Mike's Minute: What a year 2026 is going to be

I don’t think there’s a scriptwriter in Hollywood who could out-dramatize real life right now.

It seems the show is back just in time for a year of… who knows what.

Venezuela - was it illegal? Probably. But the key question is: who is going to do anything about it? And if you protest, you look like you’re backing a dictator and a thug.

Greenland? I think a deal where NATO boosts resources should have been done years ago - remembering the thinking behind it: if America doesn’t plant a flag, China might.

Cuba? Colombia? Also linked to the China obsession Trump has. But they’re small fry - they’ll ultimately get settled and sorted.

Minnesota? Proof there’s angst locally as well as internationally.

Trump is rewriting the world. Note that Rubio keeps using the term 'Western Hemisphere' - that’s deliberate. It goes back to President Monroe in the 1800s.

All of this is fascinating - not necessarily good or bad, but gripping nonetheless. If you’re watching the new Night Manager season… the overthrow of a government - is it fiction or a documentary? You don’t know these days.

Locally… apart from being bored witless as local media obsessed over endless weather warnings and crime, we actually have a lot to look forward to. In case you forgot - this country is actually on a bit of a roll.

The pre Christmas GDP number - Q3, so July, August, September - was gangbusters. While so many moaned about our lot, we were in fact going and growing very nicely, thank you. And there’s no reason to believe Q4, when we get it, won’t be about as good.

So that sets the year up - an election year, with a Government that has delivered.

We haven’t even got to Iran, or the astonishing cock up Albanese managed to make of the Bondi tragedy.

The Supreme Court and tariffs - speaking of which, our India FTA came too late for the good news coverage it deserved.

Oh - and the Federal Reserve DOJ scandal that dragged our Reserve Bank Governor into the political world of Winston Peters.

You can’t make a lot of this stuff up - and yet it’s all happening.

It’s all changing. It’s all on.

What a year it’s going to be - awesome.

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