u/Mountain_Tui_Reload

Hey folks,

Just a notation I've had for quite a while in my head, but thought I should write it out quickly:

As National flounder at 23% approval, and they have nothing to offer, expect dirty politics of the other sort:

Infiltration

It goes like this: "Why won't Labour do anything?!" "Why doesn't Labour fix generations in a day?" "Why doesn't Labour promise the world so we can attack them" "Why won't Hipkins release policy (which is what the right have been begging for for the last year despite Hipkins explaining)?"

Now the trick with infiltration is that lefties will and can already feel these things. We will be frustrated, angry even or just disappointed and sad. Maybe a combination of all.

And it's very fair to feel whatever we feel

BUT the difference is bad faith or not - right wing accounts and Taxpayer Union astroturfers etc can and will use tactics like "Why won't Labour do everything we've seen Mandami use" (as an example) because they know this is gold for their own electoral voters who are being told and taught Labour are bad at the economy (not true by any objective measure but the press won't tell you that), Labour are going to cause us to go bankrupt (no), Labour are fiscally irresposible (history says nope), Labour spent too much during Covid and that money is missing (not true) etc

So again - the thing is many of our centre to left already feel frustrated and it will be very easy to manipulate this sentiment - so watch out for it

And no I am not saying anyone who says it is is bad faith - not at all - I understand why but also just watch out for this type of dirty politics

Electorally the election is on a knife's edge. Although Labour are at least 8 points ahead of National, this election is now going to win or lose on the minor parties.

Greens and TPM are static. The TPM split & combustion was dumb - thanks egos. Both need new voters - and from the centre or right which is unlikely.

NZ First continue to rouse MAGA energy and they will use racism to propel themselves in the vein of populist parties in UK/Australia. ACT have big money behiind them, ditto National, they haven't used their full firepower and astroturfing yet.

Corporate media will always be pro National and ACT - it's in their model which is reliant on business advertising and big money. We saw that in Toaster Gate & Jenna Lynch's handling of Tamatha Paul previously, as well as how much The Post uses Taxpayers Union quotes as headlines.

Labour and Greens and TPM are on socials all the time and weekly on RNZ, regularly on NZME etc so if you want to help boost visibility, post it for them - don't just complain

Finally the voter suppression laws will immediately earn the right 2-4 extra seats - something Chris Bishop has openly admitted.

So it's going to be a really really hard battle folks. Don't be complacent and complain all we want (that's what Reddit is for 😄) but just keep that in mind too if you would

Cheers,

Tui

PS Remember Q&A tomorrow with TOP leadership is on here at 7pm

The lawyer of a New Zealander held by the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) believes she was transferred from the state of California to Arizona because the state takes a harsher view of federal immigration law.

Everlee Wihongi was detained by ICE when re-entering the US on a Green Card a month ago, following a family holiday in New Zealand.

Wihongi was originally detained and held in Los Angeles, but was transferred to a different facility in the Republican-voting state Arizona.

Lawyer Marc Christopher told RNZ he had been scheduled to talk to her on Saturday afternoon (local time), but had not been notified that she was transferred the night before.

"When I logged in to speak with her, I had nothing but an empty chair there in front of me."

Christopher said he never used to see transfers like this, but under the Trump administration, it was happening frequently.

He said it seemed the government was intentionally transferring detained immigrants to states with courts that would interpret federal law in a way that was less favourable to immigrants.

He pointed out the government was heavily investing in detention facilities in southern Rebublican-voting states, such as "Alligator Alcatraz".

Transferring clients also made it incredibly challenging for him to communicate with them, including Wihongi, he said.

"I can't meet with them hardly in person, and the ability to have a Zoom call with them is very limited. I'm normally limited to 20 minutes at a time, and it takes a couple of days to set up an appointment."

Christopher said he was confident Wihongi had been charged at her first appearance before a judge on 28 April, but those charges had not been communicated to her.

"They have made allegations against her as far as conduct ... but they have not pointed to the law, the United States law, that makes her removable."

The conduct allegation that has led to Wihongi's detention relates to a decade-old conviction for a felony offence of marijuana possession.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters previously claimed she was detained because she had lied about that offence.

But Christopher said she had been detained simply because she had been convicted of that offence - not because she had lied about anything.

That was because of a nuance in US law that meant the previous conviction did not require her deportation, but it would prevent her from re-entering the country, should she leave, he said.

"Let's say Everlee had remained in the United States and had applied for her citizenship, she would have been able to get her citizenship and then travel in and out of the country, but because she travelled out with a controlled substance violation before she got her citizenship, she's prohibited from coming back in."

Dubious term used here - so it's a 3rd party company's staff/contractor

Not a Labour staffer at all

What is Jenna Lynch trying to do with this piece?