General Debate 02 September 2021

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Happychappy

COVID-19: Woman dies while daughter in Canada is waiting for isolation spot.
While Chris Hipkins was asking New Zealander’s to forget about coming home for Xmas he should have been looking back at his Governments and his own incompetence last Xmas and how a Mexican MP from the Green Party in New Zealand with his Partner were able to game the MIQ system for the own benefit.
Doctors and Nurses are urgently needed in New Zealand and hundreds are waiting at the borders to bring their families in while the Government keep making excuses for a system they put in place, it was alright for the intitled like the Green MP with his Partner and many other people that Labour want in New Zealand for there money and expertise that they want to get urgent places in the queue but not alright for those that have dying mums and dads that they need to see before it happens to get the same treatment.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/covid-19-mother-of-kiwi-woman-in-canada-dies-while-waiting-for-emergency-managed-isolation-spot.html
Jacinda Ardern has conned the voter with her Caring and Wellbeing rhetoric but when it comes to the crunch and these same people to come home urgently to see a parent for the last time because of their health , where is she nowhere to be seen.
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September 2, 2021 8:00am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I see on One News last night that 56 cyclists from overseas have been given MIQ spots for the Crankworx Festival in Rotorua next month. Was this David Clark’s doing?
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:35am
  - cas
    
    And what about all the govt officials returning from the trade expo in Dubai in November. I bet they won’t have their bookings cancelled.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:38am
    - Paulus
      
      I heard that the Trade Expo Dept people were the reason for changing the returning bubbles now being created as they are considered special and will not be involved in anybody else’s lotto for places.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:21pm
  - Tricati
    
    Yes TS, and around 800 spots (Not sure over what period) allocated for those going to Antarctica – Most Americans from what I heard on HDPA show last night.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:57am
    - Tricati
      
      Apologies – Just heard on Peter Williams show its 400 slots, mainly American.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:14am
      - alloytoo
        
        Compared to Green MP’s I’d rather these guys get them, at least they’re contributing to mankind.
        
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        September 2, 2021 9:33am
      - Jack5
        
        Tony Stuart’s …56 cyclists from overseas have been given MIQ spots …
        
        Once men on horseback – knights – were the upper class. Now it’s Greens on push-bikes.
        
        Thorstein Veblen’s “conspicuous consumption” is now demonstrated by bikes, cycle helmets, and lycra.
        
        But it’s disgusting that during an economically crippling pandemic, cyclists get priority entry over nurses and doctors.
        
        Americans bound for Antarctica is another case completely. Without American logistics support NZ couldn’t sustain its Scott base. Without Americans, their flights from Christchurch, and American support ships, no Scott Base.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:41am
      - cmm
        
        There’s no reason for NZ to put Americans going to the ice in MIQ for 2 weeks. All they need to do is isolate for a day in transit to the ice. Land in Chch, hop on plane, gone. They are not really entering NZ as such.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:21pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Also throw in the mix that 60 NZ exhibition staff in Dubai for World symposium?
    I mean is it of any value now even going there now?
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:10am
    - Jack5
      
      Trade exhibitions are pretty much tourism junkets for business and bureaucrats.
      
      They’re paralleled by the junket joint business-bureaucrat exploratory trade visits. Like the one that saw a swag of NZ bureaucrats, business people, and news folk fly to Israel to study its brilliant growth in technology industries.
      
      The Kiwis could have learned more from the web and intelligent reading.
      
      Now that Maori science has taken over NZ’s flaky Royal Society, expect more such phoney international tours.
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:28am
      - Bob
        
        I am sure that any day soon, perhaps at 1 pm today, Adern will announce that NZ’s participation will be virtual by Zoom!
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:24pm
  - lastmanstanding
    
    Had my first jab yesterday. Was about to join the queue of about 50 at the appointment time when i was asked if I was over 60. I replied actually nearly 70. I was whisked to the front of the queue sat down paper done . In and out in 30 minutes including the observation time.
    As expected I found the staff and the process very well organised.
    
