General Debate 17 September 2020

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CJames

If there is anyone in your wider circle who is woke, send the message “I heart JK Rowling” to them. Then stand back and feign innocence when they erupt. Posters proclaiming it have been taken down in several cities because it has been deemed hate speech!! Google the expression and see the controversy it has caused. The Twitterati is enraged at being outed as impotent. https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/16/now-they-want-to-burn-jk-rowlings-books/ Titania McGrath summed it up best when she tweeted that she was going to buy 200 copies of her new book out (which is already a best seller after 3 days) to burn them.
JK Rowling is too successful to be worried about being excommunicated. She has shown real bravery by refusing to back down or recant, but continuing to express her views. And what can cowardly companies do? Publishers and bookshops need her books to get business so they won’t boycott. Hollywood needs her for the films. She has done more for real charities than all her detractors combined. Even transgender organisations are supporting her. https://www.transgendertrend.com/support-j-k-rowling/ There really is a silent majority behind JK, including the old guard feminists. All the TERF brigade are with her and would you start an argument with Germaine Greer? Even Clive James at his best was scared of her. The woke will lose any fight they pick with JK and they know it. That is why they have to do nasty anonymous bullying attacks that just lose them what little public support they previously had.
The revolution is devouring its own. People’s Front of Judea is here now.
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September 17, 2020 8:00am
- Inandout
  
  CJ, the violent left are eating their own and this must be good for sanity. Hollywood has destroyed itself with the recent Oscar ‘rules’, Epstein is gone, and Netflix has lost subscribers by pushing it’s pedo programs. In fact the latter seems to have gone downhill since the Clintons were taken on board.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:50am
  - Nickc2
    
    and the pseudo royals (Harry and his squeeze) joined the circus.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:12am
    - Flossie
      
      “Harry’s showgirl”.
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:02am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        and a keen yachtswoman apparently!
        
        As Prince Philip put it
        
        “one steps out with a Showgirl, one does not marry one”.
        
        A very wise man.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:19pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    And of course on the board of Netflix is one Barack Obama.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:55am
- Raphael
  
  Titania McGrath summed it up best when she tweeted that she was going to buy 200 copies of her new book out (which is already a best seller after 3 days) to burn them.
  
  You do know that Titania McGrath is a parody account that mocks SJWs?
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:50am
  - CJames
    
    I have Andrew Doyle’s book so I am well aware of who “she” is. A doppelganger for Rebecca Wrong Daily.
    Read what I wrote and use a bit of lateral thought. The Twitterati were upset at having no power and Titania summed up the stupidity of their protests.
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:54am
  - Ed Snack
    
    You do know that people know that Titania is a parody account, and a very good one at that ?
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:56am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Everybody knows that.
    
    Personally I still miss the wit and wisdom of Alene Composta!
    
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    September 17, 2020 1:31pm
- tom hunter
  
  They’re still going to do a lot of damage to others even as they kill themselves.
  
  I’ve been writing a fair bit about these Struggle Sessions over at No Minister, as well as Woke Politics in general
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:11am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Excellent: “ The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation. They are counting on the guilt-ridden, self-flagellating nature of traditional American progressives, who will not stand up for themselves, and will walk to the Razor voluntarily.”
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:08pm
2ic

How cute. From Stuff yesterday:

“New Zealanders will see how much the Government has spent bailing out the private sector when the books are opened on Wednesday.”

(https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122772395/election-2020-grant-robertson-on-new-zealands-worstever-financial-quarter-and-prefu)

Note the loaded language. The wage subsidies were put in place to keep people in jobs after the Government forced businesses to cease operations during lockdown, but they are now described as “bailing out the private sector“.
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September 17, 2020 8:00am
- wimpston peeeders
  
  would love to see the polls if cindy an robo didnt “bail out the private sector”. would be no taxpayers left to fill the states trough
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:38am
- Swifty
  
  When Winston Churchill was out surveying the damage from early German bombing of London’s East End (from memory) he said along the lines of “The people of the East End won’t carry the rebuild burden alone, the whole country will come to their aid”, meaning that the country as a whole will finance it. And rightly so, because it was just an accident of geography that the London’s East End bore the brunt.
  
  I guess Stuff’s headline would have been “The Government bails out the East End!!!”
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:43am
  - IC5000
    
    East Enders would be pilloried as parasites, benefit cheats and scum here by people like IGM for needing state assistance.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:15am
    - Ed Snack
      
      No need to expose your sick biases quite so openly.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:57am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Rich, coming from the $50 million press…
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:49am
- Ford Prefect
  
  The comments are fun to read. I bet they regret opening the comments section up for this article. Even Fraser House couldnt keep up with the deflections
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:53am
  - greybeard
    
    Agreed. This bit pisses me off:
    “New Zealanders will see how much the Government has spent bailing out the private sector when the books are opened on Wednesday.”
    Did any government employee lose their job, or lose income ?
    Did any local government employee lose their job or income?
    Did any Minister, MP or local Councillor or Mayor lose their job or income ?
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:16am
    - hullkiwi
      
      I am a local govt employee. Yes, I’ve lost income and so have other colleagues who could I’ll afford to do so.
      
      You shouldn’t believe all the myths that public sector employees are life long Liebore or Red Melon Party Card carriers.
      
      As to the myths about salary cuts and job losses, the politicians and executives of central government and local govt bodies/agencies have been less than honest with the public. The senior management of these bodies have not suffered, it is the middle tier staff who have paid the cost, those earning $100k to $150k were coerced into signing up for salary haircuts, while the senior management lied to staff about what was happening and they themselves did not take the haircuts!
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:36am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Locally, our local government organisation did make some minor changes to working hours and practices, and some temporarily and part-time workers were laid off. But otherwise all permanent employees continued to be employed and paid their normal ordinary time wages/salary.
        
        Not in the least comparable to the large numbers of private sector employees who were laid off temporarily or permanently. And I don’t think a single full-time central government employee was laid off either. Privilege exists.
        
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        September 17, 2020 12:01pm
    - ex-golfer
      
      I am a central Govt employee and at the height of the lock down I (together with many of my colleagues) was working 12 – 14 hour days, 7 days a week as the pressure came on to manage the assistance that was being provided. I know of some colleagues working through the night as well.
      We continue to be under a lot of pressure as new policies are rolled out to support the country through the recovery. Most of which you will never hear about.
      
      You may recall a lot of people complaining that the public service was not agile enough in the early days of the lockdown as we were all scrambling to get things implemented and down at breakneck speed.
      It would have been worse if there were blanket lay-offs. Sorry but you can’t have it both ways.
      
      I know bashing the public service is an easy target on this blog but we are not all from the left and progressive liberals. I certainly have to be very careful about what I say in the office given my right of center views. But I am proud to be a voice within the public sector that is often questioning decisions being made from the ideological left.
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:57pm
- kowtow
  
  Did stuffed mention how much they got ?
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:57am
- lastmanstanding
  
  Re the Prefu Dominic Stephens Chief Economist at Westpac comments that Treasury have used micu higher tax rates in forecasting the deficits out to 2033/2034 and also used the current almost zero borrowing rates.
  
  So unless tax rates rise dramatically over the next 15 years and Government borrowing rates stay at zero the deficits will be significantly higher than forecast.
  
  More Bull Shit from the Ardern Government.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:17am
- Loddenthinks
  
  The loaded and distorted language is everywhere. This from Stuff reporting on a Salvation Army report:
  
  “The impact of Covid-19 on New Zealand has been laid bare in a Salvation Army report which found more than a third of survey respondents had suffered a hit to their income through the loss of a job.”
  
  That wasn’ COVID-19 that did that; it was the government’s ham-fisted, naive, myopic and ill-executed response to the threat of a pandemic that caused the economic and social devastation.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:34am
- igm
  
  This “Stuff” mob are being kept by taxpayers as they are unable to stay afloat as a trading entity.
  Time they get it right also, “Taxpayers”, not Government, bail out the private sector. In fact, for once in a lfetime, they get some of their taxes back.
  Without them “Stuff” would be in the gutter (where they belong), and the Labour supporting detractors would be without benefits, homes, education, health, etc., etc.
  This “Stuff” mob are deserving recipients of the title “Leeches”, as are Labourites.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:10am
- C J Southern
  
  Stuff(ed). No surprises there.
  
  If the leaning tower of Pisa leaned as far to the left it would have fallen over years ago.
  
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  September 17, 2020 4:57pm
peterwn

So Otago University Medical School is to be taken to court over ethnic admission policies. Seems the issue is now being narrowed to the ‘catch-up’ policy where more than pro-rata admissions apply until the portions of Maori and Pasifika doctors match population portions. Good luck to them. Ashley Bloomfield (represented by Crown Law) would have a good case to be an ‘intervenor’ so if the case fails, those taking it would have to fork out two lots of costs. Also there has been so much warning that Otago has been able to really get its ducks in a row policy-wise.

Doctors do not decide who gets into Law School, so why should lawyers decide who gets into Medical School.
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September 17, 2020 8:01am
- Scott
  
  peterwn – and these socialist policies have unintended consequences. If Maori and Pacific Island people get admitted into medical school with lower grades than white people and Asians, then what will that do to patient confidence in them when they do become doctors?
  
  Will a patient seeing a Maori doctor wonder whether they are competent or did they just get through medical school to satisfy an ethnic quota?
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:42am
  - peterwn
    
    You do not need to have straight A’s to be a proficient doctor.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:20am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      It helps to have a smattering of intellect not at the -1 std deviation IQ level. Physiology, anatomy, biochemistry usually take a bit of comprehension then there’s …
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:44am
    - Phronesis
      
      Yeah, your Grandfather’s skin colour is a much better indicator of whether you will be the best doctor that the patient can get.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:12am
    - Pharmachick
      
      Agreed, and I teach them.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:35am
      - sooty
        
        I like to know which doctor is going to fix me!
        
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        September 17, 2020 12:29pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Some things just can’t be fixed, sooty. Sorry, but there it is.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:30pm
  - Blackbob
    
    And they do have different pass requirements dependent on your ethnicity.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:35am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      No.
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:00am
    - Phronesis
      
      The problem is that med schools don’t really fail students out of the course. They didn’t use to have to as competitive entry usually insured that everyone was capable enough to do the work. People might have got held back for a year but that disrupts the numbers in different years which are capped. Not to mention that imagine if all of those having to resit were of a certain ethnicity, that would obviously be racist. So standards have had to change but there aren’t different standards, just lower standards for everyone. It’s becoming a problem for the colleges that control specialties now but they are increasingly toeing the line in order to avoid accusations of isms.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:33am
    - Pharmachick
      
      Nope, once in must pass in standard form.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:35am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Seems that the best way would for the Maori community to pay for a pre med catch up course to prepare candidates and then have all candidates compete for places without Maori being allowed lower marks.
        
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        September 17, 2020 12:24pm
      - sooty
        
        Yes but will the students have readers to assist them, like in primary and secondry schools to get them over the line?
        Which is not available to the rest of the class!
        
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        September 17, 2020 12:32pm
      - alloytoo
        
        Tom Sowell make an interesting observation that quotas (and this is in his field of Economics) result in people who would easily qualify for less competitive institutions (and do well there) end up simply being overwhelmed by the high performance institution.
        The result is an unnecessary crash and burn.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:02pm
  - IC5000
    
    That’s a good point Scott. Maybe the solution is to get rid of the quotas and have a lottery system whereby newly qualified specialists are ra dolly selected to practice 5 years in a lower decile area and if they refuse they will be deregistered. Seem fair.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:19am
    - Phronesis
      
      The majority of my contemporaries already practice overseas, including every single one that got in to med school by identifying as maori.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:15am
  - Fletch
    
    The same thing happened overseas with firemen and the military. They had to lower standards for women who wanted to join. Can a woman really throw you over her shoulder and carry you out of a burning building? I’d say it would be difficult for most.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:17am
    - peterwn
      
      Standards were not lowered. It seems that studying medicine has become more fashionable over the years so the number of hopeful students has increased significantly greater than the number of doctors reasonably needed. For example in the 1970’s or so B or B+ was sufficient and there is no suggestion that doctors who graduated in that period are inadequate doctors.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:57am
      - Phronesis
        
        That’s simply a matter of grade inflation. Have a look at what proportion of students achieve A grades now, or even just the basic pass fail ratio. I once had a lecturer comment on an essay of mine so I asked why I hadn’t received a straight A and he replied that he had never graded anything A in his life. Now there would be questions asked if students were not getting A’s.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:36pm
- Nickc2
  
  Some very good points made, especially your last sentence. Moving on laterally from your last sentence, perhaps we should insist Ministerial Portfolios are only awarded to elected MPs who have documented qualifications in the portfolio(s) they are being given?
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:49am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Tony Ryall would never have been Min of Health then. How would you pick a minister for immigration? Bill English ended up as list MP …
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:00am
    - Nickc2
      
      We could probably have better Ministers of Immigration, Health and Finance. The ones you mention were good, but that doesn’t mean they were the best in their field of NZ citizens.
      
