General Debate 7 March 2017

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waikatogirl

It’s official, according to Gower, it’s to be “The Andy & Jacinda Show”.

Jacinda will be beside Angry in all his electioneering. It is hoped the joint offensive will “soften” Angry Andy during his election meetings. Angry will not have the leadership billboard to himself. Jacinda and her large smile will be there to take the focus off the limitations of the Liabore leader. ?
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March 7, 2017 8:01am
- Lance
  
  Yes
  Jacinda didn’t want the deputy leaders role.
  And she doesn’t want the leaders role… honest
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:09am
  - Inandout
    
    And her partner Mr Gayford will be at her side when she becomes PM. There ends the fairy tale.
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:13am
  - G152
    
    Don’t so much as blink Little or you’re a goneburger
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:13am
- Kimbo
  
  Last time I’m aware of either of the two major parties trying the “two leaders” strategy was National with Marshall and Muldoon in 1972 – and it was a failure. Labour under Norman Kirk won by a landslide. Hardly surprising, as despite National’s slogan “man for man the strongest team”, all it did was highlight the short-comings of the incumbent, Marshall, and deny him necessary oxygen, and fuel rumours his deputy was undermining the campaign to inherit the throne after the election.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:11am
- cmm
  
  Normally the leader also poses next to the electoral candidate on every electoral billboard.
  
  Last election was the first time they did not and the electoral candidate stood alone. Clearly they saw the leader as a toxic brand that would just reduce the chances for the candidate.
  
  I wonder what they’ll do this year:
  * No leader – just the candidate (like 2014)
  * Andy + candidate (as they did before)
  * Jacinda + Andy + candidate (which is going to be pretty crowded).
  * Jacinda + candidate (which would be absurd, but that’s Labour for you).
  
  It’s looking more and more like they’re effectively rolling Andy and just giving him a token position to keep the unions happy.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:12am
  - pdm
    
    The problem they have is that Andy’s Union Masters hold all of the aces and won’t let him be rolled. Especially by someone who may not be as compliant to their wishes/demands.
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:28am
    - Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
      
      I wouldn’t underestimate Jacinta’s price tag in return for power, especially when she has worked in a fish and chip shop and (so I believe) started the matamata fish and chip shop workers union – membership 1.
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:05am
- holysheet
  
  Nah they are taking the piss out of the greens.
  Its called the Liabore co-leadership in everything but name.
  They are hoping the voters notice little pony and ignore angry.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:17am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Ignore Andy; the status quo is maintained then, nothing to see here . . .
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:51am
- Fletch
  
  I’m sure the True Believers are hoping she is going to be Helen 2.0 (only with better teeth).
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:44am
  - Paulus
    
    Helen Clark had a very good brain and looked after her feminist nest – She has been one of New Zealand’s cleverest Prime Ministers.
    I disliked her but admired her political cutthroat skills.
    I do not think toofy has any of the skills – we will see soon.
    I cannot see her bringing caucus to order in Andy’s absence. She is a laughing stock to all but her TV presenter boyfriend.
    
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    March 7, 2017 1:23pm
    - DifferentPerspective
      
      Helen Clark’s main triumph was to fool the whole country for three elections into believing she was centre left when she was a rampant cultural marxist.
      
      Her scorched earth behaviour during 2007 and 2008 when it was clear that she was certain to lose the election was as unconscionable and dishonest as what we’re seeing from that other most treacherous worm of the left – Obama.
      
      Her towering vanity was such that on election night she immediately dropped her mustachioed lip and abandoned the country, the party and her supporters for a fat cat job in New York.
      
      The only thing that was good about Clark as a PM was that it eventually came to the ignominious end she deserved:
      – a resounding defeat, and
      – the utter ruin of the political movement she helmed.
      
      She was an abomination and she has innoculated NZ society against the Left for generations.
      
      Do you mean THAT Helen Clark???
      
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      March 7, 2017 8:03pm
- Rich Prick
  
  For some stange reason Tammy Wynette’s Stand by your man ran through my mind.
  
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  March 7, 2017 12:35pm
- Don the Kiwi
  
  “…Jacinda and her large smile…….. ”
  
  Yes – particularly the large teeth that precede anything she does.
  
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  March 7, 2017 5:38pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  But what about Mt Albert?
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:35pm
William of Ockham

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Potus orangutanus.

Out of his tree.

It’s true. Just heard. Terrible. True. True. True.
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March 7, 2017 8:01am
- Inandout
  
  The Pond has deep tentacles indeed.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:09am
- holysheet
  
  Bugger, the village idiot is back
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:12am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I feel we may not of taken full advantage of the break that was provided, should not be too long until another one tho’ going on past performances
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:53am
Happychappy

Well it is quite surprising coming from Stuff but 68% of the nearly 18,000 voters agree with Bill English and National on our pension changes. The other thing I like about the announcement of this policy is that has taken the air out of Twyford and Little in their continuous push of pimping the poor and the housing debate with every leader wanting to criticise Bill English and his bold policy.
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March 7, 2017 8:11am
- holysheet
  
  Don’t forget the drunken dwarf will also be pissed in more ways than one. This announcement has put a shaft up the useless prick.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:14am
- cmm
  
  I think it’s a good step, but I think they could be bolder, especially by giving people options.
  
  For instance:
  * Start at 67 and get $x
  * Start at 70 and get 10% more.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:16am
  - Paulus
    
    Similar things in UK – if you stay over 67 then you get more pension when you finally retire.
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:18am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      You have that option already. Don’t stop working at the eligibility age, but do collect your Super. Put it into a term deposit account and then use it to supplement your pension when you do stop working.
      
      Where is the public benefit in giving people any more than they could give themselves by doing that?
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:04am
- pdm
  
  The only comment I have is that they should have started it 5 years earlier and taken the age to 70 over a 10 year period.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:31am
  - jcuk
    
    If they can get the rapacious overseas companies to pay their fair wack of profits, paid for by kiwis, there will be ample funding for super as is or increased for folk in high cost areas of the country.
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:41am
    - srylands
      
      Can you back that assertion up with any analysis or is it just part of your belief system?
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:23am
- trout
  
  LIttle has found himself on the wrong side of this pension policy. After contradicting previous statements his credibility falls even further. He clings to the Cullen fund concept as if this were the ultimate solution forgetting that (1) money would have been borrowed to make contributions,(2) there was an element of risk, (3) money would have been diverted from other more productive purposes, and (4) Kiwisaver is one very large ‘Cullen’ fund which has the real advantage of encouraging personal responsibility.
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:33am
Nookin

Does anyone else experience Sky signal fade the minute it starts raining?
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March 7, 2017 8:15am
- cmm
  
  If you’re at marginal signal strengths that will happen.
  
  Water absorbs energy high frequency radio waves (hence microwave ovens) so rain or cloud soak up some of the energy and less signal gets through.
  
  Just pay them $1 less each month.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:19am
- Lance
  
  If it happens a lot (even in not so heavy rain) the LNA is probably buggered (sits at the focal point of the dish) and needs replaced. They deteriorate after a few years.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:25am
  - cmm
    
    Don’t be so close minded with your focus on Pakeha technology.
    
    It could be the taniwha…
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:00am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Same solution; someone must pay and that someone has to be someone else.
      
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      March 7, 2017 1:42pm
- Lance
  
  Just tell Sky its not working (don’t mention it works when it isn’t raining) and they will come out. The tech will read low signal strength and replace the LNA. Happens a lot
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:28am
  - freemark
    
    I think it’s the LNB to which you refer…
    
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    March 7, 2017 6:02pm
- waikatogirl
  
  The bad news is there plenty of rain next few days, flood warnings announced. ☔️
  
  Netflix days!
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:28am
  - Viking2
    
    No rain to speak of on the rain radar so far.
    http://www.metvuw.com/radar/radar.php?location=nz
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:39am
    - Griff
      
      SEVERE WEATHER WATCH FOR NORTHLAND, AUCKLAND, GREAT BARRIER ISLAND,WAIKATO, COROMANDEL PENINSULA, BAY OF PLENTY, ROTORUA ISSUED BY METSERVICE AT 2036hrs 06-Mar-2017
      
      BURSTS OF HEAVY RAIN FOR NORTHERN NEW ZEALAND FROM LATE TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY TO AT LEAST THURSDAY
      
      A strong and humid northeast airstream spreads over the upper North Island Tuesday afternoon and evening as a low moves slowly south over the Tasman Sea. Rain with heavy, and possibly thundery falls, is expected from Northland to western Bay of Plenty from late Tuesday through to Thursday.
      ………
      This Watch is for the possibility that rainfall accumulations will reach warning levels in the following places…
      
      NORTHLAND: From Tuesday evening through Wednesday and into Thursday.
      
      AUCKLAND, GREAT BARRIER ISLAND, WAIKATO, COROMANDEL PENINSULA and WESTERN BAY OF PLENTY: From Tuesday night through Wednesday and into Thursday.
      http://www.metservice.com/warnings/severe-weather-watch
      
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      March 7, 2017 8:44am
      - Viking2
        
        you still believe metservice?
        
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        March 7, 2017 8:46am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    bad news???
    
    No way,…I’ve got 6 lawns to overhaul… can’t wait to get some seed sown.
    
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    March 7, 2017 10:27am
Monique Watson

Happy to provide a weather report. it’ll be a highlight.
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March 7, 2017 8:17am
Paulus

In changes to Super the Hypocrisy of Labour – not yet claiming that it was Labour’s ideas to change the Pension Age. Good that the 20 year rule is coming in too.
One minute screaming to change it the next opposing it.Pathetic – Cindy would not like it as it affects her without her huge additional politician’s pension.
I see that Maori (naturally genetically) are against it but Bouffant Dunne is a worse hypocrite. The sooner national are Dunne with this idiot the better.
Seymour is beyond a joke in this – National Party sort this out – get rid of both of these idiots.
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March 7, 2017 8:17am
- MCos
  
  I’m not surprised that Maori are not too keen on the age for National Superannuation being raised. Their life expectancy, along with Pacific Islanders and all sides of my family for that matter, is somewhat lower than the general population.
  Willie Jackson lives around here. If I see him in the street I’ll see what he thinks of the idea of a joint Maori/Irish ancestry Waitangi Treaty claim . . . . .
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:46am
  - holysheet
    
    And there you have it. A typical response to something not to their favour, the natives first call to action is to invoke te tweety. Instead of just accepting their genes predispose them to not living as long as whitey, eating all the wrong food etc, they invoke te tweety.
    Have they never heard of personal responsibility?
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:19am
    - MCos
      
      Well I’ll be buggered!
      Someone took me seriously!
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:52am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m not convinced that there is any genetic difference between the life expectancy rates of our different populations.
  
  What we do have is a decreasing gap between Maori/Polynesian and Pakeha rates.
  
