David Cormack
patreon
The case for shunning Chris Liddell
🕑 Added 2021-01-09 23:27:49 +0000 UTCHe's our man! Our man in the White House. The Kiwi who got into the Trump administration from day one and now looks like he'll still be there until the end. The longest serving senior member of Trump's administration outside of his Cabinet. Aren't you proud, New Zealand?
To know Liddell, we should look at some of his background.
He was a successful investment banker which immediately puts him on the wrong side for me, but that's ideological.
No, we can see signs of the man he is today in some of the roles he took here in New Zealand.
He became CEO of Carter Holt Harvey in 1995. Two years earlier, the Building Act 1991 became law. This deregulated the house building industry and let it take care of itself. Carter Holt Harvey was a massive supplier of leaky building products during Liddell's time at the helm. He didn't seem too bothered.
Liddell's star was on the rise regardless. From 2005-2009 he was the Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft, and in 2010 became the Vice Chair of General Motors and helped lead the largest IPO in history (at the time).
This takes us to the Trump Administration. Liddell has held a range of different roles, all culminating in him being Deputy Chief of Staff to President Trump.
In that time, he seems to have forgotten his New Zealand roots.
New Zealand's two global facing prongs are free-trade, and the environment. Liddell has helped facilitate policies that actively harm both. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Accord on Climate Change, and at the same time Trump has waged trade wars and ground the World Trade Organisation to a stand-still by not appointing the adjudicators to the appellate body required for the WTO to function.
As Trump's time as President started heading towards a close, Liddell decided he better start rehabilitating his image. He started giving a few more New Zealand interviews.
In a TVNZ interview with Jack Tame he said, "I've never felt that I've so disagreed with what he's doing that I've ever seriously considered leaving."
This interview was done in November, 3 months ago.
The things that Trump had done in that time include, but are not limited to:
- tried to blackmail Ukraine into helping him get re-elected
- pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Change Accord
- called Nazis "very fine people"
- had Steve Bannon and Steve Miller as senior appointees
- Gave senior positions in his administration to horrifically underqualified members of his family
- imposed a Muslim travel ban
- extorted the secret service by charging staggering amounts for them to stay at places near where he was staying
- beefed up ICE and the deportation programme
- instituted a family separated programme that put tonnes of refugee children, fleeing from war-torn and gang-run countries in cages
- issued pardons for people who are convicted felons, but are close to Trump
- went after transgender people, both in the military and at schools
- made numerous white supremacist tweets and comments
- ordered the tear gassing of BLM protesters just so he could get a photo shoot in front of a church before retreating to a bunker
- has continued to peddle lies and conspiracy theories about the election being stolen from him, which in turn incited a riot and attempt insurrection in Washington DC
- completely and utterly fucked up the pandemic response
Presumably Liddell is ok with all of these because, in his own words, he's never felt that he's so disagreed with what Trump's doing that he's ever seriously considered leaving.
In fact, Liddell was on Trump's Corona Task Force. So, he's not just awful, but it seems he's become incompetent too.
There's also this story which claims Liddell took part in a vote on whether or not to enact the child separation policy. People I have spoken to who know Liddell say he voted no. Which yay? But he still took part in a vote, that was ultimately passed, and he then helped enact that policy.
More than one person has compared Liddell to Albert Speer, the Nazi architect. Speer tried to distance himself from the worst of the Nazi regime and claim he was trying to stop the worst excesses of it. Which was a lie. And Speer was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for his crimes. Liddell can either admit he helped carry out some of Trump's atrocities, or concede he wasn't good enough to stop them.
So, despite what Simon Bridges has said about Liddell, we should not support his appointment to be head of the OECD, we should not do shit for this man. We should shun him.
Liddell has never had New Zealand's interest at heart. When Trump announced a list of countries that didn't have tariffs slapped on their steel exports, New Zealand was not one of them. Liddell could have helped us out there. But instead, he chose not to.
So, with all this in mind, fuck him.
Comments
Jack S
Cannot remember the last time knives were drawn like this
Dave Lane
To assess his character, all I need to know is that he worked for the Microsoft Corporation in a senior role. That completely confirms his ethical deficits. And yes. Shun him.
