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May 1, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 01 May 2020

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PhilBest

A reminder to everyone of the best web page you can follow for COVID-19 facts
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
From:
https://swprs.org/
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May 1, 2020 8:00am
- Steve James
  
  Thanks Phil, very informative and credible. Those downtickers need to get laid and maybe they will have a better day.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:31am
- Pete George
  
  I don’t think there’s any ‘best website’ to follow on any topic, unless you want to find one that preaches your own gospel.
  
  I find it best to follow a range of sources on any issue, none of them are perfect but a variety of news and opinions give a much better overview.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:04am
  - PhilBest
    
    In an era of bad-faith government, MSM and elite misinformation, it should be quite clear what information qualifies as “most necessary”.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:19am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Essential? That word is never going to mean the same again like eradicate.
      
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      May 1, 2020 6:15pm
  - Aunty
    
    Phil DOES want to find one that preaches to his own gospel, and then he wants to tell everybody that he’s found the gold standard of coronavirus websites! People, including Phil, need to understand that! It’s called “confirmation bias” and is a well known and studied psychological phenomenon.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:34am
- KevO'Brien
  
  The English version:
  https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/#latest
  
  An excellent world view site.
  (John Hopkins Uni. we get quoted daily here in NZ is associated with Bill Gates and WHO have an interest in profits or controls from all this.)
  
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  May 1, 2020 12:45pm
Zapper

https://nyshc.health.ny.gov/web/nyapd/new-york-state-flu-tracker

Have a look at this tracker of the normal flu in New York State – select “Compare with previous seasons”.

Long story short, in the current season, 2019-20, the cases were very high until around the time COVID-19 appeared. At week 10/11 of the current season, New York State apparently miraculously reduced the numbers with the normal flu.

Or normal flu is now Covid-19.
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May 1, 2020 8:00am
- krazykiwi
  
  That’s intriguing data, isn’t it? In the latest CDC week (15), influenza cases recorded are 95% below the three year average. It’s a miracle!
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:23am
  - SGA
    
    In one of the press briefings, Bloomfield commented that there had been a marked drop in the reports of all communicable respiratory diseases over the lock down period in NZ. Which is what you’d expect really (it would be really odd if it didn’t have such an effect).
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:08am
    - PhilBest
      
      Actually if we were all just a bit more cautious about hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes during regular flu season, some of the 500 elderly who die of it every year might live to the following year or longer.
      
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      May 1, 2020 9:22am
      - cmm
        
        Well, yes, they would live to the next flu season or whatever and be even more frail than last time, but eventually they fall off the perch.
        
        Like the choice of driving our cars at 20kph to prevent killing people, the question is it worth it?
        
        Now give those frail people the choice:
        A) You can live like last year for the last ten years of your life and die one year earlier.
        -or-
        B) You can live like this year for the last ten years of your life and live one year longer.
        
        If you choose (B):
        * you need to wear mask half the time
        * you need to wash your hands every 5 minutes,
        * no takeaways
        * your savings get screwed
        * no hospital outpatients
        * no visits from your friends and family
        * you don’t get to hold your new grandchild
        * no social outings
        * your family are massively stressed over jobs etc.
        * your grandkids are getting crap education
        
        I suspect that most old frail people would take 10 years of (A) rather than 11 years of (B).
        
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        May 1, 2020 11:01am
  - Ruawai
    
    I guess for the people who are at risk they will often die of something respiratory in a winter season and CV19 got to them first before the flu could. So not extra deaths just died of a different cause.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:36am
    - cmm
      
      In both cases it is most likely “died with” rather than “died from”.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:02am
- BobbyS
  
  wow – magically the flu disappeared overnight
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:24am
- Stephen Russell
  
  The obvious explanation, surely, is that the social distancing that slowed the spread of Covid19 had the same effect on the flu?
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:32am
  - Zapper
    
    So New York did a good job on Covid-19 now? I guess the mayor and chief medical officer telling everyone to go to Chinatown slowed down all infectious disease. Amazing!
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:34am
  - cmm
    
    Well that is one possible explanation.
    
    Some others are:
    * There are bunch of frail and vulnerable people who would have been knocked over by flu, but the CV19 got in first. ie. the CV19 death substituted for a flu death.
    
    * Many of the CV19 and flu symptoms are the same and, since the people signing death certificates do not have to run tests on the bodies they are calling wrongly classifying some flu deaths as CV19.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:00am
    - tf78
      
      You know we keep hearing about the majority of people that don’t won’t to come out of lock down – the easy solution is that they don’t, just stay locked up and everyone will be happy.
      
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      May 1, 2020 10:25am
      - cmm
        
        Yup, many people have raised the idea of a differential lockdown based on risk: young and fit – go to work; frail: stay at home.
        
        But rather than be forced on us it would be way better if this was completely voluntary.
        
        If an older frail person wants to take the risk and have a better quality of life, then why stop them?
        
        I’d personally live life the way I normally do: generally avoiding packed malls etc and being a bit more vigilant about washing hands during flu season.
        
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        May 1, 2020 11:27am
- MCos
  
  What is the comparison of overall deaths this year with the same period in other years?
  Here is one article on the subject.
  You might like to find others as a comparison.
  https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countries
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:43am
- cmm
  
  In NY State there is no requirement to test for Covid19 to claim it as a Covid19 death. No doubt “a few” got classified incorrectly.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:55am
- JackRabbit
  
  Covid-19 is a corona virus and corona viruses are flu variants. All they have done is alter the labeling and percentages to make it look like an epidemic.
  
  Nothing is largely any different than any other year, it is all how you market it. Right now we are being sold fear and terror.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-x934In-Ao
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPrbGU0Wyh4
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:31am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121336027/coronavirus-tangi-attracts-100-as-some-whnau-stay-home-due-to-covid19-rules

So much for the illegal maori roadblocks, the hypocrites.
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May 1, 2020 8:01am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  And because National are questioning the illegal roadblocks they are being accused of inciting racisim.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:20am
  - MT_Tinman
    
    And because National are questioning the illegal roadblocks they are being accused of inciting racisim
    
    By a racist.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:36am
  - alloytoo
    
    Funny head line when they plaster Maori boy Bridges* on the article.
    
    Cognitive dissonance doesn’t appear to effect MSM.
    
    *intended to highlight his heritage nothing else.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:41am
    - Ruahine
      
      Yes. I have been told many times by Pakeha people that Maori can not be racist.
      This of course made me so happy. Aren’t genetics wonderful.
      
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      May 1, 2020 8:53am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Indeed. It seems not to have occurred to Ms Packer that both the leader and deputy leader of the National Party are themselves of Māori descent.
      
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      May 1, 2020 8:53am
- Manolo
  
  The new Police Commissioner is really a “wuss” as a radio presenter put it, isn’t he? What a low point for the New Zealand Police!
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:54am
  - kowtow
    
    He told the Epidemic Response Committee yesterday that the vigilante road blocks were not illegal. He also said that Plods would be deployed at them from now on. Apparently there’s 30 to 50 across the country.
    
    I can see 80 % of the Farce laughing their tits off at the new boss this morning while they scoff their donuts saying the roadblocks were not illegal, talk about a great start to his career at the top.
    
    Last night on talk back someone phoned in to say the Cops on the roadblocks are actually directing vehicles into the clutches of the vigilantes . If that’s happening the constitutional questions around such behaviour is monumental , will the Media Party go there ? No , racism you see.
    
    Country’s fucked.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:18am
    - doggone7
      
      The country’s fucked when someone on talkback is the authority.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:13am
    - Nightsky-one
      
      You can probably get through the maori road block quicker for a $10. “donation”
      
      Hard work standing around all day.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:57am
      - Jack5
        
        Now those who dare question the legality of Maori road blocks are being accused of racism.
        
        And its Radio NZ’s Red Radio where the “racism” shouts are being used to swamp any questioning of the vigilantes.
        
        For example, the report by Te Aniwa Hurihanganui includes:
        
        Social justice advocate Julia Whaipooti said it was disappointing some MPs had used the community checkpoints as a ploy to score political points and undermine a successful movement led by Māori.
        
        “What underpins this really is racism,” she said.
        
        This is the result of the Maorification of Radio NZ after the coup led by Wily Willie Jackson on behalf of the tribal radio network of 20 stations. Where the hell was National, and who was its broadcasting spokesperson when the takeover occurred during the Key Government?
        
        To question is to be racist:
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/415617/mps-questioning-of-legal-iwi-checkpoints-really-is-racism
        
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        May 1, 2020 5:24pm
- Durden
  
  It has to be said. This is how super-spreaders are created and clusters are formed. Pander to the racist roadblocks and you have to pander to cultural sensitivities. I wonder how Hone will feel, if a outbreak occurs in the far North, and the rest of the country puts up a road block to keep his people quarantined in the Far North.
  
  (For any idiots out there this is a thought experiment. I am not wishing an outbreak on anyone)
  
  This behaviour is no different from the behaviour of ignorant leaders of ignorant people like the Imams in Pakistan refusing to stop Friday prayers during Ramadan.
  
  On the other hand, maybe they know something we don’t. And they are the ones who will survive, due to the exposure / recovery and the immunity gained, when the second and third and nth round of infection inevitably arrives.
  
  Of course this will mean a few more chances to acquire immunity at other inevitable Covid-19 tangis along the way. But the Ancients (neanderthals?) knew the benefits of a good cull and accepted the consequences. The plus point is survivors can extract some more colonial guilt-ransom.
  
  On that topic , wonder how the Ancients in Oz are doing in terms of their behaviour during Covid-19 and their health statistics.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:58am
  - JackRabbit
    
    There is such a thing as Karma…
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:36am
- Clyde
  
  Ah, the rules don’t apply to us because we are maori. And by the way, to make sure we don’t get the virus can we get close on $60m extra health funding to fight the virus because we are vulnerable. And yes, we will declare a whole pile of land ours so we can set up the road blocks with the help or our cuzzy bro, Wally.
  
  When exactly will this nonsense stop?
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:23am
  - Prince
    
    The $60M has run out (don’t ask where it went) and we are now demanding more.
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:04am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Maybe the “Police Permissioner” thought it all ok, no legislation required he appears to make up the rules on the fly.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:40am
  - Prince
    
    Remember the fuss over ‘pretty legal’ ? Seems that’s all ok now when the Left use it.
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:05am
Akarak

Sustainable transition?

Industry needs to change?

What else do we need to do?

If you’ll pardon my perplexity
I thought that our economy
Was stuffed up
By a lockdown for the flu

So ‘shovel ready’ projects
Lie ahead in future days
They’ll be our economic saviour
That’s what the government says

During the depression
Fathers, brothers, sons
Shot rabbits to survive
They were stoics
Not given to heroics
But this government took our guns

So turn up
Grab a shovel
Ready to do your bit
Your needed by your country boy
Get ready to shovel s**t

Cause that’s what you’ll be doing
Cleaning up the mess
This government has created
In its desire to impress

They’ve played you like a fiddle
So what are you going to do
Grab your partner and dance boy
Grab your partner and dance
For a lie is a lie
And a lie will never come true

Comrade Jacinda will exhort you
Hear her battle cry
“Forget the past
Open your eyes
Men to the left, women to the right
Fly the red flag high”

Then one day it will all be over
You’ll be lying at night in your bed
Your wife and kids safe
Your home secure
Your dad’s shovel still locked in the shed
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May 1, 2020 8:01am
- PhilBest
  
  Magnificent, mate, it’s a nice change to see poetry (or any art) that isn’t nauseatingly politically correct.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:23am
- kiwitoffee
  
  Great work.
  
  Someone will need to explain to Mr Robertson (and the rest of the ‘Labour’ ministers) what a shovel is, and what it’s for.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:31am
  - MT_Tinman
    
    I admit I had to think twice myself.
    
    In my day it was always called a f@#king-shovel or an idiot stick (i.e. a stick with a shovel at one end and an idiot at the other).
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:00am
  - oldpark
    
    The so called “Shovel Ready” comment from the clown Robertson was borrowed from another well known clown called “Obama” .Just saying .
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:11am
    - oldfella
      
      Obama later admitted that very few of the so-called ‘shovel ready’ projects were ready to go. And most never happened. But the expression sounded good, and was never likely to be challenged by a sycophantic, left-leaning MSM, so it’s no wonder Robertson jumped on it.
      
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      May 1, 2020 10:52am
    - Nightsky-one
      
      Obama actually got it from a guy called “Mao”
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:59am
BobbyS

Question for all you smart people how can we have 1129 confirmed cases BUT 1241 recovered cases?Clearly someone must have been confirmed as having covid19 to be confirmed as recovered
Thanks
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May 1, 2020 8:03am
- Simon Gotlieb
  
  Well, not necessarily.
  