  In 1945 there was a 20-22 year difference between Maori and Pakeha life expectancies.
  http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/graph/26605/life-expectancy-at-birth-maori-and-non-maori
  
  This gap has dropped to around 7 years.
  http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/health/life_expectancy/NZLifeTables_HOTP12-14.aspx
  
  As folks avail themselves of good health care and take care of themselves through life, this gap could be expected to reduce further.
  
  I think the differences in life expectancy are more likely due to social patterns of behaviours that do not promote good health.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:41am
  - Stars And Stripes
    
    Careful now,suggesting peoples behaviour might be to blame instead of genetics is racist hate speech.
    Aunty Susan will be calling Gisborne soon.?
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:56am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      She can come up and have a korero anytime.
      
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      March 7, 2017 10:23am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    It might be just as true that a lot of the convergence of Maori is due to more interbreeding with Europeans as time goes by. Relatively prosperous Pacific Islands are about 73yr life expectancy. almost 10years less than Northern Europeans or wealthy Northern Asians.
    
    There are many countries with lower GDP and worse healthcare that still boast higher lifespans that NZers with a high proportion of polynesian genes. Polynesians tend to mature younger (typical of R-type breeding strategies that dominate in less stable environments – eg places with frequent warfare, disease or famines). Seems that European and Asian genes have more bias towards K-type breeding strategies (long history of relative stability, peace and prosperity and emphasis on non-martial skills for survival). We see massive differences between the sexes, so why not between different races who have been subject to very different survival pressures for 1000’s of years?
    https://www.businessinsider.com.au/huge-racial-gap-in-life-expectancy-2014-1?r=US&IR=T
    
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    March 7, 2017 12:06pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Oh goody, An evolutionary argument… and its probably testable too.
      
      Yes , I agree that the life expectancy difference between the sexes probably has a genetic basis.
      (I had deliberately omitted that from above posting to save space… but it was a reasonable assumption from data provided)
      
      I’ll take the contrary side at the moment and state that I don’t accept the K-strategy argument for North Asian and probably many European populations.
      Chinese and Koreans have had a hell of history of endless warfare, at clan and national levels and much suffering from natural disasters.
      
      Medieval British communities seem to have had fertility rates of between 4-8 children/mother….probably not too different from undeveloped areas nowadays where there is minimum maternal and child care.
      
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      March 7, 2017 3:21pm
virtualmark

The eighth in our occasional series of great quotes from US Presidents.

George W. Bush (Bush 43), in the presidential debate in October 2000, made a compelling case for how the world will see America:

“If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us; if we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us.

Our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that’s why we’ve got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom.”

Humble. Unlikely today.
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March 7, 2017 8:28am
- MCos
  
  I don’t think America (as a nation as opposed to individually) could ever be described as humble. The willingness of their politicians to bandy about the term ‘American exceptionalism’ attests to that.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:11am
  - virtualmark
    
    Well, I think “American exceptionalism” originally meant America would hold itself to higher moral values than other countries did. If that were the case then American exceptionalism is a good and noble thing.
    
    But now “American exceptionalism” seems to mean “We’re important, you’re not, so pay homage”. Which takes you straight to the arrogance problem that George W. Bush referred to in that quote above.
    
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    March 7, 2017 10:03am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Isn’t it surprising how presidential George W is looking these days. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the man last year. I feel history will treat him much more kindly than the current incumbent of the office!
  
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  March 7, 2017 12:20pm
  - Nukuleka
    
    Your comment would imply that he didn’t look very presidential when he was actually president!! Not much point in looking presidential when you’re actually a has-been, I would have thought. We also have to remember he has it in for the current POTUS who beat his brother to the Republican nomination! Just another member of an elitist family who loves to portray itself as Texan hicks when they are mega wealthy power-seekers.
    
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    March 7, 2017 12:35pm
Happychappy

Any bet TV Three will do a poll in the next two weeks on the pension announcement and try for a massive hit on Bill English and National after waiting three or four months with no poll the numbers they were getting obviously favoured National. These muppets will do every thing in their power to change the government and get the dream team in the game.
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March 7, 2017 8:39am
- cmm
  
  Stuff is already doing that:
  
  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/90124953/opinion-a-baby-boomer-and-a-milennial-weigh-in-on-superannuation-changes
  
  Trying to paint this as the millennials being shafted by the boomers and National.
  
  What people should really learn from this is that supers don’t work.
  
  I am eligible for the super (I’m 55), but I have also been contributing my whole working life. If the super was ring-fenced it would not be a problem. It would not be the taxpayers paying because it would be coming out of the super fund.
  
  It has only become an issue because the money that should have got ring fenced was effectively used as a loan to the government and now the taxpayers have to pay that back.
  
  The challenge is how to reverse out of this mess, and the right approach has been taken: cut tax and have people save for themselves. Give people a pro-rata super on how long they have been contributing.
  
  Moral of the story: governments don’t do these things well. Socialism sucks.
  
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  March 7, 2017 8:52am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    It is the taxpayers paying it, however you dress it up. Money in the Super Fund is not available to be spent on other things which taxpayers might value more.
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:06am
    - cmm
      
      Then where did it go to?
      
      The way super was sold to people (and how they think about it) is that part of your tax is effectively your contributions to the super fund.
      
      You contribute now and you get money out later.
      
      ie. You put $5 into the Christmas Club every week, then come Christmas you get a fat turkey etc.
      
      But what has happened is that the Christmas Club money got spent on other stuff so now we can’t buy the turkeys.
      
      Now personally I’d rather put the $5 in my own bank account then I know it’s there and hasn’t been spent buying votes.
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:17am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        The money that was put into the Super Fund is still in the Super Fund, and that fund will still go a small way towards meeting the future cost of NZS. It was never going to be enough to meet all of it.
        
        Other tax revenue has gone towards all the things that tax revenue goes to – education, healthcare, defence, welfare including NZS, earthquake recovery, etc.
        
        If you think that that money should instead have gone into the Super Fund, you need to specify which of these things you do not think the Government should have been spending on.
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:00am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        Or turkeys for someone else . . .
        
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        March 7, 2017 1:47pm
  - ex-golfer
    
    Hate to burst your bubble, but if you are 55 you are not eligible for Super yet!
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:27pm
Viking2

Breaking News
Three strong quakes felt on North Island’s east coast… details soon
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March 7, 2017 8:45am
MickMac

Hi Guys
I don’t want to vote National but what is the alternative?
Not Labour, nor the Watermelons.

main thing about National is they kick the big issues down the road.

They’ve been in 8 years and could have sorted Super and set NZ up with a proper wealth fund.

They’ve watched the housing issue grow to the size it is now, whilst culling HNZ.

What other issues do you think that they have “kicked down the road” that need fixing now…..

Appreciate your positive and constructive input.
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March 7, 2017 8:53am
- LisaGinNZ
  
  I wish the media would stop banging on about so called “housing issue”.
  
  What issue? Auckland home prices are high? Yeah? So? Home prices are usually high in a big city where everyone wants to live – New York, London, Chicago, Paris, Sydney (etc).
  
  If you (whomever) cannot afford to buy a home in Auckland, you can rent or move to a different part of the country.
  
  What is the issue? Housing is not a “right”.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:09am
  - holysheet
    
    I was thinking the same thing last week. You would be hard pressed finding any home owner in Auckland who has not benefited from the price rise.
    Even those FORMER liabore supporters in the working class suburbs have found their equity in their homes has risen far higher than they ever thought possible. This gives them more possibilities to do stuff when they sell up.
    
    Liabore might find they have lost more votes on this issue than they care to admit.
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:26am
    - stephieboy
      
      holyturd and LizaGinNZ , you buy a $1 million home on these terms eaning an average income ,
      
      https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/personal-banking/home-loans/getting-a-home-loan/first-home-buyers/should-you-buy/
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:53am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        There’s always decisions to be made when average-earning folk buy a home.
        
        For us: if we wanted to buy an average-priced home in Wellington, it was take on a very large mortgage, delay having kids and both remain working throughout our working life
        or
        buy a cold old dump at half the average-price and have a manageable mortgage, but longer travel to work place.
        
        If folks really want a home of their own, there are other cities throughout the country where decent places can be purchased under $300,000, and doer-uppers under $200,000.
        https://www.qv.co.nz/property-trends/residential-house-values
        
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        March 7, 2017 11:20am
  - Paulus
    
    Helen Clarke’s six houses must have had an enormous Capital Gains whilst she has been in New York.
    Has her UN Geneva appointment been announced yet ?
    Keep her away please – Andy would not like it but Cindy would.
    
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    March 7, 2017 1:29pm
- virtualmark
  
  MickMac,
  
  The thing about National is that they manage very much for the centre vote. I’d wager the 25% or so at the “right” end of the political spectrum find National frustratingly unambitious. But I can’t argue that what they’re doing isn’t the right strategy politically.
  
  What we’re missing is a mature organised and measured party to the right of National. ACT should be that party but it’s consistently failed the “mature” and “organised” and “measured” tests.
  
  So I get your frustration with National, but I’d say the cause is due to ACT not fulfilling the role they should be in.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:17am
- Komata
  
  MickMac
  
  I’ve been where you are and although there is, of course, Wiinie! However, he is effectively a ‘one man band’, and as a result NZF isn’t really a viable and/ or genuine option. You could, I suppose, head towards the fringes (Mogan, Mana etc etc.) but do do so would be a wasted vote. Based on the above, and due to the very limited range available, ultimately (unfortunately),your only real option would seem to be the Nats.
  
  I identify with your dilemma.
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:29am
Manolo

The daily book for Kimbo: “Rutherford: scientist supreme” by John Campbell. Warts and all biography of NZ’s greatest mind.
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March 7, 2017 8:57am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  @Manolo
  
  Impressive reading list, to date.
  
  Are you too young to have encountered
  George Gamow’s “Mr Tompkins explores the atom”?
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:08am
  - Manolo
    
    I love science, that’s all, dear Maggy. When I find free time -away from designing shoes- I love reading physics and mathematics (always at amateur level). Many more titles to come, since Kimbo is expecting it! 😀
    
    I believed I read it, but I found Gamow’s writing not the best, not to the level of his incredible genius. He was a rascal, too.
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:17am
    - Kimbo
      
      Keep ’em coming! 😉
      
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      March 7, 2017 11:29am
Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes

Breaking news – Claire Trevit at the horrid claims Winston Peter’s was right all along……..Isn’t it a bit early for the horrid’s anti-govt campaign? Can’t think of any other reason why you would argue Winston is right about anything other than his desire for the baubles of office.
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March 7, 2017 8:59am
Soffet

Normally I don’t mind a bit of Hosking in the morning on ZB, but jeez, he’s got a bee in his bonnet over Bill English and the Superannuation announcement. On and on he goes about how English messed up the announcement, it’s not good enough, ill thought out etc. But really he’s annoyed that yesterday he interviewed English who told him “wait and see” on Super which the Hosk took exception to and boy, he’s a rabid little bunny this morning! Rachel Smalley was also incensed for some reason, perhaps on behalf of the Hosk as she’s a team player.
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March 7, 2017 8:59am
- LisaGinNZ
  
  Perhaps Mr. Hosking has fallen into the “I’m the media therefore what I say matters most…” schtick.
  
