About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

October 30, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 30 October 2020

Like this:

Like Loading…

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment272

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (272)

Login to comment or vote

cmm

More hugz in France.
Bugger.
53 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:00am
- igm
  
  What are we going to hear about this disgusting blight on humanity?
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/300145447/three-dead-woman-beheaded-in-knife-attack-at-church-in-nice-france
  
  39 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:07am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Some Muslims are angry (utu?):
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/29/muslims-have-right-to-punish-french-says-malaysias-mahathir
    
    42 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:30am
    - igm
      
      Hope Ardern is taking note of this dangerous mongrel.
      Maybe Little’s “Hate Speech” will accommodate this beast’s views as part of current government narrative.
      
      45 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 8:33am
      - Justitia
        
        So what is “islamophobia”, which Little wants to make a criminal offence, other than a well founded fear of a religion in whose cause so many appalling atrocities have been committed in the 21st century alone, starting with 9/11? Bring on your hate speech laws then, first up will be the Koran which has a demonstrated track record of inciting people to kill. It should be sent to the same place as Tarrant’s “manifesto”.
        
        31 2
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:37am
      - Engelbert Humperdink
        
        Did I miss Ardern’s donning a beret and telling the world she identifies with French victims of terror?
        
        9 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 2:04pm
    - Mike22240
      
      “Mahathir, 95, a respected leader in the Muslim world, said he believed in freedom of expression but it should not be used to insult others.”
      
      Translation – doesn’t understand freedom of expression or simply doesn’t want it.
      
      24 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:36am
      - Deagle
        
        Doesn’t understand the West.
        
        8 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 10:26am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Muslim speak is not freely expressed, it follows from their Book. Anything from that has to be acceptable or tolerated by the parties killed or otherwise affected.
        
        5 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:28am
  - Simon
    
    Its the cannabis and other drugs. The guy will have a history of mental illness and the cannabis pushed him over the edge.
    
    Not unlike the piece of shit who allegedly drowned his 2 year old daughter. It would have probably been the cannabis and meth. Same deal. Its the drugs which they personally choose to use.
    
    12 14
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:45am
    - Justitia
      
      Sorry Simon, the only drug involved is the opiate of Islam.
      
      25 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:25am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Marxist…
        
        2 21
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:36am
      - raven
        
        But, but… I though “They are us”?
        That Islam was peace?
        
        19 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:40am
      - Batman
        
        Compare and contrast NZ, where the Muslim community is generally treated just like everyone else and as New Zealanders after a while. Indeed, “they are us” and all that kinda soppy nonsense.
        
        Then look at France, were other groups are not considered ‘French’ and even the second generation who are born there are not considered to be classically French (i.e. white and big on cheese) so they are ‘othered’ and cast out.
        
        The Frenchness doctrine was always going to fuck up in the modern world. You can’t not adopt new kinds of French people and not expect bad outcomes.
        
        Having said that, beheading a woman and killing two others is truly fucked up and that person deserves to rot in jail until they die.
        
        3 26
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:47am
      - Jack5
        
        Muslims in France: 4.1 million (about 6 per cent of the population). Muslims in NZ: fewer than 60,000 (about 1.2 per cent of the population).
        
        But we have contributed Islamic extremists. Remember Mark John Taylor, the Muslim convert from NZ who wants back into the country after fighting for ISIL?
        
        From the silence of those who were working for his re-entry to NZ, it’s likely Taylor is already back in the country.
        
        It’s also likely some ISIL “wives” or even members have returned to NZ.
        
        Worth re-calling, too, that two Australians (one with joint NZ citizenship) killed by drone while fighting for Al Qaeda in Yemen were, according to parents and Australian security officials, radicalised at Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque.
        
        https://islamicstatewatch.com/2014/07/27/a-kiwi-lads-death-by-drone/
        
        11 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:41am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  In a fucking cathedral no less.
  
  Can you get slash-proof collars for little old ladies to wear to Church, asking for a friend?
  
  32 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:11am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Why treat the outcome?
    
    Forget the collars, issue everyone with a Glock and treat the cause.
    
    25 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:41am
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      A Glock is OK, but I’d rather my ladyfolk could carry the Benellis they already know how to use on clay targets. Practice Maketh Perfect.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 2:06pm
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        Glocks are pretty bulletproof to use (after all they are issued to cops). They are also much easier to carry. A G17 with an 18 round mag, would be very easy for most people to use effectively, and it would certainly spoil the day for your friendly local vibrant cultural enrichment opportunity(PBUH).
        
        Saves on squeegees in Church too.
        
        3 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 5:51pm
- PhilBest
  
  What is happening now, is that PCR tests are detecting virus RNA, which will catch people whose immune system dealt with the virus last week, last month, or six months ago. It doesn’t even represent what we might understand as “re-infection”, certainly not one that is capable of turning into actual illness, let alone death. Once your immune system has its defenses sorted against a given virus or even a whole class of virus, you may well get a dose of the same virus via aerosols or saliva or whatever and then an RNA test will pick it up.
  
  If we tested this intensively for the common cold virus we would find massive numbers of people would test positive without any actual illness occurring. This is actually Immunology 101, the official experts know this, and they are conducting a political terrorist psy-ops program.
  
  Go ahead and say you disagree and there will be a death spike in France to match or exceed the March / April one – but the person who is right gets the credibility points for all time, OK?
  
  28 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:13am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    PCR has a different purpose it is not a testing regime. It is a process geneticists use to enhance minute quantities of DNA. The outputs are recycled and increase each cycle. I understand the process is used in old fingerprint enhancement too.
    Each iteration produces more but is subject to increasing random error occurring , itself being enhanced next time around. The COVID test are being used up to 45 replication cycles. False positives are much more likely than real and increase with the replications.)
    The test is effectively scientific nonsense (aka, a money making fake.)
    
    21 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:40am
    - JackRabbit
      
      So medical experts can’t accurately test for Covid, yet medical experts are claiming they already have vaccines at the testing stage!
      
      17 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:31am
      - covfefe
        
        We can accurately test for it.
        
        1 3
        Report
        October 30, 2020 10:28am
    - Pharmachick
      
      Kev – 45 cycles? Are you sure? Thats very very high.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 10:18am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        That’s is what is being reported from what appear to be reliable sources. They agree it’s too much too.
        
        4 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:31am
    - covfefe
      
      Hmm not really – PCR is an incredible too used now to diagnose many STIs, most causes of gastroenteritis, viral resp infections, TB, etc etc. It just requires correct interpretation – something that I am trained to do and I suspect you are not. False positives are an issue but a lot less common than they used to be with closed systems that are used now. Also depends on how you define ‘FP’s.
      
      4 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 10:26am
      - Pharmachick
        
        Ah, but I am also trained in PCR (and have trained dozens of others from high school students to post docs) and 45 cycles is still very, very high. I suppose they don’t want to miss anything, since they’re not looking for quantitation, just detection.
        
        5 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:40am
      - marcw
        
        I’ve read that in China 35 cycles is the maximum used for considering a test a true positive.
        
        4 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:47am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        I didn’t know of its multiple uses, but appreciate them.
        Any diagnostic procedure that statistically give a false +ve in 1 out of 10 is barely fit for purpose. I am horrified at the reports of the 45 cycle process giving only 1:10 as true. Unfortunately politics is getting in the way of objective science so more info and time is required. There is a suggestion that the tests have been weaponised against us to yield political power. Who knows?
        I am truly an amateur in these disciplinesbut I do have some training in human physiology. I produce a line of herbal medicines for topical application as antiseptics, skin healers, anti-inflammatories, pain killers–get up & go stuff. All the ingredients have been in use for 3,000 years but verified by recent papers as effective.
        
        3 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:55am
      - Pharmachick
        
        To be fair, most research labs do qRT-PCR these days the “q” stands for quantitative – far more accurate and we almost never quantitate beyond the mid 20s cycles, but those are Taqman or Scorpion probes ($). Old school PCR used to go on forever … we had a particularly low abundance protein back in the late 90s and my Supervisor grudgingly let me extend the extension cycles out to 42, but he made me do it repeatedly within and between different samples to make sure I wasn’t amplifying my imagination.
        
        Oh and @Kev you can PCR up nigh on anything that is coded for by DNA (PCR) or RNA (RT-PCR).
        
        4 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 12:15pm
      - Engelbert Humperdink
        
        You’re not the only expert here. And all of us claiming to be experts on the ‘net have the same independent corroboration of our expertise: i.e. Zilch.
        
        1 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 2:08pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        @Englebert – apart from the not insignificant subset of us that have doxxed ourselves repeatedly over the years, but still post under a pseudonym for other reasons 😉
        
        3 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 3:39pm
  - covfefe
    
    There won’t be a massive death spike according to the ‘dry tinder’ theory which I agree with. However, where re-infections have been published, the data are robust. They have sequenced the two viruses and can show enough nucleotide differences to indicate that they are two different infections, just just lingering RNA from the initial infection. Agree re PCR testing over-diagnosing disease (rather than infection). Agree there is mass hysteria – it is a nasty virus but not that nasty. Probably twice as virulent a seasonal influenza. The world has gone mad – led by media, governments, and public health/leftie doctors.
    
    10 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:24am
    - PhilBest
      
      Thanks, Covfefe – but isn’t the immune system generally dealing with the infection regardless of whether it is a different virus? My point was that “infection” does not mean “illness”. Of course there are viruses going around all the time, not being tested for, not causing illness, and not the subject of any worry let alone hysteria. This “plandemic” looks more and more like being based on deliberate exploitation of ignorance of Immunology 101. It is almost as if someone worked out it was possible to weaponize the progress of the latest “common cold” coronavirus to terrorize everyone.
      
      There is one other thing you could take into account; it is “twice as virulent as seasonal influenza” and perhaps twice as deadly for the elderly and people with certain pre-existing conditions; but for most people under 50, and definitely for youth and children, it is much less deadly than seasonal influenza. This is why it is completely plausible to argue that it is a version of the common cold rather than of influenza. The common cold kills on the same pattern as Covid-19, so it is more accurate to say Covid-19 is a “twice as virulent common cold” rather than a twice as virulent seasonal flu.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 2:37pm
- lilman
  
  Son lived in France for 6 years, he always said France was going to end in civil war with the Islamists, he observed and watched as the appeasers folded to a point that people segregated and became of the view the country was a failed experiment.
  