    Another example of front line being efficient whilst the further up the chain you go the worse it gets until you get to top which is populated by Muppets.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:27am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      Arriving at the time of your appointment and having a queue of 50 people waiting doesn’t seem that efficient to me.
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:08am
      - thirteenstars
        
        Not so quick. I got my first jab on Tuesday. On my way into the jab cubicle I noticed about 20 people sitting in the post-jab waiting area, and I thought, if appointments are five minutes apart and I’m on time (which I was), how can there be so many people here?
        
        Turns out there were five jab cubicles operating. You do the math.
        
        Didn’t even feel the needle going in. No side effects at all. Arm only felt a little tender the next day. Comfy chairs. Didn’t take the lollipop.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:16pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        To be fair the length of the queue doesn’t really matter if it’s moving quickly. I had approx 50 people infront of me upon arriving at the vaccination hub in Aus. It moved quickly and I was in and out with 30 mins.
        
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        September 2, 2021 4:36pm
    - cmm
      
      Efficient would be each nurse doing one jab a minute. In and out for EVERYONE in less than 15 minutes – without jumping the queue.
      
      It sounds like if you had been 50 and not jumped the queue it would have taken well over an hour.
      
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      September 2, 2021 12:18pm
      - Jinky
        
        You can’t do it in one minute as there is a little thing called informed consent! There are a number of questions to be asked and answered. People aren’t queued up one behind the other. 15 -20 people per hour is about the average if no complicated cases. There is also a bit of paperwork to record batch numbers etc
        
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        September 2, 2021 5:52pm
    - TWEEDSE
      
      Wow, another person desperate to tell us all they have been jabbed. Welcome to the church LMS.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:52pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I’ve been jabbed 🙂
        
        I love the smell of vaccinations in the morning. Smells like….victory.
        
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        September 2, 2021 4:49pm
    - Jinky
      
      My experience as well, both when getting jabbed and while working as vaccinator.
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:41pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    I am so angry at his.
    
    New Zealander’s are having their human right trashed.
    
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), article 13:
    1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
    2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
    
    .. and ..
    
    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) article 12(4):
    4. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:38pm
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      “4. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” ……provided you win a prize in Hippy’s new lottery.
      
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      September 2, 2021 12:55pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      Yep.
      Hence official complaints regarding seafarers and entry into NZ.
      
      HRC “pretty much” states no one can take a ” Country” to court. Ie NZ.
      Complaints regardless .
      The was the reason a lot of Seafarers departed after signing, IMO resolution stating Seafarers are key workers, With NZ leading the charge.
      
      https://www.martide.com/en/blog/seafarers/day-of-the-seafarer-2020/
      
      Unfortunately no one either fully read it or did’nt understand their obligations.
      
      I’m picking a bit of both.
      
      And so the charade continues.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:52pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    And … f*ck the cyclists
    
    (now there’s something I never thought I would hear myself saying!)
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:48pm
  - kloyd0306
    
    Why isn’t this headline news?
    Where are Horrid Herald and (Get) Stuffed?
    The silence of $105 million?
    If you voted Labour/Greens you are bloody moron.
    
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    September 2, 2021 1:23pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Personally I hated the arrogance and indifference of the Key govt (especially in regards homelessness and the housing crisis). This lot are infinitely worse though.
      
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      September 2, 2021 4:39pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Alert
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/patients-transferred-other-centres-pressure-grows-auckland-hospitals
  
  Is all NZ to go back to level 4?
  What are these “useful idiots” up to?
  
  Whoever said the South Island should secede?
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:18pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Extra, front page:
    https://www.odt.co.nz
    “Auckland hospitals start relocating patients to the South Island to make way for Covid cases.”
    
    (Ommitted by ODT from main article.)
    
