Jacinda Ardern is just like Donald Trump

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 22nd, 2018 - 77 comments
Categories: clickbait, Donald Trump, jacinda ardern, labour, making shit up, Media, national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Over at a media site that shall not be linked to is a writer who is so clearly anti Labour she uses every chance she has to attack.

But she is let down because her reckons are pretty stupid, even on a good day.

Her latest reckon is that Jacinda Ardern and Donald Trump are similar.

Yep.

That is what she said.

I was intrigued by the comparison.  Was it because they were both bipedal mammals with an identical number of arms, legs and internal organs?

No.  Two pieces of evidence were offered.

The first was that they were supposedly anti immigration.  Sure Trump wants to build walls and demonise anyone born overseas but does Ardern want to do the same?  Apart from bringing back historically large immigration flows because Auckland is packing up from the strain well no.

The second piece of evidence is that both Trump and Ardern lead minority governments.  And apparently Ardern also stole the election.

Yep National got 44% and Labour only got 37% therefore the election was stolen, stolen I tell you.

Of course under this writer’s reckons the 13.5% of the population who voted for NZ First and the Greens should be completely ignored.  Their votes do not count.  We do not have a MMP system.  No sir.

This is the sort of basic analysis I would expect from a ten year old.  A not very bright one.

I am not linking to the story because I am convinced the only matrix of success for that site is the number of clicks a story gets and I think it best not to add to that.

But I will link to a beautiful piece of writing by David Slack in the Sunday Star Times.  He wrote about how political labels are dumbing down political debate and doing us all a disservice.  He concluded by saying this:

Why does the labelling happen? Is it because everything comes out in shades of grey and compromise and we think politicians have lied to us and let us down? Are we prepared to accept anything other than crisp and clear-cut and dried black and white?

That kind of stunted thinking leads you sooner or later to Trump, and who can tell where the nuggets end and the piles of monkey waste begin? This week he was railing about immigrants: “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept.”

Breeding. What an unlovely word. Always with the dehumanising labels, this guy.  I wonder what the Trump family would have been doing in the 1940s if they hadn’t left Germany.

And then I see the photo of our Prime Minister in London, radiant in gown and korowai and I think, there it is: humanity. Someone should make a movie about it.

There is a world of difference between Jacinda Ardern and Donald Trump.  To claim they are similar does a disservice to the English language, to political analysis and to reasoning.

77 comments on “Jacinda Ardern is just like Donald Trump ”

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  1. Macro 1
    22 April 2018 at 9:31 am

    Well in each country the citizens wait expectantly. 🙂

  2. Carolyn_Nth 2
    22 April 2018 at 9:32 am

    Thanks, micky. I wonder how long the remnants of the Key government shills can keep on with their misinformation and un-reasoning like HDPA and others are doing?

    I am beginning to think they are living in the past, while new platforms are gaining currency (eg Newsroom, RNZ, Spinoff, etc- hardly radical or particularly left wing, but more informative).

    The likes of the Hosk, etc rose to dominance under Key’s watch. They are clinging on for now, but there are others with better reasoning and evidence-based arguments gaining in kudos.

    Maybe these idiotic comparisons (of Ardern with Trump) are the last gasp of a journalistic style already on the way out in NZ?

    • Hooch 2.1
      22 April 2018 at 10:28 am

      I’d say it was on the way out hopefully. Another article on stuff today carping on about the Russian response but for the first time a lot of the comments seemed to say get over it jacinda has done nz proud over seas.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.2
      22 April 2018 at 11:56 am

      I wonder how long the remnants of the Key government shills can keep on with their misinformation and un-reasoning like HDPA and others are doing?

      Permanently.

      It’s their job to misinform and so they will.

      The likes of the Hosk, etc rose to dominance under Key’s watch.

      Actually, the infotainers started to rise to dominance in the early 1990s as TVNZ was shifted from a government service to a profit making venture.

      Maybe these idiotic comparisons (of Ardern with Trump) are the last gasp of a journalistic style already on the way out in NZ?

      I suspect that may be determined by how much the rich are willing to subsidise the misinformation – as long as government subsidies are stopped.

    • Halfcrown 2.3
      22 April 2018 at 12:42 pm

      “I am beginning to think they are living in the past, while new platforms are gaining currency (eg Newsroom, RNZ, Spinoff, etc- hardly radical or particularly left wing, but more informative).”

      Well said Carolyn agree with you 200% I find Newsroom very informative.