  I would wager he is being proven right.
  
  69 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:16am
  - oob
    
    I would wager he isn’t.
    
    For want of a better term, non-indigenous French people are consigned to live primarily in the banlieues outside the major cities and are seldom seen in small towns and rural areas.
    
    -A lot of France is small towns and rural areas.
    
    -France has a lot of experience containing social disorder to the banlieues.
    
    3 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 11:10am
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      They are not consigned there. They move there to be with their familiar tribes.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 2:09pm
      - oob
        
        I agree that “consigned” isn’t the correct term in some cases but it is absolutely accurate in the majority.
        
        The banlieues are specifically designed for this. They are where almost all of the social housing is built.
        
        1 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 3:58pm
- Scott
  
  This from the Gateway pundit –
  “A woman was beheaded and two others were killed in an Islamist attack in Nice, France on Thursday.
  
  The killer was screaming “Allahu Akbar” when he murdered three people at the Notre-Dame Church in France.”
  
  One wonders whether France will eventually get tired of their multicultural enrichment?
  To other observers importing thousands and thousands of people with a religion that teaches them to hate other people that do not share their religion, is a recipe for disaster.
  
  Sadly that lesson is lost on our current government who are keen to bring in many more refugees, the vast majority from Muslim countries.
  
  https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/three-dead-one-woman-decapitated-muslim-screaming-allahu-akbar-nice-france/
  
  63 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:17am
  - cmm
    
    I’m sure its worth it being able to get authentic kebabs and couscous.
    
    20 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:26am
    - mark15
      
      No,they have the recipe now.
      
      10 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:23am
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      cmm: Professor Spoonley would agree with you, but he would not be being sarcastic, sadly.
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 2:09pm
  - kowtow
    
    ‘One wonders whether France will eventually get tired of their multicultural enrichment?’
    
    ‘Multiculturalism” has been foisted on populations by the Establishment Elites . No one ever got to have a vote or even much of a say on it. So called hate speech laws are designed to keep the Sheeple from bleating too loudly.
    
    The Elites live in segregated guarded housing , their children in the best schools not ever having to worry about future employment or housing themselves . And when the Elites do go out to show they are “of the people” , they are surrounded by their own Praetorian Guards ,so no real danger of them having to put up with what the Proles do.
    
    Meanwhile even the street scape is changed to show how successful ‘multiculturalism’ has been ,London’s diversity barriers for example.
    
    28 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:41am
    - OTGO
      
      Have you not looked out at our own city streetscapes lately?
      I’m seeing lots of Chinese signs and Chinese people buying brand new 200k SUV’s and multi-million dollar houses.
      I never voted for that.
      
      6 12
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:12am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Seriously?
        
        3 14
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:36am
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        You didn’t vote for that. But farmers, small businesses and sheeple of Taranaki voted for it. So move on.
        
        15 3
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:42am
    - Justitia
      
      So how is it a man who supported Jeremy Corbyn and who refused to condemn his anti-Semitism continues to serve as New Zealand’s Human Rights Commissioner, especially now that Corbyn has been suspended from the British Labour Party in the wake of the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/inquiries-and-investigations/investigation-labour-party.
      
      Paul Hunt must step down! I hope David Seymour presses the point, with support from National.
      
      28 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:45am
  - igm
    
    Don’t you know, Muslims stated and gave, Labour their total support in General Election.
    Cannot let go of a voting base, increasing it is even better!
    
    23 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:59am
  - tf78
    
    Scott, I hear SBW is wanting NZ to bring all the remaining Manus Island b…..ds here. They are the worst of the worse apparently.
    
    34 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:03am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Ah, so that’s why SBW says his future is in Aus…
      
      24 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:23am
  - Justitia
    
    @Scott: this government is well aware of what it is doing. But their ideology demands that Western civilization should be smashed and Islam is a handy battering ram. Secondly they pay obeisance to the UN which actively discriminates against Christian refugees in favour of Muslims, not least because most of UNHCR’s camps in the Middle East are run by Muslim gangs. When pressed the government responds, “we can’t discriminate on religious grounds”, which is absolute bollocks – we can take whoever we want be they Christians, Yazidis or Zoroastrians. Sadly National did the same thing.
    
    We have never had a more extreme government and it is only just beginning.
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:32am
- alex Masterley
  
  The expected dividend being paid by the religion of peace.
  
  36 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:32am
  - igm
    
    Ardern will have her minions getting all reference to this disgusting behaviour banned by MSM.
    $50m goes a long way when needed.
    
    22 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:36am
    - tf78
      
      igm – they also got a top up of another $75m.
      
      18 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:04am
- Catgurl13
  
  It was said in whispers that the fire at Notre Dame church was deliberately lit, well I think it’s true as there actually was a threat against it initially as the French police have stated.
  
  28 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:41am
  - igm
    
    This was well and truly swept under the carpet . . . maybe UN know more.
    
    12 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:05am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    There were and still are pictures of a bearded head-cover wearer on an outside balcony of the cathedral just before / near where the fire was set. But they are just as hard too find as the facts of the (almost) unbelievably awful atrocities committed on those of the Bataclan victims who were not killed outright. All hushed up in the cause of diversity-and-let’s-not-have-a-backlash.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 2:12pm
- jon
  
  Any comment from either Ardern or the local Muslim community???
  
  27 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:20am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Let’s keep moving?
    
    16 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:25am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    There never is any adverse comment from the local Muslim community. We can therefore safely infer on these grounds that they overwhelmingly endorse these kinds of acts, and that they are not “us.” They don’t care. And yet we are supposed to denounce and repent for the actions of a non-Muslim against them? Seems inconsistent.
    
    20 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:57am
- rouppe
  
  The Herald states:
  
  The suspected attacker has been identified as Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant who arrived in France from the Italian island of Lampedusa in October.
  
  Essentially, he was an assassin sent to France to do a job. That is an act of war.
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:16am
- Loddenthinks
  
  “Muslims have held protests in several countries and called for a boycott of French goods. ”
  
  Come on Abdul, you can do better than simply boycotting French goods. Why not boycott the entire country and fuck off back to whatever shithole you arrived from? Win-win!
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 1:28pm
- artemisia
  
  Scomo should send M.Macron a copy of their deportation policy including the widely interpreted character test.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 1:48pm
PhilBest

Sorry this is long but it is really something.
Lord Sumption (British Supreme Court Judge who retired in 2018) delivers a lecture as the invited guest of a Cambridge Law Society annual event, 27 Oct: “This Is How Freedom Dies”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDv2gk8aa0&feature=youtu.be

Edited transcript published by “The Spectator”
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/-this-is-how-freedom-dies-the-folly-of-britain-s-coercive-covid-strategy

The first two thirds of the lecture discusses the constitutional illegality of the way Covid mitigation provisions were imposed by the Johnson government. Then Lord Sumption turns to the lessons of history:
“…Our society craves security. The public has unbounded confidence, which no amount of experience will dent, in the benign power of the state to protect them against an ever wider range of risks. In Britain, the lockdown was followed by a brief period in which the government’s approval ratings were sky-high. This is how freedom dies. When societies lose their liberty, it is not usually because some despot has crushed it under his boot. It is because people voluntarily surrendered their liberty out of fear of some external threat.
Historically, fear has always been the most potent instrument of the authoritarian state. This is what we are witnessing today. But the fault is not just in our government. It is in ourselves. Fear provokes strident demands for abrasive action, much of which is unhelpful or damaging. It promotes intolerant conformism. It encourages abuse directed against anyone who steps out of line, including many responsible opponents of this government’s measures and some notable scientists who have questioned their empirical basis. These are the authentic ingredients of a totalitarian society.
So, I regret to say, is the propaganda by which the government has to some extent been able to create its own public opinion. Fear was deliberately stoked up by the government: the language of impending doom; the daily press conferences; the alarmist projections of the mathematical modelers; the manipulative use of selected statistics; the presentation of exceptional tragedies as if they were the normal effects of Covid-19; above all the attempt to suggest that that Covid-19 was an indiscriminate killer, when the truth was that it killed identifiable groups, notably those with serious underlying conditions and the old, who could and arguably should have been sheltered without coercing the entire population.
These exaggerations followed naturally from the logic of the measures themselves. They were necessary in order to justify the extreme steps which the government had taken, and to promote compliance. As a strategy, this was completely successful. So successful was it that when the government woke up to the damage it was doing, especially to the economy and the education of children, it found it difficult to reverse course…
58 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:00am
- PhilBest
  
  “…The ease with which people could be terrorised into surrendering basic freedoms which are fundamental to our existence as social beings came as a shock to me in March 2020. So has much of the subsequent debate…
  “…I have criticised the way in which the government has invaded civil liberties with limited Parliamentary scrutiny or none. But of course Parliamentary scrutiny is not enough unless Parliament itself is willing to live up to its high constitutional calling. It has to be ready to demand rational explanations of ministerial actions and to vote down regulations if they are not forthcoming.
  There is unfortunately little evidence of this. The public’s fear effectively silenced opposition in the House of Commons. The official opposition did not dare to challenge the government, except to suggest that they should have been even tougher even quicker. Parliament allowed the Coronavirus Act to be steam-rollered through with no real scrutiny…
  “…Lord Acton’s famous dictum was that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ministers do not readily surrender coercive powers when the need has passed….the powers conferred on ministers and the police by the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006 have been employed not just to combat terrorism but for a variety of other purposes, including the control of peaceful demonstrations, the enlargement of police stop and search powers to deal with ordinary non-terrorist offences, and the freezing of the assets of Icelandic banks.
  It will therefore surprise no-one that the present government, having announced on 23 March that the lockdown would last until the NHS was able to cope with peak hospitalisations, should have continued them in May and June after this objective had been achieved. Ministers did this notwithstanding the warning of their scientific advisers in reports submitted to SAGE in February and March that a lockdown could delay infections and deaths but not stop them. Once again, fear persuaded people to accept the surrender of their liberty, even when the lockdown was no longer capable of the objective originally claimed for it…
  “…There is a common delusion that authoritarian government is efficient. It does not waste time in argument or debate. Strongmen get things done. Historical experience should warn us that this idea is usually wrong. The concentration of power in a small number of hands and the absence of wider deliberation and scrutiny enables governments to make major decisions on the hoof, without proper forethought, planning or research.
  Within the government’s own ranks, it promotes loyalty at the expense of wisdom, flattery at the expense of objective advice. The want of criticism encourages self-confidence, and self-confidence banishes moderation and restraint. Authoritarian rulers sustain themselves in power by appealing to the emotional and the irrational in collective opinion. The present government’s mishandling of Covid-19 exemplifies all of these vices…
  
  46 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:01am
  - Notsofast
    
    I find this fascinating, I thought the lockdowns worked better here than in Europe.
    
