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February 27, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 27 February 2021

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mikenmildagain

Happy International Polar Bear Day!
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February 27, 2021 8:01am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  When is International Polar Bare day Mike?
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:20am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Whenever you choose to bare your pole.
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:46am
  - oldfella
    
    What about Pole Bare day? (Polish nudes).
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:32pm
    - Okahu
      
      You looking for an excuse to whip out the ‘oldfella’ oldfella?
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:53pm
      - oldfella
        
        If I knew where it was, Okahu. ?
        
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        February 27, 2021 5:14pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘Today they are estimated to number between 26-58,000 with a median estimate of 39,000. The polar bear’s recovery is one of the most successful conservation efforts during the past century, yet the negative bemoaning continues, usually with a fundraising component.’
  
  https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2021/01/27/polar_bears_are_thriving_go_and_see_them_for_yourself_657965.html
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:51am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Polar Bear populations continuing to expand
  
  https://polarbearscience.com/2021/02/24/not-a-myth-state-of-the-polar-bear-report-shows-2020-was-another-good-year-for-polar-bears/
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:34am
krazykiwi

People can chat injudiciously in cafes. And in downtown Wellington this can make for interesting listening. This week I overheard two people discussing an upcoming cabinet paper on housing policy. The two jucy morsels I overheard (before some nearby pillock loudly took a call) were this:

1. Recommendation to extend the brightline test to 20 years

2. Recommendation to freeze rents, then link increases to CPI

I’m not ‘in property’ so, other than observing that these initiatives hardly look likely to solve any supply problems, I interested in others’ views on likely impacts.
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February 27, 2021 8:01am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  An eavesdropper as well, and apparently proud of it.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:14am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Fuckwit alert!
    
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    February 27, 2021 8:18am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I thought you’d be into that as well Elsie.
      
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      February 27, 2021 8:32am
      - Brian McDonald
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        21 eavesdroppers and counting. Coro Street anyone?
        
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        February 27, 2021 8:34am
      - sooty
        
        Not much support Brian.
        
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        February 27, 2021 8:50am
  - Tall Man
    
    “Eavesdropping” would be considered one of the lesser evils wouldn’t you think?
    
    I think, yet again, you shoot wide of the mark with your attempt at an insult.
    
    These days is it still considered eavesdropping when a “loudmouth” foghorns their conversation into the ears of those around them?
    
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    February 27, 2021 9:15am
  - PeeJay
    
    And your response to two apparently senior civil servants talking about highly sensitive information in a public space is that, rather than engaging with the issue or noting any concerns about the two civil servants complete lack of discretion with confidential and sensitive information, you respond with a juvenile attempt to troll kk?
    
    Righto…..I think Captain has it right…..you are a fuckwit.
    
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    February 27, 2021 9:30am
    - Okahu
      
      Well, if we are making distinctions…
      Perhaps we can safely opine about the wisdom of public servants loudly discussing confidential matters (bad) and choosing to broadcast that inadvertently acquired information (possibly raising issues of civil liability for misuse of confidential information).
      Of course whether any of this actually occurred or is merely the attention seeking behaviour of a wannabe epidemiologist is also in the mix of considerations before we become to vexed.
      
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      February 27, 2021 11:45am
      - Okahu
        
        Thank you downtickers. I agree. Of course it should have read ‘vexatious, amateur, wannabe epidemiologist’ and ‘too vexed’. To the Garretts and sticklers amongst you, my humble apologies.
        
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        February 27, 2021 2:17pm
  - Hollyfield
    
    Eavesdropping is listening secretly to a private conversation. If the people talking were in a private room at the cafe, and a person pressed their ear to the door, that would be eavesdropping.
    Since ears cannot be “closed” so they do not hear, sitting in a public venue hearing what other people in the cafe say is unavoidable. An accusation of eavesdropping is an attempt to deflect from the unprofessionalism of the two talkers in speaking so opening in a public venue.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:25am
  - rouppe
    
    If someone is speaking so loudly in a public space then the person who hears it isn’t eavesdropping, which is defined as secretly listen to a conversation.
    
    Given both parties were in sight of each other, that’s hardly “secretly”
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:55am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      What are Public Servants doing discussing serious matters of State in a coffee shop or such like? That is beyond just sackable.
      
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      February 27, 2021 12:10pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Have you never heard the wartime expression “Loose lips sink ships” Brian? Overhearing injudicious people spouting off in cafes is usually easy, and doesn’t require any special level of subterfuge.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:33pm
- Blackbob
  
  Can you spell .. C.a.p.i.t.a.l. G.a.i.n.s. T.a.x. ? Focusing on solving the “wealthy people issue” rather than the actual problem that there is not enough houses.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:16am
  - kowtow
    
    Is it that there’s not enough houses , or is there too much immigration ?
    
    As with the climate ’emergency” , the real issue is too many people , but it ain’t popular to say that .
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:52am
    - Blackbob
      
      Not enough houses, change that and it doesn’t matter how many people come here. We have 5 million people in a country with almost twice the land mass of the UK. So immigration isn’t the problem it’s just another dog whistle along with speculators or any other group to blame.
      
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      February 27, 2021 6:29pm
      - marcw
        
        Land area of the UK: 209k km2
        Land area of NZ: 269k km2
        
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        February 27, 2021 6:54pm
      - Blackbob
        
        Land area of the UK: 209k km2 Population 66M
        Land area of NZ: 269k km2 Population 5M
        
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        February 27, 2021 11:45pm
- [email protected]
  
  Change the rules after people bought income properties based on the then existing rules! I’m not a property investor but rule changes like this shouldn’t be retroactive. Apply them only to new property investors.
  
  What other rules will this government change?
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:18am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    In my experience, the rules are not retrospective for the bright line test.
    
    The bright line test is the term that was applicable at the time when the property was purchased, not whatever and whenever the socialists change the rules.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:26am
  - [email protected]
    
    And to apply this to investors wanting to build new homes is downright dumb.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:40am
    - Ian Boag
      
      investors wanting to build new homes
      
      I assume you don’t mean “for rent”. Can you point me anywhere that “new houses for rent” is actually happening. I don’t mean one or two …..
      
      An honest – not rhetorical – question.
      
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      February 27, 2021 5:39pm
  - rouppe
    
    Cullen introduced the FDR rules on shares retrospectively.
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:06am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    applying draconian rules on property investor, especially those building new houses for the purpose, will reduce the availability of rental houses and push rents up.
    Making it harder to save for a deposit on your first home.
    Again???….how will this help???
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:19pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      property investor, especially those building new houses for the purpose
      
      Could be. So what is happening out there?
      
      Can you you point me at someplace where this (new houses …) is actually happening and meaningful numbers of rental houses are under construction or planned for the near to medium-term future ?
      
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      February 27, 2021 4:45pm
      - RW Capitalist
        
        do really understand?
        This about what will happen under the current course.
        The near past has shown people getting out of the business and raising the rents due to lack of supply.
        
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        February 27, 2021 4:50pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Hey downticker. I ‘m not trying to score points.
        
        I genuinely don’t know if there are significant numbers of “houses for rent” being built or consented or otherwise in the pipeline. At current rents, this would be a brave step.
        
        So, if someone could enlighten me …. ?
        
        But I really don’t know what is happening in the “build for rent”sector. I suspect the answer is “buggerall” but cheerfully admit that I am happy to be straightened out with real information.
        
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        February 27, 2021 5:34pm
- Ron Jeremy
  
  My personal opinion is they missed an opportunity last year to implement a capital gains tax . We should have one but it shouldn’t be at your marginal rates it should be a 10% – 15% of any gain. This would have been more palatable to the general public . Fiddling around the edges with increase in tax on over 180k and extending bright line is window dressing. A storm is coming we can’t keep recycling cash on capital gains and think we are producing something. What’s happening is like a giant Ponzi scheme at the moment and people will be burnt at some stage.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:21am
  - Tall Man
    
    I doubt very much you are in either the finace industry or the housing industry.
    
    Excluding the family home or farm eliminates the vast majoprity of “all” homes from the tax.
    
    The vast majority of landlords do not buy and sell regularly but allow their tenants to pay of their mortgage. Extending brightline to 20 years would increase the capture but that would be a vote loser so will never happen.
    
    In my world, the vast majority of investors that buy and sell for capital gain are “captured” and pay tax on any gain less expenses.
    
    Yes there are a few that evade the tax but the cost to find them over and above what is being currently implemented would probably exceed any additional tax captured.
    
    Like many, you assume investors are dumb sheep. They are not. Those people already vote labour.
    
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    February 27, 2021 9:47am
    - Ron Jeremy
      
      I’m in the adult film industry.
      
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      February 27, 2021 12:04pm
      - Tall Man
        
        “Were” I think is the correct word.
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53159576
        
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        February 27, 2021 1:54pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Yeah, right.
        
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        February 27, 2021 2:40pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    Why do we need a CGT? It doesn’t do what its proponents claim.
    
    It is merely a tax on capital already taxed.
    
    For speculators etc. They are meant to pay income tax on their gains. If they are not, then that is a failure of the current tax system and not a reason for yet another tax that will line the pockets of accountants and lawyers?
    
    Arguments about changing investment patterns are also rubbish.
    
    I am chartered accountant who lectured tax in the UK (where they have had CGT since the 1970s) while reading g for my masters.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:49am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      The unique danger to NZ that doesn’t impact other countries.
      National super
      Kiwisaver
      BOTH trade shares to get the returns they get.
      CGT will reduce those returns and therefore the viability of your retirement funds.
      Housing is a smokescreen and will not do what they claim, t hasn’t anywhere else in the world, so why would it here.
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:42pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      It is merely a tax on capital already taxed.
      
      Nope. It is a tax on the income produced from said capital, not the capital itself. I buy something for $1m and sell it for $3m. Tax would be levied on $2m not on the $3m.
      
      You are a CA – you know this … I’m only an engineer.
      
      If you want to nitpick, you may claim the $2m is not income. We would just have to disagree – me stating that it is income and you stating it is not does not “prove”either of us is “right”. I go with the idea that a buck is a buck is a buck
      
      You can nitpick about inflation’s role – CGT jurisdictions generally deal with this by discounting the rate.
      
      And of course, $4-600k of that $1m might have been borrowed, so not money you had paid tax on …
      
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      February 27, 2021 4:36pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @Homas
        
        I’m not challenging your assertion. I meant to make it clear that I don’t know and I am interested to know where I can find out …. and I didn’t go to one of those schools where they teach Latin.
        
        IB
        
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        December 28, 2020 9:18am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Nope, it is a tax on inflation, on capital already taxed.
        
        And to make it worse it is the government and RBNZ which have the greatest authority to limit the levels of inflation. So, a CGT is the govt benefiting from it’s own inability to deliver on something they are there to manage.
        
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        February 27, 2021 5:42pm
      - Homas
        
        OK, so a buck’s a buck (is a buck).
        
        Then why do CGT regimes invariably ringfence a buck of capital loss against a buck of capital gain?
        
        Why is it always implicitly understood that any one buck of loss can’t, as of right, shelter any one buck of gain?
        
        Unless the bucks are actually different, deep down?
        
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        February 27, 2021 6:35pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Then why do CGT regimes invariably ringfence a buck of capital loss against a buck of capital gain?
        
        Do they? Citation?
        
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        February 27, 2021 8:58pm
      - Homas
        
        Ian,
        Seeing as you’re the one challenging my assertion, how about you provide a citation demonstrating an example of a current year capital loss being used, pari passu, to shelter current year income?
        
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        February 27, 2021 9:55pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        So I buy something for $1m. Use $400k of my money and $600k from the bank. The $400k of mine qualifies for the “already tax paid” label, so let’s not tax it again. We agree on this.
        