    Deceit again.
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:24pm
CJames

With Joe Biden seeming rapidly advancing into dementia, the push by worried progressive Democrats is starting to come on to replace him with Kamala. The same person who is now blaming climate change for the reason you won’t be able to get Xmas presents. I kid you not. Here are her exact words:
“The stories that we are now hearing about the caution that if you want to have Christmas toys for your children, it might now be might be the time to start buying them, because the delay may be many, many months,” she said. “So across the board, people are experiencing the issue. And, of course, the climate crisis is fueling a lot of this. When we look at the stronger typhoons that have disrupted shipping lanes and sea level rise, which threatens port infrastructure as an example. So these are the many issues that are causing these disruptions.”
Bet you didn’t know that. And there was the rest of the world thinking is just the Covid restrictions slowing down ports, even closing some of the biggest Chinese ones. That and the lack of containers. It will certainly come as a shock to Master Mariner who often comments here.
Now is this what was the movie Dumb and Dumber was about?
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September 2, 2021 8:00am
- tf78
  
  She’s such a breath of fresh air (think bloody typhoon). Just what the world needs right now. (not)
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:03am
  - G152
    
    Only been to sea a number of times and seem to have survived a number of storms but what do we know when faced with a politicians lies
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:29am
- Scott
  
  It does seem like Biden is not going to get to the end of his term. His mental slide is becoming so acute that everyone is noticing that the Emperor has no clothes.
  He is also becoming unpopular. According to a recent Rasmussen poll 52% of Americans think he should resign over his handling of the Afghan withdrawal.
  https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/09/poll-52-percent-say-biden-should-resign-over-afghanistan.php
  
  So it seems very possible that Kamala Harris will become president. She is not popular. One can only hope that at presidential election time sufficient numbers of Americans are able to vote these people out.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:07am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Speaking of resigning, I see that one US Marine officer finally has – the guy who demanded accountability from his chain of command over the Afghan withdrawal clusterfuck, Quartered Safe Out Here (updated):
    
    In an extraordinary video that has gone viral, a US Marine with multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan over a period of 17 years, Lt. Colonel Stuart Scheller, decided to openly risk the loss of his career, pension and who knows what else, by demanding that his own chain of command take responsibility for their failures.
    …
    This is what a hero looks like. This is what Speaking Truth To Power actually is. What courage that took, knowing what it would cost him. He accepted what he knew was coming.
    
    He has since officially resigned, giving up god knows how much pension and healthcare benefits.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:29am
    - curry4me
      
      Tom Hunter: Trump should make him Chairman of the Combined Chiefs in 2024.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:00am
    - Nickc2
      
      A man of principle. A trait not found among senior military officers polishing seats and flying desks in the US Pentagon.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:20am
    - Scott
      
      Meanwhile America’s enemies the Taliban are doing very well. They are now flying Black Hawk helicopters, riding around in American Humvees and brandishing American machine guns. The Taliban are now fully armed thanks to Joe Biden’s disastrous handling of the withdrawal. They are surely better armed than our New Zealand soldiers?
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9947593/The-Taliban-dozens-armoured-vehicles-weaponry-victory-parade.html
      
      It’s really special to be able to bungle a withdrawal on this massive scale. 100 people dead including a dozen Marines. Hundreds of Americans left behind who will surely be used as hostages at some point. Interpreters who helped the Americans being hunted down and shot. America the laughing stock of the world.
      
      That Joe Biden is certainly someone very special.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:26am
      - thirteenstars
        
        “That Joe Biden is certainly someone very special.”
        
        Not that you hear much about Biden on KB these days. The silence is deafening.
        
        Trump got a post at the slightest suggestion of a mistake. The Biden administration–a target-rich environment if ever there was one–gets nary a mention.
        
        Can’t wait for Harris to take over.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:35pm
      - curry4me
        
        scott: I wonder if General Millie Vanilli has sent them the user manuals in Arabic yet? I hope he included a rainbow flag, and CRT DVD in Arabic.
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:50pm
      - oc35
        
        Too sad and frightening to ‘laugh’ about!
        
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        September 2, 2021 7:27pm
    - doggone7
      
      So he gives his opinion, puts everything on the line and is a hero.
      Alexander Vindman said what happened, put everything on the line and is a traitor.
      How does that work?
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:41am
      - Bluegrass
        
        If you have to ask that question, bud, you wouldn’t understand the answer.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:22am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Vindman was promoted for his sedition and lying. Remember that Vindman lied to investigators and to Congress about what he did, and illegally share confidential information….and was promoted.
        
        The Marine officer was fired from his command despite being a whistleblower.
        
        Vindman accused Trump of demanding a “quid pro quo” – something not actually found to exist on the tape or transcript. Joe Biden actually offers Ghani a QPQ on this latest phone call, paid for by the taxpayer, to make Joe look better. And his chances of being impeached ?
        