    0 13
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:29am
    - PhilBest
      
      There is no correlation between lockdowns and outcomes. There is, however, observable correlations around climate, weather, urban crowding, built environment, and what kind of ventilation and air conditioning is common in environments where there is risk of aerosol buildup.
      
      But of course there is a whole machine built up now around not actually recognizing such things, all the while claiming THEY are “following science”. Lockdowns “work” like sun dances make the sun rise. See the aforementioned factors and actual science, about why NZ did better. It would have done better regardless, without flattening the country itself.
      
      3 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 1:00pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  As I have always said Government is the enemy of the people.
  
  16 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:14am
- IC5000
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  What about the freedom not to have to live in a South Auckland garage with your children in winter because the minimum wage job you have doesn’t pay enough for a house rental?
  
  I know this probably means fuck all to the majority of posters here but there is a disconnect between how large numbers of kiwis are forced to live and what they consider priorities to these freedoms. Many just don’t see National as relevant anymore.
  
  3 38
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:16am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Ah, Jacinda will provide…
    
    22 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:26am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    How is this relevant to usurpatious governments? Why do people with minimum wage jobs and no home have children (plural)? That is the crux of the matter, and is obviously a result of several bad decisions on their part. Blaming everyone else won’t help them or you.
    
    30 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:26am
    - jon
      
      OH you will be in trouble for saying that Ghandi!!!
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 1:32pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Is that why the waiting list for state houses has grown from less than 6000 in September 2017 to over 20,000 in September 2020?
    
    Labour has discovered that it’s easy to make a lot of noise about a housing crisis from the Opposition benches, but it’s much harder to find solutions.
    
    28 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:42am
  - Notsofast
    
    interestingly the minimum wage is plenty for a mortgage, but that is forbidden fruit except for the already certified gluttons.
    
    8 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:45am
  - JackRabbit
    
    The employer offering the job, is offering a known amount of money for the hours or tasks prescribed.
    
    The employee consciously agrees to take the job at the offered rates.
    
    The employer is not responsible for empoyee’s budget or whether he can afford to live on that income, or whether the employee might require a second job, or need to stop having more children when he can’t afford to feed his existing ones.
    
    The employer/employee contractual relationship is no different the contractual relationship when you pay for food or clothing, pay to have your house painted, car fixed, or the farmer that supplies food to the supermarket that you buy food from. There is nothing in your purchase of their goods, services, or labour, that requires you to underwrite their activities, or ensure that they can earn enough to feed themselves or remain solvent. And there is nothing that requires you to underwrite or subsidise their labour so they do not have to work more than 40 hours a week.
    
    What employees do with the money you pay them, how they budget, how many children they choose to raise, and whether or not they choose to work 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 hours a week to support their lifestyle and children they chose to have, are their choices, and theirs alone.
    
    It should not come as any shock to you, but it clearly will, that business owners, farmers and the self employed often do/did work 50, 60 ,70, 80, 90 hours a week, and forwent holidays to survive/get where they got. So why should they give away money to those that think that they should get enough to live on working 37.5 or 40 hours per week?
    
    Would you be OK with the local butcher doubling the price of meat because he chose to have 13 children, and a 3 week holiday in Kaitaia every year, and therefore deserves to make a profit big enough to do this? I think not.
    
    26 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:58am
  - The Housekeeper
    
    What about the freedom to use contraception while you are training for a job that pays enough for you to buy a house and start a family?
    
    16 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:57am
    - JackRabbit
      
      10-years old girl asks her mum: ‘Mummy, how was I born?’
      
      ‘Honey, you came from a seed.’ her mother replies.
      
      ‘I don’t understand.’, says the little girl.
      
      The mother smiles a replies: ‘Once upon a time, me and your daddy had a wonderful time so we decided to plant a little seed. Daddy put it in the earth and I took very good care of it every single day. After a while the seed started to grow more and more leaves and in a few months, the seed turned into a beautiful and healthy plant.
      
      So we took the plant, dried it, smoked it and then we got so high that we bonked without a condom.’
      
      13 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 11:45am
  - alphabeatrium
    
    This is the distinction between “negative” and “positive” rights. You’re taking a positive rights position, that people have a right to a “living” wage, a house that meets their needs, etc. A negative rights position would argue that there should be no impediment to them seeking out these things for themselves (e.g. racial discrimination). The problem with the positive rights position is that it requires the violation of someone else’s rights. How do you ensure that people earn a “living” wage and have a house, without forcing someone else to work to support them (indirect) or actually force them to say vacate a house or build a house for them (direct)? Negative rights do not place obligations on _other people_, but positive rights do, which is why they are incoherent as “rights”.
    
    Also, where does it end? How do you define a “living” wage or a “livable” house? I’d like to think that I could survive as a colonial, living off the land in a shack – so perhaps our right to a livable wage should be $0 and a few pieces of corrugated iron for a house? What else? A six-bedroom house for everyone? Or perhaps distributed —unequally—on the nebulous basis of need. A “human right” that different people have an unequal claim to! Thus, it’s a nonsensical concept. Plus, I’m sure the Russians loved living cheek by jowl in those horrible Soviet apartments the last time this was tried…
    
    I’m sorry for those people living like that, truly. But they have no right to force others to work for them to meet their needs. They only have the right to try to do so for themselves, equally under the law.
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 11:13am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Actually IC mentions freedom of choice, but not in the way he/she thinks:
      
      “What about the freedom not to have to live in a South Auckland garage with your children in winter because the minimum wage job you have doesn’t pay enough for a house rental?”
      
      The freedom exists to live in a North Auckland garage, or a South Island West Coast house, or in a tent, or go bush like ancestral whanau. Plenty of freedom and choices.
      
      12 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 11:50am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Why does ICy think people who have too many children they can afford are entitled to my money?
    
    I’ve been sensible about reproduction.
    
    12 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 11:21am
  - PhilBest
    
    Urban growth boundaries are the cause of the housing crisis. A pox on National, for not fixing this during its three terms, and on the Green ecofascist movement and its stooges in Councils, who are the original culprits. If you deplore the outcomes but don’t see the “cause and effect” of urban planning, you are no more helpful than the Bolshevik slope-brows of history
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 1:03pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Nobody is forcing anyone in South Auckland to do anything. People with even the scantest interest in what’s going on in New Zealand must have noticed the thousands of well-paying jobs going begging, especially in our horticulture, viticulture and agriculture sectors.
    
    People from Vanuatu for goodness’ sake, are prepared to leave their homes and families, travel to a much colder foreign country (NZ) and do a decent day’s work for a decent day’s pay. Their seasons last 6 – 8 months and after all expenses (flights, accommodation, food, tax) usually go home with $30,000+ – each.
    
    You can get cheap rent and well-paying work in Te Puke (avocado and kiwifruit), Hawkes Bay (stone and pip fruit), Marlborough (grapes) Nelson (pip fruit and hops), North Canterbury (grapes), Central Otago (cherries, stone fruit, grapes) and so on. I know a number of kiwis, usually “grey nomads” who travel around the country doing just that. Working for 6 to 8 months, often in nice places, out in the fresh air, earning decent money doing jobs they enjoy with people they like. Pre Covid, they would often go to Australia for the colder months, then come back and od it all over again.
    
    South Auckland isn’t a prison, you’re allowed to move. The key is to take some responsibility for your own circumstances, get your head out of your backside, and be prepared to go where the jobs and cheaper housing are. Not rocket surgery mate.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 1:37pm
  - Yabster
    
    lol you have seen the homeless stats have you- blinkers off please…
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 1:44pm
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    Hay – I stopped having kids before I outstripped my capability and income to support them. Have your favored victims grouops ever tried that? No they have not,. I know because my commute goes past Handout Central in my town and the congregation there park better cars and drag along more kids than I, in full-time + overtime paid employment, do. So sod off Swampy with your faux priorities.
    
    Here, let me spell it out:
    Don’t get pregnant at school.
    Don’t impregnate at school.
    Finish school.
    Get a job.
    Stay working even at the first menial jobs, you will do better with experience.
    Exercise impulse control.
    Defer gratification.
    Stay married.
    If you can’t feed, them, don’t breed them.
    Save.
    
    Do these: and you will lo and behold all of a sudden experience the elusive White Privilege! I know this and I ain’t even white.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 2:18pm
  - Nermal
    
    What about the freedom to breed large families you can’t afford to support because you are unskilled, and expect the rest of us to subsidise your breeding programme
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 3:36pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Woo hoo! No more school until Monday! (I don’t have work on Fridays)
12 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:04am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Sheeeit mate!
  
  You want to get onto this un-means tested beneficiary lark! School is out forever, not just summer!
  
  Someone else pays! What can go wrong!
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:48am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I work 4 days because I like what I do. Anything more and I get penalised. Over a certain amount I end up paying 70 cents for every dollar earned. Wrong, just plain wrong
    
    10 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:57am
    - theoldbloke
      
      Would love to see the your arithmetic.
      Over a certain amount 70 cents for every dollar earned.
      
      I call BS on that 🙂
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 11:40am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/eligibility/seniors/superannuation/other-income.html
        
        3 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 2:47pm
Batman

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Good morning and happy Friday folks. Here’s some light reading which breaks down the NYT story about the Turkey corruption.

“The New York Times has a comprehensive report on Erdogan’s successful efforts to recruit top Trump administration officials into his corrupt scheme.

Scandals tend to be complicated, especially scandals involving banks. But this one is extremely simple. The basic elements:

1) The Justice Department was prosecuting financial crimes by a Turkish bank.

2) Turkey’s president asked President Trump to quash the investigation.

3) Trump has personally received more than $1 million in payments from business in Turkey while serving as president.