        The $600k from the bank? Is this “capital of mine”? Probably not …. We even get a tax break on the interest.
        
        Sell item for $2m. You are suggesting that we just call that “inflation”? Some of could undoubtedly be ascribed to general inflation, but all of it? My $400k has turned into $1.4m and it was all just “inflation”?
        
        We don’t inflation-index any other taxes. If there is a general price rise in “stuff” we don’t lower the GST rate etc etc.
        
        You’re the CA ….
        
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        February 28, 2021 9:15am
  - rouppe
    
    Any CGT should include the family home. Otherwise it isn’t “fair”
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:06am
- Swifty
  
  Evidence internationally is abundantly clear on this issue.
  
  If you wish to increase housing supply, freezing rents is one of the most counter-productive policies imaginable.
  
  But it can be popular, in the short term. Which is why I could easily see Labour going for it – even though it kicks an even bigger can down the road for those who come after.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:22am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    The can has morphed in the proverbial 44 gallon drum. Remember those?
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:28am
    - Swifty
      
      Sure do.
      
      Among many other uses around the place, Dad had one set up as the household incinerator at the back of the house and it was my job to run it.
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:25pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    This move, if it is one, isn’t designed to do anything about supply, it’s all about trying to artificially lower house prices to try and suppress demand.
    
    They think freezing rents (and other policies designed to make life ever-more difficult for landlords) will drive residential property investors out of the market to some degree.
    
    That will (theoretically, in their fantasy world of fluffy bunnies and missing toys) free up the market with just the type of houses that first-home buyers want to buy – and in exactly the right places!
    
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    February 27, 2021 2:52pm
    - Swifty
      
      “This move, if it is one, isn’t designed to do anything about supply…”
      
      Oh, I quite agree; it isn’t DESIGNED to, but it will.
      
      It will be a perfectly foreseeable consequence. Lowering returns to property developers through rent controls will cause less property to be developed by them.
      
      Econ 101. Proven extensively internationally and over decades.
      
      But the facts mean nothing to socialists when they’re on a mission.
      
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      February 27, 2021 3:37pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Lowering returns to property developers through rent controls will cause less property to be developed by them.
        
        With the recent property appreciation, rental returns are in the toilet now. No developer that I have heard of is building serious numbers of houses to rent.
        
        Perhaps you can put me straight?
        
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        December 27, 2020 4:48pm
      - Swifty
        
        “With the recent property appreciation, rental returns are in the toilet now. No developer that I have heard of is building serious numbers of houses to rent….”
        
        So let’s make things even worse by freezing rents below that which the market would charge if left alone – exacerbating the very problem you describe.
        
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        February 27, 2021 4:56pm
      - Sponge
        
        Ian,
        
        I will put you straight – Williams Corporation in Christchurch.
        
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        February 27, 2021 6:37pm
- Nickc2
  
  Smoke signals coming from the Behive tell me there is a push within the Labour Party to ban property (housing) auctions.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:24am
  - Bigted
    
    In Wellington (Lower Hutt) I recently sold two houses, 3 months apart, by tender. Identical houses, 2 flats. $35k difference in that length of time, 10 offers. I’d say that tenders would be as damaging to prices as auctions. People don’t know what what anyone else is bidding, so they’ll go high. At least at an auction you know what the bids are.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:37am
- hullkiwi
  
  Bright line test to 20 years, equals CGT by the backdoor.
  
  Socialism never sleeps. Further, these clowns show, they are full of dim witted ideas with no appreciation of the consequences.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:30am
- hullkiwi
  
  Pegging rents to CPI does not reflect the true cost base of landlords. For such a dumb idea, you would need a local property index, that reflects rate increases and property maintenance cost increases. Else private landlords will leave the market. Really useful.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:39am
  - Martin Williams
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Rate increases and property maintenance cost increases.
    
    Both captured by the CPI, numbnuts.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:17am
    - David George
      
      Rates and insurance costs have consistently exceeded the CPI, rates, in particular by a large margin.
      The numbnuts epithet marks you as an unreasonable, unpleasant, offensive fool.
      
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      February 27, 2021 12:17pm
      - Martin Williams
        
        Still in the CPI!
        
        Cost of houses isn’t though…
        
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        February 27, 2021 2:49pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        numbnuts
        
        A Tall Man standard …. have copped it myself 🙂
        
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        February 27, 2021 4:39pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Can’t for the life of me think why Ian …..
        
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        February 27, 2021 5:54pm
    - RW Capitalist
      
      So is the price of ice cream and air travel
      “numbnuts”
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:46pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Williams CPI is an average of what you said. Reality, the expenses of a landlord are more specific and have increased annually at afar greater rate than CPI. As a for instance revenant media releases by Wellington and ECan have suggested double digit percentage rates increases. What does a manipulated CPI increase cover in such circumstances?
      
      Think again before you hit your keyboard@
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:32pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Further to DG, who nails the description of you, the CPI also includes a multitude of items that are of no significance to the cost of maintaining and servicing a residential property. Houses don’t buy fresh vegetables or car insurance or clothes.
      
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      February 27, 2021 3:56pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    Private landlords leaving the market is actually the goal of Labour. They want to buy all the rentals up while printing money, at the current market rate and redistribute them to the homeless and needy as emergency accommodation. The government staying in the property market with a $400M mass purchasing programme will stop prices falling, until one day it doesn’t. Then Jacinda will be off as she will have finished her 6 or 9 year stint as PM.
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:05am
- alloytoo
  
  Any attempt to disengage rentals from market forces is bound to end badly.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:43am
- peterwn
  
  A 20 year ‘Bright Line’ test is effectively a capital gains tax since most investment properties would be sold within 20 years of purchase. If rents are to be limited to CPI, then for a Bright Line test or any Capital Gains Tax, only the gain beyond CPI should be taxable.
  Rent controls will sure achieve the objective of making more homes available to first home buyers. As usual, who cares about prospective tenants since they are unlikely to vote National. Interestingly the Greens has announced a social rental housing policy which would gain them some votes at the expense of Labour.
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:09am
- Thought Criminal
  
  Price controls distort the market and will lead to supply issues. Every time.
  
  The left will never learn.
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:12am
- Tall Man
  
  I wonder if a “company” could own the asset within the “brightline” period but could be bought and sold as an entity in itself……..
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:17am
  - peterwn
    
    The company would need to be set up for purposes other than avoiding the “brightline” test or it will fall foul of the tax avoidance rules. This is where smart lawyers are worthwhile.
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:25am
  - Ian Boag
    
    If you set up the company to take over an existing stock of houses, then you would have to sell them to the company at current values – which would incur BL tax. After that, given that the company was set up (of course) to generate rental income [:-)] you should be home free. Could sell the company OK but if any of the houses were sold out of the company there would be BL tax for the company to pay.
    
    Best that the company only owns one or two I would guess. But then I’m no lawyer …
    
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    February 27, 2021 4:15pm
    - Tall Man
      
      What I was thinking was buy the houses in the company then revalue the asset base and sell at the revalued level when it was time to move on. The houses aren’t being sold the company is but it would be a complex medium and ultimately I would need to spend too much time thinking it through.
      
      Suffice it to say that whatever the “numpties” in ardern’s idiot circle come up with will be easily overcome and ultimately make the situation worse.
      
      Currently average rentals are 21% of average income and 20% is supposedly the target so really … what is the problem?
      
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      February 27, 2021 9:30pm
- Martin Williams
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Both excellent proposals. Rent controls are crucial because the amateur landlord industry clearly can’t control themselves.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:15am
  - Rich Prick
    
    Thanks for sharing your feelings. But I prefer evidence. I’m just like that.
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:31am
    - Swifty
      
      This is absolutely typical lefty politics from Martin.
      
      While it is abundantly clear that it is decades of government (local and central) action which has got us into this housing mess, through more rules and over-regulation; he argues that it will be more rules and more regulation that will get us out of it!
      
      Oh and try divert everyone’s attention from government bungling and bad policies by trying to slip blame on to innocent parties on the way through; in this case landlords.
      
      It’s lefty politics 101. The government fucks things up and then tells everyone they are the only ones who can save us and will come riding supposedly to our rescue with more government while vilifying everyone else. And never, ever admitting they are the cause of the fuck up in the first place.
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:09pm
  - Tall Man
    
    And again another comment from someone completely outside either the housing or finance industry, much like the numpties currently trying to solve a self induced crisis.
    
    There’s an old adage, less is more.
    
    It doesn’t just apply to food but that is something a limited intellect struggles to comprehend. Shame cindy and robbo are in that league.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:01pm
  - Swifty
    
    “…amateur landlord industry clearly can’t control themselves…”
    
    Martin doesn’t believe in freedom.
    
    He and his lefty accomplices have no qualms whatsoever about using the power of the state to coerce New Zealanders into bending to their whim.
    
    We are but their playthings. To be used, forced or tossed aside in their relentless quest to shape society into their twisted vision.
    
    To hell with freedoms. The political process exists solely as a means to control others. And boy do they make good use of it.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:20pm
- rouppe
  
  Because I choose my tenants carefully, I have tended to lag behind market rent as they prove themselves to be reliable.
  
  So: the two bedroom flat in Johnsonville which I’m currently renting to a guy for $370 a week will have to go up to no less than $450 and; the three bedroom house in Newlands that I have rented to a family for the last 9 years currently at $450 a week will have to go to no less than $610.
  
  Having said that I’m on the cusp of retiring, so that may be the trigger to sell. When I invest the proceeds it won’t be in a NZ based entity, I will set up an entity offshore so that when the inevitable attempt to tax “wealth” is proposed, It will be beyond their reach.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:03am
  - Tall Man
    
    The overseas entity idea is not that simple unless you choose to reside overseas as well, or evade rather than avoid.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:02pm
    - rouppe
      
      To be fair I haven’t investigated that deeply. As to residing overseas, that option is wide open.
      
      I’d be quite happy to live on the GC, I know someone living a fabulous FIFO life in Thailand, and someone else who has set themselves up in Mexico…
      
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      February 28, 2021 9:27pm
Happychappy

Maori and Labour stopped many of Nationals attempts to build on sensitive that could have environmental consequences but now the Labour Minister David Parker has given a developer consent to build 2,000 new houses next to a protected wet lands at Plimmerton Farms, in a move he says will meet the demands of future Generations
The development has been widely opposed by environmental groups amid concerns about runoff into the wetlands known as Taupo Swamp with also the concern that the developer has a conviction for environmental damage in the past.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/02/2000-houses-to-be-built-next-to-protected-wetland-in-porirua.html
Now if this consent had been done under a National Government the Leaders of Maori ,Labour and the Green Party would have the Media going apeshit and the condemnation would be NZ wide.
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February 27, 2021 8:03am
- PeeJay
  
  One could only imagine the live cross from Campbell to the rent-a-mob protesting!
  But hey, just like we no longer apparently have any need for Campbell to do a ‘sleeping in cars’ segment anymore, move along, nothing to see here eh?
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:42am
- oldfella
  
  “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies…” Groucho Marx
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:03am
Suze Wainwright

When I first studied economics in the ‘80s, I remember the more liberally inclined academics were totally pro-free market and against economic controls (because, of course, it was then good and righteous to be seen as anti-Muldoon).
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February 27, 2021 8:06am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Muldoon is going to be required again to fix the latest Labour wage/price spiral.
  
