General Debate 13 September 2020

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment250

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (250)

Login to comment or vote

Maggy Wassilieff

Here’s today’s fluff on Chloe.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/122410717/the-most-expensive-thing-green-mp-chle-swarbrick-owns-is-her-couch

We still haven’t figured out who’s the Labour candidate for Auckland Central.
Anyone else getting the impression that the MSM is just as clueless?
75 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:04am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Helen White
  
  11 36
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:06am
  - Paulus
    
    Who ?
    
    23 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:27am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    I hear that she is known in secret whispers amongst some sniggering Labour factions as Helen White-Privilege.
    
    48 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:37am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      She is going to win with a 3000 vote majority. Then you can say whatever you want.
      
      3 17
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 11:17am
  - Harriet
    
    How many kiwis caught morbidities at the supermarket yesterday Milky?
    
    “Me no longer craziest leader. LOL” – Kim Un Jong 😎
    
    26 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:07am
  - MT_Tinman
    
    Helen Waite did you say?
    
    7 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:46am
- Ruawai
  
  Or the National candidate. More important to know Chloe has a couch.
  
  61 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:08am
  - tf78
    
    Emma Mellow – she was on with Sean Plunket on Thursday I think, she sounded great – intelligent and a very good sense of humour.
    
    37 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:29am
    - IC5000
      
      Never heard of her.
      
      3 25
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 9:43am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        What an extraordinary coincidence.
        
        1 0
        Report
        September 14, 2020 12:17am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Emma Mellow – if she gets 100 votes in total I will be surprised.
      
      6 23
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:01am
      - Tall Man
        
        “SURPRISE” ……………
        
        17 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:14am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      She certainly didn’t bow down in the face of some pretty provocative quizzing from Plunket, Damien Grant and Bomber Bradbury.
      
      27 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:13am
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        That is not going to get her any vote. The Auckland selection fiasco for the National party has done the damage already. Labour is sleepwalking to victory in that seat. Emma Mellow – good bye.
        
        3 19
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:19am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    If that couch could speak, no doubt it could tell some stories about climbing up a Party list.
    
    35 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:00am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  The value of Chloe’s couch is more important than employment law in the city of sails then
  
  54 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:10am
- Sigmund Freud
  
  Absolutely incredible and utter dribble even for a puff piece.
  
  Are people really THAT stupid? I guess so.
  
  74 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:11am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    I guess what they’re trying to say is that the symbol of success in the weird Green world is having a couch as your most valuable possession.
    
    49 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:37am
    - Swifty
      
      I thought I’d read in previous puff pieces that she is a successful business woman who has started up a number of leading edge companies?
      
      All she’s got to show for it is a couch?
      
      37 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 8:49am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        She’s earned around half a million dollars in the last three years. Either she has a stack of savings, or she spends money faster than she earns it.
        
        44 2
        Report
        September 13, 2020 9:21am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Greenies know how to spread their aroha
        
        18 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 9:58am
      - Frank Thomas
        
        I wouldn’t be surprised if the Green Party tithe their MPs the same way Labour do. Must be quite a large share considering how much list MPs get paid for doing stuff all.
        
        25 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:04am
      - MT_Tinman
        
        She’s earned around half a million dollars in the last three years.
        
        Earned?
        
        27 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:26am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        She has been earning $160,000 annually. But she has to give 20% to the party. That leaves $128,000 annually before tax. Certainly a tidy sum for a twenty-something, but not a fortune. And she will never make that money again.
        
        I have a feeling that the Greens will make it back. I’d say that they have now lost many of the “Khandalla soccer mums” who thought the were kind. Their husbands would have pointed to the Green tax policies. The urban wealthy used to push them to 9 and 10 percent. But there are enough communists in New Zealand to get them to 5 percent. The thing is it will now be much more out in the open that they are in fact a communist party.
        
        EDIT – Green MPs pay 10 percent of their income to the Party, not 10 percent.
        
        10 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:31am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Green Party tithe their MPs the same way Labour do.”
        
        It is 20 percent of gross income. So a backbench Green MP earning $160,000 pays the Party $32,000 from their after tax income. That is a decent hit.
        
        EDIT – correction – I checked – it is 10 percent, so $16,000/
        
        11 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:34am
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        Correction Tony. She might have been paid it but she certainly hasn’t earned it.
        
        13 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:10am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Captain, I think you’re right: proud of having few material possessions. So why then do they want to steal the assets of people who have bothered to earn and save?
      
      29 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 9:37am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Call it ‘a fair and just society‘
        
        5 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:54am
    - Bob
      
      Perhaps a nostalgic possession, much as a ‘casting couch’ in the Hollywood world frequently has nostalgic memories.
      
      12 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:03am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The quality of Green MP’s and they offer themselves to govern?
    
    31 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:54am
    - igm
      
      Pity MSM did not publish something of interest:
      https://links.nypost.com/a/755/click/9084197/720673629/_337fa2dceb7af603561cd65fb0ad37bbbaeee201/04197b6f088dd8ee9dc545a287dedeba77c8d95e?ana=InV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bWFyb3Bvc3QmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249bnlwZGFpbHkmdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9MjAyMDA5MTImdHBjYz1tb3JuaW5nX3JlcG9ydCI=
      Maybe it would deprive them of some of taxpayers’ $50 million.
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 9:02am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Yep.
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:01am
  - RF
    
    I understand the Green Party are keen to make use of her financial knowledge and will ask Labour to make her the Minister of Finsce.
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 1:34pm
- wimpston peeeders
  
  when the most expensive thing you own is a couch what more can you do then be part of a party that advocates for wealth and envy taxes…
  this is what happen when you spend all your $$$$ on weed in your late teens, those many $400oz couldve been a house deposit now.
  
  65 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:12am
  - Sigmund Freud
    
    Did you know that you can buy the more common ancient gold coins of the Byzantine Empire for the price of a bag of pot!
    
    22 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:23am
- The Real Tony
  
  So I swallowed down the bile and read through to the end and you’re right Maggie, it’s a total fluff piece.
  
  I gagged on my hot chocolate when you get the end and the website wants you to donate to Stuff so that you can get “quality journalism”…clearly irony is lost on them.
  
  86 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:14am
  - G152
    
    Stuff advertising its fake news on its own pages?
    Pitiful
    
    31 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:22am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Hahahaha..
    I didn’t read beyond the headline.
    
    33 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:42am
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    That’s very harsh, TRT. I’m sure thousands of NZers were greatly enlightened, even delighted as I was, to learn that she was preparing avocado toast when the photographer arrived – so much more important than boring election stuff.
    
    32 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:45am
    - RightFirstTime
      
      I really don’t want to have to torture myself reading the article but did it mention if the avocado was organic by any chance?
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 4:52pm
  - Nukuleka
    
    Stuff has a piece written by journalist Michael Hayward about traffic, public transport, roading etc in Christchurch which is essentially an advocacy sermon by local traffic ‘expert’ Axel Downard- Wilke. At no point does Hayward tell us that Mr Downard-Axel, a failed candidate in the 2019 elections for Environment Canterbury, and his wife are prominent activists and leaders in the Extinction Rebellion movement. And Stuff has the gall to tell us that it brings us ‘reliable, independent news you can trust’. Fake news by omission in my books.
    
    49 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 8:51am
  - Ruawai
    
    And on her bench avocado for her avocado on toast.
    
    20 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:09am
  - Biscuit
    
    TRT, I laugh when I access Stuff and you get a pop-up that says:
    
    We’d like to ask for your help. In a fast-changing world where misinformation spreads on social media, the need for trustworthy journalism has never been greater. But the media industry faces strong headwinds. Traditional means of funding journalism – such as advertising and subscriptions to our newspapers – have declined, compounded by the economic impact of Covid-19.
    
    Not a mention of OTHER reasons why funding has declined … such as the ‘trustworthy journalism’ being anything but.
    
    The Chloe puff piece is a prime illustration of that…
    
    Covid-19 coming along was a godsend to the industry – $50 million Cindy-granted-but-taxpaper-funded smackeroo to bolster their egos.
    
    They’ll be getting no smackeroo(s) – singular OR plural – from me.
    
    44 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:13am
    - oldfella
      
      Flicked to Stuffed this morning and the web front page was dominated (until the piece vanished) by some kind of article on the makeup of 2020 NZ. Except it insisted on using the name Aotearoa.
      Hey, let’s go all in and change our country’s name officially. Use it on everything.
      The Aotearoan All Blacks. Yeh, does it for me.
      
