Welcome back – yes, I’ve been away, but now I’m back and so welcome back to the readers – if anyone returns with me. There are so many big stories to write about – but so few really attached to stories of Wellington. For instance, the biggest story of the year – decade – century really, is of course the hilarious battle of Dickheads going on right now.
No, not Seymour vs Peters, nor Luxon vs both of them – but of course the battle between Musk and Rusk. The formerly wealthiest man in the world vs the head of the formerly United states – now the biggest collection of fuck-ups in the universe, the president of a banana republic vs the man who has lost the most money in the history of the world.
I’m a helluva amused by just how stupid Musk can be – having bought Twitter for $40billion and tanking that, wasting most of the $40B – now is destroying the value of Tesla, formerly the world’s coolest car and now virtually worthless, as no-one will ever want to buy one again, so the company value keeps heading south, and now with his latest salvo against the Resident RumpSteak, alleging (quite correctly) that Rump is implicated in under-age sexual abuse along with Epstein, he looks set to lose his third big company down the gurgler too.
SpaceX currently has giant Nasa-funded government contracts that are fast eroding before our eyes. Could he lose it all? Sure thing! He is surely going about it the right way! From Hero to Zero. World’s biggest destruction of theoretical money. Close call between Rump’s losing money even while running a Casino. Perhaps that should be ruining a Casino. He’s the most hopeless, dumbass, pretend property developer in the history of the planet – but gets a Masters degree in pure bullshit.
Musk, on the other hand, is just a classic 14 year old ADHD boy wrapped up in the body of a pretend Adult, given control of far too much power and money. 14 year old boys like things like BMX bikes, Electric super-cars with a button labelled “insane” or “ludicrous”, Rocket-ships to Mars, and fart jokes. Plus, having sex with girls and boobs and stuff! Real grown up stuff, despite not being grown up at all. Simply put, too much money, now being all taken away from him.
All of which makes Wellington’s bureaucracy seem like a streamlined model of efficiency by comparison, a well-oiled machine of careful management and excellent planning. And so Tory Whanau comes out smelling of freshmint and cologne and not at all like the gelignite and rotting banana skins that the former USA smells like. Sure, there is a noise and a smell from people around the edges, who loudly protest about “I don’t want to spend money on a cycle way!” or also “Don’t spend my rates on the Golden Mile” – just “keep spending on drains and roads”.
However, I am intrigued to read and watch on the Herald today, that the Wellington Old Town Hall job is now moved on from being a never-ending disaster scenario and is now going well and is due to open early next year, apparently. Although I’m sure that we have not head the last of the outrageous final cost of the project – the trouble of signing off on a project that is being billed on a “no fixed price” basis. Hold onto your breath for when we eventually hear the final final cost…. There is a video on the Herald showing Minister Goldsmith, having a tour of the Wellington old Town Hall, and having a great time. Goldsmith announces that Government will give an additional $2mill, to go towards the Music School that is hidden in the building – in the basement, apparently.
Did you know about a Music School at the Old Town Hall ? In the basement? Below the floor of the Auditorium? So, no longer in a separate building in the carpark of the MFC, not on Illot Green, but in the basement, down with the base isolators and effectively underwater? Sure, so there is a recording studio down there, “for the Symphony” nominally, but apparently also some practice rooms for people who don’t mind being sub-aquatic. Sorry – it has been renamed. Not a Victoria University Music School – now it is a National Music Centre.
Secret Underwater Command Centres used to be the work of organisations like International Rescue or SMERSCH or Evil Baddies UNlimited – now, it could be the NZSO or VUW or MUSKOX. Oh how the mighty have fallen…
Great comment on the Guardian website, in a column by Arwa Mahdawi today:
“It’s worth noting that Musk, a man who reportedly foists his sperm on every woman of a certain age that he meets, has a well-documented history of calling other people sex offenders. The self-sabotage probably started when he called the British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth a “pedo guy” in 2018, without any justification, after Unsworth helped rescue 12 boys trapped in a Thai cave. Musk, in case you had forgotten, had made a lot of noise about how he was going to rescue the kids with a very special little submarine. He did not, in fact, rescue any children and Unsworth hurt the billionaire’s feelings when he suggested Musk “stick his submarine where it hurts”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/05/trump-musk-fight-fallout
A comment on http://www.interest.co.nz that peels behind the headline, and finds….nothing much really.
“Every media outlet is reporting it and the subsequent huge dive in the ‘value’ of Tesla stock. -US$152 bln in one day. A great headline, and true. But we should also note that the price TSLA closed at on the Nasdaq US$284.70, is the same it was on May 8, 2025, February 27, 2025, and November 6, 2024. It’s down sharply, but since November 6 it has risen to US$480 at one point, and a US$220 low at another.”