  Doubt government leaders consult him with their decisions.
  
  I don’t see 67 vs 65 as a big deal for retirement age. I’d prefer my tax dollars subsidize oldies who have worked and contributed instead of lazy young teenagers on the dole.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:11am
- thedavincimode
  
  Normally I don’t mind a bit of Hosking in the morning on ZB
  
  This will pass. Try a couple of aspirin and have a bit of a lie down. When the walls have stopped moving you won’t feel any need to listen to him again.
  
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  March 7, 2017 1:10pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    A little silence can go a long way sometimes
    
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    March 7, 2017 1:52pm
Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes

And further breaking news. . .. there is no leadership vacancy in the nz labour party.
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March 7, 2017 9:00am
- LisaGinNZ
  
  don’t you mean “… there is no leadership”.
  
  ?
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:12am
Manolo

Isn’t she lovely?
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/ag-loretta-lynch-issues-plea-protesting-blood-death-streets/

Former Attorney General issued a video on behalf of Senate Democrats urging Americans to resist in the time of “fear and uncertainty for so many people.”
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March 7, 2017 9:05am
- Inandout
  
  Loretta Lynch. What an unfortunate surname for a black lady.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:10am
- LisaGinNZ
  
  The previous Obama AG Holder had a big gun running program to Mexico where hundreds were killed…. and he lied to congress about it.
  
  Thank GOD the O-communists are OUT.
  
  Pres. Trump needs to purge any O-communist loyalists, too. Stat.
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:13am
  - stephieboy
    
    Alt righters get off the grass . Don’t you recall what Trump and his supporters promised if Hillary Clinton won ?
    
    Roger Stone promsied a blood bath !
    
    http://time.com/4560707/donald-trump-election-loss-rigged/
    
    LisaGinNZ , hysterical nonsense !
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:41am
    - LisaGinNZ
      
      Look in the mirror for your nonsense…
      
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      March 7, 2017 3:49pm
dime

So Dime has to work to 67 now? lol Dime isnt expecting a cracker out of super so all good.

i do think some blokes who actually work for a living may need to do some planning. i know guys who hit 65 and are phsyically fucked. another two years would do them in.

i guess if they cant transition to non-physical work, they have to go through the idignity of going on a sickness/ disability bene?
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March 7, 2017 9:07am
Stars And Stripes

S&S got cultural yesterday and went along to the Trans Tasman Resources Iron Sand Extraction Hearing being held in New Plymouth where the local iwi were submitting evidence opposing the application.
A couple of people I know were speaking so just to give things some star power I decided my presence was essential.
When I first got there I thought I had mistaken the venue for Pak n Save as there was heaps of fatties milling around outside waiting for opening time but after enquiries I was assured this was the place.
After the obligatory platitudes the hearing got underway with most submitters being pretty interesting and knowledgeable but a few waffled on about retarded shit that made no sense to anyone.
Was thinking about going back for more today but after looking at the speaking schedule and seeing that a lot of the submitters were from Climate Justice Taranaki and other fruitcake groups I decided to give it a miss.
Also the fact that the guy sitting in front of me in the hearing farted the whole day didn’t exactly encourage me to go back either.
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March 7, 2017 9:16am
- howitis
  
  So you were sitting behind a Methanol Plant!
  Just so ‘Naki
  
  There may have been some H2S leakage.
  Call 0800 FART TAX if leakage persists.
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:05am
Griff

National has done something about increasing numbers on super.

Kicked the can down the road .

The problem is far more urgent than twenty years out .
Nationals plan only stays place with increasing life expectancy and ignores the age demographic change that is happening in NZ.
The majority of the baby boomers, the bulge in the age demographic, are already on super by the time this takes into effect .
http://www.stats.govt.nz/tools_and_services/interactive-pop-pyramid.aspx

It will become an economic necessity that this issue be reexamined well before nationals present policy kicks in .
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March 7, 2017 9:19am
- SPC
  
  The NZSF was to deal with the demographic part, increasing the age is to deal with the longer life span.
  
  I would
  
  1. apply a compulsory 1% levy on wages and place the money into the NZSF each year for investment.
  2. end tax on NZSF profits
  3. allow the NZSF to borrow when there was good investment opportunity and low debt cost.
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:26am
Lucia Maria

The latest from John Schindler:
KremlinGate Just Put the White House in a Precarious Place

Having worked with a lot of FISA collection during my time in the spy business, I can state without reservation that President Trump’s accusations are so inherently implausible as to render them an absurdity.

Just to remind everyone, those are the accusations that Obama had Trump Tower tapped to spy on Trump.
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March 7, 2017 9:24am
- Ross12
  
  Then why had several publications , including the Guardian, been reporting on this issue a few months ago, well before President Trump tweeted anything ?
  BTW Wikileaks have come out with a list of some of the wire taps done by the Obama Administration –it doesn’t look good
  https://wikileaks.org/nsa-201602/
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:55am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    Those stories in the Guardian, etc (which I read at the time they came out), never said anything about Obama wiretapping Trump tower. Trump has taken a little bit from news items and made a mountain out of a molehill. And the only reason to do that, besides being a complete idiot, is that he has something HUGE to hide.
    
    Also, nothing coming out of Wikileaks can be trusted, given that it is a Kremlin disinformation site.
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:35am
    - Griff
      
      Somehow they think the intelligence agency’s should not look into illegal activity.
      The trump administration has already had one person resigned due to a possible infraction of the logon act.
      Another on the campaign who when questioned under oath volunteered he had no contact with Russia when he did .
      The wataboutism is a detraction Having a meeting in public or for an announced purpose is a different than sitting down to an unstructured chat in private.
      
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      March 7, 2017 11:59am
    - Andrei
      
      Wikileaks has nothing to do with the Kremlin
      
      What is on display here is American political pathologies, that have nothing whatsoever to do with Russia
      
      The losers of the last election are doing everything in their power to render the country ungovernable to prevent the elected president from doing what he was elected to do – Govern
      
      What we are witnessing is the death of the USA and its republic at the hands of some very stupid and wicked people
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:04pm
    - Ross12
      
      I believe Wikileaks has yet to be proven wrong on anything.
      You’d have to be naive to believe Obama wouldn’t be aware of these sorts of wire taps. Formally the AG requests any FISA warrant.
      Why would Trump raise it if he has something hide ?
      That reads like a stephieboy argument.
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:06pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Ross,
        Lying by omission is far more deadly than flat-out lying, that is the type of lying that WikiLeaks excels at. Maybe they’ve never been proven wrong, I don’t care enough about them to find out. But they have been proven to be directly connected to the Kremlin, which rules them out completely as a trustworthy source.
        
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        March 7, 2017 12:47pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Why would Trump raise it if he has something hide ?
        
        Because this method of attack has worked for him in the past, when he wasn’t President, and he’s an idiot.
        
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        March 7, 2017 12:55pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        Lucia, you dementia is showing. Wikileaks has never been directly connected to “the Kremlin”. And Schindler, paid Soros troll, simply can’t be trusted to make a serious comment.
        
        Wikileaks used material from the DNC and John Podesta gmail accounts, all of which was genuine, there’s no “lying by omission” involved. In fact that’s exactly what you are doing, implying things that simply aren’t true.
        
        Your Trump Derangement symptoms are getting on top of you.
        
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        March 7, 2017 2:59pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Ed,
        
        Wikileaks has never been directly connected to “the Kremlin”
        
        Um, yes it has …
        
        Publicly available evidence, including unique code and Russian writing in the hacked documents themselves, links the document theft to Russian state-sponsored hacks. Every US intelligence agency that has investigated the issue has concluded Russia is, in fact, responsible. Leaks from their analyses, reported by CNN and the Washington Post, indicate that the US has identified the go-betweens used by Russia to hand documents to WikiLeaks.
        
        The WikiLeaks-Russia connection started way before the 2016 election
        
        Wikileaks used material from the DNC and John Podesta gmail accounts, all of which was genuine, there’s no “lying by omission” involved.
        
        I was not being specific to the DNC and John Podesta emails, I was being general as to WikiLeaks modus operandi in telling only part of the story, only focusing on some accounts, some leaks that furthers the aims of the Kremlin.
        
        In fact that’s exactly what you are doing, implying things that simply aren’t true.
        
        Me? Yeah, right.
        
        And Schindler, paid Soros troll, simply can’t be trusted to make a serious comment.
        
        Schindler is ex-NSA, was a naval war college professor and an author of military history over the last century. Not some guy sitting in his Mum’s basement in his pyjamas.
        
        Speaking of which, what do you do, Ed? Are you a paid Kremlin troll?
        
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        March 7, 2017 5:39pm
    - reid3
      
      As usual you misunderstand. It is a propaganda site but it’s Israeli not Russian. Which is why it was so pro-Trump because Israel wanted him to win and they’re reaping the rewards as we speak. Look into who Trump has appointed and his pro-Israel positions to date. As for disinformation yes it is but nothing they publish has been proven inaccurate. As usual with Israeli propaganda the disinformation lies in their omissions not their commissions.
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:08pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Reid,
        
        …disinformation lies in their omissions not their commissions.
        
        We agree on this aspect at least.
        
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        March 7, 2017 12:48pm
- Fletch
  
  I don’t think there’s any doubt now that the Obama administration was spying on Trump. The FBI got a warrant to spy under the pretext of something illegal going on – there wasn’t, but they continued spying anyway, this time getting a FISA warrant using the excuse of national security. The only thing wrong is making the claim that it was Obama himself, although there is no way he didn’t know about it.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91fNfGjZdM0
  
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  March 7, 2017 12:08pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    Fletch,
    
    No one knows what the FISA warrant actually did as yet. That it exists is known, what it has been used for and how, and whether is has been used for anything at all, is unknown.
    
    PS. I never click on Youtube links unless I know what channel I’m being directed to and how long the video is.
    
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    March 7, 2017 12:50pm
    - Nev.
      
      It’s a pity Kiwiblog doesn’t have an embed feature. Easiest way to determine whether it’s worth a click.
      Other than that you have to resort to hyperlinking and using a descriptor inside the closing tag.
      
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      March 7, 2017 2:45pm
      - Fletch
        
        It’s a pity Kiwiblog doesn’t have an embed feature.
        
        We used to have it. You just pasted the youtube link and it was automatically embedded. I think people probably got carried away and it may have impacted page load times or something. In any case, it is no more 🙁
        
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        March 7, 2017 3:47pm
    - Fletch
      
      It’s a Fox News segment where conservative radio host Mark Levin is interviewed. (Levin was also chief of staff for the Attorney General under Reagan). He reads from about seven different sources – all liberal, including the New York Times, The Guardian, etc.
      
      Some items include –
      
      June 2016: FISA request. The Obama administration files a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers. The request, uncharacteristically, is denied.
      
      October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.
      
