This is the News!

[JayzusB.Christ]

As sure as night follows day...

https://www.thejournal.ie/hundreds-arrested-brazil-congress-stormed-bolsonaro-5964056-Jan2023/

[Angry Vince]

Amid plummeting popularity and upcoming election that was starting to look unwinnable, NZ's Prime Minister resigns.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/election-date-or-reshuffle-pm-jacinda-ardern-to-make-first-announcement-of-election-year/K5N4VW477RF2JB3CGAZBXSNBBU/

[IndigoPrime]

It's really depressing to see New Zealand also fall headlong into populism. Looks like its next govt will essentially be the equivalent of the Tories in coalition with something akin to the current iteration of the Tories or Reform UK. "Vote for these magic beans" wins again.

[Angry Vince]

I'd hardly call this 'falling headlong into populism' - Jacinda Ardern rode her party to power on the basis of 'Jacindamania' and had a doting press for the first three years of her government. With that popularity (I'll admit, justifiably earned on the basis of her handling of the Christchurch massacre, the White Island eruption and the first wave of Covid), her party achieved a majority government for the first time since the start of MMP nearly three decades ago.

Her preferred PM rating has been in the 40's and 50's up until about a year ago when the mania started wearing off and people have noticed that the Labour party failed to deliver on any of their policies (e.g. out of the 10,000 affordable homes they were building, only 500 have been made in 5 years. Inflation, unemployment, homelessness and crime are all up) and been beholden to fringe sections of her party. Her popularity is now in the 30's.

On the other side, Chris Luxon (leader of the National Party), has never had more than 20% of the preferred PM rating. He is seen by National voters as a competent manager, but a bit of a nobody. And after Jacinda Ardern and John Key before her, he certainly lacks a lot of charisma. Most people here are voting National to get the party in, but would prefer almost anyone else to be PM.

if anything, we are departing from populism and returning to party politics!  :-D

[wedgeski]

Given the abuse she's apparently been subjected to, I'm amazed she lasted this long.

[sheridan]

Her preferred PM rating has been in the 40's and 50's up until about a year ago when the mania started wearing off and people have noticed that the Labour party failed to deliver on any of their policies (e.g. out of the 10,000 affordable homes they were building, only 500 have been made in 5 years.

Wow!  Oh for such figures!  Remember when that conservative government minister said they didn't have any figures to hand on the amount of homes they'd built out of their promised 300,000?  The person asking the questions pointed out that 'zero' wasn't a terribly difficult number to remember.

[sheridan]

I said 'minister' - the one in particular?  Liz Truss! From zero to zero.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Another black man murdered by cops in the US, it seems. I'll never move to America.

[JohnW]

I'll never move to America.

400 million privately held firearms and 74 million people who thought a second term of Trump was a good idea. Not attractive numbers, by any means.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

Another black man murdered by cops in the US, it seems. I'll never move to America.

There are FAR more reasons than that to never move to America. I would never even VISIT the place.

On a lighter note.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-64353190

[JayzusB.Christ]

Another black man murdered by cops in the US, it seems. I'll never move to America.

There are FAR more reasons than that to never move to America. I would never even VISIT the place.

On a lighter note.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-64353190

I remember something very similar to this happening in one of the Dirk Gently books. It turned out to be some kind of extra-dimensional anomaly or something and there was literally no way to get the sofa anywhere.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

That isn't the first time someone referenced the Dirk Gently co incidence....

[JohnW]

A comment in The Guardian:

I thought I read earlier that our Brexit benefits will be visible for a brief period tomorrow night, after the moon has set, but you will probably need binoculars to see them, and it will be the last time they will be visible in our lifetimes.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Roger Waters addressed the UN today, on behalf of Russia against Ukraine.

I imagine it was an unironic version of this:

[wedgeski]

Roger Waters addressed the UN today, on behalf of Russia against Ukraine.

From his swedish mountaintop hideout. As pure a WTF moment as we have ever achieved.