      • Lucy 2.3.1
        23 April 2018 at 9:21 am

        Really you find Newsroom informative? I come from a time where journalists didn’t just accept a story they went out and looked at all parts and laid the resulting story out to make the reader make their mind up

        • Halfcrown 2.3.1.1
          25 April 2018 at 8:29 pm

          “Really you find Newsroom informative? I come from a time where journalists didn’t just accept a story they went out and looked at all parts and laid the resulting story out to make the reader make their mind up”

          Been away so this response is a bit delayed but it JUST screamed out for an answer

          Yeah, When was that then? As I am not exactly a spring chicken myself, and if I recall correctly we had the same shit in the 50’s and 60’s, with the likes of the Daily Fail and the Daily Express reporting exactly in the same style of shit we see today complete with banner headlines of HORROR SHOCK, read all about it etc to attract the gullible and uninformed to buy their crap papers and when you read the article it is nothing. Once again if I recall correctly we were still subject of hack journalism but in those days they did not copy and paste off the likes of Twitter or Whale Oil, though at times one questioned their source of information.

          There was some great investigative journalist and the greatest bit of investigative journalism was Watergate, something I cannot see happening today. Also great columns like Allen Corens piss-take of Big Dadda Idi Amin in Punch (I still mourn the passing of that great magazine) and of course Clive James. Also some great cartoon strips like The Perishers and The Wizard of Id, great cartoon strips that reflected the mood of the time.

          Of the contributors I have seen so far on Newsroom like Bernard Hickey they are first class, you don’t have to agree with them but at least it is better INFORMATIVE journalism than the shit written by political hacks like Duplicity, Hooten, Hoskins (well there’s a problem) O Sullivan and so on etc.

  3. Ad 3
    22 April 2018 at 9:45 am

    Trump doesn’t have the mainstream media with him.

    Ardern is more subtle on digital platforms.

    The Deputies are more similar.

  4. capninsan0 4
    22 April 2018 at 9:52 am

    It’s getting a bit ridiculous isn’t it? It seems that HDPA wants to be the next fucking Ann Coulter. She might consider pissing off to Fox News, they’d love the fact-free rectal masala she calls journalism.

  5. pdm 5
    22 April 2018 at 9:55 am

    Hardly any similarity at all.

    Trump is getting things done and the USA generally is progressing its prosperity.

    Ardern is indecisive and has to form committees (over 70 of them in 6 months) to decide things. They country which was in a strong economic position is slowly sliding in to recession.

    • Anne 5.1
      22 April 2018 at 10:45 am

      Gosh only 70? National beat them again. I read recently the Key govt. got to 75 in the first 6 mths. Labour has got to do better than this. I expect them to reach 80 by the time of the budget. 🙄

    • joe90 5.2
      22 April 2018 at 11:08 am

      (over 70 of them in 6 months)

      *yawn* fact-checking halfwits does get rather tiresome *yawn*.

      /

      Decided someone needed to fact check National on how many working groups, committees and reviews they had set up in their first 6 months. pic.twitter.com/VmmvL2NZkf— Luke Christensen (@lukechristensen) April 19, 2018

      here's the full list here, with links to the beehive press releases. https://t.co/B1ME7W1He4— Luke Christensen (@lukechristensen) April 19, 2018

      https://twitter.com/lukechristensen/status/987111231419891713

      • KJT 5.2.1
        22 April 2018 at 2:25 pm

        Not counting all the over paid “consultants”, often x National incompetents and their cronies, National engaged.

    • Ankerrawshark 5.3
      22 April 2018 at 3:27 pm

      Pam. Almost the same number of Committes that national formed in their first six months in govt

    • UncookedSelachimorpha 5.4
      23 April 2018 at 7:16 am

      And forming this many committees in that period is bad because…..?

      Or is this just an unthinking attack line?

    • patricia bremner 5.5
      23 April 2018 at 9:22 am

      pdm yes such success, rotting hospitals, barely used toll roads, massaged stats, or even no stats, cock up in Christchurch rebuild, Pike families pain, homelessness….

    • left_forward 5.6
      23 April 2018 at 12:50 pm

      A trillion & growing dollar deficit = progressing prosperity.
      How?

    • dukeofurl 5.7
      23 April 2018 at 3:05 pm

      “USA generally is progressing its prosperity.”

      Not so much, the job growth per month is slowing from the numbers that they had over the last 12 months of Obama’s term

  6. Sacha 6
    22 April 2018 at 9:58 am

    “Was it because they were both bipedal mammals with an identical number of arms, legs and internal organs?”