      January: Obama expands NSA sharing. As Michael Walsh later notes, and as the New York Times reports, the outgoing Obama administration “expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.” The new powers, and reduced protections, could make it easier for intelligence on private citizens to be circulated improperly or leaked.
      
      January: Times report. The New York Times reports, on the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties.
      
      In summary: the Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.
      
      Levin called the effort a “silent coup” by the Obama administration and demanded that it be investigated.
      
      It would please me no end to see Obama end up in jail.
      
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      March 7, 2017 3:59pm
      - cha
        
        Louise Mensch has a theory, too.
        
        Ok. theory as to why Putinbots went so crazy trying to place #SpinalWiretap Trump Tower away from the @BreitbartNews EXCLUSIVE it is. 1/— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
        2/ IC has the goods or will have the goods on Trump and co. Trump and Bannon only hope is to discredit US IC – weapon – illegal leaks— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
        3/ But if I am correct, there really was a Trump Tower wiretap under the #FISA order (Manafort? stone). Trump got intercept. Bannon leaked— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
        4/ Speculate: If any White House staffer leaked a REAL Trump Tower @FBI #FISA wiretap to @BreitbartNews who EXCLUSIVELY report this…— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
        5/ not only is there a very small **and traceable** group of WH people whom IC would have notified of any such Trump Tower #FISA wiretap…— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
        6/ Now any @FBI "Leak inquiry" Trump calls for will be FORCED to focus RIGHT ON HIM AND BANNON – Breitbart alone report Trump Tower tap— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
        7/final this is a leak from White House to @BreitbartNews of @FBI info of weapons grade secrecy – #FISA at Trump Tower concerning Trump— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 7, 2017
        
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        March 7, 2017 4:06pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Fletch , the actual sources ( with documentation )for the allegation that the former President actually ordered a phone tap on the current President in his Trump tower.
        
        If the allegation fails to deliver to you think Trump should resign and face prosecution ?
        
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        March 7, 2017 4:29pm
      - Fletch
        
        Whether he directly ordered it or not, Obama had to have known about it. There is also precedent, with Obama’s administration having spied on James Rosen and other AP reporters. His NSA also spied on Americans, and his IRS targetted conservative groups.
        
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        March 7, 2017 5:48pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Fletch , you , Fox , Breitbart etc just produce the facts and evidence with documentaion !
        
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        March 7, 2017 5:51pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        The summary is not correct. I think Mark Levin is just extrapolating from the small bits of information that are known, and you are just buying it. And, it seems, President Trump is buying it as well, rather than getting it directly from the FBI, etc.
        
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        March 7, 2017 6:15pm
- cha
  
  The latest from John Schindler:
  
  Truth hurts.
  
  Want 2 thank @jessebwatters & @FoxNews — your insane followers are issuing death threats against me AND @observer. Well done, you criminals— John Schindler (@20committee) March 7, 2017
  
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  March 7, 2017 3:55pm
Nev.

Good morning Kiwibloggers.

What are your thoughts on Opinion pieces in MSM?

We have a media that many people go to to formulate or confirm their beliefs that run constant attack Opinion pieces, giving them as much credence as actual news stories, if not more.

Unfortunately a lot of New Zealanders are reading these and all they are doing is confirming their already ingrained confirmation bias. Not to mention people are reading it in a Media article giving the pieces an air of authenticity.

I would like to run a poll –

If you think that news media should stick to news of importance and only report verifiable facts, and leave the opinions to others UPTICK.

If you think that the likes of Phil Quin, Oscar Kightly, Lickie Marbelly, Guy Williams actually offer something of value DOWNTICK
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March 7, 2017 9:25am
- SGA
  
  That’s a bit of a false dichotomy, Nev. Are the choices really between the news media offering no analysis or opinion at all (and it’s unclear when you say “leave the opinions to others” who these “others” are meant to be) versus the opinions of comedians?
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:33am
  - Nev.
    
    Are the populace really that stupid we can’t formulate our own opinions from properly sourced and researched news pieces that we need celebrities to tell us what we should be thinking?
    
    My concern is the majority of these pieces masquerade as actual news pieces.
    
    Nev.
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:52am
    - stephieboy
      
      Nev , tell us about your favoured news sources ?
      
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      March 7, 2017 9:55am
      - Nev.
        
        Hi stephie,
        Only alt-right approved sites.
        Nev.
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:02am
      - Stars And Stripes
        
        Talking about news sources Stephieboy, do they still publish that nasty Central Leader rag up there in Mt Roskill?.
        Great reading though I must say if you want to find out about the real issues out in the community like the new floor covering at the local mosque or the specials on camel steaks at Mohammed’s butchery.
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:08am
      - waikatogirl
        
        S&S, Mr waikato reported on his arrival home that camel steaks are available on Avalon Drive in Hamilton. Kind of the “Waikato Mt Roskill”. Must be a growing market for camel kebab.
        
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        March 7, 2017 1:29pm
    - stephieboy
      
      nev, like Infowars ?
      
      Stars and Stripes , yes the Cental leader is still going strong. What about your South Auckland one ?
      
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      March 7, 2017 10:09am
    - SGA
      
      Are the populace really that stupid we can’t formulate our own opinions from properly sourced and researched news pieces that we need celebrities to tell us what we should be thinking?
      
      But the only alternative you see to celebrities appears to be no analysis or opinion at all. I can form my own opinions, but as well as the bald facts I don’t mind reading others’ analyses or comments, be they an Editor, DPF, Rodney Hide or Chris Trotter,say, for a different perspective. Even if I don’t necessarily reverse my opinion, it may become more refined.
      
      (as an analogy, Kimbo and I have different perspectives on religion, but I don’t mind reading his comments because I learn things and it makes me examine my own opinions – Scott, on the other hand …)
      
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      March 7, 2017 10:17am
      - Nev.
        
        All those people you have mentioned have analyses worth reading, as they have an insight into political machinations and processes. I was probably unfair to add Phil Quin in my original post as he also writes some very informative pieces. I may not agree with them all, but that is my right.
        
        My main point is that “Opinions” are very often afforded full spread on websites pages, treated as news and devoured as such. Add a low IQ readership and you can control the message to the point dissenting voices can’t be heard.
        
        News media have become little more than blogs. Blogs are becoming more like Media.
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:31am
      - SGA
        
        I’m not sure that the number of people who, like you, take the opinions of Guy Williams with a grain of salt is really that tiny. I also suspect that many of the people that worry you the most aren’t reading the news anyway.
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:58am
- jonar
  
  So the Editorial opinion that DPF just quoted in a post is out too?
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:43am
  - Nev.
    
    Hi jonar,
    Editorial pieces are a standard journalism feature.
    Opinion pieces are not held to the same standards as editorials, although I note even DomPost editors don’t put their name to pieces these days.
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:55am
    - reid3
      
      Editorials denote the position of the masthead. They are not the editor’s opinion.
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:12pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Oh no,
  
  you missed out Bryan Gould
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bryan-gould/news/headlines.cfm?a_id=804
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:01am
  - Inandout
    
    He loves Corbyn too.
    
    http://www.bryangould.com/putting-labour-together-again/
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:12am
Griff

We have a media that many people go to to formulate or confirm their beliefs that run constant attack Opinion pieces, giving them as much credence as actual news stories, if not more.

Tell that to Trump.
He got his Obama wiretapped me from some alt right nuts rant on brietbart.
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March 7, 2017 9:41am
- Nev.
  
  Case in point. Although Brietbart is a “blog” is it not? What you read on some blogs is less likely to be as reliable as (most) media that has been run through the editorial mill. Opinions don’t have to pass the sniff test.
  
  There is a famous KB commentator who uses the phrase “In my considered opinion” to say anything they want, regardless of whether it has an ounce of truth to it.
  
  That’s the thing with opinions – they can be right or wrong. But when they are printed as news people can take them at face value. And people don’t have to retract opinions if they’re found to be completely wrong.
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:00am
- Ed Snack
  
  Wrong, the NYT itself reported that some of his associates had been bugged. Breitbart was if anything late to the table on this.
  
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  March 7, 2017 3:02pm
  - Griff
    
    Can you lend me your secret trumpie decoder ring?
    No where in the MSM did a story about trump being bugged by Obama occur .
    The story’s that the trump team was being was monitored by the investigating community is not the same as trump was being bugged by Obama.
    Trump was being bugged by Obama comes from breitbart and is totally unsupported conjecture.
    
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    March 7, 2017 9:38pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Nice screenshot of the NYT article on Jan 19.
      Ed is right.
      https://americanlookout.com/jpb-ny-times-confirmed-months-ago-wiretapped-communications-trump-campaign-existed/
      The NYT was also amongst others claiming wire tapping.
      So either fake news is being exposed with made up sources purely to interfere in the Election to discredit Trump or Obama’s stooges have broken the law spying on US citizens (won’t be the first time) and releasing secret info (felony)
      Either way Trump wins.
      Weren’t you amongst those claiming Trump was working with Russia?
      Now said to be wrong by DNI Clapper- wow, all those who did look really stoooopid now. Lol.
      
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      March 7, 2017 10:19pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        edit Jan 20
        This was different from the Jan 19 article
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:33pm
    - Griff
      
      Slowly because you are thick .
      Saying the investigative community was Wiretapping the trump team is not claiming Obama wire tapped the trump team.
      If you can not understand the difference you need to have an adult explain it to you.
      The source for Obama wire tapped the trump team is from brietbart and is unsubstantiated opinion with no proof offered.
      As the Russian connection has already been exposed with one resignation as a result that trumps team did talk to the Kremlin is fact .
      As they were not the government at that time this was an illegal act.
      
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      March 7, 2017 10:52pm
Nostradamus

Ghost earthquakes across NZ after large shake in the Kermadecs

A large earthquake to the north of New Zealand has led to a number of ghost quakes recorded across the North Island this morning. A magnitude 5.7 quake struck at 8.26am in the Kermadec Islands, nearly 1500 kilometres north-east of the country.

You have to hand it to Brian Tamaki:

Tamaki says that natural disasters are side-effects of environmental pollution, abuse and sexual sins. Referencing Leviticus, from the Old Testament, he writes: “No other sin in the whole of the bible has any connection to earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions, but sexual perversions alone.”

I had no idea that gays were living on the Kermadec Islands!
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March 7, 2017 9:53am
EAD

A new Youtube video released today by WWII Historian Matthew Drake examines through the medium of clever sketching, some of the myths that have built up since the end of the WWII:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5q1h9DM-eY#t=2m05s

Well worth a watch. Even when I discuss the basics of WWII, people are shocked on even the most simple of facts:
– France & Britain declared war on Germany first and never declared war on the Soviet Union who also invaded Poland
– Hitler didn’t start indiscriminate bombings — Churchill did. Even the British admit it ( see: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/10/the-bombing-war-by-richard-overy-review/ )
– The Hiroshima atomic bomb was not the most devastating air raid of the war. in terms of number of casualties. It was Dresden, followed by Hiroshima, then Hamburg then Nagasaki
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March 7, 2017 9:54am
- SPC
  
  Well Germany was warned what would happen if they attacked Poland (after having betrayed the Munich agreement in conquering Czechoslovakia) …
  
  And sure when the German strategy of attacking RAF airfields was working, it was decided to provoke the Germans by using the unused bomber command and going onto a token offensive, and the one balled lying sociopath told the fat man to bomb the English cities (with fighters diverted to air support), thus the RAF recovered and won that air struggle.
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:07am
  - Kimbo
    
    The initial British bombing (which, from memory, had one casualty – a dead giraffe at the Berlin Zoo), was in retaliation to a German bomber that was lost at night, and inadvertently ditched its load on London.
    