  Imagine there’s a family who get sick. All of them are sick. In the same way. Two are tested positive for Covid-19. The other two are considered “probables.” Not much point test everybody.
  
  When they all recover that’s four recovered.
  
  Or, another possibility. Because it’s all about stats.
  We had a couple people taken off the list the other day because they had actually been tested in another country before coming to NZ. And subsequently were found positive. So they were positive in another country, and recovered in NZ.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:26am
  - BobbyS
    
    Thanks Simon. A sensible explanation
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:31am
  - Simon
    
    “Imagine there’s a family”
    
    Why the speculation? The answer to these questions should be clear.
    
    “Imagine” is the right word for this government.
    
    As in “imagine’ Ardern to come riding on a white horse to beat back the Black Death and fire up the economy.
    
    Imagine that the Black Death is contained, by MoH own standards and NZ shouldnt be in Home Detention level 3.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:39am
    - MCos
      
      I know of just such a family.
      Daughter returned from overseas and pretty soon showed signs of COVID-19 and was tested positive.
      Someone else in the family also tested positive. Eventually the whole family was stricken, but were told not to come in for a test because it was obvious they had the virus and they would be putting others at risks.
      They all isolated themselves in the house until it was over.
      So there was two positive and two probable.
      
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      May 1, 2020 8:53am
    - Simon
      
      After Ardern declared on Monday that the virus had been eliminated in New Zealand, a number of overseas media outlets reported we’d won a major battle.
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12328083
      
      Alert Level 1 — Prepare
      The disease is contained in New Zealand.
      
      Risk assessment
      
      COVID-19 is uncontrolled overseas.
      Isolated household transmission could be occurring in New Zealand.
      
      https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/covid-19-alert-system/#alert-level-1%C2%A0%E2%80%94-prepare
      
      Why is NZ at level 3?
      
      Need some that special Ardern imagination
      
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      May 1, 2020 10:41am
- Loddenthinks
  
  It’s a complex answer to a simple question – essentially Simon is correct, but it uncovers the disingenuity (at best), misinformation (most likely) or outright lies we’re being fed by this government.
  
  You see, the Health Ministry has two sets of figures. The “current total” which by the way can only ever go up, not down, is the total of every confirmed case and every “probable” case. They call it current but it’s not. Current should mean the cases we have now, but those are called “active” by this double-speaking government and its Health Ministry. We get fed the higher Total figure which includes probables. Stay with me.
  
  The other set of figures is the total number of confirmed cases, and that’s not only the number they give to WHO, but the number trumpeted loudly around the world in praise of St Jacinda the Clever.
  
  When they announce the number that have recovered, they never separate them into “confirmed but recovered”, “probable but recovered” and “probable and never had it”. So that’s why the number of those recovered has been higher than the number confirmed to have had it, and always will be.
  
  The purpose for the long explanation is that it raises the question – why are the numbers given for domestic consumption artificially high in two ways (they include the probables, who may not actually have it, and they call it the “current total” when it’s not current, it’s months out of date), and why are the number for international consumption limited to those confirmed cases?
  
  A cynic would suggest that keeping the numbers artificially high domestically creates fear, anxiety and alarm in the general populace, making them easier to control, while reporting the lower numbers internationally raises Jacinda’s standing as a true leader who has saved her country. You might very well think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:10am
JibberJabber

https://www.theonion.com/biden-campaign-fundraising-email-reminds-donors-sexual-1843181076?utm_campaign=TheOnion&utm_content=1588264975&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=twitter
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May 1, 2020 8:04am
PhilBest

Meanwhile on a non-COVID topic: progressive hypocrisy on glaring display for all to see:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2020/04/30/gillibrand-we-must-believe-women-but-not-this-one-n2567896

“We Must Believe Women. But Not This One”

Yep. Makes perfect sense if you’re a progressive.
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May 1, 2020 8:05am
- alloytoo
  
  Isn’t that what Ardern said about her office predator?
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:43am
Scott

On the American politics front Joe Biden has yet to speak out about the sexual assault allegation from Tara Reade. Although he has had over a dozen interviews and up to 100 questions, no interviewer has seen fit to ask him about this allegation.

One can see the media hypocrisy pretty clearly. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh was given the full media blast because of sexual allegations against him. None of those allegations were ever corroborated.

With regard to Joe Biden it appears that Tara told four or five people at the time. Her mother phoned Larry King to ask about what could be done without mentioning the Senator or the nature of the offence. So there is some corroborating evidence for the allegation against Joe Biden.

Today the Washington Post in a front-page article asked Joe Biden to address the allegation. This thing is snowballing.

Who thinks that Joe Biden will survive to contest the presidential election? I think it’s going to be a close call?
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May 1, 2020 8:05am
- PhilBest
  
  And the archived segment of the Larry King show that people were listening to online, where that call-in by Tara Reade’s mother occurred, has been black-holed by the Channel concerned and by YouTube.
  
  FFS, and Vichy Tories tell us serious culture warriors that we’re just “conspiracy theorists”!
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:26am
- Simon
  
  Well whatever happens at least Trump wont go easy against Biden just because Biden is senile.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:27am
  - Brian Marshall
    
    Biden won’t be the Democrat nominee. It’s been predicted by serious US political pundits since last year that he was only there to stop Bernie Sanders getting the nomination. I agree with their reasoning, and suspect that the reason for Michael Bloomberg’s massive donations and spending is he was setting himself up as the back up should Biden not be fit to run. The media have made themselves not look good again, by running cover for Joe Biden.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:37am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  My prediction is that this allegation will have no effect on the election at all.
  No one who believe this allegation is going to change their mind about Joe Biden and vote for Donald Trump, who has at least thirty allegations of sexual assault against him.
  And surely no one who thought Kavanaugh was a victim of a false allegation is suddenly going to argue that the allegation against Biden is much stronger. Sadly, Tara Reade is undergoing a similar assault on her credibility to that endured by Christine Blasey Ford.
  Biden does need to address the allegation though. Ignoring it won’t make it disappear.
  Once again, America faces a choice between two very unpalatable candidates.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:30am
  - Simon
    
    ‘My prediction is that this allegation will have no effect on the election at all.”
    
    Lol when was the last time you were right about anything. You used to be hot for Trump’s tax returns.
    
    “No one who believe this allegation is going to change their mind about Joe Biden and vote for Donald Trump, ”
    
    The US election is also about turn out. If were going to vote for Biden but were all in on #metoo they will stay home and not vote. Trump wins again.
    
    This is US elections 101.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:45am
  - Scott
    
    Can’t agree with you Mikey. Christine Blasey Ford had no one who would corroborate her story. It has also never been established that she met Brett Kavanagh or that she was ever in the same room with him.
    
    The other problem, for me at least, was her manner when she testified. She had a little girl voice. I have never been able to locate a video of Ms Ford speaking in any other circumstances. She was a professional woman, a university lecturer. Did she talk that way in her lectures? Or in her testimony was she highly coached to evoke sympathy from her audience?
    
    On the other hand Tara Reade did tell four or five other people at the time. Her mother did ring into Larry King live asking about a problem her daughter had with a prominent senator. Tara Reade did work for Joe Biden.
    
    So the accusations against Biden do have corroboration. That doesn’t mean he’s guilty. But it does mean they should be investigated with the same vigour that poor Brett Kavanagh received when he was nominated for the Supreme Court.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:46am
    - oldpark
      
      Biden is known in some USA Political areas as “Fingers” Joe Biden .On checking such an unusual type of comment regarding Biden.Some of us learned that NZ news channels including the flap jaw Hosking and his Employers the New Zealand have completely ignored the story .
      At last finally the much vaunted begging bowl Stuff have relented and published the allegations . At least one of the claims by Tara Reade in her sworn affidavit against “Fingers” Biden is he shoved his fingers into her genitals . Maybe he will get away with it as the @Me Too Movement have endorsed him to be the next President of the USA . In fact another protector of women rights Crooked Hillary Clinton has also endorsed him . Only in America. Not forgetting the Feminazis Democrats who went berserk over the fake news attacks and supported them when President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanagh to be A Supreme Court Judge in that unfortunate hypocritical Nation.
      
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      May 1, 2020 9:34am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      A ‘little girl voice’?
      FFS.
      
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      May 1, 2020 10:39am
      - Komata
        
        Mm@1039
        
        So you’ve not listened to the trial then milkey?
        
        ( Just asking).
        
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        May 1, 2020 2:50pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Wasn’t a trial though. I assume you are referring to the “I like beer!” hearings.
        
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        May 1, 2020 3:48pm
  - cmm
    
    “No one who believe this allegation is going to change their mind about Joe Biden and vote for Donald Trump, ”
    
    Perhaps not, but they will stay at home or write “Bernie” on their voting papers. The Bernie-bros are a huge force.
    
    It is also more likely to make marginal Republicans go vote because they really do not want the risk of Biden.
    
    “endured by Christine Blasey Ford”. That would be the Blasey Ford that:
    1) Made shit up (places, people, events).
    2) Did not report the matter to the police since that would make her culpable for prosecution for making a false statement.
    3) Had zero corroborating evidence.
    4) Does not have a whole lot of creepy Kavanaugh video to give her story credibility.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:16am
    - PhilBest
      
      And in the case of Kavanaugh, there were hundreds of women who’d been associates of his who were prepared to testify to his honorable character. Same for George Pell. For people like Rolf Harris and Bill Clinton, there is a long back-trail of talk and precautions taken by wise women (and mothers of kids). So eventual proof of something comes as no surprise.
      
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      May 1, 2020 9:31am
  - PhilBest
    
    Actually, Mikey, numerous conservative commentators have been saying that the standard should be that old, uncorroborrated accusations where it’s just one person’s word against another’s shouldn’t cause any waste of public time.
    
    They’d be the first to give the accused the benefit of the doubt regardless of politics – BUT if progressives want the standard changed then they damwell better abide by it themselves. Clear?
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:29am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Folks, you just don’t get it. For Milky and the Woke it works like this:
    
    All women must be believed, no evidence necessary. (Hey Milky, what about male victims of sexual abuse? #ThemToo?)
    
    Then you add up the number of accusations against Trump vs those against Biden. No evidence, no investigation, no court cases. It’s cheaper that way!
    
    Biden has fewer accusations, look at that!! So he wins the ‘fewer #Metoo accusations’ poll.
    
    Done.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:30am
  - Michael NZ
    
    Mikey
    I down ticked you today because I think you are acting like a turd.
    This woman deserves her dasy in court as do all women who alledge assault (incl sexual).
    
    I don’t know if it’s because you are a lefty or because you just want to rile up the boys.
    either way using this woman as you have, you’ve been a turd.
    and that’s wrong in anyone’s book no matter the accused.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:28am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    So what you’re saying, Mikey, is that the only reason to vote for Joe Biden is that he’s not Donald Trump. That no matter what allegations, no matter how credible, no matter now corroborated, against someone for sexual assault, there is no candidate so useless, senile or morally bankrupt that they won’t vote for him. Just to prevent Trump from winning.
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:11am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Yes and no. What I’m saying is that if you believe this allegation against Biden, you would have no problem believing the many similar allegations against Trump.
      But yes, not being Trump must be Biden’s biggest strength.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:41am
- Fletch
  
  Mark Levin points out that Biden’s handlers are trying to keep him in hiding. You don’t even see or hear him apart from the occasional press release and a one minute snippet. He is using this virus to his advantage to stay in hiding. And he is supposed to be running for president? No way he could handle a 30 minute press conference or a debate. The guy is 77 years old and going senile. Could you really see him engaging Xi from China, or Putin, or trying to negotiate peace in the Middle East?
  
  Nah, didn’t think so…
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:14am
  - Ed Snack
    
    And he appeared to fall asleep while Hilary Clinton was endorsing him in a shared broadcast. Mind you, listening to HRC speaking would put a lot of normal people to sleep too.
    
    And being “put to sleep” by a Clinton has a rather unfortunate association…
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:40am
    - oldfella
      
      According to The Hill, Hillary is hovering, waiting for Joe to fall over. Maybe with a rope around his neck, like her friend Jeffrey Epstein.
      https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/495371-as-biden-struggles-hillary-waits-for-the-call
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:04am
- Loddenthinks
  
  He will survive to contest the election, they have nobody else. He will be beaten, soundly. It will be delicious.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:33am
  - Ed Snack
    
    I’m uncertain, there’s a lot of people who have invested (politically) in Joe and they’ll have to do a lot of rapid back-pedalling to support someone else without it being seen as yet another “get Bernie” effort.
    
    But I can’t see Joe surviving any debates with Trump. Trump can speak in word salad himself at times, but he’s also capable of standing up and answering questions cogently for several hours, as he has. Joe loses the thread when he’s reading from an auto-prompter.
    