    Yeah nah. One of them is missing a heart.

    • mickysavage 6.1
      22 April 2018 at 10:01 am

      😀

      And arguably a brain …

      • savenz 6.1.1
        22 April 2018 at 2:08 pm

        Both heart and brain being missing are desired attributes though in business and the rise of the free market rich into politics… and the cultivation of the pseudo-modernist consumer.

  7. Ed 7
    22 April 2018 at 10:09 am

    What will duplicity ‘s line be next week?

    Why Jacinda is like Kim Jong-un

    • Incognito 7.1
      22 April 2018 at 11:00 am

      You’ve got a point there, Ed. Jacinda Ardern had a ‘nuclear moment’ when she halted the Gas & Oil block offers and Kim Jong-un has halted missile and nuclear testing.

  8. bwaghorn 8
    22 April 2018 at 10:25 am

    garner pushed the same shit the other day regarding Ardern being anti immigration , he’s either too fick to understand or labours wish to slow it down as opposed to stop it or he’s team blue , i’m picking he’s both

  9. Nick 9
    22 April 2018 at 10:31 am

    She really is an idiot, but needs clicks to get paid, so writes eye capturing headlines. Getting past the headlines into shallow, mind numbing ridiculous articles is truly distasteful. It’s her employer who also needs to be sacked for hiring such a moron.

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      22 April 2018 at 12:07 pm

      Unfortunately, we can’t fire private businesses even if they are spreading misinformation.

  10. Anne 10
    22 April 2018 at 10:35 am

    Glad someone has mentioned David Slack. He’s a gem. Witty, insightful, compassionate and has a wonderful way with words. It’s worth purchasing The Sunday Star Times just to read “Slack at the Back” in print form.

    As for HDPA (won’t read her crap anymore), it is inevitable her bile would double in strength this week. The sight and sound of Jacinda Ardern being celebrated with such vigour on the international stage must have been a galling experience for her.

    Also, what’s the bet she and hubby, Soper are somehow blaming Jacinda for him being unable to accompany her as part of the press pack.

    • tracey 10.1
      22 April 2018 at 2:08 pm

      Good point @ Soper’s visa. She would have had to travel alone

    • dukeofurl 10.2
      23 April 2018 at 3:02 pm

      Couldnt anyway. Jacinda went to Comm Games in Brisbane for a day or so and then onto Paris

      Soper wanted to go via US from Auckland to London.

      Airlines always have issues with ‘silly old men’ who dont read the advisorys when they book online.

      Anyway I thought he was someone who ‘mattered’ in Wellington? Just call up someone in the Embassy ‘who knows who he is’ and it could be fixed in 5 min.

  11. Ankerrawshark 11
    22 April 2018 at 10:38 am

    Thanks Mickey, I went to the heralds website today and there was said article, in the left hand column at the top with a pic. Your post stopped me clicking on it. Complete garbage

  12. Simon 12
    22 April 2018 at 10:47 am

    Trump has way better hair.

  13. newsense 13
    22 April 2018 at 10:53 am

    HDP is Hannity. Raw meat to a base and ridiculous

  14. Stunned Mullet 14
    22 April 2018 at 10:54 am

    HDPA writes some very good clickbait.

  15. Stuart Munro 15
    22 April 2018 at 11:17 am

    Really Duplicity? Show us the pee tape.

  16. fender 16
    22 April 2018 at 11:37 am

    Well it’s good to know that the fuckwit that penned that ridiculous crap definitely has no interest in being regarded as a serious journalist.

  17. red-blooded 17
    22 April 2018 at 11:54 am

    Thanks for the link to Slack, Mickey. I have to admit I didn’t know his work, but I’ll keep an eye out for it now.

  18. Smellpir 18
    22 April 2018 at 1:00 pm

    Reading pretty well anything on the Herald these days is somewhat like deciding to change your diet to nothing but eggcups full of M&Ms…

    I will say, however, that I am increasingly impressed with the growing infuence and quality of Newsroom. Rod Oram’s piece on Oil and Gas puffery today was superb….
    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/04/21/105687/rod-oram-shedding-light-on-the-gas-sectors-claims#

  19. Doogs 19
    22 April 2018 at 1:27 pm

    As I have said before earlier on another thread, but maybe worth mentioning again given the above comments – I have given the Herald the bum’s rush.