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      September 17, 2020 2:25pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Minister of Foreign Affairs should have romantic assignations overseas?
    Minister of Health should be healthy?
    Minister of Finance should have money?
    Minister of Education should be educated?
    Minister of Conservation should be a conservative?
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:02am
    - Ed Snack
      
      And should the minister for internal affairs have an affair….internally ?
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:04pm
      - alloytoo
        
        and we thought there was no role for JLR.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:15pm
    - Nickc2
      
      That would be a start but unfortunately, the current Govt. could only muster a Finance Minister according to your criteria and he had to be from another political party.
      
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      September 17, 2020 2:29pm
Classic Liberal

Judith Collins on Hosking

“We can’t tax our way out of this.”

Growth is the only way and National is all about boosting jobs and business.

Particularly encouraging that she she mentions “keep people working”. I hope this implies no more lockdowns – Hosking should have asked this.

Her excellent question to NZ for the election:

“Do you want to grow the economy or do you want to line up for the dole queue? Which do you want?”
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September 17, 2020 8:02am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Just saw cindy’s political add.
  A series of vague promises re infrastructure and something something..green.
  No substance at all.
  In fact it was a “cut and paste” of last election…except it’s lacking the detail..deliberate?
  Seems to say …..
  “We can do it….no really…..please ignore our record of non performance and give us the job again”
  Would you hire anyone who came to you with this approach?
  If you said this in an interview, would you expect to get the job?
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:23am
  - Inandout
    
    RW, internal polling says she will win, so why waste energy? I wonder how many rest home lounge TVs are on streaming?
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:04am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Good to see you have joined SCS Party of commonsense. Now you understand the power of sheeple. She doesn’t have to even lift her finger to win this election. Nobody had it this easy.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:53am
    - peterwn
      
      Is the internal polling reliable or has it become ‘echo chamber’ polling. I would suggest that Grant Robertson is so scared stiff of Greens getting 4.9% that he has deliberately annoyed students to give the Greens a few more votes.
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:02pm
  - hilaryt
    
    Might as well have played Brian Ferry’s ‘Let’s Stick Together’…would’ve been much more fun and you can sing along…
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:16am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  I know what Sheeple will answer – “We want free money. We don’t want to work. Too hard”.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:51am
Sigmund Freud

Did my ears deceive me or has Saint Ashley declared that fear of viral pandemics which will take the lives of a very few will rule our lives for ever from now on?

Presumably with him in charge?

It’s gone to his head. He loves the Main Stream Media.
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September 17, 2020 8:02am
- Nickc2
  
  I don’t believe your ears deceived you Sigmund. I also believe I heard him say something about preparing for the events of climate change. He really has revealed his partisanship.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:28am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Ashley was talking bollocks a few days back about how hundreds of health professionals would have died without lockdowns. Where in reality only about 1 in 2000 health professionals have died in worst affected countries (would be about 50 for NZ), that’s no different to average individual risk of death in whole population for those same countries.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:55am
Souvlaki

New Slogan :
” Don’t JEOPRADISE your future…vote National “
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September 17, 2020 8:03am
- calendar girl
  
  Pronunciation of certain words by our PM is cringe-worthy. Does nobody take her aside and tell her gently how her speech characteristics could be improved?
  
  (Including clear pronunciation of the letter ‘t’ as a ‘t’, not as a ‘d’.)
  
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  September 17, 2020 3:20pm
Brian McDonald

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Does Anders Tegnell deserve the name Dr Death? He has certainly misled the public. Sweden stopped monitoring Covid 19 cases of children so as to not alarm the public. By my count there have been 3 cases of Auckland children being infected with Covid 19 in the last 3 weeks with no suggestions of figures being hidden. NZ’s Covid death rate is .5% that of Sweden or 1% per capita by comparison.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12365601
In May only 6.1% of Swedes had developed “herd immunity” far short of the 60% required for there to be actual herd immunity. The figures on how long any so called herd immunity would last are not established. So the almost 6,000 disproportionate amount of Swedish deaths (compared to its Nordic neighbours and NZ) are the result of a prediction for wide spread immunity which is yet to be established with proof, and without knowledge of how long it may last. Tegnell is a frickin idiot. The overall death count in Sweden is the highest for 150 years and 15% higher than last year.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12358495
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September 17, 2020 8:03am
- KevO'Brien
  
  The NZ Herald has been deprecated as a source of any reliable news.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:10am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Yes, the NZ Herald, reliable, and news do not sit well in any sensible sentence.
    
    Whereas, puff, puffed and puffery seem an apt fit
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:21am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      You seem overly upset about the Herald, how about the Sweden death rate this year? How about Sweden’s Covid death rate compared to its neighbours and NZ? Try to concentrate on the issue and not who reported it. Do you have any facts pointing out that the death toll is not accurate, or the immunity rate in May is not accurate and what the community level of immunity would need to be before having the impact against the virus the Swedish authorities (guess) claim is correct? No? Didn’t think so.
      
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      September 17, 2020 9:01am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Is your faux concern about the statistics for the Swedish public health agency? Perhaps you think the are wrong, or have been misreported of made up by the Herald.
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:21am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    JoNova’s well argued opinions on this:
    http://joannenova.com.au/
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:41am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Wow! Made in a lab.
      
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      September 17, 2020 8:52am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Yes, quite likely created as part of a research program into “gain of function”, and accidentally released by poor containment practises. The lab in Wuhan was indeed carrying exactly this type of research on BCV’s.
        
        A statistical analysis of the mutations in the Covid virus compared to its supposed precursors supports that theory fairly strongly. Why is it so hard to consider ?
        
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        September 17, 2020 12:08pm
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Point out what is unreliable in the figures quoted and where there are any certain figures on the outcome of the dreamed up “herd immunity.” Then we can talk about the Herald or any other newspapers.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:03am
- emmess
  
  I call bullshit on that.
  What was typical under 5 mortality in 1870? 30%, 40%? Someone can look it up
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:22am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Just read this article https://www.google.com/amp/s/sebastianrushworth.com/2020/08/04/how-bad-is-covid-really-a-swedish-doctors-perspective/
  
  Key points: “ Antibodies are in fact not the body’s main defence against virus infections. T-cells are. But T-cells are harder to measure than antibodies, so we don’t really do it clinically. It is quite possible to have T-cells that are specific for covid and thereby make you immune to the disease, without having any antibodies. Personally, I think this is what has happened. ”
  
  And: “ An average influenza year in Sweden, 700 people die of influenza. Does that mean covid is ten times worse than influenza? No, because influenza has been around for centuries while covid is completely new. In an average influenza year most people already have some level of immunity because they’ve been infected with a similar strain previously, or because they’re vaccinated. So it is quite possible, in fact likely, that the case fatality rate for covid is the same as for influenza, or only slightly higher, and the entire difference we have seen is due to the complete lack of any immunity in the population at the start of this pandemic.”
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:24am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Well, that could be a step forward. Sweden is not having an average influenza year, bloody beauty – what a breakthrough. This years version is only causing 8 times the number of deaths, “only” around 6,000 compared to the normal 700. Pass the chocolate biscuits.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:10am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Yes it’s not fun. Rest homes needed better protection.
      
      But he gives scientific explanations of why herd immunity was probably growing without being recorded and why the level of covid deaths is higher than an already partly resisted flu.
      
      You’re contributing nothing.
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:38pm
  - rangitoto
    
    I have noticed from the stats from countries in Europe that there are still many new cases but the death rate is dropping like a stone. Possibly because the virus is evolving to become less deadly, or less susceptible younger people are getting infected on average , or something else?
    
    Check out the charts in this DM article showing #infections and #deaths.
    
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8740183/Boris-FAILS-rule-second-lockdown-admits-testing-cope.html
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:30am
    - Pharmachick
      
      Average age of infection is dropping rapidly, b/c the younger people don’t give a *. They’re crowding bars and restaurants, having parties etc. Its a combination of COVID/lockdown/restriction fatigue, younger people in general not getting as sick and bit of a backlash. In US and Canada it was almost impossible to get kids tested (lost of places had age restrictions at 5 or 12) apart from specialized medical centres, so testing in the very young demographic is ramping up too.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:40am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Also possibly changes in testing. A lot of initial testing was restricted to those most vulnerable or those likely exposed to the virus. Over time testing has become more generally available and used.
        
        Also it does appear that a point mutation to the S (spike) protein in the most common variant does appear to enhanced infectivity and reduced lethality. So that too could be a reason, more people ARE getting infected but the progression to severe symptoms is also reduced.
        
        This could show up if many younger people are being tested. We still don’t have a good handle on the proportion of cases that are effectively asymptomatic, so wider testing might find a larger number of cases and amongst younger people as these are being tested more now.
        
        And does the type of test matter; I have seen commentary that using a PCR test can amplify viral debris from a past infection into a positive result, and that concurrent antibody testing would help elucidate this. Noting of course the comments above about T Cell immune responses and the difficulty of testing for that.
        
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        September 17, 2020 12:15pm
  - Durden
    
    Classic Liberal,
    
    I understand from a trusted health professional that NZ has not had even a single death due to common influenza this year. Typically this number is 200-300 deaths per year. This has been attributed to annual influenza bugs not being imported into the country due to lockdowns and border quarantine. General increase in social distancing and hand washing is also considered to be a factor.
    
    Typical progression of a pandemic suggests a weakening of the virus strains will happen with Covid-19 despite some experts suggesting that “this time it is different”. We have never had a single virus in history that this attenuating behaviour has NOT occured.
    
    The only difference is the politicisation of this virus. It is difficult not to think that the UN and the lefty progressives are using this pandemic to take over and change the governments from conservative nationalists to become lefty progressive nanny states.
    
    That ties in well with the desire to subject everyone to accept UN’s Agenda 30 type of policies and trying to grab as big a share of the $20-30 trillion newly printed money for recovery. This is to spend it faux green demands (“build it back better”) and redistribution of wealth to reduce various “inequalities”.
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:25pm
- Simon
  
  Lol – links to nz herald. Opinions assigned by the NZ herald. Sad.
  
  Herd immunity already reached in Sweden. It’s over.
  
  Here in NZ for all the people getting high off the smell of Ardern’s shit this aint even at half time oranges yet.
  
  Merica well on the way to economic recovery and open for business. While here NZ we still will be a hermit nation this time next year.
  
  The government already wrecked its own finances. Next comes the general population and all the assorted problems, crime, suicides and wrecked families.
  
  Sweden , Merica have their exit strategy sorted. While NZ is fast becoming a failed state.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:26am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Can you point to any paper that says herd immunity has been acheived, anywhere against Covid 19? Or do you have too much gin in your porridge to assist with your spelling?
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:14am
    - Inandout
      
      BM: Any paper that hasn’t swallowed Cindy’s $50 million.
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:07am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      In the absence of massive randomised population tests which not been carried out we cannot know the incidence of the virus. Just counting from self selected groups has no predictive value. It’s useful for fear promotion as cumulative numbers like we have been shown naturally form a rising line.
      Those who have participated in this statistical charade know the fraud they were committing. Basic learning warns them to not present numbers as they have.
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:53am
- Scott
  
  Brian McDonald – Sweden did make a mistake, and they have acknowledged this, that they did not sufficiently protect the rest homes. This is where most of the Covid deaths have come.
  
  Having said that, the virus is now over in Sweden. People just go about their normal lives.
  
  Over here in New Zealand we are still in varying degrees of lockdown. Our borders are closed. Our economy is tanking. We have spent billions of dollars in a vain effort to “eliminate” the virus. And it hasn’t worked. And it will not work. Apparently our borders are going to be closed until 2022?!
  
  So our Covid strategy is both unrealistic, elimination was never going to work, and unsustainable, we cannot spend billions of dollars so that able-bodied young people can sit at home watching Netflix.
  
  So sooner or later we are going to have to open our borders, open up our society and we will have to mitigate the virus as best we can.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:27am
  - Honorary Kiwi
    
    Just to round out your perfectly judged reply.
    