    So how would his campaign cover up for him not participating ?
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:45am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      The debates will be a hoot. They won’t change any voters’ minds, but they will be entertaining.
      Topics neither will bring up: sexual assault, nepotism, age, physical fitness, support for foreign wars.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:43am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Yes and no. Morbidly entertaining sure, but world (and NZ) does better when US prospers, and neither Trump nor Biden will be good presidents.
        
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        May 1, 2020 2:55pm
- The Boss
  
  If confronted by the media, sleepy Joe will simply say he cannot remember. And who is going to dispute that?
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:31am
freemark

So now that the Minister of Health has finished moving house we finally get some action on tracing. Unfuckingbelievable. We remain in lockdown NOT due to the proportional Virus danger, but because we have an incompetent bunch of numpties and a PM who loves the attention. “Health Minister David Clark has created a new committee responsible for overseeing contact tracing in New Zealand.” A Committee. Finally. Months after they were aware of the most important thing to do. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300001924/clark-strengthens-contact-tracing-oversight
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May 1, 2020 8:06am
- cmm
  
  What the fuck has he been doing for the last two months while “working from home”?
  
  It doesn’t take that long to lube a bike chain.
  
  Yet again, too little too late, then overcompensate.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:19am
  - Tricati
    
    You are not allowed to ask what he has been doing as that is viewed as ‘politicizing’ the issue – And labour would never do that (Sarc)
    By the way, will the Electoral Commision check the Covid 19 Facebook items, and their link to the Labour Party as unlawful advertising – Just wondering.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:50am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    “working from homes” there I fixed it for ya.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:34am
  - JibberJabber
    
    “What the fuck has he been doing for the last two months while “working from home”?”
    
    Even when he is at the Ministry he is the alleged head of, he isn`t even qualified to lick stamps…
    
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    May 1, 2020 4:40pm
Benedict Yu

When I saw this headline I feared it would make no sense. I was not disappointed..

“We’ve got to run it along business lines,” Peters said.

“But business lines also has this aspect: if it is flying to bring business to the provinces and to the regions than that value to the regions has got to be added to their profit margin as well”.

“So it won’t have a bottom line profit margin, but it will have contingencies which will show its value to the national economy,” he said.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/121364096/winston-peters-hints-at-big-changes-for-air-nz

Decoding this it means that he wants to tell Air New Zealand which routes to fly and how to price fares. That will end well.

People on regional flights are made up of five categories.

1. People connecting to the three international airports to fly overseas

2. Business travellers

3. People visiting family and friends

4. Domestic tourists

5. International tourists

1 and 5 are dead. 2 is severely curtailed. They were the money makers. That means trying to make the regional flights profitable from 3 and 4 travellers. That means charging high fares. Boo hoo.
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May 1, 2020 8:06am
- alloytoo
  
  What the government should do is subsidize internal flights and a portion of any accommodation you may use at the same time.
  
  This will encourage everyone to travel internally and spin the economic wheels.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:49am
- fernglas
  
  Isn’t what he is saying is that a notional profit will be attributed to the airline based on the perceived social utility of its routes? So it could be losing money hand over fist but still making a “profit”. It’s not the airline being told which routes to fly, but being incentivised to fly unprofitable routes. Incentivised by the taxpayer.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:57am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    If the Government wants it to fly unprofitable routes it should contract Air New Zealand to do that.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:19am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    His scheme would require the airline to be fully nationalised.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:21am
- cmm
  
  Business travel is going to be down since people have adapted to doing video conferencing over the last few days.
  
  People have woken up to the ease of doing an hour meeting over video rather than spending a whole day flying around for a 1 hour video.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:22am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Good. Green or not, yes to wasting less time and fuel on pointless meetings.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:37am
    - cmm
      
      Screw the fuel. It’s the time and convenience.
      
      Most of my customers are international and I have not been overseas since 2008.
      
      I routinely have remote meetings with people in 4 different countries in one day. You just can’t do that flying.
      
      The other thing that is going to be killed off is inner city office space. Why get yourself an expensive inner city office with all the hassles of traffic jams and parking when you can use a suburban office?
      
      That’s part of the reason I dislike the idea of light rail. It is too inflexible to cater for changing use patterns.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:21am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Yes, technology has really leapfrogged the need for light rail and it’s time the politicians realized that.
        
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        May 1, 2020 1:15pm
  - Swifty
    
    My record was AKL-CHC 3 times in a day, back twice.
    
    Those were the days……
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:01am
  - MCos
    
    During my working days I attended innumerable business meetings.
    Until I went to Bangkok they always involved engineers, architects & similar often crowding around sets of drawings or a model on a monitor of some high rise in the Wellington CBD.
    The participants often walked or biked from a nearby office.
    A lot more convenient that a bunch of talking heads on a computer.
    
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    May 1, 2020 1:28pm
- Prince
  
  Vintage Peters.
  Headline 2022.
  ‘Air NZ records record profit’.
  Although under the worldwide accounting rules the airline recorded a $250M loss, after Government adjustments shareholders will share a $50M profit dividend. The Minister of Airlines, Shane Jones announced a Regional Profit Addition of $200M, and the Minister of Tourism Golriz Ghahraman added $100M from her Tourism Profit Adjustment fund.
  Prime Minister Ardern welcolmed the profit announcement in her daily broadcast, saying it was a ringing endorsement of this Government’s commitment to business.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:24am
- Michael NZ
  
  Personally I think Air New Zealand should sink into the biggest hole with JK’s Luxon with them.
  
  They fckd over regional NZ whilst claiming “protection” as the National Carrier from opposition.
  
  Plus while they fckd over little NZ, their top knobs took big bonuses.
  When you are National Carrier you look after the regions ALL the time.
  (and you don’t get them to invest in infrastructure and then dump them).
  
  I don’t expect Labour to understand this, they are arseholes on at the best of times.
  
  But National should know this as should Seymour at ACT.
  so JK and his protege Luxon can take a leap as far as I’m concerned.
  If born again Luxon is National’s leader I probably won’t vote for him as I’ll be thinking about “little New Zealand”
  
  I don’t expect Soiman to have a peep as he is largely AWOL. Of course he can change that by openly stating his views…
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:37am
G152

They’re using this virus to peon the people
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May 1, 2020 8:06am
MrTips

I have been curious as to why Shaun Hendy and Te Pūnaha Matatini from Auckland University suddenly took it upon themselves to become the “epidemiological modeller of record” for NZs response to COVID-19. After all, they have no history of epidemiological modelling. Even in previous meningococcal outbreaks and the even worse measles outbreak of 2019, they were nowhere to be seen.
Then it struck me. Te Pūnaha Matatini is a currently funded Center of Research excellence, known as a CoRE . CoRE facilities are funded by the TEC. Current ones are funded until…..2020.
The TEC is carrying out the re-bidding and new funding process RIGHT NOW. Bids were placed at the end of last year and they are in the process of being short listed. Tens of millions of dollars per CoRE are at stake.
There are some 30+ bids in for consideration, yet only ~10 will be eventually funded.
Readers can draw their own conclusions.
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May 1, 2020 8:08am
- PhilBest
  
  It’s the old story of the progressive “Long March” network. Same as the “consultants” who get all the work to “audit” Council Urban Plans – they are the ideologically biased ones who won’t point out the obvious flaws and false assumptions and defiance of evidence. The consultants who would have pointed out these things starve in a garrett meanwhile, the cost of honesty.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:34am
MT_Tinman

The Reserve bank is cancelled the LVR for 12 months.

Just what sort of idiot bank would lend money on a mortgage in the current economic climate?
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May 1, 2020 8:09am
- mikenmildagain
  
  All of them, and the non-idiot banks too?
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:32am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  the idiot banks who will make out like bandits, knowing that the government has effectively guaranteed their book of bad debt!
  
  Woohoo banker boys, break out the Crystal and lease a new lexus!!!!! Its payday!!!!!!!!!!
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:44am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Being cultured chaps, they would no doubt actually break out the Cristal – as in Louise Roederer Cristal. Apparently created for Tsar Alexander II, in 1876.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:52am
- Simon
  
  “Just what sort of idiot bank would lend money on a mortgage in the current economic climate?”
  
  Yep the whole Chicken Shit economy pre Wuhan Virus was built around credit & open doors immigration. But its all falling apart.
  
  Now the clowns in Wellington want IRD to issue loans because they know the banks, as they are in a business, will not lend.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:51am
- MCos
  
  Whatever bank the people next to me got their loan from to move house apparently.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:58am
- cmm
  
  Tinny: These days most people have a mortgage.
  
  If someone buys (and needs a mortgage) then someone has sold (and no longer needs their mortgage). ie the mortgage risk has shifted – not gone up.
  
  If the seller sold because they were struggling then the mortgage risk has actually gone down because it has shifted from a higher risk to a lower risk.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:26am
  - MT_Tinman
    
    cmm, I agree (partially) but the story was the Reserve bank promoting new mortgages to organisations representing people with no cash.
    
    Only partially because in fast approaching times sellers will be people getting out of the rental market and a significant number of them will have very little or no mortgage so we are again discussing new debt.
    
    The big problem, other than a serious increase in the mortgagee sale dept. of banks, is that I see the poor bloody taxpayer, already heavily burdened with the excesses of the current clowns, having to bail out banks judged to be “too big to fail”, because of their feckless lending.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:59am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Ah, but the banks aren’t NZ owned (except that abomination, Kiwibank, and of course Trustee Bank) so our government really doesn’t have the same interest in bailing them out. Their parent companies in Australia would have the primary responsibility, and if they’re in trouble, the Australian Government might step in.
      
      I think deposits up to a certain level ($100K ?) are covered by an insurance scheme. Amounts over that would be in the creditors pool.
      
      Most banks in NZ haven’t been “feckless” lenders. They are probably over exposed to the domestic property market, but not to the extent that lenders were in the US for example, in the 2008-9 crisis. In particular, in NZ all mortgages would be covered by personal guarantees, in the USA in most areas mortgages were effectively no recourse lending beyond the actual mortgaged asset. So underwater properties could be and often were abandoned. In the 2008-9 crisis the big Aussie banks didn’t need bailouts.
      
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      May 1, 2020 10:59am
Pete George

If the maximum home detention sentence of 12 months is imposed, partly served and then quashed on Solicitor General appeal, what is the maximum length of a replacement sentence?

Dermot Nottingham is trying to get his home detention sentence cut short. That will be heard in the Supreme Court in two weeks.

But it could backfire, as “the the Crown says, that if Mr Nottingham succeeds on his appeal then the sentence of home detention would have to be replaced with a sentence of imprisonment” – what are the chances of that?

https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2020-NZSC-39.pdf
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May 1, 2020 8:09am
- fernglas
  
  The logic would be that home detention is an alternative sentence to imprisonment. If home detention is unavailable where imprisonment would otherwise have been imposed then prison must be the only available sentence.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:01am
  - Pete George
    
    So that suggests the Court of Appeal may have got the new sentence wrong, but not in a way that benefits the appellant.
    
    Now the Crown has pointed out the risk I wonder of Nottingham still goes ahead with his appeal? I think it’s likely he will, he has a record of overestimating his chances of success or ignoring or being blind to any risks.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:28am
wilderbeast

Interested in thoughts on the Police Commissioner under questioning from Bridges, Mitchell & Seymour about community checkpoints. Am I missing something? It seemed he never directly answered any of the questions but maintained they are “legal”. No mention of what vetting police did to ensure intentions were good, individuals fit and proper or what the precise arrangement between police and volunteers was, or what actual authority volunteers had to turn people around…..a lot of talk about ”police discretion”, presumably the same discretion they’re using to send people home even when they’re travelling with regions….
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May 1, 2020 8:10am
- MCos
  
  I’m interested to know why nobody is ever asked about the people who shouldn’t be driving on the particular road where the checkpoints are located.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:03am
  - cmm
    
    Regardless, it is not the vigilantes’ job to stop people and turn them around.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:31am
    - MCos
      
      I remember a couple of years ago there was a spate of earnest locals taking car keys off tourists perceived to be driving badly.
      They most certainly didn’t have police supervision . . . .
      
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      May 1, 2020 1:34pm
      - cmm
        
        Bit of a difference when lives are at stake.
        
        And, no, a person driving along a road during a lockdown is not killing anyone.
        
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        May 1, 2020 6:07pm
- fernglas
  
  He dodged the question, which is whether it is ever legal for a civilian to exercise police powers when under the supervision of a police officer. The answer is no. Unless the officer himself is exercising the power then a citizen cannot lawfully be stopped etc.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:04am
  - Ruawai
    
    Also having police have to be at all road blocks these people set up is a waste of police resources. These people should also be in lockdown. Next time there is a booze bus in your area stop and offer to help the police with the road block and see if that is ok.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:50am
    - kowtow
      
      It’s not only a waste of police resources . The police are now aiding and abetting , counselling and procuring the unlawful detention of any persons they direct / authorise into the vigilante questioning corral.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:37am
      - Rachael Membery
        
        Do they all get a Sheriff’s badge like in the wild west?
        
