It’s all just kayfabe
Fantastic !! Thanks 60. I had no idea. Not much of a wrestling fan at all, so to me it has always just been bullshit, rather than kayfabe suspended disbelief. Middle America being hard core wrestling fans, perhaps they all get it and know that he is just puff and buffoonery? Am I the only person who did not know?
Hey I only heard about it from Eric Weinstein who is a hell of a smart guy so credit to him-I know sod all about wrestling
I’m going to guess that the words “vibe shift” will be word of the year for 2025 – Nate Silver who is famous for having picked previous US elections has a long article on how the US political landscape waxes and wanes if you want a slow Sunday morning read over coffee
https://www.natesilver.net/p/are-we-entering-a-conservative-golden
Really if one person is responsible for this whole screw-up I’m afraid it’s Jill Biden telling her husband that he is still the man – Kamala only lost by bugger all and she got too little time to prep
I don’t think that Kamala or Trump are truly the best two representatives that the US has to offer but before I cast the first stone I note that NZ has a bland corporate drone who famously referred to voters as customers
To paraphrase some well known rugby sledging – “You’re a shit John Key”
Personally I think Nicola Willis would be a better leader for National
I’m also hoping that the current govt has the Reserve Bank on some sort of leash because the artificially induced recession that Adrian “Orr-what” has performed just took out over 100 k worth of spending that was going into the local economy from this household from me and the other half
I used to contribute $34000 in tax p/a and off the top of my head that will drop to about $5k this year so yup, way to go, Adrian
Really sorry to hear that 60, its a damn shame that you and/or your partner are not out working – and as you say, contributing to the tax pool. Don’t retire yet !
I’d quite like to get those tech-bros at Rump’s inaugeration to pay their fair dose of tax. The amount of dosh they have squirrelled away is extraordinary – and getting bigger every day.
British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
by Nate White
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.”
and so it goes. For the full article, have a read of this:
https://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read
Thoroughly reasonable article – it puts me in mind of the summary attempted a while back of Sarah Palin’s character – “She is a Youtube comment come to life”
Oh god, I remember her – and I remember when we thought that America could not get worse than Sarah Palin or Dan Quayle. What absolute pillars of truth and wisdom they are when compared to the buffoon that is there now…
Latest minor misdemeanour from Rump – he has completely stolen the Davies family crest, and now calls it the Trump family crest (obviously, not being English landed gentry, but instead descended from a testicle of a Polish con-artist, there is NO Trump family crest). It seems that there was a crest found on site at Mar el Lago (which he also does not own, by the way), and so Rump just adopted it as his own, making one small change. He removed the motto INTEGRITAS and replaced it with TRUMP. He literally has no Integrity, and no Shame.
IT’S NOT EVEN HIS FAMILY’S REAL NAME!! :O
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/video/2016/mar/02/john-oliver-targets-trump-with-make-donald-drumpf-again-campaign-video
And now he proposes to annex Gaza and turn it into a real estate feast.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360576382/trump-says-no-right-return-palestinians-gaza-under-his-plan-us-ownership
Similarities with Hitler annexing Poland are purely coincidental.
Time for someone to get the hit squads out to rid the world of this horrible orange toad.