4) Two attorneys general loyal to Trump, Matthew Whitaker and William Barr, both pressured federal prosecutors to go easy on the Turkish bank.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/trump-turkey-bank-scandal-corruption-erdogan-halkbank-conflict-interest.html

So as is always the way, projection was the true element of a claim made by Trump and Co. Because they’d already committed the crime for themselves.
4 56
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:06am
- Scott
  
  On Tucker Carlson yesterday on Fox News, Tucker claimed that Joe Biden’s family were paid millions of dollars by the communist party of China. The reason was solely because of the family name – Biden. This claim is backed up by his interview with Tony Bobulinski, a business associate of the Bidens who backed up his testimony with emails and documents. What we have is first-hand testimony of Joe Biden discussing his son’s business deals with China. So Biden’s testimony that he never discussed with Hunter his business deals is false.
  
  One has to ask why did China, and Ukraine, end up paying Hunter Biden millions of dollars? We know from his laptop, and it is his laptop, that Hunter Biden has spent much of the last decade taking drugs and consorting with prostitutes. He has no obvious marketable skills that would lead to him being on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and rewarded with millions of dollars of business deals from China. The only answer can be those interests were seeking influence with Hunter Biden’s father, Joe Biden. And we have testimony that Joe Biden was given a substantial portion of the Chinese money by Hunter. In other words Joe got his cut.
  
  The only conclusion that a reasonable observer can come to is that Joe Biden is bought and paid for by the communist party of China. Given any reasonably impartial press this would be a huge story.
  
  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/plausible-deniability-tony-bobulinski-biden-family
  
  51 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:10am
  - Simon
    
    The censorship of the Biden corruption by the same clowns whose polls that say Biden is 10pts up .
    
    Cant make this shit up.
    
    47 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:31am
    - FatTony
      
      Trumpworld now is like those final scenes in Downfall, where Hitler is screaming about an imaginary army that is going to defeat the Soviets and miraculously save him.
      
      But replace Hitler with Trump, and imaginary army with Hunter Biden ??
      
      1 16
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 10:25am
  - Batman
    
    Yet the geniuses at Tucker Carlson’s show don’t know how to use the internet to transfer documents.
    
    The reality distortion field you guys are living in will end up biting you on the arse.
    
    5 25
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:15am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Originals have more clout than copies.
      
      12 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:59am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Better courier the evidence to Tucker Carlson!
  
  4 41
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:12am
  - emmess
    
    You’ll be happy then
    https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/fox-news-host-tucker-carlson-says-damning-hunter-biden-documents-mailed-him
    
    16 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:35am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Missing courier package now found by USPS. Sorry to disappoint Biden apologists and DNC aligned smear merchants.
    
    20 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:50am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      “Missing courier package now found by USPS”
      Postal voting – what could possibly go wrong with that?
      
      18 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:29am
- PhilBest
  
  Why do I suspect this is pure invented fiction “in the good cause of affecting the election”?
  
  On the other hand, what the media is not reporting and Big Tech is suppressing, is most likely true.
  
  24 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:15am
  - PhilBest
    
    Supreme irony – while the Deep State pursued a set-up of Trump based on the possibility of “Kompromat” in the hands of Russians, it is starting to look like the Chicoms have had Kompromat on the Bidens, and other western power figures naive enough to fall for their stings.
    
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/forget_the_hunter_biden_sex_tapes_the_real_news_is_much_bigger_than_that.html
    
    18 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:19am
- G152
  
  The Biden crime family is still the major topic.
  Nice try though
  
  30 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:18am
  - Batman
    
    It’s the major topic inside the bubble of voters who were already voting Trump.
    
    Nobody else gives a shit because they know it’s made up Rudy shit, just like Ukraine.
    
    2 28
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:17am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      How do you discern between the crazy shit you unquestioningly accept as fact, and the crazy shit you dismiss as being obviously fake?
      
      18 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:31am
      - Batman
        
        Well one is crazy shit pushed by a serial shirt-tucker (I don’t think he was touching himself) with a history of bungled allegations.
        
        The other lot is published by reputable (yes yes I realise what blog we’re on) outlets who actually put some rigour into what goes out the door.
        
        It really isn’t that hard if you haven’t spent years inside the echo chamber that has been priming your fear and anger responses.
        
        4 23
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:36am
      - Engelbert Humperdink
        
        For a man who evaluates, moderates and posts shit, you can understand that his shit-filters got blocked long ago.
        
        3 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 2:20pm
    - Deagle
      
      Was Biden making it up when he was telling everybody what he did?
      
      12 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:39am
      - Batman
        
        Sigh.
        
        It’s not even worth explaining for the fifty millionth time that getting rid of the corrupt Shokin was an official piece of policy and supported by the western community.
        
        Find another record to play.
        
        4 19
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:48am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Big fake sigh. The so called “official policy” is an invented narrative that takes in the fools quite well. How about it Batman, you actually investigate and don’t simply believe what you are told ? Find some public reports calling for Shokin’s dismissal BEFORE Joe Biden started pushing for it around December 2015. Which by the way is just after his son received an email from Burisma saying that they needed to stop all the law suits against “Nikolay” – the ultimate owner of Burisma. You’ll find none, and even after Ukraine folded to Biden’s urging and had Shokin fired, there’s only a couple of press releases from World Bank and the like that aren’t specific about Shokin.
        
        And did you know that Shokin initiated an action against Burisma’s owner in Feb 2016, taking control of land and other assets, so he certainly wasn’t doing nothing.
        
        The email and the subsequent actions are prima facile evidence of outright corruption with Joe Biden taking official actions to safeguard the unearned income stream directed to him via Hunter. Outright corruption, and you support this.
        
        The narrative that everyone wanted Shokin fired was constructed after the firing, and works on the basis that if you repeat a lie often enough, most mugs com e to accept it as the truth. But do your own research, and come back with examples of calls for Shokin’s firing BEFORE Joe Biden started his efforts, and preferably before Burisma emailed Hunter Biden insisting that he took action to make “Nikolay’s” legal problems go away. As was understood in their contract as the email, puts it.
        
        Smoking gun, right there.
        
        8 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 10:50am
      - Batman
        
        Ed you need to have a lie down or something. Give your typing fingers a rest.
        
        1 5
        Report
        October 30, 2020 1:42pm
    - Billy Collins
      
      Are the photos of Hunter smoking crack photoshopped, are they?
      
      The subpoena was forged was it? Or is the FBI in on this whole compiracy too?
      
      Tony Bobulinski is willing to admit to being involved in corrupt behaviour, burn his bridges with the Biden family and much more, and throw his reputation down the toilet, is he?
      
      Man, the level of cognitive dissonance is ridiculous, Batman.
      
      10 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:54am
    - Nickc2
      
      Plausible deniability Batman?
      
      1 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 1:04pm
      - Batman
        
        For what?
        
        1 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 1:42pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Pulitzer Prize winning journo Glenn Greenwald has just resigned from “the intercept” that he founded because they wouldn’t publish this story he penned on Biden’s corruption.
    
    This is a must-read on the broken state of journalism and specifics of Biden’s corruption.
    
    https://greenwald.substack.com/p/article-on-joe-and-hunter-biden-censored
    
    12 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:42am
- amospicton
  
  Russian disinformation.
  
  4 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:21am
- emmess
  
  No, projection is what the corrupt Democrats do.
  My guess is pretty soon, we will find that we will be able to add Turkey to the long list of countries that the Biden crime family received money from.
  
  16 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:22am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  You lost me at
  
  1. batman comments on US politics
  2. the NYT trying desperately for a last minute “October Surprise”
  
  Try harder next time.
  
  Incidentally, what was this “claim” you reference, that dare not speak its name?
  
  Was it the evidence that Biden has been running a pay for play scam for years, and is a fully paid for Chinese asset? That one?
  
  The one with Hunter Biden getting compromised by taking nude selfies with Chinese hookers, his crackpipe and his fucking niece? That one?
  
  Maybe its the one where Hunter complains that the “big man” takes half of every deal?
  
  Or maybe it was the one where he whines the family won’t allow him in the same room as the young relative?
  
  The one that Twitter and Facebook will close your account for, if you mention it, because, reasons?
  
  The biggest story in the world is unfolding in real time before our eyes, and Batty is pushing a “see Trump did it too, nothingburger”. But won’t even say what the “too” was.
  
  31 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:24am
  - Batman
    
    The amount of snowflake downtickers and the comments in reply, attacking me and not the content, shows that there is a group of hypersensitive supporters here who are very nervous about next week.
    
    You can talk about crackpipes and nude selfies all you like but the reality is that after years and years of imbibing on Fox News, Breitbart etc al, the partisanship that has caused has resulted in a clean break between the radicalised conservative right and the remainder of the population. The general public care about the pandemic and the usual top issues, and they don’t give a shit about the made up stories from Rudy and his foreign friends.
    
    5 25
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:31am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      As a member of the “general public”, thank you for telling me what I do and don’t give a shit about.
      
      17 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:33am
      - Batman
        
        Ghandi you’re on KB. Here with the rest of us political tragics.
        
        You’re not the general public I referred to.
        
        4 19
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:51am
    - RJ
      
      Gee, you mean people are treating them just how you treat them, no surprise. What a dick.
      
      5 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 10:04am
      - Batman
        
        I am untroubled by such an accusation, RJ.
        
        Eventually it will all come out in the wash.
        
        4 10
        Report
        October 30, 2020 10:07am
    - Billy Collins
      
      “they don’t give a shit about the made up stories from Rudy and his foreign friends.”
      
      …and Biden’s friends.
      …and the FBI.
      
      Don’t forget their involvement in this crazy conspiracy theory you have.
      
      You have to believe a real Mission: Impossible-esque plot where the Russians hacked (or made up) documents and photos, put them on some laptops, dropped off to some random IT guy, signed the receipt, forged a subpoena, then bought/blackmailed/entrapped Bobulinksi to corroborate.
      
      You know what is a simple explanation?
      
      A crackhead dropped off some laptops that need fixing and, being a crackhead, forgot about them.
      
      Even the so called “reputable outlets” you trust aren’t going as far as you are. They are saying the information can’t be confirmed. What should bug you is that this information is there to confirm, its available and has been offered to numerous reporters and outlets to confirm, but yet they don’t want to. Instead, they are just going with the blackout approach and continuing the lie that they haven’t been given access to confirm any of it. Now, why is that, Batman?
      
      https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1320383571421429760
      
      11 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 10:12am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Made up, golly, that was clever. Rudi invented a laptop, all the emails, pictures, videos, and other data in April 2019, some 17 months before he was made aware of its existence. And 9 months before the FBI took that laptop (or laptops) into their control under a GJ subpoena !
      