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        May 1, 2020 7:45pm
- Nickc2
  
  Do newly appointed Police Commissioners have to have a degree in Communications akin to Cindy’s? I listened to the new Police Commissioner the other day and he did nothing but talk in circles, so much so that at the end I was asking myself “what the F did he say?”
  Despite all his BS and bluster, I’m still not convinced these Maori Malitia roadblocks are legal. If I was to set one up at the end of my street to keep thieves out, I would be in jail ASAP if not sooner.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:11am
- jonno1
  
  His response was deeply disappointing. The correct response would have been: “We are under new management. Vigilantes and illegal protests will forthwith not be tolerated. The offender (s) may be given one opportunity to desist, beyond that they will be arrested and charged, no exceptions.”
  
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  May 1, 2020 12:59pm
- Scooter
  
  He seemed to be skirting round the issue by saying they’re legal as there are cops supervising them. Are we to believe that there is a cop at each road block 100% of the time. The cops are too gutless to do anything. But come level 2 he basically said they won’t tolerate them, yeah we’ll see and PIGS might fly.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:08pm
artemisia

Wellington City councillors slammed by regional mayors for nasty infighting gone public.

“You don’t go behind your mayor’s back and go to the media.”

Not to worry, though, the council managed to temporarily put aside their differences yesterday and agree to a proposed 5.07 per cent rates increase.

And also managed to scrape together enough votes to redirect $8 million of council funding not needed for cancelled events to a non specific slush fund for “environmental and technological advancement, emissions and waste reduction, and Kaupapa Māori innovation”. There will be full council disclosure of how the money will be spent, along with the costs and benefits of each line item? I think we can answer that question right now.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/300001401/regional-mayors-take-aim-at-wellington-city-mayor-and-councillors
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May 1, 2020 8:10am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  I believe a wise man once made a comment about a “zombie town”….
  
  strangely enough he was spot on. Poor old wellington, lurching off into insignificance, fortunately the next earthquake will wash it clean, ad we can start again somewhere nicer – like Palmerston North!
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:08am
- freethinker
  
  Wellingtons wallys (Electors) having voted for a bunch of turds must now enjoy the stench & cost for 3 years.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:12am
Stephen Russell

Various people have lately made suggestions on how to boost the economy as we come out of lockdown, eg helicopter money and a temporary reduction in GST. Those suggestions have merit, but seem to me a bit too scattergun. So I’m tossing out another idea for people to critique.
Give every Kiwi a set of vouchers, things like:
∆ $20 off a restaurant meal
∆ 50% off tourist activity
∆ half price on tickets to sporting events
∆ discounts on inter-regional travel
These would give a huge boost to the hardest hit parts of the economy, like hospitality and tourism. All the money would go to local business, not to imports. Only one voucher per event, so you’d have to spend some of your own cash too. If you can’t use the vouchers yourself, you can give them to the grandchildren, or sell them on TradeMe. It would also be a great tangible “thank you” to Kiwis for enduring the lockdown.
I’m interested in what people think….
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May 1, 2020 8:11am
- dave_c_
  
  Definitely NO – Have you seen the outcome of countries which implement ‘Voucher schemes’ ?
  Look at the dependancy in the US on vouchers !
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:13am
- Simon
  
  Ration cards issued by the State not the answer.
  
  There needs to be clean out. Too much debt. And the only way to recovery is to dismantle the shit weight privilege of the state.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:20am
- bruceavon
  
  I think your idea has merit, the problem with the government give people an unsolicited 1500 each as has been suggested is that it may be just used to pay off the mortgage or even put in the bank if you have money already which will do nothing to stimulate the economy. Having the money circulate in hospitality etc is a good idea.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:43am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Give me the 1500 of my tax back, and let me be the judge of the highest utility usage – to me and mine!
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:09am
- Libertarians are right
  
  The idea is interesting but should have been implemented when we closed the borders to foreigners and quarantined Kiwis coming back into the country back in February (oh that’s right, this idiot Government had very important reasons not to do this). It would have helped to ensure the tourism industry had a chance at surviving. Some sort of subsidy/incentive system would have been a good idea back then but now the problem may be too big.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:51am
  - fernglas
    
    I really don’t understand why people keep banging on about how the border should have been sealed earlier. What difference would it have made? Do you think we would have avoided a shutdown? Do you think there would have been less deaths?
    
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    May 1, 2020 1:22pm
- alloytoo
  
  I think it is a good idea so long as:
  
  1. It’s for recreational/education activities.
  2. It requires a co-Payment.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:54am
- Prince
  
  Just give me a tax cut and I’ll decide what to spend it on, thanks.
  
  15 1
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  May 1, 2020 9:30am
- All_on_Red
  
  Instead of incentives, how about we just move to Level 1 right now and get on with it?
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:47am
- Michael NZ
  
  Stephen
  This Labour Govt is going to spend our money anyway.
  So it makes sense that it actually goes to where we want it too.
  thoughtful idea, well done.
  MBIE or IRD can reimburse. uptick from me.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:46am
  - Michael NZ
    
    my wife paid the hairdresser ahead of time for 2 cuts. last week.
    
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    May 1, 2020 3:32pm
- kowtow
  
  Bigger picture fix.
  
  The “west” needs to do all it can to bring factories , manufacturing and jobs home from China.
  
  We can still sell them our food , but we need to get off our dependency on that unreliable ‘partner”
  
  Oh but the labour costs are too high at home you say . OK well look at the cost of doing business with China has been . I’d be prepared to pay more for western produced quality goods knowing it provides jobs , income and a tax stream at home instead of enabling the CCP to control the world’s economy and build up a huge military behind that.All the while oppressing it’s people at home.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:50am
JibberJabber

Whatever happen to Soviet Cindys’ pay cut?
As if we didn`t know, just another lie in the pursuit for media adoration.
https://twitter.com/GeoffsNZViews/status/1255946529086402561
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May 1, 2020 8:11am
- Libertarians are right
  
  The ministers are taking a pay cut (because she can “threaten” them) but the Labour MPs would revolt so she doesn’t want it to go to a vote as her own MPs will riot (and National will provide the votes to push it through).
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:52am
  - MCos
    
    According to David Seymour an MP’s salary isn’t enough to buy a house so I’d be pissed off if a reduction was obligatory.
    Voluntary is another story.
    BTW
    As I recall John Key was supposed to have worked for nothing, then he found he couldn’t because the money went into his bank whether he liked it or not.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:11am
    - Martin Williams
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      How can you flip properties working for nothing?
      
      1 33
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      May 1, 2020 9:31am
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        How can you make intelligent comments when you are a lefty f***wit.
        
        23 3
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        May 1, 2020 9:51am
      - JibberJabber
        
        Hardly a surprise you have zero comprehension for matters financial.
        
        17 1
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        May 1, 2020 9:57am
    - cmm
      
      To the best of my limited knowledge on the matter, JK donated his salary to charity.
      
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      May 1, 2020 9:34am
      - MCos
        
        Which ones?
        
        1 1
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        May 1, 2020 1:38pm
      - cmm
        
        I don’t know. I suppose you could ask him if you want to know.
        
        1 1
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        May 1, 2020 4:40pm
    - Paulus
      
      Key then passed his money to a number of Charities.
      
      12 1
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      May 1, 2020 10:32am
      - oldfella
        
        Trump also doesn’t draw a salary for being President, and donates his money to different charities every month, like Wounded Warriors.
        But ‘orange man bad’…
        
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        May 1, 2020 11:25am
- Simon
  
  Ardern’s on $10,000 per week but the plebs can by on $585 for 12 weeks.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:53am
  - cmm
    
    Yeah, but you don’t know anything about chicken salt!
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:34am
- Surely Knott
  
  His description of the media is spot on. The propaganda has been next level. The only hope is that this whole thing reaches saturation point and begins to invoke peoples gag reflex.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:51am
seismac

Just getting organised to set up road check-points of all roads leading to Parliament
Now this is to check what MPs have been doing since lockdown and if they qualify for wages during that time
Each will be audited by the Taxpayers union
David Clark ex Doctor will be exempt because he has already promised to resign and we have accepted it
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May 1, 2020 8:12am
lastmanstanding

The Government are planning on borrowing over $100 billion to deal with the current situation. That will take Government debt from around 20% of GDP to 50% of GDP.

Over the 9 years of the Nat Government growth averaged 5%.

If the current Government uses the $100 billion to invest in growth and attains that level without paying a dollar of the debt the debt will fall back to 33% of GDP.

The emphasis is on growth investment rather than ‘nice to have investment”.

The big question is does the current Government have the economic and financial skills to invest in areas that are both productive and also necessary.

The outcome as always impacts on all citizens wellbeing a word the Government is fond of using.
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May 1, 2020 8:12am
- RW Capitalist
  
  3 words…..Auckland rail link.
  so NO
  the current Government definitely doesn’t have the economic and financial skills to invest in areas that are both productive and also necessary.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:15am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Much of that borrowing will be for public consumption and transfer payments rather than infrastructure. But there will be infrastructure. Too soon to tell what it will be. The Greens will be pushing hard for railways. New Zealand First will be pushing for the Auckland Port relocation. A few more things like that and you won’t get much change out of 40 billion.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:19am
  - PhilBest
    
    Railways – that have already been NZ’s Concorde Project for 130 years.
    
    This is worse than Winston Churchill’s analogy of a man standing in a bucket and trying to pull himself up by the handle. It is more like claiming that a millstone is a helium balloon.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:29am
- amospicton
  
  No they don’t have the skills. They are throwing money around as if it is confetti. The economic return on every dollar invested (ie borrowed) from here is critical. Projects driven by political agenda (i.e. public transport, ‘sustainability’) won’t cut the mustard. The private sector needs to be encouraged to lead us out of this self-inflicted disaster. If government’s the answer the question was stupid.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:33am
- Prince
  
  Appears this Labour/Green/NZ First Govt is about to dramatically increase the Govt spend as % of GDP to levels other communist countries could only dream of.
  At some stage the money will run out/inflation will become acceptable/foreign lenders will want repayments, and National will be voted in to sort it all out to the usual shrill cries from the Left fanboys and girls.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:34am
- cmm
  
  It is not investment. It is spending.
  
  They say “investment” to make it sound wise.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:35am
- Ruawai
  
  Plus the Govt’s income will be considerably lower as less tax and GST from business and employees.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:54am
- Nickc2
  
  Lets cut to the chase lastmanstanding, what skills does this Government have other than lying, bullshit, and threatening?
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:30am
BobbyS

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121336027/coronavirus-tangi-attracts-100-as-some-whnau-stay-home-due-to-covid19-rules

So some family members stayed home to not exceed the 10 ppl max limit but others ignored it

*face palm
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May 1, 2020 8:14am
- Nickc2
  
  Different folks, different laws?
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:31am
Poppa

I recently had occasion to view the kiwibuild houses being erected in a Te Kauwhata subdivision.

My God!!! No wonder they can’t sell them. They are disgusting, even complete with a roller door on the side of the house. No it is not a garage, it is a storage area about 1 metre deep.

A family could not possibly live in them, they are not much bigger than a double garage
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May 1, 2020 8:16am
- Thought Criminal
  
  But each house has over 40k of government analytics bureaucrats making sure good decisions are made. How could they be wrong?
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:23am
- Ruawai
  
  Saw some in Pukekohe last week and they look like implement sheds stuck a metre apart from each other and $650,000.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:55am
  - Nickc2
    
    I have seen them. A fire will rip through all those things in no time flat. A death trap waiting to happen. Who will take responsibility then?
    Leaky homes will fade into obscurity.
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:35am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Checking up on some of the sites claiming a ‘kiwibuild’ connection, these people can’t even spell:
  
  “community at it’s heart.”
  
  https://www.auranga.co.nz/first-home-buyers/
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:33am
timmydevo

While our hospitals and staff are mostly inactive, when are we going to get stats on:
1. People who have succumbed to conditions (cancer etc) due to limited access to public healthcare?
2. Quality of life levels for people who remain in high levels of pain due to limited access to public healthcare?
3. Cancelled elective surgerythat could have saved lives / provided a better quality of life for sufferers?
4. The number of suicides (and future projections… how does THAT curve look?) that have occurred under level 3/4 lockdown as the economy begins to tank?