    Johan Giesecke indicated in April in an average year the number of deaths from Influenza in Sweden is 2,000. Johan is a man of calm and understatement the figure according to the Who in 2018 was 2,701.
    
    A multiple of 3 to 1 using Johan’s 2,000.
    
    In Spain its 2
    In the UK its 2
    In France its 3
    In Germany its 1 (this in part is due to their more rigorous analysis of cause of death and whether Covid was a passenger).
    
    On the economy after some misinformation in the New Zealand press I crunched the numbers.
    
    Input spend in NZ 40% higher per GDP for a 20% per capita less wealth per person.
    
    GDP reduction NZ 16%
    GDP reduction Sweden 8%
    
    No school children have died in Sweden (only one of age but not at school.) Apparently a mother was refused a test is doing the rounds.
    
    The report comparing Finnish and Swedish school children shows no evidence of different outcomes by going to school or not, nor were the teachers at any greater risk.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:09am
  - Sacha
    
    We may be in ‘various degrees of lockdown’, but I can tell you that in my district life is going on as usual. Yes, we DO scan the phone (if we’ve got it with us) or write on the clipboard, if we go to town.
    We will not be traipsing off to Queenstown to spend our spare dollars, but we will be getting the local tradespeople out to fix the fences/ & pumps, and buying food for the calves, and lime for the paddocks, and planting trees and any other useful jobs.
    Life goes on.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:40am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Sweden has also had varying degrees of “lockdown” and social distancing all the way through Scott, some the same as ours. It closed its borders. Arguably its death toll would be higher had they not protected the elderly but what remains behind their 8ball is something around 5,800 deaths whilst ours has not reached 30.
    Your predictions are simply guesswork.
    Meanwhile and right through 0ur primary produce prices are on a high, immigration is put to sleep in the meantime giving a chance to catch up on housing. NZ is adjusting, on its own terms.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:53am
    - Honorary Kiwi
      
      Brian Anders Tegnell has apologised because they failed to protect their elderly in the first six weeks which is why they are 3 to 1 on flu rather than 2 to 1.
      
      Their lockdown as you call it is about 1.5 in NZ terms.
      
      I thought Ashley Bloomfield was the perfect ‘safe pair of hands” during Wave 1. He was even honest enough to admit that the reason he advised level 2 rather than 4 was to protect the health service which cost you 10,000,000,000 and was not even necessary.
      
      However he has recently pronounced that NZ death rate if adopted the UK policy (which was constant change and fiasco) you would have had 7 times Flu mortality there isn’t a comparable country that comes close to that.
      
      In Victoria the fiasco with aged care has still only produced 700 Plus death from 6,000,000. During Lockdown deaths have accelerated not slowed down.
      
      Prof Michael Levitt goes with 1,000 deaths thats 500 excess without Lockdown. If you managed it as badly as completely unprepared Wuhan a city of 11,000,000 it would have been 1,500.
      
      For a health director to say 3,500 loses all credibility.It’s up their with Hendy and his 80,000 deaths. A t least Hendy was finger pointing in the air Ashley had facts by which to make a reasoned judgement.
      
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      September 17, 2020 9:35pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Our borders will be open again by the new year. National will not let this skewed lock down continue. They don’t need fear to scare people into compliance as Cindy sycophants.
    ☑️☑️Returning in October☑️☑️
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:57am
    - Alex13
      
      “Our borders will be open again by the new year. National will…”
      
      And that is exactly why many people who would usually vote National may choose not to do so this time.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:19am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Kevin, where do you get this impression? The interviews I’ve heard suggest that Collins would be very strict, including making masks compulsory if doctors wanted it.
      
      That’s why I was hoping Hosking would try and get a commitment to ‘no more lockdowns’ in today’s interview.
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:50pm
- Tall Man
  
  So i guess you’re no longer driving, eating, drinking or meeting people or any other activity that exposes you to the “dangers” that living a life entails.
  
  Covid and many other potential illnesses are with us forever and there will even be new illnesses coming our way in the future.
  
  I for ione do not propose that we shut down our economy and country everytime a childish PM is too terrified to act decisively to prolong the lives of a very small number of grossly unwell citizens, myself included if I was ever in that position of risk.
  
  You are adopting a political stance in order to support a poor leader. This is about health and has never been something that should have been ganered for political purposes. ardern and her supporters in this should be ashamed of themselves.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:32am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    I’ve actually worked right through except for level 4 Tall Man. You should try it, but maybe it’s been too long for you.
    I don’t have any political leader, I leave that to the bewildered.
    The last 3 “grossly unwell” citizens you write off were all working, one being in his 80s serving the community as a GP, the other 2 in their fifties one working in a cool store and his brother a historian and tribal leader. The sorts of blokes happy to use their own names.
    The dead rat you need to swallow is that the Nats, if elected, will change little to what’s happening now. Try to keep focused.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:40am
    - Tall Man
      
      Whoosh.
      
      Seen the photo of the guiy that died?
      
      Have a look.
      
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      September 17, 2020 8:48pm
- Critical Thinker
  
  “The overall death count in Sweden is the highest for 150 years.” ?
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eh6AW_BX0AAw-2n?format=jpg
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eh6AXLTXcAgHywK?format=jpg
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiBM4UnXcAAxFAl?format=jpg
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eh4IdwtXcAEn7ZP?format=png
  
  The NZ Herald is most certainly fake news, enemy of the people.
  
  “The virus numbers have reached astonishingly low levels. The most common number of Covid-related deaths announced for each day of the past week in Sweden has been zero.
  The politically explosive possibility, which the Swedish health authorities certainly believe to be true, is that they are reaching a degree of so-called “herd immunity”; in other words that enough people have had the virus and are now immune that it is hard for the virus to spread.
  If this is true, the political ramifications are hard to overestimate
  It would mean that lockdowns and masks may be extending, rather than solving, the crisis.”
  https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/sweden-coronavirus-covid19-lockdown-a4546976.html
  
  Meanwhile ?
  https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/09/11/johan-giesecke-swedens-herd-immunity-strategist-gets-who-promotion/
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:37am
  - Critical Thinker
    
    “Complicity Theorist
    (noun)
    A person who accepts the political narratives of the day unquestionably;
    consumes mainstream media like it was 1980;
    and is prone to submissiveness, outbursts of irrational fear, and public-shaming of free-thinkers.”
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehy1lhTXcAckH27?format=png
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:54am
  - tom hunter
    
    I’ve been tracking the Swedish excess deaths stats from the start, using the statista.com site.
    
    As of August 14 (the latest date for the website) Sweden is on track for a 2020 death (all causes) of 97,994. COVID deaths make up the difference from what would have been expected on death rate from all non-COVID causes – some 92,195 deaths.
    
    But only YE will tell as to how many of COVID deaths are excess, and even at this rate, given the usual annual population growth, the death rate would still be 0.97% compared to the 2010-2019 average of 0.93%. And three years in that period had an annual death rate of 0.96%.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:20am
- Loddenthinks
  
  This post demonstrates two things – the dishonest, disingenuous and politically-motivated lengths to which the MSM will stoop, and just how gullible some people are, especially if it fits their narrative.
  
  Where to start? “The overall death count in Sweden is the highest for 150 years and 15% higher than last year.”
  
  Well, their population is the highest it’s been in 150 years, so that statistic is both meaningless and designed to cause fear. We should be looking at the death rate not the death count, but that doesn’t paint the same picture, you see. In 1869 when they had their infamous famine and more than 55,000 people died, their population was under 4 million. Today it is over 10 million, so whereas the famine had a death rate of 1.3% of the population in that period, COVID had a death rate of barely 0.5%.
  
  Secondly, you don’t measure death rates in 6-month increments, you measure them annually. Of course the first 6 months of the year were the hardest for Sweden, but how are they tracking now?
  
  If 51,405 people died in the first 6 months, that’s a monthly count of 8,567 so to get to August 14 which is 7.5 months, the total should be 64,256. Yet, the number is lower than that – 62,890 – so the death rate is obviously slowing, and in particular the death rate from COVID.
  
  One of the WHO’s six special COVID-19 envoys, Dr David Nabarro, told Magic Talk at the end of August: “But the pace of new infections and deaths has slowed markedly since the end of June. The development prompted Sweden’s national health agency to propose raising the limit on certain public gatherings to 500 people from 50.”
  
  But admitting that Sweden may have got it right doesn’t suit the MSM in this country, or their fear-driven narrative designed to prop up a weak and clueless CoL government. And you fell for it.
  
  https://fortune.com/2020/08/31/sweden-covid-response-who-official-death-rate/
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:48am
Paulus

I am very disappointed today.
I cannot find my name on the “secret” Chinese list. Maybe they have overlooked the fact that I only spend a little money on line to a number of Chinese shops – perhaps because its only men’s clothes like cotton shirts.
Perhaps I could ask them to revise their selection although I know I am not one of the prominente !
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September 17, 2020 8:04am
Maggy Wassilieff

Scathing review into the Health Department’s handling of the 2019 Measles epidemic
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018764307/scathing-report-into-2019-auckland-measles-outbreak
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September 17, 2020 8:06am
- artemisia
  
  Dr Bloomfield was quite clear – these were not failures because his department will learn from them.
  
  OK then.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:10am
  - rockape
    
    Can I use that, the next time I get a speeding ticket? I WASNT SPEEDING BECAUSE i WILL LEARN FROM THE FACT I WAS GOING TOO FAST!
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:57am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Similar sort of excuse Ardern uses when Labour mess up. We have learnt from it and will do better.
    I don’t want a government that is learning on the job, I want a government that is ready to govern without all the mistakes and actually knows what its doing and has goals or targets and a plan on how to get there.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:43am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Go and tell that to 53% of Sheeple who are queuing up to vote for Labour. Remember this 53% includes roughly 15%-16% who were supporting National until February this year.
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:00pm
  - Nickc2
    
    If it wasn’t for Cindy waving her hands around when she talks (wagging that kindy teacher finger), I would swear her and Bloomfield would rather be holding hands. Peas of a pod so to speak.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:53am
- Tall Man
  
  Wait until someone independent reviews this covid stupidity.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:33am
Loddenthinks

Is anyone else getting heartily sick of having this useless (outside New Zealand) neolithic, fragmented, inconsistent, half-made up, never-written-down-before-the-white-man-came-and-taught-them-how-to-do-it maori language rammed down their throats?

Typical piece of BS in Stuff this morning about how Weta Workshop went really wrong when they named the company, and how their name really means something else – no it doesn’t. Everyone knows what a weta is, and the sanctimonious author should try mastering a useful language such as English before lecturing us.

“Unfortunately for Māori and the many similarly aflicted businesses, Weta’s mistake isn’t unique.”

“Cultural appropriation” is complete BS and doesn’t in fact exist. Nobody outside a tiny bubble cares about the maori language and efforts to maori-fy our common usage will be resisted. New Zealand is the name of my country, not owter-roa. That is all.
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September 17, 2020 8:07am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  You might want to check what it says on your passport…
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:09am
  - GazzaW
    
    You might like to correspond with KB in te reo mike. Your posts will continue too be of interest and significance to us all.
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:43am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Why would I need a passport, Milky? Can’t go anywhere, there’s a pandemic on – keep up.
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:53am
    - Inandout
      
      Lodden, and most of the passport office staff have been laid off.
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:11am
  - Jimmy White
    
    I’ll start a GiveALittle page for Mike to use his passport
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:58am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      One way?
      
      11 2
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      September 17, 2020 9:36am
  - Nickc2
    
    I would pay extra for my passport if it didn’t have that crap written in it.
    Going through Customs in Paris (Charles de Gaulle Airport), one of their officials asked me what the Maori stuff said and I had to tell him I didn’t have a clue. Lucky for both of us, he spoke English.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:58am
    - Alex13
      
      It’s a small price to pay to avoid BLM-type phenomena…
      
      2 2
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      September 17, 2020 11:26am
  - BeeJay
    
    Absolutely right, Milky.
    Latest 10 year passport says:
    On the front:
    NEW ZEALAND
    PASSPORT
    (Space)
    URUWHENUA
    AOTEAROA
    On the inside, all details are in English with a Maori translation, displayed as – English/Maori
    All explanation pages are in English with an associated page with a Maori translation!
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:04pm
- igm
  
  Was in town yesterday, went to Countdown . . . never again. If I want te reo I will look for it, not have it rammed down my throat.
  Being an Aussie company maybe they should look at their own backyard, not ours!
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:17am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    “ not have it rammed down my throat”
    
    That sums it up for me. I used to be quite interested (but was declined entry to a Maori language course bc I’m the ‘wrong’ race), but when it becomes forced it loses all appeal.
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:59am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Te reo never had any appeal to me, bro’
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:01am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Tell us where the bad man touched you with his te reo?
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:05am
      - wimpston peeeders
        
        in my earholes, raped me with te reo.
        