      You probably think that the GJ subpoena was on the basis that Rudi had invented the laptop in concert with the Russians even though at the time the laptop was deposited for repair (April 2019) Joe wasn’t a candidate.
      
      The made up story around the laptop is the one that it is Russian disinformation.
      
      And the secondary story is how almost every major news outlet in the USA has totally abandoned the idea of a “free press” and has become and operational arm of the Democrat Party. Because if they were honestly suppressing dubiously sourced and unverified stories, how did the “suckers and losers” hoax get such wide coverage ?
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 10:58am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Stop telling the truth. Fake news is far more exciting
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:03am
- Simon
  
  “Trump has personally received more than $1 million in payments from business in Turkey while serving as president.”
  
  Lol – You believe Trump threw all away over a lousy million dollars.
  
  18 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:27am
  - Batman
    
    Well his hotel charged three dollars for water at a dinner with Abe, so yeah.
    
    A crook will always try and scam every single dollar available, that’s usually how they end up getting caught.
    
    3 17
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:25am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Wasn’t there a story about the Trump organisation cashing a cheque for, like, 11 cents?
      
      2 13
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:28am
      - Batman
        
        Haha oh yeah, the Spy Magazine prank. Trump cashed a cheque for $0.13
        
        https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/trump-files-spy-magazine-prank/
        
        3 13
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:38am
      - Ian Hawthorn
        
        I doubt Trump personally cashes cheques of any size, let alone 13c. He will have an accounting department. If you send an accountant a cheque of any size they’ll deposit it automatically because that is what their procedures tell them to do with cheques. Common sense and accounting sometimes have little to do with each other.
        
        8 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 10:46am
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      I was asked to pay 3.5EU for bottled water in a banlieue 2 years ago. Equally as irrelevant as the Abe H2O charge. Sounds like you know how to charge like a crook, too. Something in your past you’re ashamed of? No worries, just attend a Labour Party event. Shriven, you will be.
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 2:23pm
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    At this point, why not just accuse Trump of bashing little old ladies and eating their grandchildren? That would be about as credible as the other shit they invent for the consumption of the terminally deluded.
    
    17 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:35am
    - Batman
      
      Well trump has already accused his opponents of practically everything else in the book!
      
      He did suggest he could shoot someone and get away with it. Maybe he just meant leaving old people to freeze outside a rally?
      
      2 18
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:50am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Shoot someone and get away with it? Killary has had that done many times, she is a legend
        
        10 3
        Report
        October 30, 2020 10:07am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        I think Trump may have been trolling Killary
        
        1 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 2:48pm
- Jimmy White
  
  The Million was delivered directly to the White House on the back of a flying pig
  
  11 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:46am
- Critical Thinker
  
  Going by past experience we know that there will be a WAY over the top and ridiculously drawn out investigation of thee most vetted person in all history. Quintuple Noble Peace Prize nominee, President Donald Trump.
  
  Which will inevitably conclude in yet another nothing burger, for the 1,343,857 time ?
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElW0XGzWoAAFNAs?format=png
  
  13 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:51am
  - Batman
    
    Hahahaha shit you’re quality comedy sometimes CT
    
    3 22
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:08am
    - Critical Thinker
      
      Thanks ?
      
      Your Orwellian “2+2=5” type posts often give me a hearty chuckle as well ?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8QMexz2wyM
      
      13 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:27am
      - Batman
        
        Hey well, I’m glad you find me amusing because you may well need that humour next week!
        
        5 18
        Report
        October 30, 2020 9:40am
      - Ed Snack
        
        As might you Batman, as might you.
        
        We’ll just have to see.
        
        6 0
        Report
        October 30, 2020 11:00am
- Notsofast
  
  When Americans would no longer deal with the corrupt Trump Russia jumped in and the rest is history, or will be shortly thank the kind lord.
  
  3 15
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:48am
  - RJ
    
    Ever have co passion for your daughter and wife, or are you just a cold blooded killer that doesn’t care an ounce for them. People whinge here about muslims killing people but we have someone right here who murdered his wife and child.
    
    3 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:05am
- RJ
  
  NYT, ah the paper that has had so many stories this year that they had to retract and apologise for, let’s go back to another hard hitting exposure of theirs that turned out to be from a no body source
  
  https://twitter.com/ChanelRion/status/1321857236126322688
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:08am
  - Batman
    
    Citing Chanel Rion for something is like pulling out a mouldy sandwich as your chef credentials
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 2:23pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  I just counted. Not including this post, Batboy has come back 13 more times to educate us poor fools about how unconcerned he is about our stupidity!
  
  Talk about taking one for the team!
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 12:03pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Jeremy Corbyn suspended from UK Labour
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/oct/29/uk-politics-live-ehrc-to-publish-report-into-labour-and-antisemitism
48 0
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:09am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Good. Evil little maggot.
  
  40 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:29am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Britain’s own Andrew Little. Why do we continue to put up with this angry little prick?
    
    24 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:39am
- RoboRob
  
  I hope all the Labour people that said this was just a beat up and that he wasn’t realy antisemetic will now take a look at themselves in the mirror.
  
  16 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:24am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yes, I remember Morrissey accused me of being gullible after posting an article about Corbyn’s behaviour.
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:17am
KevO'Brien

Enjoy, Allie Beth Stuckey presents the case for the Dems-
http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/democrats-vote-for-us-well-wear-you-down-dox-and-bully-you-but-know-we-care/
11 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:11am
cmm

Now here’s a nice bunch of science hype.

Cryogenic superconductors are nothing new and have been around for over 30 years and have been hyped to hell but are pretty close to worthless except in a few very niche applications because the cost of keeping them cold way outweighs the benefits.

Now some scientists have come up with a room temperature superconductor that works at 15 degrees C. The stuff is called Carbonaceous sulfur hydride: CSH8.

But there’s small print…. This is only achieved by exerting immense pressure on the material. Over 2 million times atmospheric pressure or more than a million times the pressure in a car tyre.

In some ways high pressure and very low temperatures have some similar effects on the structure – by reducing the amount of random movement and thereby increasing the conduction paths.

Like 30 years ago, this is being hyped to the max. Imagine this, imagine that… but the reality is that exerting pressures of over 250GPa is even more harder than chilling something to -100C.

There are some hopes that the pressure can be applied by some chemical method (eg a graphene coating etc), but that’s a mega challenge in itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM7J56OxA6w
15 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:20am
- KevO'Brien
  
  They probably only had a few micrograms of the substance too. The operation functions at a pressure found at depths close to the centre of the earth.
  Commercial production is scheduled for 2170.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:49am
  - cmm
    
    Well, like graphene, there’s plenty of material to make it. Just carbon, sulphur and hydrogen.
    
    The tricky bit is the pressure which means they’ve really traded one engineering challenge (keeping something cold) to a harder one (squashing something to 300GPa) which can only be achieved by applying a massive force to a very small area in a diamond crucible.
    
    As they say, you’ve got to start somewhere. But at the moment it is going to take a hell of a breakthrough to fix this.
    
    I’d think it would be easier to keep cryo superconductors cold. THey just need some sort of chiller and a very good insulator. A chiller pipe + aerogel maybe? Sure, that’s still a huge challenge but less than applying 300GPa.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:59am
    - Ed Snack
      
      One other major engineering issue is that most of the “high temperature” superconductors are ceramic or ceramic like materials and they are extremely difficult to make into wires or forms suitable to conduct electricity any distance. These materials are mostly Copper Oxide based (Cuprates, with other metals or semi-metal components like Mercury, Thallium, Bismuth etc) or Iron based such as a mix of Iron and Selenium. This is excluding those materials that, as above, achieve superconduction at very high pressures.
      
      So they can create these materials in reasonable volumes and they superconduct at temperatures not much below liquid Nitrogen ( and some at higher temps to that magical figure where they could be cooled by liquid N2 or Argon because that would be relatively cheap to do) but they cannot be made into conducting structures without destroying the superconduction.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 11:14am
- JackRabbit
  
  “…is even more harder than chilling something to -100C.”
  
  Except outside of the earth’s atmospehere!
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:05am
Inandout

Katie Hosking has called Biden a winner, and not a whisper about Hunter. I do realise ZB has a direct feed from CNN.
19 5
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:21am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Katie Hosking, slightly better than Kerry Woodwork
  
  Should KH prove to be right, she will still only be slightly better than Woodham.
  
  3 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:55am
artemisia

E tu union smacking Air NZ for laying off staff. Suggest they get out the crayons and send a nice note to the Prime Minister instead.
49 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:26am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Remarkable.
  
  So, a company that makes its living by flying people around, is prevented by the government from flying people around, and is forced to retrench.
  
  ….. and, the Union blames the company.
  
  Welcome to New Zealand. Where we are eliminating inequality by making everybody poor and stupid!
  
  Feel the kindness flow over you!
  
  52 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:40am
  - plc
    
    You expect intelligence by somebody who identifies as “Savage”
    
    16 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:07am
- Inandout
  
  E tu sounds like short for ‘electronic tutu’.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:46am
niggly

Imagine being invited onto a Marae, let’s say Turangawaewae Marae, home of the Māori King, with its rich history and mana of its leadership.

Imagine even the privilege extended by the Marae’s hosts – not only are you welcome to work for them, but they will pay you around $150,000 per year to work 4 days a week, with breaks during the school holiday periods but best of all you don’t really have to do any actual work – apart from attending events and maybe speaking formally a few times a year for a few minutes oh but best of all work on your own pet projects that really have nothing whatsoever to do with the Marae and the majority of its inhabitants.

Imagine then in response to this incredible generosity and privilege, you start speaking out loud about there being “too many pictures of old brown men’s faces on the walls for my liking”.

How would that go down with one’s hosts?

And what about the racism?

That is racism is it not? If so, does this mean new Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March is actually a racist for his remarks about “old white men” in Parliament the other day?

Well if the Labour Party and MSM can call former National MP’s like Hamish Walker a racist, then using their logic why yes Ricardo Menéndez March is a racist! Well fancy that, the Green Party has racists within its ranks (as he isn’t the only one that thinks like that)!
54 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:26am
- KevO'Brien
  
  “old white men”
  Both ageist and racist from an import barely out of nappies.
  
  33 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:51am
  - plc
    
    Whose ancestors practised colonial genocide
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:08am
    - MCos
      
      Yours?
      
