General Debate 09 August 2021

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Happychappy

If the media think it is their job to criticize the National Party over who was elected to the board and as President go after those that voted for it not Judith Collins, if Peter Goodfellow had fallen on his sword this wouldn’t even be a story for our Politically corrupt media to spew.
I would have thought the media had better and more pressing stories to tell than the vindictive crap the continue to print about Judith Collins, the should be high lighting the lies and corrupt practice that Ashley Bloomfield and Helen Clark showed over bringing a UN worker to New Zealand for medical help with Covid-19 against the wishes of clinical advise and opinion rallied against it.
But no it’s better for our Government payed media to do Jacinda Ardern’s dirty work and go after Judith Collins once again than print the facts of Labours involvement over what really took place with this UN worker.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/08/newshub-reid-research-poll-shows-nearly-half-of-national-voters-think-judith-collins-should-be-replaced-as-leader.html
I just hope that Judith and National come back to Parliament next week with unity and continue to attack the political policy that are deviding New Zealander’s and the corrupt practice that is there for all to see if they took their blinkers off and show NZ how devious these policies are.
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August 9, 2021 8:00am
- Lance
  
  The bought and paid for MSM actually doing what they are meant to… perish the thought.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:04am
- Paulus
  
  Isn’t Newshub the province of Tova O’Brien – thought so !
  – go Tova and keep going – one day you will need to find another job. May not be as far as you think.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:50am
- Positan
  
  While the self-prostituted NZ media’s performance has been viciously and speciously biased against National – TV1’s Maiki Sherman, an appalling example – as a National member for 52 years, I’m seriously wondering whether I’ll bother to renew my membership. For a long time the party has let its direction slide. Take Sid Holland’s founding principles of 1936:
  
  “To promote good citizenship and self-reliance; to combat communism and socialism; to maintain freedom of contract; to encourage private enterprise; to safeguard individual rights and the privilege of ownership; to oppose interference by the State in business, and State control of industry”.
  
  After all the leftist PC-wokeness the Party has acquiesced to in recent years, one has to wonder if we’re still talking about the same outfit.
  
  The final straw for me has been the decision by Conference to insert into National’s constitution a line paying tribute to the Treaty of Waitangi as the country’s founding document. Patently, none of those who voted had even the faintest grasp of history because the Treaty NEVER EVER HAS BEEN THE COUNTRY’S FOUNDING DOCUMENT.
  
  Remember that New Zealand had been originally administered by New South Wales, so our founding document simply has to be Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent which established NZ as a separate Crown entity. Funny how our media never attempt to acknowledge that. The Treaty signified ONLY the acceptance of Maori signatories to a new and independent governance by the Crown.
  
  And so the damage that has stemmed directly from Geoffrey Palmer’s boy-MP inanity in casting mythic, dreamed-up “Treaty principles” into law has been utterly immense – now absolutely proven to be nothing but racially divisive nonsense.
  
  But have we heard National in any way condemn Labour’s woke and unasked-for (by, by far the bulk of our population) substitution of Maori names for government departments; or the meaningless infliction of Maori-phrase-garbling TV newsreaders/hosts? Labour’s PC-wokeness has wrought immense irritation, especially given the hugely deteriorated abilities in so many Kiwis unable to express themselves coherently in proper English, let alone be able to converse fluently without “umms” and “ahhs.” How will the incorporating of Maori words and phrases into the basic Kiwi dialect make us any better understood anywhere else?
  
  Today ACT is the actuality that National has been pretending to be.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:15pm
  - rjay
    
    You do realise that ACT has the treaty recognised in its constitution don’t you.
    
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    August 9, 2021 9:43pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Might be better to refuse to come and highlight the incompetence and corruption of this present administration.
  Now we have Mahuta and Clarke running a backroom caucus, advisory services, fix-it org?
  
  Judith please step up to the plate and demolish this govt.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:59pm
krazykiwi

TL;DR; Version: Covid-19 is endemic yet our government insists on pursuing a futile Zero Covid strategy. Australia is d0ing likewise and it’s not working out for them. We should expect national lockdowns in the near term because this government is either strategically clueless, or too full of hubris to change tacks, even though the evidence is clear that they should. I suggest what they could do, but won’t
—–

Asterix is a comic series in which Asterix the Gaul and his small band of super-powered villagers hold out against relentless attacks from their would-be Roman conquerors. This theme is one that resonates with humans generally: Against all odds the resourceful underdog not only fends off the powerful, but triumphs in the face of relentless adversity.

This is the fantasy-land into which New Zealanders have retreated in the face of Covid-19. We have hauled up the drawbridge, quadrupled the guard, and dug in for the battle of attrition that we, the underdogs, are determined to win. Look at us! We’re plucky! We punch above our weight! However in this instance we are being foolish beyond measure.

I have previously written about the futility of our Zero Covid strategy. The key message was, and remains, that attempting to eradicate a globally endemic disease as utterly futile. Mankind has never eradicated a respiratory virus, and so it should be clear to all but the wilfully ignorant or ideologically blinkered
that SARS-CoV-2 and its variants are here to stay.

Despite this reality we have been psychologically conditioned to fear Covid-19 infections with such blind zealotry that no strategy other than Zero Covid can be tolerated. The cognitive dissonance needed to acknowledge the futility of Zero Covid while also fearing every single Covid-19 infection is truly Herculean.

While grappling with this dilemma we can look at happenings in Australia. Our geographically and ideologically close ally is descending into chaos initiated by a few cases of Covid-19, with net-harm causing lockdowns being wielded as a blunt instrument in support of reinstating their Zero Covid
fantasy. Australia’s ill-judged overreach is rightly being ridiculed.

So what of New Zealand? It is inevitable that a globally endemic Covid-19 will become established in New Zealand, and as this happens what will be our government’s likely response? Lamentably the answer is obvious: To follow Australia in doubling down on the Zero Covid strategy and throwing New Zealand society back into lockdown. I am advising the three boards I serve on to prepare accordingly.

We know two key things about lockdowns. Firstly, they will never eradicate a disease, but they may slow the community transmission. Indeed, this was the initial justification offered, that of ‘flattening the curve’ so that health systems did not become overwhelmed. Secondly, we now know that they cause significant net harm to societies, with a singular-focus on eliminating Covid-19 deaths leading to tacit acceptance of increased deaths from cancer, COPD, suicide, plus increased anxiety, depression, poverty, and a host of other negative outcomes. One recent example: –

According to a Statistics Canada summary of data published on 7 July, from the end of March 2020 to the beginning of April 2021, an estimated 62,203 Canadians up to age 64 died. This represents an age-adjusted excess mortality of 5,535. Of these, 1,380 were Covid-19 related deaths and 4,155
may be ‘related to other factors’. In other words, three times as many Canadians under the age of 65 appear to have died from lockdown-related causes as with Covid.

Our leaders are eager to avoid Covid-19 deaths on their watch are knowingly kicking the can down the road for their successors to be left with a preventable, but by then larger mortality crises to manage. It is selfish and spineless.

The combination of MIQ and Lockdowns merely delays an epidemiological certainty, doing so at an incalculable net cost to current and future generations. So, what could the government do to extricate itself from the strategic blind alley of its own making. I have some suggestions, thus:

1. Acknowledge that over the last 18 months we have learned a huge amount about this disease, and this means that actions we may have previously taken in good faith are no longer considered optimal. The facts have changed, and we should change our responses.

2. Be up front about the Zero Covid strategy being unsustainable. The government has spent 18 months painstakingly, and deliberately teaching us to be terrified of Covid-19 infections. They now need to walk this back. They can do this transparently, or they can spin it. It doesn’t matter how. Without a circuit breaker to the public’s now-pathological fear of Covid-19 infections there is no way forward for us.

3. Stop reporting ‘cases’. Governments only started reporting cases when verifiable Covid-19 deaths stopped looking scary enough to perpetuate the fear. For a disease with a 0.05% fatality rate for under 70s there is no justification for reporting Covid-19 cases any more so than there would be for reporting common colds.

4. Progressively relax MIQ, firstly by halving the length of stay (thereby doubling capacity), and allowing vaccinated or those previously recovered from a Covid-19 infection to self-isolate instead.

5. Encourage GPs to follow early-stage treatment protocols, including prescribing Zinc, Quercetin, Aspirin, and Bromhexine.

6. Increase capacity for mid/late-stage treatment. New Zealand has just 2.99 ICU beds per100,000, while NSW has 6.75 ICU beds per 100,000. We now know that late-stage treatment does not require full ICU capabilities, so upgrading some existing regular capacity may be an option.

7. Continue making vaccinations available to the elderly, those with comorbidities, and others who choose to be vaccinated. Accelerate adoption of Novavax to provide a non-mRNA alternative vaccine.

8. Acknowledge that vaccines are not the silver bullet we once hoped them to be, and as such we should expand treatment protocols to include the likes of Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

8. Do not, under any circumstances, implement further lockdowns.

9. Legislate for the publication of raw, weekly, quality-controlled, unadjusted data covering mortality, cause of death, hospital capacity, hospital utilization and other health-related metrics.

The idealist in me thinks these steps could be easily implemented. The realist in me says that the current government’s primary interest is in protecting their political skin, and the last four years have taught us that lying, obfuscation and hubris are tactics adopted by our leaders in preference to putting the interests of New Zealanders ahead of their own.

As a parting thought, ACT’s recent ‘Honest Conversations’ tour was well named. I assert that the most important ‘Honest Conversation’ we need to have is one about the reinstatement of freedom and liberty as a non-negotiable cornerstones of our modern civil society. The largely manufactured Covid-19 crisis has been used as a pretext to install authoritarian practices about which history teaches us two things. Firstly, they are never rolled back without significant and sustained public protest. And secondly, left unaddressed they metastasize into totalitarian systems of the type we were raised to fear. If that happens, claiming to not know where the trains were heading will not be a valid excuse.
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August 9, 2021 8:01am
- Scott
  
  Do the liberal elites actually believe the mask mandates and the lockdowns and all they are imposing on the rest of us? Given the health minister in New Zealand who went travelling with his family during lockdown one has to wonder? Given people like Gavin Newsom in California who in the midst of the lockdown held a lavish dinner with his mates in a flash French restaurant with no masks anywhere in sight, one has to question do they really believe their own rules?
  
  And of course the trendsetter in all of this is former Pres Obama who had a 60th birthday bash the other day at his $12 million mansion in Martha’s Vineyard. They said it was scaled back. However pictures have come out showing many people partying like it’s 2019. No masks, no vaccine requirements, just lavish party and boogie all night long. Which would be fine except for the mandates they are putting on everyone else.
  
  Republican representative Elise Stefanik makes the point well, “Democrats are imposing forced vaccine mandates, unscientific masks mandates, and are openly discussing lockdowns, while President Obama gathers with hundreds of maskless liberal elites who flew in on private jets with no vaccine requirement to attend.”
  
  Make no mistake. The elite don’t believe their own rules. They want power and control. There is one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us.
  
  https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/08/inside-obamas-bash.php
  
  More examples of elite hypocrisy from the American thinker –
  
  “In D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser this week reinstituted masking to begin — not by accident — one day after her big maskless birthday bash, and was nevertheless seen a day later when the masking was required by her diktat, at a wedding without a mask on. Par for the course. I do not know of a single Democratic governor or mayor who ordered masking and lockdowns who did not break their own rule.”
  
  https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/maskless_in_washington.html
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:02am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    It’s like you don’t understand the “one rule for the plebs, one for we elites” rule. You know, the one that usurped the Golden Rule 20 years or so ago.
    
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    August 9, 2021 1:58pm
- Simon
  
  Zero covid nut jobs are fast running out of time. NZ will need to open by end of September. The ro vax is fairly useless after six months or even shorter time frame. But there was a six month window to open the country up to attempt to obtain herd immunity naturally while the most vulnerable have the very limited benefit of the ro vax. Needs to open now really.
  
  The zero covid nutjobs going on about boosters or slow ro vax rollouts. Doesn’t matter unless there was an accompanying plan to open the country up and achieve herd immunity.
  