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  February 27, 2021 12:14pm
JibberJabber

Joe Biden only needs to Bomb 5 more countries(that the US is not at war with) to get a free Nobel prize…
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February 27, 2021 8:08am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Apparently he is a judge in the Loreal product range prize . . .
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:31am
Kiwi_in_Paris

It’s pretty clear now in the UK that not only will there be Covid vaccine passports, but pressure will be put on the entire population to get vaccinated, by way of, “they”, meaning the skeptics, are preventing the country opening up totally. Pretty similar to a 1979 German science fiction movie called, The Hamburg Syndrome. Here’s a great scene from that movie, when an old man, who was narked on by his neighbours for not having the vaccine, comments, “The healthy are now the sick!” There is also mention of climate change used as a ruse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etekvGN4R_g
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February 27, 2021 8:14am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Honestly, it will not be necessary to pressure people in the UK to get vaccinated. It is impossible for us to understand how horrific it has been there.
  
  Vaccination is completely voluntary. But as at 19 February 95 percent of over 70s had been vaccinated. That is probably at 99 percent now.
  
  A recent survey of adults showed 91 percent had been already vaccinated or they would accept a vaccine when offered. That is way way higher than I would have predicted. Of the remaining 9 percent, some will change their minds. So within a few months 95 percent of adults will have been vaccinated. So no need for compulsion.
  
  https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-one-dose-of-pfizer-vaccine-greatly-reduced-transmission/
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:13am
  - kowtow
    
    How horrific has it been . The dead in the streets removed on carts and burnt in huge pyres ?
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:59pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      “Bring out your dead—-bring out your dead…”
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:24pm
Tomtoddy

Interferences in the rental housing market lead to:
# fewer houses available to rent
# higher rents
# more disputes
# even more interferences.
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February 27, 2021 8:16am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  My lawyer mate, who had a decent go at my Cointreau and Glayva, told my wife and I that we were living squalor, as our home could not be let under current rental legislation as it does not meet the legal requirements. Then he had a go at the Napolean brandy to go with the Dom Benedictine. A real estate agent had told him that he had located 70 houses, and he is sure there are many more, that are all empty because the costs associated with renting those perfectly adequate houses was too high.
  
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  February 27, 2021 8:44am
  - PeeJay
    
    This is a tricky one tbh. I’m generally against regulation, particularly over-regulation, but the one area of the economy that has repeatedly shown that it needs better regulation is the building industry. Every single time the industry has been let loose from regulation it has been a complete fuckup – we’re still fixing 90’s leakies (and still building them but that’s another story). Far too many unethical pricks in the industry, at far too many levels. Unless regulation forces better performance, the industry has shown it won’t do it voluntarily.
    Agree the rental sector changes have been a spectacular cock up, but letting the ‘market’ decide doesn’t always work, especially in the building industry.
    
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    February 27, 2021 9:49am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Wonder what his opinion would have been if you had fed him Lion Red . . .
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:34am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Right up there with Curran I would have thought.
      
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      February 27, 2021 10:35am
  - artemisia
    
    70 empty homes because too expensive to bring up to the Healthy Homes standards? That is quite possible though the upgrades may be done over time and the homes back on the rental market. The time frames to completely comply are very tight for tenancies new or renewed after 1 July this year, and require landlords to have potentially thousands of dollars cash in hand to pay. Or pay steep fines.
    
    Some of the standards are amazingly ridiculous. And expensive. The saving grace of course that tenants will be paying for upgrades whether they want them or not.
    
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    February 27, 2021 4:41pm
- RalphT
  
  And if rents are to be frozen you can be sure that before the new requirement comes into effect most landlords will give their tenants a hefty rent increase
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:11am
- Tall Man
  
  Sounds like a “circle” labour would love.
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:17am
- Ian Boag
  
  Interferences … lead to ..
  
  So I guess “hands off” in the rental housing market leads to:
  
  # more houses available to rent
  # lower rents
  # fewer disputes
  ……
  
  What’s not to like ? 🙂
  
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  February 27, 2021 4:23pm
JibberJabber

Labours bigotry of low expectations exposed,

https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/2021/02/chris-hipkins-says-polynesians-too-poor.html

That is what Labour have always thought of the Pacific community. Too stupid to follow Covid instructions so need a lockdown to keep them from freedoms.

Poor, brown, compliant…..keep them out of Queenstown……vote Labour.
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February 27, 2021 8:17am
- Ruahine
  
  You gotta luv Cathie. Pure Gold.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:50am
gravedodger

@ Mcdonald, hardly the commenters fault, the invasion of the loud cellphone exponent is far too common.
Does NZ need speakers corners for such “public oratory”
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February 27, 2021 8:19am
Swifty

Just for something different…..

May I ask those farmers who post here; how are things going?

Where and what do you farm?

How has your summer been? How are prices?

Would be enjoyable to hear from you.
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February 27, 2021 8:24am
- Gravelroad
  
  Ok- we are farmers – now semi retired bur still on property.
  We farm sheep for wool, cattle for beef and some deer. We have a QE11 covernant area on the property of approx 800ha – so we do know something about conservation, water and pasture management – believe it or not.
  The majority of the productive income is from fine wool which is exported and made into fashion clothing.
  The wool market is always volatile, manipulated, and unpredictable. The grower being the last to be rewarded with income two or three times pa.
  People again seem to be reimagining the value of wool as being a renewable source of clothing, furnishings and a wide range of innovative products which do not harm the planet. Wool products are much more environmentally disposable than plastic.
  Would be nice if extremists such as PETA would desist from lying about “the cruelty of of shearing sheep.” It is more cruel not to shear them.
  Would be nice if people who seldom set foot outside the city would desist from criticising without specific knowledge. Mental health and all that.
  Would be nice if central and local government could bring themselves to see rural productivity as a positive rather than a negative activity to be constantly taxed, regulated and ruled over.
  
  As in many sectors, unavailability of machinery parts, tools and even work boots is becoming an issue.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:50am
  - kowtow
    
    As a lifelong townie , who has spent a little time rurally , can I say I think your sector is the guts of the productive world .
    We’d starve without you and without all the middlemen who get your stuff from your place and finally to ours and onto our plates .
    
    It’s the envy driven ,private property hating left and the Media Party who are doing all the damage , and driving a campaign of hatred against a class of folk that if it were anyone else targetted like this ,would be banned as hate / offence against a minority.
    
    I’ve just had a lovely chicken ,tomato, red onion sammy ,with a cuppa tea ,milk and sugar . The simplest of pleasures and most basic necessity of life. Food and drink.
    
    Thank you.
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:56pm
    - Swifty
      
      Well said kowtow.
      
      I’ve had huge admiration for our farming community ever since I was a lad.
      
      Still do.
      
      It’s a damn shame to see them used as a punching bag by some in order to fulfill their political ambitions – but who will happily take the taxation from our farmer’s efforts to fund their political activities.
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:31pm
  - Swifty
    
    Cheers Gravelroad – thanks for that.
    
    Yep, I ran into a retired local farming couple one night out in Raglan recently. They have moved into town and one of their sons is now farming their place.
    
    Among other things they recounted that their last clip had returned them $23k (from memory) but that it cost them $19k to do so.
    
    No money in it.
    
    A mate farms venison just out of Tokomaru and reports prices well down. He says demand is down in Europe particularly as people aren’t eating out as much due to Covid – and venison is not a meat people cook at home to a great degree. Sounds reasonable.
    
    Would you care to tell us what region you’re in?
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:59pm
    - Gravelroad
      
      Top of the South.
      There is wool and wool
      Always a market for fine merino wool – but no consistency around income from it.
      One year you might achieve a lofty price per kg for it. Next year, half that price for same or better grown and presented fleece. That is the reality of the international wool market.
      We breed sheep for replacements mostly, so don’t get income from lamb/sheep sales to meat processors.
      For some sheep meat producers, the wool is just a by-product – but, as above, there are a lot of innovative people now making and promoting innovative products to sustainable standards out of all types and microns of wool.
      See http://www.campaign for wool.co.nz
      And “we love NZ wool” on fb
      @Sir Cullen’s Sidekick – sheep rule!
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:05pm
      - Swifty
        
        Thanks very much Gravelroad – most interesting.
        
        Our best wishes to you.
        
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        February 27, 2021 2:40pm
      - Tomtoddy
        
        Hi Gravelroad. Enjoyed your posts. Been out all day so could reply till now. Was a farmer on the West Coast and North Canterbury – dairy. Can relate to some of your comments.
        
        If the Greenies were not such big hypocrites and so dumb they would only buy woollen carpets and turn the stronger wool market around. I am very worried about the Methane issue and the lack of leadership from Beef and Lamb and DairyNZ. I am involved with F.A.R.M – http://www.farmemissions.co.nz
        to try and do something to stop the nonsense.
        All the best.
        
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        February 27, 2021 6:21pm
redeye

Luke Malpas in Stuff. “Why Judith Collins could already be a lame duck leader — whether she knows it or not”
Claire Trevett in the Herald. “What’s eating Simon Bridges?”
You’d think our government is doing so well there’s nothing to criticize. And the poor media has been stuck holding the opposition to account.
And I haven’t linked because I don’t want to encourage the bastards.
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February 27, 2021 8:33am
- Paulus
  
  $55 million still holds Ardern wonderment of she who can do no wrong – it is somebody else’s fault anyway.
  I am sure that the media will soon want another refill as as appears Ardern fever is waining.
  So Ms Trevett perhaps Simon is correct and you are of course, biased, as usual.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:25am
- Tony Stuart
  
  It’s almost enough to encourage me to write a guest post for DPF’s blog under the heading “Why Luke Malpas is a lame duck political editor writing for a lame duck media organisation”…
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:38pm
I remember when

British Dolphin Stranding: 4 Jan 2021.
The common dolphin washed onto the beach in Somerset.
A spokesman for the Weston Coastguard Rescue Team said, ‘Arriving at scene, we sent two techs to the location armed with water and a blanket.
We had to await the arrival of the British Divers Marine Rescue specialists as dolphins are recognised as ‘royal’ mammals.
They arrived and inspected, and sadly on this occasion it was not possible to save it.
A sad end to our first callout of the year.’
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February 27, 2021 8:39am
KevO'Brien

Where else do the Public Servants do their business?
The brightline test beyond 2 years is a tax on capital.
Rent freezes–only if property owners have any annual cash flow deficiencies made good by the govt, that includes all outgoings whether capital or income.
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February 27, 2021 8:41am
Saks

What about if you make improvements? Should be able to charge more rent then? But these numptys wont understand the concept of working on something to make it better. Not sure they understand the concept of working at all…

To be fair, I dont jack my rents up massively as I believe in renting a decent house to a decent tenant for long term returns.

The problem with rent locks though is they wont allow for landlords costs increases such as the massive rates increases coming through and once interest rates start to rise again.

You know, just some basic business stuff that they dont reach at woke virtue signaling fuckwit politician school…
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February 27, 2021 8:42am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  ‘virtue signaling fuckwit politician school’
  
  The labour caucus room then . . .
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:38am
I remember when

The Plimmerton Farm housing development has been given the green light by the Government.
The change to the district plan, granted by David Parker, means the 386 hectare block will be rezoned as housing, allowing 2000 homes to be built by developer Plimmerton Developments Ltd.
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February 27, 2021 8:45am
- Paulus
  
  Plimmerton land is a swamp and will always be.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:26am
  - backster
    
    I think they are talking about the Pukerua Bay Hill.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:07pm
lilman

Renters, I own a few,as they leave they sit empty, sick of fixing them up,we live in a 2 bedroom 70s house,no heat pump,no underfloor heating,we get cold we put on extra clothing,its how we have always lived.
Renters houses had all the mod cons ,we dont, Im taking the capital gains as they come.
I have 3 or 4 tenants now who treat my houses well,3 of them havent had a rent rise in over 9 years and they know they wont as long as they continue to look after them.ie, 3 bedroom lockwood house rented for $170 a week and another is to a pensioner and family friend for $100 a week,nothing paid from any families through lockdowns.
The other homes are empty and will stay that way.
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February 27, 2021 8:47am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “we live in a 2 bedroom 70s house,no heat pump,no underfloor heating,we get cold we put on extra clothing,its how we have always lived.”
  
  Well good on you. But it is absurd. What is this thing with New Zealanders (and is nowhere else) who delight in living in shit boxes? I live in a new build with double glazing, high quality insulation, central heating and air-conditioning. i.e what most people in the developed world would regard as totally normal.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:17am
  - Sacha
    
    Benedict Yu – I live in a 3br Lockwood Initial house. It has batts, single glazing, and industrial underlay under the carpets. Today I am sitting in inside with a fan on, and the windows open.
    It is very pleasant. The perfume from the roses is gorgeous.
    I have no air con, or heat pumps. When it is cold I use an electric fan heater – and in winter I light the woodburner.
    It is not a shit box – actually I would say a new build could well fit the description, especially if it were an apartment – and I think your comment is gratuitously impolite. My opinions, of course.
    
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    February 27, 2021 5:56pm
- Colville
  
  lilman.
  
  What s the point of hording wealth?
  
  7 0
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  February 27, 2021 1:10pm
  - KiWombat
    
    There’s no roof racks on a hearse !
    
    5 0
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    February 27, 2021 4:11pm
    - oldfella
      
      He who dies with the biggest toys wins!
      
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      February 27, 2021 5:24pm
Thought Criminal

Traditional left

Rich people telling poor people that other rich people are the problem.

New woke left

White people telling brown people that other white people are the problem.
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February 27, 2021 8:52am
- Thought Criminal
  
  Or is it, straight people attacking everybody because trans people might have a problem?
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:01am
  - kowtow
    
    White people using brown people to tell white people that they are the problem.
    
    ‘An Invercargill woman is calling for Southland Boys’ High School to change one of its house colours after pupils were seen dressed in blackface and afro wigs at their sports day.’
    
    https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/school%E2%80%99s-blackface-episodes-distressing
    
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    February 27, 2021 9:13am
    - Joely Doe
      
      Anyone else wonder why these complainants are always anonymous?
      Surely they have the courage of their convictions and are prepared to stand up and be counted.
      
      Of course anonymity is always different depending on who wants it…
      
      The owners behind the United Landlords group, hiding behind anonymity,
      
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      February 27, 2021 11:30am
- WaynelSexton
  
  Traditional left
  1970s – 95% white population.
  
  Woke left
  2020 – 65% white population.
  
  The left are going to find out what Maori found out 150 years ago. That being allied with foreigners to defeat the other tribe, is not a very bright idea.
  
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  February 27, 2021 12:21pm
mikenmildagain

A good case here for urgent action on human rights:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/26/syria-china-dictators-crimes-humanity
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February 27, 2021 8:53am
Maggy Wassilieff

UK not willing to allow its ISIS bride back into the country
Shamima Begum cannot return to UK, Supreme Court rules
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56209007
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February 27, 2021 8:54am
- Thought Criminal
  
  What about those that radicalised her? They should get the boot too. Can you have a healthy amd safe society when some people preach murder against the rest of the population?
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:03am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    The Old Testament, like the Koran, contains text commanding the killing of individuals for committing certain acts.
    
    Does any moderate Christian church preach these versus from the Old Testament? (I thought not.)
    
    How hard then, for the imans to tone down the preaching of similar versus in the Koran. The verses are still there, but let’s not push their concepts onto the minds of the young and impressionable.
    
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    February 27, 2021 9:08am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Follow the money.
      
      Halal certification is one such Rort and indirectly costs all consumers in NZ as all meat is Halal certified.
      https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=f461b76a-48ac-4e3f-b4fb-4bc141175522&subId=399711
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/fact-check-does-halal-certification-fund-terrorism/6383238?nw=0
      
      Its hard to tone down the teachings when the teachings are required for funding, more so if promotes Wahabiasm.
      
      https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/madrassas.html
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:37pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Now (other than Jacinda and claims about the NZ Bill of Rights), what is the basic difference between this case and the Aussie/Kiwi and her kids?
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:04am
  - backster
    
    Kindness and stupidity.
    
    7 0
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    February 27, 2021 1:12pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Notice how they always have dead eyes.
  
  21 2
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  February 27, 2021 10:10am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Terrorists and Greenies, the Manson Lamps are a sure-fire giveaway that you’re dealing with psychopaths and sociopaths.
    
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    February 27, 2021 10:59am
- SB2
  
  MW, possibly because unlike our one Shamima Begum has apparently no surviving children.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:58am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    SO FUCKING WHAT??
    She’s a young woman who had British citizenship.
    
    What sort of person thinks a female ceases to have rights when her children die?
    
    You are a CREEP of the first order SB2.
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:38am
    - Okahu
      
      Settle down Maggy. Even if you are correct in your assessment, it doesn’t follow from what SB2 just wrote.
      
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      February 27, 2021 12:07pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I’m not interested in your advice Okahu.
        
        A female still has basic rights even if she has lost her children.
        
        I realise some men think a woman who can’t produce children or keep them alive is worth nothing.
        
        The reason Shamima Begum was stripped of her UK citizenship was for “the public good”….. nothing to do with whether her children were alive or dead.
        
        But the woman is now stateless…. and has been made so by her Government – the UK.
        
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        February 27, 2021 2:39pm
    - SB2
      
      Oh well, let’s pass the buck and let Turkey or Syria sort it out?
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124285161/the-moral-obligation-to-bring-home-our-jihadi-brides
      
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      February 27, 2021 12:48pm
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Yes, let’s. Suhayra Aden left New Zealand with her family at age six to live in Australia. Almost all her schooling took place in Australia, it’s where she lived for her formative years, and is almost certainly where she became radicalised.
        
        She may be a New Zealand citizen, but she has no connection to New Zealand now, and bringing her back here is likely to make her predicament even worse. She’s made her bed, and now she’s suddenly discovered it’s not very comfortable.
        
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        February 27, 2021 1:50pm
      - SB2
        
        Tony Stuart, the welfare of the children are paramount.Australia has washed its hands so there is little choice under ther cirumstances.
        
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        February 27, 2021 2:01pm
      - Master Mariner
        
        Pass the buck. Righto.
        
        How many countries in the Muslim World are putting their hands up to take them all in.
        
        Muslim brotherhood and all.
        
        Yep, thought so. Ill pass the Buck any day over their rightful religion.
        
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        February 27, 2021 4:29pm
- oldfella
  
  Maggy, the always excellent Spiked! has a great article on this.
  ++
  So, the Shamima Begum Welcome Committee can stand down. Those commentators and activists who devoted a bizarre amount of energy to depicting Ms Begum as a victim – of Islamo-groomers, of evil Tories, of good ol’ British racism – can put away their confetti and balloons. She isn’t coming home. The Supreme Court has ruled that it was well within the government’s rights to rescind Begum’s citizenship and block her from returning to the UK. The identitarians will have to find a new victim to rally behind, hopefully not one who was complicit in slavery, murderous homophobia and violent religious supremacy this time.
  https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/02/26/lets-get-real-shamima-begum-is-a-traitor/
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:10am
- rouppe
  
  So if the UK can do it, why can’t we?
  
  Are these statements from Jacinda that “we cannot legally leave her stateless” more lies?
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:14am
  - David George
    
    She said she didn’t want to come to NZ, that’s good enough for me. Wouldn’t she qualify for Syrian Citizenship given her kids were born there?
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:26pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    Agreed, our one made her sharia bed, she can lay in it.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:04pm
- Bluegrass
  
  It is slightly more nuanced than that, unfortunately, in that the Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeal’s earlier ruling that the only way this woman could have a fair and effective appeal was if she were allowed to be able to return to the UK for the appeal.
  
  The appeal itself is still to be heard.
  
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  February 27, 2021 3:25pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    It is a lot more nuanced than that…
    
    International law forbids governments from rendering their citizens stateless.
    
    https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/if-shamima-begum-the-isis-bride-is-no-longer-british-what-does-citizenship-mean
    
    So a silly young girl/a brainwashed 15 year-old makes a very poor decision and is stripped of her legal right to return to the UK.
    
    What do imagine her fate is going to be as a stateless female in Syria/Turkey?
    
    Why do you really think some folks don’t want her back in the UK?
    Will she really be a threat to public safety?
    
    Barrett, the former MI6 official, told me that Begum’s fate was not being driven by security concerns or logic. “This is a purely political decision,” he said.
    
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    February 27, 2021 5:43pm
    - Bluegrass
      
      As I said – the appeal is still on foot.
      
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      February 28, 2021 10:27am
Jack5

Still missing is Marni Sheppeard, who some of us, including me, regarded as the person who posted as Kea.

Posts from Kea, banned on Kiwiblog, continued on the YSB blog, and a Kiwiblog poster, I think it was Maggy Wassilieff, pointed out here that Kea posts on YSB have continued since Marni was reported missing.

Let’s hope Marni may still be found safe and well.

Marni’s education took her to being a physicist, but making a living has been a struggle for her.

This is from the report (and well down in it) that is the second link below:

Dr Marni Dee Sheppeard has a Twitter account. She also has a PhD in theoretical physics.

She is also homeless and has been living in poverty for some years.

“I’ve been in Christchurch for six weeks,” she says. “I did my PhD here, I’m a quantum gravity theorist. I was living on the streets in Auckland, then in Taupo but decided to come down here. At the moment I’m in the Christchurch City Mission shelter.”

Living on a benefit, charging her cellphone at a library and sleeping in the City Mission’s shelter, she desperately wants a space to continue her research.

Regardless of who is the poster behind the persona of Kea, let’s hope that Marni is safe, and that life takes a better turn for her.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/124379913/mother-of-mountaineer-who-disappeared-in-november-has-only-just-learned-she-is-missing

AND

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110053022/street-sisters-christchurch-womens-experience-of-homelessness
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February 27, 2021 8:54am
fernglas

I always thought Peter Dunne was a bit of a drongo, with his bowties and bouffant hair-do, but he is one of the few voices of reason around this Covid thing. This from Newsroom:

“Moreover, as the experts are now acknowledging, a perverse through predictable consequence of New Zealand’s success to date in controlling the virus is that there is likely to be a low level of overall immunity in the community.

This, coupled with the belated start to our national vaccination programme, (we are around the 80th country to do so), means that despite the optimism the advent of vaccination engenders it will be many months yet before we can reasonably expect the phasing out of the alert levels system and a return to something approaching the normality of earlier years.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/reasons-to-be-not-too-cheerful

This is what we aren’t being told; that it could be years before we get back to normality, and every day longer is a risk that this virus will be able to do its work on a virgin population. Other countries are seeing large drops in infection rates, which are more likely to be due to seasonality and herd immunity than the vaccines at this stage.
Here, we are heading into winter with a porous border and no herd immunity at all.
Fingers crossed.
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February 27, 2021 8:55am
- Don Beckett
  
  Yes, we need to stop being so precious.
  – Chop the alert level system, protect the vulnerable – mainly elderly.
  – Throw away masks, but maintain common sense distancing.
  – Open the borders to places that don’t have a high infection rates.
  – accept that some vulnerable people will die.
  -many people will get infected, but get over it.
  -herd immunity will develop within 12 months, our immune systems will not be weakened as they are being now.
  Life – and death, which is a part of life – will continue and we can get back to sorting out the BS around climate change.
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:57am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The Socialists will never allow it – they lose control
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:06pm
- Ruahine
  
  We live in a pretend bubble.
  A somewhat childish originating Labour Gov’t bubble. Get out your Teddy Bears out folks, or should that be Poo Bears.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:13am
- krazykiwi
  
  Yes, infection rates are rapidly dropping, but these rates have previously been manipulated upwards.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:27am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes, and a decline in false positives due to the manipulation of the PSR test
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:30pm
- cmm
  
  While the timescale here is slightly worrying, I find other things far more worrying.
  
  CV19 has served as a huge experiment for how far authoritarian governments (and they all are these days) can push the citizens.
  
  They have a template for the next real emergency they can exploit, but they will also use it for fake emergencies too (eg. climate change).
  
  It really is time that people get CV19 into context. In the grand scheme of things it has had very little direct impact and almost all the impact is caused by government intervention.
  
  For example, almost all the victims are old people who would have died withing a year or two anyway. Not all, but almost all. Thus, within 2 years the demographic impact will be gone.
  
  In comparison, the Spanish Flu that killed mainly people in the 20 to 35 year age group had a far greater impact. It even reduced life expectancy in USA by 12 years. The impact was very long term because there was a demographic hole that lasted for 60 years.
  
  Sure, we don’t want great grandma to pop her clogs a few months earlier, but that’s not nearly as bad as a young parent dying.
  
  Further, tens of thousands of kids were orphaned in the USA alone, and hundreds of thousands of families became single parent families. When 70+ year olds die they don’t leave orphans behind.
  
  When a 70+ year old dies there is little impact on the economy (and society). When a 20-35 year old dies that makes a vast difference to the economy. It reduces the demand for housing. All sorts of economic and social factors slump.
  
  The Great Depression is often linked to WW1, but, likely, the Spanish Flu was more of a contributor. Of course we can never really know because it is impossible to separate the factors.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:39am
  - SB2
    
    cmm, absolute nonsense. How exactly was the Spanish flu contributor to the great deprression?
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:02am
    - cmm
      
      Did I not explain that to adequately?
      
      A massive number of 20-25 year olds – mainly male – get ripped out of society leaving a hole. That reduces the labour pool. It reduces demand. Less people having families. Less need for houses. Less kids being born etc etc.
      
      Remember this was before women were as active in the workplace, so the impact was even harder.
      
      Wars always cause reduction in economic activity after the war (eg. NZ was still having rations in 1950 – 5 years after WW2 ended). This would have been far worse for the end of WW1 with huge numbers of people being killed by the Spanish Flu.
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:18pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    cmm, you’ve been reading about the spanish flu. I read somewhere a theory that this flu killed relatively more ‘younger’ people because the more elderly of the time had almost certainly been exposed to, and survived the “Asiatic flu” or “Russian flu” of 1889-90, a pandemic which killed about 1 million when the world’s population was circa 1.5 billion. Did your book delve into this?
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:48pm
    - cmm
      
      That book does delve into this, suggesting the same that older people may have gained some advantage from at least partial protection from exposure to previous flus.
      
      Of course it is all just speculation (reasonable speculation, but speculation none the less) and we can probably never fully know.
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:20pm
- kowtow
  
  The notion that new Zealand has “controlled the virus” is wrong.
  
  All we’ve done is locked ourselves away from the real world ,like a castle under seige. That’s not control , that’s simply delaying the inevitable.
  
  And there will never be 100 % vaccination. If youngsters aren’t vaccinated , the pregnant , those under health conditions where it’s not advisable and of course we’re being buttered up to accept that a very significant proportion of people won’t for “cultural” reasons , then there’s the anti vaxxers ( the traditional loon ones) and the more reasonable neo anti vaxxers who quite rightly question the warp speed roll out.
  
  That could easily give us 50 % of the total population not being vaccinated ,
  
  What then?
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:09am
  - cmm
    
    WHO guidelines are that 75% need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. We’ll never get there with the current vaccination policies.
    
    Of course it isn’t an all or nothing thing.
    
    Spanish flu was many times worse than CV19 (depending on how you count, over 100 times worse), but we (as a species) largely got over it in 2 years.
    
    When we do get over CV19, it will all be put down to vaccinations and #CinD4UN! but it would have happened naturally with no intervention too.
    
    Now, of course, I am not saying that a vaccine won’t help anybody, but I am saying that large scale vaccination is not going to make CV19 go away.
    
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    February 27, 2021 2:28pm
I remember when

Syria Strike is Biden’s first military action.
US launched airstrikes Thursday against weapons smuggling operations by Iranian-backed Shia militias.
The Pentagon said the measured response with minimal casualties send an ‘unambiguous message’
that Biden will act to protect troops and de-escalate tensions.
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February 27, 2021 9:02am
- Apropos of the Wet Snow
  
  America’s back, baby! Just over a month in, and he’s already bombing the Iranians for the Israelis. Nice.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:02am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Hymm. Ok.
    
    “already bombing the Iranians for the Israelis. Nice.”
    
    I’d swap that for Saudis, regardless the anti Saudi rhetoric coming out of MSM.
    
    I’s have a bob each way on that
    
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    February 27, 2021 2:51pm
    - Apropos of the Wet Snow
      
      Any influence the Saudis may have on US foreign policy is insufficient to explain Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, drone strikes in Pakistan, or the on-going tension involving Iran. It just doesn’t get you to where you need to be.
      
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      February 27, 2021 5:46pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Hit the wrong target too, apparently, probably because they couldn’t understand Joe’s completely garbled message.
    
    Funny you know, not so long ago Biden’s PR flack was tweeting to say that she thought that Trump’s attacks on Syria were illegal. Bet she’s changed her mind suddenly…
    
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    February 27, 2021 7:30pm
- NoFax
  
  But I thought Trump was the war-monger?
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:50am
- curry4me
  
  I remember when: I understand ‘VP’ Harris wasn’t told in advance. I wonder if Beiing Biden was?
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:25pm
- kowtow
  
  Funny ,when Trumpy dumbed a cuppla bombs Kamala harris was concerned that Congress wasn’t involved .
  
  When Creepy Joe does it , well not so much.
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:51pm
- cmm
  
  Obomber, white edition.
  
  He’ll have those drones out looking for wedding parties.
  
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  February 27, 2021 2:29pm
- Bluegrass
  
  Completely illegal under US law and international law.
  
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  February 27, 2021 3:30pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Just following in Hilary’s footsteps.
  
  looks like pentagon’s running foreign policy again .
  
  Kind of seems familiar don’t you think ?
  
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  February 27, 2021 4:36pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  measured response with minimal casualties
  Translation
  They missed
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:02pm
mikenmildagain

A case to include Devon Comway in the XI for the WTC final:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/opinion-domestic-bully-no-more-the-black-caps-test-stars-that-should-be-dropped-for-devon-conway/GLAQTWF2UN5HORCIH6WKXONZ6E/
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February 27, 2021 9:09am
Maggy Wassilieff

Seems the media in Australia are happy to address the issue of the WEF and how it is making hay from the Covid Crisis

World Economic Forum has made ‘a link from COVID to a stressed world’
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6235609977001
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February 27, 2021 9:12am
- Tall Man
  
  Real news, real journalists ………
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:18am
- SB2
  
  MW, WEF making hay from Covid? Precisely how?
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:08am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Check out all these projects
    
    https://www.weforum.org/platforms/covid-action-platform
    
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    February 27, 2021 3:13pm
hullkiwi

News this morning on the BBC (www.bbc.com) that studies are showing that all the efforts to cut carbon emissions will not cut global warming as expected.

Reports that the Greens are concerned about these reports.

Well knock me down with a feather and call me surprised. At what point do these idiots realise that the science and issues are more than cutting the use of petroleum chemicals/fossil fuels.
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February 27, 2021 9:12am
Inandout

Just love Louder with Crowder, refreshing honesty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3MXNO6iN_k
Taking the piss out of Biden’s stupid appointments.
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February 27, 2021 9:14am
Ruahine

I wonder if these children are very worried about wearing masks and social distancing.

https://www.rt.com/news/516692-nigeria-girls-kidnap-police/
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February 27, 2021 9:15am
- Ruahine
  
  Same story from a trusted source.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/437286/more-than-300-nigerian-schoolgirls-abducted
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:29am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Trusted source?? It is a copy and paste from the BBC. What a joke RNZ is
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:10pm
kowtow

Golly , I read so much from the Media Pardy here about the alleged problem of “gay conversion therapy” .
Not so much about FGM ……..

I wonder why ?
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February 27, 2021 9:15am
Scott

The joy of having Joe Biden as president knows no bounds! Biden was supposed to be the guy who was bringing in a sense of normal, a sense of calm. Biden is the guy who is business as usual.

We are now reminded what business as usual looks like.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/02/26/syria-bombing-biden-airstrikes-mark-test-us-role-worlds-police/6831034002/

Yes folks Biden is the president and now America can start bombing overseas countries again and resume endless wars.
The military-industrial complex is back in business. Lockheed and Boeing and those who manufacture bullets and guns – business is going to be good!

Can someone please talk to Jacinda and let her know that Kiwi soldiers are quite enjoying not being deployed overseas to fight in endless wars. I was talking to a chaplain friend the other day who had been deployed in Afghanistan and only just missed out on being in the Humvee that was destroyed by an enemy IED.

I don’t know which is worse about Joe Biden? His desire to restart endless wars or his opening the border to illegal immigrants who may or may not have Covid while continuing to keep his own citizens locked down?
Joe Biden is well on the way to becoming the worst president ever IMHO.
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February 27, 2021 9:19am
- Don Beckett
  
  China Joe Beijing Biden is not making the decisions – his puppet masters are – he just moves his arms and opens his mouth when the appropriate strings are pulled.
  This is going to end badly – especially when Kamala takes over.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:29am
- mikenmildagain
  
  now America can start bombing overseas countries again and resume endless wars
  
  Um, was there some kind of stop to the bombing and wars that I missed?
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:50am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Yes, tell us Mikey, how many new wars did Trump start ? Take your time, we can wait…
    
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    February 27, 2021 7:33pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  And fans of the military-industrial complex are due for a treat today.
  A USAF B-52 is scheduled to fly over Wellington and the Wairarapa at about 12.45.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:52am
KevO'Brien

(https://www.facebook.com/SaithtechGroup)
Saith Group updated their status.
February 23 at 5:43 AM ·
I am please to announce that we have successfully licensed six companies to be Manufactures and Distributors of the GPMs in their jurisdictions. I will again announce the remanding four companies in due course.
USA ?? Aspiri Inc. (Our Management company)
India ?? Rare Tech Projects Limited.
Spain ?? Work and Systems Slot Slu.
Austr… See More
More here:
https://saithgroup.com/gpm/

GPM Greener Power Machine
This is an announcement to the world that the free energy has arrived. It’s not nuclear but seems to be based on what Tesla was hunting for: electrical energy from the Earth’s fields. (My words.)

For some time the product has been demonstrated and shipped. Now global supply is underway. The units provide fully conditioned AC power at 50 Hz with other arrangements possible. They can power individual homes or machines. A small electric car has been demonstrated. https://saithgroup.com/ev/

Current physics is in a turmoil about these things and the other green sources of subatomic or strange power sources under development. The proof of the pudding is ultimately in the eating. Not all inventions are understood fully on discovery. This one from Maxwell Chikumbutso of Harare, Zimbabwe, has been well checked over and the US Govt has even give him residence.

Maxwell attributes all of this to God, who showed him the power sources and trained him in the skills required. Maxwell left school about 11.
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February 27, 2021 9:25am
- mikenmildagain
  
  It’s scam. Perpetual motion machine.
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:49am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Nonsense–there are many of them sold and working. That’s why this is exciting. Others are sceptics, for good reason and have worked this over.
    There’s more to physics than we presently are aware of. Read the disputes over QM and GUT-CP. Elements are being transmuted and there are commercial propositions for manufacturing them!
    
    What we can’t see may sometime be more powerful than what we can.
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:27pm
- Okahu
  
  Kev. Are you spruiking here? I have no idea on the legitimacy of the ‘free energy’ claims here other than to point out that all that would be needed is a patent then the world’s academies could be invited to assess the validity of the assertions. It is however a little depressing that a blurb purporting to usher in a new energy future miss-spells electricity in the first paragraph. For those reasons and because this is a blog for wing-nuts and not a scientific forum, I’m out.
  
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  February 27, 2021 9:56am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    I’m being serious. I saw the English errors and left them intact as this is from a Facebook page from a Zimbabwean. Maxwell is now resident in the USA and these are early days.
    
    There is now an established demand for this technology. A whole village was run on it and there was no other electrical sources available.
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:34pm
- fernglas
  
  I’m surprised this didn’t emanate from Nigeria.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:01am
- rockape
  
  This has been completely debuted. Its old news, dates back to 2015 so where are the dozens of cars?
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:24am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    This is new. It has taken some years to get it to this international production and distribution stage. It has become quietly certified and established. The next year or so will affirm if its the goer that it appears. Others are waiting in the wings for their attempt too.
    
    The cars have never been a production item but I expect the power plants are included in the announcement. I have seen the video of the certified sample one driven around. These items have all been vigorously probed for veracity. Some body building etc. was outsourced but the power plant is their design.
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:44pm
- cmm
  
  Hey if the Nigerians can run a scan why not Zimbabweans too?
  
  What is really sad is that the governments of these countries often buy into this crap and divert the meagre funds they have into these charlatans rather than improving the lives of their people.
  
  A few years ago a witch doctor put together a scam where she tapped a rock and then diesel came out. The Zim government people were crowing that they now had free fuel forever. Lots of “We don’t need colonialists when we have African technology” etc.
  Of course, eventually the scam was seen for what it was, but they doubled down a few times.
  
  But these are all over Africa – like the Kenyan guy starting the Kenyan space program in the back yard.
  
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  February 27, 2021 10:57am
  - SB2
    
    cmm, correction. Certain Nigerians and possibly certain Zimbabweans ( including the whites who still live in the latter)
    
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    February 27, 2021 11:11am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The USA is now involved. They checked it out and gave the inventor living rights in California.
    Note the announcement is the production and sales internationally with more manufacturers and distributors to come. There are people queuing for them.
    
    Be wary and probably be surprised.
    
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    February 27, 2021 12:50pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘Maxwell attributes all of this to God, who showed him the power sources and trained him in the skills required.’
  
  Why am I skeptical?
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:02am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    He left school as young boy of 11 and hasn’t been enrolled in engineering training. Manufacturing power conditioned 500Kw AC units is not an amateur task. He has has a string of other engineering achievements in radio, avionics, broadcasting, drones…
    
    How? is a good question. Maxwell has managed to tap into some unknown electrical field and produce a power supply. No little green men or other helpers seem evident and I expect other helpers would want their share of the action too.
    
    Tesla thought that the Earth’s magnetic fields could be an energy source but didn’t manage to come up with such an elegant device as the GPM. Maxwell says the frequencies involved are a direct revelation from God. To many that’s rightly peculiar but to those of us who have encountered the active presence of God in our lives it can be strange but something to be thankful for.
    
    You’re not alone in your scepticism. I’ve been watching this equally for the last couple of years where Maxwell seems to have got lost while he was being scrutinised. A US team visited Zimbabwe to examine the reports and established that there was no other apparent energy supply available or no radiation that they could measure. The units has been established in Maxwell’s home area to make a statement as there is no power there like many other villages.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:26pm
  - cmm
    
    The real Maxwell (as in Maxwell Equations) will be spinning in his grave.
    
    The one of the most basic law of physics is the conservation of energy. There is no free energy.
    
    When people start quoting (especially misquoting) Tesla about anything they’re normally talking shit. When they think Telsa showed there was useful free energy they really are talking shit.
    
    (Mis)quoting Tesla is one of those giveaways that the person does not know what they are talking about (like wearing a Che T shirt is a giveaway that the person is pro-communism and terrorism).
    
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    February 27, 2021 2:38pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Yes. Law of Thermodynamics – “Energy cannot create itself”.
      However, there is unquestionably an invisible source of energy contained in the earth’s magnetic fields – I recall Bruce Cathie writing about this in the 1970’s when he claimed that this could be the source that UFO’s tap into – if they actually exist (they have shown up on radar at control towers and aircraft radar – keep an open mind)
      
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      February 27, 2021 4:34pm
      - cmm
        
        Nope.
        
        Magnetism in itself is not energy, just as an electric field is not energy. Nor is gravity.
        
        However energy can be converted from one form to another by using these fields.
        
        For example, moving an electric field through a magnetic field (what a generator does) can make electricity – but only by getting energy from somewhere else. ie. Energy (work) is required to spin the generator. The more electricity that you generate, the harder you have to turn the generator.
        
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        February 27, 2021 8:00pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      At present Maxwell, of equation fame, may be revolving for many reasons.
      An equation is only useful until another comprehensive one is found to satisfy a larger solution. Why shouldn’t there be phenomena we can’t explain at this time? That doesn’t mean laws of physics are being broken. When a process outputs measurably more than inputs it is either fake or true. Logic requires that if it actually keeps doing that the process is valid but we lack understanding of it. The notion that an event can’t occur is disproven by that event happening.
      
      I’m no Tesla exponent, I barely know of him, but superficially it looks like Chikumbutso’s work could be related–it may not be. There is a great deal more going on in this world in the search for green energy. A whole new enhanced Grand United Theory-Classical physics has emerged. That is explaining the observed transmutation of elements being observed in some processes. These have been well proven in the lab. Saith Group (Chikumbutso) is leading the field so far with the most developed electrical supply. Leonardo Corp is selling heat.
      
      EVO’s (Exotic Vacuum Objects) seem like nano-balls of lightning. These were first noted in the early days of vacuum tube design. They appear implicated in the complex low temperature plasma objects which have measurable output of more energy than what is required to sustain them.
      
      Brilliant Light & Power (Mills), Safire Project, Aureon Energy, and Leonardo Corp. (Rossi) are all at the pre-production commercial development stages. BLP are looking to power ships and actively working on a magnetohydrodynamic conversion unit from heat to electricity. The efficiency of that is close to 100%.
      
      The next twelve months could be very exciting. Understanding will come with time.
      
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      February 27, 2021 4:49pm
      - cmm
        
        Kev
        
        Maxwell’s equations are not just something that are easy to nudge out of the way.
        
        Maxwell’s equations predicted radio waves before Hertz explained them. All Einstein’s work essentially depends on Maxwell’s equations.
        
        Please do not get sucked into this scam in any financial way. It’s ok to just get some egg on your face – you can survive that- we all do stupid stuff once in a while.
        
        Please consider that Harare, Zimbabwe’s biggest city, only gets sketchy power with power cuts of 17 hours per day being common, and only then if South Africa can spare some.
        
        If Zimbabwe manages to get 100% power to its citizens by the end of the year – and maybe start exporting electricity to Southern Africa – then start to take this seriously.
        
        At this stage there is nothing to suggest this is anything but a scam.
        
        As the saying goes: “Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence”. So far we’ve seen the claims, but SFA evidence – certainly nothing extraordinary.
        
        If this is true it would stand the whole of physics on its head – in a more fundamental way than has happened in 500 or more years.
        
        Many “earth shattering” changes in physics like quantum theory or relativity only clean up some hazy bits around the edges. They are not fundamental shifts like this would be.
        
        We’re really talking extremely, massively, extraordinary claims.
        
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        February 27, 2021 5:53pm
      - RdM
        
        cmm says
        “If this is true it would stand the whole of physics on its head – in a more fundamental way than has happened in 500 or more years.”
        
        I refer you again to
        http://milesmathis.com/index.html
        
        Mistakes were made.
        Modern physics built on them.
        They can be re-examined and found wanting.
        
        Maxwell was followed by Heaviside and Lorentz.
        
        Maxwell’s equations in quaternion, later simplified by Heaviside, truncated perhaps – hence error.
        
        http://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library?e=d-00000-00—off-0hdl–00-0—-0-10-0—0—0direct-10—4——-0-1l–11-en-50—20-about—00-0-1-00-0–4—-0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&cl=CL1.12&d=HASHedccacb18da2d2ee0851c7.3.3
        
        That paper is probably on cheniere.org too.
        
        In haste, but sincerely – have another look!
        
        Take your time;- there’s a lot of it! ;=})
        
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        February 27, 2021 11:32pm
- RichardX
  
  KevO’Brien
  …
  Maxwell attributes all of this to God, who showed him the power sources and trained him in the skills required. Maxwell left school about 11.
  
  FEBRUARY 27, 2021 9:25AM
  
  If god gets the credit if it does work, will god get the blame if it doesn’t?
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:10am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hey, no downsides, man! The Prince of Peace is never responsible for war, and every babyb orn is a gift from God.
    
    5 4
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    February 27, 2021 11:55am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      A welcome uptick from Kev.
      
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      February 27, 2021 1:27pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    What speaks to me is Maxwell Chikumbutso’s testimony. That is backed up in the natural world by his transparency. Following investigations others have helped him get the backlog of orders to customers. He has now opened up both the manufacturing rights and sales to other international firms. For a fake product that is an awful commercial risk.
    Patents may always be an issue and commercial secrets can suffice. If this technology is way out wait till the others appear–there are another 4 in the wings hoping to get to market but none of them like Maxwell.
    
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    February 27, 2021 1:36pm
    - SB2
      
      KevO’Brien, your illusions destroyed ,
      
      Fact check: No evidence that Zimbabwean inventor created a chargeless electric car
      
      McKenzie Sadeghi
      
      https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/10/fact-check-no-proof-zimbabwean-inventors-chargeless-
      
      4 5
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      February 27, 2021 2:16pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Great, the fact checker has disappeared.
        The car is well documented. Maxwell bought in the body work but the power unit is his.
        Let’s all wait & see.
        
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        February 27, 2021 4:55pm
    - cmm
      
      If you really believe, sell your house and invest.
      
      And when it all turns to shit you can blame Big Oil.
      
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      February 27, 2021 2:39pm
    - RdM
      
      Ah, the doubters, accepting the conventional physics they were taught and never doubting it.
      
      Magnetism, gravity, still not understood, so…
      
      “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
      Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
      
      Yes patents can be a problem,* but also over the years over-unity inventions have been suppressed.
      
      See the sad tale of the Kawai and Takahashi magnetic motors, 15. & 16. at
      
      http://cheniere.org/misc/oulist.htm
      
      *Apart from the note on patents at the top of the page, there are a couple of papers on theory at the 16. Takahashi (Magnetic Wankel Engine) link , and other US patent difficulties are noted in ones footnote at
      http://cheniere.org/techpapers/jap/masterprinciple.htm#_ftn8
      
      There are other theory papers in Tom Bearden’s large site, which I’ve been aware of and read from since the early or mid 90’s.
      
      “What speaks to me is Maxwell Chikumbutso’s testimony. That is backed up in the natural world by his transparency.”
      
      See also link 50. in the above site, the Tewari Reactionless Generator.
      Tested at 238%.
      [Kawai had overunity coefficient of performance of some 318%]
      The Indian inventor (now deceased) in a 10 minute video.
      http://cheniere.org/misc/Tewari.htm
      
      I looked up Tewari after that note: he had written quite a few papers.
      
      https://www.tewari.org/theory-papers.html
      
      But there’s much more on http://cheniere.org
      
      See http://milesmathis.com/index.html
      At least read the Preface!
      Then select chapter links of interest perhaps.
      