      2 12
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:31am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        I am a true hybrid: Irish 62.5%, Scots 12.5%. Cockney 12.5%, German 12.5%. It’s fascinating seeing each of those national genetics threads being expressed.
        
        3 1
        Report
        October 30, 2020 12:02pm
  - Sigmund Freud
    
    His hero is Speedy Gonzales lol
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:11am
- Surely Knott
  
  Yet a NZer or any other new immigrant cannot go to Mexico and hold a parliamentary position or even join the police. Their law making and important positions are exclusively reserved for “natural born citizens” only. So for him to then call NZer’s xenophobic and complain about the lack of diversity in our parliament walls is the ultimate hypocrisy. You won’t find any NZers allowed to run in Mexican elections.
  “Mexican law also distinguishes between naturalized citizens and natural-born citizens in many ways. Under the Mexican constitution, naturalized citizens are prohibited from serving in a wide array of positions, mostly governmental. Naturalized Mexicans cannot occupy any of following posts:
  
  The Mexican military during peacetime
  Policeman[7]
  Captain, pilot, or crew member on any Mexican-flagged vessel or aircraft[7]
  President of Mexico[8]
  Member of the Congress of Mexico[9]
  Member of the Supreme Court of Mexico[10]
  Governor of a Mexican state[11]
  Mayor or member of the legislature of Mexico City[12]
  Furthermore “All Mexican nationals by birth who possess another nationality cannot be elected for or work in public office only in those cases that the law clearly establishes that they must not acquire another nationality. ” So even if you are born there you must renounce from your other nationalities.
  
  27 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:59am
  - MCos
    
    So?
    
    I can’t go to Thailand and get permanent residence let alone citizenship, vote, any sort of public assistance from the government, and certainly not hold public office.
    On that basis do you think the same should apply here?
    Do you think New Zealand citizens should be banned from being Head of State of our own country?
    
    4 10
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 9:27am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      The same should apply here on the basis that, if those were the rules of a sovereign nation and you don’t like them, then don’t come here. No one is forcing anyone to emigrate to New Zealand. Mere citizenship is insufficient to make someone a New Zealander in any real sense of the term, and is often just a foot into the door to start looting the nation’s resources for no real gain to the country.
      
      20 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:44am
    - Surely Knott
      
      I’d be interested in how he became a citizen to be honest? And if I was Thai and had recently been gifted NZ citizenship after dropping out of my course and losing my filming job, and then working at a charity and then somehow granted citizenship and all the benefits of the social state including ability to run for parliament. I wouldn’t be so quick to criticise the country the very fabric of the country that had granted me more freedoms and benefits than my home country would reciprocate to my fellow NZers.
      
      18 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 9:50am
- WaynelSexton
  
  The left doesn’t care if they’re called racist, only the right does.
  
  6 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:21am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    I don’t care if I’m called racist, because it helps me assess the IQ and stupidity of the caller. Also, I’m minority Caucasian genes – and a couple of times I tweaked a smack talker about that because there’s entertainment value in watching the little snowflakes squirm.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 2:30pm
- RoboRob
  
  The guy is thick (not surprising). He doesn’t want to swear an oath to the crown but instead to the treaty of Waitangi. As so many do, he forgets that there are two parties in the treaty and it says the crown will have governance.
  
  Unfotuately the media in NZ are so brainwashed they can’t understand the irony. So many in media seem to think the treaty is solely about protecting maori rights and customs. They should try reading it.
  
  First article (of 3)
  ‘The Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand and the separate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of the Confederation cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which the said Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over their respective Territories as the sole sovereigns thereof. ‘
  
  30 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:31am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Ricardo Menendez March may actually wake up people and make them realise what the “Green” party actually is. Very few Greenies left in the party. Boonchani will probably be their next high profile candidate next election.
  I think Menendez may actually bring them more bad publicity than they realise.
  
  29 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:51am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I dunno, the greens have had a pretty appalling lineage to follow. Turei to get the ball of shit rolling . . .
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 1:35pm
- Catgurl13
  
  I find it rather ironic that Ricardo M is going on about too many white men in NZ Parliament when he is in fact a white Mexican himself.
  
  24 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:55am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Mr Menendez identifies as a “migrant”, but he is an immigrant to NZ.
  
  New Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March is ready to “fight tooth and nail” for his communities including rainbow and migrant groups.
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/new-green-mp-ricardo-men-ndez-march-will-fight-tooth-and-nail-for-migrant-and-lgbtq-communities.html
  
  He has chosen to come to NZ and take up citizenship here…
  He was not forced out of his country by hardship or war.
  
  https://www.rescue.org/article/migrants-asylum-seekers-refugees-and-immigrants-whats-difference
  
  He is trying to portray himself as one of the oppressed, when in reality, he is the privileged son from a highly educated family.
  
  26 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:32am
  - Jack5
    
    From the article Maggy links to about Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March:
    
    He moved to New Zealand to study but found tuition fees too expensive and dropped out, working in the hospitality sector before becoming involved in political work.
    
    Sounds like he’s one of the new citizens created by the student-visa rorts.
    
    These were sold as bringing into New Zealand high-value young people who would power technology industries.
    
    And what do we have here? A professional Marxist agitator.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 1:47pm
Simon

Authoritarian nut job left, who hide behind slogans, triggered by accurate Fox news reporting that NZ is a police state.
15 4
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:34am
- KevO'Brien
  
  NZ is definitely not a Police State. They work to the PM’s orders (suggestions).
  Activists are allowed to occupy and seize land without Police intervention as land law has been overturned. No registered title is safe from seizure. Another is reported in the Hawkes Bay.
  
  12 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 8:57am
I remember when

I believe the truth – whatever that may be.
Does anyone really know in the United States?
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:39am
Critical Thinker

? LIKE A ROCKET ?
US GDP booms better than expected & fastest pace ever, at 33.1% growth in 3rd quarter of 2020.

Due to the leadership of President Trump, the US economy grew at 33.1%. The largest economic growth ever on record for one quarter. This is double the previous post-World War II record of 16.7% increase in 1950.

The US is now officially in a “Super V-Shaped” recovery from the COVID recession, and has now regained two-thirds of the economic output. Thanks to President Trump’s careful balancing of health safety and economic security.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/29/us-gdp-report-third-quarter-2020.html

“It’s the economy, stupid.” ?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1321865734583037953
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:40am
lazza

Pot… Not
E o L… Yup
Good.
2 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:40am
Yvette

Newshub says, under the headline – Greens fear ACT ‘has moved to the extreme right’ over call to abolish ‘hard-left’ Human Rights Commission –
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern promised last month to beef up hate speech laws if she was re-elected, and now that Labour has won a mandate to govern alone, it’s only a matter of time before the argument plays out in Parliament [1]

An accompanying video says “Jacinda Ardern has promised to crack down on hate speech if two things happen: one, she’s elected as Prime Minister [and] two, she can avoid governing with New Zealand First.” It also mentions “the policy wasn’t planned” and shows an again hijab-adorned Ardern, Election campaigning at Christchurch Al Noor mosque, so implying Islam will be considered as one religion to be “protected”.

In the past Islam in New Zealand has been described as a religion of an ethnic minority, but in all discussions that follow it must be recognised that Islam is in fact followed by more than a billion people today, is the world’s fastest growing religion and will soon be the world’s largest. The 1.2 billion Muslims make up approximately one quarter of the world’s population and is part of the religion as is variously reported in daily incidents in the world media. The reflection of this is already recognised in the portion of the New Zealand Islamic women’s agencies contribution to the Royal Commission, which has been released prior to the Election and before the full release of the Commission’s Report.
Apparently New Zealand Islamic women scan the morning news to see what international controversy may stir any random public reaction here, with incidents of abuse directed especially at the women because it is the hijab that so often identifies them.

For any special consideration under New Zealand law, surely New Zealand Islamic agencies will need to establish Islam here to be disassociated with international extreme elements, and different from mainstream international religion Islam, which is also a political movement.

But under the exclusive, ‘eternal’ and un-changing recognitions of Allah’s being, teachings of the Koran, and prescriptions of Sharia Law, such differences are impossible, unless the version of Islam practised in New Zealand is not the same ideology as that in Islam-predominant countries, which of course is not then in accordance with those restraints of Allah, the Koran and Sharia, so something watered-down or not practised as decreed.

With the current escalation of tensions in France (so much as it was the lauded first call location for Ardern’s so-called “Christchuch Call”), and with the supposition that Scotland’s new hate speech law may incriminate comments made in one’s private home, the call here in New Zealand for Islam to be taught in schools (since Islam’s own New Zealand agencies may not be trusted to teach the political religiion’s tenants safely enough, and then Ardern’s and Little’s aspirations, isn’t it time they make some sort of definitive statement before everything is lost in a typical morass of confusion – as is so much that Labour proposes to solve?

[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/greens-fear-act-has-moved-to-the-extreme-right-over-call-to-abolish-hard-left-human-rights-commission.html

Vive la France
19 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:47am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Anyone to the right of Golriz Ghaharaman is “extreme right wing” in the minds of current Green Party MP’s.
  
  30 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:48am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Good post, Yvette, but it’s ‘religious tenets’, not ‘tenants’.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 12:45pm
peterwn

So someone has successfully sued in the Disputes Tribunal Air NZ for fares on cancelled flights to be refunded. Air NZ is considering an appeal to the District Court, but the barrier for appeal against Disputes Tribunal decisions. However there are two things that could mean there are not an avalanche of cases:
1. DT decisions do not set any precedents ie referee B is not bound to respect referee A’s decision for later case.
2. The basis of the decision seems rather fact specific.
Hopefully the Ministry of Justice will publish the decision on the Tribunal’s web site (it is not there yet).
It would seem that for a future case to proceed it needs to be shown that the airline cancelled the flight of its own free will (ie not because of weather, technical difficulties, Government restrictions etc) and that the passenger was able and willing to fly, and that the airline could not offer a reasonable alternative flight.
So good luck for anyone else trying to sue an airline for a fair refund.
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:48am
- Ruahine
  
  I understand that Jetstar gave refunds. Air New Zealand for some reason has Consumer Law exemptions. Gave refunds to passengers flying into the US. US consumer law says airlines must give refunds.
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:30am
Catgurl13

So the father was a druggy in and out of prison till he died. They lived in Enderly, one of the roughest suburbs in Hamilton……who even leaves a newborn alone with 2 dogs in the house anyway?. Yet the media love grief porn.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dog-attack-tragedy-grandparents-only-met-mauled-newborn-while-he-fought-for-life/NY5RHD5UETZVRBUKFVYPYP5AIQ/
19 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:52am
- Catgurl13
  
  She wasn’t a first time Mum either according to the article, having arrived here in 1997 with her two sons and their now deceased father. She has adult children in their 20s so should have known much better about how to look after a baby.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:00am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You are confused..
    The Grandparents and (deceased) father of the baby arrived here in 1997 from Russia.
    