      17 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 11:22am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      I will celebrate the day when STUFF goes bankrupt.
      
      22 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 11:23am
- Paulus
  
  Doesn’t matter who it is she is Labour and a Woman (I believe) who may have stood before somewhere in Auckland.
  Last week it was reported in the media that something like 200,000 women had changed their vote from National to Labour.
  
  14 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:27am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Paulus – you keep repeating that 200,000 women had changed their vote from National to Labour, but you can’t provide the evidence. You are worse than Cindy.
    
    14 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:24am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      You’ll see it at the ballot box.
      This has happened before.
      
      2 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 12:09pm
      - Flossie
        
        And how will you know from the ballot box which votes were cast by women?
        
        3 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 4:44pm
- Nickc2
  
  How many cows were killed to cover your couch Chloe? Green, my arse. A capitalist like most of us.
  
  44 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:37am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    That is a fake leather Nickc2. Chloe is clever.
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:25am
    - Nickc2
      
      Well Sir, I was trying to think of something dumb and meaningless to say, but you have said it for me “Chloe is clever”. That’s bill-board stuff.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 12:43pm
    - Nermal
      
      So is it plastic made from oil then?
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 1:59pm
    - Dougal10
      
      Oil then
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 2:22pm
- Prince
  
  MSM not clueless at all. They know exactly what the plan is and they are following it to the letter. Labour must win. Greens must survive.
  
  36 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:41am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Thanks for taking one for the team Maggy, and for the public service announcement to avoid this puff piece 😀
  
  30 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:05am
- Tall Man
  
  How can this be permitted? Aren’t we in “election mode”? Surely this is unpaid electioneering.
  
  22 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:11am
- IC5000
  
  > We still haven’t figured out who’s the Labour candidate for Auckland Central.
  
  I wonder what goes through the heads of people who are unable to muster the skills to do a simple google search and thus move on to higher levels of thinking.
  
  4 12
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 11:20am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    you really want to know what goes on in my head?
    
    and what is a higher level of thinking?
    
    12 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:33am
    - IC5000
      
      > and what is a higher level of thinking
      
      That’s another question you should google.
      
      2 12
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 2:05pm
      - Tall Man
        
        While you’re pontificating about Google perhaps you might avail yourself of their services and Google “Sense of humour” and “Tongue in Cheek”.
        
        7 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 2:15pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        google?????
        Why would I Google when I clearly demonstrated the absence of that metastrategic cognition ability.
        
        8 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 3:16pm
artemisia

There have been several recent written Parliamentary questions from Michael Woodhouse to the Minister of Housing that appear to relate an individual in managed isolation. It does rather look like he thinks (or knows) it was mismanaged isolation.

The latest round of very detailed questions from last week have been rapidly answered by Minister Woods with the reply

“Parliament Dissolved – Answer not received”.

Does this mean that ministerial responsibilities no longer apply? Even if the questions were asked before dissolution? Seems like an easy out for someone who is still a Minister.
70 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:07am
- Dougal10
  
  They are only ministers as far as receiving pay is concerned at the moment.
  
  26 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:28am
I remember when

Southland fish and game research of approx 7600 duck ponds in Southland reveals their importance for native fish species.
These ponds support upwards of 120,000 shortfin and 80,000 longfin eels collectively weighing over 150,000 kgs.
Should we multiply this for national totals and ask how reliable their risk rating is?
Longfin eels are rated as threatened or at risk of extinction.
34 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:10am
Benedict Yu

“The most expensive thing I own is my couch”

And my Party is determined to achieved this for all New Zealanders.
80 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:11am
- MT_Tinman
  
  I don’t own a couch.
  
  Does this disqualify me from voting Green? 🙁
  
  23 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:26am
  - Tall Man
    
    Aspiration is all you need 😉
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:07am
  - jacob
    
    With Shane Jones gone she won’t get off the couch now
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 2:05pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  A real socialist would donate the couch and a box of Swan Vestas to a Dunedin student allowing the poverty to be spread for all to enjoy
  
  26 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:39am
  - namron
    
    With Chloe Swarbrick’s annual salary being $160,000 [so $480,000 over the past 3 years] some very negative conclusions can be drawn about her reliability, common-sense and trustworthiness.
    
    26 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:38am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  A cheap chinese knock-off couch from Freedom, at that.
  
  I thought Greens didn’t like leather anyway?
  
  34 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:41am
- kowtow
  
  And the biggest thing she owns is her ego.
  
  45 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:50am
  - JJ56
    
    You’ll be amused to learn that until recently she was a shareholder and director of Ego Media Ltd.
    
    18 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:13am
    - kowtow
      
      LOL
      
      2 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 5:14pm
- sooty
  
  You have to ask,
  “What’s she done with all her money?”
  3yrs of the best money she has ever earned and her second most expensive thing is her hop card!
  She’s in for a shock come christmas, when she pounds the streets cv in hand!
  
  40 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:55am
Ruahine

MSM = Deceptive.
34 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:12am
- Gravelroad
  
  And manipulative.
  
  21 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:45am
  - oldfella
    
    MSM = Manipulative Sh*t Merchants?
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:25am
CJames

Point of Order shows the farce that is occurring on the NZF slush fund. They are going to build something somewhere, all unknown, but it is “shovel ready”.
https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2020/09/12/govt-earmarks-45-million-for-a-shovel-ready-maritime-transport-facility-of-unknown-dimensions-in-an-undecided-location/
44 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:12am
- Dougal10
  
  A new jetty at wynston’s batch.
  
  23 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:32am
- tf78
  
  I don’t know anyone these days who would start a big project with a shovel – I thought a bulldozer or a digger would be more appropriate. Shovels are for shoveling the proverbial.
  
  23 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:32am
  - IC5000
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    > Shovels are for shoveling the proverbial
    
    Ah so ACT supporters must be using them a lot.
    
    4 36
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:46am
    - Tall Man
      
      They would if they could but cindy commandered them all long ago.
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:06am
      - Tall Man
        
        Oops add an “e” 🙂
        
        7 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 10:20am
    - JibberJabber
      
      Pretty rich coming from a NZ First voter.
      
      4 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:52am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There’s been plans for port development in the Te Araroa- Hicks Bay area bubbling away for a few years.
  
  Trouble is… lots of locals are opposed to development
  http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/local-news/20190610/te-araroa-barge-port-proposed/
  
  20 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:06am
- Rob2
  
  Down East Cape. all announced yesterday.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:15pm
Maggy Wassilieff

California finally realising that their State has a Forest fuel problem

https://outline.com/8ZRb5P
35 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:13am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Oh no, Trump is for better control, so it must be bad:
  
  “ Trump signed a key piece of bipartisan legislation last month, the Great American Outdoors Act, which provides $9.5 billion over the next five years for upgrades at America’s national parks, along with projects on other public lands like national forests, which could pay for some thinning costs.“
  
  29 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:36am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Seems like it also has an Antifa arsonist problem too!
  
  https://twitter.com/rialynnallen/status/1304785444303900674
  
  20 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:45am
- jv
  
  Well documented and recognized by foresters and fire researchers in the western States and Australia way back in 1972.!
  
  32 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:46am
  - barnacle bill
    
    Before then JV.
    I was there in WA in 1968 and doing just that.
    Any Red Gums with dry upper branches had to come down.
    They were massive trees as well, and back then they were left to rot.
    It wasn’t until the early seventies that Japan started buying them for their paper mills.
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:43am
- Monique Watson
  
  The U. S Forest Service suspended controlled burns in March due to concerns over air quality. Doh. We’ve currently got the worst air quality in the world. I was in Malibu last weekend and it stunk snd the sun rose red. Got home to the Bay Area and it’s still as thick as tule fog (ground fog) with a layer of ash deposited on anything outdoors. It drifted from as far away as Mendocino forest or Oregon. The nitwits like Newsom are calling it fallout from climate change but it wouldn’t have burnt 750,000 acres if the U.S. Forest Service had done its job.
  Anyone else get the impression the Left loves disasters? To promote their CC agenda?
  
  41 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:56am
  - tf78
    
    Monique, they need some Aborigines over there to show them how it’s done.
    
    19 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:31am
- JibberJabber
  
  It’s ok, Arsonists and Gender revealers are taking care of the build-up of fuel issue.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:02am
- gorse
  
  And a cigarette lighter problem too Maggie.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 12:37pm
dave_c_

Might be coming our way anytime now:
Australia Is a full-blown Communist Police
State Now – All It Took Was a Little Flu
https://www.anti-empire.com/australias-covid-police-state/
24 4
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:14am
- Jimmy White
  
  You need a good Flu to get a good Fire
  
  14 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:01am
oldpark

I will help out the $1.00 Stuff Green Party Sycophants . Emma Mellow National Candidate for Auckland Central a Top Shelf Winner .
Her work record is second to none . Beats the hell out of the other wee dope smoking Greenie who anecdotal evidence says she would not work in an “Iron Lung” .Thats what all the people are saying . WTF.
40 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:21am
Maggy Wassilieff

Are we bothered?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/it-feels-like-no-one-can-be-bothered-with-the-new-zealand-election-any-more
30 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:21am
- JibberJabber
  
  Oh yes, we’re bothered alright.
  
  33 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:26am
- Kiwi_in_Paris
  
  Although at first that article seems like the usual load of horse poo, that the Guardian rolls out on a daily basis, sadly there is some truth to it.
  
  Meaning, the usual opposition are not really acting like usual opposition, as most aren’t around the world. Speaking out against loss of civil rights, liberties, and the savage destruction of domestic economies.
  
  I wonder why that could be?
  
  19 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:38am
  - greybeard
    
    My guess is that they are waiting for the GDP figures to be released, and then the PREFU.
    National will then have plenty of ammunition, and the MSM won’t be able to ignore it / edit it.
    
    27 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:58am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      The other way around I believe Greybeard. PREFU on Wednesday, June quarter GDP figure on Thursday.
      
      Here’s where the consequences of the delayed election kick in. Because the PREFU was also delayed, it will now take into account economic data from August, i.e., when Auckland went back into lockdown. That’s not going to be good for the Government, and we know the June quarter GDP figure will be dire.
      
      Paul Goldfinch said this week that National will not release it’s full economic plan until the books are open, and they can understand just how bad things are. Things are about to get interesting!
      
      24 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:45am
      - RalphT
        
        Paul Goldsmith surely
        
        10 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:15am
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        Sheeple don’t care a damn about GDP or PREFU – All they care is:
        – Rugby on TV – Tick
        – Beer available in the pub – Tick
        – Meat available in the supermarket – Tick
        – Free money from Cindy – Tick
        – Vote Labour – Double Tick.
        
        Let’s keep movin.
        
        11 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:37am
- KevO'Brien
  
  It’s really from a Professor of Communication Design at Massey University!
  A hit piece on National as expected and surely won’t be included in Labour’s election expenditure.
  
  32 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:01am
- bruceavon
  
  I agree with the article, very low energy out there about the election. I have been visiting a bunch of clients over the last two weeks and no one is particularly interested in the election. Conversation is much more likely to be around covid. If we sleepwalk to the election it’s much better for Labour I would say. It’s hard to say till the next polling comes out. But if it’s bad Judith may need to stop being nice and go on the attack and make some headlines.
  
  36 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:17am
  - Swifty
    
    I wonder what bearing this indifference will have on voter turnout?
    
    17 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:35am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    I’m starting to get the impression that National doesn’t want to win this one. Can they see just what a financial disaster the CoL has caused and National doesn’t want to be seen as responsible for the huge pain coming in the next 3 years?
    
    26 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:43am
    - Tall Man
      
      You may be right but ultimately their own egos will push them to win, especially the “at risk” members.
      
      I don’t believe the “pain” will be that severe if decent principles and policies are implemented.
      
      A rolling back of the intrusion of the state could be a good thing and would reduce expenditure. I do not believe labour have the skill or the will to do anything other than push ideology and continue to dumb down the electorate with platitudes and irrelevance.
      
      22 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:01am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Decent principle and policies being implemented? Too late. Grant has no sense, just ambition.
        
        National are going to have the accept once again the obligation to straighten out the country after this gigantic COL spendup. I am sure the COL will not be providing for repayment under modern communist money theory. Robbo has already got the Reserve Bank as on call provider. Literally they will be able to do as they please to tie down NZ. Their control streaks won’t allow anything else.
        National must take back power this time or we may lose out completely.
        
        ☑️☑️Get the Commies out!☑️☑️
        
        14 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 12:21pm
    - bruceavon
      
      You have to joking. Judith has been from the outset massively excited to finally be leader. It is simply not in her nature to play to lose. And she will know this is her one chance. If she loses she is gone forever.
      I think they have decided she needs to soften her image and not personally attack Ardern. They are probably right. But if they have made no progress in the next polls she will have nothing to lose and the gloves must come off.
      
      19 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:49am
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        They haven’t made any progress in the next set of polls. Judith has made zilch difference to National numbers. At least Mullet Muller got a 9% lift when he became the leader. Judith is taking National backwards.
        
        1 17
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:39am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    I have already published the next poll results.
    
    2 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:38am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Which dunny did you get them from? Are the originating at Fraser House?
      
      11 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 12:24pm
    - bruceavon
      
      Yeah but UMR and Roy Morgan aren’t the best. One had the Greens on 11% and the other had them on 3%. I am not like people on here who think the polls are rubbish. Reid/TV3 and Colmar Brunton have consistently picked the last few elections. If those polls come out and National are 30 and Labour are 50 after a community Covid breakout and another lockdown I would say it’s all over. So National might as well go nuclear.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 12:39pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Polling depends on honesty of intent. What we are being dished up feels dubious at the least and probable electioneering at the worst.
        
        3 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 2:46pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        “Reid/TV3 and Colmar Brunton have consistently picked the last few elections.”
        
        Hahahaha. Nobody picked the outcome of the last election. Nobody. It’s not the job of polling companies to “pick the results” anyway.
        
        0 1
        Report
        September 14, 2020 4:32am
Simon

Give Peace a Chance – Donald Trump
25 4
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:22am
JibberJabber

Victorian Police Commissioner admits if you threaten to have a Peaceful protest you’ll get arrested, if you threaten violence, rioting and looting they’ll give the keys to the city, after taking a knee.

https://twitter.com/AussieVal10/status/1304363912964395008
25 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:25am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Just reinforcing what many of us have seen for years: violent criminals get the wet bus ticket, ordinary citizens with a fixed address are easy money for a parking fine or a moment for f speeding.
  
  22 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:51am
Brian McDonald

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
If say say 1200 of the 2400 approx protesters in Auckland yesterday were anti-vaxers/herders then that’s around .075% of Aucklanders led by Jami making their presence felt. That’s a roaring start.
8 43
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:29am
- tf78
  
  I don’t care why they were there as they were all anti-Cindy.
  
  27 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:33am
- Dougal10
  
  Its probably much higher a percentage than that . Did you deduct all the aucklanders currently on holiday in the south island . You may get to 5% of available population then.
  
  14 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:37am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  So does petrol on a bonfire which usually results in unintended consequences that requires an adult to sort out.
  
  9 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:41am
- Stu2
  
  Why was a gathering of that size tolerated?
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:42am
  - Ruahine
    
    Mr Robertson who I understand is the Minister of Finance said people are allowed to protest. I watched him say it on gov’t television last night.
    So if it was on television it must be true.
    
    20 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 9:32am
    - Dave Mann
      
      I’m never going to be a Labour voter, but I think Grant Robertson is perhaps the only senior member of this government who has any brains at all. On top of that he is a genuinely gifted communicator and he seems to be acting in good faith.
      
      When I hear Robertson talking to Peter Williams I have to admire the man’s style and I’m reminded that it’s possible to respect someone who is on the opposite side of the political fence.
      
      I think it’s perfectly in character for Grant Robertson to defend citizens’ rights to protest and good on him for saying so.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 10:47am
      - Stu2
        
        Under level 2.5 the size of allowable gatherings for Aucklanders is 10
        
        So I don’t don’t understand how 2400 went ahead
        
        9 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:23am
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        Dave Mann – All Labour ministers and MPs are great communicators unlike National. Even Septicloni spoke so elegantly yesterday when she announced Labour’s welfare policy. You can see how Cindy talks and how Judith Collins struggeles to put two sentences together. This will be exposed big time in TV debates. Mark my words.
        
        0 14
        Report
        September 13, 2020 11:43am
      - calendar girl
        
        I struggle to understand how Labour Party members can (within themselves) support Jacinda Ardern as their natural leader, rather than Grant Robertson. The latter has more than a few obvious ‘smarts’, and communicates naturally with his audience.
        
        Ms Ardern, meanwhile, make somewhat contrived TV appearances in which she appears to promote herself, personally, above all else – even smiling intermittently as she describes difficulties facing New Zealand as a whole. The impression conveyed is that she has never quite evolved to be a natural leader.
        
        7 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 5:06pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Jeez SCS, it’s pollen season so you are a very brave man planting that tongue so firmly in your cheek.
        
        It always makes me chuckle, cindy has a degree in “word salad” I think rather than “communikaychuyn”.
        
        3 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 6:28pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Yesterday it was “hundreds”, today 2,400.
  
  MSM counting: Left wing protest gets an extra zero to show commitment and compassion.
  Right wing protest, gets halved or more and called nutjobs.
  
  Remarkable that any protest in NZ can get more than 2,000 “normies” marching. People with lives and jobs.
  
  25 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 8:56am
- The Proper Ghandi
  
  As usual, your sarcasm is surpassed only by your stupidity Brian.
  
  26 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:01am
- Jimmy White
  
  All we need is one of those Protestors catching Wuhan and Auckland will be back to 3 till Xmas.
  That Couch will come in handy after all.
  
  8 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:05am
Brian Marshall

On the same week a person ragged on US President Donald Trump about comments in the Atlantic he was alleged to have said, but denied by everyone who was okay to go on the record, the Atlantic comes up with this wonderfully insightful piece. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/end-nobel-peace-prize/616300/
If you or someone you know comes down with TDS, seek help now. It’s not too late…
21 5
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:37am
The Proper Ghandi

As usual, your sarcasm is surpassed only by your stupidity Brian.
12 10
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:46am
- The Proper Ghandi
  
  Dear TPG,
  
  I hacked your KB account and I just wanted to say that I couldn’t agree more!
  
  Regards, Brian.
  
  7 14
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:03am
MT_Tinman

That’s a roaring start.

It’s not even a coherent sentence.

How was the 50% arrived at?
What are “herders”?
“Led” where?
Who is “Jami”?
6 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 8:50am
- Tall Man
  
  Just a pathetic deflection from an increasingly hysterical labour troll.
  
  12 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 13, 2019 9:54am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    The thing about posting anonymously is that you can be a dwarf and call yourself Tall Man. You haven’t got a clue what my politics are darling, I’m in the unwedded middle.
    
    5 14
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:21am
    - Tall Man
      
      [Mod: Sorry TM but this is too abusive]
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 2:21pm
Thought Criminal

The Horrid starts the day with “Two youmg girls among the covid victims.” Reading that made me wonder if they’d died???

But of course they hadn’t. It’s just the media leading with something scary to get clicks.

The AFR had an excellent piece yesterday about how you are far more likely to die from a car accident if you are under 60. A very different angle from a lot of other media who seem determined to terrorise society into submission. https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/new-virus-facts-ignored-by-politicians-too-stubborn-to-change-20200908-p55tp9
27 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:01am
- Tall Man
  
  Paywalled …….
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:52am
- fernglas
  
  There was Stuff piece about the death of Toots Hibbert, the headline of which read that he died after testing positive. The body of the article said he had had a test before his death, but no suggestion it was positive, and there was also no suggestion that it was Covid related at all. The standards of journalism here are pathetic
  
  18 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:18am
Tony Stuart

These are the words of a Labour Party activist on Twitter last night:

Better to round them up and harvest their organs, at least they’d make a contribution to humanity that way

Who are the “them” referred to? None other than those who took part is the protest march in Auckland yesterday, against lockdowns, 1080, vaxxing, the UN and much more.

However misguided these people were, gathering in large numbers to protest during a period of Covid restrictions, they have a lawful right to protest. This was confirmed by none other than Finance Minister Grant Robertson, on 1 News last night.

I suggest this Labour “activist” check her emails this morning. She appears to have missed the one from the Prime Minister encouraging the Team of Five Million to “be kind”, not to practice the kind of barbarism associated with countries ruled by malevolent dictators!
53 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:13am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Did she miss out Muslim fanatics?
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 12:27pm
- hilaryt
  
  Know them by their tweets…
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 4:40pm
Yvette

Yesterday Tasman Terror commented
On the topic of Kiwi Muslims never harming fellow Kiwis … a read of the Court of Appeal decision granting final name suppression to the Young Labour offender records he is Muslim.

Durden wrote – Here is the link. Can’t see where the reference is. i did a cursory read but searched the text – not fruitfully. Maybe one of you will find the clause that Tasman Terror refers to.

There does not seem in fact to be any reference to Muslim or Islam. But of course please correct that if you have have found any such reference.

However perhaps of interest is the clause –
[76] … The allegations, the dismissals, the guilty pleas and the discharge without conviction have been fully reported by the media. In addition, there has been no suggestion, and certainly no evidence, that AB has any personal connection whatsoever to the present Labour Party or any member of it. Unsurprisingly, there has been no submission or suggestion that AB’s name should be suppressed because of his connection to the Labour Party or the Government. The political dimension, therefore, is not personal to AB or his family. [1]

One wonders then why Labour Party hierarchy took about a month to inform Leader Ardern of the issue.

[1] https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/pdf/jdo/b9/alfresco/service/api/node/content/workspace/SpacesStore/ff6cb500-38b4-490d-b765-6542e4f2aadf/ff6cb500-38b4-490d-b765-6542e4f2aadf.pdf
17 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:30am
Swifty

For those who are yet to enjoy the great pleasures and rewards enjoyed by listening to the late Sir Roger Scruton, and those who would like a brief (an hour) dip into the meaning of conservatism, what is the left versus right, the strengths and weaknesses of the left versus those of the right, and some marvellous little insights into the world we live in, then I could do worse than recommend this Full Address and Q&A at the Oxford Union:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbfMQ91Mps

Honestly, thoroughly recommended, and all in his wonderful, understated, eminently English style.
13 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:32am
Wired-one

It’s been mentioned here before that a vote for the Greens or NZFirst is a vote for Labour. Well so is a vote for TOP, New Conservatives, Advance NZ or any other party other than National or ACT. Dont waste your vote on parties that frankly do not have a chance in hell of making it to parliament. If you do not want the most incompetent, inept, out of their depth government in our history to be re-elected. You have two choices, National and ACT. Please do not waste your votes.
44 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:35am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Do you think National wants to win this one? Where is the energy?
  
  10 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 9:56am
  - Daphne Whitethigh
    
    There is huge energy out there, but if you are relying on MSM to report its existence, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. You could help raise energy levels further by getting involved yourself and offering to help your preferred local candidate.
    
    26 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:03am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      “There is huge energy out there” – Then why is National at 28%. Even Bridges had it at 44% and one poll, National and ACT could form the gummit.
      
      2 8
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 11:46am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        No one sensible is going to tell of their true voting allegiance this time.
        Tough eh? You’re going to have to guess.
        
        8 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 12:29pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    We shall see at noon today when Judith launches her first TV advert “Let me be straight with you”.
    
    19 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:07am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      She is talking in the background of plain blue and talks like a zombie. Sheeple will sleep when they see it.
      
      2 11
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 11:47am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Your pay grade as ace cinderburnt troll.
        
        1 1
        Report
        September 13, 2020 12:32pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Buried by the media.
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:17am
Jack5

No mercy for the (mainly white) backpacker kids who provide temporary labour to many seasonal businesses.

They should have enrolled in the many shonky educational colleges and been given rights to permanent entry and citizenship.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425918/german-backpacker-upset-petition-has-fallen-on-deaf-ears
16 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:38am
- ex-golfer
  
  That’s OK – Cindy is bribing the electorate that if she is re-elected she will open the borders to more workers.
  Of course she can’t do it now – because that would make sense. But after the election, hey presto, no problem, COVID is cured and the businesses will be grateful for her masterful leadership.
  Meanwhile hundreds of thousands on the dole are being promised even more reasons to stay asleep on the couch and not take up the plentiful work available.
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 11:46am
Swifty

An interesting end to last night.

My daughter had finished her shift at an Auckland CBD restaurant and was heading home on the bus.

She texted me to see if I could meet her at the bus-stop just up from home as there was a bloke hassling her and she was fearful that he would get off the largely empty bus when she got off.

Nasty stuff – “Look at me, LOOK AT ME!”, “You’re pretty, got a boyfriend?” “TALK TO ME!!!” etc etc

I quickly drove to the bus-stop up from the house but she texted me to say that he had got off the bus at the Pt Chev shops on Gt South Rd.

As soon as she met me I hammered it over to Pt Chev and drove around the likely places he might be.

Long story short – I found him; hassling yet another woman, a bar worker on Carrington Rd, but then his night of thrills ended rather abruptly.

He received a little talking to, had pics and 2 videos taken of him and was sent on his way with a flea in his ear – all of which was handed over to a couple of bobbies who we ran into a few minutes later patrolling up by Unitec.

Nasty little prick.
56 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:51am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Well done Swifty! What a great way to show your daughter how important she is to you.
  
  40 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:07am
  - Swifty
    
    Cheers KS – Got a long hug goodnight once we got home – not that common now that she’s nearly 18!
    
    🙂
    
    19 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:30am
- Swifty
  
  The initial encounter:
  
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp4fws6lhfkw9q8/IMG_0029.MOV?dl=0
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:28am
Rusty

John Banks was a guest host at magic talk a couple of months ago and made the point Nikki Kaye was a lefty and she would be replaced by another lefty from either the Greens or Labour anyway.
16 8
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 9:58am
- MCos
  
  Most people are left of John Banks.
  
  12 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:10am
  - Prince
    
    Not sure about that. This guy had a very perceptive view of Banks.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10770539
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 12:04pm
Odakyu-sen

I would like the media to make the following change.

“due to Covid-19” should be rewritten as “due to the government’s responses to Covid-19”

After all, how can a virus shut down businesses and make healthy, working-age people stay at home?

In addition “deaths from Covid-19” needs to be re-presented as four figures: 1) deaths solely from Covid-19, 2) the median age of this group, 3) deaths with Covid-19 and co-morbidities and 4) the median age of this group.
So, instead of “250 people died in New York this last 48 hours” (conjuring up the image of dead children), the breakdown would be detailed as: 1) 15; 2) 80; 3) 235; 4) 78
27 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:07am
- MCos
  
  For the month ending April-4 just under 10,000 people died of all causes in NYC.
  Typically the number is about 5,000.
  Here’s an article you can read from the failing NYT.
  
  Make of that what you will.
  No doubt sceptics will find all sorts of reasons to convince themselves it was nothing to do with Covid-19.
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/10/upshot/coronavirus-deaths-new-york-city.html
  
  4 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:23am
  - ex-golfer
    
    When you have a Governor that decrees, in the middle of a pandemic that is more likely to kill the old and vulnerable, that all aged care hospital patients with COVID should be moved out of hospital and back to the rest homes, what do you expect?
    Some sort of miracle?
    People would look at cause and effect rather that just numbers.
    
    15 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 11:11am
- MT_Tinman
  
  Odakyu-sen
  
  Add the number of deaths expected from usual causes (accident, illness etc.) and you have meaningful statistics and be informed – not something the slime hysterics want to happen.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:37am
- Honorary Kiwi
  
  I was reading a piece on Spain yesterday and the Health Directorate made the rather important but, hidden deep in the text point, that 50% of all cases testing positive were Asymptomatic not Pre Symptomatic. This is no small sample with 10,000 cases a day. I have also taken to finding the Flu mortality numbers from 2018 for any country on display. Spain Flu 15,000 ’18 C19 29,747. ’20
  
  So when people say C 19 running rampant across Europe. There were less than 100 deaths yesterday in Western Europe.
  
  In July the last time stats were published C19 is the Number 8th cause of death in the UK with 2.67%.
  
  One final boring stat. deaths/cases in France on a two week time lapse are .7% of cases tested.
  
  China who started all this right back then was always .5% .6%.deaths to positive test.
  
  The problem with all these stats and more context is they are not very sensational or new.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 11:17am
Fletch

I posted this last night, so not many probably saw it, so… how many did you get right? I got about 9 out of 15….

https://www.thedrugtest.nz/

It’s around what the NZ law is on cannabis – what you can and cannot currently do, what a law change will allow, etc. Most interesting to me was the strength of what is currently being smoked out there – not the same as the doobies your parents smoked in the 60s.
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:11am
- Paulus
  
  Understand that some Cannabis is being P Laced currently and the smoker do not know only believing that they have strong Cannabis until later as P is highly addictive but they believe it is just strong Cannabis.
  Watch this space.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:27pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  It’s not a real survey, Fletch. But you already knew that.
  
  1 9
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:43pm
Catgurl13

Just watched David Said and Alfred N on Question Time prog. David comes across as very polished,informed and someone who could be a great leader. Alfred is a bumbling racist fool. He was harping on about not agreeing with the end of life choice referendum. He really was off point in a lot of things and didn’t seem to understand the fundamentals of the bill even. Then he started his racist nonsense. Gosh Judith should have offloaded him when she had the chance. Hes a huge twat. Then they had that Shumubeel guy on…….his he’s a twat too. That Fran woman was also dissing the Nats herself……she’s obviously lefty too.
15 5
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:33am
Maggie Pie

Can’t be arsed this morning.

Laters you lot 😀
16 4
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:39am
Gulag1917

Politicians and their fabrications,

“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
13 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:42am
Brian McDonald

Saw an interview with Simon and David Parker. Simon seems to be on fire, speaking very well and informed, also relaxed and engaging. He’ll make a comeback one day, can’t shine that bright and be ignored.
22 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:51am
- ex-golfer
  
  People have very short memories.
  In February the Simon Bridges led National Party had the COL on the ropes, polling so well, his momentum would have been a landslide result for National and good-bye to another one-term Labour govt.
  And then COVID struck, hugz and feelz followed and people became blinded by the fairydust being sprinkled around by the participation certificate losers that are now in charge of determining our future.
  NZ is fucked for the next decade, at least, unless someone with strong will and mana can speak honestly about what needs to be done to recover in a world that needs to manage COVID, not try to eliminate it.
  
  32 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 11:07am
  - Tall Man
    
    Eliminade…… Final warning 😉
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 2:45pm
    - ex-golfer
      
      Like eliminading child poverdy being her sole focus as PM?
      I see now how she can say she was misquoted.
      Everyone thought she said eliminate, but she actually said eliminade – which means to make worse as measured by most of the recognised measurements. Success Comrade!
      
      7 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 4:13pm
JibberJabber

?Trigger warning ?

https://twitter.com/TAftermath2020/status/1304893251493666816

?
14 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 10:54am
chukar

Do you remember when:?
the Auckland housing market drove the Reserve Bank inflation expectations to create the highest interest rates in the OECD.
these interest rates in turn caused a hugely overvalued NZD exchange rate.
This in turn destroyed productivity in the NZ tradable sector, manufacturing and exporting.

2020 house prices have jumped over 16% in twelve months.
Labour are looking for overseas investors.

What is next?
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 11:26am
Gulag1917

Listening to 1ZB Newstalk this week and radio host could not resist having a dig at Trump when mentioning 9/11. Idiot.
22 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 11:34am
I remember when

Labour are looking for overseas investors.
And it has only taken them three years and the need to expand greenhouse gas sink forestry, to seem to forget that, they said, overseas investors were almost totally responsible for rising Auckland house prices.
Fits in nicely with their ‘we have too many working visa migrants’ last Election.
A bit like Bob Hope’s ‘hotel in Saigon passing him going the other way’ Vietnam war joke.
13 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 12:01pm
I remember when

Are we starting to find problems because of lack of work experience everywhere?
Heard story of senior MPI staff member giving advice to group of farmers.
It was how the Government’s aspirational Dairy $44 billion increase in export returns would/could work.
Everyone in the room understood the industry better than the MPI member.
Result one very embarrassed speaker but there will be no change. He was/is simply the messenger – a single cog in the process. It’s all downhill!
20 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 12:12pm
- ex-golfer
  
  Age old story that the Wellington public service knows better than anyone.
  It is ingrained in their DNA that they have the right to tell everyone else what should be done – whether they have any real life experience or not.
  Govt agencies all over Wellington are now full of participation certificate kids as policy advisors who learnt their trade at university and come into the real world expecting everyone to listen to their views.
  “I’m from the Govt and I’m here to help”.
  Hinder more like.
  Getting out of the way and letting industry experts lead the way would create better outcomes.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 12:50pm
- Papalazarou
  
  There are plenty of 25 year old “policy advisors” (whatever the fuck that is) in departments like MBIE. May have a fluffy degree or two but know nothing, and no life/business experience. Frustrating to deal with. Generally arrogant and/or intransigent. So many oxygen thieves in Wellington.
  
  16 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:32pm
Suze Wainwright

I wonder if the Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand MPs will all now list their possessions? I’ve got a sneaking feeling that Golriz might possess a little bit more than Chloe – I wouldn’t want to see any jealous rivalries open up…
16 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 12:14pm
ex-golfer

Yesterday 2 things happened:
1. We are told the Hawkes Bay agricultural sector is struggling to get workers to prune and pick their produce, which is a time dependent issue and needs addressing now. But Cindy promises to open up the borders to essential workers IF she is re-elected.
2. Labour released its welfare policy – included in which is the little nugget that people who are unemployed can keep more of their taxpayer-funded free money when they get work. Oh, and they will be increasing benefits.

Labour hates business but loves having as many people dependent on them for hand-outs as possible. Its what keeps the people subservient and under control.
30 0
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 12:17pm
Fletch

Your typical Portland protester… What a mugshot…

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1304291625040924672/photo/1
8 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 12:50pm
- Tall Man
  
  cindy supporter of the future.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 2:36pm
Fletch

Remember the Mueller investigation into Russian collusion? Well, when they were ordered to hand over their govt phones for examination as part of a FOIA request, at least 20 of them were found to have been “accidentally” wiped.

Judicial Watched obtained 87 pages from the DOJ in response to a September 2019 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DOJ and the FBI for a December 17, 2018, request for:

All records related to the hardware, software and contents of mobile phones issued to FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for their use while they served on the investigative team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller;
All records of communication (whether on government or non-.gov email accounts and whether using real names or aliases), with FBI officials relating to the hardware, software and contents of mobile phones issued to FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for their use while they served on the investigative team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
According to the records Judicial Watch received, 27 phones used by members of the Special Counsel team were reported wiped clean of all data prior to a review by the Special Counsel of phones used by Mueller’s teams for records-preservation purposes.

Twenty of those phones were reported wiped clean of data due to “accidental wipe,” often from entering the wrong password too many times.

Several other phones were wiped after they were placed in airplane mode and could not be unlocked because the password was allegedly forgotten, including two belonging to lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, and phones belonging to two of his deputies, Kyle Freeny and Rush Atkinson.

One phone was wiped clean without explanation.

Both phones used by Strzok and Page had been “restored to factory settings.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/11/muellers-team-members-accidentally-wiped-phones-clean-of-data/

Funny that, ey? The whole thing was crooked from the start. Dirty Democrats and their crooked plans and schemes.
11 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 12:56pm
- Ed Snack
  
  Funny how you get downticks, people can’t handle the cognitive dissonance. Andrew Weissmann (lead prosecutor for Mueller) threatened to charge Papadopolous with obstructing justice – a 20 year possible sentence – for changing mobile phones during the investigation despite the fact that he had pre-advised the FBI AND preserved the old phone.
  
  Would surely be in the interests of Justice if Weissmann was to be charged with the same crime he accused others of for the same actions. But no doubt he will probably skate as he has the magic “get out of jail free” label – the D after his name on political affiliation.
  
  Just seems a shame that the two Tier system of justice is not more widely reviled as it would seem antithetical to the US constitution for a start.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 3:44pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Do the political affiliations of justice department personnel mean much. Mueller was a registered republican – no one would think that meant he had a political bias. The test would have to be actual bias – rather than an imaginary stigma.
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 5:43pm
Durden

I still believe that NZ needs a true center or center right media entity. Why ? Here is an example of the dowdy middle aged presenter from national TV who tries to behave like she is youth adjacent twittering away. Most of them, like that idiot Jesse Mulligan, think they can get away with political views using their media status.

https://twitter.com/Redbaiternz/status/1304727190223745026

What NZ also needs is a leadership change at TVNZ/RNZ like the BBC seems to have had recently with the appointment of Tim Davie.

“Addressing staff at the BBC’s Cardiff office, Davie said: “If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC.” He added: “Our research shows that too many perceive us to be shaped by a particular perspective.”

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18701235.bbc-director-tim-davie-fire-warning-impartiality-twitter/

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18701235.bbc-director-tim-davie-fire-warning-impartiality-twitter/
20 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 1:04pm
- hilaryt
  
  I can tolerate presenters, and that’s what they are, having views, cos who doesn’t. What I can’t tolerate is their utter certainty that their’s is the ‘one true way’ and that all others not belonging to their smug club are losers, or worse. I encountered it from Neale Jones, when taking him to task for his smugness on RNZ one day, that guy Cormack, Mulligan & Chapman are tops at this too. It’s the same shallow assumptions made across a wide media spectrum, magnified 10-fold since the Tarrant massacre.
  
  15 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:47pm
C J Southern

“Melbourne woman dragged from car by police”

https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6190247388001

3 points:

1. Dear MSM – if you’re going to post videos of the confrontation than at least have the balls to also post the “victim’s” non-compliance that lead to the confrontation.

2. Dear “victim” – if police ask you for your name and address – GIVE THEM YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS.

3. Dear “victim” – if police ask you to step out of your vehicle because you’re being uncooperative … STEP OUT OF YOUR DAMN VEHICLE.

The real victims here are the police; it’s incredulous that some people think that if somebody is non-compliant with both the law and – in consequence – lawful police instructions – that police aren’t going to escalate the situation.

She brought 100% of this on herself. A better headline would be “Person forceably arrested after chosing not to comply with police instructions after chosing to break the law”.
15 6
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 1:13pm
- ex-golfer
  
  Agree with many of your points – but what law, exactly, did she break?
  It seems she was at a standard road block which she has progressed through many times, but this time was asked about a perfectly legitimate cellphone holder. Things escalated from there.
  Are having cellphone holders on the dash of your car illegal in Australia?
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:17pm
  - Tall Man
    
    I think some states ban talking on the cell phone full stop.
    
    Radar detectors are a no no as well.
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 2:26pm
    - Harriet
      
      NSW is $349 if you get caught on the phone.
      Plus 5 demerit points.
      
      Loophole fine is $1745 [company car where they don’t say who was driving] demerits are waived. [about 8% of total convictions]
      
      2 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 5:31pm
  - C J Southern
    
    No idea, but it doesn’t matter.
    
    Two ways to do this:
    
    1. if she disagrees then the adult solution is to cooperate – and then challenge the ticket in court, or
    
    2. She can get taken down kicking and screaming.
    
    Why would any rational person opt for solution #2 – unless it was a setup for the camera that rather conveniently appears to have captured the whole thing (but for some “strange reason” we only ever get to see the takedown – never the relevant events leading up to it).
    
    6 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 3:24pm
    - ex-golfer
      
      She wasn’t issued a ticket.
      So your assertion that she was “choosing to break the law” is based on “no idea”. Which is an interesting way to frame an opinion.
      If you have seen the full video you will find police eventually let her back into her car and free to go on her way. No ticket issued. So she can’t have broken any law.
      And the senior officer on scene was requesting if she would like to lay a complaint against the officer that chose to haul her from her car.
      Complying with police instructions when there is a justifiable reason is fine, but if an officer cannot even explain what law has been broken and why she is being detained, then I take a dim view of jack-booted fascism being used.
      
      9 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 3:41pm
      - C J Southern
        
        In the absence of ALL relevant information we’re going to have to make a judgement call as to which is the more likely scenario:
        
        1. A policeman hauls her ass out of her car for no reason, or
        
        2. He had a reason to haul her ass out of her car that she didn’t agree with.
        
        Given that police in general don’t go around hauling people out of their cars for no reason – but law breakers do have a long history of complaining when they suddenly discover that laws DO actually apply to them – I know which one I’d put my money on.
        
        In my opinion it’s probably more likely that she wasn’t issued with a ticket – nor charged for her non-compliance – nor charged with resisting arrest – because police are now unable to properly hold people to account because of the backlash. And thus the current trend of less and less acceptance of personal responsibility continues. There’s ALWAYS a consequence to actions; if not ones that hold people accountable at the time (which is getting harder and harder) then ones that lead to the breakdown of social structures and society that we’re seeing world wide. So no – it’s not a given that “because she was let go unticketed” that “she didn’t break any law”.
        