    But it is intriguing how two comparative “pin pricks”, the one you mentioned by the RAF, that caused the Luftwaffe to switch to the Blitz instead of the RAF airfields, and also the otherwise inconsequential Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942 provoked strategic mistakes by the Axis. In the latter example, Roosevelt, when asked how the American B26s had got close enough to launch replied they had come from the new US carrier, ‘Shangri La’ (it was actually from the USS Hornet).
    
    In response to the propaganda failure/disgrace of having their capital bombed, the Japanese decided to force a battle where they intended to destroy the US carrier force, which they had missed at Pearl Harbour. However, at the time and location of their choosing at Midway, and due to a whole series of mistakes, miscalculations and near misses (including the wrong assumption that the Yorktown had been sunk the month before in the Coral Sea)…the American planes caught the Japanese with their carrier decks strewn with ammunition in a vital five minute envelope of opportunity.
    
    And that was the end of any long-term chances the Japanese had…
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:15am
- Kimbo
  
  The Hiroshima atomic bomb was not the most devastating air raid of the war. in terms of number of casualties. It was Dresden, followed by Hiroshima, then Hamburg then Nagasaki
  
  Nope. The Tokyo Fire Raid:
  
  The Operation Meetinghouse air raid of 9–10 March 1945, which annihilated 16 sq.miles and left over 1 million homeless, was later estimated to be the single most destructive bombing raid in human history; Japanese later called this event Night of the Black Snow…
  
  The figure of roughly 100,000 deaths, provided by Japanese and American authorities, both of whom may have had reasons of their own for minimizing the death toll, seems to be arguably low in light of population density, wind conditions, and survivors’ accounts. With an average of 103,000 inhabitants per square mile (396 people per hectare) and peak levels as high as 135,000 per square mile (521 people per hectare), the highest density of any industrial city in the world, and with firefighting measures ludicrously inadequate to the task, 15.8 square miles (41 km2) of Tokyo were destroyed on a night when fierce winds whipped the flames and walls of fire blocked tens of thousands fleeing for their lives. An estimated 1.5 million people lived in the burned out areas.
  
  In his 1968 book, reprinted in 1990, historian Gabriel Kolko cited a figure of 125,000 deaths. Elise K. Tipton, professor of Japan studies, arrived at a rough range of 75,000 to 200,000 deaths. Donald L. Miller, citing Knox Burger, stated that there were “at least 100,000” Japanese deaths and “about one million” injured.
  
  The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9 March 1945 was the single deadliest air raid of World War II greater than Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki as single events.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:57am
  - EAD
    
    http://www.rense.com/general19/flame.htm
    
    February 13/14 1945: Holocaust over Dresden, known as the Florence of the North. Dresden was a hospital city for wounded soldiers. Not one military unit, not one anti-aircraft battery was deployed in the city. Together with the 600.000 refugees from Breslau, Dresden was filled with nearly 1.2 million people. Churchill had asked for “suggestions how to blaze 600.000 refugees”. He wasn’t interested how to target military installations 60 miles outside of Dresden. More than 700.000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on 1.2 million people. One bomb for every 2 people. The temperature in the centre of the city reached 1600 o centigrade. More than 260.000 bodies and residues of bodies were counted. But those who perished in the centre of the city can’t be traced. Approximately 500.000 children, women, the elderly, wounded soldiers and the animals of the zoo were slaughtered in one night
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:06am
    - Kimbo
      
      Not one military unit, not one anti-aircraft battery was deployed in the city.
      
      However, it was located at a crucial transport juncture, and I seem to recall the Soviets requested the bombing to stuff up German logistics on the Eastern Front.
      
      But then, as Field Marshall Montgomery told the German negotiators when they quibbled over the terms of “unconditional surrender” in his tent, and they mentioned all the innocent German civilians, including children who were suffering, “You should have thought of that before you bombed Coventry”.
      
      World War II – a just war against a malevolent evil. Tokyo, Hamburg, Hiroshima, Nagasaki – awful acts of war that, on the scales, were good and right because they ultimately saved lives. Dresden? In the fog of war, maybe a mistake. But ultimate responsibility did not lie at Churchill’s feet. Nor even Stalin’s.
      
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      March 7, 2017 11:26am
      - reid3
        
        Actually it lies at the feet of Hitler, Stalin, Tojo, Churchill and Roosevelt if you know your history which hardly any Western people do.
        
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        March 7, 2017 12:18pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Meh. All revisionism of the causes of WWII, starting with AJP Taylor are crap. The Axis were nasty bastards set on world conquest and the brutal murder of millions they considered their racial inferiors. Sometimes it is that simple.
        
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        March 7, 2017 12:34pm
      - EAD
        
        The Axis were nasty bastards set on world conquest and the brutal murder of millions they considered their racial inferiors. Sometimes it is that simple
        
        Amazing how history is sanitised and fitted into a simple “black & white” narrative of goodies and badies depending on the agenda being pushed. I too was an admirer of Churchill up until some 8-9 years ago and used to believe all the bullcrap about him being the bulldog war leader who saved the British (and by default us).
        
        But then, upon spending some significant amount of time in the UK, I’d hear older people I spoke to call Churchill a fat war mongering bastard but just assumed that they were old lefties.
        
        Consequently, I read many books from the library on the war and now realise they had been heavily sanitised for our consumption
        
        We are constantly told we “won” the war, only to have our homelands utterly destroyed through Globalism, where we must “tolerate” every kind of deviancy, degeneracy and vice pushed upon us whilst being policed by our own government & Susan Devoy if we speak out about it. At same time, we’ve all been made debt slaves with our nations plunged into exponential debt through Central Banking.
        
        It is no wonder so many Veterans are in disbelief and wonder why they fought the war. We all would have been better off if the National Socialists won the war instead of the Globalists
        
        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229643/This-isnt-Britain-fought-say-unknown-warriors-WWII.html
        
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        March 7, 2017 8:18pm
    - Kiwi Dave
      
      Whether or not the bombing of Dresden was morally justified, the 260, 000 figure is wildly exaggerated.
      
      Both the earliest estimate in 1945 by the Dresden City Council (I can’t recall its exact title) and the most recent(and reputedly, historically very careful) estimate by the Dresden City Council in 2010, put the death toll at about 25, 000.
      
      Goebbels deliberately exaggerated the number for propaganda purposes; after the Cold War began, the Communist government also used the exaggerated number for propaganda against the West.
      
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      March 7, 2017 5:08pm
      - EAD
        
        Goebbels deliberately exaggerated the number for propaganda purposes; after the Cold War began, the Communist government also used the exaggerated number for propaganda against the West.
        
        Wrong – the Globalists and purveyors of our MSM deliberately underestimate the number of deaths from Dresden for propaganda puroposes
        
        Can’t have people doubting the “moral and just” war narrative now can we especially when being a National Socialist is the insult of choice for those who object to their countries being turned into 3rd world cesspits.
        
        Speaking of something being over exaggerated….. did they ever revise down the mythical 6 million figure after the apparent Auschwitz death toll got revised down from 4 down to the still wildly overly exaggerated figure of 1 million?
        
        Or is the 6 million number still held up as fact, (punishable by imprisonment in 22 countries) as propaganda against the West?
        
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        March 7, 2017 8:45pm
      - Kiwi Dave
        
        Dresden city authorities gave the first estimate of deaths at c. 25, 000. If you prefer Goebbels’ much higher figure, you need to explain why his number in Berlin differs from the much lower figure supplied by the local authorities.
        
        Firestorm death tolls vary according to many factors, but it is odd that your claimed Dresden figure is massively higher than any other firestorm death figure in Germany or Japan. For example, Hamburg, with a population of 2 million, had a total death toll of about 45000 from a week of raids in July 1943, but mostly in a firestorm that burnt out about 10 sq km, and this occurred in ideal conditions – long, hot, dry weather, wind, and a heavy concentration of bombers largely undisturbed by fighters and flak.
        
        Unfortunately, I don’t keep records of the books and articles I’ve read, so I can’t refer you to them, but modern historians, including some quite critical of area bombing and its morality, reject the high figures you give.
        
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        March 7, 2017 9:56pm
      - Griff
        
        EAD linked to rense .com to support his bullshite.
        Not a reliable source and not proof of anything besides he is a smegwit .
        http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jeff_Rense
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:06pm
- Nermal
  
  You forget to include Warsaw and Rotterdam, cities indiscriminately bombed earlier in the war. Or Leningrad and Stalingrad, levelled with artillery.
  
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  March 7, 2017 1:15pm
Nev.

OPINION…
President Donald Trump’s wiretap tweets raise risk of impeachment

SOURCE: Washington Post.
FOUND: Stuff.
Comments Open? Yes.
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March 7, 2017 10:15am
Manolo

Oh dear, a hack almost breaks down:
https://news.grabien.com/story-mika-tearfully-tells-viewers-trump-if-people-out-there-feel

President Trump’s wiretap tweets struck an emotional chord with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinksi. The morning anchor fought back tears as she told viewers that “we are all really nervous” about what the Trump Administration is going to do.
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March 7, 2017 10:25am
- Inandout
  
  I thought even TV stations had safe rooms for snowflake breakdowns.
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:17am
- thedavincimode
  
  Matters have clearly arrived at the point where the prospect of having to read anything related to Trumpie represents a serious occupational health & safety risk. It’s only a matter of time before before one of these networks is sued by a talking head for failing to take sufficient measures to protect staff from the emotional trauma associated with Trumpie-related news.
  