        6 1
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        September 17, 2020 12:47pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Every time we get told we ‘should’ learn the language, milky.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:46pm
  - Inandout
    
    And seems they are the only supermarket that still has queues. New World being owner operated seem to have the customers’ convenience at heart.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:15am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Weta is the correct spelling of the insect’s name in English.
  I believe Workshop is an English word…
  so it’s perfectly appropriate to use a single language for the name of the Company…..
  
  It’s not Wētā Awheawhe.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:27am
  - septic skeptic
    
    I just ask for consistency. If it is wrong to Anglicise Maori words, then it is wrong to Maorify English. So I guess we need to decide whether we want to move to a hybrid pigeon which involves a bastardization of words from both languages, or go down the bi-lingual route where we say everything twice. Or maybe just accept that English is near universal in NZ and Maori can fit in just like Mandarin, Dutch and all the other minority languages spoken here.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:05am
- kowtow
  
  How can they claim it’s wrongly spelled when there’s no spelling in Maori . Spelling Maori is a cultural appropriation . Goose gander.
  Macrons are also a new invention and cultural appropriation by Maori language activists .
  
  BTW , last night on the TV3 social engineering report Mike McRoberts instructs that if you really want to get behind Maori Language you must embrace maori values , no thanks, stick to reading an autocue and stop being an autocrat.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:31am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I am not going to start practicing infanticide so I can embrace [Deleted – keep your prejudices to yourself]
    
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    December 17, 2018 8:42am
    - Jimmy White
      
      Finger crunching Good!
      
      6 2
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      September 17, 2020 8:59am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      My prejudices?
      
      Your prejudice trumps my prejudice by the mere deletion and, your ability to delete anything you ‘don’t like’
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:04am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Interesting, all Maori values or just the less violent, misogynistic ones?
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:04am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      My comment was [mod]ed for mentioning maori and infanticide in the same sentence
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:06am
  - Nickc2
    
    Agree! Maori never had a written language, Macrons or not!
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:04am
- wimpston peeeders
  
  totally agree, its sickening the amount of wokeness involved in this crap. sad thing is the more “progressive” we become the more we pander and tolerate this bullshit.
  
  colinization and forcing a culture to adopt another language was bad according to them… yet here they are repeating that behaviour that was so bad and terrible in an attempt to reverse history.
  can we claim oppression and make treaty claims against maori in a decade or 2?
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:36am
- Unity
  
  You and I are on the exact same page Loddenthinks!! I’m totally fed up with the whole Maori thing and it’s not because I’m racist but because I firmly believe that we are all New Zealanders and should not be distinguished by or have any special provisions based on race – or gender for that matter. We should treat everyone the same and just give out special treatment based on need – nothing else. There should be no Maori Health Board or Maori anything else.
  
  As for Aotearoa, it’s been obvious for a while that renaming our country was on the horizon. Over my dead body!! I’m a proud New Zealander and wish all those racists (people who want to distinguish things on race) would join the rest of us and get on with life. Absolutely no special provision should be made on race – absolutely none!!
  
  Lastly, the Maori language!! It’s a made-up language these days and I utterly abhor this week. I’m sick to death of Maori being uttered left, right and centre. It’s enough to put anyone off and I’m off big time. The ones spouting it on TV look utter fools. I have no problem if anyone wants to learn the language but they should either learn it at their mother’s breast as all other cultures do, or receive other tuition but do not foist it upon me. It’s a real turn-off and I don’t want to hear it.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:40am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Interesting. Are there any languages, in your opinion, that are not ‘made up’?
    If you don’t want to hear Maori spoken, you might wish to consider moving to another, more mono-cultural, country.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:05am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    “There should be no Maori Health Board or Maori anything else.”
    
    At least not publicly funded. If people want to form a club and pursue cultural and linguistic interests, sure.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:06am
    - Flossie
      
      I don’t know about that. If someone were to start a Whites Only club, privately funded of course, there’d be a huge outcry. There’s no Whites Only rugby teams, or schools etc.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:48am
  - IC5000
    
    Language is a human construct which we make up and give it meaning which is why there are a multitude of words for the same thing. Is understanding this a problem?
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:32am
  - Fletch
    
    Yep, the real purpose of a language to to communicate. In other countries they have citizens who do not speak English, such as in Germany, Japan, China, France, Italy, etc. Places where English really is a second language and it is useful and indeed, needed, to learn the primary language.
    
    Here in NZ, Maori is more of a novelty language. There isn’t anyone who speaks Maori who doesn’t speak English. If people want to learn if for cultural reasons, then I am not against that, but what is the point of learning a language that practically nobody speaks? (At the last census it was 3% who could speak it fluently*). It’s like learning Esperanto or Pig Latin. There are probably more people in the world who speak Klingon than Maori.
    
    * If New Zealand were a village of 100 people, then 3 would speak Maori – https://www.stats.govt.nz/infographics/new-zealand-as-a-village-of-100-people
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:30am
  - Paulus
    
    Renaming Aotearoa New Zealand as our official name is not far away.
    Its already being used in the media particularly in spoken form such as Weather.
    
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    September 17, 2020 1:53pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  Yes, ffs. Certainly, it’s annoying and for some of us it’s almost physically painful when people get language wrong, eg misuse of the apostrophe, “reign” for “rein”, “fuschia” etc. But it’s not a breach of human rights, let alone an existential threat.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:44am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    And all the people spelling ‘lose’ as ‘loose’ these days. Totally different meaning. It seemed to happen quite suddenly and is even affecting older people. Why?
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:09am
    - greybeard
      
      Fast typing and no proof-reading I suspect.
      
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      September 17, 2020 9:21am
      - RalphT
        
        Well if Stuff and the Herald can’t be bothered with proofreading why should we?
        
        7 2
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        September 17, 2020 10:53am
      - Flossie
        
        My favourite “pacific” for “specific”… hardly fast typing problem there!
        
        3 1
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        September 17, 2020 11:49am
    - Fletch
      
      It’s still annoying for me to read about people watching a “TV program”, when it should be programme. A program is computer software. These days the two seem to be used interchangeably.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:34am
    - Ed Snack
      
      One that “bugs” me is using rouge for rogue, as in “going rouge”. Seems pretty common in some areas, and for some reason just grates (or maybe just greats ?).
      
      6 1
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      September 17, 2020 12:23pm
  - Inandout
    
    AR, the Readers Digest used to have a section devoted to mis-spelled or mis-used words. Word check is almost always US slanted.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:21am
- cas
  
  I thought I might start up a Reclaim the English Language week. Then people would have to pronounce words correctly including the following:
  Vulnerable, something, jeopardise, been, community, poverty, anything else with a t near the end. I could go on and on……… If they didn’t then no talk time for them.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:04am
  - Sacha
    
    Talking of pronunciation: there is a radio commercial about ‘air care’. When I first heard it I thought air con/heat pumps/warm dry houses etc and didn’t listen. THEN I heard registered nurse, and listened properly.
    It’s about EAR CARE – you can get your ears tended to by a registered nurse . . . . . .
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:49am
  - dave_c_
    
    Gisbin is the one that gets up my nose !
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:39am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Best mistakenly called Gibson, along with Whanagarei and Invercragill. Spelling can be hard !
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:25pm
      - Paulus
        
        Twenny is my bete noir particularly the weather dollies.
        
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        September 17, 2020 1:55pm
  - namron
    
    Cas, good idea. “Reclaim the English Language Week” should start with serious work on jacinda!
    I have a list of over 30 words that she mangles. Having our most prominent citizen causing NZers embarrassment with her inability to speak our language [ also spoken by 2 billion people globally] is cringe making.
    I prefer a Prime Minister who does not embarrass me every time she opens her mouth.
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:55pm
- Geoff1
  
  Loddenthinks – Hēmi Kelly, a lecturer in Te Ara Poutama, the faculty of Maori Studies at AUT, the correct way to spell weta, as in the insect, is with a macron on the ē and the ā to elongate the vowel sounds. Like weh-taa.
  The macron is an important part of the written Māori language, improving pronunciation and making meanings clear.
  How so?
  Maori didn’t have a written language – well not until (those to be despised) colonisers arrived, who incidentally wrote it down as it sounded.
  Macron – Noun – borrowed from Greek makrón, neuter of makrós “long (in time)”
  So what is the issue for Maori?
  They didn’t have their own written language and the use of the macron could be cultural (language) misappropriation.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:06am
  - Inandout
    
    Geoff, I first visited the touristy walks around Rotorua about 30 years ago, and even back then the signs had the ‘s’ blanked out from Maoris. Those of us who can remember old Maori speakers will note ‘f’ was not used in ‘Whangarei’. The spoken Maori back then was a joy to behold, so soft and clear; not harsh and brutal like MSM-speak.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:28am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Using a macron where a long vowel is knowingly implied is a sign of ignorance.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:04am
  - Pharmachick
    
    My last favourite is the New Yorker, they use the archaic [in English] umlaut when there are two vowels together to show the change in pronounciation e.g. coöperation. Largely superseded by a dash these days, but it’s special when literary types do it. I’m normally a stickler for grammar (espcially apostrophes) but that’s too much even for me.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:52am
- graham
  
  The article is just one more example of how precious some people get about the “correct” use of Maori; if you’re brave enough to even try to pronounce a Maori word you’re almost guaranteed to get howled at for mispronunciation, and woe betide you if you are determined by some guardian of the language to be guilty of ‘cultural appropriation’.
  
  Is it any wonder that many people just don’t even bother trying, when they know they’ll be criticised and picked apart for every little mistake they make?
  
  I agree Loddenthinks, the author does come across as being quite sanctimonious, preaching on some details which are frankly just stupid. For example; they criticise Coca Cola for using signs that read: “Kia ora, mate”, stating that “mate” is the te reo Māori word for “death” or “dead”.
  
  To me, and most reasonably intelligent people I would wager, it is staggeringly obvious that it’s meant to be read as “Gidday mate”, “Hello friend”, “Greetings cuz”, “Kia ora bro” – pick whatever makes sense. It’s a perfectly logical and reasonable melding of Maori and English. So is the author trying to claim that if you start a phrase in Maori, every word thereafter should be Maori? Better tell those people who like to speak mostly in English but drop in a few Maori phrases here and there (“Let’s go down the pub and grab some kai, bro.”)
  
  If the people who claim they are trying to keep the Maori language alive truly want to succeed, they should stop being so damn precious. When we are told that we absolutely HAVE TO pronounce place names completely correctly, when we are accused of being racist or ignorant or white supremacists if we get it wrong – is it any wonder that most of just throw our hands in the air and say, “F**k it; if you’re going to make it so difficult, I just can’t be bothered.”
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:08am
  - Unity
    
    Agreed Graham but what do we do today when the pronunciation of Maori words has changed from how they were pronounced long ago and in times when the Maori people were Stone Age people. I grew up with Maori – or should I say a certain tribe of Maori. Long ago New Zealand was a mish mash of tribes from all over the Pacific and beyond. They were not a cohesive race of people and their language was pronounced differently in different areas. When the language was written down by the white man, they listened very carefully and wrote it how it sounded. Now, I came from the Bay of Plenty and ‘wh’ was pronounced (wh as in where) and not an ‘f’. ‘Au’ (in Tauranga, Taupo, Rau Rimu) was pronounced ‘ow’. Now they have changed the ‘wh’ to an ‘f’ which I refuse to use – and the ‘au’ as a long ‘o’ and have even added macrons. If Whakatane was pronounced as Fakatane at the time it would have been written with an ‘f’ because the English alphabet was used.
    