  The ro boosters will not be issued in a uniform patten to allow the safest opening up. Also the ro boosters are unknown. What a shit show.
  
  The ro vaxxs look leaky as fuck as well. The jury not out on this but it don’t look to good. There is a six month window and stupid people are in charge – not being held account to by National.
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:06am
  - kevn
    
    @Simon… NovaVax looks to be the one.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:03am
    - Greg Ettridge
      
      This is my choice of poison at this stage.
      Laughed when hosking said, it looking like a promising vaccine, it vaccinates the flu at the same time.
      Does Flu still exist?
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:34am
    - Simon
      
      “@Simon… NovaVax looks to be the one”
      
      Maybe…….. still induces spike recognition.
      
      Need an old school vax. Look up valneva.
      
      Need to get away from the utter garbage to date.
      
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      August 9, 2021 11:17am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Thanks. Agree with most of that. Yes we are learning much about covid but equally we are learning much more about the vaccines. The current generation of vaccines will not stop the pandemic. But they will dramatically reduce deaths and serious illness.
  
  I said to a friend the other day that, unless a new generation of vaccines effectively stop transmission, most New Zealanders can expect to contract covid in the next 5 years. She looked at me like I was crazy.
  
  Surely it is time for ACT to ask these questions of the PM. She could be pressured by logic. But who knows? Maybe she does not comprehend the emerging picture. But her advisors will. ACT should also demand that the PM release weekly all advice she has received on the pandemic. Because if her officials are not advising her on the realities of an exit plan what are they there for?
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:12am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Tell your friend that in the UK they are celebrating Covid-19 cases dropping to just 1 in every 75 people. In the NZ context this would be like every person in Napier having Covid-19
    
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    August 9, 2021 8:18am
    - lifesgood
      
      How many have it is irrelevant, it is the number dying that counts. We never get given a list of how many have flu every winter, do we? But around 500 die in NZ from flu every year.
      
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      August 9, 2021 8:56am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        That info was disappeared world wide last year.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:02pm
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Every person in Napier having Covid 19 would be something to celebrate right?
      
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      August 9, 2021 9:49am
      - pdm
        
        Especially if you live in Hastings BM – no love has ever been lost between the two cities.
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:02am
      - Brian McDonald
        
        Yes PDM.
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:46am
    - Durden
      
      KK. I agree with your comment and the need to change direction is urgent.
      
      I also admire your use of embedded links and text formatting to make your posts so much more readable. I have tried googling to find ways to enhance my (WordPress) comments on Kiwiblog.
      
      Any resource links or some pointers would be greatly appreciated. Mainly looking for embedded kinks and formatting for text like bold, italic or font size.
      
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      August 9, 2021 9:59am
      - Critical Thinker
        
        Here you go Durden ?
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:03am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Thanks Durden. Use Critical Thinkers link, and practice on old GD posts. Avoid tying to create these hyperlinks from an iPhone – too easy to screw up the formatting.
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:15am
      - Durden
        
        Thank you CT and KK.
        
        I am aware of HTML formatting. I was wondering if you were using any plugins/tools to simplify the process.
        
        Maybe our host DPF could simplify the whole thing by swapping to an enhanced WordPress comments widget that enables easy formatting via buttons on the comments panel.
        
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        August 9, 2021 11:12am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        “Mainly looking for embedded kinks”
        
        Durden, I’ve been doing the same for ages, but I keep on getting kicked out of the library!
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:05pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Logic does not work with our PM. In her fireplace she is too blackened to let any light penetrate.
    She marches to the Gramsci drum and commie chick scenario, not duty, care, sense and justice.
    
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    August 9, 2021 8:53am
  - Frank the tank
    
    “She looked at me like I was crazy”.
    
    Yes there are A LOT of delusional people in (little) Aotearoa. This is a worldwide endemic virus. It will have to sweep through unless we want to become South (North Korea) Aotearoa and lock ourselves away forever.
    
    The only comparison I can make is with flat earthers – the only cult equally myopic regarding an inability to face fact and science.
    
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    August 9, 2021 9:34am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      ~~Aotearoa~~ New Zealand or New Tyranny.
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:04pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Well the original Maori name was Nu Tireni so you’re kinda right…
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:06pm
  - Thought Criminal
    
    Agree all countries have to learn to love with the endemic once they feel they have enough vaccinated people.
    
    Jacinda must realise this, but I do wonder if she would try to delay that for as long as possible and fight the next election on elimination. Could she be that daft?
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:52am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Yes, I believe she’s attempting that. And she largely has the support of a MSM who have long since ceased fulfilling their role of holding power to account.
      
      All the more reason for us to loudly, and continuously promote the evidence showing that Zero Covid is a dangerous fallacy, and that Ardern at al represent a clear and present danger to the health and welfare of New Zealanders.
      
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      August 9, 2021 11:06am
      - ngatimozart
        
        Is it a dangerous fallacy? I suggest that you provide some scientific evidence to back that up rather than basing your opinion on political prejudice and misinformation. Yes the possibility exists that eradication will fail, but equally so the possibility exists that it will also succeed. To claim that it’s a dangerous fallacy is scare mongering in itself, because you have not presented any valid scientific evidence to support that claim. If you want to make such claims then present valid evidence instead of political rhetoric based on probable misinformation.
        
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        August 9, 2021 12:07pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        I am asserting that is is a dangerous fallacy based on my research of vaccine efficacy, and the net harm caused by lockdowns. Based on your comment I’m reasonably certain you’d dismiss any further evidence supplied as ‘probable misinformation’, so I’ll leave you to draw conclusions from your own research.
        
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        August 9, 2021 12:56pm
    - Nickc2
      
      YES!
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:34pm
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  If you hadn’t been wrong with your predictions about the impact of the virus in particular countries which you said were handling things in the right way only to be proved wrong you could have a point. Do you think that some Japanese were protesting the Olympic games being held when Covid cases were increasing was because they were being “controlled” or “brainwashed” by the Government?
  You never acknowledge that you are wrong you simply come up with another theory your latest seems to be that politicians are claiming that Covid will be wiped out. Where are your quotes?
  The very thing you don’t understand with your predictions is the mutations cannot be predicted, that is how you keep tripping up before pretending it didn’t happen.
  Briefly to your points.
  1/The “obvious” has been acknowledged: that a lot has been learned in the last 18months.
  2/You suggestion to be upfront: the Covid strategy has been sustainable what else is there to be upfront about?
  3/ Not reporting cases is what China did and Fiji began doing. If that happened your very next squark with be to demand that statistics be reported and claim something was being hidden. You always rely on the fact that the population has been ingested with fear but you have no proof of that and are indeed are fearful of revealing yourself, your qualifications, and why you never acknowledge your own errors. (You repeat this claim of fear, again, in your point 9 below.) You hold others to standards you ignore yourself. Calling for statistics to be withheld in a Democracy proves what your intentions are.
  4/MIQ halved: Rather go with the suggestion of John Key who is probably also on several boards and fronts up with both experienced and credibility.
  5/A medical situation to be dealt with by known experts with peer review.
  6/Our current strategy does not require an increase in ICU beds – you are fear-mongering.
  7/The continuation of vaccinations for the elderly etc doesn’t require your “approval,” it is already happening. Your other suggestion is beyond your known expertise and would require per review, blind testing, and approval.
  8/ The public knowledge of vaccinations is apace with the real-time situation as it advances. What “we should” do is go with the research and the changing data as it is understood.
  8? (Used twice) NZ has reverted to “softer” lockdowns, monitors sewerage for Covid 19, and has undertaken to be able to avoid them by border control until a further point in time.
  9/ Just a repeat of your point 3 which you use endlessly anyway.
  Where your conspiracy ideas fall away is that the political parties are in general agreement about the current strategy – but of course, they are all part of the same conspiracy?
  You are way out of touch with mRNA:
  “Many studies have highlighted the importance of the tight regulation of mRNA stability in the control of gene expression. mRNA stability largely depends on the mRNA nucleotide sequence, which affects the secondary and tertiary structures of the mRNAs, and the accessibility of various RNA-binding proteins to the mRNAs.24/03/2020”
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:49am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I’m afraid that is incomprehensible.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:06am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      What is incomprehensible is the idea that information hasn’t been learned or spread about Covid in the last 18 months. Also, that kk says there should be no reports of Covid cases and deaths, then go onto explain what should be reported including hospital deaths and the causes which we had with Covid from the outset.
      But of course, you agree with him and so I understand the “look” you believe your friend gave you the other day.
      
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      August 9, 2021 11:36am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        More incomprehension. I said I agreed with most of it. And who knows who this friend is.
        
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        August 9, 2021 12:37pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      It’s a blessing, Benedict.
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:07pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Brian, I’m not going to attempt a rebuttal of that rambling, incoherent nonsense. It appears that your loathing of me has seen you miss every point I raised while finding the time to reject issues I didn’t raise. I have previous offered a truce, which you ignored. I offer it again. Have a good day.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:12am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      “3. Stop reporting ‘cases’. Governments only started reporting cases when verifiable Covid-19 deaths stopped looking scary enough to perpetuate the fear. For a disease with a 0.05% fatality rate for under 70s there is no justification for reporting Covid-19 cases any more so than there would be for reporting common colds.”
      
      In fact, cases were reported from the outset in NZ and not “only when Covid-19” deaths stopped looking scary.
      
      So “stop reporting cases” becomes:
      
      9/. Legislate for the publication of raw, weekly, quality-controlled, unadjusted data covering mortality, cause of death, hospital capacity, hospital utilization, and other health-related metrics.
      
      But as always deny what you wrote.
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:40am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Actually, I see you said a non-mRNA alternative vaccine.
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:44am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Did you go off half-cocked Brian? Not for the first time, I believe.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:09pm
  - I remember when
    
    Did they have the Olympic Games? Weren’t they going to have to be cancelled?
    Olympic Games 23 Jul – 8 August:
    Japan: Cases 23 Jul-7 Aug: 148,620 Deaths 158:
    US Team had about 100 unvaccinated athletes.
    Crowds watching the finish of the marathon didn’t seem too worried apart from the wearing of masks.
    Olympics able to go ahead with appropriate attention to safety.
    New Zealand: 23 Cases during period all in MIQ.
    Can’t even arrange for an International rugby team to play a game.
    Where is the improvement?
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:22am
    - Jack5
      
      Latest international covid-19 figures show for Japan:
      
      New cases: 15,753.
      New deaths: 18.
      Total cases so far: 1,016,781,
      Total cases per million of population: 8,067.
      Deaths per million of population: 121.
      
      New Zealand:
      New cases: 6.
      New deaths: 0
      Total cases so far: 2,886
      Total cases per million of population: 577.
      Deaths per million of population: 5.
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:46pm
- surfing
  
  “Acknowledge that vaccines are not the silver bullet we once hoped them to be”
  
  But vaccines really are the silver bullet. I suppose it depends on your definition of silver bullet though…. covid is always going to be around, but, the vaccine is going to allow life to return to normal despite that .
  
  Simple plan, vaccinate population, open borders and close MIQ, administer annual covid vaccine booster for new strains.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:50am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Sorry I don’t think you can have a simple plan. There are too many unknowns. It is possible that there will be new more effective vaccines.
    
    I don’t disagree with you but the borders can only reopen if the government abandons zero covid, even if vaccination rates reach 90 percent. Occasionally people will die from Covid. Either the PM does not understand that or she won’t say it.
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:06am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      I agree with surfing.
      The borders can, and have opened to people negative for Covid, the extension to that could be that they are vaccinated before arrival. MIQ is in reality a 2nd border which JK said yesterday should be approached with more creativity to allow a greater number of people to travel here – you could say that is a simple plan.
      Benedict says we cannot have a simple plan because there are too many unknowns and provides alternatives with a greater number of unknowns. 1 formerly being a plan that started on this blog and elsewhere as natural herd immunity that required only a relatively small percentage number to work – a percentage now in the 90s.
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:12pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Sorry I give up. I should not have started this dialogue. I won’t make the same mistake again.
        