      Even basic questions like
      “Why is the sky blue?” and
      “What causes a Blood Moon”
      are explained wrongly by Wikipedia, the Auckland physics chap who is called on by National Radio, and the Auckland Stardome Observatory.
      
      That’ll have to deserve a second post! ;=})
      
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      February 27, 2021 5:22pm
    - cmm
      
      Kev, I’ll make this easy for you:
      
      A 20 to 1 bet this is all bullshit.
      
      If I’m wrong I give you $200. If you’re wrong you give me $10.
      
      Keen?
      
      Or are you going to come up with some bollocks about Big Oil?
      
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      February 27, 2021 5:26pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        I’m not a betting person.
        I’ve published today because it is new and if it works out this is an historic event.
        If I’m wrong I’m wrong but my batting average with assessing technology is quite good.
        This can simmer for a while while the pot awaits the boil. Others are waiting too to attempt to claim the prize.
        Good day, all and thanks for the attention you’ve given to my seemingly outrageous postings.
        
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        February 27, 2021 7:24pm
      - cmm
        
        I am curious about this batting average of yours.
        
        Can you give some examples of why you’re so good at this?
        
        I’m not taking the piss, I am genuinely curious.
        
        I an a bit of a technologist myself. I have a pretty good batting average too. I have some pretty solid physics in my background too, so I probably have an edge there.
        
        Of course we have very limited knowledge. For example we have no idea why or how gravity really works (same for electricity and magnetism). But we have characterized how it works – we understand its rules to the point we can make calculations about how planets move etc.
        
        We have also characterized it pretty well – well enough that we can make extremely amazing things like GPS satellites (and even more amazing – GPS receivers), computers and power grids. They’re all governed by a common set of rules.
        
        So when someone comes and says they’re going to stand that on its head they’re making a really big claim.
        
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        February 27, 2021 8:13pm
Happychappy

If Winston Peter’s had argued the same point that Simon Bridges has made about our woke Police Commissioner the the Press Gallery would be having orgasms . But Journalists like Clare Trevett Tom O’Conner and others are venting their displeasure on Simon Bridges because it hurts the top people in this kind Government, so is this the start a Labour dictatorship and the media paid more and more to slur the opposition at the will of the Prime Minister because after paying over 100 million dollars to appease the and help them to return to profit it really looks that way.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300239551/a-proper-way-to-ask-important-questions
23 2
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February 27, 2021 9:35am
- Tall Man
  
  The media focus on the opposition is truly amazing.
  
  A well organised and well run opposition could be making real “hay” with this focus but instead they miss the boat, although Simon Bridges is having a lot of fun methinks.
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:14pm
  - Nickc2
    
    IMO, we need Rupert Murdoch to put a New Zealand News segment on his SKY News similar to his SKY News Australia and staff it with real journalists and presenters (not gushing children and past their use-by date talking heads). We must give NZers a truthful version of our news (no bullshit and no pro-Govt spin).
    
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    February 27, 2021 2:19pm
JibberJabber

Bitcoin explained…

https://twitter.com/sircontraire/status/1365189498607333376
6 0
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February 27, 2021 10:03am
plc

Sometimes, some people have to be told “It’s not all about you”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/maori-leader-opposes-erebus-memorial-iwi-to-gather-karakia-meeting-tomorrow/ZIRV2DU3ALC3YHZMD7IUFVPDS4/
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February 27, 2021 10:08am
WaveyDavey

Frowny-face is disappointed – Surprise!

“Ultimately, we haven’t made any decisions on anything.”

So what’s new?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/02/property-investors-making-it-so-much-worse-for-others-in-overheated-housing-market-jacinda-ardern.html
18 1
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February 27, 2021 10:15am
- Inandout
  
  WD, if Jacinda bought that Sandringham house for X amount and it didn’t appreciate in value would she be happy? And think of the Labour voters in the suburbs who are sitting on million dollar homes, would they be happy with a stagnant house value? People are selling their million plus homes in Auckland and moving to Whangarei or other places simply to retire and have mega bucks left over.
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:05pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Yes, Cindy and Co. don’t or refuse to understand that when someone sells their house, they invariably buy up/down and either way, money is injected into the economy. With Bank Interest heading into the minus figures, why would anybody choose to sit on their money? In a society like ours, money needs to keep moving to create wealth, where wealth is both for the individual and the country.
    
    A CGT is the Govt’s means of achieving the same outcome except in the current climate it’s a bunch of Govt fuckwits that get to control money movement. IMO the creater of the wealth should determine how money works/moves, never a Socialist/Communist Govt.
    
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    February 27, 2021 2:32pm
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Two parts:
    WD
    “anything”! How vacuous can our “Top Gun” politician (Prime Minister) be? Any qualification to context would work. Wonder what she says to other heads of state. Maybe why ScoMo grins so much.
    I&O:
    Luv it! My Northland investments have appreciated spectacularly since late 2017. 🙂
    
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    February 27, 2021 4:54pm
cmm

Now here is a real environmental disaster

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/trash-fills-bosnia-river-faster-than-workers-can-pull-it-out/M6DVL5LOZFUJBGYHZGC36RTNSE/

This is why it is important to give up on this Climate Change garbage. It sucks up all the oxygen (or energy or focus or whatever the hell you want to call it) available for environmental issues.

It sucks the enery up that is available to worry about eels in creeks in NZ or state of various rivers around the world (especially Africa, Asia…). Heck, even worrying about nitrates in the water is important.

But, like with period poverdee, we’re encouraged to freak out about stuff that really does not matter to the detriment of concern about really important issues.
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February 27, 2021 10:17am
WaveyDavey

Oh, and here come the weasel-words…

And here comes the CGT

“She hasn’t ruled extending the bright line test in or out, for example – reiterating the only “lever” that’s off the table is a comprehensive capital gains tax.

Obvious insertion of word is obvious. But will be excused by the usual suspects with an “ah well… you see…”
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February 27, 2021 10:20am
Happychappy

Tova O’Brien becomes Co Host of The Nation On Newzhub and then gives Jacinda Ardern a patsy interview including discussion on her soon to be wedding to Clark Gayford to please the sheeple that follow our not so truthful Prime Minister.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/02/watch-tova-o-brien-s-full-interview-with-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-for-newshub-nation.html
I guess that’s the reason why you give the media more tha 100 million dollars, to guarantee you get all the favorable News Headlines.
22 1
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February 27, 2021 10:21am
- Master Mariner
  
  The thing that caught my attention was PM saying we have to move from a housing economy to a productive economy.
  
  Gee wizz, Where have I been because as far as I can tell the productive economy has been smashed.
  
  O&G Obliterated
  Farming getting there
  Fishing and Maui Dolphins getting there too
  Tourism
  Hospitality
  Mining
  Orchards
  
  Really the list just keeps on giving.
  
  Question, How come my definition of the productive economy is different to Labour and Greens, Because as far as I can tell its a bit late to re-invigorate the Productive economy.
  Maybe needs better advisors and get out a bit, Im thinking.
  
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  February 27, 2021 5:00pm
surfing

Crimson/ Unfiltered….these are very strange businesses, with such high valuations (at least, Unfiltered was valued at 12m by some person).

I don’t get why media / investors place such value on businesses backed by media-hyped personalities.

Crimson for example, the premise, we’ll help you get into harvard…. whatever. Is there some kind of backdoor method that does not include passing tests?
6 0
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February 27, 2021 10:21am
- Pharmachick
  
  Yes.
  Your family could endow a building/stadium.
  You can be a “legacy” (i.e. your parents went).
  You can be recruited to a sports scholarship [yes, even at hahhvahhd].
  As a graduate student/post doc you can approach your Professor with your own stipend/funding.
  
  All that said, getting into any of those top schools as a first year (freshman) undergrad is very difficult.
  
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  February 27, 2021 11:56am
  - surfing
    
    None of which really need ‘Crimson’ to help.
    
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    February 27, 2021 3:29pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Surfing,
      
      Kiwi kids have UTTERLY NO IDEA how to position themselves for entrance into these top US schools. I am utterly y sure that “Crimson” or whatever it is, is trading on country-specific, school-specific adn commit-specific knowledge that they harvest from expats (and probably well paid for a good job) to make outstanding Kiwi kids competitive, that without the nuances they would not be. Would I pay fo it? I got where I am without them so take from hat what you will…
      
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      February 27, 2021 5:43pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        And multiple apologies for the atrocious spelling, must use laptop and not phone.
        
        5 0
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        February 27, 2021 5:46pm
cmm

What? Giving preference to immigrants that earn over $56 an hour? Isn’t that racist?

I’m predicating another wrecked policy to add to the pile along with Kiwibuild, child poverdee, etc.

Chances of Kris not Faafoi-ing up are pretty low.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124374247/saturday-leader-
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February 27, 2021 10:46am
oldfella

Just came across this piece from Rodney Hide about our go-to ‘covid ‘experts’. As always, Rodney hits the nail on the head.
++
I read the news now strictly for its comedic value. The New Zealand Herald and Stuff guarantee several belly laughs every morning. The headlines alone are more giggles than the Sunday funnies ever were.

I once read these rags as though news was still a thing. I would gnash my teeth and groan and wail through my eggs and bacon. It proved unhealthy. Far better to treat the news for what it is — comedy gold.
I have especially enjoyed the go-to experts on covid trying to hide their delight in advocating draconian policy. Their struggle to be po-faced is hilarious.
They are loving it. They are loving the attention. They are loving the policies. The lockdowns are a step on the way to their perfect state where experts just like them decide what’s good for the rest of us.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/the-news-is-comedy
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February 27, 2021 10:57am
Fletch

The fascist Democrats are now trying to get AT&T and other companies to deplatform Fox News, NewsMax, OANN and other media they consider “right wing”. Other media like the New York Times are also trying to get cable companies not to carry them. This is a laugh, considering CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post, et al are the biggest disseminators of fake news out there. But they don’t want any opponents. They want to totally control the narrative with no pushback.

Here are some questions in the letter these two fascist Democrats have written to AT&T and others “demanding” answers by April.

It is for these reasons we ask that you provide us with responses to the following questions about AT&T’s policies toward content carried on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV by March 8, 2021:
1. What moral or ethical principles (including those related to journalistic integrity,
violence, medical information, and public health) do you apply in deciding which
channels to carry or when to take adverse actions against a channel?
2. Do you require, through contracts or otherwise, that the channels you carry abide by anycontent guidelines? If so, please provide a copy of the guidelines.
3. How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse,DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel.
4. What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your company disseminates to millions of Americans? Please describe each step that you took and when it was taken.
5. Have you taken any adverse actions against a channel, including Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN, for using your platform to disseminate disinformation related directly or indirectly to the November 3, 2020 elections, the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, or COVID-19 misinformation? If yes, please describe each action, when it was taken, and the parties involved.
6. Have you ever taken any actions against a channel for using your platform to disseminate any disinformation? If yes, please describe each action and when it was taken.
7. Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV both now and beyond any contract renewal date? If so, why?

https://bit.ly/3pYrje0

If I were these companies, I would tell them to piss off. Govt has no business threatening private companies and telling them who they can or cannot do business with and trying to censor media critical of political rivals. NONE. I get that some people don’t like Trump but this is 10 times worse than anything Trump ever did. He often called media “fake news” but he never tried to shut them down in such an authoritarian manner.
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February 27, 2021 10:59am
oldfella

Just to prove the world is nuts, here’s a HuffPo article encouraging parents to support “sex-change” surgeries for their children – from the same organisation that discouraged people from neutering their dog.
https://notthebee.com/article/heres-a-huffpo-article-encouraging-parents-to-support-transgender-surgeries-for-their-children-and-another-discouraging-people-from-neutering-their-dog
16 3
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February 27, 2021 11:01am
Maggy Wassilieff

How to thank your quarantine staff
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2021/feb/25/fijian-rugby-league-team-sing-from-balconies-to-thank-sydney-hotel-quarantine-staff-video
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February 27, 2021 11:21am
oldfella

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work
and give to those who would not.”
Thomas Jefferson

Is Ayoteearower there yet?
20 3
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February 27, 2021 11:24am
Yvette

Jacinda Ardern says children of NZ-born suspected Islamic State terrorist better off in Turkey than Syria, but should go to Australia
Ardern had previously described Australia’s move to strip Aden’s citizenship as “not the right thing to do”. International law prevents New Zealand from following suit, as that would leave Aden stateless.

Is it not time Jacinda leaves this subject alone, before Scott Morrison realises New Zealand law has made Christchurch terrorist Tarrant a permanent resident of New Zealand now – “resident’ with small “r”, but here for the reminder of his life – so could Tarrant also be stripped of his Australian citizenship?
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February 27, 2021 11:32am
- Tall Man
  
  As will be boochani ……
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:05pm
Surely Knott

NZ Herald are running a piece called “Woman Shocked 200 times to ‘cure’ her.” It opens “Joan Bellingham was drugged and received more than 200 electroconvulsive shocks – all meant to cure her of being gay.”

But the Herald seems to have left out key facts.

Joan says in her official statements, which is not covered in the Herald article, that she was first committed on the day that drugs went missing off a hospital trolley , and she said she was falsely accused of taking the drugs.

The current herald article doesn’t mention that she was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia from 1973 until 1982. Surely this is the actual medical diagnosis at the time is key to the story. A diagnosis that a doctors in the 80’s have since claimed was wrong. And it certainly is a heartbreaking case.

But the Herald deliberately leaves out the facts that relate to the treatment. The Herald says, “The Canterbury District Health Board declined to comment on the practices at PHM or Bellinghams treatment”.
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February 27, 2021 11:38am
- kowtow
  
  Mr Trump had a phrase for articles like that ;
  
  Fake news.
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:47pm
- cmm
  
  It’s activism, not news.
  
  I’m not sure what the current state of shock therapy is, but it has been in and out of popularity like a fashion trend.
  
  My mother spent much of my childhood in a mental hospital with various diagnoses – including schizophrenia for a while – and she had her batteries charged quite a few times.
  
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  February 27, 2021 2:45pm
Steve Todd

The Texas power-grid failure last week happened “because of libertarian, free-market ideology run wild.”

It’s all explained in this opinion-piece, here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2021/02/texas-nightmare-winter-libertarianism/?

The Comments at the foot of the article are also worth reading.
16 3
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February 27, 2021 11:49am
- Cobolt24
  
  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/19/assigning-blame-for-the-blackouts-in-texas/
  
  8 4
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  February 27, 2021 12:00pm
- kowtow
  
  Far left atheist crank , no thanks.
  
  4 6
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  February 27, 2021 12:08pm
- Okahu
  
  Good read that. It rather skewers those wing nuts banging on about the failings of wind turbines. Never mind, as the article states, wind turbines kept working in next door (regulated) Oklahoma and do so in Siberia and Antarctica. I often wonder if the people who come on here to spout their anti-renewable bollocks believe it or just enjoy that warm feeling of approval they get from parroting the desperate evasions of Cruz and Abbott etc.
  
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  February 27, 2021 1:06pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Without subsidies, there would be no Solar or Wind-generated power.
    
    7 4
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    February 27, 2021 2:38pm
    - Okahu
      
      Should we mention the unpriced externalities of burning fossil fuels now? Or perhaps the trillions spent subsidising that industry? Which is not to say renewables don’t attract subsidies, just that there may be very good reason for doing so. And can you tell me where I might get one of these subsidies to install solar at home please?
      
      2 6
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      February 27, 2021 8:03pm
Suze Wainwright

I see Hilary Clinton has praised Cindy over aotearoa’s ‘soft power’ index (for handling Covid apparently). Does Cindy really want to be seen as being praised by an older white chick who is utterly despised by true feminists of color?

Clinton is so yesterday’s gal anyway…
19 5
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February 27, 2021 12:07pm
oldfella

Oh, the places you’ll go! But maybe not for much longer as Dr. Seuss has just been cancelled for supposed ‘Racial Undertones!
++
As March 2nd – his birthday – approaches, national US educator organization ‘Learning for Justice’ is calling for Dr. Seuss be cancelled. The radical left wing group claims that the Dr. Seuss reading material contains “racial undertones.”
They also allege that the non-white characters are men and “subservient” to the white characters in the book; that they are presented as “exotified, or dehumanized.”
Learning for Justice claims that anyone who defends Dr. Seuss’s problematic work is a racial “apologist” and is making excuses for why “bigotry doesn’t matter.”
https://trendingpolitics.com/it-continues-now-dr-seuss-has-been-cancelled-for-supposed-racial-undertones/?utm_source=economics
15 2
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February 27, 2021 12:12pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The left are going full retard
  
  17 2
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  February 27, 2021 2:02pm
Ruahine

Funny thing this. When Trump started to do this it was going to be the end of the world according to the American and other lefty world media. Now that Biden is carrying it on it is a great thing. It always was. How the US and other innovative countries allowed this to happen all to save a few dollars in manufacturing costs coupled with the scam to de-industrialise the western developed nations is going to cost us dearly in the coming years.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/biden-s-trade-attack-on-china-will-reverberate-around-the-world-20210225-p575qj.html
14 1
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February 27, 2021 12:39pm
- cmm
  
  Biden’s not really doing, or committing to anything.
  
  All he has done is demand a 100 day review. That makes it look like he’s actually done something but all he has done is kick the can down the road.
  
  It certainly has done nothing to show a hardened stance against China or that he’s doing anything to address the problems being experienced by US industries.
  
  All theatre.
  
  10 3
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  February 27, 2021 2:50pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Who is pulling the puppet strings. Joe did not order that attack, he just approved it. Pentagon warmongers, or China?
    
    8 2
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    February 27, 2021 3:22pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Are you up and kicking or posting from a lazy-boy?
      
      6 0
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      February 27, 2021 3:47pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Short rests, had an attack from the anesthesia, but I am awake
        
        4 1
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        February 27, 2021 6:28pm
  - Ruahine
    
    Agreed.
    
    3 0
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    February 27, 2021 3:30pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56t33QQIzvM
Should you Boycott China’s 2022 Winter Olympics?

According to the Olympic Committee: “The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world” so how is endorsing a nation that is currently working against building a peaceful and better world a good idea? Let’s discuss why you should or shouldn’t boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics.
[Yes,boycott the 1936-2021 Olympics, and leave the Made in China stuff on the shelf. What’s the Mandarin for Arbeit Macht Frei?]
11 2
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February 27, 2021 12:59pm
curry4me

https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-rules-arizonas-maricopa-county-must-turn-over-2-1-million-november-election-ballots-to-senate_3712862.html/amp

Judge Rules Arizona’s Maricopa County Must Turn Over 2.1 Million November Election Ballots to Senate.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason ruled that subpoenas issued by Arizona’s state Senate are valid and should be enforced, and he disputed arguments from Maricopa County officials saying the subpoenas are unlawful. The county previously stated that multiple audits have been sufficient and said ballots should be sealed.
“The Court finds that the subpoenas are legal and enforceable,” Thomason wrote (pdf) in his ruling. “There is no question that the Senators have the power to issue legislative subpoenas. The subpoenas comply with the statutory requirements for legislative subpoenas. The Senate also has broad constitutional power to oversee elections.”
He argued that the “Arizona legislature clearly has the power to investigate and examine election reform matters,” adding that senators can “subpoena material as part of an inquiry into election reform measures.”
The move was hailed by Republican legislators in Arizona.
12 4
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February 27, 2021 1:00pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Has anyone had any dealings with this set-up or the Koanga Institute?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300128340/idyllic-ecovillage-dream-mired-in-claims-of-deception-and-court-action
8 0
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February 27, 2021 1:12pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I am not a man of faith. This short clip will show you what a complete fuckwit Jerry Nadler is.
https://rumble.com/ve6xt5-jerry-nadler-to-gop-rep.-reading-bible-gods-will-is-no-concern-of-this-cong.html?
6 2
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February 27, 2021 2:06pm
- SB2
  
  Jerry Nadler is most slikely alluding to the fact that Congress is not a religious institution Christian, Jewish or other.
  
  Otherwise known as separation of religion and state
  
  Congress shall make no law in respect to an establishment of religion,
  
  https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/885/establishment-clause-separation-of-church-and-state
  
  3 10
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  February 27, 2021 2:25pm
- Swifty
  
  What’s your thinking there SteveO?
  
  6 2
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  February 27, 2021 2:46pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Pelosi puppet
    
    4 2
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    February 27, 2021 6:30pm
- Inandout
  
  Steve, the same Nadler who recently shat his pants and had to hurry off the stage with legs closed tightly.
  
  7 1
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  February 27, 2021 3:33pm
WaynelSexton

The joy of living in a multicultural society…. Dr. Seuss is now racist.
https://www.outkick.com/dr-seuss-racist/
5 1
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February 27, 2021 2:25pm
Maggie Pie

What a morning! Just home after playing Interclub.
Surprisingly, some of the girls from Blockhouse Bay were really nice.
Hooked up with one of them on twitter. She’s retweeted me this…. 😀

https://twitter.com/mollygiles2015/status/1365279145945628673
9 3
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February 27, 2021 2:42pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

When you have a socialist idiot in charge, those who voted for that idiot are well represented
13 2
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February 27, 2021 4:01pm
Maggy Wassilieff

What is the point of having a load of wind-turbines if they haven’t been generating power for days?

For NI:
Currently generating 40 MW – capacity is 697MW

For SI:
Generating 2MW – capacity 94MW

https://www.transpower.co.nz/power-system-live-data
15 4
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February 27, 2021 4:03pm
- Waipuk
  
  Just keep building more and more turbines until you run out of land. The wind will be blowing somewhere, fingers crossed.
  
  5 1
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  February 27, 2021 5:57pm
- sooty
  
  Because they look pretty!
  
  5 1
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  February 27, 2021 6:16pm
Maggie Pie

Jacinda Ardern: “We need 4 year terms so government can get shit done”

Also Jacinda Ardern: (has 4 years, gets nothing done anyway)
20 2
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February 27, 2021 4:28pm
- Don Beckett
  
  No shit, Sherlock. 😉
  
  7 1
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  February 27, 2021 4:42pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The Great Communicada reveals all:

Ultimately, we haven’t made any decisions on anything…

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2102/S00167/be-kind-dont-invest-in-houses.htm
12 1
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February 27, 2021 4:46pm
- Swifty
  
  “Ultimately, we haven’t made any decisions on anything… We’ve said, look, we’ve asked for advice. Let’s wait for that to come to us and make those calls.’…”
  
  Nine years in opposition, three in government and this is all they’ve got.
  
  Twelve fucking years we’ve been paying them. To do what?
  
  “Oh, we’ve asked for advice…”
  
  Utterly pathetic.
  
  Risible.
  
  A sick joke.
  
  10 0
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  February 27, 2021 5:01pm
- sooty
  
  Yep! Labour have the house market sewn up!
  
  6 0
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  February 27, 2021 6:15pm
Maggie Pie

My partners got a few mates over to watch the big fight.
I just took the drinks and nibbles in. Overheard them saying, “Far’s so soft round the middle even at a $1.12 for Joe it’s like buying money”

Just saying
4 2
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February 27, 2021 7:40pm
WaveyDavey

Here we go again…

But we mustn’t judge people for not staying home: that would be racist
5 0
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February 27, 2021 9:00pm

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