I’m so frustrated that we’re still at home. We are still inactive. That the negligible number currently being reported regarding COVID far outweighs what is happening in areas that have been sidelined for the sake of preserving all lives, regardless of current quality of life.
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May 1, 2020 8:17am
- PhilBest
  
  The 7am discussion thread is specifically on this topic, your contribution over there would be valuable.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:30am
  - timmydevo
    
    Oh so sorry, Phil. I was pondering this last night and this morning writing it out on my notes at 6:30. Around 7am my kids are up, so I was with them. I took a shit around 8:05 (and to hide) to put my notes on the GD, completely missing that there was a 7am post I didn’t quite get around to reading.
    
    I’ll endeavour to check all previous posts before sharing from here-on-in, in the one off chance that it may have been covered (it never usually is).
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:19am
- Mummy
  
  No hospitals are not empty. Wellington hospital is rocking with elective surgeries. I’m in orthopedic right now only a month later than it should’ve been. One of the nurses told me yesterday they have been working all the way through.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:10am
  - Iamright
    
    What rubbish. My wife was cancelled and no re appointment has been made
    
    10 3
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    May 1, 2020 10:31am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      You think she is lying about being at the hospital now?
      
      3 9
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      May 1, 2020 10:53am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Same happened to me re an essential check-up. Cancelled.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:35am
    - Mummy
      
      Yes I was cancelled 3 times in March once because the spare parts didn’t arrive in the courier. The third date turned out to be day one of level 4 but they rang me late last week and booked me in for yesterday. And no it’s not rubbish, I’m here in the ward recovering and the nurse told me they have been working right through. I was probably the very last person on the list to be cancelled due to the lockdown but was first cab off the rank when they started up again.
      
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      May 1, 2020 12:53pm
    - MCos
      
      My mother was booked in to have cataracts removed, but she got delayed and had it done privately at some expense (by the same bloke).
      But that was ten years ago.
      Our public hospitals are noted for shunting people off onto a siding to make way for more urgent cases.
      I’m guessing here, but I’d say the mosque shootings and the White Island tragedy would have resulted in big delays for what the respective hospitals considered non urgent cases.
      
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      May 1, 2020 2:00pm
  - Michael NZ
    
    not true for some.
    but for others yes.
    Cancer patients treatment continued.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:51am
    - Evadne
      
      Not for all of them.
      
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      May 1, 2020 1:43pm
- MCos
  
  Regarding your item #4
  The chief coroner will issue an update of suicide stats in August, if you really must know.
  https://coronialservices.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/Provisional-Figures-August-2019.pdf
  
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  May 1, 2020 1:47pm
cas

Eastern Bay of Plenty has had 1 case of Covid 19 from overseas travel no community transmissions or clusters so why isn’t the region at Level 2 or even 1 Jacinda when our region fulfills your criteria for those levels? Why doesn’t some journo ask her why the whole country isn’t at level 2. A lot of anger building up I think.
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May 1, 2020 8:19am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  And all the beer in kegs at clubs and pubs is going stale. That is a national tragedy.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:57am
  - MCos
    
    You thinks that’s bad?
    Thailand has had 2,954 infected people & 54 deaths.
    Sale of alcohol is banned, there’s a curfew in place, trains and buses aren’t running, streets are empty, malls are closed. A lot worse than here, depending on who you are (as always).
    
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    May 1, 2020 2:08pm
    - MCos
      
      https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30387068
      
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      May 1, 2020 3:03pm
Im Right

‘does the current Government have the economic and financial skills to invest in areas that are both productive and also necessary’….depends on what minority group make the most noise Lastmanstanding?, my bet is 17% of the population (the special people) will get inappropriately more than the 83%.
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May 1, 2020 8:24am
- Ruahine
  
  They could not organise a border quarantine so how are the going to organise all of these ‘wonderful’ projects that we will be so grateful for.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:00am
I remember when

“Snake Oil” is a traditional Chinese medicine made from the fats and oil extracted from the Chinese Water Snake. It is higher in sources of omega-3s than salmon a popular food source.
Sounds okay to me!
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May 1, 2020 8:28am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Report back once you’ve tried it…..
  
  https:///www.thesun.co.uk/news/11516961/chinese-man-snakes-lungs-riddled-worms/
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:51am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    hiyaaa Mod – it works ok from my end.
    
    [Sorry, I got a 404 not found first time. mod]
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:03am
Justitia

So the top cop thinks the presence of a Police officer can make the illegal road blocks lawful? That is legally nonsense. What a dazzling display of sophistry we saw before the Epidemic Response Committee yesterday from newly minted Commissioner Coster. But in the face of tenacious questioning from MPs he did let slip the fact that the Police had condoned the illegal roadblocks because they were afraid of protest action. As he said, “policing is not an exact science”. Remember that next time you receive an infringement notice of any kind. Meanwhile the separatists will be further emboldened to continue pushing against the rotting door of the State’s authority.
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May 1, 2020 8:30am
- Tony Stuart
  
  The questioning of Coster from Bridges, Mitchell, Seymour and Woodhouse over the legality of the Police’s actions was rigorous. It’s a shame that so few people are seeing the important work going on in this committee.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:45am
- JibberJabber
  
  The NZ Police are terrified of the Feral Gangs hence the aiding and abetting of criminal activity with the approval of the Labour “government”.
  But fair’s fair, they are outnumbered and outgunned.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:52am
Maggie Pie

My partner headed off early this morning to meet up with his dad at the farm and prep the maimai for Opening Day. He came home last night with a couple of new ‘flapping Mallard decoys’ that he ordered from Gun City. I must say they are sooo realistic! Last year he blew one right out of the water by mistake. They cost about $400 each so it made it an expensive weekend away. LOL
Him and his father really look forward to their duck shooting. They’re even hoping for a real crappy weekend weather-wise. But honestly, as i tell them, it would be a lot easier and cheaper to just buy a dozen already cooked from the Tai Ping Supermarket.
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May 1, 2020 8:41am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Are they aware that the start of duck shooting season has been postponed?
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:43am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Who ya gonna call? 😮
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:53am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Not if your on ‘private property’ apparently.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:56am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Might be worth checking. The dates for duck shooting season each year are gazetted by the Government, and for this year have been moved back to the second weekend after we move to Level 2. Whether you shoot on private land or not is irrelevant.
      
      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/rural/2020/04/coronavirus-restricted-hunting-allowed-under-level-3-lockdown-duck-shooting-postponed.html
      
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      May 1, 2020 9:58am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Thanks for the link TS, but I doubt it would worry them anyway.
        They have the perfect hidey-hole all set up on the edge of the Waikato and well away from everyone. And after spending a small fortune last summer running water & power down to the maimai, as well as adding another deck, nothing is going to stop them. (I got a txt about an hour ago saying there must be about 200 ducks feeding on all the grain they’ve laid out over the last few weeks.)
        
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        May 1, 2020 10:28am
  - hookerphil
    
    Maybe so but I will be listening with interest for the normal sounds on opening weekend in this district.
    
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    May 1, 2020 8:56am
- Nickc2
  
  Maggie, I don’t believe you are allowed to shoot ducks when they are on the water?
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:44am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    But it wasn’t a duck silly! Just one of the radio control decoys 😀
    
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    May 1, 2020 12:49pm
Tony Stuart

Would it surprise anyone to know that Dr David Clark, the Minister of Health, did not see the modelling data that the Prime Minister used to formulate New Zealand’s lockdown strategy? He admitted this yesterday, to Ryan Bridge at Newshub.

https://twitter.com/commonsense_nz/status/1255771460208979970

So had Clark already been effectively sidelined by the PM, which might explain him going back to Dunedin and going rogue? Or is this a government where the PM, like her Labour predecessor Helen Clark, is micromanaging everything?

If it’s the latter, there’s just one problem. Helen Clark, whether you love her or loath her, was a very good political operator. I’m yet to see Ardern exhibiting any evidence of that, beyond her role as a frontperson. Which makes me wonder; who’s pulling the strings?
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May 1, 2020 8:43am
- hookerphil
  
  I was not aware the Prime Minister used any sort of modelling to formulate the lockdown, I understood it was the result of a phone a friend in England conversation.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:00am
  - Martin Williams
    
    A pity for England their government didn’t take the advice of JA’s friend.
    
    394 deaths/million.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:25am
    - cmm
      
      The advice would not have moved UK to the southern hemisphere.
      
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      May 1, 2020 9:40am
  - Inandout
    
    hooker, I presume it wasn’t Darren.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:54am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    When the PM made her first major television appearance over coronavirus, she told us modeling had suggested a death toll of 80,000. Thus far, she’s 79,981 short.
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120604818/new-model-shows-coronavirus-could-kill-80000-kiwis-without-lockdown
    
    The question remains though; why did the Minister of Health, in the midst of a global pandemic and health crisis, not see this information?
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:10am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      I’d surmise that Cindy wanted the limelight after being denied publicity for Christchurch massacre reprise, so took over sidelining Clark.
      
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      May 1, 2020 3:01pm
- Jules99
  
  I think the puppet masters behind her are micromanaging. Jacinda doesn’t have the ability to do more that emote and empathise.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:34am
- Nickc2
  
  I think the strings lead all the way to Mt Eden.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:51am
Manolo

The rest home awaits! Old Joe doing what he knows best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-y_w0O5Bw
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May 1, 2020 8:48am
I remember when

Asia’s population is 4.463 million and according to Worldometer figures they have had 8057 deaths and have 71,749 active cases.
Even the adjusted figures from China appear to be in line with other Asian totals.
If Covid-19 had been confined to Asia it would have been considered a Serious Epidemic but to be contained and, largely, under control.
Necessity is a great builder of discipline because they can’t afford to get it wrong.
By now Covid-19 would have been disappearing from news bulletins and buried in newspapers.
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May 1, 2020 8:54am
- MCos
  
  The key words there are ‘according to Worldometer figures’
  Some numbers Laos 1927 tests 19 positive
  Cambodia 12,084 tests 122 positive
  Myanmar 7,718 tests 151 positive
  Indonesia 94,599 tests 10,118 positive
  
  These country aren’t small.
  
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  May 1, 2020 2:32pm
Thought Criminal

The Royal College of Paediatrics is saying kids can’t transmit it. Looks like great news for primary schools!

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/experts-fail-to-find-a-single-case-of-children-passing-virus-to-adults-20200430-p54ohi.html
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May 1, 2020 8:55am
- YesMinister
  
  There is ZERO chance that is true. Name one virus that children can catch and not pass on to their parents. Just one. Unless covid is magic (which apparently it is, because you can’t catch it in a supermarket, but you 100% will if you go surfing) then kids will transmit it. Kids transmit everything. They’re walking petrie dishes.
  
  I’m all for science, but Einstein himself could reincarnate and tell me the sky is green and I would not believe him. There’s some truly pants on head nonsense coming out of medical corners lately. Unless, of course, you believe that borders need to be closed, but also not closed. Small businesses need to be shut down, but also not shut down. Kids can catch it and die from it, but only sometimes, and they can’t transmit it. I can’t believe the credulity it would take to believe that.
  
  The WHO was telling us there was no human to human transmission six weeks ago. You had to snuggle with a pangolin. I’m betting before this is over, they admit that kids transmit it the same way they pass on every virus.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:43am
rouppe

Just heard on the radio that when considering clusters of covid-19, only the first person in that cluster is considered community transmission.

So imagine the wedding in bluff. There are a total of 98 cases. But only one is considered community transmission.

That’s nuts. Surely everyone at that wedding caught it from someone else at that wedding. Isn’t that community transmission?

Official figures have community transmission at 4%. If everyone in the cluster were considered to be community transmission the rate would be 28%.

Looks like massaging the data to suit the outcome. Again.
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May 1, 2020 8:57am
- rouppe
  
  Here’s more detail.
  
  The Health Ministry says it changed its method of reporting community transmission last week.
  
  The way the data is gathered now is that if ‘Person A’ gets the virus from an unknown source and gives it to, for example, four other people, then only person A is classified as community transmission.
  
  Seems like they’re saying it’s community transmission only if they don’t know who a person caught it from
  
  Utterly crazy. Those four other people caught it in the community, from a person in the community.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:06am
  - Ruahine
    
    And the original source was an International traveler.
    The Governments incompetence has ruined many lives.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:54am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Our expert epidemiologists reckon NZ’s data is uninterpretable
  
  uninterhttps://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/health-experts-criticise-nz-s-covid-19-community-transmission-data-as-meaningless-uninterpretable.html
  
  “If they’re confident that the community prevalence is trending to zero, and if they’re confident they can track people within 48 hours, and if they’re confident they can isolate cases, we should be at level 2. If we’re not there, presumably one of those three platforms is yet to reach the stage of confidence,” he says.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:12am
  - rouppe
    
    It’s the tracking part.
    
    Bet they’re busy coming up with legislation making it mandatory for tracking via phone.
    