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        August 9, 2021 6:42pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      This is all a bit hard. We should relax and set a target for an acceptable number of deaths. Allow for the fact that this will mean about 3-4x (?) as many ICU hospitalisations.
      
      Let’s say that 200, 500, 1000, whatever is an acceptable number of annual deaths. Realism and all that. Just set a number.
      
      Now – how to get to this number? Perhaps we just start by opening the borders to NZ residents and citizens stuck offshore. And RSE workers and GPs and engineers and teachers and nurses.
      
      What’s the Plan B when we reach this “acceptable” death/hosp count and the numbers are still climbing in an exponential sort of fashion?
      
      Bearing in mind that when we find a case, it was infected a couple of weeks prior and may well have been passed around. Sort of like driving a car on a winding road by looking in the rear view mirror.
      
      The reality of viral pandemic control is that there are just three management tools – (a) vaccines, (b) antivirals and (c) isolation.
      
      The jury is still out on where (a) is taking us. As a control measure (c) seems to be working, but at a stiff economic cost. (b) – for whatever reason – doesn’t figure here.
      
      A plan with some numbers would be good. Be they ever so ballpark. Plus a B plan on what happens when the target (?!) is reached.
      
      There are the odd case studies like Peru, Fiji, and others that could cause some hesitation. OTOH the Poms seem to be doing OK with vaccination and no isolation to speak of. Not simple.
      
      FWIW opening up for foreign tourists might be a bit of a fizzer if Greece, Jamaica and a few other tourist meccas are anything to go. They just aren’t coming. With the situation in Peru it’s a brave tourist who will go to see Macchu Picchu right now …
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:37pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Let’s say that 200, 500, 1000, whatever is an acceptable number of annual deaths.”
        
        Seriously? You are not going to win with that.
        
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        August 9, 2021 6:43pm
    - tf78
      
      Bendict, people used to die from the flu every year – the only difference with Covid is that the government can control the people.
      
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      August 9, 2021 1:02pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Yes I am aware. I am not retarded.
        
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        August 9, 2021 6:44pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    The current vaccines
    – limit, but do not prevent infection
    – do not prevent transmission
    – do limit most serious symptoms
    – do see degraded protections over time
    
    In my view life returning to ‘normal’ must be driven by political will, as vaccines have failed to deliver the eradication that was promised.
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:53am
    - The Voice of Legions
      
      If anyone still thinks that we are ever going “back to normal” (i.e. pre 2020) they are utterly deluded. The last 18 months is just phase 1 of the total upending of global social norms. The old system is moribund so a new structure is being erected for when it collapses completely. We’ve crossed the Rubicon and it’s all down hill from here. I will not be legitimising it all and thus will never be “vaccinated.”
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:17pm
      - tf78
        
        TVoL – the elite forget that most people have brains, that will be their downfall. People power is stronger than political tomfoolery.
        
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        August 9, 2021 1:04pm
    - surfing
      
      Yes, just like influenza.
      
      Influenza kills around 25k a year in the UK, about 68 a day.
      
      UK is 58% fully vaccinated, and since the beginning of april covid deaths are tracking down significantly, such that it is not much worse than flu.
      
      You’d expect reaching herd immunity will show another significant drop in covid deaths. This is why I am optimistic.
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:50pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    When the “vaccines” appear to be being created before the virus release are we dealing with an extended marketing exercise?
    
    I think I’ll require a $100K before I offer my shoulder. (2.5 bitcoin?)
    
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    August 9, 2021 2:09pm
- Paulus
  
  Vessel off Tauranga currently with a number of crew with Virus symptoms – after unloading here – port workers in caution.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:53am
  - Taieri
    
    My local Fountain of Truth reports, quoting the Ministry of Health that “none of the crew are reporting any symptoms”.
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:24am
Simon

Will NZ have military patrolling the streets because gubermint fuckwits are too stupid to plan and implement a way through the virus?

That failed country Australia. Run by zero covid nutjobs who need the military to patrol the streets to mask their own incompetence and ignorance. Look at that stupid cow running NSW. No wonder they need the army.

What about the zero covid fuckwits here. Labo couldn’t manage a piss up in a brewery but have got the military. Labo would love to get the army on the streets to cover for their stupidity.

Is National holding the stupidity to account? No military to cover for Cindyclown’s grinding stupidity and dishonesty.
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August 9, 2021 8:04am
- The Voice of Legions
  
  How can any thinking person look at Australia right now and still cling on to the belief that this is about health measures?
  
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  August 9, 2021 12:19pm
kevn

@kk… Seems straight forward… Let’s do this.
Problem is that ‘they’ have painted themselves into a corner.
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August 9, 2021 8:08am
Kiwi_in_Paris

So which Democrat has been a naughty boy this time? Hair sniffing Biden? The Clintons? Not so fancy Nancy?

No, this time it was Obama:

https://www.rt.com/usa/531476-maskless-obama-birthday-delta-covid/

One rule for thee and all that…..a bit like the Google guy popping into NZ.
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August 9, 2021 8:09am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  So Delta is a sniffle until it doesn’t suit, then it’s terribly irresponsible to have a party outdoors with vaccinations and a covid protocol monitor?
  
  Right.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:00am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Cmon Batty.
    
    These are the same ass clowns wanting to mandate masks for the general public and trolling/cancelling anyone that disagrees with them.
    
    This is a classic case of do what I say, not what I do.
    
    Rank hypocrisy.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:09am
    - Batman
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I know it’s really necessary to hate Obama on the Trump right but he’s just not as irresponsible as DeSantis or Abbott.
      
      https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/08/02/barack-obama-birthday-party-marthas-vineyard-covid-protocols/5457488001/
      
      Scaled back party, all CDC guidance adhered to.
      
      And it’s actually the CDC and state governments who do mask rules, not retired presidents. You may not like masks because some have deluded themselves into thinking there a political statement, but science doesn’t give a fuck about that, nor does the virus.
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:15am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Oh Child
        Your ignorance is just astonishing
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:17am
      - Frank the tank
        
        Then why did they delete all the social media photos then?
        
        USAtoday. LOL. The Sun is a more reputable source of news.
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:27am
      - Batman
        
        Who knows, probably because partisan idiots go around abusing people and making threats.
        
        Oh you don’t like it so you say it’s not reputable? Real mature.
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:39am
      - RiP NZ
        
        Did ‘ the science’ apply at Lollapalooza?
        Does ‘the science’ apply when having to mask up to catch public transport, to an event which is then maskless?
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:30am
      - Batman
        
        Lollapalooza will definitely result in deaths and wide spread of covid. Continuing the pandemic because some people can’t be responsible, and neither can governors.
        
        It had science based protocols but they weren’t enforced. You don’t need to distance if vaxxed and/or tested in theory but that doesn’t work when this happens:
        https://depauliaonline.com/54620/news/lollapalooza-festival-returns-attendees-react-to-precautions/
        
        It should not have gone ahead, in my view. I continue to believe that all major music and sporting events should be held in NZ ??
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:37am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Irresponsible as De Santis or Abbot? You mean two Governors who have death rates about middle of the road compared to other States (Florida 182|100k compared to say, NY 276|100k) whilst not being cowed by a flip flopping CDC who doesn’t appear to know their arse from their elbow? In De Santis’ case he has a more elderly population than NY and hasn’t killed off a decent chunk of them like NY. Who would I rather have looking after aging parents|grandparents? Pretty much a no brainer.
        I don’t suppose I need remind you Batman, that Fauci initially said don’t wear masks (and that was fact checked by CNN of all organisations, as TRUE). The exact same advice the WHO had on their website. This science doesn’t seem to give a fuck about anything, depending on who you talk to, they just make shit up as they go.
        
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        August 9, 2021 11:06am
  - krazykiwi
    
    That quality of your critical thought has really deteriorated recently Batman.
    
    What your troll-like comment deliberately missed is it’s a galling hypocrisy of the ruling classes that is being highlighted.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:20am
    - Frank the tank
      
      LOL. It’s a delayed symptom of long TDS. You are spot-on with your comment.
      
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      August 9, 2021 11:38am
- curry4me
  
  Kiwi_in_Paris: There’s an new Covid 19R strain. It only infects Republicans who aren’t into ‘social distancing’, and maskurbation. Having a D after your name ensures total immunity. So does attendance at a BLM/ANTIFA demonstration/mostly peaceful riot.
  
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  August 10, 2021 2:16pm
Frank the tank

Is there any teenagers that die or get injured in high speed crashes (usually involving alcohol, drugs and theft) that aren’t ‘good’ children?
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August 9, 2021 8:14am
- Benedict Yu
  
  The driver posted this from his hospital bed. He would have been well advised to stay silent.
  
  ““Hello everyone just wanted to say I’m not dead I am very very lucky to still be alive and I can’t believe what has happened and I am so so so sorry to the families that I have put in pain coz of stupid mistakes that I made that has costed 5 lives.”
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:40am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    “costed” definitely a potential brain surgeon.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:50am
    - rouppe
      
      Yeah well didn’t they all go to an “alternative school”?
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:14pm
  - Paulus
    
    As a parent I find this terribly sad.
    I was a teenage driver once and made some silly mistakes, but am still here to remember them.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:56am
    - Jack5
      
      I agree Paulus, it is an extremely sad accident. I, too, had luck on my side several times when I was a stupid, wild teenager.
      
      These Timaru kids were just 15. Some or all of them were in, or recently had been in, a special education unit of just 20 pupils. That should tell you something.
      
      This is from the “Timaru Herald” report:
      
      Aoraki Alternative Education manager Rob Emerson said both Javarney and Niko [two of those killed] were alternative education success stories.
      
      Niko had been with the centre for about a year and had started at Timaru Boys’ High School in Term 4 last year.
      
      “It was a massive gain for him to return to school. We gave him a day here and a day there, at school, to get him ready and back into school.”
      
      Javarney was doing really well and “smashing” through his NCEA credits, having completed more than half.
      
      Condolences to their families.
      
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      August 9, 2021 11:10am
3-coil

How low can RNZ National radio programme go?? This morning we had to endure Corin Dann summing up the National Party’s weekend conference after the 7am news bulletin. His sarcastic line “…you had Simon Bridges with his little long hair…” shows that he is not fit to be reporting political matters, his bias is so blatant that we can’t believe anything he says about the National party.

If Corin thinks a contemptuous catty little snipe like that is fit for the taxpayer funded national news programme he is dead wrong. I know the RNZ lefties hate Simon Bridges with a passion, but this sort of bitchy reporting belongs in some gutter media outfit. Evidently that is where RNZ have finally sunk to.
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August 9, 2021 8:15am
- Durden
  
  Editorialising comments when reporting news has become endemic in mainstream media worldwide. The so called journalists have forgotten the fundamental tenets of reporting news properly.
  
  They can opine as long as their post is explicitly labelled as “opinion” . So we can decide whether we bother to read it or not.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:03am
- KevO'Brien
  
  They are the Official Govt Channel.
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:12pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  “If Corin thinks a contemptuous catty little snipe like that is fit for the taxpayer funded national news programme he is dead wrong. ”
  
  Sadly, he has read his audience extremely well and in fact he is quite correct.
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:24pm
- dcrane
  
  I wouldn’t mind catty comments and mockery now and then if they applied the same sort of wit to Jacinda and the Labour govt, who are wide-open targets on countless issues. Being fair doesn’t have to mean having no opinion, or never criticizing – just doing so consistently in the public interest no matter whose ox gets gored.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:15pm
- curry4me
  
  3-coil: I had been listening to the Concert Program on my cell phone recently. I have stopped, as I got fed up with the random Manglish. I just listen to downloaded music on an old phone I use as an MP4 player.
  
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  August 10, 2021 2:19pm
Maggie Pie

Has Richie lost it?

This mornings Early Edition on ZB featured a guest appearance by…. ‘Educator & Activist’ Richie Hardcore.

Kate Hawkesby had invited him on to discuss the fatal crash that killed five teenagers in Washdyke.