    There is nothing in the article to suggest that the mother of the dead baby emigrated here.
    
    It is tragic that the midwife had not realised that the baby was being left in an unsafe environment.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:39am
    - Catgurl13
      
      Yes you are correct….but why have a baby to this guy knowing he was a complete loser?…..
      https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/84718545/hotelsmashing-carjacker-was-having-a-very-bad-day
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 12:09pm
- kowtow
  
  Ah but stuff made a big deal of one of the TVNZ presenters in tears over baby seizures and their boy wonder Campbell bleating about institutionalised racism.
  
  Simple fact is there’s an awful lot of parents in this country who should be no where near having custody of vulnerable babes . And it ain’t got nothin’ to do with race.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:59am
thirteenstars

More beheadings in France because a cartoon was shown, and because President Macron defended the right to free speech.

But have no fear New Zealanders because this kind of violent reaction will not be visited upon our gentle shores. No, no. Next year, Ardern’s government will pass laws banning “hate speech” making public displays of things like the Muhammed cartoon illegal.

It’s worth it, right? Give up a little freedom for a lot more security. Sounds like a good deal. Don’t offend folks and they won’t attack you.

Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words will get me beheaded

Or something like that.

Also good to see best buddies Ardern and Macron are at odds. The President defending the right to show the cartoon and Ardern about to make it illegal.
27 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 8:55am
I remember when

The danger of the covid lockdowns is not the result of the present pandemic.
The danger is what happens next time a pandemic appears and how will we react.
Fear has become a major weapon – remember when we always said we will stand firm against whatever the danger.
Fear – fear of climate change, fear of covid, fear of islam, fear of dangers for our children, fear of racism, fear of freedom of speech, fear of black and white, a never ending list.
11 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:01am
- MCos
  
  You worried about fear.
  Kiwiblog is the last place you should be looking for solutions.
  Nothing but fear mongering this morning.
  
  4 15
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:35am
I remember when

The Wellington regional [population is expected to grow by 200,000 in the next 30 years.
It is expected that the biggest increase (40%) will settle between Tawa and Levin. Another 33% will move into the Hutt Valley or the Wairarapa.
A housing shortage is already contributing to “homelessness, overcrowding and poor health and education outcomes.”
For the first time Wellington, Wairarapa and Horowhenua regions have joined together to plan for the future.
1 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:17am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Hard to believe that Porirua has the highest house rentals in the country.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/123240150/porirua-becomes-new-zealands-most-expensive-district-to-rent
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:42am
burt

Paris beheading – Just remember – They are us.
21 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:19am
- Catgurl13
  
  Until they don’t get their way or they are offended by something……
  
  20 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:27am
- Sofia
  
  Burt, view the video of Ardern electioneering at Al Noor Mosque and you could wonder if another possibility of “They are us” is that “One can simply become them, for a little while”
  24 seconds in
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/greens-fear-act-has-moved-to-the-extreme-right-over-call-to-abolish-hard-left-human-rights-commission.html
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:47am
- oldfella
  
  burt: Spiked again nails it re Western cowardice in called out Muslim terrorism…
  “And still they’re silent. Even following the decapitation of an elderly woman while she was praying at church. Even following the stabbing to death of two others whose only crime was to be Christians attending the Notre-Dame church in Nice. Even after these latest acts of barbaric intolerance, of Islamo-fascism, as the mayor of Nice aptly described it this morning, the West’s self-styled guardians of liberal thought and usually noisy anti-fascists are silent. No hashtags, no angry commentary, no clear, unconditional expression of solidarity with the French Republic. Just another round of craven hush, of looking the other way.”
  https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/10/29/the-shameful-silence-on-france/
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 11:02am
- Jack5
  
  Hijack the hijab! Jacinderella doesn’t have a patent on it.
  
  What happen if all French women wore hijabs in response?
  
  Would the terrorists be too superstitious to hack through the head gear?
  
  Ma’am, please uncover your head, I want to cut it off.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 11:46am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    These might be more effective …
    
    https://www.instructables.com/Chainmail-coif/
    
    …espcially when paired with a phased-plasma rifle in the 40-gigawatt range…
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 3:08pm
WaynelSexton

Oregon health official dresses as Jacinda Ardern to announce Covid 19 death toll

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8892311/Oregon-health-official-dresses-CLOWN-announce-Covid-19-d.html
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:24am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I fail to see any difference
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:10am
cmm

Much being made of the Alpha Electro elctric plane…

I’d call it a microlight more than a plane (and a piss-poor one at that). It can only take 180kg of payload – so two small people (by today’s standards). It only has a range of 75nautical miles (less than 140km).

In comparison many microlights can go twice as fast and have 5 to 10 times the range.

In fact microlights can
3 0
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:35am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  But perfect for training and cheaply doing circuits required to maintain your pilot’s license. Operating costs will be $20-30/hour less than petrol powered plane in high tax NZ.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 9:57am
- G152
  
  So all it (alpha Electrical) can do (safely) is fly circuits.
  Cross countries are out.
  Max Clears Bantams (B22) are the where to go..
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:08am
- Jack5
  
  Can’t see why Christchurch ratepayers should be subsidising it.
  
  The Christchurch Star reports the City Council gave $40,000 to the Christchurch purchaser, Electric Air. The ground was to help it become a “local catalyst for the technology and future opportunities.”
  
  Picking business winners isn’t part of the City Council’s job.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 2:08pm
I remember when

When we consider the Islamic situation there are a few points that perhaps needs special consideration.
The first is that the terrorist attacks mean that the religion is always in danger of attracting deranged members.
Secondly, the girls having to dress differently to other girls at school means that assimilation is more difficult. This may mean that the next generation are less likely to be part of the increasingly New Zealander trend.
Many Irish immigrants will be well aware of the length of time it takes (if ever) for views to change.
Thirdly, if you are treated differently you will consider yourself different, so not an ordinary New Zealander.
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:45am
- Ian Hawthorn
  
  Little kids at primary school don’t care how they are dressed. If you visit one of our primary schools you’ll find the girls happily mixing along and making friends and frenemies as per usual for little girls without much regard for who is wearing a head scarf.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:41am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Many Irish immigrants will be well aware of the length of time it takes (if ever) for views to change.’
  
  Not sure what that means . Most , if not all modern “Irish” terrorism was extreme ethno, nationalist, socialist, republican, and had very little to do purely with religion.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:54am
  - rockape
    
    As someone who spent some time in Belfast with the security forces I can say it was more to do with crime and extortion than any of the above.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 11:18am
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      As someone who spent time in Belfast in incident response it was very definitely based on hating The Other (religion) to rally support for the bad actors’ crimes and extortions.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 3:14pm
Ruahine

Is this the day that Granny needs to contact her lawyer?
9 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 9:50am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  2pm and Gran will know
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:12am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Ted Cruz shoving it up Twitter CEO, calling him out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhg4dtuhvNk&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3ZpXYgkxQsyXlsdzT_0N4njs22mLyJH3M6eY_FDox3j-CnbEh1tcBKIWM
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:16am
Don Beckett

How’s this for a real chuckle 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJDXj6-54wE

Now Trumps going to be accused of inciting violence 😉
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:32am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Tell me again that Biden will win.
https://rumble.com/vavrtx-trump-invites-press-sec-on-stage-plays-video-of-her-on-giant-screen-just-to.html?
9 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  5 rallies a day, with thousands
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:34am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  People are arriving at 6.30am for a 7pm rally
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 11:05am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nr48HXdfgU
Merkel Urges US, and EU to Unite Against China.

Chancellor Merkel is sure of a Trump victory on Nov 3rd.
She realises a new diplomatic strategy is needed. High
ranking German officials have urged US-German
cooperation against China. She’s being realistic.
She knows NATO is a thing of the past. She doesn’t
want Berlin sidelined. She will retire next year. She
doesn’t want her successors to blame her for leaving
Germany in a bad position. Until recently, Trump
has ignored Europe. She wants Europe to stay
relevant. A pro-China tag would render Europe
irrelevant to Trump.
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:36am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqEzBGbhJQo
Labour Suspends Corbyn.

Sir Keir Starmer has suspended, and his whip has been withdrawn.
It’s the PFJ v the PFJ! Ha ha! KS was worried about Corbyns
antisemitism. Sturgeon wants to sic the cops on those who use ‘wrongspeak’
at home.
12 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:37am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMgF0A7gxdo

It’s voting time at NPC University.
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:37am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Jaspinda and Labour, and Greens take note.
The best take on socialism yet:
A guy looked at my Corvette the other day and said, ” I wonder how many people could have been fed for the money that sports car cost.”
I replied, “I am not sure, but it fed a lot of families in Bowling Green, Kentucky who built it; it fed the people who make the tires; it fed the people who made the components that went into it; it fed the people in the copper mine who mined the copper for the wires; it fed people in Decatur IL at Caterpillar who made the trucks that hauled the copper ore.
“It also fed the trucking people who hauled it from the plant to the dealer and fed the people working at the dealership and their families.
“BUT… I have to admit, I guess I really don’t know exactly how many people it fed.”
That is the difference between the capitalism and welfare mentality:
–When you buy something, you put money in people’s pockets, and give them dignity for their skills and hard work.
–When you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self worth.
Capitalism is freely giving your money in exchange for something of value.
Socialism is taking your money against your will and shoving something down your throat that you never asked for.
28 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:38am
- TWEEDSE
  
  Thanks for that Steve. Well said.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 1:59pm
  - RichardX
    
    Only Steve didn’t say it
    As Harriet is wont to do, it is an unattributed copy and paste from elsewhere.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 7:08pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Of coarse it is a copy and paste
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 31, 2020 8:19am
I remember when

Auckland Unlimited:
Auckland’s new economic and cultural agency.
The name will be used by the merged agencies Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development and Regional Facilities Auckland from December.
It will be responsible for tourism, major events, economic development and the city’s major facilities such as the Aotea Centre, Mt Smart Stadium, the Zoo and others.
There is a combined budget of $175 million and in February had nearly 800 permanent staff.
5 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:39am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Auckland ~~Unlimited~~ out of control
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 1:17pm
cmm

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300145698/security-operation-around-sentencing-of-christchurch-mosque-terrorist-cost-police-almost-150000

Bollocks stuff. Do you think the cops handed around a hat and asked everyone to put in $15 for the Tarrant fund?