    Which will be pitched as a covid necessity, but there won’t be a sunset clause…
    
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    May 1, 2020 12:25pm
Durden

To day, for the first time in my life I found out that an organisation called UN World Tourism Organisation exists. https://www.unwto.org/

Damned if I can find a budget for the office. That lead me to look at the “UN Family”. It horrifies me that they have morphed from an organisation created to stop wars to now becoming a parasitic hydra that pokes its nose into every aspect of humanity.
https://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/funds-programmes-specialized-agencies-and-others/index.html

Of course, just like wars between humans it was supposed to stop, when it comes to wars against germs and diseases, its useless senior family member WHO failed miserably with SARS-Cov-2, as it had done with every recent epidemic/pandemic.

The EU is a baby when compared to UN. If the UN mandarins were honest (i.e. not stealthy sophisticated dictators e.g Helen Clark) they would openly rant like this idiot. Here is the would-be EU Dictator Guy Vershofstadt going full Benito.

https://twitter.com/guyverhofstadt/status/1250740074796457984

Basically saying that “the elected leaders of the individual EU nations i.e. the European Council should be ignored and the administrative and the executive branch of the Eurpoean Union i.e. the European Commission should bypass the individual nations’ interest and set up a trillion dollar fund “not based on mutualisation of debt, not guaranteed by the member states”

But based in fact on “new own resources” — whatever the heck that might be.

Do you believe people in the UN do not think the same way and long for the day it will happen ?

Time to nuke the hydra and restart again.
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May 1, 2020 9:00am
I remember when

cas
The Government has shown a lack of flexibility by not looking at ways parts of the country could be isolated. We have provinces, Regional Councils, District Health Boards so it should only be a matter of setting up some borders.
That is what Australia has done at a State level but we seem to have had a aversion to looking like we are copying them.
World leaders. Appearances not common sense?
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May 1, 2020 9:02am
- Rachael Membery
  
  Maori have done it for them.
  
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  May 1, 2020 8:14pm
Happychappy

This is why the public dislike the media and Jacinda Ardern and don’t like what’s happening in NZ politics with fluff columns like this being penned.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/415515/pm-s-earrings-help-fledgling-jewellery-firm-through-financial-downturn
What the fucks this gotto do with running a country, the way she dresses or wears jewelry has sweet fanny Adam’s to do with it.
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May 1, 2020 9:05am
- Martin Williams
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Wake up. The public love Jacinda Ardern.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:23am
  - kevn
    
    @marty… Clearly you speak for yourself. Assume nothing.
    
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    May 1, 2020 9:46am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Quite so kevn. The gloss is about to rub off the PM. The government’s refusal to release Crown Law advice on the legality of the lockdown powers given to Police is going to come back to bite them.
      
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      May 1, 2020 10:05am
  - Happychappy
    
    Well by trying to look like pauper in most photos she fronts around NZ makes people feel sorry for her. As she is not the most tidiest or well dressed Prime Minister in NZ history.
    
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    May 1, 2020 10:52am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Good God – lets hope she doesn’t go commando 😛
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:48am
- Surely Knott
  
  It would be fine if it was one story but it is not. Do we not have any celebrities in this country , business leaders, community leaders, artists, fashion people, or even interesting ordinary people, that could be displayed wearing the earrings . Anzac Day Herald cover photo – yip it’s not a war hero or nzers lining the street.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:07am
  - doggone7
    
    We do. He’s out east somewhere. His name’s Luxon, Christopher Luxon.
    
    3 2
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    May 1, 2020 11:18am
- Michael NZ
  
  Happy
  It’s a personality cult..
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:57am
- graham
  
  And yet, didn’t Mike Hosking get absolutely blasted when he asked Jacinda what she was going to wear for the leader’s debate?
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:07am
- Nickc2
  
  You obviously don’t listen to what women talk about when talking to each other.
  
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  May 1, 2020 12:09pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn’t know because they might reflect badly on Labour
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May 1, 2020 9:12am
- kevn
  
  @Steve… Yep, the 5 mill MSM team. Apart from Hosking.
  I also notice that all unflattering pics of JA are cleansed from the net. Unlike Bridges who has his worst images go to the MSM print media.
  
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  May 1, 2020 9:47am
I remember when

Thought Criminal
Children don’t decide who goes to school parents and teachers do. The hysteria and lack of critical assessment means that parents and teachers are scared of catching Covid-19. Despite the fact that the risk to children is very, very, very low a lot of mothers have an oversize impression of the risk.
Over the years teachers have been a considerable block of our politicians.
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May 1, 2020 9:18am
Maggie Pie

A good friend of mines hubby tweets. R.I.P 🙁

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1255883250922225667
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May 1, 2020 9:22am
Martin Williams

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Now that the grown-ups’ Parliament is back, is it time to put the National Party butchers and bakers committee out of its misery?

Yesterday we had Mark Mitchell roughing up the Police Commissioner interrogation-style trying to get the names of people he’d been speaking with.
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May 1, 2020 9:22am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Hi Martin, displaying your stupidity again eh?
  Keep it up, you’re a great source of free entertainment.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:05am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Heck no Martin. The Epidemic Response Committee is just starting to get its teeth into some issues. Commissioner Coster was particularly unimpressive yesterday under some very rigorous cross examination.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:08am
Yvette

America’s the Atlantic launches Ardernation to even greater heights –
New Zealand’s Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet.
Jacinda Ardern’s leadership style, focused on empathy, isn’t just resonating with her people; it’s putting the country on track for success against the coronavirus. – the Atlantic [1]

People feel that Ardern “doesn’t preach at them; she’s standing with them,” Helen Clark, New Zealand’s prime minister from 1999 to 2008, told me. (Ardern, a fellow member of the Labour Party, got her start in politics working for Clark during her premiership.) “They may even think, Well, I don’t quite understand why [the government] did that, but I know she’s got our back. There’s a high level of trust and confidence in her because of that empathy.”

She is “a communicator,” Clark added, noting that Ardern earned a degree in communications. “This is the kind of crisis which will make or break leaders. And this will make Jacinda.”

Just saying – Helen saying, that is

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-leadership-coronavirus/610237/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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May 1, 2020 9:55am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  My breakfast just landed in the toilet.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:08am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “They may even think, Well, I don’t quite understand why [the government] did that, but I know she’s got our back.”
  
  I think the first part of that sentence but not the second part. 🙂
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:18am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Bill Clinton was right. (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) When the economy is in the toilet, people are losing their jobs and homes, speeches about kindness will anger people. That is what I think is going to happen in September. If I am incorrect, I seriously do not think that New Zealand will recover in my lifetime. I am 58. I do have a second passport, and if the worst happens I will sell up at the end of the year and leave. I will have nothing to lose.
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:21am
- Gravelroad
  
  Has there ever in our history been a Prime Minister who has had to be publicly propped up by so many?
  If Ms Ardern is so effective, brave, honest, empathetic etc, etc, why do people like Helen Clark feel the need to constantly praise and support her?
  Sheeple and the msm interpret this as being affirmation for a hugely talented politician, and is beyond questioning.
  I say it is is a con job.
  Genuine people with great leadership skills do not need constant adulation and personal encouragement to be effective. They have the confidence to get on with it without having to surround themselves with enablers.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:08am
Gravelroad

Had a bit of a smile this morning.
Inmates here watching a rerun on telly of one of Michael Portillo’s railway programmes.
He went to Colchester.
This area is a main supplier of oysters. Has been for centuries.
Michael gets on boat with local oyster bed manager, Mr Graham Larkin.
Why is it that this area grows such large, tasty oysters in huge quantities? asks Mr Portillo.
Because this water area has high level of salinity and because of……..”all this marvellous agricultural land around us that’s giving us all these nutrients. All this food being washed off by the rain” and into the estuary, says Graham.
This gives the oysters food to grow.
Wonderful, says Michael.
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May 1, 2020 10:15am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Grave;
  
  In the 18th and 19th centuries Oysters were staple food in London!!!
  
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  May 1, 2020 10:22am
  - greybeard
    
    From Wikipedia:
    The seaside town of Whitstable, on the North coast of Kent in southeast England, has been famous for its succulent, fatty oysters since the 1400s.
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:52am
Maggy Wassilieff

How’s Lockdown 3 going, folks?

The Guardian is desperate for your tales of release from Lockdown 4.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/new-zealand-share-your-experiences-of-leaving-coroanvirus-lockdown

I’ve submitted a deeply moving story about my trip for a toasted salmon bagel.
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May 1, 2020 10:19am
mark15

Well,I had a Dominos pizza yesterday and it was just as bad as I remember them.
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May 1, 2020 10:45am
Fletch

Going on from what Roupe said above, Hosking made comment on NewstalkZB this morning on community transmission.

The Health Ministry data on the Covid cases is meaningless. […] Six clusters, right? Where the origin is unknown. […] Only the first person in each of these clusters of unknown origin is considered ‘community transmission”. So the total community transmission, according to the Ministry, is four percent. Now that’s a much lower figure than if you included everyone else in those clusters which would take it to 28% of all cases. So what’s community transmission? Is it four? Or is it 28? That’s the sort of information we need more of. Instead of just the endless parroting of what Ardern says, or Bloomfield says, or Robertson says on any given day. That’s almost all the media do these days. They simply go, ‘Today, Robertson said this, this, this and this’ and that’s their story. There is no question, there is no background, there is no context, there is no expansion. There’s nothing. It’s just a repatriation of his words from once place to another. It’s pointless. Because you can go and find that out any time you like. What news is supposed to be about is to go beyond that. To ask some questions, to analyze, to give you information that you didn’t already know.

See today’s On Demand broadcast from 8:45am

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-demand/week-on-demand/

He says he had to watch TV Three for the info and that Three are doing a better job of looking into it than TV One
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May 1, 2020 10:46am
- Fletch
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/health-experts-criticise-nz-s-covid-19-community-transmission-data-as-meaningless-uninterpretable.html
  
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  May 1, 2020 1:57pm
Ruawai

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12328792
Great photos of emergency services social distancing in today’s herald at Mt Roskill homicide.
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May 1, 2020 10:57am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Do as I say, not as I do
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:14am
Maggy Wassilieff

My Goodness, this Labour Summer Camp assault story is turning into a saga

Labour Party summer camp case: Suppression fight continues with Court of Appeal bid
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12328797

If only the Labour hierarchy hadn’t been so confident they were employing “best practice” by hushing up the assaults, this young man could have had his time in court and been done & dusted with the matter months ago.
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May 1, 2020 11:03am
- doggone7
  
  Is he still around? The lynch party hasn’t got him?
  
  Maybe this latest effort will succeed and when they’ve justly dealt to him they can get on to others who need to be dealt to.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:16am
- cmm
  
  I’m sure Labour are more than happy that this man’s court actions are taking up the oxygen. In many ways he was thrown under the bus.
  
  This is really the sideshow. The real questions that should be addressed are:
  1) Who was the Labour person who supplied booze to kids then left the kids to have an alcohol-fuelled party with no supervision? Is she an MP? Why was this not investigated by the police? Why was nobody charged?
  2) Did this have the tacit approval of others in the Labour party? Who?
  3) Since when can an organisation try to manage a criminal matter as an internal matter? On the face of it that is witness tampering and defeating justice. Why was this not investigated by the police? Why was nobody charged?
  4) PriNZess was there earlier in the day. What did she know? Is she complicit in any of this?
  5) How are we supposed to have confidence in a justice system that does not hold people to account because of their connections?
  
  I’ll bet that if any of these acts had been done by Joe and Jane Punter they would have had cops all over them.
  
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  May 1, 2020 12:09pm
- Papalazarou
  
  He must be the son of someone important. And as for Labour Judge Collins…
  
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  May 2, 2020 11:23am
Fletch

New unsealed records show corruption in the FBI re: Michael Flynn.

Newly unsealed court records on Wednesday showed that the FBI considered using their January 24, 2017, interview with then-national security adviser Michael Flynn as a way of getting Flynn fired from his job.

The revelation was contained in sealed documents filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last week that lawyers for Flynn said was proof that Flynn was “deliberately set up and framed by corrupt agents at the top of the FBI.”

Unsealed handwritten notes from the day of the interview show that an unidentified person with the FBI wrote: “What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-fbi-discussed-if-questioning-of-michael-flynn-was-to-get-him-to-lie-and-get-him-fired-unsealed-records-show

https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1255627278249349122

Also revelations that the FBI always intended to spy on the Trump campaign.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/20/7-devastating-revelations-about-crossfire-hurricane-in-new-releases/

It’s all coming out now, but who is listening?
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May 1, 2020 11:12am
- virtualmark
  
  You’re so feverish you should get a Covid-19 test.
  
  The emails show straightforward police preparation for an interview. The hand-written notes (from an unidentified person) are basically “Find out what he knows and then hand it over to the DoJ”.
  