    Also, the reason I say it is a made-up language is because they were a Stone Age people with very little so their language was very basic. They didn’t even have the wheel. So whereas all languages evolve over time, Maori has had to be made-up because they didn’t have words for the most basic things other people had at the time, so they had to invent words supposedly in Maori. No wonder many older Maori can’t understand much of what is said in Maori today.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:50am
  - Inandout
    
    graham, on that subject I urge anyone who can get hold of a book named ‘New Zealand Slang’ ‘A dictionary of colloquialisms’ printed around 1935, to read it. There is an index on ‘Pidgin English’ with English meanings, and it is amazing how many of these words now appear in te reo. It has a section on how NZ accents appeared and in general is a wealth of knowledge on how the Maori language evolved.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:38am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    I used to get pillows and pies at Paekok. It reeks how they have pukerood the the language. Now It’s Piekarkaruhreekie.
    Maori are also tribal so they are also distinguished by their separate dialects.
    Are we now to have an extension of that so that we have to use the variant belonging to the tribal area we reside in?
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:13am
    - Inandout
      
      KO, like Tariana Turia says ‘waanow’ for whanau, and ‘worrey’ for whare. It is Wanganui dialect.
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:37am
    - Pharmachick
      
      I grew up in plan we still call “Toke”
      
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      September 17, 2020 11:54am
      - Pharmachick
        
        *place
        
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        September 17, 2020 11:54am
- Ford Prefect
  
  Ive been having this conversation with Mrs P. She’s bilingual and can pick up other languages amazingly easily. We toured Europe and she was like a walking translating machine no matter which country we went to.
  
  Now, we’ve both grown up in this country, where billions have been spent on ramming Maori down our throats.
  
  Yet neither of us can say
  
  – Hello my name is Ford
  – How are you
  – any of the days of the week or months of the year
  – or even form a simple sentence
  
  What has the point been??
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:40am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Shush, Loddenthinks. Your disrespectful thoughts will be reported as hate speech to the Pirihimana under article 27 of Te Tiriti.
  
  PS. To be fair to Stuff, they have mastered the spelling of ‘afflicted’.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:02am
artemisia

Thomas Coughlan in Stuff today – it’s not just about numbers.

The scary stuff – the stuff that should be keeping our politicians up at night – isn’t what’s happening on the government’s books: it’s the stuff happening on the balance sheets of individuals and households.

100% agree. Behind every new benefit or underemployment is a household worried sick about how to pay the rent, mortgage, rates, power, school fees, HP, tax. And sorting out how to cancel daycare, internet, cable TV, gym fees etc etc etc.

Politicians and the rest of us fortunate enough to remain OK need to stay focused on these households and individuals. Like now.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300109230/election-2020-high-unemployment-high-house-prices-and-a-social-crisis-on-the-books
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September 17, 2020 8:09am
Maggy Wassilieff

Dr Ashley Bloomfield in denial about the lousy job the Min of Health has been doing with supporting its vaccination programmes.

“I don’t think the public was misled at all,” Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says.

“I myself didn’t see emails about flu distribution issues before we announced the campaign. We were keen to get the campaign underway; we had the vaccine and we wanted to start vaccinating people.”

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-reports-outline-major-issues-nzs-recent-vaccination-rollouts
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September 17, 2020 8:11am
- MT_Tinman
  
  “I don’t think the public was misled at all,”
  
  The main thing the public has been misled about is the status of Labour party activist Ashley Bloomfield!
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:21am
  - lifesgood
    
    Poor old Ashley, he sold his soul to the devil. He is the perfect example of “He who pays the piper calls the tune”. He is a disgrace to himself.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:58am
- Classic Liberal
  
  “We were keen”. They, that should be Labour’s new campaign slogan! Sums them up.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:13am
- Nickc2
  
  Perhaps Dr Ashley is protecting his Christmas bonus?
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:18am
KevO'Brien

Interferearoa? Not if you want to stay afloat.
When will the woke learn they are not in Kansas anymore?
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September 17, 2020 8:14am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Kansas is not a ‘woke’ place at all. In fact, it is a flat hell-hole in the heart of Jesusland, home to swarms of fundie nutcases.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:18am
  - amospicton
    
    Oh dear MM – and San Francisco is a liberal hell-hole, home to swarms of woke nutcases????
    
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    September 17, 2020 8:47am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      If you say so. I’d know where I’d rather live, although that’s a moot point, as I already live in the finest part of the finest country in the world.
      
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      September 17, 2020 9:07am
      - GazzaW
        
        And that would have to be New Zealand eh mikey?
        
        Or do you mean Aotearoa?
        
        6 0
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        September 17, 2020 10:20am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Personally, I think I be a bit wary of any place that has a dedicated app available to enable users to avoid the latest deposit of human ordure on the streets. And there ain’t one for Kansas.
        
        5 1
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        September 17, 2020 12:30pm
    - IC5000
      
      San Fran also generates a huge amount of America’s wealth and tech innovations. Kansas not so much.
      
      2 12
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      September 17, 2020 10:35am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      When I told an ex-pat American….years ago…that I was going to LA and San Francisco.
      He said
      “California is full of fruits and nuts and even the weather is a little queer”
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:42am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Is Robbo only feigning his role as the Wizard of Australsia?
    
    14 1
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    September 17, 2020 8:49am
  - Flossie
    
    You must be a barrel of laughs to live with mm. Every post of yours is just so…. disagreeable.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:55am
Paulus Gnome

Another day, another lie.

Can’t wait . . .
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September 17, 2020 8:18am
- wimpston peeeders
  
  only one lie?
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:42am
Maggie Pie

WARNING! WARNING!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiA9O_fWoAApeKi?format=jpg&name=900×900

(What did thingamajig call him again?)
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September 17, 2020 8:18am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Wanker?
  
  29 1
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  September 17, 2020 8:23am
  - Nickc2
    
    a left handed (leaning) one.
    
    4 0
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    September 17, 2020 11:25am
- mark15
  
  I’ve met him.I see they airbrushed away the drool around his mouth.
  
  26 2
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  September 17, 2020 8:25am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Ah yes, “sanctimonious little creep” wasn’t it?
  
  He hasn’t aged at all well, has he?
  
  26 1
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  September 17, 2020 8:27am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    No, he used to be ok looking…
    
    5 3
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    September 17, 2020 9:15am
- Tall Man
  
  I thought they were taking the “worm” out of the debates ……….
  
  27 1
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  September 17, 2020 8:35am
- Lance
  
  So the woke dingbats foamed at the mouth over Hosking running the last debates. Claiming he was biased.
  So they approve of “the Ponsonby Communist”.
  Paul Holmes had his moments like summing up Campbell with this quote.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:59am
- RW Capitalist
  
  The Cathy Crowley of moderation in debates
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nu6VZ9DeVc
  Uses the word “terrorism” once in the rose garden speech, stops talking about Benghazi specifically at 3:30min, used word Terrorism, just after referring to 911 (anniversary the day before) up till 4:15min.
  Refers to Benghazi as an attack, all through this.
  Cathy Crowley LIED in defense of Obama, she was the moderator in the debate and it is NOT her job to include herself…..wait for Campbell to do the same.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:38am
G152

I was reliably informed that 3% of NZers speak Maori..
So why should I (or any others) give up on the language spoken by and understood by and the foundation of the civilisation of 97% of us.
A language spoken by and understood throughout the world.
A language of science, art and reason.
And why aren’t the other Pacifica languages given their TV channel and weeks of immersion ?????
Are they also not as valuable to their speakers ????
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September 17, 2020 8:19am
- wimpston peeeders
  
  97% Of us have moved with the times and used common sense.
  
  In reality the 3% Probably represents the true maori population of nz and not this watered down 1/16th of fuck all maori bloodlines. when maori bloodlines/genes is the minority of genetic makeup im sorry but youre not maori and youre not special.
  I truly wonder what some of these folk think internally, imagine having only 5% maori in ya 95% european and you blame white man and colinization for your shitty life choices… does your left foot (5% maori) hate the other 95% euro part of you???
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:50am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Most of the Pasifika languages are much more useful to their speakers tan maori is, for the simple reason that it is their main language in their home islands.
  
  I don;t know about giving equal or any airtime in the mainstream for any language other than English.
  
  And don’t get me started on the hilarious and obviously made-up “sign-language” interpreters trotted out at pressers and announcements. I honestly though the guy was having a seizure. If this were in any way useful (and by that I mean of practical benefit, not useful in the sense that it adds to the cloud of smug surrounding the woke), we’d see articles about how it opened up a whole new world of communication to deaf people. The fact there are none shows how pointless it is.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:59am
- Classic Liberal
  
  “ And why aren’t the other Pacifica languages given their TV channel and weeks of immersion ?????”
  
  Please don’t give them ideas for further waste of public funding!
  
  9 1
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  September 17, 2020 9:18am
  - Paulus
    
    The language of the Cook Islands is Cook Island Maori – why, because that is where the Aotearoa New Zealander came from.
    
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    September 17, 2020 2:03pm
MT_Tinman

Point of Order points out that the carpet-bagging no-hoper local communist is now promising Christchurch a movie industry at tax-payer expense (of course).

This time she could have a point.

There is, after all several expanses of inner-city land that would be perfect for filming the after-the-event scenes for disaster movies on sites the Tax-payer has already subsidised for the building of sports facilities, facilities the f%#king council have been too f%#king incompetent to build.
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September 17, 2020 8:19am
KevO'Brien

Dr Li-Meng Yan speaks plainly of act of war by China:https://creativedestructionmedia.com/news/2020/09/16/chinese-virologist-dr-li-meng-yan-confirms-covid-19-created-in-lab-and-intentionally-released-this-is-an-act-of-war/
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September 17, 2020 8:19am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Given how damaging it was to Wuhan, and how unprepared they were for it, not to mention ongoing impacts to Chinese economy, all of which would be very predictable if they knew how the virus worked there is no way it was deliberate release. Most likely a lab accident.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:09am
  - Alex13
    
    “…if they knew how the virus worked…” They may have not known that exactly. Unintended consequences… Or, alternatively, they (the Chinese communists) didn’t care much about their own population and their own economy as long as the release allowed them to achieve their geopolitical ambitions.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:40am
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    Agreed, but lying to the world about it and permitting international flights out of Wuhan while isolating the city from the rest of China, taken as a whole, looks like an opportunistic hostile act.
    
    2 2
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    September 17, 2020 12:39pm
- Ed Snack
  
  I think the conclusion that the virus was a result of intentional mutation is far stronger than that it was released deliberately. Once it was in the wild it is possible (though just IMHO relatively unlikely) that the Chinese government “encouraged” its spread worldwide so they were not the only sufferers.
  
  The genetic manipulation is potentially demonstrable through statistical analysis of the pattern of mutations and in the sudden gain of function to infect humans. And note that no interim host has been positively identified unlike for SARS and MERS. The original “guess”, Pangolins is not tenable as the specificity of the binding domain appears to preclude this.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:36pm
- NoCash
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/09/chinese-virologist-s-claim-covid-19-is-artificial-slammed-by-experts.html
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:46pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Scientific American loses the plot…

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-9-11-scientific-american-goes-anti-science
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September 17, 2020 8:20am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  That’s quite a shitty article really. I’m surprised you placed any credence in its rantings.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:23am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Do you prefer the roaming pangolins?
    
    19 2
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    September 17, 2020 8:52am
- CJames
  
  It has been known for years Maggy by those that know the subject that the Scientific part of the name has long gone. Now that realisation is seeping out further. But we still get people here quoting it as authoritive. New Scientist went the same way.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:26am
  - G152
    
    Scientific American sold out in the late 1980s.
    I stopped my subscription as it became little more than a platform for cultist beliefs
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:28am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Same, and although the article quoted by Maggie is a bit polemical, in gist it is correct. The concept of a consensus may be valuable in deciding practical matters but quite simply cannot override the idea falsification as the foundation of science.
      
      Like Einstein said when Hitler assembled over a hundred “Aryan” physicists to claim that Einstein’s theories were wrong – “If I was wrong you’d only need one…”
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:45pm
- CJames
  
  I note that the article quotes diapprovingly a man talking about science studies contradicting Popper.
  Somewhere around in the Interblog, some academian said a quote to the effect that any science that puts “science” in its name isn’t science and any university field collectivised with “studies” isn’t academic. But then, the quoter was probably an old white male in a boring field like physics. Nobel prizes don’t count for much unless they are fake Peace ones.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:50am
- KevO'Brien
  
  They lost it many years ago.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:51am
- rangitoto
  
  I have about thirty years of SA. I cancelled my subscription some years ago when they lost the plot. Used to be a great magazine. Particularly enjoyed the Martin Gardner column back in the day.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:55am
  - Ed Snack
    
    That goes back a bit ! The last Gardiner puzzles in SA appeared around 1985 or so.
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:47pm
    - rangitoto
      
      Yep. I started subscribing in 1974.
      