    Having seen several of the shills, one after another, on the Herald over a 24 hour period with the same shit commentary about one of the government’s minor hiccups, and all of them saying in ‘I told you so’ doom and gloom terms that this is the end of the coalition.

    What absolute unmitigated shite!

    I have deleted the app, the bookmark and every vestige of el heraldo from my conscious world. Now regularly reading Newsroom, The Spinoff, BBC, CNN, even One News and Stuff. Much happier.

    • Sumsuch 19.1
      24 April 2018 at 8:01 pm

      By that logic the libation of Business that is the Herald would have died off in the 30s.

  20. Timeforacupoftea 20
    22 April 2018 at 1:37 pm

    Haas so funny, Trump and Jacinda are alike !

    Trump promises and delivers i.e. : crushes TAX rates !

    Our Taxcinda promises and delivers TAX increases !

    Ahhh I get it ! They both promise promises and stick to them.

    So unlike Politicians to be honest these days, but there you go.

    • tracey 20.1
      22 April 2018 at 2:11 pm

      What a good lil meme repeater you are cuppa. A perfect example of why HDPA gets paid to write vacuous stuff.

      She has raised less tax than Key within his first 6 months

    • Gabby 20.2
      22 April 2018 at 6:58 pm

      Trump’s bound to keep some promises Timetopoffpoff, given he’s promised pretty much everything.

    • UncookedSelachimorpha 20.3
      23 April 2018 at 7:21 am

      Tax is good.

      So I don’t get your point?

  21. KJT 21
    22 April 2018 at 2:27 pm

    Trump times. NZ edition.

  22. mary_a 22
    22 April 2018 at 2:33 pm

    One Natz gobshite down, only three more to go. NZH should be ablaze this coming week, with insignificant (anti Labour/Ardern) drivel, tripe and negativity, dribbling out of the mouths of doom and gloom merchants Soper, Hosking and Hooten!

    Pity really. You’d think they’d be praising the class the PM has presented this week on the international stage. Jacinda Ardern has represented NZ very well, in particular when proudly wearing that magnificent cloak, which speaks volumes about our country and who we are. That event belonged to NZ, courtesy of our PM Jacinda taking us to the world.

    • WILD KATIPO 22.1
      22 April 2018 at 4:42 pm

      … ” drivel, tripe and negativity, dribbling out of the mouths of doom and gloom merchants Soper, Hosking and Hooten! ” … ” You’d think they’d be praising the class the PM has presented this week on the international stage”…

      Unlike the ‘class’ this mug showed on a completely different sort of stage?

      New Zealand PM John Key’s Misjudged Catwalk Appearance – YouTube
      Video for john key on a catwalk you tube▶ 1:20

  23. chris73 23
    22 April 2018 at 2:45 pm

    🙂

  24. Ed 24
    22 April 2018 at 3:47 pm

    From Wake up NZ

    ‘Comparing Jacinda Ardern to Donald Trump is about as accurate as comparing Heather du Plessis-Allan to a real journalist.”

    https://www.facebook.com/wakeupnz

  25. Whispering Kate 25
    22 April 2018 at 3:50 pm

    The Herald is bleeding subscriptions and begging people to rejoin with 6 weeks of free drivel. Why on earth they can’t see that the stuff they are producing is just not wanted – readers want to have decent content not trash – it has become as bad as the worst trash rags that are published each week. Why did we think any different of the reporting of PM Adhern’s magnificent promotion of NZ to the world – its a disgrace.

    It is an insult to everybody in this country – we haven’t had a Herald in this household now since the previous godhead but one filled the entire front page – it was enough for the two of us to be put off forever having it in the house. Even the Listener is now just a magazine format rag – full of health, travel, food and very occasionally, bless our hearts we get a decent in depth analysis of something which engages the brain.

    We are being dumbed down folks – it looks like we will just have to suck it up as its not about to change anytime soon.

    • Draco T Bastard 25.1
      22 April 2018 at 4:17 pm

      Why on earth they can’t see that the stuff they are producing is just not wanted – readers want to have decent content not trash – it has become as bad as the worst trash rags that are published each week.

      It’s a problem with the top down model of broadcasting and news. The people at the top will decide what you like and that’s all you’ll get. When these ‘elites’ get info saying that they’re wrong instead of changing as needed they have a tendency to double down and what they’re doing wrong.

      The result is decreasing readers/viewers/etc.

      We are being dumbed down folks – it looks like we will just have to suck it up as its not about to change anytime soon.

      Or we take matter into our own hands and fund the news that we want.