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  March 7, 2017 12:30pm
iMP

MORE ON THE TRUMP BUGGING SCANDAL
1 Jim Comey director of the FBI has asked the State Dept to repudiate Trump’s Tweets (that Obama bugged him) They have not
2 WHouse insiders say the allegations are true (such as Michael Mukasey a former Attorney General)
3 We know Obama targeted Conservative opponents via the IRS and they were specifically targeted while others who supported Obama were not; and there are other examples of this misuse of Federal power by Obama against political opponents
4 A request was made to bug TRump in June 2016 but was declined
5 Obama used disguises to communicate with Clinton via her personal email server yet denied he knew of her server
6 Trump has still not released any proof but has said “watch this space”
7 Democrats have been alleged Russian collusion with Trump for months and there has been an investigation going on since mid last year: NO EVIDENCE HAS EMERGED
8 Dems allege AG Sessions lied – and he recused himself of managing the investigation- and used his casual meeting with the Russian Ambassador (which most other Democrat leaders have also commonly had AND Obama had 22 times during his reign) as “evidence” of inappropriate Russian contact (Sessions is on the foreign affairs committee and would normally meet with Ambassadors)
9 Sessions was asked a Q related to his involvement with the campaign and briefing Russians and answered that; he did not feel it included casual contact with the Russian Ambassador as all senators have
10 Dems are also alleging that Trumps tax returns needcto be released to show “collusion” with Russia; but the Clinton’s had multiple business dealings with Russia so how would business involvement with Russia (which Trump denies) be “evidence” of Russia influencing the election (ad therefore justifying Trump being bugged by the Obama regime?)
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March 7, 2017 10:31am
Manolo

Hold on to your hats. This guy can see further than EAD:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/05/wall-st-is-misreading-trump-and-a-market-bloodbath-is-imminent-stockman.html
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March 7, 2017 10:36am
- reid3
  
  March 15 is when the debt ceiling expires leaving the Fed with 600 billion unless Congress extends. Will they or will the Deep State use it to take another swipe at Trump?
  
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  March 7, 2017 12:23pm
Hugh Pavletich

As NZ population booms, dwelling supply is falling – MacroBusiness Australia

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/03/nz-population-booms-dwelling-supply-falling/

… Pavletich comment on thread …

I had a few things to say to Christchurch Newstalk ZB radio host Chris Lynch back mid-February on some … just some … aspects of New Zealand’s lousy construction performance … listen up …

Hugh Pavletich ‘Bill English is wrong on housing and he knows it’

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/christchurch/canterbury-mornings/audio/hugh-pavletich-bill-english-is-wrong-on-housing-and-he-knows-it/

About the same time, I touched on other aspects of the issue in the front part of this Sunday Star Times / Fairfax article by Rob Stock …

How to make housing affordable? Political parties draw battlelines | Stuff.co.nz

http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/money/89189951/political-parties-draw-battlelines-on-housing-affordability

With all due respects Leith, to suggest the Government ‘has a single minded focus on Auckland’ is wrong. Instead it has a grossly muddled approach to everything with no political leadership.

PM Bill English should have fired Building & Construction Minister Nick Smith mid-December. Smith will lose the election for them 23 September 2017.

At the time of this year’s Demographia Housing Affordability Survey release 23 January, I touched on these leadership failings within … ‘New Zealand’s housing consensus: Where is the political leadership ?’ …

http://pc.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/auckland-worlds-fourth-hardest-to-buy.html
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March 7, 2017 10:39am
- rangitoto
  
  “auckland-worlds-fourth-hardest-to-buy”
  
  Good to hear. It helps keep the rif raff out.
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:50am
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    Rangitoto … A dreadful comment !
    
    There are still a few doddery National Party voters left in Auckland I understand.
    
    Not all of them have sold their million dollar Auckland homes to buy in (say) Southland for $300,000 (pocketing $700,000 ish of unearned loot … paid for by the young with grossly excessive mortgages. Reverse Welfare is the technical term. Political theft is a better one though.) … ‘to be closer to family’ (being the dopey excuse they tell their gullible mates).
    
    Have you found a young sucker to sell your home to in Auckland yet ?
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:33am
    - Happychappy
      
      Did it finally comprehend with what brain you have left Hugh that Bill is the PM and you don’t need to post your pet hate mail about John Key any more, Its only taken three months.
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:24pm
    - starboard
      
      Lol..300K house in Southland..it must be a fucking castle on 500 acres.
      
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      March 7, 2017 1:16pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        … Moody’s Report …
        
        Housing affordability in Auckland remains poor MOODY’S | Scoop News
        
        http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1703/S00213/housing-affordability-in-auckland-remains-poor.htm
        
        Moody’s: Housing affordability in Auckland remains poor, despite improvement
        
        Sydney, March 07, 2017 — Moody’s Investors Service says that the poor state of housing affordability in Auckland — despite a recent improvement driven by rising incomes and low interest rates — is credit negative for New Zealand covered bonds.
        
        “Rising household incomes and record low interest rates have prevented a deterioration in housing affordability in New Zealand over the past year, including in Auckland, the country’s largest city,” says Karen Burkhardt, a Moody’s Associate Analyst.
        
        “However, high housing prices in Auckland — which accounts for a large proportion of mortgage loans in New Zealand cover pools — mean that new home owners in the city are spending on average close to half of their monthly income on mortgage repayments, making it considerably less affordable than any other region in the country,” adds Burkhardt.
        
        Moody’s conclusions were contained in a just-released report on New Zealand covered bonds, “Auckland Housing Affordability Remains Poor Despite Improvement”. … read more via hyperlink above …
        
        Where are buyers winning price battle? | Susan Edmunds| Stuff.co.nz
        
        http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/90167661/where-are-buyers-winning-price-battle
        
        Note … further discussion / comment at …
        
        As NZ population booms, dwelling supply is falling – MacroBusiness Australia
        
        http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/03/nz-population-booms-dwelling-supply-falling/
        
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        March 7, 2017 7:00pm
Manolo

Some new “Germans” demand quality:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4285316/Migrants-smash-German-asylum-centre-injure-police.html

A German police officer has been severely injured in a weekend riot by drunken refugees armed with iron bars who smashed their accommodation centre to smithereens.

Two men from Togo and six from Ghana went berserk at their asylum home in Rees-Haldern, near the Dutch border a DAY after moving in because they were ‘unhappy’ with their quarters.
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March 7, 2017 10:54am
- Nev.
  
  When asked Togo they said they werent Ghana.
  Nev.
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:22am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That’s gotta beat anything posted here this year.
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:28am
EAD

In what must be a first for Zerohedge, they shine a light on the Nation wrecking Frankfurt School founded by an entirley Jewish cast of Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Friedrich Pollock, Erich Fromm, Otto Kirchheimer, Leo Löwenthal, Franz Leopold Neumann & Henryk Grossman:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-05/how-cultural-marxists-frankfurt-school-subverted-american-education#comment-9135586

They found themselves unwelcome in Germany during the 1930s, and one of the two reasons was that all of them were Communists. They moved to the USA, settling down in Columbia University. How did they repay the country that gave them refuge? By subverting it, of course……

They had two strategies: ensconcing themselves into academia, and the criticism of society (hence “critical theory”). Ultimately, this meant ideological subversion and basically badgering society to death. (It seems incredible that they did so much without picking up a single rifle.) They stressed moral relativism and the “question everything” atmosphere that became the 1960s counterculture zeitgeist. A few of their books, such as Eros and Civilization by Herbert Marcuse and The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno, have become classics in academia.
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March 7, 2017 11:12am
Nev.

OPINION…
Donald Trump: Bonkers, paranoid or trapped?

SOURCE: The Washington Post
FOUND: Stuff
COMMENTS: Yes
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March 7, 2017 11:32am
- Nev.
  
  This is why I have issues with opinions. Media are using them to frame a narrative without any obligation to report fair balanced articles.
  
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  March 7, 2017 11:42am
  - Kimbo
    
    I know some media do purport to be “fair and balanced”, but why should that be a obligation? As long as they report things that are facts, then their job is done. If they throw opinions on top of that which match their editorial stance and the expectation of their consumers, that is their prerogative. With so many alternatives these days, there is plenty of choice.
    
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    March 7, 2017 11:47am
    - Nev.
      
      Oh Cripes, formulating a reply without invoking Kimbo’s Law. I will do my best!
      
      Are there that many alternatives? News these days is aggregated and sold on to media all around the world. Fairfax sources the majority of its news from 3 major sources, CNN, WaPo and NYT (with HuffPo thrown in for entertainment and lifestyle). None of these sources could be described as bipartisan outlets. So what we get is partisan opinions and news that is parroting the same agenda.
      
      Yes, there are media on the other side of the divide that do the same, but here in New Zealand the 2 major news aggregators, Fairfax and NZME both use the same sources.
      
      If they are fulfilling their customers expectations, why are both struggling to stay afloat to the point where they considered merging, only to be told no by the ComCom?
      
      Is it that we are not reading enough news, or that they are not reporting the type of news we want to read?
      
      (Signs my name on the bottom and hands it in to the teacher)
      Nev.
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:07pm
      - Kimbo
        
        If they are fulfilling their customers expectations, why are both struggling to stay afloat to the point where they considered merging, only to be told no by the ComCom?
        
        Is it that we are not reading enough news, or that they are not reporting the type of news we want to read?
        
        Neither, IMHO. Just as the printing press made scribes redundant, the steam engine superseded sailing ships, and the internal combustion engine made most railways uneconomic, so the recording. movie and media industries are in a state of flux, courtesy of increased (sometimes specialist indie) supply via the internet.
        
        Which means consumers are more choosy/have more choice, and, as a collective group are more discerning. Hence Brexit and Trump triumphed despite the MSM bias against them, and why “Dirty Politics” was given short shrift by NZ voters in 2014.
        
        But 10/10 for eschewing unnecessary and/or excessive adverbs 😉
        
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        March 7, 2017 12:25pm
  - Griff
    
    Betteridge’s law of headlines is one name for an adage that states: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist,[1][2] although the principle is much older.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines
    
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    March 7, 2017 12:02pm
    - Nev.
      
      More commonly known these days as JAQING OFF
      (And mikenmild thinks no-one listens!)
      Nev.
      
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      March 7, 2017 12:10pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Repeated comment. Yes.
  
  Edited to add, ok slightly different from the 10:15 one.
  
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  March 7, 2017 12:01pm
SPC

“The government would have been better to hold off until after the election. But that’s all in hindsight now.”

Rachel Smalley

Brilliant commentary not – the government would not have been better advised to hide such an intention from voters till after the election, they would have only lost the trust of voters ….
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March 7, 2017 11:54am
Stars And Stripes

MPI orders ‘dirty’ ship to leave New Zealand
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/90138737/mpi-orders-dirty-ship-containing-palm-kernel-to-leave-Tauranga.
“MPI understands the vessel will go to Fiji for cleaning”.

Can we extend this concept and send all dirty human visitors to Fiji for cleaning as well and if they cannot be scrubbed up to a reasonable standard leave them there.
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March 7, 2017 12:21pm
Manolo

An unimaginable situation under a socialist Labour-Greens government, where the NZ economy would crash and burn after an endless waste and spending splurge.
http://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/news/govt-surplus-surges-as-tax-take-rises/ar-AAnUB67?li=BBqdg4K&ocid=mailsignout

The government has recorded a stronger surplus thanks to a higher tax take and lower spending.

Excluding investment gains and losses, the operating surplus stood at $1,145 million for the seven months to January, compared with the $442m surplus that had been forecast.
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March 7, 2017 12:42pm
- starboard
  
  Cue election bribes with ” our ” money.
  
  Put it in the Cullen fund.
  