If didn’t cost the cops a cent. It cost us tax payers!
17 0
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:47am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Strange how the left think. Govt has no money other than Taxpayers’ money
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 10:55am
  - cmm
    
    No Steve you’re completely wrong.
    
    The only reason we have any money is because the Cindy prints it for us.
    
    10 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 10:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      What a kind person she is
      
      6 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      October 30, 2020 11:03am
- theoldbloke
  
  To put in perspective.
  It didnt COST the police or Gummint $150,000.
  Its just that the operation was costed as $150,000 inside the police budget.
  
  Would love to see the breakdown of all the costs.
  Lots of meals for cops?
  Renta barriers?
  
  AND
  A review as to why they spent so much?
  
  Another propaganda exercise?
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 12:55pm
thirteenstars

The hate speech laws in Scotland are notorious and oppressive as they are, but now we have the spectre of ordinary dinner conversations being liable for prosecution:

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/scottish-hate-crime-bill-would-criminalize-offensive-dinner-table-conversations

That’s what’s coming to NZ next year.
15 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:48am
- Classic Liberal
  
  “ justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said journalists, writers and theater directors could also be dragged into the courts if their work is deemed to have stirred up “prejudice.”
  
  To get an idea of Yousaf’s mentality, he previously gave a speech to the Scottish Parliament in which he complained that the vast majority of senior positions in Scottish authorities were filled by white people.”
  
  Sounds just like certain complaints that we have too many pictures of old white men in parliament.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 1:00pm
Ian Hawthorn

I’m looking forward to reading DPF’s 10 worst things about Trump which he said would be up yesterday. I wonder – is he having trouble writing it?
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 10:49am
- Jules99
  
  Cnn has a summary he can copy.
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 12:06pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

You won’t find this reported in NZ.
https://bongino.com/u-s-economy-roars-back-33-in-third-quarter?
9 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:00am
RJ

EXCLUSIVE: A
@TheJusticeDept official confirms that in 2019, the
@FBI opened up a criminal investigation into “Hunter Biden and his associates,” focused on allegations of money-laundering, and that it remains open and active today. More very soon on your
@WeAreSinclairstations.

https://twitter.com/JamesRosenTV/status/1321927288716480515

EXCLUSIVE: Tony Bobulinski tells
@WeAreSinclair he was questioned by six @FBI agents, with counsel present, for five hours on October 23, listing him as a “material witness” in an ongoing investigation focused on Hunter Biden and his associates. His cell phones were examined.

https://twitter.com/JamesRosenTV/status/1321932396091068417
9 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:01am
alloytoo

Tired of seeing woke adverts on line for stuff you are not interested in supporting?

Have you considered clicking on them.

Clicking on them is likely to cost the advertiser money for no material benefit.

Just a thought.
6 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:06am
- thirteenstars
  
  Clicking on the ad will result in you being targeted for more of the same ads. And it’s not that one particular advertiser you will be targeted by but all advertisers in that general group. It’s like feeding a stray cat.
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 11:16am
- RJ
  
  Instal ublock, having a decent ad blocking extension is important
  
  Privacy badger is also good to have as well as ublock
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 12:26pm
oldfella

This is horrifying – and written by someone who was born female, but became a trans-man.
WTF are we doing to our kids in the name of diversity?
++
Forget What Gender Activists Tell You. Here’s What Medical Transition Looks Like
https://quillette.com/2020/10/06/forget-what-gender-activists-tell-you-heres-what-medical-transition-looks-like/
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:16am
- DeepBlue
  
  Next census is going to ask about gender. We might then get an understanding of how extensive these issues are in our population.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 1:44pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Honest Dem ad //
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UvavR4AhLk&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1Cgpzev54eqNNa4kOcYfNJylbpb2zvFxuXWjtag2F6OAxRijNklQ3BVKs
1 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:16am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Guess who is not getting a laptop for christmas this year?
9 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:21am
Batman

Hooooo boy! This story has some legs I suspect… Or is that a face?

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/how-fake-persona-laid-groundwork-hunter-biden-conspiracy-deluge-n1245387

So the core of the Hunter story was a fictional person created to hide the identity of the real author.

Hmmmmm, I wonder why?
4 14
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 11:51am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Yeah yeah yeah. Trump trying dirty tricks to discredit Biden? Sure
  
  2 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 2:53pm
  - RJ
    
    There is nothing in the article, it has nothing to do with the hard drive, nothing to do with the sex tapes, nothing to do with Tony’s evidence, and nothing to do with what the fbi is currently investigating. It is a nothing article from nothing people who refuse to report all the evidence that is being supplied. Some people turn an eye to corruption, child abuse, rape, drug abuse, Says more about them than anything and their companies will struggle to survive from this as it explodes more. But it appears some of these people are highly tied up in the Epstein case as well so no wonder they are turning a blind eye to it
    
    Looks like a cbs affiliate is starting to run the stories, https://cbs12.com/news/nation-world/tony-bobulinksi-i-have-now-put-myself-in-huge-risk-for-the-sake-of-the-american-people
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 3:03pm
Catgurl13

That’s quite cheap considering all the votes it bought Jacinda the saviour??
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-mosque-shootings-340000-bill-to-sentence-gunman-brenton-tarrant-to-sentencing/U3V6IWD7VLSZSQBPSTJYGYKRDY/
5 3
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 12:37pm
theoldbloke

To put in perspective.
It didnt COST the police or Gummint $150,000.
Its just that the operation was costed as $150,000 inside the police budget.

Would love to see the breakdown of all the costs.
Lots of meals for cops?
Renta barriers?

AND
A review as to why they spent so much?

Another propaganda exercise?
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 1:31pm
- cmm
  
  It cost US $150k. Didn’t cost the gummint or the cops a cent.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 5:49pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Will this happen after Nov 3rd in the US?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLEp79UDyOU
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 2:57pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

In the Trump 10 worst post he is labeled a narcisist, then there is this:
https://uniteamericafirst.com/still-bitter-hillary-clinton-says-it-makes-her-sick-to-my-stomach-to-think-that-wed-have-four-more-years-of-trump/?
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 3:44pm
- RJ
  
  Makes me sick to my stomach the kind of photos being released now. Gateway have released a naked hunter standing next to a minor, who they have blurred out, someone else has a photo of what they claim is hunter with an underage Obama daughter in bed. This guy is bleepin sick. The same site has photos blurred out of a young naked child
  
  But it’s ok people still pretend this is Russian disinformation and nothing real. Sickos are as bad as hunter. This scandal will damage those media outlets protecting the story
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 5:50pm
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    “Paging Batman to the Denial Phone.”
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    October 30, 2020 8:17pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The description is in the link – read it first.
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/americans-are-in-a-frantic-rush-to-buy-military-gear-before-the-election/?
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 3:47pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/kamala-harriss-cackle-to-be-played-over-hells-loudspeakers-for-all-eternity/?
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 4:26pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Time traveler: What are you watching?
Me: Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Time traveler: Senior or Junior?
3 2
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 4:34pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

“All I am asking, is why aren’t the border collies stopping the coyotes?”
AOC.
//
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 4:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/545491349667859/permalink/678058569744469/
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 5:45pm
cmm

The government of hugz and love?

Not so long ago politicians were making a noise about shutting down the loan shark industry.

Did those same politicians ever look into the extortion that is the IRD or council rates penalties etc?

Two days late on the IRD payment (they keep on shifting the dates – bastards!) and I get pinged with 1.5% interest penalties. That’s 833% interest.

That would make a loan shark blush.
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 5:48pm
- RJ
  
  To be fair, Jacinda has taken the country to the brink of bankruptcy, they need to get all the money they can, so pay your covid fine, whoops I mean covid interest penalty
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 6:14pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  IRD have gone “efficient”. Penalty and interest charges are now being imposed automatically by their software. I doubt if the Commissioner’s discretion is acknowledged.
  They have caused a great deal of strife to a client. Up till recently their accounting processes seemed out of whack–they probably had multiple systems not fully integrated.
  
  1 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  October 30, 2020 6:50pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/123256201/wellington-airport-the-buyer-of-hot-property-arnold-the-former-control-tower
What is it about this outcome that makes me think of some sort of manipulation / insider-trading / outright bloody corruption ?
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
October 30, 2020 6:40pm

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Hutt South Labour has to start disclosing union sweetheart deal

Housing waiting list now up 349% under Labour »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 13K other subscribers

Highlights

Target achieved II
Good progress on attendance
Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments

Links

1 News Verian Poll: Big two parties at 30-year low, Opportunity nears 5% threshold
Breaking Views
'The Myth of Authoritarian Efficiency'
Not PC
No tears for Starmer
The Standard
NRL Predictions for Round 17
Stats Chat
Word of the day
Hompaddock
The Story of Lola, Ruth, Mayah and the Strolling Bulgarians
No Minister
How Chlöe is taxing our credibility when she says flawed figures flowed from a “typo”
Point of Order
8pm LIVE TONIGHT The Bradbury Group with Labour Leader Chris Hipkins, NZCTU President Sandra Grey + Political Panel – Matthew Hooton, Fran O’Sullivan + Max Harris
The Daily Blog
The Partition: Ireland Divided 1885 to 1925 by Charles Townshend (2021)
Utopia
Time to tax the rich
No Right Turn
Media Link: “A View from Afar” on Systemic Change.
Kiwipolitico
Alex Berenson on Fatherhood Manifesto, Marijuana & Biden’s COVID
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
People Power
NZCPR
Levies as end-runs around the Generic Tax Policy Process
Offsetting Behaviour
A central banker’s fiction
Croaking Cassandra
THE WORKING FROM HOME RACKET BY PUBLIC SERVANTS
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Get Vaccinated Tomorrow Or Shut Your Pie Hole
Cactus Kate
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker

[email protected]

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d

Share this:

Like this: