General Debate 16 February 2021

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CJames

One of the blogs I follow is The Risk-Monger The Risk-Monger – Let’s examine hard decisions! (risk-monger.com) . It is written by an academic, David Zaruk, who had dirtied his hands in industry for a number of years before going back to varsity in Belgium. The main thing that got me started on his site was he was destroying the Green arguments against Roundup. David could spot how the reports were corrupted with data that had been fiddled or the inconvenient bits just ignored. This was later extended to the neonics. He did a good enough job rubbishing them to become a major target for activist sliming.
More recently, he has turned his attention to mismanagement of Covid. This has given him plenty of ammunition. In one blogpost, he writes” In a millennial world of purpose-driven decisions, every food choice, every action, every utterance has to be linked to some virtue overtly expressed (in part for self-fulfilment and, in equal part, for righteous condemnation of others). Our judgements of our leaders centre not on their competence or actions, but how well they can identify and express the values we hold dear. The most popular leaders at present, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, are widely loved (outside of their countries) because of how they identify themselves (posture) with voluminous virtues that they overtly use to shield their management weaknesses and sheer incompetence. “ Ouch.
The Top Ten KeystoneCorona Moments of 2020: Part 4/10 – Leading by Righteousness – The Risk-Monger (risk-monger.com)

It must be really bad if someone half a world away can spot and call out the virtue signalling by our PM instead of her showing leadership.
The essays this is part of make good reading for a wet day.
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February 16, 2021 8:00am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Our media (cough cough) does not possess the intellectual rigor to recognise the emperoress is Lady Godiva demonstrating how transport will be in New Zealand at the end of her reign.
  
  Oh, and another $55 mil . . .
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:31am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    You mean the emperoress has no clothes.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:05am
    - oldfella
      
      Mr B, if you mean our PTPM, that mental image has triggered me. Quick, where’s the nearest safe space?
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:37am
    - Bloody Dago
      
      These guys are well clothed and going in the opposite direction:
      https://joannenova.com.au/2021/02/un-greening-mexico-gives-up-on-renewables-revives-coal-industry/
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:43am
    - Paulus
      
      Mr Blobby
      Not a pleasant sight !
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:13am
- tf78
  
  CJ – an ABC commentator described Daniel Andrews : “A Provincial, tin pot, media addicted, windbag”.
  Sounds like someone else very close to home.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:42am
  - GT Build
    
    And yet he is nominated for some political leader of the year award surely someone is pulling his chain on that
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:48am
  - Rusty
    
    Dan Andrews is responsible for 800 Victorians dying of covid compared to 89 for the rest of Aust and he still keeps his job.
    
    Of course our lefty/woke media wont report this but if Andrews was right wing he would be condemned by our media.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:00am
    - oldfella
      
      Rusty, he’s Victoria’s Andrew Cuomo.
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:38am
  - Bloody Dago
    
    Jonesy just flushed Commie Dan and Jackass down the dunny on Sky News….would be uplifting to hear a few media jocks in NZ dish that shellacking out on a live broadcast…….yea yea I know the sound of a thousand keyboards bashing out the rage from the sky screamers.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:37pm
- Tall Man
  
  I liked this bit
  
  “Wolves manage risks, innovate and seek to solve problems. Sheep run from uncertainty and apply precaution to prevent technologies that may cause harm from developing. The shepherds (government) give the sheep what they believe they want and attack the wolves.”
  
  Very apt today I think.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:57am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  The level of miss management is staggering.
  
  If this was a real pandemic and let me make this very clear, it is not, we would have been completely fcuked by now.
  
  What we have is a massive overreaction after a not reacting at all, with a period on incompetent ineptnes in the middle.
  
  All covered over with a very competent performance of virtual signalling, with a mixture of propaganda and out right lies.
  
  The sheeple never saw it coming and have no idea what is happening.
  
  It’s brilliant really up to the point that it will eventually and inevitably fail.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:14am
- kloyd0306
  
  Clearly posted too early for milky, battyman, brian mcdonald, etc
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:01am
CJames

Seen Texas is having state wide power cuts? In the freezing conditions, the wind turbines stopped working and the gas fired power stations have run out of gas. Of course, solar cells are useless under the snow at night. The estimate is they will be 20000MW short. That is over 30 big coal fired or nuke units running flat out. Not something that people have in reserve.
This is a harbinger of the world’s future. You won’t have electricity when you most need it. All brought to you by a caring, kind government.
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February 16, 2021 8:00am
- peterwn
  
  Genesis is anticipating issues this winter and is de-mothballing the third 250MW coal fired unit to help out (the fourth unit is being cannibalised for spares as needed and cannot be recommissioned). Genesis cannot be ‘blamed’ for this, it is merely helping out other gentailers with low lake levels.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:47am
  - RiP NZ
    
    Where will the coal come from ?
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:08am
    - Stephen Russell
      
      Maybe they’ll buy it from China?
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:45am
      - Justitia
        
        @ Stephen Russell: China is desperate for coal, suffering its most severe winter in half a century, and is considering allowing in Australian imports again, as well as buying from Indonesia: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-15/china-may-allow-imports-of-some-stranded-australian-coal-cargoes
        
        The reduction in the Sun’s irradiance as we enter the Grand Solar Minimum until at least the 2050s appears to be having an impact bringing much more severe winters in the northern hemisphere. And for the southern half of New Zealand, this has already been “the year without a summer”. So let’s shut down our natural gas industry and destock our farms as we turn the clock back to Year Zero under the guidance of Dear Leader. True genius.
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:25am
      - Raphael
        
        China is buying it like mad from South Africa
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:02pm
    - Paulus
      
      As regularly from Indonesia via special facilities in Port Tauranga and by rail to Waikato storage.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:15am
    - peterwn
      
      Probably Indonesia. Genesis maintains a stockpile of coal since coal cannot be obtained on a ‘just in time’ basis.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:45am
    - hullkiwi
      
      We’ve been getting coal from Indonesia.
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:21pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      Mean while business is booming for ex SOE Stockton Coal Mine on West coast.
      High Prices.
      Great investment by Bathurst Minning.
      As end of the day, there will always be a Market for Coking Coal.
      Instead we import shitty lignite Coal for Power generation.
      The hunger for coal will never disappear in our life times.
      If you want to go green then Nuclear is the only viable option.
      Thats basically the facts. ( And Science)
      
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      February 16, 2021 4:53pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    Peter, NZ has a very real power crisis looming, all because of:
    1. A failure over the past 15 years to build new capacity;
    2. De-commissioning plants that were not at end of life;
    3. Hair brain policies of Jacinda & co;
    4. The RMA not allowing for consideration of alternative methods to dispose of waste other than landfill; and the real kicker;
    5. Net population growth, in the past year 100k people have been added to NZ’s population. Most have settle in Auckland, and there is no power generation of any significance north of Huntly.
    
    This is not to mention, the nonsense of converting vehicle fleets to electric.
    
    Hence, NZ is going to be faced with very real power shortages if something very real is not done soon!
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:30pm
    - Justitia
      
      I know, let’s go nuclear! The Climate Commission’s refusal to consider nuclear power shows what a nakedly political bunch of charlatans they are. That, and likening farmers to “whalers”. Who do you think pays for your over-inflated salaries, you wankers?
      
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      February 16, 2021 4:56pm
- sooty
  
  Yes, but it only a short term thing and will be back to normal in the spring!!!
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:57am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Well in Auckland we have a water shortage brought on by incompetence.
  
  The ongoing sewerage crisis has been hidden from view.
  
  We must be due for a another power crisis.
  
  The one area we seem to be excelling in is propaganda, because this is far from my idea of the world’s most livable city.
  
  Meanwhile to create a roading crisis we are dropping speed limits in the city to keep motor vehicles on the road longer, more congestion, taking out and discouraging parking, desperately subsidizing public transport at huge cost to justify the stupidity.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:39am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Wait until Phil Goof slaps a 20% rate rise to pay for public transport projects and living wage for council employees.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:33am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    That’s true, but at least in our nation’s capital the good citizens have a competent, high-functioning and well-led Council, a Mayor who understands and respects property rights, water and waste-water infrastructure the envy of the world, and a genuine expectation of modest (or no) rates increases.
    
    Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Sorry, just kidding!
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:48am
- kloyd0306
  
  ….and the global warmist nutjobs are suddenly silent.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:03am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Yeh, and snow that fell a week ago in the west of Germany didnt melt after 5 days (which is usual). Instead it froze and is still there as solid ice.
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:15pm
Happychappy

Labours Prime Minister just can’t be found out making school girl mistakes so resort back to playing the blame game for their own stupidity.
Is it just this Government haven’t got the nous to organize the simple things or is it just plain stupidity.
Air New Zealand high risk airline crew stay in Hotelin the middle of the Auckland CBD until Newshub reported it last week.
Air New Zealand didnt tell the Ministry the high risk crew were their- so the Ministry thought they were staying in Manukau and near the airport.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2021/02/ministry-of-health-had-no-idea-air-nz-s-highest-risk-crew-were-staying-in-auckland-cbd-hotel.html
This is what happens when you try to take shots at a former Boss from Air New Zealand and try to blacken his name to score political points because now he is a MP for the the National Party.
Maybe the media should hold the Government to account by printing how often and how many times they have blamed others for their own stupidity since the became the Government.
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February 16, 2021 8:01am
- Paulus
  
  Understand that the top Law Partner Linda Clark is now advising Ardern, as I understand how to deflect telling the truth in an interview.
  Linda was an expert as I remember in deflection.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:44am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Also note that she is on the board of NZ on Air and will be distributing Jacinda’s $55m media bribes.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:18am
  - Bloody Dago
    
    Marxist Playbook: Deny, obfuscate and blame
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:19am
    - Justitia
      
      Saboteurs!
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:47am
  - plc
    
    You mean Linda Clark, Board Member of the independent NZ on Air
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:42am
  - amospicton
    
    She would do well to reflect on her own ‘evolution’ – remember the debate with Bill English where she said she never lied and would never do so? Now she’s getting lessons on how to do it better. Lessons from an individual with a say in distributing the $55m media bribe. What a disgrace.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:19am
- sooty
  
  Why wouldn’t they stay in the CBD?
  There’s no night life at the airport!
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:59am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  We all rightly take the piss at the compliant media.
  
  But where is the opposition in all this.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:41am
- Observer of Life
  
  Happy: Not true. “High risk” crew were in Manukau and quite happy there. MBIE (I believe) told them they had to move into the city. TBH they’re not that “high risk” with the hoops they have to jump through whilst overseas.
  
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  February 17, 2021 3:52pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Prof Michael Baker on the unlikelihood that Covid-19 has been transmitted via surfaces.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/lately/audio/2018783698/the-first-24-hours-of-new-zealand-s-latest-lockdown
(from about 6 min in)

The whole interview is worth listening to.
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February 16, 2021 8:08am
- cmm
  
  Maggy, my one eye-roll to these statements is that it is damn hard to measure any of this stuff and what assumptions have they made when making these measurements?
  
  There are no generic surfaces. A stainless steel counter top is a very different surface to a woolen blanket or an unsealed wooden surface.
  
  As an example of what I mean, look at the methodologies they used to measure the effectiveness of masks. They measured just one or two factors: the mask’s ability to capture large droplets effectively and then on that basis alone say “mask X is 93.5% effective”.
  
  Yet they only captured a couple of multiple factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a mask so their findings are pretty useless, but still asserted with authority.
  
  Now, the studies on surfaces might be more thorough, I have not looked myself. It might make an interesting bit of probing.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:21am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I think a lot has to do with the fact that it is very expensive to ensure decent air ventilation in quarantine quarters…
    
    or it is hard to admit that the procedures to keep infected folk away from uninfected folk weren’t working.
    
    Baker doesn’t reckon anyone caught the virus off a lift button, or a rubbish lid, or a frozen fish or a piece of laundry.. or any other tale we’ve been fed.
    
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    February 16, 2021 8:27am
    - cmm
      
      Yup. You don’t get infected by just one virus – you need millions of the buggers.
      
      No way are you going to transfer enough by touching a button (unless maybe it is covered in huge sneezeballs).
      
      As I’ve said before a cruise liner is a hotel on water and a hotel is a cruise liner on the beach.
      
      Ventilation is the most likely spreader (along with mixing of cohorts).
      
      Good old camping in tents would be far better (and cheaper).
      
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      February 16, 2021 8:33am
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        I note the the very expensive virus incubation boxes, called public transport are still running.
        
        In a real pandemic they would have been the first to be shut down.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:45am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Of interest to me when flying 2 or so years ago, The cabin temperature ( AC) would be lucky to 18 degrees.
        Now when flying its that bloody hot.
        Effectively no AC.
        Is this then No filtration on board a plane.
        I heard at start of COVID all airlines were praising how safe air filtration on board had no chance of spreading?
        Really i guess is what I’ am getting at is Airplane travel now more condusive to catching virus inflight?
        Any ideas?
        
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        February 16, 2021 4:46pm
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Actually he said it hasn’t been proved.
      
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      February 16, 2021 8:33am
      - cmm
        
        Nothing has been proved (well not in the way a serious scientist would use the word).
        
        “Proof” is a big word. Proof implies a level of understanding that we just do not have with viruses and how they interact with us.
        
        Heck, we still don’t even have proof about the most basic stuff like how effective masks are.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:05am
      - Brian McDonald
        
        If it hasn’t been proved then why risk it when there are an economy and livelihoods at risk. For example, if it hasn’t been disproved that the laundry was not the transmitter, or the laundry bag, the person who delivered it, etc. Tighten it up so we don’t end up with the ridiculous it has been proved nonsense. Especially if a link is not established.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:42am
      - Jack5
        
        That’s a very good interview with Professor Michael Baker on the status of countering the Covid-19 academic.
        
        I tip my hat to Radio NZ for giving Baker a light rein to respond to listeners and the night-time radio host.
        
        Karyn Hay was the ideal interviewer: relaxed, no ego intruding. It was as though Baker was an academic neighbour chatting to a couple of us next-door tradies.
        
        Hay’s a calm spot in the Woke media storm.
        
        Baker was informative on issues from test types; to the importance of masks relative to surface dangers; and evem to mention of Taiwan’s outstanding Covid response without lockdown.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:51am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @Brian McDonald
        
        You can apply the precautionary principle to the point of ridiculousness.
        Everyday, I work in the garden and run the risk of breathing in some deadly fungal spore.. but I’m not going to stop doing what I’ve been doing for 50+ years.
        
        I am a couple of kilos overweight… this could put a strain on my joints, my heart, my lungs…
        
        Will I cut back on my calories at lunchtime and swim a couple of kilos tomorrow?
        
        Probably not…. Life is for living, not for existing in a sterile bubble.
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:59am
      - cmm
        
        Beautifully put Maggy.
        
        If you worry too much about protecting your life you throw it away.
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:19pm
  - SGA
    
    There are no generic surfaces. A stainless steel counter top is a very different surface to a woolen blanket or an unsealed wooden surface.
    
    Moreover, I would bet that there are a number of concomitant environmental factors involved too (e.g., is the surface in a cool or hot place, is it exposed to direct sunlight, is there any background moisture and how quickly will it dry, and so on?).
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:08am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      And the idea that something minuscule which was airborne or transferred by touch immediately dies on contacting a towel for example. Or something “landed” cannot become airborne again. People should not be comfortable about what they don’t know in a situation like that which Covid has brought.
      
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      February 16, 2021 9:53am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Masks do not stop viruses entering through the eyes.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:26am
    - cmm
      
      Masks do not stop viruses entering through the mouth and nose either.
      
      The only thing masks do is capture large drops expelled during coughing/sneezing.
      
      They do not stop aerosols (tiny droplets) expelled during coughing, sneezing, or even normal breathing.
      
      If anyone thinks that aerosols are too small to matter – think again. A single aerosol droplet has enough space to harbour a million viruses.
      
      Masks are absolutely pointless except:
      1) On the way out: capturing large droplets when a very sick person sneezes/coughs.
      2) On the way in: If someone sneezes/coughs big drops straight in your face.
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:40am
      - SGA
        
        Masks are absolutely pointless except:
        
        I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. If masks reduce the risk of transmission significantly then they aren’t necessarily pointless even if they aren’t perfect. Same is true for hand washing and social distancing, I imagine. Do you have data on whether such measures significantly reduce the rate of transmission? If they do, then they aren’t necessarily a waste of time in terms of controlling spread of a disease in a community, even if the don’t prevent it completely (which is the big picture issue).
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:48pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Interesting comment. I remember the eye-route-of-infection arguments well from the HIV days in the 90s. Whilst it is technically possibly, seems to be vanishingly rare, at least for HIV. Eyes are terrible things for infectious disease, the optic nerve has a direct path to the brain and the eye itself is immune privileged (i.e. the immune system doesn’t get in much) so really hard to treat and dangerous.
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:31pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        Okay everyone, if you’re interested enough to uptick, then I give you acanthamoeba:
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthamoeba
        
        I used to work with a top notch parasitologist (they are few and far between these days) who would borrow my light microscope to look at samples that the State Health Dept. sent him for diagnosis when it was “too hard” basket. When he first asked me if he could use my fancy ‘scope, I said on one condition. He immediately responded that he promised to clean it extensively after each use… I laughed and said, no the condition is that I get to see them too (!). Acanthamoeba was one of the earliest examples, they are truly beautiful assassins, esp. for contact lense wearers…
        
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        February 16, 2021 4:10pm
  - GT Build
    
    Just reaching for something to blame other than themselves just like the frozen peas last year
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:51am
- Andrei
  
  Why listen to that mans babblings? – he is an expert™ enjoying his fifteen minutes of provincial fame.
  
  Meanwhile viruses will do what natural selection dictates they do if they wish to survive and that is adapt their propagation strategies to optimnize their reproduction.
  
  And we should do what we should do if we wish to survive into the future and that is GET ON WITH OUR LIVES, without autistic experts™ focused on computer screens giving the Government cover to put everything on hold in the name of “saving lives”…
  
  …which should really mean protecting the patients in dementia and respiratory wards as best as is humanly possible from respiratory viruses…
  
  ..and accepting that life is a finite thing for everybody…
  
  ..and recognizing hunkering down, avoiding close contact with other people and all the social distancing nonsense is not the best use of the time for people enjoying their prime years and who are at zero risk of dying from this malady
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:33am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Meanwhile viruses will do what natural selection dictates they do if they wish to survive and that is adapt their propagation strategies to optimnize their reproduction.
    
    Spot on. Past Coronavirus studies show that a virus changes more frequently in response to increasing herd immunity. It is adapting* in an attempt to stay relevant in the face of natural opposition.
    
    *the word mutation is often incorrectly used here. Only genes mutate. Virus’s do not.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:25am
    - Pharmachick
      
      Kind of KK. Viruses have genes that can mutate. If the mutation increases the fitness of the virus, the virus survives better, so that is a favoured adaptive response. But vice-versa is also possible. We got unlucky with this SARS-CoV-2 that there seems to be several mutations that are driving it towards transmissibility, lethality and immune bypass, but not enough to burn through the hosts (us) fast enough for it to burn out. Horrible little thing that it is.
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:34pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Thanks Pharmachick. I always learn stuff reading your comments. Appreciated.
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:02pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  Betcha ScoMo gave Cindy the vaccine instructions (written in crayon) and told her administer like this or no Kiwis coming across the border.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:02am
  - JackRabbit
    
    I’m skeptical about the vaccine. … [Deleted – don’t wish any suggestion such as this.]
    
    What has been discovered with the mRNA vaccine for Ebola, is there is no way to measure the effectiveness. You literally have to infect people to see if it works. In Africa, deaths due to Ebola are ramping up in people that were inoculated with the Ebola mRNA Vaccine.
    
    All because vaccine companies were pushing the concept that treating Ebola has to happen over and over again, whereas a vaccine is a one off. This idea does not work for the flu, since the virus keeps changing, why would it work for Ebola and Covid-19?
    
    [Mod. Note: Again, approved as based on your opinion in the absence of valid references.]
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:59am
    - krazykiwi
      
      JackRabbit, Feel like the teacher is marking your homework here? You got an ‘approved’ though. That’s like a gold star. Well done. /sarc
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:47am
      - theoldbloke
        
        Just remember. Censorship is the new normal 🙂
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:06pm
- Frank the tank
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/02/coronavirus-what-are-the-chances-auckland-could-end-up-at-level-4.html
  
  What do a physics lecturer, microbiologist and mathematician know about infectious diseases?
  
  looky, looky:
  
  https://www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/our-team/executive-team/
  
  Then people do some research linking this organization to the government and funding lines
  
  And yet our feckless 4th estate reports these are ‘independent’ experts all things covid.
  
  I’d say something smells shitty here however the optics demonstrate a lake of diarrhea……
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:00am
I remember when

Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Now that is a reason for a total lockdown!
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February 16, 2021 8:08am
- cmm
  
  More fear porn.
  
  Even at the height of the last Ebola outbreak, more people were dying in that part of W Africa from car crashes.
  
  Ok, that probably says more about their dangerous driving rather than anything else, but it was still pretty low.
  
  And almost all of it could have been avoided if they’d refrain from their cultural practices of kissing corpses etc.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:35am
  - yossarian
    
    I think the fatality rate of Ebola of about 90% puts it a different league.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:47am
    - cmm
      
      No, it was far lower. Less than 50% of cases died.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_virus_epidemic
      
      And the definition of a “case” is very different to what we’re using for CV19 when most are asymptomatic.
      
      In W Africa the only people that would count as cases are very sick people that went to seek medical care.
      
      All up about 1000 per million died in Liberia over a 3 year period. A bit less than the motor vehicle death rate there.
      
      So unless you run screaming from the pavement every time you see a car drive past it makes no sense to worry about Ebola – even during the worst Ebola pandemic in the worst affected part of the world.
      
      Your chance of getting Ebola, even in a Liberian city, is very low unless you run around licking corpses and hanging out with sick people.
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:11pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Moderna used an Ebola mRNA vaccine – 300,000 initial inoculations to be exact, to eliminate the Ebola virus. It was a vaccine not approved by the FDA, however the “success” of this Ebola mRNA vaccine is what was traded on to suggest that mRNA was both effctive and safe for use for a Covid-19 vaccine.
  
  It is now approved by the FDA, but various African states are rejecting new Ebola vaccines, because they now realise they are being used as Guinea pigs. Thousands of deaths have occurred by vaccinating against a parasite that would have been better treated with doxycycline and other proven treatments
  
  So the original success story of mRNA used to treat Ebola is now highly in doubt. And this success story was used to argue the effectiveness of mRNA to be used with Covid-19.
  
  I wonder if this is like the live Polio vaccine that created more cases of Polio than the Polio virus in the wild.
  
  [Mod. Note: This is approved on the basis it is your opinion – suggest you provide some factual references to back it up.]
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:40am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Mod, with respect… it’s your job to control discussion in line with DPF’s comments policy. It’s not your job to decide whose opinion is worthy of publication and/or if such opinions should be referenced.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:51am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Hi KK
      
      Don’t be hard on Mod, without facts, it is just opinions. I could produce the links but I am having a devil’s own job finding them. Easy to find 3 months ago, but the pages that matter most have disappeared.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:34am
      - Batman
        
        That should tell you something about the quality and intent of the pages you were seeking out.
        
        And no, I did not add the mod comment above.
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:05pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I was sceptical that a vaccine would be developed. I was wrong. I suggest that you read the summaries of the clinical trials. The vaccines will work and they will end the pandemic.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:39pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Are you comfortable that the ‘clinical trials’ have been conducted robustly, noting that AstraZeneca are not planning to finish their clinical trial until October 25, 2022?
      
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      February 16, 2021 2:44pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Me too Benedict, me too. Never been happier to be flat wrong about the vaccines.
      
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      February 16, 2021 2:54pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    There’s limited evidence that Ebola responds to doxycycline (or minocycline), but it might just be worth looking into Jack – thanks for prompting me to look it up.
    
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.01691/full
    
    Agreed though, that the Ebola vaccine was highly experimental and not sure it would’ve passed IRB/DSMB in e.g. the US, but that’s a moot point as the US doesn’t [currently] have Ebola.
    
    And @cmm yes sometimes fatality rates are as low as 50% with Ebola, sometimes they’re as high as 90%. It is not understood how much of that is pathogen related or treatment-related.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:42pm
cmm

A great man said: “To measure is to know.”

Very sound advice for engineers and scientists (and even home brewers and knitters).

But it always helps to have a healthy dose of skepticism in your measuring methods. Some of us are better than than others. Some are far too enamoured by their equipment.

Ten years on and now we’re having findings that the equipment coming loose caused over measurements of the ground acceleration (ie. The equipment was flapping about and no longer linked to the ground it was measuring).

So, for example the Pages Rd pumping station reading of 1.88g was propably more like the new estimate of 1.51g. Of course the new number is modeled, not measured so the new number is only as good as the modeling (and hopefully not done by the 80,000-will-die mob).

Don’t get me wrong. 1.5g is still a massive acceleration. Anything over approx 0.5g will put significant strains on a building.

But those inflated figures flowed into the new building guidelines. We’re now building with an extra 20% margin.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/nz-earthquake/124240801/deadly-christchurch-quakes-record-groundshaking-lower-than-first-thought
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February 16, 2021 8:10am
- pdm
  
  `A great man said: “To measure is to know.”’
  
  Was it Adrian Mole?
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:27am
  - Antoine
    
    niiice
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:55am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    I had a crush on Pandora as a young lad.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:54am
    - Nickc2
      
      Then perhaps you can explain what a ‘Padora’s Box is?
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:45pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    “Its bean soup”
    
    “I don’t want to know what its been, I want to know what it is.”
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:44pm
kowtow

Haven’t we become awfully introspective. Once upon a time the brigade would have prided itself on how many cats it had rescued from trees or somesuch.

Now it’s all about diversity and well being.

https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/minister-praises-brigade%E2%80%99s-diversity
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February 16, 2021 8:12am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Diversity isn’t going to carry a 120kg man out of a burning building.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:21am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    These ridiculous feel-good notions are bound to end very badly. Eventually, reality breaks through.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:58am
hullkiwi

From 15th January, all people flying to NZ have been required to present evidence of a negative Covid 19 test result. One month on, we have seen:
1. Six community reported cases since 24th Jan; 2. Daily cases reported at the border (or in MIQ) have continued to average at 3 cases per day (yesterday it was 5 cases).

Meanwhile the MIQ facilities are in the middle of our cities.

Given the platitudes from Cindy, Ashley, and Chippie we’ve either been sold a big lie or we’ve got the inept in charge. Which is it?
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February 16, 2021 8:13am
- fernglas
  
  Given the number of infections per head of population even in the most infected countries, it is far more likely that the infections have been picked up in transit or MIQ
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:35am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  C – all of the above and,
  
  D – things we have not been lied to about yet
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:36am
- MarkF
  
  Both!
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:47am
- MCos
  
  It’s obvious people are infected enroute.
  The West Indies cricket team travelled by charter planes and arrived free of infections.
  The Pakistan cricket team & the Ukrainian fishers used scheduled flights and arrived with several people infected.
  All of them had been pretested.
  BTW
  Im sure most Jaffas would be quite happy if MIQ was relocated to Queenstown, which has oodles of empty hotels. Mister Jim Boult put the kaibosh on that idea last year.
  So we’re stuck with them in Auckland, Rotorua, Hamilton, Wellington & Chch.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:01am
- lifesgood
  
  Seriously. How long before travel must they do the test? Do they then quarantine before travel? Do you trust every country they are flying from? Surely transiting should be in sterile conditions, i.e. staying in transit with full protection. It is a whole load of hooey and all this bleating about we must allow NZers to return or they will be stateless. Rubbish! Anyone returning now (with a few exceptions) has been away at least a year, in other words they have residence or visas for elsewhere. But, in the usual incompetency of this govt, no one bothers to check any of this.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:45am
  - oldfella
    
    Cindy was talking the other day about the right of NZ citizens to return home. Is she correct in that it is only actual citizens who have that right? And not those who only have residency, and are probably still citizens of some other country.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:56am
- Master Mariner
  
  Bit of a Double edged sword.
  If you rely on people to get them before flying then the real issue is how much credence do you give to testing facility.
  Major issues for seafarers and “freudulent” tests that cant be confirmed.
  Herein lays the issue.
  If you go down that line then you would need select certain countries and identify certain facilities as being crediable.
  Im not 100% sure this will work as planned.
  
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  February 16, 2021 5:07pm
Frank the tank

So it appears this ‘highly’ infectious strain hasn’t infected close contacts. Predictions:

1). Maximum of 2 (probably 0) close contact infections.
2). St Ash and the Blairite to extend to Sunday Night out of an abundance of caution.
3). The pink haired lady and the failed modeler to ‘grace’ our screens with covid scare porn for the next few days.
3). The sheeple to swallow this garbage hook, line and sinker.

(Little) Aotearoa – the little country that couldn’t.
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February 16, 2021 8:20am
- oldfella
  
  Frank, count the number of times the term ‘an abundance of caution’ comes up at these media conferences. I wonder how much they paid their PR team to come up with that little gem?
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:58am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    Hopefully not much. Rather than awkwardly nominalising a verb, they should really say “[we will be] abundantly cautious.”
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:59pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    Imagine a drinking with ‘scull’ with the following ‘terms’
    
    -abundance of caution
    -trust the science
    -We’ve got this
    -Team of 5 million
    -Absolutely
    -hard and early
    -Genome sequencing
    -Contact
    -Close Contact
    -Casual Contact
    
    we’d be Barney Gumble with a couple of 1pm sessions……
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:16pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Humid conditions with lots of UV are a big help in killing Wuflu (surprises me but apparently drier conditions increase transmission, hot and humid is best).
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:51pm
cmm

#TheyAreUs?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-zealand-woman-identified-as-isis-terrorist-captured-at-syria-border-with-two-children/6DUMFX47TM5UTCUNAHEBMBOSAI/
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February 16, 2021 8:26am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  So our previous governments may have had good reason to be keeping an eye on folks in NZ with ISIS sympathies.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:32am
  - kowtow
    
    Where’s Paddy Gower when you need him. He ran round the country looking for white supremacists and came up empty handed while there’s New Zealanders in Syria who are members of a movement literally engaged in genocide .
    
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    February 16, 2021 8:58am
    - oldfella
      
      But KT, those who are members of ISIS are also adherents of the religion of peace (ROP). And much like Maori these days, those who follow the ROP must be treated with kindness.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:01am
      - Batman
        
        I’m pretty sure you’re the only person trying to run that argument, old fella
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:29am
      - oldfella
        
        I should have added (/sarc) to my comment as I seem to have confused Batman.
        
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        February 16, 2021 4:05pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  One of a team of 5 million apparently . . .
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:37am
- Saks
  
  Nz born or one of our new new zealanders?
  
  And it looks like she will be deported back here. Golly g whizz will probably meet her at the airport with a nice hug – covid be damned, before fast tracking her into a taxpayer funded position.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:22am
  - Jack5
    
    What’s happened with Mark John Taylor, New Zealand’s bumbling jihadist who wanted to return New Zealand? No word recently, so it’s possible he’s back and settled in NZ.
    
    Here’s some details of control orders that can be imposed on such people (section 17 gives details of controls):
    
    https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2019/0079/latest/whole.html#LMS258696
    
    Note that, likely as a result of submissions from the Privacy Commissioner (link below), citizens can be kept in the dark about ex-terrorists in our midst:
    
    Section 33, 3, of the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019:
    
    No person may publish, in any report or account of the proceeding in which the court considers and determines the application or (as the case requires) makes, renews, varies, or discharges the control order, the person’s name, address, or occupation, unless the court, by order, permits the publication.
    
    The Privacy Commissioner’s view, reported in November:
    
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/11/privacy-commissioner-blasts-obnoxious-fundamentally-flawed-anti-terror-law.html
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:17am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Every now and again there are snippets in the media about the unnamed NZ woman in Australia who can’t get her passport…
      
      https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-03-2018/this-isnt-the-first-time-new-zealand-has-denied-a-citizen-their-passport/
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:08pm
- Surely Knott
  
  It says “Three New Zealand nationals including an adult and two children were caught by our border guard”
  
  What is a “NZ national”? Is that different to a citizen?
  In the usa a *national* is defined as “those persons who were born in or born to a parent(s) of “outlying possessions of the United States,” eg American Samoa.
  
  Does NZ have nationals? And if she’s not a citizen do we have to take her. Finally why can’t she be named.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:55am
I remember when

Watching Jacinda make any announcement when surrounded by her supporting cast makes one wonder:
Should all politicians be called ‘Noddy.’
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February 16, 2021 8:27am
- oldfella
  
  I think Cindy’s the very best Noddy in the whole wide world. Don’t you, children?
  Now, please pick from this collection of her merry band of sycophants to cast some of the other roles.
  Big Ears
  Golliwog
  Mr Plod
  Bumpy Dog
  Sly and Gobbo
  Tessie Bear
  Dinah Doll
  Clockwork Clown
  Miss Pink Cat (too easy)
  And remember children, when casting our little production, be kind… 🙂
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:14am
KevO'Brien

Heartening news from Willis Eschenbach showing projected deaths from climate change at close to xero [zero]. Willis is a sound measurer.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/15/who-and-the-climate-emergency/
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February 16, 2021 8:28am
- Doc Holliday
  
  wattsupwiththat?
  
  wvw.GetNonsenseFromCranks
  
  3 8
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  February 16, 2021 12:48pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    At least there are some people out there thinking, making up for the ideological goofiness and gatesism.
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:36pm
  - alloytoo
    
    Kind of you to tell us your URL.
    
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    February 16, 2021 4:28pm
kowtow

When is a “lock down” not a lock down and an abundance of caution just another empty phrase that the Media Pardy love.

The Media pardy promote the notion of the faux lockdown with emphasis on huge tailbacks at police checkpoints , but quietly perhaps thousands of Lockdownees make their way across the country.

‘About 650 University of Otago first-year students from Auckland are continuing to filter into Dunedin this week, allowed to travel outside of Auckland under Alert Level 3 because they are relocating or returning to a place of residence.’

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/campus/no-stopping-auckland-students
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February 16, 2021 8:28am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  What we are seeing is an increased level of non compliance, mixed with people taking advantage of the latest holiday gift from the government,.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:57am
Luke Piewalker

Serious question: is the National party still going?

To the National Party:
Its not like the most useless government in NZ history haven’t given you plentiful material to whack them.

1. Stop moaning about Labour owning the media.
2. Get your PR campaign sorted. Labour whilst completely incompetent are 10/10 for PR
3. Speak up for us. When you do I will come back and listen to you.
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February 16, 2021 8:29am
- Tall Man
  
  I’m with you on this Luke but I’d like you to explain how ….
  
  Look at this headline
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/beehive-diaries-the-charmer-and-the-smarmer/QM2KPOLVBY5FRXCAWQ2IVHAQ7A/
  
  and then look at this
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-heartened-so-far-papatoetoe-high-school-tests-due-today/CUDGOQ5N23TEKZXUZKZJIOBXUY/
  
  The first headline is the first result of a search “Simon Bridges smarmy”.
  
  That is a line that has been pushed virtually since day 1 by the media to denigrate him. Nothing about his policies, his effectiveness or even his passion.
  
  This have been “rinse and repeat” for all National leaders and to say that ardern and labour with the aid of the media don’t totally control the narrative is naive.
  
  Trump found a way, was vilified by all and sundry for 5 years and almost pulled off a miracle re-election but we do not have a leader on the right with his ability and it is certainly not Seymour or Luxon.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:47am
  - BAM
    
    Did you read the first line?
    
    The past week has Simon Bridges laying on the charm and Kieran McAnulty showing discernment about insults tossed his way
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:28am
    - Tall Man
      
      Yes I did.
      
      My point was the result of the search or did you not read my post?
      
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      February 16, 2021 1:58pm
      - BAM
        
        The article had the word smarmy in the title and included Simon Bridges, of course, it’s going to show up with those search terms, especially when you surround it in double-quotes.
        
        “Simon Bridges charmer” comes up with the same article first as well.
        
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        February 16, 2021 5:43pm
- kowtow
  
  Like a Magic Talk radio host , they’re running scared .
  
  The Facebook campaign that destroyed Simon Bridges , and that was used as “evidence” by the Media Pardy and his other detractors created a situation whereby nats are afarid to stand up for what was once their principles.
  
  The real story here is who or what was behind that Facebook deplatforming/unpersoning of Simon Bridges . That was an attack , via a social media giant on our democracy .
  
  Where’s the Fourth Estate when it’s really needed ?
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:52am
  - Tricati
    
    I’m with you KT, as I am skeptical about the Facebook campaign against Bridges, as it was both ‘swift’ and ‘targeted’ which could suggest a BOT.
    If so, the big question is who orchestrated it at a time Bridges was getting traction over the Covid handling and his instigating the petition to close the borders – Will we ever know?
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:45am
    - hullkiwi
      
      I suggest you talk to those who benefited in rolling Bridges and those close to the campaign.
      
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      February 16, 2021 1:58pm
- cmm
  
  Worst opposition for a long time.
  
  As much as it galls me to say this – even Andy Little’s mob did better.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:07am
  - Gravelroad
    
    National and Labour have become too closely aligned and all mates together – especially in the parliamentary environment.
    Yes, one or two might kick up about Mr Speaker being unfair and the media not giving them a fair go but the impression out here is that National is quite happy to skip along the kind path to socialism holding hands with Jacinda.
    Provincial NZ ? you can p..s right off.
    (Will stand by for comment from SC Sidekick re voting patterns of sheeple.)
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:23am
    - cmm
      
      Professional wrestling.
      
      4 1
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      February 16, 2021 10:11am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Ha ha – I should patent the sheeple voting pattern. BTW did you read the news item that 100,000 have signed the toxic Greens’ petition to ban conversion therapy?
      
      3 2
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      February 16, 2021 5:07pm
- RiP NZ
  
  Trouble is Luke – it’s the most useless National party in memory.
  No leader, current or emerging
  No principals or predictable position on anything
  Bow down to the social justice mob – get bogged down in talking points they can never win ( such as diversity of caucus)
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:13am
  - dave_c_
    
    I see the trouble as “Irrespective of political pusuasion, they are ALL obeying the global masters orders”
    The trick for any of them is to push back in such a way that they themselves are not exposed to consequences of ‘not obeying’.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:50am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Like I told many times, the next National PM is not in the party yet.
    
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    February 16, 2021 5:07pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  How would you manage HM’s Loyal Opposition when Cinders is spraying lots of $50M Public Money around with little or no authority? 4th world.
  Parliament is no help–de-platforming is regular and reporting is zilch.
  
  However the people have more than they can take from a gobblement which cannot perform except for the media and sound bites. Remember the French they showed their rulers that care is due to the people too. We need redress also.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:17am
- NoFax
  
  The difference between National and Labour is probably about $5b of our $100b budget. National and Labour consent on the big staff like education, health, and welfare – a little more here, a little less there. But nothing to get excited about.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:36am
  - kowtow
    
    Don’t forget immigration.
    
    For different reasons mass immigration suits both sides.
    
    Sweet sugar hit for the economy , plenty of demand for houses , loans , spending makes all those home owners feel rich and keeps the circus running.
    
    It helps keep wages low .
    
    It also keeps the diversity mob happy ( labour voters and people looking for handouts)
    
    Win win for the Establishment , lose lose for everyone else.
    
    And dare one question it , racist !
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:51pm
- Philview
  
  National did a good job of organising submissions against Labour’s corrupt handling of race based council wards last week. Per usual, this little covid “outbreak” has taken the heat off the Government on that issue. When the dust settles on the “outbreak”, the race based wards will have been passed into law with not much publicity by the media.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:37am
  - giltee
    
    Hmmm put like that this Covid outbreak almost sounds suspicious.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:39am
- BAM
  
  Judith Collins has been a massive disappointment, she seems to have forgotten the reason why people wanted her as leader.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:41am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    Her standard for anything she says should be “will this piss off the media whores?” If it will, then f***ing say it.
    
    Ditch the subscription to the liberal consensus paradigm and instead promote your own alternative morality. Key mincing about at the Big Gay Out should have been a red flag as to where the National Party was heading.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:07am
    - Batman
      
      Honestly, you’re getting more and more terrible at such advice.
      
      Any party you ran would be scraping for 0.5%
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:41am
      - The Proper Ghandi
        
        Aside from the fact that you pulled that figure out of your ass backed by nothing whatsoever, trust me: the more people see how insane, unworkable and offensive to objective reality the Left’s ideology is, in terms of observable outcomes, the more they will come running back home to a sensible philosophy that works in the real world. As I have said in another GD comment today, reality will break through.
        
        While you’ve never given any evidence of possessing prescience or an understanding of politics beyond the superficial, you will see that there will be an inflection point where people’s unvoiced disgust will be reflected in their voting choice. I don’t care if National disappears completely, but there will need to be an authentically right wing party to turn to. Aping the Left is a losing strategy.
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:53am
      - Batman
        
        Of course I made that figure up, I was making a rhetorical point. Good lord you can’t be that dense, surely?
        
        “Beyond the superficial” – erm, well I did work in it in real life, which is entirely separate from the fantasyland of conspiracies and made-up theories about which side has what agenda, that dominates online discourse.
        
        What you fail to realise is that you are a tiny minority and only fellow members of that tiny minority will vote for your particular policy prescriptions. It’s not my fault that you prefer to adopt the Corbynista approach to politics of telling everyone else they’re wrong and then doubling down when you don’t win elections.
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:00pm
  - oldfella
    
    Judith is trying way too hard to be liked. Forget being liked. We have a PM who is loved.
    It’s like a couple of boxers. Cindy is the crowd favourite, Judith the unpopular underdog.
    How does the underdog win?
    Land some good, solid blows. Take the counterpunches, ignore the commentators, and keep swinging.
    Be gutsy, show the crowd the favourite is only human, and watch the crowd swing behind you.
    Watch the first Rocky movie to see how it’s done.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:47am
    - BAM
      
      She’s trying to be someone she’s not, no doubt getting swamped with dreadful advice from a team or marketing/PR people.
      
      She either backs herself and who she is or she steps down.
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:44pm
- lifesgood
  
  Pray tell me, Luke, how on earth can they get any traction, any opinions, any news out there when the MSM loathe them, will never report them fairly and only ever mention them as an insult? It was the same with the election campaign. The pathetic Labour candidate made sure she hogged TV with a party political broadcast every day at 1pm but Nat were never, ever given time. They had no show. Things must change, but how? Where is Rupert Murdoch when you need him?
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:51am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Even today, the primary function of the news media is to report the news.
    Is the National Party making or creating any news?
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:48am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Yes, but the media haven’t reported the news for over 40 years.
      
      As for instance, take today’s headline about the media being upset that they weren’t informed that Jacinda’s vaccine arrived yesterday morning, and Jax told the world in a live press briefing at 4pm.
      
      The media haven’t investigated news stories since the 1970s, they perform and serve only as a PR message repeating service for politicians & corporates.
      
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      February 16, 2021 1:54pm
- Bob
  
  How would we know what National party is thinking/proposing as policy.
  The media never print anything positive about Nationals, when they do mention National, and don’t seek out and indepth interview National spokespeople about important issues.
  I see on todays AM breakfast show that the breaking news was the ‘negative test results for Mark and Amanda.’
  Sums up the depth and breadth of MSM journalism skills.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:17am
- curry4me
  
  Luke Piewalker: It’s too late for them. ACT are the opposition now. National are just Labour-lite.
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:49pm
Tall Man

Just look at the headline, no need to read the rubbish

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-heartened-so-far-papatoetoe-high-school-tests-due-today/CUDGOQ5N23TEKZXUZKZJIOBXUY/

Why is “everything” about ardern. Surely to god the news can be reported without ardern being the primary feature or ios this merelt election 2023 getting off to an early start.
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February 16, 2021 8:36am
- NoCash
  
  Obviously it caters for the 53%.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:52am
- Paulus
  
  On steam radio every time the word Prime Minister is mentioned (and often and regularly) the name Jacinda Ardern is automatically mentioned – as if we didn’t know !
  On TV a picture of her comes every time with her name as Prime Minster.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:26am
I remember when

Interesting that nobody seems to have suggested that Trump would have been impeached during his second trial – if they hadn’t had the first impeachment trial.
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February 16, 2021 8:39am
igm

When is Ardern getting her on a plane to NZ? Just the right type for her March photo shots in Chch.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124256045/wanted-isis-terrorist-among-three-new-zealanders-picked-up-at-syrian-border-turkey-says
Possibly Ardern’s next chief of staff!
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February 16, 2021 8:42am
Fletch

Karl du Fresne puts the smackdown on the govt in the Australian Spectator.

New Zealand is being transformed, but not in a good way

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised, on the night of her general election triumph last October, to govern for all New Zealanders. But her Labour government is pursuing policies that will entrench racial separatism, undermine democracy, turbocharge the grievance culture and promote polarisation and divisiveness.

The immediate threats come from proposals to outlaw ‘hate speech’, however that may be defined, and bestow special privilege on people who identify as Maori by allowing city and district councils to create exclusively Maori wards. In the longer term, the government is likely to seize on climate change as justification for policies that could deliver a savage blow to the country’s most dynamic productive sector, agriculture.

Add to that the politicisation of education, in the form of a new, Marxist-influenced history curriculum that portrays the Maori as a race still oppressed by colonialism, and you have a perfect ideological storm. New Zealand sometimes feels as if it’s in the grip of a Year Zero cult similar in tone, if not in scale, to that promoted in Pol Pot’s Kampuchea (Cambodia), where everything that had gone before was renounced.

To take those developments one by one:

MORE – https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/02/new-zealand-is-being-transformed-but-not-in-a-good-way/
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February 16, 2021 8:42am
- Ian Boag
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  bestow special privilege on people who identify as Maori by allowing city and district councils to create exclusively Maori wards
  
  Not quite.
  
  As noted by du Fresne, Maori wards are created by elected councils. He missed the bit about how it was introduced in 2002.
  
  The decision to create them can be overturned by a referendum. Perhaps this is a good idea, but then no other council decisions are subject to review by referendum ….
  
  du Fresne’s version does sound more exciting than the facts …. Go figure.
  
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  December 16, 2019 9:31am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    If the Spinoff is to be believed, du Fresne lives in Masterton. So it’s not as if he is remote from what goes on here.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_New_Zealand
    
    has a section on the history of Maori wards … his assertions are just plain wrong …
    
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    December 16, 2020 9:56am
  - Grant
    
    “The decision to create them can be overturned by a referendum.”
    Ummm, isn’t this the bit that Mahuta wants to dispense with?
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/govt-set-to-abolish-local-veto-on-councils-maori-wards/GKBFXIFKBKO24ZRH5PFPKGX42U/
    Ian’s version sounds so mush more reasonable than the facts,
    Go figure.
    G
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:45am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Yes. There are no “local vetoes”on any other council decisions. Polling booth and elections and all that.
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:01am
      - Libertarians are right
        
        “Polling booth and elections and all that”
        Which is why things that fundamentally change the power structure (like say race based seats) needs to be done through referendums.
        
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        February 16, 2021 10:26am
      - Jack5
        
        But, this is not a normal council decision. It’s about a council itself.
        
        It has similarities with the way referendums are required to change national voting systems. It’s as though a political party were able to introduce something like a Maori-only (or White only) legislative council and at the same time ruled out any future referendum on this.
        
        Activist Leftist-Greens have been hyper active at local-body election. Hence the street name changes; hence the widening of councils’ roles from water, sewerage, roads to more socialist services; hence the sister city links with and junket trips to China; and hence the plethora of fucking cycle lanes.
        
        Inserting race-based political oversight into local bodies is part of this activist agenda. Activists believe subsequent councils won’t have the guts to dump the councils, and they may be right.
        
        Note: Ian Boag, and sometimes others, at times use the idiom, “go figure”. Here’s an online dictionary’s source for this expression:
        
        …. William Safire believes this imperative came from the Yiddish gey rekhn, meaning “go reckon,” or “go figure it out.” More idiomatic English would have it as “go and figure,” but the conjunction was dropped. However, it may also be a version of the American you figure it (with the emphasis on “you”), a phrase Eric Partridge said dates from the 1920s.
        
        https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/go figure
        
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        February 16, 2021 10:46am
    - Nickc2
      
      I believe you are right Grant. Mahuta’s edict AFIK is that a council cannot decree that there will be no Maori Wards should a referendum be held to decide Maori Wards are not what is wanted.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:27am
      - Ian Boag
        
        I have seen council elections – in several councils – change (by council decision) from ward systems to “at large” to mixed. Voting can be changed between FPP, STV and whatever else. No referenda ..
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:21pm
  - alphabeatrium
    
    Come off it. Creating a Maori ward is not like “other council decisions” is it? It’s hardly equivalent to putting in a new slide at the pool.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:59am
  - Philview
    
    The scandal is that Labour didn’t campaign on this issue. Per Audrey Young, this was because Winston Peters would have used the issue to get a lot of support during the election campaign. Labour are now pushing through under urgency. Politik website said in an article that Labour are lining up their ducks through Maori wards as part of their RMA reforms. Labour’s tactics are corrupt in my view.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:12am
- Philview
  
  That is a brilliant article. I read in his bio that Karl is the former editor of the Dominion, he is a talented journalist who holds power to account.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:29am
  - kowtow
    
    he has his own blog , well worth a visit.
    
    http://karldufresne.blogspot.com/
    
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    February 16, 2021 1:54pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Thank you for bringing that link to our attention.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:35am
- Scott
  
  Karl is spot on ?
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:35am
Swifty

A quick point about NZ’s inexorable increase in the size, reach and cost of government and a prediction for the future.

Since 1984-90, I have many times had occasion to discuss the Labour reforms with people and how we’re going today compared with if they hadn’t happened.

Very briefly, I am of the firm view that overall they had a positive effect and that, contrary to some New Zealanders views, they were a necessary antidote to the decades of protectionism, subsidisation, inefficiency, cementing of privilege, government control, excessive regulation and legislation that had been built up by successive over the preceding decades.

Some New Zealanders ‘blame’ Roger Douglas for the disruption and pain that followed the reforms and many subsequent Labour politicians have, hypocritically in my view, disavowed the reforms while simultaneously doing little or nothing to reverse them. They know we’re better off now but they think they improve their electoral chances by lying and saying the opposite.

If blame is to be accorded for the pain we went through I am of the firm view that it lies squarely with the politicians, unions, industry leaders, crony-capitalists and others who, over decades, actively built the goddam mess that Labour inherited in 1984.

Roger Douglas, and his mates, was the doctor not the disease.

Everywhere I now look I see the same thing happening all over again. History is repeating.

This current generation of Labour politicians, abetted by their Green fellow travellers, are re-establishing the same or similar protections, distortions, subsidisations, granting of privileges, controls and interventions that have no place in the economy that New Zealand deserves.

An exaggeration Swifty, you ask?

Well, let’s see.

Who would have thought just a few years ago that Labour would take the great leap backwards to the 1970s and reintroduce tripartite wage bargaining. That in setting wages and conditions, company owners will now have to negotiate and reach a consensus with both government and unions and across their whole industry?

Bye bye the free market.

Who would have thought just a few years ago that Labour would now directly fund media companies. – a development no other political party is likely to challenge in fear of a wide-spread media backlash (proving the conflict of interest that the funding creates)?

Who would have thought that the government would have expanded it’s reach, scope and size so massively that for the first time in our country’s history central government spending is now more than 50% of our GDP?

Who would have just a few years ago forseen the explosion in the numbers of Ministries, NGOs, working groups and consultation bodies that we’ve seen?

Who would have foreseen that the government would bring in rules requiring that companies tendering for government work must have ‘diversity and inclusion plans and officers’, and demonstrate their success at implementing same or they won’t get a sniff of any work on offer? These companies might have the best products or services and at the best price in the world but these will be denied to New Zealanders because the companies fell short on diversity and inclusion indoctrination.

On the social side, who would have thought even 5-10 years ago that we would be facing a majority government hell-bent it seems on criminalising New Zealanders speaking with each other about things a similar period in the past would be absolutely normal and healthy conversations?

Who would have thought an organisation as august as our Human Rights Commission in launching an enquiry into an apparent racial pay gap and before their investigations have even started claiming that not only does it exist but that the cause is racial discrimination by European-New Zealanders and that they are determined to stamp it out?

I could go on and on.

This mission creep by our government, this endless enlargement of government meddling in our lives; law, rule and regulation-making to dictate how we live our lives; this relentless call by politicians and others for the government to increase it’s number, breadth and depth of its functions, I say will end in tears.

I don’t know when; it maybe 10, 15 or 20 years away but there will come a correction. I hope there will be a correction. And when that ‘corrector’ comes let’s do the honest thing and not blame him or her for the pain that comes – let’s reserve our blame, anger and opprobrium for the politicians, unions, do-gooders, media and crony-capitalists of TODAY; the ones who actively created the conditions for the correction to be required.
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February 16, 2021 8:51am
- krazykiwi
  
  +10. Comment of the day nomination from me
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:46am
  - Swifty
    
    Cheers kk.
    
    The slave has become our master.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:53am
  - oldfella
    
    I agree. Swifty’s comment was outstanding. Couple that with Karl du Fresne’s earlier piece and KB is really zinging along today.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:08pm
- ISeeRed
  
  Spot on.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:46am
- The Proper Ghandi
  
  “Who would have foreseen x, y and z?” Anyone who knows anything about toxic Leftist ideology.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:22am
- amospicton
  
  Superb Swifty and sadly the majority of our fellow NZers are grateful for the daily erosion of our values and liberties you so eloquently describe.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:36am
- Nickc2
  
  I agree totally. I hope that within the next couple of years, someone will have to guts to turn our education system around and enforce the fact that Male and Female of the human species are determined by the appendage(s) they are born with, not some abstract fludity concept as pushed in our schools today.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:40am
I remember when

Interesting that now we have a sudden Northern Hemisphere polar burst we start discovering the potential downsides of turbines and solar panels.
Well at least in the media.
I’m sure they were included in the small print at the bottom of page 1009.
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February 16, 2021 8:52am
lastmanstanding

ON the matter of closing the border full stop. Heres but one example why not.

My sons partners sister has been teaching in London for the past few years. Kiwi born and bred. She loves it there. She needs to get a visa every 2 years and to do that she needs a teaching job.

Well London schools have been closed for months. Her visa expired in December Boris told her unless she had a job to FOXTROT OSCAR.

Thats just one of the examples that the dumbarse morons wouldnt think about when saying close the borders.

If NZ said NO which is a breach of international law and UK kicked her out would she spend her life on a plane circling the globe. MORONS.
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February 16, 2021 9:11am
- krazykiwi
  
  Closing borders to citizens is, to my understanding, a violation of the Geneva Convention
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:17am
  - cmm
    
    Only if there’s a war on.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:28am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Not so sure about that. Citizens have a right enter their own country, because all other countries have a right to reject continued presence in theirs
      
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      February 16, 2021 9:32am
      - Odakyu-sen
        
        “Citizens have a right enter their own country.”
        
        You have to make to the border first. A little tricky in the case of island New Zealand.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:55am
      - cmm
        
        Yes they have the right to enter their own country (andan expelling country can force them to be taken back by international law) but it has nothing to do with the Geneva Convention.
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:23pm
  - kowtow
    
    Freedom of movement is a basic human right , one needs a very strong reason to start interfering with our basic rights .
    
    Sadly it looks like the Teddy Bear , We Adore Ardern Cult are happy to give up their own rights and the rights of others in pursuit of “safety”.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:40am
  - Flossie
    
    How about we do allow citizens back in – just keep out wiggles, sports teams, drag artists and all the other non-citizens. That’ll help lower arrivals I’d imagine.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:33am
- Tall Man
  
  I see your problem but, she has probably been exposed to the virus but we don’t know when.
  
  She was aware that there was a major issue throughout the world but elected to roll the dice. Unfortunately for her she rolled a 7 and now must live with the consequences.
  
  Now personally, I have no issue with her travelling home as long as she isolates responsibly and avoids infecting high risk people either directly or indirectly.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:20am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Sensible thought TM
    I was in the UK in the 80’s and still can’t give blood, even though I believe it is my civil responsibility.
    To all those that would believe I am a mad cow (bull), I have never shown, to spite many accusations, symptoms.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:59am
    - Tall Man
      
      Same here.
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:19am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Wow…..interesting logic
  That takes no account of circumstance.
  Under the same logic, the UK should have allowed free travel from Germany, Japan and Italy, during WW2.
  We have largely missed the strategic boat as to when to close the boarders.
  It should have been done last Jan/Feb..before we had an cases, as we did concerning the China boarder.
  BUT dear old Jacinda either never read or ignored the “Influenza Pandemic Response Plan c2017” on her own MoH web site.
  “Keep it out” and prevent it’s entry, using our geographical situation.
  This would have bought us time to build purpose built MIQ in remote locations (say Ohakea air base).
  Screw international law, we are protecting NZers.
  and besides this could only have been a temporary measure (perhaps 3 months [by May 2020]).
  But they didn’t and now we have all these “unintended consequences”…an expression we only have when we have a Labour govt.
  Translation
  “unintended consequences”……We screwed up.
  but why are we surprised
  Look at how they handled 2 other outbreaks
  Measles…..removed the targets National put in (and achieved 95%) The rate fell to 87% and we had an outbreak…exported it to Samoa where 80 people died…why does any Samoan vote Labour?
  Meningitis…2 guys died
  Govt’ claimed they had no more vaccines, only for the supply company to say 2 weeks later, “We offered the govt. 30000 doses, but they turned us down.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:43am
- Master Mariner
  
  Yep, Here it is, PM touched Base on this very matter recently regardless of the garbage put out by RNZ saying NZers dont have the right to return and can refuse entry too NZ for “the common” good.
  Actually ( I believe) in correct.
  
  https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
  And in NZ this is Bill of Rights.
  https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html
  
  Its would be an interesting test case foe sure, Declining entry into NZ.
  Actually Aus is doing that by reducing spots upon arrival,
  PM announced same thing with MIIQ vouchers. How to reduce entry.
  What annoys me is there is no difference to a natural NZ citizen and Non citizens, Think Wiggles etc.
  
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  February 16, 2021 3:00pm
krazykiwi

In 2020 the US death rate from adverse reactions to vaccinations was 0.38%

In the first three weeks of 2021 this increased 3400% to 13%

In the first five weeks of 2021 it has increased again, now sitting at 16.3%
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February 16, 2021 9:16am
- MCos
  
  I saw that data you put up the other other day.
  I think your reading it wrong.
  A death rate like that would be intolerable & the vaccine manufacturers would be charged with murder.
  Every newspaper, tv, blog politician in the world would be going nuts.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:28am
  - krazykiwi
    
    How should I read it?
    
    So far in 2021, in the US there has been 3723 adverse reactions to vaccinations, and 607 of these have resulted in deaths.
    
    Yes, there has been a huge increase in the number of vaccinations, but at 3723 in five weeks, the adverse reaction rates is tracking behind the 2020 overall rate.
    
    The only conclusion I can draw is there is a net decrease in the adverse reaction rate, but a massive increase in deaths as a result of adverse reactions. There’s not enough data to establish the demographics of who is dying, but it is possible that the normal death of elderly/infirm is showing up as a consequence of their being vaccinated.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:55am
    - Wayne Mapp
      
      I am very skeptical about your statistics. I am pretty sure there would be widespread publicity if 607 people in the US had died from the covid vaccination. But there is in fact zero media reports of this.
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:05am
      - RW Capitalist
        
        and your key statement.
        “But there is in fact zero media reports of this.”
        as much as we here about “Russia collusion” these days.
        
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        February 16, 2021 10:08am
      - Chris Scott
        
        Wayne Mapp
        I am very skeptical about your statistics. I am pretty sure there would be widespread publicity if 607 people in the US had died from the covid vaccination. But there is in fact zero media reports of this.
        
        Well he read it on his Facebook feed so it must be true. Meanwhile in a ‘fake’ parallel reality this is what the CDC claims;
        
        During December 21, 2020–January 10, 2021, monitoring by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System detected 10 cases of anaphylaxis after administration of a reported 4,041,396 first doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (2.5 cases per million doses administered). In nine cases, onset occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination. No anaphylaxis-related deaths were reported.
        
        https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7004e1.htm
        
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        February 16, 2021 10:23am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Wayne, they are not “my” statistics. They are published by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The data is easy to access. I’m genuinely interesting in understanding this.
        
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        February 16, 2021 10:23am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Chris, the VAERS data is available here. If you have an interpretation of it then I’d like to hear it.
        
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        February 16, 2021 10:26am
      - The Proper Ghandi
        
        “But there is in fact zero media reports of this”
        
        There’s your problem Wayne. I’m not passing judgment either way on the claims above, but, more generally, your “if the media haven’t told me, it hasn’t happened” mindset indicates that you are stuck in a pre-mass-media era.
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:14am
      - Batman
        
        Or he just prefers not to believe any old piece of rubbish found on a random site.
        
        How many Kenyan princes have you met?
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:39am
    - Chris Scott
      
      krazykiwi
      ..the VAERS data is available here. If you have an interpretation of it then I’d like to hear it.
      
      Well it’s diametrically opposed to the VAERS data I quoted and gave a source for in my reply to Wayne. Your link simply took me to the VAERS website.
      
      During December 21, 2020–January 10, 2021, monitoring by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System detected 10 cases of anaphylaxis after administration of a reported 4,041,396 first doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (2.5 cases per million doses administered). In nine cases, onset occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination. No anaphylaxis-related deaths were reported.
      
      https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7004e1.htm
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:56am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Your link simply took me to the VAERS website
        
        1. Click the link I gave you and scroll down until you see “Download raw data for import into a database, spreadsheet, or text editing program.”
        
        2. Read the disclaimer, then check “I have read and understood the disclaimer”
        
        3. Click “Download the VAERS Data”
        
        4. Select the year and data format you’re after.
        
        5. Enter the CAPTCHA code and click ‘OK’
        
        I have no idea why this data varies so substantially from the CDC’s claimed figures, nor why is varies so substantially from its own prior-year figures. Perhaps you could help?
        
        And for the record, you didn’t quote VAERS data. You quoted a CDC statement that claimed to represent VAERS data. I published raw VAERS data.
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:11am
      - krazykiwi
        
        When you do download the data, have a look at this one:
        
        Three hours after receiving COVID 19 vaccination, Patient oxygen level decreased to a critical level and went into cardiac arrest. Staff performed full code but was unable to bring back patient from cardiac arrest.
        
        I’m sure some of these are correlative… but there are lots of reports like this one.
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:28am
      - Pharmachick
        
        I think the confusion between Chris and KK is that if you download the whole database as a .CSV file it summarizes the entire database, KK – does not discriminate.
        
        Instead I agreed to the T&C and used the “search” function then sorted the database on “SARS”. It bought up a number of unrelated vaccines including diphtheria, rotavirus etc as rows in the table, but in the table it reported a single row on the COVID-19 vaccines as a group. Then the numbers are much lower… VAERS has that at 1.77% for all COVID vaccines (c0mbined).
        
        And remember, these are ALL adverse events including that they are voluntarily reported. VAERS is very specific about there not being any quality control re: severity or causality, which literally means if somebody says “oh yah, I got a headache” that gets reported as a COVID-19 adverse event. When I’m teaching this stuff (mostly AE and SAE for drugs), I remind the class that headache is diagnostic of nothing. The specific example I use is that several of them may well have a headache at the end of Dr. Pharmachick’s class, which is entirely likely caused by the Pharmacopontificating, but could also be that nasty hangover they’re nursing from last night… [usually gets a minor laugh].
        
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        February 16, 2021 3:33pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        PS Did want to tank you both for the link to VAERS in general… who knew there was a Plague Vaccine (pas moi), and furthermore why? A good dose of antibiotics sorts plague just fine, at least of the bubonic variety. Oh dear, rabbit holes…
        
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        February 16, 2021 3:44pm
      - marcw
        
        Possibly raised (Plague vaccine) as a result of a military threat. We know there were regimes who had weaponised bacterial vectors.
        
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        February 16, 2021 5:10pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        @marcw, let me tell you a fairytale…
        
        Once upon a time a little girl Post Graduate student from a small, boutique island nation at the bottom of the world contacted a person who was the most major author on [insert very scary virus]. Little girl was taking a post-grad class called “Molecular Medicine”, it was all gussied up with new buzzwords and beautiful language. Little girl was well taken with the learning and possibilities for the future of science and medicine. As part of an assignment (worth a large amount of the mark) little girl contacted the lead with on all those papers… and received a very aggressive reply email whereby little girl’s identity had been verified by her institution and government. Even more interestingly, patient reader; little girl was told about the back-crossing of terrible things because ‘we need to be prepared for what they’re doing.”. Little girl was never as trusting again, and of course little girls grow up into grown women, with varying levels of patience, respect and trust.
        Here ends our fairytale.
        
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        February 16, 2021 5:41pm
      - marcw
        
        Sorry, I must have missed something? My post was in response to your question “who knew there was a Plague Vaccine (pas moi), and furthermore why? ” A military requirement for protection against a Yersinia pestis vector seems a logical reason. Are you saying there could not possibly be any regime who would have made such a weapon?
        
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        February 16, 2021 6:02pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        I think Marcw, you VERY MUCH missed the point.
        
        According to that strange and unusual fairytale reported above… once upon a time little girl learned that the superpowers generate these massively horrible things (they back-cross viruses together and sometimes hybridize with bacteria) to make terrible and horrible things. And their general excuses are “the other side is doing it/was going to do it anyway”.
        
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        February 16, 2021 6:42pm
      - marcw
        
        OK …
        
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        February 16, 2021 6:47pm
  - septic skeptic
    
    I suspect they are talking about sore arms and nausea. Not deaths.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:56am
    - krazykiwi
      
      No. The data (CSV Spreadsheet) has columns for DIED Y/N and DATEDIED.
      
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      February 16, 2021 10:19am
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        Personally I am not going to bother to analyse all this. However, commonsense tells me that 607 deaths from the covid vaccine would be widely reported.
        I know many commenters on this site think that the MSM is absolutely worthless, and some sort of left wing conspiracy. Presumably FoxNews is also in on the conspiracy.
        Does anyone here really believe that the US has covered up, and hid from all reporters, that 607 people died from the covid vaccine in the last month or so?
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:21pm
      - Tall Man
        
        I have no idea Wayne but 250,000 ish people die every month in the USA so maybe.
        
        Remember, most of the covid deaths are with not from so it is entirely possible that these people have died after receiving the vaccination and just like the covid deaths would have died anyway.
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:14pm
- septic skeptic
  
  Wow. 173 million shots given worldwide so far. So more than 10 million dead as adverse reactions. How are “they” keeping this quiet!
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:34am
  - Antoine
    
    The ‘krazy’ in his handle is a clue
    
    A.
    [Play the ball, not the man. Warning, M.]
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:57am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Not quite. This death rate is from reported adverse reactions, not from number of vaccinations given.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:01am
  - kevn
    
    @ss… Got a link?
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:19am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Risk is life.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:45am
- Inandout
  
  krazy, back in the day of winter flu the first 3 years of the jab I came down with terrible flu and this put me off for a couple of years. The last two years I was symptom free after the jab, last one March 2020. As my Dr says, no vaccine can be 100% symptom free, nor any pharma drug side effect free. But with the C19 vaccine, well just like I wait until a new release motor vehicle is properly tested before I buy, the same with this jab.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:45am
KiwiSapper

INTERNATIONAL TRANSIT PASSENGERS AT OUR AIRPORTS………WTF?

Being a hard nosed old grouch, I have no difficulty in ignoring the witterings that New Zealander’s HAVE TO come back if they want to along with all the associated flim flam about a lack of isolation facilities.
Why, because it has been over a year since Covid hove on the scene and they have been just plain dumb, lazy or selfish by not returning earlier.

Now, twice this week, I have heard comments about “Transit passengers” at our airports spreading the Covid infection.

Eh? What the hell are non New Zealanders doing
at our airports? We ain’t a switching point for other nations’ citizens as we have enough problems of our own without taking their citizens under our wing. Oh, and if they are New Zealanders, why after landing are they not going direct to quarantine places instead of “transiting”. It’s the end of the line baby, all out.
As for … I could spit!

[Don’t try to imitate a moderator comment, it’s deceptive and will earn a ban in future. Mod.]
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February 16, 2021 9:17am
- Master Mariner
  
  Im starting to think that as well.
  I think PM mentioned transit passengers as well in one her speeches.
  questions:
  Where the hell where they transiting too?
  Where they allowed off plane to be held in Transit lounge?
  For the life of me I can only think of the Likes of Argentina on the way to Stdney for the likes of transiting.
  However all those flights are gone.
  So question remains, Where were they transiting too?
  
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  February 16, 2021 3:22pm
lastmanstanding

I note with interest that we get admonished for not using the tracing app and then surprise surprise a few days later an outbreak of CV19.
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February 16, 2021 9:23am
- Frank the tank
  
  We should all get Nokia 3320s again just to fuck them off.
  
  Snake was always a far superior game to candy crush and clash of clans
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:26am
- Biscuit
  
  lastman, and isn’t it strange that – at least for the last few ‘outbreaks’ – these have been caused by folk who have emerged from quarantine and then immediately gone on a Tiki tour of the country?
  
  A more prudent soul, no?, would have thought ‘You know, just to be really sure, I’ll stay in my own home town – my own ‘burb’, even – a wee while’…
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:34am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Cmon Batty – the Blairite has been promoting the hell out of local holidays for the past 12 months with that Indian lady with the most nauseating kiwi twang I have ever heard and that shit little song. A (little) Aotearoan classic.
    
    Can’t have it both ways .
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:42am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Personally
  I have NEVER used the app
  Have avoided the “sign in”
  When they said “turn on Blue tooth” I turned it off, until I wanted to use it for my reasons.
  Tracking only tells them what happened AFTER the fact, it has NO preventive application.
  and they have proved time and again, through small off hand comments, that they DO keep the info.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:50am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Me to.
    
    But I have friends that have been threatened with instant dismissal if they don’t use the app wherever they go.
    
    If pushed either walk away or take a fake photo.
    
    15 2
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    February 16, 2021 10:18am
  - Inandout
    
    RW, the biggest joke is that hookers would be the last people to have track and trace, and drug dealers… LOL
    
    12 2
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    February 16, 2021 10:50am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Where do hookers display the QR code?
      It is supposed to be compulsory for ALL business’ that deal with the public.
      
      8 1
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      February 16, 2021 11:13am
      - Batman
        
        Actually, I walked past one on Courtenay Place recently and spied the QR code inside the front sliding glass doors ??
        
        3 1
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        February 16, 2021 11:40am
      - Tall Man
        
        Now who would be looking ……..
        
        3 0
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        February 16, 2021 11:49am
      - The Proper Ghandi
        
        A tattoo on the small of their back? Scan before entry.
        
        3 1
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        February 16, 2021 11:56am
      - Nickc2
        
        Turn em upside down!
        
        4 1
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        February 16, 2021 12:01pm
  - doublehappy
    
    I can’t understand this negativity about the tracing App. If someone gets Covid-19, then the only way to test contacts is to know who they are. I try to use the App where ever I go, and I have the Blue Tooth switched on, on my phone. I can’t see why anyone would trace me in other circumstances, and take the attitude why would I care.
    
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    February 16, 2021 5:00pm
- lifesgood
  
  It has all been planned. My conspiracy theory for the day but you do have to wonder why ads suddenly ramped up, don’t you?
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:55am
  - Tall Man
    
    Our whole office was due to be in Auckland Thursday and Friday but I pulled the plug about 3 weeks ago as I was certain we were heading for a problem.
    
    Now call that foresight or just good luck but I was fairly certain that post the holidays we would be in some form of lockdown and I had ne desire to be there when it happened.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:51am
  - giltee
    
    It did before the 2nd outbreak as well
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:15pm
- NoFax
  
  I haven’t downloaded the app and have no intention to do so.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:31am
Maggie Pie

As one of the girls at tennis said, “Honestly, what do these commies want from us?”
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February 16, 2021 9:24am
- krazykiwi
  
  They want your tennis racquet, your clothes, the tennis club’s land, the club’s bank account, the car you drove to the club in, the house you live in, your phone, hubby, children, you dignity, and your hope for a better future. And then anything that’s left over.
  
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  February 16, 2021 9:30am
  - mandk
    
    And unwavering, complete loyalty to the Party and Great Leader.
    
    31 1
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    February 16, 2021 9:42am
    - Bob
      
      completely BLIND loyalty…
      fixed it for you.
      
      18 0
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      February 16, 2021 10:21am
    - Paulus
      
      Why is it I cannot find anybody who voted for her – must mix with the wrong people ?
      
      8 0
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      February 16, 2021 1:32pm
      - Tall Man
        
        The wrong right people or the right wrong people?
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:11pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    I have even had someone say to me, in a discussion about tax, “all money belongs to the govt. and they allow you to keep some”.
    
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    February 16, 2021 9:52am
    - Dougal10
      
      It was probably a quote from david parker.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:09am
Biscuit

Maggie, I saw the other day you said your partner was taking you to Sails for VD..
(Oops, Valentine’s Day sounds better than that abbrevo, no?)

I pray you didn’t bring a doggy bag home from that restaurant – the Commies you fear will be demanding 50%, at least, be donated to the local Food Bank…
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February 16, 2021 9:40am
- Maggie Pie
  
  A ‘doggy bag’? You don’t give Poodles crayfish shells, silly.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:02am
- RW Capitalist
  
  YES, when did “donations” become morally compulsory?
  Sure that would be better described as “TAX”.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:05am
  - Biscuit
    
    RW, on our last big overseas trip – anyone remember overseas trips? Big tin budgie? Used to ‘take off’ from things called ‘airports’? – we went to some restaurant or other.
    
    The bill arrived.
    
    After the (already-pricy) total there were three blank columns:
    
    Tip (20% minimum recommended) $
    Additional Gratuity: $
    Do you wish to donate to this restaurant’s chosen charity? $
    
    The waitperson was clued up to the New Zealand custom of the customer deciding if any sort of tip was warranted (and the actual percentage of the bill being ‘given’ as that tip being at the customer’s discretion), that I had never been to ANY restaurant where I felt an ‘additional’ gratuity was warranted and that if I was gonna donate my hard-earned to any charity it would be a charity of my choosing and not one thrust upon me by a bloody restaurant.
    
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    February 16, 2021 10:29am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      and yet
      I always tip for service, even here in NZ.
      IF the service was MORE than I expected and enhanced my experience.
      I determine the value., ignoring all “recommendations”.
      I like to “tip” the person responsible.
      If the waiter/waitress was exceptional, the tip is given to them directly, wine waiter etc.
      NEVER put into a generic “jar” for all staff.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:18am
      - JibberJabber
        
        Yep and always cash.
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:05pm
      - theoldbloke
        
        So the chef who provided the fantastic food exactly as you requested deserves no tip? While the pretty waitress with the flirty smile gets it all….
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:52pm
Rusty

I thought non essential businesses weren’t allow to open in Auckland under level 3 ?

The number of cafes I have seen open for business yesterday and this morning and even tradesman working on houses makes me wonder how many Aucklanders care about this current lockdown.

Good on them!

Thousands of Aucklanders are probably shopping in supermarkets today.

Can the health experts explain why covid infections never seem to be transmitted in supermarkets with customers and staff?
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February 16, 2021 9:53am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Interesting the disaster relief people tell you to get ready, have several weeks of food etc
  
  The government says don’t panic buy there is plenty to go around.
  
  So is it a national emergency or not.
  
  There goes the disaster app again, but don’t panic buy and get ready.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:24am
  - MCos
    
    It was an Emergency Alert, not a disaster. It says if you are in Auckland stay home where possible.
    It’s not a National Emergency or State of National Emergency as we had last year when parliament was suspended.
    My wife, who is prone to a bit of panic buying, dashed out and topped up the stuff she panic bought a year ago.
    I stayed home and watched the panic in the English cricket team.
    Yesterday the local supermarket looked like just another day.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:23pm
- MCos
  
  Cafes & bakeries around here are open for takeaways, but you place your order at the door.
  At Level 4 they are closed altogether.
  The supermarkets are open because people have to eat.
  
  Of course there are people who think the whole thing is a hoax designed to increase the popularity of the PM & raise the profile of Dr Bloomfield and a whole lot of medical experts in the eyes of a gullible public.
  If nothing coming of this episode they’ll say they were vindicated.
  If there’s a widespread outbreak they’ll say the PM, Dr Bloomfield and a whole lot of medical experts can’t do their job.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:08am
  - Tall Man
    
    Oh what bollocks.
    
    Of course the virus will enter the community, it already has on numerous occasions but we have a relativly healthy population that are generally unaffected by it.
    
    Look at the last two “outbreaks”. Both were the supposedly unltra virulent variety yet few close infections. So hyped up, yes. Bought into by idiots, yes. Dangerous for the susceptible, definitely as are most flu viruses and stomach bugs.
    
    If it is not designed to enhance ardern’s image why does she take 30 minutes to deliver a 3 minute message?
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:47am
    - giltee
      
      Good reason to call many NZers sheeple. Blindly follow, led by fear. Personally, now there’s vaccines available, I’d rather just get the damn virus and get it over and done with. Give the vaccine to the elderly and those with health issues and let it run its course. The longer this is delayed the more it’ll mutate FFS
      
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      February 16, 2021 12:25pm
- Ruahine
  
  Covid infections never get transmitted at gatherings and functions that Ardern personally has interest in like on Sunday at Coyle Park. Yet within 3 hours of leaving the function the New Zealand public is again been given another lecture to cover her failure.
  
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  February 16, 2021 3:13pm
Biscuit

How’s them first home buyer folk faring. Jass?:

The country’s median house price jumped $118,300 in 12 months to hit $730,300, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand said on Tuesday.

Median prices were down from December, but held up better than they would normally during the summer holiday period, REINZ said.

Low interest rates and a lack of properties for sale has put the heat under the housing market since the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown last year, which failed to make a lasting dent on prices as expected.

Auckland’s median house price rose by 14.9 per cent, compared with the overall 19.3 per cent increase, to $1 million.
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February 16, 2021 9:54am
- kloyd0306
  
  Shhhhhhhh…
  Don’t tell the media.
  This might be a story.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:16am
- Tall Man
  
  Pffttt, inflation.
  
  An easy way for the banks to own property in 5 years time.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:42am
JibberJabber

Heh, heh, pronouns a great way to identify fuckwits to stay away from.
https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-pronoun-new-tattoo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed: AsianInvasion2019 (Asian Invasion 2019)

Do not be a wanker.

Refuse to become a pronoun.
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February 16, 2021 10:03am
Nickc2

Karl du Fresne nails it.
https://spectator.com.au/2021/02/new-zealand-is-being-transformed-but-not-in-a-good-way/
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February 16, 2021 10:07am
- fernglas
  
  When I reached a certain age I told my kids that I had spent enough time worrying about them and their future, and henceforth it would be in their hands. That didn’t mean that I wouldn’t worry about the day to day stuff, but I had made a commitment to myself that the future of our society was no longer for me to invest in; that I was entitled to sit back and let someone with more of an interest in the future dictate where we go. Which leaves me with a dilemma. Do I renege on that commitment and try to have an influence on that which seems to me to be wrong, or do I sit tight and keep my mouth shut? I have considered a third option. I might just leave, to a place where I really don’t give a shit about their future. Is that a loss to this country of a voice which has been seasoned by years of experience, or is it a recognition that no-one would listen anyway? What would you do?
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:45am
  - kloyd0306
    
    Given how large swathes of the NZ voting public continue to remain totally uninformed, my new approach is:
    Head down, blinkers on and leave me alone to get on with my humble existence.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:19am
  - Tall Man
    
    “I might just leave, to a place where I really don’t give a shit about their future”
    
    Doubletick for that.
    
    10 2
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    February 16, 2021 11:41am
  - Nickc2
    
    I’m afraid that if I sat back and said nothing, my kids and their kids would have me certified.
    
    6 1
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    February 16, 2021 12:13pm
  - giltee
    
    LEAVE. You’ll find out how much your family care. Sadly the best thing for me was to go to Oz to work. The sad part is that I thought I had a good bond with my kids but in 2 years I’ve had to call them otherwise I’d never hear from them. I send Xmas and birthday presents to my grandchildren but never get a thank you or even acknowledgement they’ve received them. Is this what NZers have become like. Too engrossed in their own selfish lives to care about anyone else.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:37pm
  - theoldbloke
    
    Leave Jacindastan…..
    I have been thru the same dilemma as you describe.
    Took up charity work in a 3rd world country.
    No wokism
    No welfare mentality
    Family is top priority
    Government in general lets people get on with their lives.
    Ok. Healthcare and education are at low levels. Corruption at higher levels.
    
    But.
    Way more satisfying than putting up with all the crap in Jacindastan.
    And the kids are totally focussed on education and NOT abusing their teachers and schools
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:02pm
Maggie Pie

STUFF campaigning for name change to ‘The Gateway of the South Island’

Outs ‘Sir Thomas Picton’ as a slave trader, torturer, and accused pedo.

https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2021/02/our-truth-history-aotearoa-new-zealand/#picton-slave-trader
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February 16, 2021 10:11am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Question: Did any of the old Maori chiefs, much revered at that, ever own slaves?
  Asking, since the new NZ history curriculum probably won’t help me there.
  e.g in historical times, Hongi Hika, Te Rauparaha, Te Waharoa, Tohi Te Ururangi, Te Wherowhero.
  
  And if any did do things that modern people don’t do anymore, does this mean that they need to be removed from haka, displayed photographs, signage, etc?
  
  There used to be a time when Europeans burned people at the stake, and a time when Maori feasted on human flesh.
  No need to be offended based on current societies mores, or purge anything based on the fashion of the moment.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:35am
- kowtow
  
  They better be very careful.
  
  When did Maori chiefs give up slavery and torture .
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:48am
- graham
  
  Sorry Maggie, as soon as I saw in the web link:
  
  (a) It’s by Stuff; and
  (b) The title “our-truth-history-aotearoa-new-zealand”
  
  I could work out that it would be a waste of time clicking on the link. I’m guessing that will be Stuff’s version of the truth.
  
  I have greatly reduced the number of times I visit the Stuff site. I only ever went there for factual news items, but as they seem determined to push their agenda of blaming everything that is wrong in New Zealand on “colonisation”, and making anybody who isn’t Maori feel guilty for things that happened a long time ago, down our throats, I’ve decided I can live without it.
  
  And of course they continue pushing the line that their “ethical reporting is built on accuracy, fairness and balance”. Well, quite frankly, I don’t trust them. I do not trust Stuff to report with fairness and balance when the very next sentence states “… it’s our mission to make Aotearoa a better place.”
  
  If Stuff have a “mission to make Aotearoa a better place” then they are effectively confirming that they have an agenda. So how can we trust them to report with fairness and balance?
  
  Certainly if I wanted to learn about the real history of New Zealand, from a factual and trustworthy source, Stuff would be the very last place I would consider.
  
  When it comes to reporting New Zealand history, I do not trust Stuff. Their integrity is shot.
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:51am
  - curry4me
    
    graham: I only go to $tuff if I’m following a link from here.
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:19pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    There puka all history because Maori didn’t write it down till after they invited the whites to stop the domestic eating frenzy.
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:53pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Dock Stuff $50M.
  
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  February 16, 2021 3:55pm
Gulag1917

New movie
Review by Peter Hitchens
See this film – and cherish your liberty

After the Soviet authorities had massacred striking workers in the town of Novocherkassk in June 1962, they tried to obliterate all traces of the murders.

But the heat of the sun had baked the bloodstains into the surface of the main square and they could not wash them away, so they had to burn away the road surface and relay it.

Then they announced that a dance would take place at the scene of the killings and expected the townspeople to attend and dance where their friends and neighbours had been gunned down a few days before.

This horrible event is the subject of a brilliant new Russian film, Dear Comrades!, which I greatly recommend. It brutally describes what happens in a society where the state claims to be completely in charge of the welfare of all its citizens – the sort of state we are now building here, I might add.

If the people do not like what is being done in their name and dare to object, then they have to be punished and frightened into changing their minds. In this case, the people could not be persuaded that pay cuts and price rises were for their own good.

And, as the state is always good, any trace of such a revolt must be wiped from the record. The bodies of the murdered were even buried by the KGB in existing graves, in nearby towns and villages, to conceal their very existence.

See the film. Remember the dead. And learn that liberty, limited government, the rule of law over power, and free speech are your most precious possessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3olj_93LnJA
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February 16, 2021 10:13am
Fuzzysnuggleduck

When I was a kid, we had He-man and Transformers.
These days kids have He-Shes and Transgenders.
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February 16, 2021 10:17am
- Gravelroad
  
  My young grandchildren play with their father’s old He Man toys and transformer vehicles today – including Castle Greyskull which cost a fortune on hire purchase 35 years ago.
  Should I expect a visit from the toy police?
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:09am
  - sooty
    
    NZ police will stand in!
    
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    February 16, 2021 1:50pm
Maggie Pie

And here’s something a wee bit creepy……

This vid shot in the Oval Office, starring ol’Joe and Dr Jill.
Not sure of the context, but sub sez… ‘not to be shown to public’

https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1361037846275104770
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February 16, 2021 10:31am
- graham
  
  Heh … and the video is labelled as “Manipulated media”. Twitter’s “Synthetic and manipulated media policy” explains that they may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context, because:
  
  You should be able to find reliable information on Twitter.
  
  Oh thank goodness. Because whenever I think to myself, where can I find the most reliable source of information, Twitter is the first source that leaps to mind.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:01am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Im with you on that graham…… anything remotley ‘anti-Biden,’ Twitter labels it as fake news!
    Look at what they did with Trump’s tweets, tagged them as ‘disputed content’.
    We all know now off course that @jack was in the clutches of the Dems.
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:50am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Heh, nobody needs to manipulate anything, it is no secret that Biden is in a permanent state of bewilderment, I doubt he even knows what house he is in let alone know the colour of it.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:14pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, no sound, but I guess even a lip reader would be stumped on this one. Nurse Jill looks anxious though.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:02am
  - Batman
    
    Given it is a not-very-deep fake, and shite quality to boot, it seems MAGA is now resorting to making shit up to suit the lie about mental faculties.
    
    Lower than a turd in a bowl, but that’s MAGA for ya ?‍♂️
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:33am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Hahahahah…….struck a raw nerve with Batty Boy.
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:37am
      - Batman
        
        Not really Don, sometimes a slightly lurid description is the most appropriate. After all, this is exactly what most people have come to expect from the Trumpist wing of America; no lie is too obvious or too shitty
        
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        February 16, 2021 11:55am
    - Tall Man
      
      Should’ve been moderated eh Batman?
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:39am
      - Batman
        
        Doesn’t really reach the bar to be honest, given it’s been flagged on Twitter as manipulated.
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:03pm
      - Tall Man
        
        “Manipulated”? The video or the bloke in it?
        
        🙂
        
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        February 16, 2021 2:01pm
    - graham
      
      Do tell, Batman … who is this “MAGA” you allude to?
      
      Is MAGA a he? Or a she? Or even a “them”?
      
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      February 16, 2021 11:54am
      - Batman
        
        I believe MAGA is gender neutral. Given it has no human or animal genes.
        
        So you better abandon ship post haste, lest you get infected with wokeism!
        
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        February 16, 2021 12:02pm
Nostradamus

30 Taliban militants killed in explosion during bomb-making class

At least 30 Taliban militants have died in Afghanistan after they blew themselves up during a bomb-making class. The Khaama Press News Agency said the fighters died when Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) they were learning to construct exploded inside a mosque, quoting a release from the Afghan Army’s 209th Shaheen Corps.

I’m not sure that was the intended learning outcome.
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February 16, 2021 10:51am
- Swifty
  
  “Pay attention class, for I am going to show you this only once….”
  
  🙂
  
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  February 16, 2021 10:55am
  - Harriet
    
    Poor bastards are now stuck in their next world with 72 mother in laws. 😎
    
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    February 16, 2021 11:02am
    - oldfella
      
      Harriet, and what if they turn up and find their promised 72 virgins are not all girls? Bugger!
      
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      February 16, 2021 4:30pm
    - JibberJabber
      
      Heh, who do you think the “virgins” are?
      It’s not as if Religion has never lied before…
      
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      February 16, 2021 4:31pm
- Grant
  
  Reminds me of Billy Connolly’s suicide bomber instructor skit:
  “Right lads – I’m only goin’ to show you this once……”
  G
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:03am
- Ruahine
  
  Inside a Mosque we are told.
  
  Yes. The Religion of Pieces.
  
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  February 16, 2021 1:18pm
Swifty

Swifty’s February Kiwiblog challenge.

Take any free-ranging interview with Ardern since 2017 you wish and compare it against this interview with Maggy T:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZQgFRfz7Og

I’m talking lengthy interviews and not the pap, softball questioning served up to her by the likes of Ferguson and John “Oh, gosh it’s so good to have you here…” Campbell.

And more importantly an interview which explores her personal and economic philosophies and the rationale behind the actions her government is taking.

Good grief we are being poorly served.
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February 16, 2021 10:52am
- Tall Man
  
  Please don’t…………
  
  I’m easily depressed these days 🙁
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:36am
- Nickc2
  
  ‘explores her personal and economic philosophies and the rationale behind the actions her government is taking’
  
  That’s a big ask Swifty. I don’t know of any interviewers who would have the guts to ask her that. Any that do will be canceled immediately.
  
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  February 16, 2021 12:28pm
- Swifty
  
  For those time-constrained please just see this bit and for a few minutes following:
  
  https://youtu.be/YZQgFRfz7Og?t=1542
  
  See how she talks about enterprise, growth, ‘the doers’, investment, profits, competition, firms expanding and bring on more staff etc etc etc.
  
  I ask you, when was the last time you heard a Green or Labour MP talking such common-sense and being so realistic about the wealth engine that pays for everything else?
  
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  February 16, 2021 12:36pm
Fletch

Parler is back!!

http://www.parler.com
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February 16, 2021 10:56am
- Inandout
  
  Fletch, link gone tits up.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:03am
  - Fletch
    
    It works for me? I think they are slowly rolling it out. If you are using a VPN, try a NZ location.
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:13pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Got it. Does not appear on regular browser but Opera with inbuilt VPN works.
  
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  February 16, 2021 3:46pm
- curry4me
  
  Fletch: Thanks, I just logged in a few minutes ago.
  
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  February 16, 2021 5:51pm
Loddenthinks

I do realise this is a very serious subject matter and I shouldn’t really be making light of it, but I’m feeling a bit mischievous today so what the hey.

“A woman treated by a physio for a thigh injury has told a court of her shock when his hands strayed to her genital area during a treatment session.

The physiotherapist, 46, who has interim name suppression, is on trial in the Nelson District Court for inappropriately touching two of his female clients between 2013 and 2016. He has pleaded not guilty to five charges of indecent assault.

The court heard how the man, a registered physiotherapist, was working in the top of the south.”

And that’s when the trouble started….
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February 16, 2021 11:17am
- Inandout
  
  Lodden, why such a long time before he was charged? But a bit like the Oz song lyric, ‘nether let a chance go by’.
  
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  February 16, 2021 11:31am
  - Swifty
    
    For recently-arrived or younger KBers:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZSSYqHYjxY
    
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    February 16, 2021 12:20pm
lazza

Today’s ACT newsletter says .. so eloquently …

Quote: “That media reported the arrival of the vaccine like bread and circuses of ancient times shows how we lack Honest Conversations about our future. When mediocre performance can be obscured by a brazen communications strategy, we have little hope for improvement”.

TOUCHE’
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February 16, 2021 11:46am
- MCos
  
  This from ACT last Friday
  
  Pfizer arrival great news
  
  “The Government should be congratulated for getting some Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19 confirmed for rollout from next week,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
  
  BTW
  Australia & NZ both took delivery of Pfizer vaccines on the same day.
  https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pfizer-vaccine-arrives-in-australia-ahead-of-covid-19-vaccine-rollout-20210215-p572mv.html
  
  ACT, in their Friday statement, attempt to take some credit for NZ taking delivery of the vaccines earlier than expected. Maybe they should also claim credit from Oz too?
  
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  February 16, 2021 12:46pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Some countries have banned it. The mRNA is genetic modification which we don’t allow on our animals or food. Serious reports world wide.
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:41pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/classic-john-lennon-lyric-adjusted-to-imagine-all-the-dead-people-to-give-a-better-perspective-of-communism?
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February 16, 2021 12:27pm
- Inandout
  
  SO, a rather ridiculous song sung by a very wealthy man at the time. Get rid of possessions; thee he means, not me.
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:35pm
cmm

I haven’t seen stephie for a few days.

Did he draw outside the lines again?
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February 16, 2021 12:31pm
Maggie Pie

A worrying development? 🙁

One of the girls from tennis was telling us they drove past the ‘Chinese Consulate’ in Gt South Rd last week.
There was the usual group of falun gong protesters outside blocking the footpath, holding up…. ‘STOP ORGAN HARVESTING’ and ‘CHINA IS ASSHOLE’ banners.

But what she did notice, the Embassy has now installed ‘Razor Wire’ atop their 3M high wall…..as well as having two burley PI security guards standing at the heavy iron gates.

It’s as Sam sez – “This is AUCKLAND for goodness sake!”
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February 16, 2021 12:50pm
- kowtow
  
  Part of a very long line of worrying actions here .
  
  We should never forget how New Zealand police treated peaceful protests during Jiang Zemins’ visit here under the Jenny Shipley govt .
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:03pm
- cmm
  
  The Chch Chinese Consulate has also been upgrading its security and razor wire, walls etc. over the last few weeks and are in the throes of building some extra security-looking buildings.
  
  No more Mr Neighbour guy.
  
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  February 16, 2021 4:44pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    How on earth do these commies get Resource Consent? My partner’s been quietly pooing himself in case anyone reports him for embedding broken glass in the concrete wall behind our beach place.
    
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    February 16, 2021 6:12pm
alex Masterley

Blommers reporting zero new cases today. Left before chippy’s figjam speech.
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February 16, 2021 1:10pm
- sooty
  
  He’s getting sick of the bullsit!
  
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  February 16, 2021 1:45pm
New Zealander

15,000 tests in New Zealand yesterday, only a third of them processed and only 14 of 46 close contacts processed.

How pathetic. Prioritise the close contact processing so we can get back to our lives ASAP.
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February 16, 2021 1:27pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  Stand by for another announcement later today of positive tests in the community. You can see this coming a mile away.
  
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  February 16, 2021 1:34pm
  - sooty
    
    Cindy will be front and centre. She’s just off learning her lines, hair and makeup!
    
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    February 16, 2021 1:44pm
Nickc2

Rather novel. Covid-19 quarantine patients in Victoria Aust. are transported with their heads in garbage bags. Believe it or not?
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/02/award-winning-laborcfmeu-dan-andrews-hotel-quarantine-team-transporting-covid-patients-in-garbage-ba.html
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February 16, 2021 1:33pm
- krazykiwi
  
  It’s not novel. More like a 2-bit dictator getting giddy with power as he dehumanizes more citizens.
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:01pm
  - Nickc2
    
    It’s due to the power of the unions. IMO, unions control all aspects of life in Victoria one way or another. I was sent there to work for a while a few years ago and two things struck me within the first day or two:
    1. If you don’t have an AFL team to follow, you don’t count and
    2. The Police are bent (union involvement).
    
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    February 16, 2021 2:30pm
- Tall Man
  
  “Gold standard” garbage bags.
  
  Clever.
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:05pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HuI0M_O0l0

Americas allies don’t think much of the ‘Beijing Biden Administration’.
They obviously have sound judgement. He’s paying more attention to Iran,
the Fakestinisns, and China. No surprises there.
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February 16, 2021 1:41pm
curry4me

https://www.bitchute.com/video/hnfOqEukGcs/
Defund the Police. Doh! Spend More on Police.

The Minneapolis Push to Defund the Police BACKFIRES as the City Council Unanimously Votes to Spend MILLIONS of Dollars for MORE Police! It really doesn’t get more ridiculous than that; in this video, we’re going to look at the epic fail of the defund the police movement, how such a movement has made a wasteland of Minneapolis, and how these failed cities are more and more becoming symbols of the failed policies of the Democrat Party.
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February 16, 2021 1:43pm
curry4me

https://www.bitchute.com/video/7juYXf20Pp8/

Trump Wins. Dems Lose…..Again.

Trump Once Again Emerges VICTORIOUS from an Impeachment Fiasco all as 3 Leaders of the Left COLLAPSE! In this video, we’re going to take a look at the latest regarding Trump’s plans for 2022, how the 7 Republican Rinos the defected and voted to convict President Trump are already facing a massive backlash, and how 3 major Democrat leaders have all imploded in the span of just a week.
[I wonder if this raises the possibility of NY going red?]
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February 16, 2021 1:44pm
- Inandout
  
  curry, do the classic liberals now admit the Biden ‘win’ is turning into a train wreck? The biggest problem for the Dem leftists is they have no base for their ideals, it is wishy washy ‘we are correct and you are wrong’; end of discussion. Even Chris Trotter wishes a return to the days of honest, good mannered debating.
  
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  February 16, 2021 2:43pm
  - curry4me
    
    Inandout: It was always going to be a trainwreck. The circumstances of Beijing Bidens ‘win’ just emphasize the fact.
    
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    February 16, 2021 3:42pm
- Nickc2
  
  Given that New York’s Governor (Cuomo) has hit the headlines after one of his sidekicks went public about his ‘death houses’ (old aged homes) being used to give a false impression of death numbers due to Covid-19, his position is rather precarious to say the least.
  
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  February 16, 2021 3:04pm
I remember when

Testing, testing – SA variant of covid-19.
Testing, testing – UK variant of covid-19.
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February 16, 2021 1:59pm
Maggie Pie

WARNING: Disturbing content

I remember last moth when Banksie was on MagicTalk saying how you can judge a race of people by the way they treat their animals.
Take a look at what these sick f – -ks do to their ‘pet’ monkeys 🙁

https://twitter.com/TheSun/status/1361490778309197824
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February 16, 2021 3:26pm
Maggie Pie

BREAKING….

American Secretary of State J. Blinken issues statement in response to Iraqi Kurdistan rocket attack which has killed several Americans.
Sez he would rather wait until Joe wakes up before commenting further.

https://twitter.com/Hagstrom_Anders/status/1361509433289936896

Wonder what sort of ‘statement’ Trumpy would have launched?

Just saying.
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February 16, 2021 4:13pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Trump would say “Creepy Joe has a pallet of cash being organised right now, would you like European cash or some gold. US cash is out of the question – we have none left”
  Just like Iran
  
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  February 16, 2021 4:31pm
  - Nickc2
    
    With Pelosi and Harris taking turns manipulating the Beijing Biden glove puppet, anything is possible.
    I don’t think declaring war is an option, most of the troops are busy protecting the White House.
    What’s our commie leader got to say on the subject? Whatever it is, I reckon her scriptwriters will be working overtime tonight.
    Oh, maybe it will be left up to our Foreign Minister? //. No Maori Wards were jeprodized in the writing of this post.
    
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    February 16, 2021 4:41pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Jaspinda will make announcement about an announcement. Pre recorded by the $50M advisors.
      Mike and 9th floor going hard out now for play school TV1 network news
      
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      February 16, 2021 5:42pm
oldfella

How violent do you have to be towards a child to get sent to jail? A lot more violent than this, it seems.
++
A man who twisted a 4-year-old boy’s leg violently enough to break his femur and caused the child to cower in fear every time he entered the room has been sentenced to home detention.
Dean Ross Gray appeared in the Wellington District Court this afternoon for sentencing on one charge of wounding with intent to injure, and one representative charge of ill-treatment of a child.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dean-ross-gray-sentenced-for-child-abuse-after-breaking-boys-leg/OAEKM5TSPYJT345VHF72HH2YDY/
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February 16, 2021 4:19pm
- Gravelroad
  
  This is sickening.
  How come this sub-human thug gets the home detention soft option?
  It’s always because of things that allegedly occurred in their upbringing – so therefore not their fault when they become violent “adults”.
  What a winner.
  
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  February 16, 2021 6:52pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There’s no way this child and his siblings should be returned to these “care”-givers.
  
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  February 16, 2021 6:54pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

NZ Politics is fucked. I have had emails to renew my National Party Membership. I told them to get stuffed. The National Party are now NINOs (National in name only) similar to the US RINOs (7 of the turncoat bastards who will need a job 2022.
National need to grow some fucking balls – at the moment your are Labourlite
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February 16, 2021 4:25pm
- Tall Man
  
  So your choice is …. ?
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:41pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Alaska, head to the Interior where nobody can find me LOL
    
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    February 17, 2021 7:50am
Inandout

https://twitter.com/i/status/1298022930887081984
This Pelosi woman is as mad as a meat axe.
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February 16, 2021 4:27pm
Maggie Pie

Oz PM wastes no time revoking citizenship of female terrorist and her snotty-nosed sprogs arrested in Turkey – now making them New Zealand’s problem.

Typically, my partner sees this as the difference between them and us having a woman prime minister.
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February 16, 2021 4:46pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Maggie Pie:
  
  I see that the NZ Herald has a headline on its home page: “Standoff: Aussie PM won’t allow NZ-linked terrorist to return”. That headline is misleading.
  
  The position is more nuanced:
  
  In response to Ms Ardern’s comments, Mr Morrison said: “It’s my job as the Australian Prime Minister to put Australia’s national security interests first. I think all Australians would agree with that. The legislation that was passed through our Parliament automatically cancels the citizenship of a dual citizen where they’ve been engaged in terrorist activities of this nature. Now, I understand that the New Zealand Government has some issues with that. Australia’s interest here is that we do not want to see terrorists who fought with terrorism organisations enjoying privileges of citizenship, which I think they forfeit the second they engage as an enemy of our country.”
  
  To be fair, despite the NZ Herald’s misleading home page headline, when you click through to the article, the headline is “PM responds to NZ-Aus woman arrested at Syria-Turkey border”.
  
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  February 16, 2021 4:58pm
  - SB2
    
    The facts are that her children have Australian Citizenship being born and raised there regardless of what Scott Morrison or you might think.
    
    They certainly don’t pose a security threat and the Aussie PM has all the security apparatus and resources if need be to keep a close watch on their Mum!
    
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    February 16, 2021 7:24pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      SB2:
      
      The facts are that her children have Australian Citizenship being born and raised there regardless of what Scott Morrison or you might think.
      
      You know, if you’re going to engage in drive-by smears like “regardless of what … you might think”, it might pay to get your facts right.
      
      I’ll restate the facts again in bold for your benefit: “The legislation that was passed through our Parliament automatically cancels the citizenship of a dual citizen where they’ve been engaged in terrorist activities of this nature“. So neither Scott Morrison’s opinion nor my opinion regarding Suhayra Aden’s Australian citizenship is legally relevant.
      
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      February 16, 2021 9:12pm
      - Swifty
        
        Ignore him Nosty – it has been widely reported the kids were born and raised in Syria – never stepped foot in Oz.
        
        He hasn’t got a clue what he’s talking about.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:42pm
      - SB2
        
        And as I pointed nor her children. That is the nub of the matter.
        
        Otherwise, as suggested by Chester Borrows on RNZ with Wallace Chapman today Scott Morrison is playing at being Trump in this matter.
        
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        February 16, 2021 9:43pm
- Martin Williams
  
  Help me out here.
  
  I assumed KBers would hate the idea a “Jihadi bride” will be returning to NZ but y’all seem to be celebrating?
  
  World’s gone mad.
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:38pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Presidents Day USA.
Children of the left, go down the basement to your safe place now before you get triggered.
The other guy got 8oM votes? well saw my fucking cock off – he did not. The Trump supports is there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg7gZGh3Y98&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3_HIYk81FkAXdid1L4bkNiO6uWUfDqHgVpdxuR-sfBSD8YGrl1EqUCyLM
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February 16, 2021 4:55pm
- curry4me
  
  Steve Otto (North Shore) President Trump spent Presidents day in Florida. Beijing Biden spent it trying to remember where he was.
  
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  February 16, 2021 5:39pm
- marcw
  
  Loved the giant MAGA hat – sticking it to the ‘elected’ regime.
  
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  February 16, 2021 5:39pm
  - SB2
    
    macw, that’s right the elected” regime” beyond a shadow doubt and contrary to the false claims of the MAGA mad hatter and his MAGA hatter followers.
    
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    February 16, 2021 7:16pm
- Martin Williams
  
  Lot of white faces in that crowd. Nearly all of them???
  
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  February 16, 2021 8:34pm
Master Mariner

And so it begins,

NZ is closed for Business in the International oil and Gas Industry.

Has any one actually thought of Fuel security.

How reliant on Overseas for transportation of goods etc. We have an Defunct Airline that needs huge subsidies for a a Business model that is unlikely to return.
No shipping Industry to get goods to Market, but solely reliant on Overseas controlled shipping companies

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/436523/new-zealand-oil-and-gas-beach-energy-to-surrender-exploration-permit
“The Labour-led coalition stopped issuing further offshore exploration permits in 2018, which on top of a collapse in global oil prices and preference for oil from cheaper sources, has reduced international interest in exploring, unproven deep sea prospects in New Zealand.”

Now we are slowly but surely Killing Oil and Gas in NZ.
It may be step back in the stone age days sooner than later with a perfect storm / Black swan event out of our control.

Hence the reason to control what we can.

The banning of Oil and Gas in NZ was nothing short of economic sabourtage.

And as a “Nuclear moment” I suggest bring in Nuclear Power to NZ.
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February 16, 2021 7:23pm
Wired-one

Police using the emergency alert service for missing people now? When the hell did we all agree to that?
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February 16, 2021 8:16pm
Martin Williams

Taxdodgers Union admits Labour bloody good at the economy and NZ is lucky they are in charge. Starts paying back wage subsidy by instalment.

Porky the wasted pig nowhere to be seen.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300231941/covid19-new-zealand-taxpayers-union-to-return-60000-from-wage-subsidy
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February 16, 2021 8:18pm
Nutta

In the House today, Hipkins says he was told about positive Wuhan Flu tests on Saturday AM.

In the media today, Bloomfield says he found out about Wuhan Flu positive tests at 10pm Saturday, but didn’t bother to tell Ardern until Sunday.

Ardern says she didn’t find out about the positive tests untill 11am-12pm Sunday.

We were in lockdown by 23:59 Sunday.

Can they not agree on times and dates when obfuscating their (in)actions? Who’s lying about when they knew?

Do we really believe that something warranting immediate lockdown didn’t get advised to JA for over 12hrs???
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February 16, 2021 11:12pm

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