  Flynn lied. No one held a gun to his head. He chose to lie to the FBI. Dumb decision. Unless the reason you lied was because the truth was so much worse …
  
  Flynn pleaded guilty. He knew the evidence against him. He chose to plead guilty. Too late for hand-wringing and woe-is-me afterwards.
  
  Flynn clearly did a lot worse than lie to the FBI. For one he was an undeclared agent of a foreign country (Turkey) while also receiving the USA’s most secret intelligence. For another he breached the Logan Act by negotiating with Kislyak before 20 Jan 2016. For another there’s a number of (uncharged) crimes re an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Gulen and get him back to Turkey.
  
  But I for one would welcome him being pardoned. Once you’re pardoned you can’t claim the fifth and you have to answer questions posed by law enforcement. Such as “Who asked you to call Kislyak?”, “Who knew about your Russia contacts and when did they know it?”, “Who in Trump’s campaign had contact with the Russians in 2016?” etc.
  
  And it’s for precisely that reason that I’ll be surprised if Trump does end up pardoning Flynn, or Stone.
  
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  May 1, 2020 1:05pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Note that Trump also hasn’t pardoned either Cohen or Manafort … because he definitely doesn’t want either of those two being forced to testify.
    
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    May 1, 2020 1:12pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    That’s a pretty feverish take itself Virtualmark; I take it you have zero understanding of how the prosecution of individuals is handled in the USA. Flynn pleaded guilty to lesser charges to avoid the FBI targeting and harassing his son, plus he had basically run out of money to conduct a continued defense.
    
    The FARA supposed violation is indeed involved. Flynn sought advice from his lawyers who advised him that for the work he was doing, no FARA declaration was needed. That is exculpatory, and is definitely a problem for the lawyers who then later tried to do a side deal with the FBI so Flynn would plead guilty to “Lying” so their bad advice would not be exposed.
    
    Logan Act, what a joke. At the time of his conversation with Kislyak, Flynn was the PEOTUS designated National Security Advisor. As such it is perfectly legitimate for him to be involved in discussions with foreign diplomats regarding future US foreign policy, especially when dealing with duplicitous acts by the outgoing administration. No one has ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act, however John Kerry is a far better subject for such a charge should one be made.
    
    And are you so stupid as to think that anyone in the Trump campaign had direct or collusion like contacts with Russians in 2016 ? Not even that ass Mueller could find that, and the IG (Horowitz) report shows just how unethical and illegal the whole FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign was.
    
    Only one party and one candidate had illegal contacts with foreigners in that campaign – the Democrats paying Christopher Steele (a foreigner, was paid, is illegal – facts) to interfere in the election.
    Flynn won’t need pardoning, the case has basically collapsed and his case vacated. The prosecutor may well face charges himself, and the Covington & Burling Law Firm will probably have to hand over serious money in a settlement. Plus the questions as to why the SC held back specific Brady Material that is not just required to be provided, but in this case was quite expressly ordered by the Judge to be provided.
    
    I’d say there’s trouble for plenty of people, but not much left for Flynn. Mueller, Van Grack, the FBI, plus other Obama era staffers however may have some serious future pain coming.
    
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    May 1, 2020 1:33pm
    - virtualmark
      
      So much Kool-aid.
      
      Flynn wasn’t set up. He had the choice to tell the truth, stay silent, or lie. He lied. He lied because the truth was so much worse than the lie.
      
      He was guilty of FARA, guilty of the Logan Act (the events that he was being interviewed over), and guilty of more. And yes his son was in the mix for at least the FARA stuff too.
      
      Trump has been owned by the Russian mob since the 1990s. You should read “Red Mafiya”, which details his connections, and was published in 2000 … long before any Presidential campaign. Russia now is a joint venture between the security agencies and the mob. Trump is a jointly-owned asset.
      
      But hey, you do you. Question though. If Steele and Mueller and van Grack and the FBI and other Obama era staffers (and no doubt the Clintons, and Soros and the rest of the names you and your 4Chan beat off to) are such big crooks then how come the Senate, House, FBI, DoJ etc etc haven’t taken them down yet? Trump had total control over that for at least two years, and still drives the Senate, FBI and DoJ. Plenty of horsepower there for them to have brought those crims to justice.
      
      Instead the only people who’ve been convicted are Flynn, Cohen, Manafort, Stone etc. All the *best* people.
      
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      May 1, 2020 2:27pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Hahahahahahaha
        This one is gold
        ‘Russia now is a joint venture between the security agencies and the mob. Trump is a jointly-owned asset.’
        
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        May 1, 2020 4:42pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Yes. Russia is now a modern liberal democracy, AND Trump has stood up to Russia more than any other president ever did.
        
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        May 1, 2020 4:55pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Oh, and turns out the handwritten notes were from the FBI’s Head of Counter-Intelligence (Bill Priestap). As in the guy who heads up the whole searching for spies and traitors. That can’t be good right? When the top man in the hunt for traitors is on your case. But hey, I’m sure Flynn did nothing wrong …
    
    Dosvedanya.
    
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    May 1, 2020 1:38pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hilary Clinton would be in jail right now if she hadn’t murdered all the witnesses…
      
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      May 1, 2020 2:38pm
arkhad

Leaked umr poll

Labour 55
National 29
NZ First 6
Green 5
Act 3
Preferred PM
Adern 65
Bridges 7
Collins 7
4 9
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May 1, 2020 11:16am
- JerJer
  
  This poll is maybe a couple of weeks or more old. The tide seems to be already starting to turn now people are realising that their gummint paid holiday actually ends with them losing their job, and their life style, and their business. People are also starting to undertand the huge mistakes that have been made and that this was mostly just grandstanding.
  
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  May 1, 2020 11:25am
  - arkhad
    
    Really? Herald has it as breaking news today https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12328854
    
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    May 1, 2020 11:35am
    - JerJer
      
      One M Hooten had the numbers a while back. It is hardly breaking news.
      
      Just like the government seemed to completely miss corona virus in Wuhan. It was hardly breaking news to most people when the the circus clowns finally caught on.
      
      10 3
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      May 1, 2020 12:06pm
      - Pete George
        
        The poll was taken between the 21st and the 27th of April.
        
        If this is a similar result to numbers Hooton had a while back then that suggests not just a dive for National but a dive and stay underwater for them.
        
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        May 1, 2020 1:35pm
    - chaos
      
      Smoke and mirrors, look for what this is trying to cover up.
      
      9 1
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      May 1, 2020 12:14pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Wait until the news breaks that the Government received advice from Crown Law that the powers given to Police in the first days of the Alert Level 4 lockdown were illegal.
    
    30 5
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    May 1, 2020 11:35am
    - JerJer
      
      Yes, there are several of those coming down the chute. This is actually good news for National. This means there has not been a huge shift in their base support, and it is soft support that has shifted temporarily to Labour purely because of they are currently preceived as the ‘saviours’ here. Basically the people that think Jacinda saved them, and really they should know better, and probably will realise that soon, if they have half a brain (lets hope). The same loons are still supporting NZF and Greens in basically the same numbers.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:40am
      - doggone7
        
        Yes, this actually good news for National. Being under 30% is great actually. It shows what needs to be done.
        Since you mention loons, do you think some loons will go loony about numbers being in the 20s?
        
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        May 1, 2020 12:44pm
    - Bell-47
      
      Yes, precisely why the police were told to “educate” people rather than arrest them. This is because constitutionally, people in New Zealand are not allowed to be detained for going about their business or denied freedom to move around. Anyone arrested for being outside for any reason during this period has a good case to have all charges and or convictions vacated.
      
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      May 1, 2020 11:51am
    - Martin Williams
      
      Yeah, that’s really going to resonate with the 3% of ACT voters.
      
      3 28
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      May 1, 2020 11:57am
    - cmm
      
      I don’t think many will really mind. Something along the lines of:
      “Well they did what was best for us.”
      “They meant well”
      
      5 1
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      May 1, 2020 12:11pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        But did they mean well?
        
        0 0
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        May 1, 2020 10:10pm
    - Nukuleka
      
      Yes Tony but will the rednecks be bothered?
      
      2 4
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      May 1, 2020 12:12pm
    - brett68
      
      You really are the Greg Presland of kiwiblog.
      
      8 2
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      May 1, 2020 1:01pm
  - doggone7
    
    The poll is maybe a couple of weeks or more old?
    “The poll was taken between the 21st and the 27th of April.”
    
    Don’t worry, things would have changed dramatically since then.
    
    5 1
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    May 1, 2020 12:40pm
    - JerJer
      
      This is the union we are talking about. The 21-27th dates are probably when the union discovered the hooten leaked numbers sitting on their desk….
      
      1 3
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      May 1, 2020 2:13pm
- chaos
  
  Until run poll has labour ahead so they leak it, no surprise there
  
  But back in reality. Small business owners are pissed off with the government, gp’s are pissed off with the government. People who had their elective ops cancelled so the hospitals could sit empty for the past several weeks are pissed with the govt.
  
  Back in reality I’d say labour will be be down in the real polls, not up.
  
  13 3
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  May 1, 2020 11:51am
  - chaos
    
    Union run poll
    
    11 3
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    May 1, 2020 12:15pm
    - Tricati
      
      Correct & its their own Labour ‘internal’ polling for goodness sake – Lets see what a Colmar Brunton or similar external poll shows after a month of lock-down and job losses.
      
      8 2
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      May 1, 2020 1:14pm
    - Shazzadude
      
      David Farrar’s Curia poll in April 14 had Labour 49%, Greens 9%, National 31%-pretty similar results
      
      0 0
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      May 2, 2020 4:08am
- Martin Williams
  
  Reflects recent performance although I think ACT is way too high.
  
  4 32
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  May 1, 2020 11:58am
  - Happychappy
    
    Well Marty just like Jacinda Mills who runs UMR Labours poll is a stranger to the truth and has know in the last few years when Labour was the opposition to inflate the polls to suit there narrative so there is only one poll that will count and Election day so we will see then.
    It seems strange that someone leaked that Simon hadn’t showed his caucus a poll in two months and Mills come out with one to suit their appetite.
    
    4 4
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    May 1, 2020 1:28pm
    - gorse
      
      Their narrative. Get your there/their sorted out and I might take your comments more seriously.
      
      1 1
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      May 1, 2020 6:46pm
- BananaLlama
  
  Those numbers wouldn’t surprise me honestly.
  
  2 2
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  May 1, 2020 12:48pm
- Bell-47
  
  In other words, since the last poll, 20% of National voters have gone to Labour… lol. Tell them they are dreaming.
  
  13 2
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  May 1, 2020 12:52pm
  - Papalazarou
    
    Sell ‘em some jousting sticks
    
    0 0
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    May 2, 2020 11:27am
- bruceavon
  
  There’s no use denying the polling at the moment favours Labour. David’s Curia poll apparently says the same thing. Although 55/30 sounds out there. What people, and this includes Simon, need to realise is this as good as it gets for Ardern. huge support for the lock down, huge support for this decisive action, especially compared to overseas. But this is the best bit. Everyone has been given a payout and are at home doing their bit and the “we are all in this together” thing has kicked in. But soon we will all go back to reality. And that will mean thousands of businesses gone. Same with jobs. Huge poverty increases. ghost shopping precincts. The shit will hit the fan in about a month and the true disaster of what we face will reveal itself every day. I would say you check on the polling in a couple of months. It can only go down from here.
  
  19 2
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  May 1, 2020 12:55pm
  - Happychappy
    
    Then wait till people can’t afford to pay their large morgages and the shit hits the fan that makes them realise they need two jobs to save the equity, Labour and Jacinda Ardern won’t be top of the pops then. That is one reason she needs the Election to be in September with hope the mortgage sales haven’t started by then.
    
    8 1
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    May 1, 2020 1:39pm
    - Simon Gotlieb
      
      The thing is, those most likely to have the huge mortgages are National voters not Labour voters. Poll looks a bit skewed towards Labour, but it’s the trend, rather than the individual polls which need to be looked at, and no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look that great for National.
      
      2 1
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      May 1, 2020 4:43pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Support for govts always skyrockets during external crises wars and the like, it’s just human instinct. As new-normal of massive unemployment and bankruptcy starts to be pervasive (outside of wellington bubble we will all know severely affected people) that mid lockdown support will collapse into anger.
  
  5 0
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  May 1, 2020 4:43pm
- John Warren
  
  Bridges needs to go. He’s just not the man for the job.
  
  3 3
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  May 1, 2020 4:51pm
- Isobar
  
  Jesus, on those numbers thats heading to 2002 territory for National, which then had 2 terms more in opposition.
  
  These are crazy times and are totally different to 2002. However if National are not taking this seriously and do not move to act, they are in deep trouble.
  
  If they want any chance of even a decent showing at this election they need to wake up. It seems a loss is now inevitable barring a major cock up from the govt. But pinning your hopes on that happening however is a losing strategy. They will need to work harder to show the general public they are a credible govt in waiting, release policies that resonates with not just the public, but also the time we are in. This could mean policies in normally uncharted territories for National that appeal to labour light voters.
  
  They are on the ropes now and need to do something, anything soon to avoid a major loss.
  
  0 1
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  May 1, 2020 7:37pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Not much global warming in Melbourne…

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-heads-for-wettest-year-on-record-as-snow-blankets-ski-resorts-20200430-p54om4.html
10 3
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May 1, 2020 11:29am
Maggie Pie

Been listening to Peter Williams on & off this morning. Rodney Hide will be coming on soon as well.
I’ve come to the conclusion you can always tell when it’s some f- – wit calling in, the first thing they always say is ……”keyora”
21 5
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May 1, 2020 11:30am
- doggone7
  
  Must be exciting waiting on the edge of one’s seat to see what judgement to cast on the callers based on their first word.
  
  And you’re calling them f- – wits?
  
  8 9
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  May 1, 2020 12:38pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Keyora doggy! Yes Ive always considered myself an astute judge of character 😀
    
    11 2
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    May 1, 2020 1:37pm
- Inandout
  
  MP, or as Lindsay Perigo used to say, ‘kaiorar’, claiming it was the correct pronunciation.
  
  6 3
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  May 1, 2020 12:39pm
- WaveyDavey
  
  Jack Tame:
  
  kee-yowww-rah
  
  It’s a near-dead language that even those descended from the original speakers don’t want to speak
  
  14 4
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  May 1, 2020 1:49pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    A snip at $35 mil a year . . .
    
    0 0
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    May 1, 2020 11:54pm
- kowtow
  
  Virtue signalling , verbally from the word go, and reinforced visually by some sort of neck adornment in the bone or jade dept.
  
  4 3
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  May 1, 2020 2:48pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    The bigger the neck ornament, be it greenstone or bone, the bigger more twatish the interviewee . . .
    
    0 0
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    May 1, 2020 11:56pm
Fletch

Remember this, when Democrats say that it’s Trump’s fault that the virus attacked the U.S the way it did, that Trump didn’t go early enough, etc etc.

Here they all are in the first few months of this year saying not to panic, to go about your normal lives, to go out to bars, to the subway, to Chinatown, to the Mardi Gras, etc etc…

https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1245385767729463297
6 2
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May 1, 2020 11:42am
oldfella

So, the WHO praises Sweden which didn’t shut down. Hmm. (Don’t tell Cindy!)
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/04/30/world-health-organization-hails-no-lockdown-sweden-model-other-nations/
6 3
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May 1, 2020 11:44am
graham

Really?

Katie Couric recalls ‘uncomfortable’ interview with Denzel Washington

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12328445

“I love him. I admire him so much – he’s one of my favourite actors – but I remember walking out feeling kind of shaken that he had gone after me in a way that was completely, weirdly uncalled for,” said Couric.

So what did Washington do that left Couric feeling ‘shaken’ and ‘gone after’?

When Couric asked Washington if he agrees with the notion that, “Hollywood folks should stick to acting” he apparently responded by essentially saying that he’s not a ‘Hollywood folk’. Fair enough, she’s trying to stereotype him and fit him into a nice neat little box, and he’s having none of it.

So Couric then says, “Are you one of those people that —”, and Washington interrupts to say “No, I’m not one of ‘those people'”

Sounds like Couric was completely surprised that an actor might object to being labelled.

Also sound like for someone who’s been in the reporting biz for around 40 years she’s remarkably thin-skinned … or maybe she’s just used to running the show her way, and got pissed that someone might not alow her to manipulate them.

Grow a pair, Couric.
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May 1, 2020 11:46am
- bruceavon
  
  Yes I agree. This story has been doing the rounds in numerous publications and I have read it twice. I don’t see the big deal either. Washington is known as someone who is devoted to his family and a stable family life, also a devout Christian. I don’t think he is a Hollywood type either. not even a story.
  
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  May 1, 2020 12:46pm
- graham
  
  Some reporters seem to think they have a right to say or ask anything, and then get all shocked when somebody actually calls them out.
  
  One of the most unforgiveable moments I have ever seen was in 2018, at the Commonwealth Games, when the Silver Ferns had just lost their final pool match against England. Immediately after that incredible disappointment, Jenny-May Clarkson (Coffin) had the utter gall to suggest to Katrina Grant the Black Ferns didn’t have any pride in the black dress and brought her to tears.
  
  Not surprisingly, quite a few people called out Jenny-May for such a crass question, and right on cue all her media chums came to her defence.
  
  Whenever I see Jenny-May Clarkson I cannot help but recall that moment. I try not to hold grudges and the like, but it will be a long time before I can forgive her for doing that to Katrina Grant.
  
  9 2
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  May 1, 2020 1:37pm
  - John Warren
    
    Jenny May is horrible. Off camera, she’s vulgar and as rough as guts. And thick as a tree.
    
    4 2
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    May 1, 2020 4:54pm
    - gorse
      
      Bugger, upticked you, thought you were talking about Adern. Shouldn’t read from the bottom up.
      
      1 0
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      May 1, 2020 6:41pm
Michael

So far as getting the flu is concerned, my wife and I [we are both octogenarians] haven’t had the flu since we started getting a yearly flu jab some years ago.
I am wondering if those elderly people who do get the flu are having a yearly jab.
5 1
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May 1, 2020 1:28pm
- WaveyDavey
  
  There are at least 2 common strains of flu (and many more less-common) the annual vaccine is for the strain that is judged likely to be more widespread that particular year.
  
  3 1
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  May 1, 2020 2:09pm
- MCos
  
  There’s some interesting stats to be found on the internet with regard to the flu in NZ.
  About 10-20% of people get it each year.
  Well less than 50% get the jab. Maybe because it costs $30 for most people.
  The effectiveness is variable. There’s a table you can find, but it ranges from 35-90% effective depending on different factors.
  About 500 people die as a direct result of contracting the flu annually.
  BTW
  Spanish flu is still in circulation! Seems to have run out of puff.
  
  1 0
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  May 1, 2020 2:43pm
Michael

I did ask this question a week or so ago and some kiwibloggers reckoned a testing laboratory in Wuhan was to blame. From what I have read since it does look like it more likely started at a Wuhan food market. Maybe the purchase of a live bat.
The question was how did the coronavirus start?
1 5
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May 1, 2020 1:43pm
- WaveyDavey
  
  Eh? Coronavirus has been around a long time and bats have long been known as a reservoir.
  
  So far it’s needed a 3rd species to jump from bats to humans, pigs and pangolins, for example.
  
  6 0
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  May 1, 2020 2:08pm
- Michael NZ
  
  in a lab, not a wet market.
  
  5 2
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  May 1, 2020 3:39pm
- Fletch
  
  Watch the documentary.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le_rfTdayLs
  
  1 1
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  May 1, 2020 9:01pm
Wired-one

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/05/national-drops-below-30-percent-in-new-poll-as-jacinda-ardern-s-approval-skyrockets.html

It stuns me just how stupid some kiwis are. What has this government achieved off their own back? Nothing. They just react to things and get Ardern to read the auto cue and smile. Wake the hell up NZ!
19 4
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May 1, 2020 1:51pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  National MPs confidentially told Newshub of “deep concern about the way things are going”, that there was a “tone issue” with the Facebook post, and that the “membership is not happy”.
  
  2 14
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  May 1, 2020 2:19pm
- oldgolfer
  
  Don’t believe it.
  
  7 3
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  May 1, 2020 2:30pm
  - Simon Gotlieb
    
    That’s okay. A lot of people don’t believe a lot of things. They ae still wrong though.
    
    2 3
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    May 1, 2020 4:46pm
- John Warren
  
  Bridges plays a considerable part in this. For all his good qualities, he’s simply not a likeable or charismatic leader, and he’s dragging the party down.
  
  5 4
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  May 1, 2020 4:58pm
cmm

So here’s an interesting CV19 wrinkle…

Worldwide, men have been hit much harder by CV19 than women.

In NZ, it is women that have been hit harder than men (55% of cases female, which is statistically significant).

Some international studies conclude that this could be down to smoking prevalence (ie. worldwide men smoke more). In NZ it would appear that more women in the vulnerable ageg roups (60+) smoke. But that would suggest the Maori numbers should be higher…..

So clearly we have an anomaly of sorts and it just goes to show that world data can be quite different from NZ data.
7 2
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May 1, 2020 2:25pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  Some total dork just goes through all our comments downticking like some robot. There’s nothing any reasonable person could want to downtick about your observation!
  
  5 3
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  May 1, 2020 3:00pm
  - John Warren
    
    Typically you can subtract up to 3 from the red score to get a proper idea of response to a comment. There’s always at least one downvotard in action, but frequently up to 3, I notice.
    
    2 3
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    May 1, 2020 5:01pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Stupid millenial girls tipped it I think.
  
  2 4
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  May 1, 2020 3:07pm
Komata

Ummm, has anyone noticed that TODAY is 1 May; MAY DAY, the day above all days that is so beloved by Communists / Socialists world wide and is celebrated by parades down main boulevards, and the singing of the glorious ‘Red Flag’ with gusto and high volume.

Given Cindy’s background, and the fact that she is an unreformed, unrepentant Communist, I wonder if she will give the assemble audience at today’s daily briefing a free rendition of the’Flag or perhaps the ‘Internationale’…

Can’t say, I’d miss the experience.
6 4
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May 1, 2020 3:18pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Mayday, mayday…
  
  3 6
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  May 1, 2020 3:43pm
  - cha
    
    Go easy. The [Del. – mod] wouldn’t know May Day from the May victory parade.
    
    1 0
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    May 1, 2020 4:13pm
Maggie Pie

My partners mum rang just after lunch to say she was heading out for a walk around the waterfront.
I got a txt from her about an hour ago asking “…why all the Public Toilets were closed?” She asked if i could shoot down to Mission Bay urgently and pick her up. Back home now. I blame that idiot Mayor we’ve got!
10 2
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May 1, 2020 3:20pm
- Fletch
  
  TBH, I don’t think my mum would use public toilets along the beach.
  
  1 1
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  May 1, 2020 8:57pm
Prince

Stuff Political Reporter Thomas Coughlan was on a Wgton bus when someone boarded drinking alcohol, spat on seats and threw Coughlan’s phone off the bus.

I was going to say I have no time for this scum, and very little sympathy for the spitter either.

However in looking at Coughlan’s articles recently he seems to have taken a very fair view on political manoeuvres, so I’m expressing some sympathy for him.
3 4
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May 1, 2020 3:31pm
brett68

How much has the wage subsidy cost so far?
4 0
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May 1, 2020 3:51pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  It has cost nothing for the Govt.
  
  7 2
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  May 1, 2020 4:19pm
  - Cod Weyne
    
    Quite right
    
    0 0
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    May 1, 2020 10:36pm
cmm

Spoiling MMA’s fun.

Tomorrow is world naked gardening day….

They suggest you put sunblock on. That will stop your Vit D. Spend a few minutes without sunblock to help out your Vit D levels…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/garden/92225542/world-naked-gardening-day-7-practical–useful-tips
8 0
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May 1, 2020 4:34pm
chaos

We are expecting this and quite a few others truths to drop over the coming weeks, causing global riots

* US President Donald Trump says he has evidence COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China but could not share what it is.*

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/05/coronavirus-donald-trump-claims-evidence-covid-19-came-from-wuhan-lab.html
5 2
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May 1, 2020 4:57pm
- rangitoto
  
  Given the earliest reported cases aren’t related to the wet market, this is the most probable source. My suspicion is accidental release.
  
  5 1
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  May 1, 2020 5:28pm
Wired-one

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/300002365/parliament-passes-the-wrong-law-in-an-afternoon-of-urgent-lawmaking

No our government is not incompetent at all…wake up NZ.
10 2
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May 1, 2020 5:08pm
Captain Mainwaring

Keystone Cops at it again:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300002822/police-car-hit-by-truck-in-west-auckland-while-doing-uturn
7 1
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May 1, 2020 5:14pm
Happychappy

Another story coming up on our news tonight about our shortage of flue injections and the lack of transparency with Jacindas ability not to tell the able to tell the truth about there is not enough enough vaccines in NZ . Jacinda has been denying this for the past ten days yet a leaked email contradicts her blatant lies.
13 2
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May 1, 2020 5:38pm
dave_c_

Bloomfield has sold his soul to the New World Order.
He could have been more honest about the situation, but chose to lie.
7 3
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May 1, 2020 7:03pm

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