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  March 7, 2017 1:14pm
  - sam green
    
    That fantastic Labour initiative.
    
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    March 8, 2017 12:32am
cha

Say it ain’t so.

http://www.thelocal.se/20170306/rinkeby-teens-say-russian-tv-crew-tried-to-bribe-them
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March 7, 2017 1:09pm
- Nev.
  
  Stand here. Do this. Now act angry! Ignore the camera!
  
  Standard MSM treatment. Quelle Surprise!
  
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  March 7, 2017 7:42pm
big bruv

Great news!!!
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/concerns-for-martin-mcguinness-after-reports-he-has-spent-two-weeks-in-hospital-35506093.html
I hope the murdering cunt is in great pain and spends his last days on this earth suffering terribly. It is nothing less than he deserves.
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March 7, 2017 1:26pm
- Manolo
  
  Nobody would disagree with you.
  
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  March 7, 2017 1:53pm
- stephieboy
  
  big bruv , but not of course the UDA and their murderous ? leadership,
  
  “The UDA’s killer wing: murder goes by any name
  As the UDA announces it is standing down its military wing after hundreds of killings, Jonathan McCambridge traces the murderous history of the terror group..”
  
  http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/the-udas-killer-wing-murder-goes-by-any-name-28397565.html
  
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  March 7, 2017 2:17pm
cha

Remember when Trump said any Iranian boats that made gestures will be shot out of the water?.

A US Navy ship was forced to change course when fast-moving Iranian vessels approached it in the Strait of Hormuz, US officials say.

The USNS Invincible changed direction when the other vessels came within 600 yards (550m) before stopping.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39186438
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March 7, 2017 1:28pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Trump and his idiotic loud mouth!
  
  3 7
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  March 7, 2017 2:03pm
Lucia Maria

Australian top spy, flying on a diplomatic passport, gets thoroughly searched including with latex, when landing in LA.

ASIS Director-General Nick Warner cops Mem Fox treatment at US border

You’d think being the top government spy of a staunch US ally – travelling on a diplomatic passport – would spare you the latex welcome, but no. Not even. Warner got the full treatment last month at LAX arrivals, transferring for meetings in the capital (including, you’d safely assume, at Langley, Virginia).

Must be something to do with Trump’s war on spies and distrust of Australians after THAT phone call …
4 7
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March 7, 2017 2:02pm
- Manolo
  
  Imagine what the Holy See top spy can expect when he travels to the United States? 😀
  
  8 0
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  March 7, 2017 2:25pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    What, the full rack treatment?
    
    3 3
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    March 7, 2017 2:27pm
    - Manolo
      
      I was considering the possibility of him enjoying the latex!
      
      8 1
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      March 7, 2017 2:30pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        See, that would never occur to me.
        Must be a man thing.
        
        3 3
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        March 7, 2017 3:00pm
rangitoto

Kurdish healer says Trump is possesed by a djinn but never fear, he can be cured by the beating the soles of his feet. Maybe he’s a heeler rather than a healer.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/060320173
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March 7, 2017 3:07pm
krazykiwi

Govt to back Green Party proposal for domestic violence leave at first hurdle

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11813615

I suspect National’s move here is to short circuit any suggestion that not supporting this bill is tantamount to supporting domestic violence, which is obviously how Labour, Greens etc would play it.

Let’s hope the definition of violence includes verbal & psychological in addition to physical.

And perhaps they could get the scope widened to include the trauma I suffer when it’s pointed out that I’m male and/or European and/or bald.
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March 7, 2017 3:10pm
- Stars And Stripes
  
  I reckon this piece of feminist/lesbian legislation is a crock of shit and should have been put out of its misery at the first hurdle.
  Nothing of value to the country here.
  
  6 2
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  March 7, 2017 3:46pm
  - wiseowl
    
    Along with the latest crap about the gender pay gap there should be equality for males.
    They have a Minister for Women and a Ministry full of women to research ,lobby ,manipulate and punish anything male while males have no Ministry to counter the screeds of biased information spewed out of the beehive.
    
    8 0
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    March 7, 2017 5:56pm
    - sam green
      
      Why don’t you suggest that to your MP? A white male’s ministry.
      
      0 0
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      March 8, 2017 12:28am
UrbanNeocolonialist

From Saudi Arabia, that stalwart member of the UN commission on human rights (along with Venezuela), naughty police beating transgendered Pakistanis to death:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-4287354/Activists-say-two-Pakistani-transgender-women-beaten-death-Saudi-Arabia.html

Better or worse than torturing and murdering people for heresy, homosexuality, apostasy or being raped?
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March 7, 2017 3:43pm
- krazykiwi
  
  In 2015 Saudi beheaded more people than ISIS. In addition to their seat on the UNHRC, they chair a 5-member group of ambassadors, known as the Consultative Group, which has the power to select applicants from around the world for more than 77 positions dealing with country-specific and thematic human rights.
  
  Utterly disgraceful.
  
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  March 7, 2017 4:46pm
- krazykiwi
  
  And here’s Saudi advertising for 8 more executioners
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/18/saudi-arabia-advertises-eight-new-executioners-beheadings-soar
  
  8 0
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  March 7, 2017 4:50pm
- stephieboy
  
  UN and KK , out of curiosity do you both support the states in the US that retain the death penalty ?
  
  Should the President sever diplomatic relations with SA and order retaliatory sanctions ? This so even considering his country’s and his own business interests there ?
  
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  March 7, 2017 5:08pm
  - Nev.
    
    Dont be stupid stephie, Saudi Arabia is on the UN Council, and therefore a beacon of Human and Womens rights in an otherwise dusty hellhole.
    
    8 1
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    March 7, 2017 5:52pm
  - Manolo
    
    Is there any atrocity perpetrated by Muslims that you wouldn’t condone, stephieboy?
    
    13 2
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    March 7, 2017 5:54pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Sadly my taxes support the UN, and by inference Saudi leadership of the UNHRC and related panels. Fortunately they do not support any US state so your question is moot. (Everyone.. yeah I know, I know… don’t feed the troll-clan)
    
    7 1
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    March 7, 2017 6:02pm
Happychappy

Did any one listen to Winston Peters and his feeble attempt to be coherent while debating Bill English in Parliaments Question Time today. Either he had been drinking or his he has lost his skills and has reverted to rambling like the obese leader of the Greens when trying to speak Maori.
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March 7, 2017 5:01pm
Manolo

Crooked Hillary’s supporter and brother of her right-hand man was in the pocket of the Russians. What a surprise!
http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/06/exclusive-dem-super-lobbyist-podesta-got-170k-to-end-us-sanctions-on-russian-bank/

Democrat super-lobbyist Tony Podesta was paid $170,000 over a six-month period last year to represent Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, seeking to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against that country, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

Podesta is the brother of John Podesta, who was the national campaign chairman for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s losing 2016 campaign for the presidency. Former President Barack Obama imposed the sanctions following the Russian seizure of the Crimean region of Ukraine in 2014.
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March 7, 2017 5:14pm
reid3

If the stories are correct, Obama or his officials might even face prosecution. But, we are still early in all of this and there are a lot of rumors flying around so the key is if the reports are accurate. We just don’t know at this time. The stories currently are three-fold: first, that Obama’s team tried to get a warrant from a regular, Article III federal court on Trump, and was told no by someone along the way (maybe the FBI), as the evidence was that weak or non-existent; second, Obama’s team then tried to circumvent the federal judiciary’s independent role by trying to mislabel the issue one of “foreign agents,” and tried to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “courts”, and were again turned down, when the court saw Trump named (an extremely rare act of FISA court refusal of the government, suggesting the evidence was truly non-existent against Trump); and so, third, Obama circumvented both the regular command of the FBI and the regularly appointed federal courts, by placing the entire case as a FISA case (and apparently under Sally Yates at DOJ) as a “foreign” case, and then omitted Trump’s name from a surveillance warrant submitted to the FISA court, which the FISA court unwittingly granted, which Obama then misused to spy on Trump and many connected to Trump. Are these allegations true? We don’t know yet, but if any part of them are then Obama and/or his officials could face serious trouble.

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/yes-obama-could-be-prosecuted-if-involved-with-illegal-surveillance/
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March 7, 2017 5:22pm
- stephieboy
  
  reid , ????
  
  From your link and the same Dan Abrams,
  
  Rank Speculation!’: Dan Abrams Battles Conservative Lawyer Over Trump Wiretapping Allegations
  by Ronn Blitzer | 1:20 pm, March 6th, 2017
  
  “Over the weekend, attorney Robert Barnes penned a thorough takedown of President Barack Obama and his administration, based on reports that they wiretapped Trump Tower before November’s election. Barnes said that if reports are accurate, the administration could have violated the law by misusing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as well as committing perjury before the FISA court, and illegally revealing information. Monday afternoon, Dan Abrams grilled Barnes about this in a contentious debate on the LawNewz Network.
  
  Abrams called out Barnes for making bold accusations based on what he considers mere speculation, and questioned the wisdom behind Barnes’ piece. “Isn’t it then almost reckless for you to speculate about this with zero evidence, and honestly, reckless of us to have …”
  
  http://lawnewz.com/video/dan-abrams-battles-it-out-with-attorney-robert-barnes-over-trump-wiretapping-allegations/
  
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  March 7, 2017 5:40pm
  - reid3
    
    stephieboy, from earlier today:
    
    Alt righters get off the grass . Don’t you recall what Trump and his supporters promised if Hillary Clinton won ?
    
    Roger Stone promsied a blood bath !
    
    http://time.com/4560707/donald-trump-election-loss-rigged/
    
    LisaGinNZ , hysterical nonsense !
    
    I just thought it appropriate to reply to a fool with the words of a fool. It is at least as germane as your response to my post mate. Try being relevant, and I’ll respond differently, until then fool, eat the fool. Fool.
    
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    March 7, 2017 6:43pm
Nev.

So the whips were out in the corridors of Parliament today and Labour MP’s agreed to a (insert appropriate gender mutation here) that a 38 year old ex chippie worker with no other life experience, has more experience than any of them to be Deputy Leader.

Certainly shows up the parlous state of Labour MPs!
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March 7, 2017 5:32pm
- nasska
  
  ….”Certainly shows up the parlous state of Labour MPs!”…..
  
  To stay with the french fries theme….
  
  ….”I’m Lovin ‘It”…… 🙂
  
  6 0
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  March 7, 2017 6:17pm
Maggy Wassilieff

ABC – Australian Broadcasting Corp – to restructure.
200 jobs to go.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transformational-change-200-jobs-to-go-as-michelle-guthrie-reveals-abc-restructure-20170307-gus806.html
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March 7, 2017 6:00pm
reid3

The media have been caught in a web of contradictory lies when it comes to the FISA court issuing a warrant for wiretapping on President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Why is the media now denying that the Obama administration asked for FISA court warrants to surveil the Trump campaign? For weeks the media wanted us to believe that so serious were the connections between Trump, his campaign and Russia, that a probable cause standard was reached to launch wiretaps on Trump and his campaign. Now they would have you believe that there was no FISA warrant and no investigation. If there were no FISA court warrants issued last year, then why did the media report that there were for weeks?

Hoisted by their own petards.

Bastards.

http://www.marklevinshow.com/2017/03/06/march-6-2017/

Hour long podcast with details: http://www.marklevinshow.com/audio-rewind/
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March 7, 2017 6:09pm
Lucia Maria

John Oliver – Trump’s Obama Conspiracy 3 min 27 seconds
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March 7, 2017 6:11pm
- Andrei
  
  I know you wont watch this Lucia and it wouldn’t help if you did but others might be enlightened
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KWFhCh5Vs8
  
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  March 7, 2017 6:46pm
- stephieboy
  
  Lucia Maria , the conspiracy paper trail goes back to Conservative Talk back host and conspiracy theorist Mark Levin who kicked off the totally unsubstantiated claims the wire tapping with Brietbart further stoking the flames of suspicion plus suspicion equals suspicion , speculation and guess work . Apparently Trump picked up on this without deferring to his advisors ( not that it would of maid much difference )
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/politics/trump-twitter-talk-radio-conspiracy-theory.html?_r=0
  
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  March 7, 2017 6:55pm
  - reid3
    
    not that it would of maid much difference
    
    stephie on the qwerty keyboard i is a hell of a long way from e.
    
    Just a thought cos I care (well not really but sometimes I pretend), your right outer wurzenflugel needs a whack with a big hammer.
    
    Pray let DARPA know I’ll send them the invoice.
    
    Don’t worry, no need to thank me.
    
    P.S. I’d appreciate payment before the US govt shuts down 16 March 2017.
    
    4 3
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    March 7, 2017 8:04pm
  - Fletch
    
    Speaks for itself.
    
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=425947157749521&set=p.425947157749521&type=3&theater
    
    2 3
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    March 7, 2017 9:09pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Fletch , it does no such thing .
      
      The substance I believe of the NYT report ,
      
      WASHINGTON — American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said.
      
      The continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will take the oath of office on Friday with his associates under investigation and after the intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government had worked to help elect him. As president, Mr. Trump will oversee those agencies and have the authority to redirect or stop at least some of these efforts.
      
      It is not clear whether the intercepted communications had anything to do with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also unclear whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other attempts to disrupt the elections in November. The American government has concluded that the Russian government was responsible for a broad computer hacking campaign, including the operation against the D.N.C.
      
      The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect’s past and present advisers have had with Russia. Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency for suspected links to Russia’s Federal Security Service, one of the officials said….”
      
      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html?_r=0
      
      Obviously a major deflection by Trump and his campaign team that members ( and likely himself ) had contacts with Russian agents to undermine the Hillary Clinton campign )
      
      1 5
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      March 7, 2017 9:35pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Uh huh.
        What does the article by the NYT on Jan 20 say? Bit different huh. Fletcher article is Jan 20 but you quote Jan 19…
        It’s pretty funny watching you squirm.
        KBs Dumbest Commentator aren’t you.
        Funny that for months you’ve been accusing Trump was working with Russia and DNI Clapper says it isn’t true! Lol
        
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        March 7, 2017 10:37pm
      - Manolo
        
        Are you bent on building your own Russia-gate, dear stephieboy?
        
        1 0
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        March 8, 2017 6:48am
    - cha
      
      Speaks for itself.
      
      Yup, not a sausage about whose wire was tapped.
      
      A version of this article appears in print on January 20, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides.
      
      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html
      
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      March 7, 2017 11:32pm
- Nev.
  
  I simply like you took my advice re the hyperlink =)
  Makes it much more likely for some to click.
  
  I don’t like John anymore though. Went from being todays man to another disbelieving butthurt liberal.
  
  When he treats the whole shebang with the same contempt he may win back my eyes.
  
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  March 7, 2017 7:10pm
waikatogirl

Corin Dann whipping up “concern from the millenial generation” over the increase in retirement age from 65 to 67. While most other news items appear to have accepted the changes Corin Dann, TVNZ had dug up those who were totally against the change, saying disapproval of the increase in retirement age was widespread.

Apparently, 20 somethings have had to pay for their own education (no mention of the majority carried by the taxpayer), have no way to buy a house, and now they will have to work 2 years longer. ( Life is so unfair!! // )
8 1
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March 7, 2017 6:23pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  In the west, with every year that passes life expectancy increases by about 2 months. If that trend continues (and realistically it will probably accelerate with anti-senescence medicine only in its infancy) then those 20 years olds will have a life expectancy of 95ish.
  
  That’s an unaffordable extra 10 years of superannuation that has to be covered then. Superannuation as it is now won’t exist when Millennials reach current retirement age, so it is grossly unfair to make them pay for extended holidays of current retirees who’re hoarding the massive equity built up by 50-100x increase in house values since they were in their 20’s (that won’t happen for this generation given interest rates that are have been near historic lows for last decade).
  
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  March 7, 2017 9:51pm
reid3

Dan Bongino is a former Secret Service Agent who served for Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. He is a New York Police Department veteran and New York Times best-selling author.

Gets into the details of the utter corruption committed by the dems in their relations and actions with others. 20 mins in. Prior to that it’s worth listening to as well.

https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/03/renegade-republican-the-real-scandal-behind-the-trump-russia-story

K Street lobbyists are the symbol of Washington influence-peddling as they push government for favors, subsidies, exemptions, and other special treatment for their clients. Their customers include, in addition to domestic clients, foreign governments, oligarchs, fugitive speculators, and a rogue’s gallery of questionable figures. Washington lobbyists trade on their access to power. Many are former administration officials or members of Congress. If Trump fulfills his promise to “drain the swamp,” these influence peddlers would have nothing to sell. They are under attack.

The media has focused not on K Street but on the Russian ties of President Donald Trump’s associates. They list the reprehensible Kremlin-associated figures for whom members of his inner circle worked, the most notorious being Viktor Yanukovich, the deposed president of Ukraine, and fugitive oligarch, Dymtro Firtash. But both of these “repulsive” figures were also advised by Democratic top dogs, who likely earned large multiples of what the “small fry” Trump associates took home.

In pushing its Manchurian-candidate-Trump narrative, the media fail to mention the much deeper ties of Democratic lobbyists to Russia. Don’t worry, the media seems to say: Even though they are representing Russia, the lobbyists are good upstanding citizens, not like the Trump people…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2017/02/18/no-one-mentions-that-the-russian-trail-leads-to-democratic-lobbyists/amp/
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March 7, 2017 6:36pm
- Nev.
  
  What is disgusting is that none of the lobbyists have any average persons interests at heart. The deals done will make sure of a life of slavery for the middle class and poverty and misery and imprisonment for the lower classes, all the while making the elite richer.
  
  Nev.
  
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  March 7, 2017 7:16pm
- stephieboy
  
  reid , speaking of deeper ties with Russia ,
  
  “Did Rex Tillerson just lie under oath about lobbying against Russia sanction”
  
  “Wednesday’s Senate confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, has mostly featured senators from both parties grilling Tillerson about Russia. This makes sense, given Tillerson’s extensive business history in the country as well as recent unconfirmed allegations about Trump and Russia.
  
  One major theme was Exxon Mobil’s stance on sanctions the Obama administration has imposed on Russia, which Tillerson has criticized publicly. He was asked, repeatedly, about Exxon’s lobbying activities against sanctions.
  
  “I have never lobbied against sanctions,” Tillerson said. “To my knowledge, Exxon never directly lobbied against sanctions.”
  
  This seems hard to believe. Indeed, after the second line, Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chair of the committee, interjected: “I think you called me at the time [Russia sanctions were being debated],” he said. The public record backs him up: There is abundant and clear evidence that Exxon did lobby on sanctions under Tillerson’s leadership.
  
  Corker later gave Tillerson a chance to finesse his response, which Tillerson took — arguing that the company never opposed sanctions per se, but merely engaged with Congress to understand how Exxon’s business would be affected. “Exxon Mobil participated in understanding how the sanctions are going to be constructed,” he said.
  
  This is hard to disprove — but very, very hard to believe, as Sen. Chris Murphy said during the hearing….”
  
  http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/11/14237748/tillerson-exxon-russia-lobbying
  
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  March 7, 2017 10:06pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    So. You got nothing then.
    What do you think about DNI Clapper saying no collusion between Trumps campaign and Russia?
    Boy, you must feel real stupid hearing that given all your bullshit about it. Lol.
    
    3 2
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    March 7, 2017 10:27pm
Viking2

Well we have all heard of March madness when it comes to Auckland’s transport woes BUT
What the fuck is the excuse for the National govt.

The Government says it will back a Green Party proposal to give domestic violence victims extra leave from work.

In a reversal of its previous position, National said it would support the bill in the name of Green MP Jan Logie at its first reading tomorrow.

Justice Minister Amy Adams said the bill “needed work”, and did not commit to supporting it into law. But she said it was an issue worth discussing.

If passed into law, the bill would allow victims of abuse to get up to 10 extra days’ leave a year and would classify family violence as a workplace hazard.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11813615

How in Gods name could this be classed as a work place hazard?
While the results are certainly devastating to the person and can and do impact the workplace a good workplace makes it clear that support can be provided but in our experience where we have dealt with a lot over the years the workplace is already the safest place for these women. Safer than staying at home.
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March 7, 2017 6:41pm
- Nev.
  
  Would it be racist to suggest most victims don’t actually have jobs?
  
  Nev.
  
  5 1
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  March 7, 2017 7:20pm
  - Viking2
    
    Not necessarily so. Plenty get bashed and sent out to work.Work being safer than home.
    
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    March 7, 2017 8:19pm
- reid3
  
  How in Gods name could this be classed as a work place hazard?
  
  Always told you guys Key doesn’t deserve his reputation amongst you.
  
  Setting up the health nazi’s in their very own [expensive] dept, is just another reason.
  
  When are you all going to learn Key is only good at one thing: selling the orders given him by his masters, to you. Much smoother than Hulun ever was.
  
  This is only the beginning of his execrable chickens coming home to roost.
  
  True story.
  
  You wait and see.
  
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  March 7, 2017 7:21pm
  - Nev.
    
    Godwin alert.
    You are smarter than that Reid.
    
    Nev.
    
    4 2
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    March 7, 2017 7:29pm
    - Nookin
      
      No he isn’t
      
      4 0
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      March 8, 2017 2:02am
- ex-golfer
  
  A lot of Bills are supported to first reading stage.
  It allows scrutiny of the lack of thinking in the Bills development. So this move is no surprise.
  Odds on it doesn’t make it much further through the Parliamentary process.
  
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  March 7, 2017 7:55pm
Viking2

Don’t have much faith in that pronouncement.
Plenty of Lady MP’s who will twist Bills arm. Look at all the gender crap that has fired around the universe today. His Deputy will go for it.

Always gotta blame someone else for their shit.
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March 7, 2017 8:22pm

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