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      September 17, 2020 1:46pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  An excellent article, despite what closed-minded curmudgeons may think. He’s wrong about the sun rising of course, it neither rises nor sets. That aside, he makes some very valid points, that only serve to highlight just how dishonest and corrupt many members of the scientific community are when it comes to climate change.
  
  Whether the cause is hubris, mob mentality, a refusal to accept the possibility of being wrong, or the most likely one – the drying up of plentiful funding for “research” is unclear.
  
  The article also led me, by way of the comments to a recent peer-reviewed article that provides proof that CO2 does NOT cause global warming. How inconvenient.
  
  http://www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/se/article/view/3210/3249
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:30am
thirteenstars

At time of writing, the state of Victoria is facing perhaps the developed world’s most oppressive and mean-spirited overreaction from the government in response the COVID virus. Police in riot gear are forcefully clearing out farmers markets, harassing elderly women for sitting on a park bench, snatching infants in strollers from fathers, and fining people for catching a bus without a ‘work permit.

https://fee.org/articles/australias-violent-enforcement-of-lockdowns-sparks-memories-of-the-eureka-rebellion
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September 17, 2020 8:31am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I see Daniel Andrews’ credibility has been shot to pieces – again. He claimed there had been no offer of Australian Defence Force personnel to Victoria. But Scott Morrison’s office has released an email from Morrison to Andrews from several months ago offering Victoria the full support of the ADF.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:05am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Betta watch Cinders as this should have appeal for commo control technique. We had the first part. We can’t afford her re-selection.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:20am
Tony Stuart

In all the comment about PREFU yesterday with its “rivers of red” (Stuff headline), this story snuck through:

Confusion, lack of leadership and poor vaccine distribution. Those are some of the themes laid bare in two critical reports on the Health Ministry’s measles and influenza campaigns.

A review of flu vaccine distribution chains found “extreme frustration at the inefficiencies”.

It found “vulnerable communities”, including Māori and Pasifika “miss out on funded vaccinations”.

And a separate report into measles was even more scathing. It found public health was “understaffed” and providers “ran out of vaccine stock” during last year’s outbreak. And those in charge lacked training in how to manage such a crisis.

Serious shortcomings in our key vaccination campaigns have been exposed in two reports.

Today, a report on last year’s measles outbreak in February acknowledged the frustrations of medical staff and patients in detail. It found in February Auckland Regional Public Health was “understaffed” and “lacked training in outbreak management”.

By May, public health “ran out of resources” to contact-trace all the infected. In July, only 9000 doses of 40,000 had been distributed in Auckland and in September, several providers “ran out of stock”.

There was confusion – or in the words of the report “everybody and nobody was responsible for the overall control of the outbreak”.

There’s disagreement between health experts over how bad the reports are.

“I don’t think the reports are scathing,” Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield responded.

“The report is damning in that respect,” says University of Auckland vaccinologist and Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/09/two-critical-reports-into-ministry-of-health-s-measles-and-influenza-campaigns.html

The Measles report is particularly damning. The disease wasn’t controlled in New Zealand, and as a consequence spread to the Pacific Islands, where dozens of children died.

Before the Measles outbreak, responsibility for vaccines was delegated to Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. Ultimately, the buck for this mismanagement rests with her.

And unsurprisingly, this story was authored by Newshub’s Michael Morrah, who has been a beacon of light for the profession of journalism; well done, as without your input Mike, the Government would simply sweep this under the carpet with all the other stuff-ups and embarrassments.
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September 17, 2020 8:31am
- Swifty
  
  When Key and English were in the hot-seat, it seemed that hardly a week went by without the Greens calling for a National Minister’s resignation or sacking for some inevitably minor mistake or indiscretion.
  
  I guess therefore we’ll see JAG’s resignation any day now? Because, let’s face it, this is no minor indiscretion. People have died.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:47am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Indeed Swifty. More than eighty children in Samoa died after transmission of the disease from New Zealand. In these times, no one should die from the measles, especially when it can be prevented by vaccination.
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:21am
- rangitoto
  
  It’s all Cindy’s fault.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:52am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Also didn’t National have a target of 95% that was achieved…direction and targeted success.
  Labour labeled the targets as draconian, supported by the nurses union and removed them.
  Immunizations fell to 87% followed quickly by an outbreak….that you alluded to.
  So the outbreak and Samoan deaths are clearly the fault of the CoL.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:19am
kowtow

Tova O’Brien used the adjective “godawful” on the news last night to describe the govt accounts.
They might be , but surely rough American slang ?
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September 17, 2020 8:33am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Many would argue that Tova O’Brien is herself a “Godawful” journlaist…
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:06am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Seems she offends all sides at different times, an equal opportunities mud-slinger. So probably not too bad all-in-all.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:12am
WaynelSexton

A funny cartoon on why you shouldn’t blame the leprechauns for owning all the banks and media.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0lN7Ej0YpK8&t=4s
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September 17, 2020 8:38am
Maggie Pie

Heard Mike saying “…..how much he was looking forward to having CNN Travel Reporter Richard Quest on the Breakfast Show next week”.

My partner just reminded me this was the same guy arrested in NY Central Park with drugs in his pocket and a rope tied to his balls…..LOL 😛

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-quest-cnn-reporte_n_97466
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September 17, 2020 8:48am
- wimpston peeeders
  
  sounds like he knows how to have a good time on his own.
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:52am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Disgusting isn’t it.
    In fact i wonder if MH is even aware of the situation?
    Bet Katie would be horrified…
    
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    September 17, 2020 9:41am
    - fernglas
      
      Quest is English. That sort of thing is de rigeur amongst that lot.
      
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      September 17, 2020 10:31am
- Rich Prick
  
  A sex toy in his boot? The left are an amusingly weird bunch.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:40am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Maybe the butt-plug fell out 😀
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:51am
Raphael

Two telling comments made yesterday “In a Harris Administration, with Joe Biden…” (Kamala Harris)
and “in a Harris-Biden administration…” (Joe Biden)

Are they testing the waters for the bait-and-switch?
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September 17, 2020 8:55am
- kowtow
  
  Not highlighted by the TDS media though , whereas had it been the Evil Orange Man …….
  
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  September 17, 2020 8:59am
- Jimmy White
  
  Not a switch. Biden unfit and retires. Harris becomes President and Pelosi takes over the duties of VP. Note: not called VP but for all intents and purposes is.
  When Harris is impeached for being to left, (if Dems hold both houses ) Pelosi becomes President and Chuck Grassley (Rep) takes over the duties of VP.
  Be afraid very afraid.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:12am
  - Ed Snack
    
    I think that there is a requirement to appoint a VP, so Pelosi can’t be just “acting VP”. However it does require approval by both Senate and Congress, so if a VP nominee can’t get that I guess the office remains vacant until someone can get that approval or a new presidential election is held.
    
    Only been invoked for Ford to become VP when Agnew resigned, and then to appoint Rockefeller as VP to Ford when Nixon resigned. Both times the nominees were approved fairly easily, which might not be the case today.
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:56pm
GazzaW

No mention was made by Bloomfield that 100,000 doses of the flu vaccine were deficient in that they offered protection against only 50% of the flu strains prevalent in NZ this winter. How did this happen JAG or was it just another case of your lack of attention to detail?
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September 17, 2020 8:59am
- Jimmy White
  
  Brought on the cheap
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:15am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Made in Vietnam?
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:23am
- Ed Snack
  
  Be fair, that is not uncommon especially for NZ as the vaccine production starts 6 months before distribution and so an educated guess has to be made as to what specific strains of the flu virus will be prevalent in the future. Easy to get this “guess” wrong.
  
  I think in the past the flu vaccine has been judged to have been between 30-80% effective in different years. So 50% is pretty much in line with a not very good but not very bad guess.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:59pm
Rusty

Ashley Bloomfield stated this covid-19 pandemic is like the cold war era.

But who are the good guys and the commies in this country?
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September 17, 2020 9:03am
- Jimmy White
  
  A Good Question…. Another: who was the leader of the young communists?
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:17am
- Catgurl13
  
  Ashley also stated that the wearing of masks initially wasn’t proven to stop the virus spreading. That they weren’t effect so weren’t being made mandatory by the govt…….oh wait!!!……
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:28am
Catgurl13

Alfred Ngaro and his band of little helpers were distracting drivers at a main roundabout in West Auckland this morning waving Nat signs around. I gave him a thumbs down as I past him and he did see me lol. I would not vote for him,he is an out of touch smarmy twat. Saw him on question time with David Seymour talking about the end of life choice referendum. He seemed quite mis informed and was against it. He didn’t seem to understand the many stages of approval should a person wish to do this with their own life and that it is about leaving this world while suffering terminal illness on their own terms. David made him look really silly actually.David spoke very well and made sense,Alfred looked a bit like a fool. Not sure by the Nats even have him in their team?. He isn’t doing them any favours. Two ticks yellow for me this election.
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September 17, 2020 9:27am
- Tall Man
  
  cindy says “thanks “.
  
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  September 17, 2020 9:40am
  - Catgurl13
    
    Your comment makes no sense as I’m voting for act with both votes.
    
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    September 17, 2020 10:00am
    - RJ
      
      Maybe you shouldn’t be voting if you can’t understand what tall man said
      
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      September 17, 2020 12:18pm
- fernglas
  
  Ngaro is quite clearly opposed to the central concept of the bill on religious grounds, but instead chooses to frame his opposition in terms of it somehow discriminating against Maori. If your opposition is faith based, at least have the guts to say so.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:30am
- RJ
  
  Nothing wrong with them being out campaigning at the roundabout. Sounds more like you just want to find reasons to whinge about him. Good on him for standing against this, that is his right, just as it is others right to support it. And if a politician doesn’t understand this completely then that is a sure sign that many in the community won’t either.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:22pm
Chris Morgan

Brilliant piece from Alan Jones. Very relevant here.
https://youtu.be/kGBEaYEtiys
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September 17, 2020 10:02am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Such a shame he had to resign to get his point across.
  The Australian Prime Minister cannot visit Queensland without 14 days quarantine because he is travelling from a place that has been covid free for 2 months, yet the children of the AFL and their minders can fly out of Melbourne and swan around the pool.
  Lockup Lockdown Cindy would fit in so well around this table of morons.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:44am
  - tf78
    
    Greg, Allan Jones has his own show on Sky 85 every night at 10 pm our time. (After Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt) Worth staying awake for.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:52am
  - Flossie
    
    Well Queensland is also run by a bossy Labor woman. Until the soon to be election anyway.
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:10pm
  - MCos
    
    “The Australian Prime Minister cannot visit Queensland without 14 days quarantine“
    
    That’s the funniest thing I’ve read today!
    You’d think the people up there would take to the streets demanding to see their glorious leader!
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:45pm
RW Capitalist

When the govt. (loose term)announced the unemployment numbers a few weeks ago….they said unemployment had gone down to 4% from 4.2% (pre covid)….BUT had been telling us 1000 people per day up to the end of July, were losing their job.
So in 4 months 120 days 120 000 NEW unemployed.
118000 before covid
So unemployment had doubled under covid (to spite the wage subsidy)
ie end of July 238 000 unemployed approx. 8%
Lie #1
Now they are saying….next yr…unemployment 7.7%, but lost jobs is running at 350 a day, since beginning of August?…their numbers.
So by 1/1/2021
120 days x 350 = 42 000 more by next yr.
Unemployed 118 0000 120 000 42 000 =
280 000 approx 9%
NOT taking into account
Loss of wage subsidy
Air NZ still saying they will lay off 1000’s
I know several large overseas owned companies that have instructions….NO capital expenditure next year…how many others?
This is a run away train that Labour have no idea how to slow, let alone stop.
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September 17, 2020 10:07am
- Bob
  
  Labour don’t even understand how THEY caused this calamitous runaway train of depression, let alone how to stop it.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:17am
Swifty

Seeing that it’s Maori Language Week, I thought I’d raise a point that’s been on my mind of late, of matters Maori.

Both quite regularly, and quite frequently, I see reference to Maori culture being a ‘warrior culture’. I see this often written by Maori writers and is usually expressed in a context which is approving, to be lauded, is ‘bad-ass’ and with a subtext that it is to be a little feared.

Sometimes, too, I see it used as a bit of an excuse for modern Maori behaving badly – “oh, it’s just their warrior genes coming out….”

I’ve often wondered how you define a ‘warrior culture’? Is a warrior culture a label for any people who regularly scrap with others around them? Is it reserved for those who have centuries of such conflict? Does how regularly or how frequently they scrap have any bearing on it? I just don’t know.

But then I ask if pre-European Maori were ‘warriors’ then compared with who? Compared to when? Compared to where?

If we are to compare, then I would go no further than the Scots. For goodness sake, they’ve got it all over Maori. They’ve an almost constant recorded fighting history for at least the last two thousand years, and a detailed history of roaming all over Europe, and elsewhere, as part of British forces for the majority of the last thousand. And these weren’t just little beach skirmishes or an inter-tribal clash that was all over in 30 minutes – these were full on wars, frequently in overseas territories and lasted months or years and with all the privations, sacrifice, discipline, logistics and organisation that would entail.

Does that make them a warrior culture also? By any measure they have a vastly greater history of warfare and notable martial deeds.

Or in fact is this term to be used only for non-white combatants?

And when a Scot does appear in the NZ courts for belting some bloke behind the lughole in a pub is he too to be excused because of his warrior past? 🙂 Or do we say yes, there was a time when we were as blood-thirsty, lethal and as fearsome as anyone else on the planet, but we’ve moved past that and now wouldn’t hurt a fly.

I’d be interested in the views of others.
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September 17, 2020 10:31am
- KevO'Brien
  
  The Maori warrior culture may be a genetic remnant from ancestral Mongolian Han. They spread out not only through China and into Polynesia but also into Europe.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:28am
  - Jack5
    
    Maori and other Pacific Islanders’ genetic origins go back to the present non-Chinese hill-tribe minorities in Taiwan.
    
    It’s an extremely long-shot to link them to Mongolians.
    
    Han are the main ethnic Chinese. Mongolians in China, and their cousins, the Manchu, are regarded as minorities in China.
    
    If you’re interested in the genetics of East Asians:
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_history_of_East_Asians
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:49am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The Scots have been the foot soldiers for the English for Centuries…Look at the surnames in any Military Cemetery.
  
  Keep the peasants/serfs in near starvation and all their young men will sign up for the King’s shilling.
  
  Works in the USA with poor folks nowadays.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:09pm
  - MCos
    
    The Thai army is huge, particularly as they haven’t been in a war since I don’t know when.
    Every year on a certain day all boys of a certain age report for a medical and a ballot draw and the unlucky one are drafted for two years, and they aren’t the kids of the rich & influential.
    Amusingly some of the potential draftees have had sex changes and are now stunning women. Thailand is very accepting of people who have changed gender, but they still have to put in an appearance and are immediately excused from the draft.
    My step son went along one year, but there were enough volunteers to fill all the positions so there was no ballot.
    I sometimes think one reason for the large army is to Hoover up potential troublemakers. During big street demonstrations some years back there were family members facing off against one another.
    
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    September 17, 2020 12:36pm
    - Jack5
      
      Conscription is the fair and just way to raise a national army. It stops adventures like Iraq, too, because politicians fear the reaction of families to casualties. However, selection and exemptions need to be fair and just.
      
      American poor kids bore the brunt of war in Vietnam, and one of the worst aspects was the conscription of what were brutally called “McNamara’s Morons” – low-IQ conscripts.
      
      In 1966, while exempting university students and professional sportsmen from the draft, McNamara called up men who had failed mental tests and were regarded as too low in intelligence to be soldiers.
      
      McNamara’s declared aim was to call up 100,000 low-IQ men each year.
      
      By the end of the Vietnam war, the McNamara scheme had inducted 320,000 low IQ men into America’s armed services.
      
      Among the troops they were known as McNamara’s Morons or the Moron Corps. In Vietnam, 5478 of them were killed, at a fatality rate three times that of soldiers as a whole.
      
      The story in a 36 minute video:
      
      https://youtu.be/_J2VwFDV4-g
      
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      September 17, 2020 3:52pm
      - Belinda
        
        Thankyou, thart was an interesting video, I had no idea that happened.
        
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        September 17, 2020 9:44pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  Warrior culture: maybe any living with more population than resources and having to fight for survival?
  
  But I hope it’s not really genetic!
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:19pm
I remember when

Reuters
Attorney: Mass killer Brevik to apply for Parole.
He is eligible to seek parole after 10 years of his term: a date he will reach in July 2021.
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September 17, 2020 10:37am
Catgurl13

We have thousands of people on the HNZ waiting lists for houses,yet this govt is letting these people in and giving them a house easily. It’s better getting a house if you are a refugee,than if you are someone living here on a waiting list for years…
https://i.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/marlborough-top-stories/122769654/layering-up-and-feeling-safe-colombian-refugee-familys-first-winter-in-new-home
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September 17, 2020 10:41am
- Paulus
  
  Dare one ask ? – have all those who got special compensation to attend the Christchurch sentencing returned home yet ? – or as I hear how many have applied for special immigration as indicated by Cindy after the time of the shooting and are still here ?
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:14pm
Maggie Pie

Tort i’d share this tweet with the group 😀

‘Black Tarmac and Red Tarmac decide to pop into the Viaduct for a beer. They have just sat down when Green Tarmac comes bursting through the door, demands a large Scotch and then head-butts the barman in the face for absolutely no reason.
Red says to Black, you better watch him, he’s a fucking cycle-path.’
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September 17, 2020 11:03am
Tony Stuart

So, it’s official; New Zealand is in recession. Our GDP fell by 12.2% in the June quarter after a smaller fall in March.

This is the worst quarterly drop in GDP in New Zealand’s history, and there’s really nowhere to hide for the Government. There’s no respite in sight either, as the lockdowns through August and September will adversely affect the September quarter, and with unemployment tipped to rise over the remainder of the year, this recession could be a long one.

Put the stardust aside; voters are going to have to make pragmatic decisions next month, and elect the party which is best equipped to lead us out of recession.
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September 17, 2020 11:08am
- Rich Prick
  
  National must be asking itself “do we really want to?” I hope they do, but understand if they run a mile from Labour’s economic disaster.
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:23am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    National must pick up the reigns. Labour can only worsen the situation.
    ☑️☑️Proven with money, work, health & building☑️☑️
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:32am
  - barnacle bill
    
    As with near every other country in the world RP.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:44am
  - tf78
    
    RP, better for the Nats to take over now than wait and pick up the tatters in 3 years time.
    
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    September 17, 2020 11:56am
- oldfella
  
  But TS, that Jacinda is so kind, and she did a wonderful job of looking after us during the pandemic, and it if wasn’t for her it could have been worse than the Spanish Flu, and do you know she stopped 80,000 of us from dying? Really.
  If she says to trust her to keep looking after us, I think we should. After all she’s a woman, and a mother, and she has the loveliest smile… (SFX of puking noises as I write this…)
  
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  September 17, 2020 11:58am
- ex-golfer
  
  Unfortunately voters in NZ don’t ever make pragmatic or think of whats best for the country.
  NZ voters vote “whats best for me”.
  Small country mentality.
  
  Labour has already started putting out propaganda (ie: lying) that if National is elected there will be cuts of welfare, tax cuts for the rich, more penalties on welfare recipients, cuts in Govt spending. Austerity measures.
  Labour will push fear-mongering – on The AM Show this morning Grant Robertson spent more time talking about what he “thinks” National will do rather than answering direct questions about what he is going to do to fix this mess.
  Their aim is to scare anyone that has found themselves unemployed or in need to Govt support away from National and that only Labour will continue to deliver the support people need.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:44pm
Catgurl13

WTF….this woman knew about her partners dark past,so she knew about his lies on the visa application. She is also 50yrs old but NZ immigration will reconsider her application to stay here?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/300108628/woman-denied-residence-because-her-partner-is-a-rapist-will-get-case-reexamined
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September 17, 2020 11:13am
- MCos
  
  I have some sympathy for this woman. She’s not the one with the criminal convictions.
  Furthermore.
  At her age if she is forced to return to Thailand at her age she’ll likely have a pretty grim future on her own with no husband.
  
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  September 17, 2020 3:59pm
Colville

So we are in recession? how much did we miss depression by?
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September 17, 2020 11:18am
- Tony Stuart
  
  To be classified as a depression, we have to be either in recession for three years i.e. twelve consecutive quarters, or have the economy contract by more than 10% over the course of twelve months. The number at the end of the September quarter (due for release shortly before Christmas) will be telling.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:47pm
  - Colville
    
    according to stats the last 4 quarters have been 0.7, 0.5, -1.4 and -12.2
    
    that is -12.4 ?
    
    Huh?
    
    3 0
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    September 17, 2020 2:23pm
    - MCos
      
      Well depression then.
      Tell that to all the people flocking to the ski fields, propping up the share market, pushing up the house prices.
      Sure certain parts of the economy have fallen on hard times, but it’s certainly not effecting everyone or anything like 50% of everyone.
      The Great Depression was of a different magnitude altogether.
      
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      September 17, 2020 4:07pm
Loddenthinks

For those who still reckon Sweden got it wrong, further evidence of the exact opposite.

Sweden’s GDP grew 0.1% in Q1 2020, against a forecast of a drop of 0.6%, and for Q2 2020 it dropped 8.6%. Compare that with the Euro Zone – a drop of 12.1% or the European Union (-11.9%). Spain crashed 18.5%, Portugal 14.1% and France 13.8%. Even Germany dropped 10.1%.
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September 17, 2020 11:31am
Fletch

Someone from FLI reviews the new sex education curriculum for schools. And yes, it’s as bad as you’d expect.

https://fli.org.nz/2020/09/16/relationships-and-sexuality-guidelines-what-every-concerned-parent-should-know/
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September 17, 2020 11:36am
- wimpston peeeders
  
  the push to indoctorinate children into making mental illnesses normalized.
  
  3 1
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  September 17, 2020 1:25pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  This causes me a lot of concern. Normalising and encouraging gender dysphoria, a mental illness, will never end well. Add in a few thousand mentally-disturbed OPPs (over-programmed parents) and things get really messy for the poor kids.
  
  There are two genders (not counting the statistically minute intersex) – male and female. That’s it. Gender is not a social construct; it’s an inalienable biological certainty. Every single cell in your body is either male or female, there afre no other options, no matter what your socially progressive middle-aged green-voting chardonnay-drinking mum says.
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:24pm
Jack5

The question of lower-marks entry for Maori and ethnic Pacific Islanders at Otago University isn’t restricted to those who want to be doctors.

In a joint statement in the Otago Daily Times yesterday, university leaders stated that preferential entry to dentistry, physiotherapy, and pharmacy is also in what the university calls its Mirror on Society policy. This is set for review next year. Presumably it includes potential caps on present lower-marks entry for Maori and ethnic Pacific Islanders.

Among the points reviewed will be : “How can admissions through Mirror on Society pathways be transparently balanced with all admission pathways within caps set by the Government?”

Some Maori have been arguing against any cap on numbers, or proportions, of Maori and Pacific Islander students allowed entry under lower marks than required of other students.

Yesterday’s statement was under the names of the university vice-chancellor, Harlene Hayne; the pro-vice-chancellor, Paul Brunton; the university director of Maori development, Tuari Potiki; and its “director of Pacific development, Tasileta Teevale.

The four said no changes would be made to health admissions entry this year.

There’s been no suggestion that Maori and Pacific Islander students wouldn’t still be fully equal with other students on non-preferential entry marks levels.

The issue was raised in a university discussion document. A court challenge has been made to the university’s regulations and processes for medical-student admissions.
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September 17, 2020 11:37am
lifesgood

More gutter journalism from the Herald “Man was found with gun shot wounds at an Auckland CBD church” NO, man was found with gun shot wounds IN A CAR in Wyndham Street which just happens to be near the Cathedral.
12 1
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September 17, 2020 11:47am
SmokerGuy

So our GDP has fallen over 12% when the OECD average is only 10%. We’ve been sold on the fact that we are in some sort of privileged position due to our hard lock down. Like everything else this government says, it is complete BS. The way this government approached the COVID is now being shown as the wrong decision and we are now being outshone by Australia. Bet you won’t see any articles fawning over Scott Morrison like you did Ardern a couple of months back.
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September 17, 2020 11:50am
- RJ
  
  Our economy was in the shitter before COVID. This just gives them the ability to pretend it wasn’t and COVID caused it all. While COVID made it worse, it wasn’t great to start with
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:48pm
Fletch

Comedian Jackie Mason (yes, he is still alive) on America, Trump, and living in New York.

If you ask any Democrat why do they hate Trump so much, they answer because of what he did to this country. I ask them, what did he do to this country and they answer, I told you because of what he did to this country. I ask, is there one thing he did that is wrong? Is there something he shouldn’t have done? Name one thing that if you had a choice you would overturn. The taxes, the tax law? Did you make money or did you lose money? If he did anything wrong, why did you take the money, why didn’t you send it back? He opened up trade with Canada, he saved everybody money.

Even the Democrats admit it was a good deal, so much so that they tried to take credit for it after it was passed. Before this whole corona thing, he created less unemployment and higher wages. So what did he do wrong? The economy was the best it’s ever been. So what did the president do that everyone should be cursing him all the time? I’ll tell you what he did wrong. He’s wearing the wrong jacket. He has the wrong hairdo. He has the wrong attitude and you don’t like the colour of his tie. What does your side want from him? A new stylist? You don’t like the way he sounds, get some earplugs, turn off the volume on your TV. You don’t like his attitude? He’s not moving in to live with you! So what’s the problem? We ask them and they always say these nonsense things like he doesn’t sound like a president, he’s not presidential. He doesn’t even look like a president. So don’t look at him! Who told you to look at him? You have a TV that only has one channel? Change the channel if you don’t want to watch him.

Let me ask you, if I give you $3,000 would you care what I look like, what suit I wear, and the way I comb my hair? Would you care about what my attitude is?

Give me bad attitude all you want as long as it comes with a cheque and tax refund. Let me ask you, if you needed to go to the dentist, are you more concerned about the dentist being a good dentist or having a good personality? I’ll take the guy who wrecks my teeth, but is friendly. No! I want the guy who fixes my teeth, and he could have the worst bedside manner of all time. Same thing when I call the plumber, and same thing when I vote for president. Really, how can a Jew not love Trump?

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jackie-masons-new-year-message-this-world-is-run-by-putzes-and-schmucks/
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September 17, 2020 11:51am
- Classic Liberal
  
  “ they always say these nonsense things like he doesn’t sound like a president, he’s not presidential. He doesn’t even look like a president”
  
  Sums it up: Dems are a bunch of elitist snobs who no longer represent the working people.
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:31pm
OTGO

Has anyone else noticed the pile on of Peter Jackson and Weta Workshops lately?
Whats up with that?
16 1
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September 17, 2020 12:16pm
- Lance
  
  I hear from people in the industry that Weta has been a toxic shithole for quite a while. If you don’t play the inner circle games, your career is fucked.
  It just has been running under the radar until now.
  
  I don’t know if PJ is behind this but certainly most of the upper management are.
  
  Weta needs to get it’s shit together and fast because a lot of production is heading to NZ and it won’t be long before alternatives are found. Not because they care about HR issues, but because they want their movies made and if the talent is not at Weta, they will get it where they can.
  I could go on but you get the picture.
  
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  September 17, 2020 12:48pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  He offed Lester. He embarassed Councillors about the shit going down at Shelley Bay.
  
  This will never be forgiven.
  
  Poor old Peter, who slaved to keep his company in NZ and to build an empire that will enrich Wellington is about to get Cancelled, good and hard.
  
  The woke will not abide a successful maverick.
  
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  September 17, 2020 10:37pm
Maggie Pie

This so called ‘recession’ must be a joke, surely?
I see on One Roof that according to ValuationNZ, our house has gone UP 16% in the last year.
LOL!!
5 4
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September 17, 2020 1:02pm
- RJ
  
  That’s not bad for Mangare
  
  3 1
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  September 17, 2020 1:09pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Monjere thank you.
    
    6 1
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    September 17, 2020 1:17pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  Don’t make them think that it’s real money, Maggie, or they’ll want a cut of it with CGT or wealth tax.
  
  Your house value has inflated. That’s not real worth. Your actual house is older and less flash than it was a year ago.
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:34pm
Nookin

What has Jonah Lomu got to do with this? He is dead FFS. Why is his memory tarred by the actions of someone else?
From now on, if any offender is related to a journalist or editor, that connection must be disclosed!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300109057/jonah-lomus-niece-to-appeal-conviction-in-ninety-mile-beach-drug-haul-case
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September 17, 2020 1:04pm
- RJ
  
  His memory isn’t tarred. It is his niece. Nothing wrong with them mentioning that. It’s been mentioned quite a bit since this happened. As for wanting the same with those related to journalists etc, just have to look at Paul Holmes daughter and the problems she had to know that is already done
  
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  September 17, 2020 1:20pm
- MCos
  
  There are thousands of drug convictions in NZ that pass under the radar because the public isn’t interested.
  This one is given prominence because the offender has a relative of note, which is bullshit and not in the public interest.
  Similarly the Labour Party youth camp sex offender, whose conviction wouldn’t have caused a ripple except for his rumoured family relationships, was flogged to death on this forum.
  
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  September 17, 2020 4:30pm
  - RJ
    
    Nope there are not thousands of convictions like this that pass under the radar because this was as the article says the countries largest methamphetamine haul. So it rightful deserves the attention it has got.
    
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    September 17, 2020 7:41pm
Hard Cheese

Ardern spinning figures again:

She said that over the last seven months, there was only a period of six weeks when construction wasn’t happening. After that, there has been “good growth” in the sector.

This was in response to National’s criticism of the Government not allowing construction over the first lockdown.

Construction contributes around $4 billion a quarter to GDP; “only” six weeks is a $2 billion hit to the economy.
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September 17, 2020 1:24pm
cmm

Pissed parents dropping off kids at school are being blamed on the local liquor store.

I call bullshit. People who are pissed in the early morning when they drop their kids off at school are alcoholics.

Alcoholics design their lives around booze. They will get their booze from elsewhere with no problems.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/122791390/boozed-parents-dropping-off-children-at-school-prompts-liquor-store-backlash
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September 17, 2020 1:26pm
- Catgurl13
  
  Exactly it’s a sign the parent has been putting them self first. They have been on the sauce all night till the early hours with little or no sleep. It’s nothing to do with where a booze shop is. It’s a choice to put it in your mouth or not.
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:05pm
- Swifty
  
  Classic misdirection.
  
  There is only one party responsible for this, if true, and it is the parents concerned. Take the kids off them.
  
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  September 17, 2020 2:09pm
namron

Cas, good idea. “Reclaim the English Language Week” should start with serious work on jacinda!
I have a list of over 30 words that she mangles. Having our most prominent citizen causing NZers embarrassment with her inability to speak our language [ also spoken by 2 billion people globally] is cringe making.
I prefer a Prime Minister who does not embarrass me every time she opens her mouth.
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September 17, 2020 1:37pm
krazykiwi

Apparently someone in Melbourne has dobbed in a neighbour for being out of their house for two hours today, while someone else has reported a granny getting some fresh air sitting in a park.

But not to worry. The ever ready Aussie police are here to keep you safe.
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September 17, 2020 1:51pm
adaman

PM breaking her own social distancing rules for a mass selfie. Wonder if the media will write up a story about this. David Seymour in particular or the Nats ought to pick up on this.

https://images.scribblelive.com/2020/9/17/41be5308-8c00-4946-a2d6-65e2ee4cc8a4_800.jpg
7 0
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September 17, 2020 1:54pm
- Nickc2
  
  What’s that line about “It’s different when . . . . . ?”
  
  4 0
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  September 17, 2020 2:34pm
- RJ
  
  Do you think people will care? I doubt it. Judith needs to stop looking so serious, laugh and joke with people.
  
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  September 17, 2020 3:05pm
Critical Thinker

Have we reached peak covid hysteria yet? ?

CDC director: “Masks are better defense against COVID-19 than a vaccine” ?

https://nypost.com/2020/09/16/cdc-director-masks-are-better-defense-against-covid-19-than-vaccine/

Why Speaking English May Spread More Coronavirus Than Other Languages ?

https://covid19data.com/2020/09/08/why-speaking-english-may-spread-more-coronavirus-than-other-languages/
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September 17, 2020 2:10pm
alex Masterley

Has anyone seen the “Plan” the PM keeps talking about. I have looked but havent been a ble to find it reduced to writing (or crayon for that matter).
A collegue who is friendly with Hooton tells me that he, Hooton, has been OIAing to find it but that he is being ignored.
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September 17, 2020 2:43pm
- Nookin
  
  Silly boys.
  It is in the colouring-in book with pictures of fairies and fairy-dust among the flowers
  
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  September 17, 2020 3:39pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The latest “Plan” made available to the public is
  National Action Plan 3.0 – 22 April 2020
  
  The web Page for all the key documents released to the public is dated 15 August…
  
  https://covid19.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/legislation-and-key-documents/
  
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  September 17, 2020 3:45pm
curry4me

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

The CCPs Pals in Wall Street.

The CCP likes to have a lot of influential ‘friends’ in the West.
Diplomats meet with globalist billionaires from Goldman Sachs etc.
The city is also a favoured destination. It’s denizens think their
future lies with China. They think an international RMB might
become a thing. Wall Street, and ‘the city’ are not nationalists.
They like to steer their governments toward what is good for
‘business’, and coincidentally, China. A number of businessmen
with factories have become anti-China since 2017. They became
Fed up with waiting for China to play by the rules. No access
To Chinas Eldorado for them. Sons and daughters of top leaders have
Been employed. Like Hunter Biden for instance.
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September 17, 2020 3:10pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZUntrDXFnA

Final Brexit Battle in Parliament.

The Internal Market Bill has caused chaos. Some say it’ll
break international law in a small way. Others say
it won’t. The government may break the law if
the Fourth Reich does. Naturally, the remoaners have seized
upon this.
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September 17, 2020 3:11pm
Critical Thinker

Subpoenas Finally Authorized For Top “ObamaGate” Coup Conspirators

The US Senate of Homeland Security Committee has finally authorized subpoenas for the following:
Former FBI Director James Comey.
Former CIA Director John Brennan.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Former White House national security adviser Susan Rice.
Former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Former ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
Former FBI director of counterintelligence Bill Priestap.
Former FBI counsel Lisa Page.
Former FBI agent Joe Pientka.
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
DOJ official Bruce Ohr.
FBI case agent Steven Somma.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Teftt.
Former deputy assistant attorney general Tashina Gauhar.
Partisan journalist Sidney Blumenthal.
FBI Informant Stefan Halper.
Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith – whom has already pleaded guilty to making a false statement.

Beyond the Obama administration officials, and the corrupt DOJ and FBI operatives, the Homeland Security Committee also authorized subpoenas to the FBI to produce all records related to the baseless Trump-Russia Collusion investigation.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-homeland-security-committee-authorizes-subpoenas-for-testimony-from-obama-officials-as-part-of-russia-probe

Justice is coming
Enjoy the show ??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh7y_KPeXlo
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September 17, 2020 3:21pm
- rangitoto
  
  Lock them up.
  
  5 1
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  September 17, 2020 3:30pm
- MCos
  
  Read the article thinker.
  
  1 6
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  September 17, 2020 4:36pm
- Fletch
  
  They should call Obama and Biden as well. Their hands are just as dirty.
  
  5 1
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  September 17, 2020 5:09pm
- curry4me
  
  Critical Thinker: Thanks for those links.
  
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  September 17, 2020 7:22pm
ex-golfer

Hot on the heels of spending 9 years in opposition without doing any policy development work, Labour are busy re-announcing most of their 2017 election promises, which they have failed to deliver.
Do they really think we are stupid to not realise they are just regurgitating failed promises of the last election?
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September 17, 2020 3:52pm
- RJ
  
  Short answer, yes. Long answer just look at the trolls they are swallowing all labour’s lies and loving it. So yes there are people stupid enough to vote for their lies
  
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  September 17, 2020 5:21pm
Gravelroad

The more our manipulative, blatantly electioneering media use headlines including the words “Ardern charms” alongside “Collins attacks”, (today on $tuff) the more determined I am to never vote Labour.
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September 17, 2020 4:01pm
Maggie Pie

Currently busy preparing dinner.
Listened to Shaun Plunket on and off this arvo.
Now i have to decide, do i stay on Magic Radio, and listen to Ryan Bridge talking about people shoving a hose in their anus and having others blow into it? Or, do i switch to ZB, where HDPA is interviewing Grant Robinson?

Just saying……
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September 17, 2020 4:55pm
- C J Southern
  
  Tough choice. Perhaps you could book in an after-hours root canal as a better option?
  
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  September 17, 2020 5:02pm
I remember when

Cheap irrigation pivots:
If you are in the market I am informed that the number of wind damaged pivots is increasing quickly.
This wind is going to be costly for a number of dairy farmers.
3 1
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September 17, 2020 5:25pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

When one door closes, another opens.
Other than that it’s a pretty good car
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September 17, 2020 5:35pm

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