        Complying with police instructions is ALWAYS a good idea – for 2 reasons.
        
        1. If you resist then you’ll lose. EVERY SINGLE TIME. That’s the way it has to be because – guess what – approx 100% of people think that what they were doing was OK – and the police shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing.
        
        2. Because most people seem to think they have immunity from the law and can do what they want with impunity … re-read #1 above.
        
        Christ, it’s not like the police were insisting that the blood of her first born be sacrificed at the alter. Far easier to reply with a “oh – I didn’t know that” or a “oh – I’ve come through here a few times and nobody has mentioned it before”. Again – if they want to ID you and/or step out of the car then LET THEM ID YOU AND STEP OUT OF THE CAR; it’s going to be far more effective to follow it up with a formal complaint – especially if she has footage of the entire incident.
        
        3 3
        Report
        September 13, 2020 5:05pm
      - ex-golfer
        
        Now you want ALL relevant information.
        You didn’t want all relevant information before you made your own conclusion that she broke the law but now you want it to justify heavy-handed police actions.
        Given what is happening all over Melbourne, no-reason threats to arrest journalists doing their jobs etc, scenario 1 seems more plausible to me.
        
        4 2
        Report
        September 13, 2020 5:39pm
      - C J Southern
        
        Here’s a link to the news article on the TVNZ site:
        
        https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/australian-woman-charged-after-getting-dragged-car-police-covid-19-checkpoint?auto=6190285854001
        
        Have a read (please).
        
        To answer your specific question of “what law, exactly, did she break?” the answer appears to be “the one that says a mobile phone must not obstruct your view due to its position on the windscreen”
        
        So in summary it appears as though:
        
        (a) She broke the law
        
        (b) Refused to rectify it
        
        (c) Refused to supply name and address as required by law
        
        (d) Was warned she would be arrested if she continued to refuse
        
        (e) Continued to refuse
        
        (f) Was arrested
        
        (g) Refused to exit her car whilst under arrest
        
        (h) Was forcefully removed.
        
        (i) Used offensive language in the process.
        
        And – contra to your previous assertion (“No ticket issued. So she can’t have broken any law.”) – she’s expected to be charged on summons with driving with obscured vision, fail to produce licence, fail to state her name and address, resist arrest, assault police and offensive language.
        
        Game, set, and match to Police. Good job.
        
        1 0
        Report
        September 13, 2020 9:45pm
- Sigmund Freud
  
  Dear Mr Southern.
  
  You are about to be a perfect slave. Jacinda! Jacinda! Jacinda!
  
  7 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:21pm
  - C J Southern
    
    Trying to have an adult conversation here “Sigmund”.
    
    3 7
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 3:25pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      Just do what you’re told to do please Mr Southern. Over to that building labelled showers, please undress and wait to go in with the next batch.
      
      Please don’t mind the unpleasant smoke and smell from that other building, it won’t bother you for long…
      
      5 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      September 13, 2020 3:49pm
      - C J Southern
        
        Poppycock.
        
        If people can’t differentiate between cooperation at a police stop and the gassing of jews during the holocaust then they’ve pretty much lost all perspective.
        
        2 4
        Report
        September 13, 2020 5:09pm
- ex-golfer
  
  OK – so I now I have read that he woman is (in Police speak) “expected” to be charged with the following offences:
  – driving with obscured vision (a cellphone holder on the dash), failing to produce a licence, failing to state her name and address, resisting arrest, assaulting police and offensive language.
  
  The first of the above offences led to the subsequent actions and additional expected charges.
  
  Her refusal to provide her name and other details obviously led to her being violently dragged from her car when she stated she was afraid of the officer. If people believe the police tactics in these circumstances are justified, then fair enough, that’s your choice.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 6:01pm
  - C J Southern
    
    Um no. She was violently removed from the car because she refused to get out of the car voluntarily after being placed under arrest. Do you seriously think police are going to not take someone into custody after placing them under arrest just because someone says they’re scared of them?
    
    So why was she put under arrest? Because – despite warnings – she refused to hand over her licence or provide identification details.
    
    At every stage SHE has chosen to escalate the situation.
    
    If that had been me in the drivers seat the conversation would have gone something like this:
    
    Officer: “Sir – the reason I’ve pulled you over is that I believe that your phone is mounted in such a position that it obscures your vision – which is an offence”
    
    Me: “Good morning. Respectfully, I disagree – so perhaps the best course of action is for me to remove it for now in the spirit of cooperation – for you to issue me with a ticket if you feel it’s warranted – and I’ll ask for the court to review it if I think I’m still in the right after checking my legal position”.
    
    Officer: “Certainly sir – that is of course your right. Have you got your drivers licence on you?”
    
    Me: “Yes – here it is”.
    
    Officer: “Can I have your current address please”
    
    Me: “Yes – certainly. It’s …”
    
    Officer: “Thank you sir”
    
    Me: “Thank you sir”
    
    I’m coming up on 60 – and I’ve accumulated a few interactions with police over the years. They’re never exactly “friendly” but they are always polite, professional, and impartial when I’ve been polite and cooperative; that’s just the way adults do business. I’ve been very grateful that they’ve on occasions confronted some not very nice people on my behalf when laws have been broken – and I’ve had to take it on the chin when the law gives them no opportunity to act.
    
    As uncomfortable as that video was to watch, all I saw were officers trying to do their job – and being left no realistic alternative to escalating the encounter to something physical due to the lady’s complete lack of cooperation.
    
    I just hope that the courts have the officers back.
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:07pm
Maggie Pie

We took an Uber over to Takapuna this morning.
Abdul was telling us he doesn’t need to wash or use a deodorant for the next 30 days.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhjnFOuXgAAYuv_?format=jpg&name=medium
13 5
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 1:25pm
- Fletch
  
  https://youtu.be/DBZR3hXXWPM?t=54
  
  2 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 1:35pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    😀 😀 😀
    
    4 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 2:57pm
- Tall Man
  
  You did tell him wasn’t to be taken orally …… didn’t you?
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 2:24pm
ex-golfer

Lazy journalism again:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300105769/labour-promises-living-wage-to-all-government-contractors

Headline: Labour promises living wage to all government contractors

Correct Headline would be:
Labour again promises living wage to all government contractors after failing to implement the same promise from 2017 election
16 1
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 1:45pm
- C J Southern
  
  Campaigning is getting to be a lot like “reality” TV in that it’s scripted and misleadingly constructed rubbish designed to give the impression of being one thing when in reality it’s about as real as professional wrestling.
  
  One of the best sayings I’ve ever heard that applies to politicians is “Judge not the performer, but the performance”. Do date, Labour have been judged to be severely wanting in pretty much every area IMHO.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:13pm
Nickc2

I hope you told him not to dispose of the used ones on the North Shore. We have enough trouble getting rid of the stench when labour politicians visit.
10 4
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 1:48pm
surfing

This is just power tripping by small minded people trying to exert control over people who made their own money.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/375279/the-battle-over-wellington-s-ugliest-building
9 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 2:12pm
RJ

Be interesting to see what she releases

A Chinese virologist who has reportedly been in hiding for fear of her safety has stepped out into the public eye again to make the explosive claim that she has the scientific evidence to prove COVID-19 was man-made in a lab in China.

Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a scientist who says she did some of the earliest research into COVID-19 last year, made the comments Friday during an interview on British talk show “Loose Women.”

Article
7 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 2:35pm
- C J Southern
  
  From what I understand through reading comments from qualified people is (a) Humans aren’t yet smart enough to make a virus and (b) Why would they even bother trying when mother nature can do it so much better.
  
  Epidemiologist Dr Michael Osterholm (one of the leading figures in this COVID epidemic) had this to say about the topic on the Joe Rogan podcast:
  
  “Joe Rogan: (18:01)
  All right, well so much for that myth. Myth number two. Well I won’t say myth, I should say rumor, was that this was something from some sort of a biological weapons thing that was leaked because Wuhan is some area, a part of China, that they actually do work on biological weapons.
  
  Michael Osterholm: (18:21)
  And we’ve heard that loud and clear. And let me just give a little bit background and more of my career. Back in the early 1990s I got very involved in the whole area of bio-defense and bio-terrorism, bio-warfare. It turned out I was involved with helping to interview and get information from some of the Russian bio-weaponeers. After the wall fell and Russia collapsed, we had all these experts coming out who’d been spending their whole lives making bio-weapons and it became very clear to me that this was really a serious challenge. And as part of my work, I spent a lot of time in this area and I actually, through a series of serendipitous events, became a personal advisor to his majesty, King Hussein of Jordan, before he died, on this topic. I got really into it.
  
  Michael Osterholm: (19:06)
  I wrote a book that was published on nine 11 of 2000 called Living Terrorist, What Our Country Needs to Survive the Coming Bio-terrorist Catastrophe. And I think I bought eight of the 12 copies that were sold in that year afterwards. And then when 9/11 happened, of course, then it became really prominent. And then I went on to serve on a group here in the United States that was basically the national science advisory board on bio-security, safety issues. So I’ve had a lot of experience in this area. And so I bring that to the table and I tell you there is no evidence whatsoever that this is a bio-weapon or that it was accidentally released from the Wuhan lab. Today, with the genetics we have on these viruses and how we can do testing, we can almost date them almost like carbon testing so radiocarbon and you want to know how old a block is or something like that.
  
  Michael Osterholm: (19:51)
  This thing clearly jumped from an animal species, probably the third week of November to humans. In Pangolins, these scaly anteater like animals are a very good source because we have Corona viruses just like those in these animals and it got into a human. So we surely had a lot of challenges with that, but I don’t believe that there’s any evidence linking this to one, an intentional release or an accidental release or that it’s an engineered bug. It’s not.”
  
  https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/joe-rogan-michael-osterholm-podcast-transcript-infectious-disease-expert-talks-coronavirus
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 10:20pm
  - RJ
    
    Nope we are smart enough and have been playing with and manipulating viruses for quite some time now.
    
    But I’d suggest rather than proclaiming anything, wait and see what she has to release in the coming week, because you are just jumping the gun to try and say something about something that hasn’t even been released yet.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:32pm
skyblue

So a nurse at Jet Park has the Covid19. What next? https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12364482
9 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 2:36pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Sunday afternoon fun. If you have TDS, have a cry, tell your Mum and go back the the basement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKf0k482PZQ
7 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 3:12pm
- fernglas
  
  More than a third of Republicans believe the QAnon conspiracy that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a shadowy cabal of paedophile cannibals is “mostly true”, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.
  The Daily Kos/Civiqs poll found more than half of Republican voters believe the theory is either mostly (33 per cent) or partly (23 per cent) true, with only 13 per cent believing there is no truth to it at all.
  These people are Trump supporters, I guess. Doesn’t he give them what they want?
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 7:51pm
  - C J Southern
    
    The QAnon bunch certainly seem to be quie a few sandwiches short of a lunch (let alone a picnic), but what concerns me are also the ever-increasing number of people who are profoundly ignorant about how the nation (and the world) functions.
    
    Case-in-point – how many Labour supporters have ZERO idea how an economy works? Most seem to think that the government has unlimited amounts of money – to spend on whatever they want (they can just print more if they don’t get a good harvest from the money trees). They think that all businesses are “evil” (despite business being the mechanism that generates 90%+ of money to both run the country and impliment social policy).
    
    How – the f*ck – is society supposed to function with these ever-increasing levels of profound ignorance?
    
    It’s depressing …
    
    Here’s a link to a trailer for one of the most poignant movies; it was created as a B Grade parody/comedy, but with each passing year it’s LITERALLY seeming like more of a future documentary:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBvIweCIgwk
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:32pm
Honorary Kiwi

Dr Bloomfield is reported in the Herald as saying that if he had followed the strategy of the UK, deaths in New Zealand would have been 3,500.

I can complicate my post by considering how you can compare a country at the epicentre of global travel with an end of route country where the persons per square mile well you all know is vastly different but I will stick with four simple points given he said C19 is far more dangerous than the Flu.

New Zealand Flu deaths 500 a year.
UK Flu Deaths 17/18 26,408.

New Zealand C 19 projected deaths 3,500.
UK C19 actual deaths 41,623.

So Dr Bloomfield assumes a death rate 7 times flu whereas the UK’s actual rate is 1.57.

Incidentally the average flu death rate in the UK over the last four years is 21,000. So that would push the multiplier to 2 Source ONS

Spain is two times flu.
Sweden with those errors early on is three times flu.

Given most clinicians would like to see a good two years to establish if there is any excess deaths over a couple of cycles I find Dr Bloomfield slipping into the role of hubristic politician rather than the thoughtful cautious medical practioner.

I also have like half dozen questions one would be how do you only discover people at day 3 or 12 is this because they are pre symptomatic or actually asymptomatic. Surely you would test someone in managed isolation the moment they become ill and whip them into Quarantine. Not wait five or six days and risk infecting others. This group of people could yield some insight into how many are asymptomatic given you test an entire population group.

My sense is many of them test positive and quickly clear up and reduce the active cases with less than a handful that pop into hospital.
17 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 3:17pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The left are not good with numbers and never will be. The roving decimal point. The difference between a billion and a trillion is only 3 zeros, and zeros have no value – oh fuck it, never mind
  
  13 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 4:04pm
Maggie Pie

When Soph tweeted me earlier, i didn’t want to look silly – but does anybody know who this Neale Jones is?

https://twitter.com/pulpyfictorious/status/1304895007367684097
7 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 3:20pm
- ex-golfer
  
  Ex-Labour Party political staffer.
  In the same vein as Clint Smith.
  Both like to spend their days ejaculating all over their Twitter how great the Govt has been at implementing its policies.
  Clint is particularly proud of Kiwibuild given he was Kiwibuilds communications manager for a year or so.
  
  14 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 3:23pm
- RJ
  
  Is he a bidet?
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 3:29pm
barnacle bill

Sure is going to be fun watching the results of the USA election..
Roger Stone is a few screws loose it seems.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/roger-stone-to-donald-trump-bring-in-martial-law-if-you-lose-election/ar-BB18Ym5V?ocid=msedgdhp
2 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 3:55pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  One might have thought a condition of getting his sentence commuted would be to STFU.
  
  3 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 5:37pm
DeepBlue

Are some creaks and groans appearing in Labour’s reelection campaign? Nash has come out against gangs, they must be less sexy. Up until now it has been all hugs.

Maybe Waitakare Man and South Auckland conservatives are not so enamored by Jacinda.
10 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 4:23pm
- Max
  
  An electorate MP in Napier perhaps the electorate are not happy. Perhaps he will be high on the list though.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 7:43pm
Critical Thinker

Meanwhile in the communist police state of Victoria: ?

https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1305004087906164737
6 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 4:48pm
- Critical Thinker
  
  “No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
  
  —George Orwell
  
  11 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 5:22pm
Fletch

Millions of dollars worth of Democrat donations, untraceable, from “unemployed” people…

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-data-shows-that-half-of-2019-donations-to-actblue-came-from-untraceable-unemployed-donors

Yeh, right… ?
Dems at it again…
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 5:35pm
Harriet

They can’t have it both ways.

President Trump is my favourite person of colour.

Orange Man Great! 😎
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 5:49pm
mikenmildagain

A good story here about helping descendants of WWII service personnel to receive medals unclaimed by their descendants:
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/frontpage-featured/20200907/war-medals-never-received/
5 3
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 6:45pm
Harriet

I have never been an antivaxer before, but when you are forced into a prison where your only chance of escape is to let your jailers inject you, you have to be suspicious.
Once you are injected then all the restrictions will be lifted.

First they came for the Jews…..I wasn’t a Jew….. 😎
4 7
Log in to Reply
Report
September 13, 2020 7:02pm
- fernglas
  
  What the fuck are you talking about?
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 7:49pm
  - RJ
    
    Pretty obvious what they are talking about, that they won’t be taking the COVID vaccine.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    September 13, 2020 10:34pm
- C J Southern
  
  I’ve never been an antivaxer before … and I’m not an antivaxer now. Nor do I ever intend to be.
  
  If and when a vaccine becomes available it’s my intention to review the safety information with a lot more “interest” than usual … something I feel is only prudent considering the time frame in which it’s been developed.
  
  And I’ll possibly even let a few others “go first” as an additional “safety valve” … but if everything looks sweet then I’ll probably come to the conclusion that the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks … and join the queue knowing that I’ve made the best decision that I could with the information I had to make it with.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  September 13, 2020 11:23pm