Listen:
https://newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/audio/richie-hardcore-timaru-car-crash-a-wake-up-call-for-young-men/

WHAT!!??
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August 9, 2021 8:15am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Who is he?
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:33am
  - fernglas
    
    Like most people in the news these days, he is a self-anointed half-wit with a big mouth and no shame.
    
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    August 9, 2021 8:41am
    - Tricati
      
      and a ‘lefty’
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:30am
      - lifesgood
        
        Jacinda’s mate.
        
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        August 9, 2021 11:00am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    They are buds, it goes back along way.
    Shot taken at “little easy” September 19 2014.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/tHf1lXpXN9/
    
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    August 9, 2021 8:59am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    Also another really good bud of Richies appears to be Karel Sroubek aka Jan Antilok.
    Richies text to the Prime Minister on 18 October 2019.
    “Myself and my friends and the community wanted to pass on their respects and praise for the decision about Jan Antolik, Karoul Sroubek, he’s made a bunch of really bad choices but he’s a good guy deep down, so thank you to Ian and yourself for giving him another chance.”
    Kiwiblog did this excellent article on 29October 2019
    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/10/the_full_background_of_the_guy_given_residency_by_labour.html
    here is a little further background.
    Its like peas in a pod really
    https://postman-productions.com/2019/12/07/a-very-toxic-affair/
    
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    August 9, 2021 9:16am
  - Than
    
    He’s a professional “social media influencer”, i.e. a schill who tries to persuade people to buy useless stuff.
    
    And no surprise, he’s a friend of Jacinda Ardern. Who has exactly the same profession.
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:26am
- CaptainCompromise
  
  People like this piss me off. Something bad happens and instead of looking at it rationally it becomes a pissing contest to have their pet projects bought into the limelight as the solution.
  
  How do we stop young men making these choices? Well you can’t. But you can’t reduce the occurrence by teaching them from a young age to understand consequences and take responsibility. We have a whole generation from my peers downward that are shielded from understanding cause and effect.
  
  Making alcohol more expensive?! What planet are you on?!
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:42am
- Frank the tank
  
  I’d argue he never had it but each to their own.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:35am
CAKE FACE1

Fantastic post.

Alas, New Zealanders believe that our beloved so-called “experts” offer independent and impartial advice. Even many Kiwiblog posters think these so-called “experts” are correct. These are your down ticks.

In actual fact, Baker, Pinky, Hendy et al are first and foremost hard core fanatical socialists.

All three have openly stated to the effect that they want New Zealand to fail economically, because this would help cut carbon emissions. In other words, these so-called “experts” have an agenda that is different from what is widely understood.

Supporting “Aotearoa” becoming a Third World country to reduce climate emissions is quite insane in my view, but this is the policy we are following.

You are arguing against a powerful propaganda machine, that has been accepted without debate for almost two years. Good luck with that!

National is now to scared to even mention the Ro. This is where we are at.

Seeing this slow motion collapse is super sad.

I’m sure the people in Venezuela, or Zimbabwe, could see their collapse relentlessly approaching them for years, before they finally popped…
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August 9, 2021 8:21am
redeye

Can I recommend Martyn Bradbury’s latest piece on the free speech debacle;-
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/08/08/faafoi-is-a-coward-for-hiding-from-free-speech-debate-but-labour-green-apologists-are-worse/

“The criticism of why the Government believed they could simply waltz into a free speech fight with nothing more than ‘feelings’ as an argument honestly asks hard questions of their strategic team.

Everything the Government has attempted to put up as an argument justifying the criminalization of speech is intellectually bankrupt and appallingly stupid.”
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August 9, 2021 8:21am
- DeepBlue
  
  In recent months The Daily Blog has certainly been putting the boot into the woke left driving middle NZ away from Labour. Long may it last.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:22am
  - Paulus
    
    Daily Blog could have run out of their share of money I expect !
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:59am
- Tom Hunter
  
  “The criticism of why the Government believed they could simply waltz into a free speech fight with nothing more than ‘feelings’ as an argument honestly asks hard questions of their strategic team
  
  Martyn shouldn’t knock that approach. First of all it has worked a treat for his Labour team in winning power. Second, it’s the way of arguing nowadays across the board, to the extent that people who argue that arguments should be won or lost on a non-emotional basis are the ones actually looked at as strange. Two thousand five hundred years of philosophy upended in the public square.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:38am
Maggy Wassilieff

An interesting stoush has developed on the West Coast (South Island)

Iwi representatives on the West Coast Conservation Board are pro- development and the Board has been dysfunctional for some time.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/conservation-board-bust-up-minister-weighs-in-ex-chair-speaks
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August 9, 2021 8:26am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “A flurry of workshops on governance and Te Tiriti issues failed to bridge the divide…”
  
  Too funny ?
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:46am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Too much Maori.
    
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    August 9, 2021 9:47am
  - crikey
    
    BY I infer that by “failed to bridge the divide” you mean people didn’t roll over and accede to the Maori view.
    
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    August 9, 2021 1:11pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Looks like Ngai Tahu flexing its muscles. They’ve creamed it off the settlements and now want their share of the council assets too.
      
      Cinders doesn’t know the mischief Mahuta has done.
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:16pm
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        There is no ‘their share’, the assets belong to ‘us’, the collective who paid for the crap.
        
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        August 9, 2021 3:29pm
- Matt Long
  
  Northland Iwi objections to SNAs on DOC land that may be part of future Treaty Settlements is along the same lines.
  It shows a growing conflict between Maori who want to use their resources for the benefit of their communities and the useless white snowflakes who want to shut everything down.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:10am
  - Jack5
    
    Are “partnerships” enough for Maori? Are they just preliminary agreements to seeking full ownership and control?
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:16am
    - surfing
      
      Jacinda is sadly mistaken if she believes Maori are going to reach a 50/50 partnership and suddenly be happy little citizens.
      
      Maori will expect to get more each year. The treaty is always actively researched, and no doubt there will be further reinterpretations, all of which will be favour Maori.
      
      I’m waiting for maori to start wanting their own defence force. Then things become interesting.
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:08pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      “Partnership” are what chiefs had with their living larders.
      Don’t ever expect to get the best of Polynesians when you are unaware of the games they play. You are potentially culturally a sucker.
      
      The Chinese have it too; possibly, where it came from. Count your fingers after any trade as one may be missing. They win by deception. It’s for them to better themselves at your expense. Isn’t that you would do?
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:23pm
- chukar
  
  Fascinating read,MW.
  A conflict that could spread nation wide.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:18am
  - Gravelroad
    
    @chukar – we’ve been told by all the leftists, activists, woke politicians and media that the poor Maori have suffered all these years due to white colonisation – so something must be done to atone for all the deprivation.
    So here you are then – we’ll give you this, pay for that, make land and resources available to you and yours.
    But – hey, you are not allowed to make or sell anything off our conservation land – because the wilderness (that we evidently took off you in the first place) is more important than your needs and aspirations.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:35am
- All_on_Red
  
  What is missing from that report is that the people from DOC are objecting to Iwi taking items of historical interest, which belong to the people of NZ, and are putting those things in a room which Iwi are renting, and they intend to charge entry Fees to see stuff which is ours already.
  
  It looks pretty clear that Iwi are playing the Race Card because they arent getting their own way.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:59am
Yabster

Mathematician tears apart He Puapua
In a new book titled He Puapua – Blueprint for breaking up New Zealand, mathematician John Robinson, tears apart the He Puapua plan for two separate governments, one by Maori for Maori, and the other, a “fully bicultural” administration for everyone else.

History written by a person who majored in maths and physics, and who has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, brings analysis based on numbers and a focus on measurement.

The immediate focus of measurement in the He Puapua race-based reorganisation of New Zealand, for Dr Robinson, is that if we are to have a percent of the population governed by Maori, how do we determine who is a Maori and what actually is that percentage?

The current definition, which essentially says “a Maori is a Maori”, is nonsense, and the definition used up to 1972, that one had to have more than 50 percent Maori ancestry to qualify, has been discarded.

He exposes the gerrymander used in calculating the number of Maori seats (there should be five, not seven).

“The way in which the actual number who registered themselves and families as Maori in the Census, 625,600, has been doctored to produce a ‘Maori descent electoral population’ of 896,600, an increase of 43 percent,” he wrote.

This manipulation of figures is currently being used by councils setting up Maori wards to impose an inflated number of Maori roll councillors.

Chapter titles that include “Cultural intimidation”, “A racist New Zealand”, “Inventing indigenous New Zealanders”, “Tikanga in dual law”, “Unequal democratic rights”, and “Teaching fake history” shows that Dr Robinson pulls no punches.

He thinks that this Government should be remembered as the Ardern-Mahuta Government because Minister Nanaia Mahuta of the Tainui tribe is the power behind the throne.

He Puapua – Blueprint for breaking up New Zealand, John Robinson, 178 pages, illustrated, is available from http://www.trosspublishing.co.nz for $35 (including postage), or from Paper Plus.
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August 9, 2021 8:26am
- DeepBlue
  
  625K Maori. That is a way smaller pool of citizens to be falling into high risk and deprived statistics. Many, many, many Maori get on with life and do well. Then there are the elites who have Treaty money backing.
  
  I have always suspected there are only a few hundred thousand Maori that are repeatedly reporting in the ‘bad’ statistics. How the hell can we not sort out these people? Heck we can even name them, which is far better than many other countries.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:30am
- Paulus
  
  With Te Hapua we will see what developed in the Soviet Union whereby the poor multiplies and the Oligarchs arose as they are today.
  In Aotearoa the Oligarch under this development will be the wealthy Maori, who there are now getting richer, whilst the other Maori and Pacific Islanders get poorer and multiply.
  Oh to be the Mercedes and BMW Dealers in Hamilton.
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:05am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    ~~In Aotearoa~~New Zealand…
    
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    August 9, 2021 2:27pm
Yabster

Members quit over co-governance racist smear
In a shock move on Friday, three of the 11-member West Coast Conservation Board have resigned saying they have been called racist for raising what they see as conflicts between the interests of conservation and the interests of Ngai Tahu.

Neil Silverwood, Inger Perkins and Suzanne Hills have all quit, following a fraught meeting of the board a week earlier when Mr Silverwood stormed out, after a majority vote supporting plans for the $26 million Punakaiki visitor centre. See Shock resignations

The building at Dolomite Point will be given to Poutini Ngai Tahu on completion and the Department of Conservation will lease space in it. But Mr Silverwood, Ms Hills and Ms Perkins are concerned that the gift amounts to privatising what should be a public asset.

Aside from the alleged conflict of interest, the decision by a conservation board to give a $26 million visitor centre to a tribe to profit from is another example of race-based privilege that successive governments deny the existence of.
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August 9, 2021 8:26am
Yabster

Ngai Tahu’s second Canterbury Regional Council bid
South Island tribe Ngai Tahu tried and failed in 2019 to have legislation passed to get two seats on the Canterbury Regional Council as of right, in perpetuity. Now they are at it again asking that council to support a new bill called the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngai Tahu Representation) Bill.

Two years ago, National, New Zealand First, and ACT MPs defeated an earlier version of the bill with the same name that would have granted un-elected members of Ngai Tahu the right to sit and vote on the Canterbury Regional Council.

The balance of power in Parliament has shifted now that New Zealand First is out of government. At a meeting of the regional council on May 13, Ngai Tahu sought council support for another Canterbury Regional Council (Ngai Tahu Representation) Bill.

Currently, the Canterbury Regional Council has 14 councillors plus two Ngai Tahu advisors.

Its main purpose is to control the management of water, and the management of land in relation to controlling the quality and quantity of water.The biggest water use in rural Canterbury is for irrigation.

The proposed bill would add two voting councillors appointed by Ngai Tahu, which is a private tribal entity that has extensive interests in farming and water use.

Ngai Tahu does not want Maori constituencies for which anyone who wants to represent Maori roll voters may stand. They prefer voting Ngai Tahu appointees.

The Regional Council supported Ngai Tahu on this point in their submission on Maori wards in February to the Maori Affairs Select Committee. See Maori constituencies submission

The tribe also wants the appointees paid at the same rate as councillors but funded outside of the usual source of remuneration for councillors.
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August 9, 2021 8:27am
- DeepBlue
  
  Ngai Tahu don’t want Maori Wards because there is a risk a non favoured iwi could be elected.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:33am
- Durden
  
  Yes. “The balance of power in Parliament has shifted ..” But not as many see it.
  
  Post 2020 election – the power has shifted to progressive left-wing Maori MPs
  
  Since the 2020 elections left-wing Maori can now control the government.
  – Labour party has 65 MPs in the parliament of which Labour’s Maori caucus has 13 MPs.
  – Greens have 10 MPs of which Greens Maori caucus has 3 MPs.
  – Maori Party has 2 seats.
  
  For completeness, the parliamentary right wing has 5 Maori MPs — Nats have 2 and Act have 3 Maori MPs.
  
  If the progressive (left-wing) Maori MPs in the parliament decide to vote as a bloc – they have 18 votes.
  
  Jacinda cannot pass any legislation unless all progressive left-wing Maori MPs in the parliament support it.
  
  Any legislation that does not support Maori demands will not pass because Jacinda can count only on 59 non-Maori MPs (52 Labour + 7 Greens) . That is not a majority. Not enough for legislation to pass.
  
  While left-wing Maori MPs may vote along party lines, this underlying “threat” to fair legislation remains.
  
  This “threat” might explain why the country is on its fast-track Maorification path. And Mahuta/Willie Jackson will be well aware of the power they wield, and the need for speed.
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:01am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Most interesting analysis.
    Add the background Maori Caucus and the govt is really sold out.
    
    Ardern for NZ’s sake had best call an election immediately as these people have more power then Winston.
    
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    August 9, 2021 2:34pm
Maggie Pie

Things that make you go Hmmm….

I txt my partner yesterday to pick up a dozen eggs on his way home.
He txt back…. ‘No probs’
A couple of hours later I txt him a reminder.
He replied…’All sorted’
Arrives home….. NO EGGS!
Said he forgot.

After dinner admits he didn’t forget, but says it was raining sooo hard he didn’t want to get out of the car.

Honestly…he is SUCH a liar!!
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August 9, 2021 8:33am
- pdm
  
  For better or worse Maggie – never forget that.
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:41am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  But did he apologise?
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:45am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Face it Maggie, he knows that there are men’s jobs and women’s jobs. And going to the Super Market is a woman’s job….:)
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:49am
Critical Thinker

Totalitarians & Their Enablers

“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.” – Josef Mengele

We can deceive ourselves no longer. Forces are acting to paralyze the human spirit. During this pandemic, many good people have had difficulty interpreting events of this time in light of this basic history lesson.

We know the Covidiocracy demands allegiance to their one best way, first lockdowns, then masks, followed by experimental vaccines, and now Certificate Of Vaccine ID’s. Dissenters must be silenced. Government claims it must maintain lists of spreaders of “misinformation” and then partner with Facebook to ensure only correct “narratives” are available. Health ambassadors must be sent door-to-door to share the good word about vaccines. Those who disagree must be demonized, the impure separated from society if they don’t accept a vaccine.

A person who has placed their soul in the service of Fascism declares an evil and dangerous slavery to be the only true good. Rather than overtly renouncing human feelings, they declare the crimes committed by Fascism to be the highest form of humanitarianism; they agree to divide people up into the pure and worthy and the impure and unworthy.

The Communist regime in Russia gained control by promising the peasants land, in terms the promisers knew to be a lie as understood. Having gained power, the Communists took from the peasants the land they already owned; and exterminated those who resisted. This was done by plan and intention; and the lie was praised as “social engineering,” by socialist admirers the world over.

When people are to be slaughtered en masse, the local population is not immediately gripped by a bloodthirsty hatred of the people who are to be destroyed. It is necessary to prepare the population by means of a special campaign. And in this case it is not enough to rely merely on the instinct for self-preservation; it is necessary to stir up feelings of real hatred and revulsion.

If human nature does change, then the eternal and world-wide triumph of the dictatorial State is assured. But if their yearning for freedom remains constant, then the totalitarian State is inevitably doomed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWSN2FXgZKA&t=501s
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August 9, 2021 8:34am
- Ian Boag
  
  first lockdowns, then masks, followed by experimental vaccines, and now Certificate Of Vaccine ID’s.
  
  Scandalous. Mother Nature should have just been left to it. Worked in Brazil and Peru. Working well in Fiji and Russia. What will be will be and all that.
  
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  December 9, 2020 12:47pm
  - Critical Thinker
    
    Peru has had the worlds strictest lockdown and also the world’s highest death rate with Covid.
    
    Last year, it locked down earlier than almost all other countries – and before any other in Latin America. Its lockdown was one of the most stringent in the world. Strict curfews were enacted and people were only allowed to leave their homes to buy essential goods. The government even used the military to enforce the rules.
    
    Sweden on the other hand stuck to the science and common sense, while also allowing themselves to keep their essential liberty. Sweden has had basically identical “with” Covid deaths as the rest of the now mostly authoritarian European Union members. And as a bonus Sweden is the only nation that has achieved herd immunity ??
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CGgOw03mq8&t=321s
    
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    August 9, 2021 1:20pm
- Critical Thinker
  
  One day, when the kids of today are grown up, they’re going to ask you what side of the fence you were on, what did you do to preserve their liberty?
  
  What will you tell them? ?
  
  “To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail. You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:44am
Benedict Yu

Maybe he lied about it raining.
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August 9, 2021 8:36am
- Cassandra
  
  And doesn’t like eggs.
  
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  August 9, 2021 8:45am
Scooter

Who did he text to get the eggs sorted? And were they a former pm?
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August 9, 2021 8:39am
Cassandra

Maggie: new partner looming?
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August 9, 2021 8:45am
Cassandra

Eggs are important but so is the National party getting its act together. ACT had 300 people at its meeting in Tauranga on Friday night. David Seymour in great form, a witty and informative speech, demonstrating his stature as a party leader, and as a future deputy PM. Then PM the following election.
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August 9, 2021 8:48am
Maggie Pie

TWITTER TRENDING

A leaked vid of Obama’s lavish 60th birthday-bash has emerged!
(Since been removed from Insta)

In it, you can see a ‘maskless’ Barrack dancing and doing black-face…

https://twitter.com/TrumpJew2/status/1424380660106530819
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August 9, 2021 8:50am
- Nickc2
  
  Yes, the bash was rather hilarious in as much as Nancy Pelosi was uninvited but she turned up anyway. That woman has no shame (or anything else for that matter).
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:21am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  The really disturbing aspect is the poll on Michelle.
  Is Michelle a tranny?
  Yes 80%
  No 5%
  don’t know 15%
  I think the poll is rigged, surely there are not 15% that cannot make up their minds.
  Obama, Talking about his love for Michael years ago just won’t go away.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:23am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Well she ain’t no Vanessa Williams. Just saying.
    
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    August 9, 2021 9:30am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Really Greg? On what basis do you deny that Michelle Obama, the mother of two children, is a biological woman? Genuine question. I’ve seen this kind of sick “rumour” put about for a couple of years and all it does is reduce any legitimate commentary to completely worthless status, and label you a sad, sick, small-minded person. In my opinion.
    
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    August 9, 2021 2:41pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yup, carries a package
    
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    August 9, 2021 3:02pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Downticker has a package too LOL
      
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      August 9, 2021 5:16pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  YUP – Ive seen the pics Greg. No question about the pole 😛
  
  And what about supplying bags of Hay to the guests…
  
  https://twitter.com/mazemoore/status/1424387936573927430
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:35am
- ABS4EVA
  
  Obama was and still is a HARDCORE
  Communist Marxist Maoist
  
  Read The Enemies Within
  By Trevor Louden
  
  A Full Communist Take over of the USA funded
  by the CCP is taking place before our eyes.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg10X139cec
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Loudon
  
  Read his books give this Man
  ALL THE SUPPORT YOU CAN
  
  If you want NZ to regain its Freedom
  
  I would expect the Communist Marxist Leninists
  would make sure his material is way down any
  search listing
  
  https://www.trevorloudon.com/
  
  https://www.trevorloudon.com/
  
  https://www.trevorloudon.com/
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:44am
  - ABS4EVA
    
    The Down Tickers are Mongrel Mob Funding Marxists
    
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    August 10, 2021 12:08am
Maggy Wassilieff

Our Dear PM’s transparent government…

legislation (the Official Information Act) that was designed to free up the flow of information is actually blocking it, allowing government departments to get away with obfuscation.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018806836/the-group-guarding-nz-s-media-freedom
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August 9, 2021 9:00am
- fernglas
  
  So what happens is that the Government or some functionary like Bloomfield make an assertion, the press ask for the figures and the Government tells them to make an OIA request. Instead of doing some research on publicly available information which would provide the answer, the press squeal about how they are being denied information. It’s a two way street.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:09am
- mandk
  
  No surprise there, Maggy.
  
  The most open and transparent government EVER has hired hordes of communications stuff to block the flow of information.
  
  It gets more like Orwell’s 1984 every day.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:23am
  - kevn
    
    @mandk… Add google controlling some data. I read about someone comparing their search on google with duckgogo. BiG difference on certain subjects.
    Google it can be a sanitised version.
    
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    August 9, 2021 4:47pm
- Jack5
  
  But it’s questionable whether District Health Boards should be put under increasing pressure to meet media inquiries.
  
  Hospitals are struggling to cope with our increased population, and provide more services as the proportion of citizens in private health falls.
  Hospitals are now even providing GP-type out-patient services to thousands of poor people.
  
  There are genuine faults and failures in the system, as always, but the media have also nurtured widespread whine, blame, why-not-for-me complaints against the overloaded health providers.
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:22am
Master Mariner

Totaly agree from first hand knowledge that OIA is being used as a delay tactic.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-detail/300376819/the-detail-why-new-zealand-needs-a-media-freedom-committee.

Another thing is a wee bit of cardboard is not going to cut the mustard in proof of vacination .
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-passports-on-their-way-for-kiwis/DYUCLLBEI573KHFZOWXSCJKIHI/

I have sent emails to MOH that I need an official Letter saying I have had both jabs but to no avail.

I mean seriously how long have they had to sort this shit out.

Totally agree with @KK post above and its here to stay.
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August 9, 2021 9:07am
- kevn
  
  @MM…. If you can get fake credit cards, drivers licenses and passports, a fake vaccine card would be a doddle.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:13am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Media freedom committee? They already have the freedom to interview their keyboards and block anything not paid for.
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:39pm
Ruahine

Reading this blog just shows up the deficiencies of almost without exception the people employed by the Media companies in New Zealand. This woman can think.

https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/
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August 9, 2021 9:12am
Southern Raider

The claims of racism in the vaccination process amuse me. To be racism is when you actively stop someone from another race from participating on an equal footing.

However in this case everyone has access to the same booking process and centres and in fact Maori/Pacifica actually have special events setup targeted at them and a lot more communication and booking assistance.

Reality is they just don’t see getting the jab as a priority. I heard a vaccination session was setup at a Marae and although 300 booked only 200 turned up and the rest of the vaccine had to be dumped

We know how many booked for the Manukau mass vaccination event, but how many actually turned up?
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August 9, 2021 9:17am
- Lance
  
  The basis of that is the recent claims of racism because Maori and PI health outcomes are worse than Pakeha, that it’s ALL the health dept’s fault as they are racists!
  Of course endemic smoking, poor lifestyle choices and poor diet coupled with infrequent visits to their GP’s have nothing to do with it.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:20am
  - Durden
    
    Maori and Pacifica are doing well during this Covid pandemic. Its the Asians who are suffering.
    
    See the by ethnicity panel on this ESR link.
    
    https://nzcoviddashboard.esr.cri.nz/#!/
    
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    August 9, 2021 11:58am
Greg Ettridge

When you have a heap of OIA requests marked “awaiting classification” going back to when this government where given office by Winston Peters half a decade ago, the whole system is just a sham.
One month to answer, please get out the Bovine fecal matter detector, it has just spun off the dial.
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August 9, 2021 9:29am
- Nickc2
  
  Agree with you but as I’ve been reminded many times, it doesn’t matter what they (Labour) do, they have the numbers to override anything. They also have a compliant Speaker who would bend over backwards to keep them and himself in power.
  I would suggest corruption but Hate Speech laws are just around the corner.
  
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  August 9, 2021 12:30pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  This government hasn’t even been in power 12 months, and it had nothing to do with Winston Peters. The election I think you’re referring to was less than 4 years ago – half a decade?
  
  I detect bovine quadruped faeces.
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:44pm
Critical Thinker

UK Researchers: Cholesterol Drug Reduces Covid-19 Infection by 70%

Fenofibrate, a drug meant to treat cholesterol was found to reduce coronavirus infection by 70% in lab studies.

“Our data indicates that fenofibrate may have the potential to reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and also virus spread. Given that Fenofibrate is an oral drug which is very cheap and available worldwide, together with its extensive history of clinical use and its good safety profile, our data has global implications.”

The drug is suggested to work by inhibiting the harmful overproduction of cytokines tied to coronavirus infection, and also treat airway inflammation. Additional properties could prevent blood clotting seen in late-stage disease in many COVID-19 patients.

So expect this affordable medication to be blacklisted soon, just like the overwhelmingly successful Ivermectin and Hydroxchoriquine have been ?

https://www.foxnews.com/health/cholesterol-drug-coronavirus-infection
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August 9, 2021 9:30am
lastmanstanding

As I have posted before central and local government manage their affairs to suit themselves. They have no concept of the customer. They are monopolies with no competitive pressure.

Take MIQ. They lack the capacity capability and will to ensure supply meets demand. They close off parts of the facilities when it suits them. Worse to add insult to injury they priortise sports stars and pop stars over citizens wanting to be reunited with dying realitives.
So I say to Cindys supporters she and they are nasty pieces of work and if you support them so are you.
May you and they live in interesting times.
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August 9, 2021 9:30am
- Southern Raider
  
  Look at the response to the suggestion to let an airline manage MIQ booking. The left trolls lost their mind at the suggestion a corporate who has decades of experience in dynamic demand matching to capacity could do a better job that a public department
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:53am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hErLx12ZnA

With a simple gesture Jinping has hinted that he is bigger than Mao.

Xi Jinping has refused to defend Chairman Mao Zedong at the Tokyo Olympics. The history and Jinping’s message behind it is loud and clear. [6:06]
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August 9, 2021 9:34am
curry4me

New York City’s Vaccine Passport Is the Real Jim Crow 2.0.

New York City became the first major metro to require proof of vaccination to access restaurants, gyms, and other venues last week. Mayor Bill de Blasio proudly announced the “Key to New York City” pass, a vaccine passport, effective August 16. As Karol Markowicz pointed out, the vaccine passport erased children under 12 from public life because they cannot be vaccinated. The mayor’s office updated the policy to exempt them from the vaccine requirement and mandate masks for children instead. [Dems doing segregation, and promoting masks. Wow, that’s new! //sarc.]
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August 9, 2021 9:34am
- Batman
  
  Next they’ll be making you get a passport for travel and for driving different kinds of vehicles.
  
  Oppression!!!!
  
  This is new heights of silliness.
  
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  August 9, 2021 9:54am
  - All_on_Red
    
    And Voter ID!
    Lol
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:03am
  - cmm
    
    Passports, as we know them today, were also just a temporary measure for WW1. But the League of Nations luvvies (precursor to UN) seemed to get off on the power trip and standardised the requirement for travel in the 1920s.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:08am
    - Lance
      
      Because unrestricted travel access to any country is a good thing?
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:23am
      - cmm
        
        I’m not saying that at all.
        Controlling the movement of people is really only a huge necessity with the expansion of the welfare state.
        
        Before the 1920s (when the welfare state started ramping up), there was very little need for border control.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:00pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Really?
      
      I’ve seen a passport that was signed by Queen Elizabeth. As in Queen Elizabeth, not Queen Elizabeth II.
      
      So passports have been around for centuries.
      
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      August 9, 2021 4:41pm
      - curry4me
        
        virtualmark: Yes, they have in a small way. their widespread adoption is a 20th century thing though.
        
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        August 10, 2021 2:40pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    So kids will have to wear masks to go to the Museum of Natural History yet the Obamas can party all night long mask less with their celebrity friends.
    
    Batty – this ain’t going to go down well in suburbia in the battleground states……
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:13am
    - Batman
      
      The suburban battlegrounds have long deserted the anti-mask pro-virus camp. Heck, vaccine mandates are broadly popular even amongst 45% of Republican voters.
      
      If you’d read the article I linked, you’d see why the party was maskless.
      
      The very good reason why kids wear masks in some situations is because they can’t yet get vaccinated under age 12.
      
      So many semantics devoid of context makes for a pretty weak argument, Frank.
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:32am
      - Frank the tank
        
        Let’s see Batty. The first litmus test will be the recall election of Newsom in LooneyTuneLand. If he is recalled in the bluest, of blue states you can expect team blue is on the ropes. This is touch and go according to the polls therefore a likely GOP win on election day.
        
        There has been too many “do what I say, not what I do” examples from team blue over the past 12 months such as Whilmer’s summer vacation, Nancy’s facial, Gav’s Dinners and now Barry’s birthday bash.
        
        Semantics – this is for well heeled democrats.
        
        What team real world sees if Barry and his mates having a party mask less and people in close proximity whilst a trip to the zoo with the kids in the open air requiring masks. This will go down like a Cuomo guest appearance at a feminist rally!
        
        Roll on 2022.
        
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        August 9, 2021 11:52am
  - alloytoo
    
    Some context perhaps, the same Dems demanding vaccine passports, where non-whites have far greater rates of being unvaccinated, and will be discriminated against, are against photo ID as a voting requirement.
    
    As one wag suggested make vaccine passports acceptable voting ID and some Dem heads might implode.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:25am
    - Batman
      
      Oh yes this is a popular trope too.
      
      Yeah I think vaccine passports (if they happen) should be acceptable voting ID. That would mess with the GOP policy of gerrymander and restrict 5-10% of the vote to secure state and federal seats.
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:41am
      - alloytoo
        
        So you’re firmly of the opinion that minority groups are incapable of acquiring photo ID?
        
        Seem to be at odds with the opinions of minorities
        
        https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-majority-of-dems-non-white-voters-support-voter-id-laws/
        
        but no doubt you know what’s best for them.
        
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        August 9, 2021 11:05am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Ally
        Batman is your classic ‘whitesplaining’ racist with his Bigotry of low expectations.
        
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        August 9, 2021 1:28pm
      - cmm
        
        Low expectations must be one of the most destructive form of racism.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:04pm
  - SilverSurfer
    
    Done much traveling Batty? When was the last time you had to show your passport to go into a cafe or buy grocery’s? Exactly!!!
    Your comments are reaching new heights of silliness I’ll agree with that!
    
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    August 9, 2021 1:29pm
thirteenstars

In which Don Brash comments on a pamphlet warning about NZ’s rapid descent into an apartheid-like system of co-governance…

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/pamphlet-truths-spark-outrage

…and in which he observes that National, in the form of Christopher Luxon, is totally onboard with criticism of the pamphlet, calling it “inflammatory”. Goodness, perhaps National will be the first group to register a complaint under the new hate speech laws.

Even more interesting is the commentary in Stuff…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/maori-tv/300375014/outrage-over-racist-booklets-appearing-in-auckland-letterboxes

…which displays a range of attitudes and stupidities about the pamphlet, and reveals a scant regard for free speech, which National seems happy to go along with.

This is why the hate speech legislation will pass, why it will result in an orgy of cynical, calculated complaints designed to shut down free expression, and why National will never have the principled courage to repeal it without ACT forcing their hand.
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August 9, 2021 9:40am
Maggie Pie

Ma just made a good point…..said she didn’t know anyone who got Poliomyelitis after they had the Polio Vaccine.

Just saying.
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August 9, 2021 9:41am
- MCos
  
  Same could be said of smallpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, but not of the flu or covid-19.
  However if you get the flu jab your chances of catching the flu are dramatically reduced.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:59am
Justitia

In Stalin’s Soviet Union Trofim Lysenko taught that science was class-based. In Ardern’s Aotearoa children are being taught that science is race-based. Spot the difference.

Lysenkoism was not abandoned until 1964. The rejection of Mendelian genetics lead to failed harvests and starvation. Thousands of scientists who opposed Lysenko were sent to the gulags or executed. We now await the outcomes of the displacement of the scientific method by folklore in New Zealand.
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August 9, 2021 9:44am
ABS4EVA

If you want to know what is really happening in AUS

Real Rukshan

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe4rnz_rsmx5XGIeewjHXow
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August 9, 2021 9:50am
Ruahine

Just remember this story folks.
Sounds a bit ‘Alice in Wonderland’

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125969106/petrol-market-about-to-become-more-competitive-waitomo-and-npd-predict
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August 9, 2021 9:50am
- thirteenstars
  
  The only thing that’ll reduce petrol prices is a reduction in tax, which is the largest component of the price.
  
  My friends in the US grumble at $3 gallon. Here we pay $8 gallon. That’s mainly the effect of tax.
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:31am
  - Than
    
    True, but keep in mind that (at least in theory) a lot of that tax goes to maintaining the road network. Roads have to be paid for somehow. Drivers in the US get cheaper prices at the pump, but the downside of that is some combination of other taxes, road tolls, or having less well maintained roads.
    
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    August 9, 2021 1:06pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      I’ve driven on plenty of roads in the US and they are superior to ours.
      
      The conceit is that Kiwis are better off because we pay high taxes to support infrastructure. That’s bunk and has always been so. We pay high taxes and *some* of it goes to support infrastructure. The rest gets flushed down the toilet of general spending.
      
      Toll roads? Let’s have more of them. They are fantastic. Why shouldn’t you pay for the road you drive on? What’s the argument against it?
      
      The argument for petrol taxes paying for roads is like saying food should be taxed heavily but not to worry because government will pay for your cutlery, plates and the table you eat dinner on. Most people would instinctively see the folly and danger in that.
      
      4 2
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      August 9, 2021 1:45pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Tax admin is simpler and cheaper.
        
        2 1
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        August 9, 2021 2:44pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “Tax admin is simpler and cheaper.”
        
        Oh, spoken like a true modern National supporter who’s fully signed up to the big government ideology of the Left.
        
        See, boys and girls, when National hammers Labour for high taxation and poor spending priorities, they’re not saying, don’t tax! don’t spend! they’re saying, let US tax! let US spend!
        
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        August 9, 2021 4:02pm
      - Than
        
        I’ve also driven quite a bit around the US, and in my experience the quality of roads varies a lot. Of course that makes sense, given that;
        
        (A) each state/county/city will allocate different amounts of money to roads (regardless of how that money is attained). There are some borders where you can almost literally tell when you’ve crossed a jurisdictional boundary by the change in road quality (south-bound on I-90 between WI and IL for example).
        
        (B) the environmental challenges vary a lot by region. Roads that have to endure the constant freezing/thawing of a mid-west winter have a harder time of it than a road in the Nevada desert, and roads in hurricane prone areas have different challenges again.
        
        I’d probably agree that overall the average quality of US roads is superior to ours (certainly the interstates make a mockery of our state highways) but that’s far from universal.
        
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        August 9, 2021 4:51pm
    - kevn
      
      @Than… Our fuel surcharge is going to rail and cycleways.
      Roading? No.
      
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      August 9, 2021 4:40pm
thirteenstars

So Judith Collins really called for a referendum about calling New Zealand Aotearoa?

“We could probably go to a referendum on [it] and ask people what they want. People are starting to get quite tetchy about it,” Collins said.

Chris Bishop defended his leader’s comments saying he thought Collins was merely referring to the “volume of the reaction” his other caucus colleague Stuart Smith received in his opinion that the name should go to the public for a decision on its use.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/maori-tv/300375014/outrage-over-racist-booklets-appearing-in-auckland-letterboxes

How bankrupt does a party have to be to call for an actual referendum instead of simply making a decision, in this case that Aotearoa is not an official name of NZ and government officials and departments should not be referring to it as such, and further that under a National government officials will be directed to refer to the country they work for by its actual name.

It reveals a sickening lack of courage that in order not to offend the radical base of mostly the Labour Party, National would rather punt a no-brainer up to the level of a full-scale referendum.
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August 9, 2021 9:52am
- I remember when
  
  Courage in politics is taking notice of the right poll!
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:02am
- Lance
  
  He swings and misses
  
  National know that the vast majority of NZer’s want to call our country New Zealand. The substitution of the country’s name by stealth perpetrated by the MSM at the behest of the far left is deeply unpopular.
  By having an overwhelming vote the MSM will struggle to fling their “racist” comments around without knowing they are in the minority.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:28am
  - thirteenstars
    
    What a bizarre construction you’ve erected.
    
    But let’s say you’re right. That National would require another pointless referendum just to make clear what they should be able to make clear anyway, is even worse.
    
    National can’t even state the principle clearly *and* call for a referendum. National uses the referendum as a *substitute* for stating the principle.
    
    Utter cowardice.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:57am
    - BAM
      
      There is not going to be a referendum, you dimwit.
      Think about the big picture.
      
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      August 9, 2021 11:37am
      - thirteenstars
        
        Oh, I see. It’s part of some deeper game National’s playing to outwit the forces of evil, and other dimwits.
        
        Gotcha. Wink-wink.
        
        Problem is, National is doing a hellishly good impersonation of a bunch of dimwits themselves, along with apologists and enablers like you who have long portrayed National as cunning masters of political strategy when in fact their dimwittery knows no bounds, from throwing NZ to Ardern’s Marxist thugs after failing to secure a coalition arrangement despite having 47% of the vote, to changing leaders more often in an election year than most dimwits change their undies, handing Ardern a clear mandate which she couldn’t have attained without her dimwitted accomplices in the National Party.
        
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        August 9, 2021 12:37pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  The problem seems to be the Maori takeover of the Labour govt. A referendum would be a useful weapon against that background mob who are not going to go easy.
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:47pm
I remember when

Is it time to ask whether there have been any real benefits from actions taken to control covid-19.
Have we often won the battle but lost the war.
Would personal safety measures have resulted in a result that was much worse than that achieved to date.
Why was the “Diamond Princess” data not used to a great extent when considering actions.
Did the constant use of ‘fear’, whether intended or not, result in more deaths rather than lives saved.
How much of where we are at now, is the result of government action, and control of the population, and how much is simply the result of the virus changing.
When will there be an honest analysis of the outbreak outbreak – free from the result that best suits the analyst’s aims.
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August 9, 2021 9:59am
kevn

@Maggie… Indeed. Lots of Pfizer jabbed peeps getting c19 though.
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August 9, 2021 10:00am
- Batman
  
  And 99% of those people don’t need to be hospitalised, and don’t die.
  
  Amazing medical achievement all round really!
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:09am
  - Frank the tank
    
    I’ll think you’ll find it was 98%ish prior to vaccination and post vaccination less than a third of a percent.
    
    It’s worth taking however you are still highly unlikely to get real sick without it therefore we shouldn’t compel people to get it like some myopic cult.
    
    From a Darwinian perspective we should let nature take its own course. Those that don’t get vaccinated take their own lives in their own hands.
    
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    August 9, 2021 10:18am
    - Batman
      
      it’s 98% less chance of hospitalisation, compared to before. Not overall.
      
      In an Ayn Rand world we might take your approach, however the unvaccinated spread it to others and to children, and drag out this thing way beyond what it needs to be.
      
      Imagine what the world could have achieved if masks and lockdowns weren’t politicised for electoral gain, the world could have been mostly covid free by Christmas when the vaccines turned up. Hell, Trump might have even got re-elected for his “strong” leadership and squashing the virus along with delivering the Trump-vax.
      
      Instead, our borders are still shut because half the world wants to claim that wearing a mask makes them feel sad and they can’t go without trips to IKEA and the pub. First World disease much?
      
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      August 9, 2021 10:29am
      - RiP NZ
        
        Is there some sort of trend line showing the declining sense of contributions?
        Some sort of correlation to make sense of it?
        
        “Hmm, how you uh, … how you coming on that novel, … you’re working on? Huh? Got a big uh, big stack of papers there? Got a-got a-got a nice little-nice little story, you’re working on there, big-big-big, uh novel … you’ve been working on for three years? Huh? [nup] Got a … got a compelling protagonist? Huh? Got a … got a … obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? … Little story, brewing there, working on, [nup] working on that for quite some time huh? … Yeah, talking about that, three years ago, … Yeah, been working on that the whole time? Nice little uh, narrative. Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? Yeah? At the end, your uh, main character is uh, richer for the experience? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah,
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:41am
      - Batman
        
        Sorry it doesn’t fit with your preferred narrative, thus requiring you to sidestep.
        
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        August 9, 2021 10:47am
      - cmm
        
        “it’s 98% less chance of hospitalisation, compared to before.”
        
        Really? How did you work that out.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:06pm
      - Cinematic
        
        I’m not sure that statement has any basis in fact Batmany.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:25pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Now it’s the “vaccinated” who are getting the after affects, also called COVID.
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:49pm
ecco

Another foreign ship full of covid reported today approaching NZ. What is the story with these ships? Is = NZ obliged to treat all these foreign nationals to a two week all expenses paid quarantine service just because they happen to be in NZ waters? They seem to be covid incubators.

I hope the NZ government is collecting costs better from these ships’ companies than they are with MIQ uncollected fees.
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August 9, 2021 10:17am
- Taieri
  
  Perhaps all foreign ships should stop calling at NZ ports? Would that make you happy?
  
  BTW, there’re no domestic ships to speak of, except of a couple of tankers and Cook Strait ferries.
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:30am
- Charmaine Hawke
  
  So a few sailors have the sniffles, it is winter and they are sailing in cold conditions. People get sick so just settle down, zero covid is making you mad.
  
  7 1
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  August 9, 2021 11:47am
- Paulus
  
  Vessel unloaded in Tauranga over the weekend and is now offshore in BOP awaiting medical tests as are Port workers.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:50pm
MrTips

LOL. No surprise here and no surprise its not being reported here either.

Dan Andrews caught talking shit about…shit really. #fakepoos
https://www.rt.com/news/531451-andrews-covid-wastewater-victoria-fakepoos-lockdown/
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August 9, 2021 10:24am
- Batman
  
  Putin’s propaganda machine is really working hard on the West these days huh?
  
  It’s a pity he’s got such a receptive audience of rubes and morons to lap it up.
  
  4 14
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  August 9, 2021 10:42am
  - MrTips
    
    Sure, if you think Putin runs Twitter and all the other news agencies linked to by the twitterati, be our guest. RT is debatable, but it does publish genuine stuff you know.
    
    8 2
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    August 9, 2021 10:54am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      It often has a better, clearer, presentation of other countries affairs. Also, an excellent source of video.
      
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      August 9, 2021 2:51pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  You’ll love this then Mr T 😀 (EPISODES 1&2)
  
  https://twitter.com/Polibard/status/1423983612123181056
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:02am
slightlyrighty

https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory/google-founder-zealand-residency-raising-questions-79308221#:~:text=%E2%80%9COnce%20Mr.%20Page%20entered%20New%20Zealand%2C%20his%20application,status%20in%20the%20U.S.%20or%20any%20other%20nations.

So, It appears that Larry Page applied for residency in November.

It was not approved.

Page and his daughter were medevacced from Fiji in January.

Residency was approved in February.

Now I do not begrudge the treatment given, however, the double standard of allowing Page in, while families are being separated by this government is very obvious.

Questions need to be answered! The probably won’t be.
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August 9, 2021 10:33am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Page has the capacity to pay his way without costing anyone else their opportunity for MIQ, and I am sure he did.
  
  4 1
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  August 9, 2021 10:57am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    The question you should be asking is, did he use his wealth to get in on an investor category and jump a residency queue that isn’t moving for those with less means, but more rights to residency??
    
    9 1
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    August 9, 2021 11:30am
    - DeepBlue
      
      It’s a tricky application.
      
      He was initially declined because he wasn’t in the country. But once he was in NZ via his daughter’s medivac, his application could then be processed successfully. Hmmmmm.
      
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      August 9, 2021 12:39pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Perhaps we should do what I have encountered in the Pacific when one national leaves another may be allowed in. (Thiel/Page?)
        
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        August 9, 2021 2:53pm
I remember when

Is it time to consider the facts when throwing the racism tag in relation to the Dawn Raids.
Firstly, while 86% of those arrested were from the one third of overstayers who were Pacific Islanders, 14% were from the UK or America.
So it isn’t true to suggest a total ‘whitewash’.
Cook Islanders, Tokelauans and Niueans largely live in New Zealand.
Around half of all Samoans and a third of all Tongans also reside in New Zealand.
Until suspended by covid, 75 Kiribati, 75 Tuvalu, 250 Fijian, 250 Tongans and 1100 Samoans aged between 18-45 years-old could apply for a Quota Scheme Residency Visa, subject to relevant terms, via annual ballots which allow an indefinite stay.
It doesn’t make the dawn raids right but it may put our ‘racism’ into context.
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August 9, 2021 10:51am
- rangitoto
  
  The dawn raids were and are fine.
  
  16 2
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  August 9, 2021 1:07pm
  - Nickc2
    
    All carried out within the bounds of the law. Why the eff would you make a formal apology for that? Oh, that’s right, votes are important and damn the expense.
    
    16 3
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    August 9, 2021 1:34pm
  - kevn
    
    @rangi… Loved the humiliation ceremony ‘she’ went into. Cactus Kate blog had a great take on it.
    
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    August 9, 2021 4:34pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

I see where Webbs have got a Banksy PRINT coming up for auction.
‘Jack & Jill’….estimate 150 – 250k.

An earlier piece by the same artiste, titled ‘Morons’, sold recently for $213k. It depicted a framed image with the inscription in caps….
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU MORONS ACTUALLY BUY THIS SHIT”

Think I’m actually WITH Banksy on that 😀

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1424250681720983560
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August 9, 2021 10:55am
DeepBlue

Labour planning Social Insurance scheme behind closed doors, with no debate.

The Conversation: Why is Labour trying to push through a two-tier benefit system?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?
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August 9, 2021 10:59am
- Durden
  
  Correct link
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-conversation-why-is-labour-trying-to-push-through-a-two-tier-benefit-system/Y3FRFO4XGA7RPQ77NLLQZ5LSQU/
  
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  August 9, 2021 12:04pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    The weird thing is that the policy isn’t bad, just the implementation. The article however is criticising it because they want high benefits for everyone, not just those that have been paying high levels of tax for years that will be soon back paying taxes.
    
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    August 9, 2021 1:41pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Bloomin’ dangerous. Labour can’t be trusted with money, they can’t even build houses!
    
    We already have an excellent social welfare system that is economical to administer. Others may not agree but the direct payment from the budget is the cheapest option of all. How much is spent is a function of the govt of the day. The Social Security Act allows freedom of administration. The spending is also under Parliament scrutiny as a Vote Item.
    
    This has all the hallmarks of a Labour money grab. Another Fund for someone to spend.
    This being the most incompetent govt in our history we cannot let it go further.
    
    Having created a State savings fund I’ve had some insight into these things. The State can frequently have a different view of personal accounts from the beneficiaries who see them as theirs.
    
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    August 9, 2021 3:07pm
Tauhei Notts

I went to the Official Unite Against COVID-19 website and read about;
(a) The Strategic COVID-19 Public Health Advisory Group.
(b) The COVID-19 Independent Continuous Review, Improvement and Advice Group.
(c) The Simpson-Roche Review.
(d) The COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy Taskforce.
Our Ministry of Health have been very busy.
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August 9, 2021 12:16pm
- kevn
  
  @Tauhei… Fly them in. Multiple yakety yak. Tea and biscuits. More yakety yak.
  
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  August 9, 2021 4:31pm
Maggie Pie

Just been chatting with one of the girls from tennis.

She was saying she’s sooo over hearing about Lisa Carrington. Reckons she can’t even swim!
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August 9, 2021 12:47pm
- Nickc2
  
  Bitchiness is everywhere Maggie. Even old grannies at tennis clubs can’t help themselves.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:14pm
- Muttonbird
  
  Jealousy will get you nowhere, Maggie.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:46pm
- cas
  
  Tell your friend that Lisa was a surf lifesaver at Whakatane so can so swim.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:49pm
- Biscuit
  
  Bad news, Maggie…
  
  The people have voted that poor Lisa and our equally-deserving rowers should be saved from having to travel all the way to Karapiro for training each morning.
  
  Apparently, a certain Tennis Club in one of the swankier suburbs of Auckland is gonna be demolished so that a 2000 Metre Rowing and Kayaking course can be constructed there…
  
  Would these baby blue eye lie?
  
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  August 9, 2021 3:31pm
- Scooter
  
  Those arms are a bit suspect.
  
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  August 9, 2021 11:28pm
artemisia

What gives in Palmerston North? Council OKs a public meeting, then withdraws the approval because some were worried it might not be safe and inclusive. Council spends $30,000 on lawyers trying to stop the public meeting, though did suggest the meeting would be Ok if it included various opinions. Done like a dinner. Then library management travelled up to Napier to hear the group speak. Presume on the ratepayer dime.

They look like a bunch of clowns.
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August 9, 2021 12:56pm
- Nickc2
  
  There’s a lot of one-string Banjo Pluckers in Palmerston North artemisia. You can identify them, they all have the same name.
  
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  August 9, 2021 1:17pm
- kevn
  
  @art… Lefty led PNth council I would assume?
  
  5 0
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  August 9, 2021 2:40pm
- tf78
  
  artemisia, not look like – ARE. That’s why we keep paying for the show.
  
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  August 9, 2021 6:59pm
Rusty

How many people have died on our roads since the covid plan -demic sorry the pandemic! started 18 months ago — over 100?

It makes the 26 deaths from covid look minor in comparison yet the number one priority with our PM is keeping covid out of this country and jabbing all NZers who may or may not all want to be jabbed anyway!

Something is rotten going on in this country when a Govt scaremongers people with death through a covid flu strain that kills less than the common flu and when more Kiwis die in road accidents and more severe medical causes.
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August 9, 2021 1:26pm
- MCos
  
  Prior to 1906 there were no road deaths in NZ associated with cars. (The first one was at Washdyke).
  From there the death rate continued to escalate until finally road safety was taken seriously by the public, car manufacturers, roading engineers, politicians
  Over the last thirty years the death rate per capita has fallen steadily to a third of what it was.
  However.
  There are still plenty of roads who don’t give a shit.
  The government threw everything at covid-19 by way of a draconian lockdown last year plus rigid border controls. Thus far the public has gone along, but unlike car safety it’s only been a bit over a year and who’s to know what will happen if the public or government throw their hands in the air and slack off.
  Who knows, but there’s plenty of countries and/or jurisdictions within countries where that has happened.
  
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  August 9, 2021 4:17pm
surfing

Media interviewing the 5 crash victims friends as they visit the crash site.

I think it is wrong that they are doing this. Trying to make money from peoples grief.

Just my view, I suppose some might say it is just worthy news.
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August 9, 2021 1:37pm
- WaveyDavey
  
  It is news. It’s called human interest
  
  Those approached to be interviewed can of course decline if they choose
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:19pm
  - kevn
    
    @Wavey… Decline to be interviewed?
    Young ‘uns faced with real and persuasive media? Not likely unless their parents have warned them.
    
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    August 9, 2021 2:43pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Ha, it’s voyeuristic shite of the type long practised by gutter journalists of all stripes (like the loathsome Paul Holmes back in the day), pandering to the empty headed audiences of faux-life reality TV followers desperate to inject emotional content into their tedious existences. The attention-seeking bereaved of course play into it, TV cameras being magnets for empty headed fame obsessed narcissistic twats. Reason #65734 to not watch NZ TV.
    
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    August 9, 2021 3:22pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  The make money creating public anxiety for the Govt. COVID’s a good money spinner.
  
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  August 9, 2021 3:10pm
- krazykiwi
  
  I agree. It’s incredibly poor taste. Not one of the media people involved would have wanted the same attention had they been the ones mourning. Yet there they were. Chasing an ambulance. Zero empathy hypocrites.
  
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  August 9, 2021 4:33pm
OTGO

Last night I watched a movie that I had recorded on Sky, Into the Storm, starring Brendan Gleeson.
Unlike an earlier movie called Darkest Hour last nights movie focused on the later days of the war and Churchill losing a general election a mere two months after the end of WW2.
Churchill knew that the people were sick of war and the austerity that went with it and that he would find it hard to be re-elected because when people thought of the war they thought of him.
And so it was.
If this fight against Covid19 by Jacinda is her war, will the good people of NZ be sick of it by 2023 and vote her out?
I think they will.
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August 9, 2021 2:03pm
- barnacle bill
  
  And the alternative is ?
  
  The National Party Conference over the weekend wouldn’t give voters much hope.
  
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  August 9, 2021 2:51pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    You attended or got the media interpretation?
    
    Thought so.
    
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    August 9, 2021 3:49pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      the media interpretation?
      
      Exactly how is National going to break Labour’s strangle-hold on the media?
      
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      August 9, 2021 6:48pm
      - tf78
        
        Maggy, hopefully with Goodfellow’s fund raising skills.
        
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        August 9, 2021 6:55pm
      - Jack5
        
        If gets into power, National can turn off the subsidy tap, and
        change will be forced on the media industry.
        
        For example, small, regionally owned and financially viable weeklies or bi-weeklies will likely replace subsidised daily newspapers.
        
        The problem is reaching power against media that are either State owned or are subsidised. To them, political fairness is as irrational as turkeys looking forward to Christmas.
        
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        August 9, 2021 7:50pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        <hopefully with Goodfellow’s fund raising skills.
        
        I mentioned this last night…
        
        If Goodfellow gets the $$$$$ for Nats… then who is responsible for the dog’s breakfasts they’ve made of the last 2 elections?
        
        I’m in the East-Coast electorate. About 9 months before the 2020 election, Anne Tolley decided she wouldn’t stand for the safe Nat seat (4800 majority).
        It took Nats another 6 months to put up a candidate (June 2020).
        
        Any surprise that EastCoast is now a pretty safe Labour seat (Kiri Allan majority 6331)?
        
        I doubt that I’ll be wasting my vote on a National candidate anytime soon.
        
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        August 9, 2021 8:11pm
- MCos
  
  That’s just one example and an unusual one at that.
  Asquith was UK PM throughout WWI and for two years beyond. He was followed by David Lloyd George of the same party.
  Here, Australia and in the USA none the ruling parties were voted out at the first available opportunity after WWII.
  
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  August 9, 2021 5:03pm
lifesgood

A mistake is when you misjudge your footing on a step ladder or put salt in a pudding instead of sugar. Putting 6 people into a car including one in the boot while on a restricted licence, then driving at horrendous speeds and reputedly having been drinking, that is not a “mistake” as bleeding hearts would have it. That is criminal stupidity at its greatest and deserving of the full force of the law. By the way, these were not “good boys” they were hoons, louts, and idiots.
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August 9, 2021 2:11pm
- fernglas
  
  Ease up a bit, dude. They were kids.
  
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  August 9, 2021 6:01pm
kevn

@surfing… MSM doing what they do best.
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August 9, 2021 2:21pm
Jack5

Labour shortages are rife in most Western countries, and the smarter ones are responding with automation.

The American fast-food industry, which has more than 1.3 million unfilled jobs, is an example. From online ordering, the industry is moving on to food preparation robots.

The Wall Street Journal says Chowbotics is offering a salad producing robot and is developing a cereal dispenser for universities’ student facilities.

Another example given by the newspaper a pizza-making company that pre-prepares products that go into outlets’ machines. A customer orders a pizza on a touch screen, and it’s delivered, cooked, in three minutes.

Chowbotics web site:

https://www.chowbotics.com/our-solutions/
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August 9, 2021 2:26pm
- tf78
  
  Jack5, maybe the MRna vaccine is the first step to getting the students off the couch and turning them into robots.
  
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  August 9, 2021 6:53pm
plc

“Another big one would be the kickoff time, which would likely have to be around 9.30pm NZ time in order to appease Australian broadcasters, and mean the game runs close to midnight, with Ardern noting “the Eden Park locals would probably have something to say”.”

Helen said “No”
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August 9, 2021 3:03pm
- Biscuit
  
  plc, Helen and her worthies were massively outvoted over the SixSixty concert.
  
  Residents, most of whom (Helen included) would have bought in the area knowing there was a ginormous stadium in the vicinity, were quite keen to have that band play in their neighbourhood.
  
  I am tipping similar voting patterns will follow should residents get to have their say on the NRL Grand Final.
  
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  August 9, 2021 3:26pm
- alex Masterley
  
  This was kite flying designed by Vlandy’s and the NRL to get a deal from an Australian Stadium.
  To hold a game that finishes after 11.00pm EP would have to urgently apply for a discretionary consent. Put simply, there isn’t enough time for EP to make application.
  And then as the PM notes the locals, i.e me and others would have something to say on the subject.
  
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  August 9, 2021 3:53pm
  - MCos
    
    Furthermore
    Who’s going to fork out a couple of hundred dollars to watch Melbourne play Penrith?
    Who would be the warm up acts? Jimmy Barnes or would they use NZ acts Aussies had never heard of?
    
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    August 9, 2021 5:35pm
  - plc
    
    Captain’s Call? Like cancelling NZ’s petrochemical industry.
    
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    August 9, 2021 5:49pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

If you are born with a dick, you’re not a chick.
Transistor does not like this guy’s sign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yloPfYky_Mo&t=100s
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August 9, 2021 3:43pm
Jack5

Anyone-else notice this?

Yesterday, on State Television’s TV1, Dame Valerie Adams spoke briefly about the Tokyo games and said clearly, “New Zealand, Aotearoa”.

The same clip was broadcast night, except the words, “New Zealand”, were cut out. Adams was left saying just “Aotearoa” in the comment, not “New Zealand, Aotearoa.”
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August 9, 2021 6:53pm
- Vory v zakone
  
  Yes and #OneWokeNews changed their Medal Count table from New Zealand to the ‘unauthorised’ “aotearoa NEW ZEALAND” at least a couple of times. But for some reason it eventually went back to NZ.
  Wonder who made those decisions?
  
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  August 9, 2021 7:49pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Oh dear..

Looks like we haven’t got enough electricity to cope with a cold spell.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/08/rolling-power-outages-across-north-island-as-electricity-demand-reaches-all-time-high.html
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August 9, 2021 9:55pm
- skyblue
  
  Spot pricing got up to $300,000 per MWhr.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:03pm
- JerJer
  
  Just when I needed to charge up the Tesla too. Shame.
  
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  August 9, 2021 10:20pm
Tauhei Notts

Our heaters are on ripple feed control. There has been no change this evening.
As with the Kung Flu, I get the impression the news media is trying to alarm us.
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August 9, 2021 10:51pm
- surfing
  
  “Wel Networks, which supplies power to the Hamilton area, said there had been insufficient generation to meet New Zealand’s electricity load demands.
  
  Distribution companies had been told to immediately reduce the amount of load on their networks, it said in a Facebook update.
  
  “This was a New Zealand-wide emergency.”
  
  ”
  The country just ran out of power, doesn’t sound like any faults although maybe some planned generation maintenance going on?
  
  We must have been close to rolling blackouts before… last night was cold, but nothing exceptional.
  
  There is a retired electricity engineer who sometimes guest blogs to kiwiblog critical about the failings of our electricity system. Guess he was right.
  
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  August 10, 2021 7:28am

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