    • Ed 25.2
      22 April 2018 at 4:59 pm

      If you have the time, listen to Roger Waters on the media.
      Watch from 8 minutes to 9:30 minutes.
      Words of real wisdom and insight.

  26. Sanctuary 26
    22 April 2018 at 4:13 pm

    The right wing here keep peddling the “Labour is anti-immigration” smear here for the same reason they peddle the “Corbyn is an anti-semite” line in the UK – they know it is a wedge issue for the left, and they hope they can paint the left as insular and guilty of every crime imaginable in the identity politics playbook.

    That fact it isn’t true in either case want stop them pushing the big lie.

  27. Matthew Whitehead 27
    22 April 2018 at 5:30 pm

    Now you’ve all made me defend HDPA very slightly, and that makes me a bit grumpy. >:(

    Her second comparison is obviously wrong, and odious. A majority of voters voted for govt parties, and that’s not even something all MMP governments can claim- in 2014, for example, if we’re looking at party vote returns, the government didn’t actually win even 50% if you add up its constituent parties. Whoops. She shouldn’t set a precedent she doesn’t want us to hold her to regarding National governments, huh?

    The first part, however, is actually quite fair in general. Labour has been sounding very nationalist on immigration rhetoric. This isn’t a “their policy is necessarily one hundred percent wrong,” criticism, it’s about the sniff test of how their rhetoric is affecting the discourse. The Greens had a brief visit here with James Shaw’s rhetoric on limiting immigration numbers. It’s not even so much a policy thing here as a rhetoric thing- Labour’s rhetoric on immigration is very problematic, and points to various policy fallacies like the Lump of Labour, etc…

    • dukeofurl 27.1
      23 April 2018 at 2:55 pm

      Australia, ALP is currently the largest party who had the largest share of votes too.

      Germany in the 1980s FDP stayed with Schroder to continue in government rather than with the largest party CDU/CSU

      Britain in 1923 Ramsay McDonald became PM despite Conservatives being largest party

    • dukeofurl 27.2
      23 April 2018 at 4:15 pm

      Are you sure you have read all of Greens immigration policy.

      Voluntary Immigration
      “Give priority to skills needed to build a low-carbon economy that lifts living standards.
      Tighten up the process for the investor visa category and ensure better oversight of business development promises.
      Closely monitor the labour market impact of skilled migrant workers.

      Parts sound very similar to labour ( or even Trump), nationalistic even ( your words)

      Priority to skills
      Tighten up some categories
      Monitor labour market impacts

      Of course Trump has made the appalling anti Muslim and anti Hispanic rhetoric all his own.

  28. Glen 28
    23 April 2018 at 6:07 am

    My loathing of HDA and Barry S grow by the day. At times they, Hoskings and Hooten all write like they have all received the same memo rather than to express their own opinions. There are certain words and themes that tie these 4 together and I have no doubt who that comes from, Simple Simon Bridges! This I no longer read msm as it is nothing but propaganda.

  29. Tamati Tautuhi 29
    23 April 2018 at 6:17 am

    HDPA should return to her country of birth and write for the right wing newspapers of the Afrikaans People she is not suited to a multi cultural diverse country like NZ, however this is the direction the NZ Herald is going ?

    • Ed 29.1
      23 April 2018 at 9:08 am

      When did hdpa decide to leave South Africa?
      Before or after the dismantling of apartheid?

      • dukeofurl 29.1.1
        23 April 2018 at 2:49 pm

        When they couldnt have ‘people’ doing the gardening , doing the housework

  30. Tuppence Shrewsbury 30
    23 April 2018 at 9:06 am

    If she doesn’t pay capitals gains taxes on her house then she just may be closer than you think

  31. R.P McMurphy 31
    23 April 2018 at 9:32 pm

    thats a bit rich calling her a senior journalist. she is a lightweight hack married to an even more tired old hack and now she is realising that she aint the newest peice of fluff on the block and furthermore if she wasn’t writing this sort of womans weekly style infantilised trash then nobody would give a damn. her inference is that politics in Nz has become this sort of weird reality teevee show and she is writing the script. well she can just fuck off. there does not seem to be any legitimate journalists left in this country and the standard has sunk so low that the newspapers are beginning to lose any remnants of the respect they may once have had

  32. R.P McMurphy 32
    23 April 2018 at 9:34 pm

    dont forget that Jacinda Ardern has just returned from a triumphant European tour that trubb would give his eye teeth for.