        But that’s Democrat privilege, there’s no crime so heinous that it can’t be overlooked if you have the big D after your name it seems.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:49am
      - doggone7
        
        I asked the question as a matter of reflection. Not just for me.
        
        I know the answer. Nickc2 describes Lt. Colonel Scheller as a ‘man of principle.’ The Vindman situation shows that principle and treason are a matter of politics.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:59am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        @Ed Snack
        
        Vindman also was protected by his chain of command long enough to be able to retire on schedule with all his pension and benefits intact.
        
        He sacrificed not a damned thing and in the D.C. circles where he still circulates – and where the likes of Scheller will be very much uninvited – he’s every bit the “hero”.
        
        In a way it’s good that Vindman has been brought up for he is exactly the type of officer that Scheller is talking about.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:01am
      - doggone7
        
        He sacrificed not a damned thing?
        Yeah, I reckon he did it for the sport, for the attention, to give meaning to his life. It was a picnic.
        
        Vindman being exactly the type of officer that Scheller is talking about? Well Scheller said, “All I asked for was accountability of my senior leaders when there are clear obvious mistakes that were made.”
        
        He asked, “Did anyone raise their hand and say ‘we completely messed this up?”
        
        Sounds like Vindman’s and Scheller’s attitudes are exactly the same.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:42pm
  - artemisia
    
    There is also the 2022 mid terms to consider. It is quite possible the President, whoever it is, will be of the lame duck varierty.
    
    Even so, not everyone gets to be the President and the job does come with perks for life. And fame, though not necessarily in a good way.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:32am
  - Vory v zakone
    
    Meanwhile Creepy Joe’s behaviour at the fallen soldiers ceremony is explained
    
    Report: Biden Wasn’t Checking Watch…
    https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1432830805395402754?s=19
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:51am
    - curry4me
      
      Vory v zakone: Ooh, that was savage. And accurate.
      
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      September 2, 2021 3:54pm
  - curry4me
    
    Scott: They’ll lose their maority in the Senate then. Maybe Pierre Delecto will oblige them by changing parties. Not like he isn’t a RINO anyway.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:59am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Biden needs to last 2 years so the Democrats will keep him until he passes that mark. If he doesn’t make 2 years, it will count as a Harris term and she will only get one more (not that she would win anyway).
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:27am
    - Ed Snack
      
      She could, if the Democrats succeed with their HR1 voting bill that enables and legitimises voter fraud. The Democrats have found the truth in Stalin’s alleged remark that it’s not the votes that count, it’s who counts the votes.
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:51am
- Nickc2
  
  Phone call transcript:
  Biden tries to get the ex-Afgahanastan president to change things to make himself (Biden) look better in the eyes of the US.
  
  BIDEN: Mr. President. Joe Biden.
  GHANI: Of course, Mr. President, such a pleasure to hear your voice.
  BIDEN: You know, I am a moment late. But I mean it sincerely. Hey look, I want to make it clear that I am not a military man any more than you are, but I have been meeting with our Pentagon folks, and our national security people, as you have with ours and yours, and as you know and I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban.
  And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.
  …..
  BIDEN: If you empower Bismillah [Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi] to execute a strategy focused on key parts of the population centers, and I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change in terms of how , um…[unclear].. our allies and folks here in the States and other places think you’re doing.
  You clearly have the best military, you have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000 and they’re clearly capable of fighting well, we will continue to provide close air support, if we know what the plan is and what we are doing. And all the way through the end of August, and who knows what after that.
  We are also going to continue to make sure your air force is capable of continuing to fly and provide air support. In addition to that we are going to continue to fight hard, diplomatically, politically, economically, to make sure your government not only survives, but is sustained and grows because it is clearly in the interest of the people of Afghanistan, that you succeed and you lead. And though I know this is presumptuous of me on one hand to say such things so directly to you, I have known you for a long while, I find you a brilliant and honorable man.
  But I really think, I don’t know whether you’re aware, just how much the perception around the world is that this is looking like a losing proposition, which it is not, not that it necessarily is that, but so the conclusion I’m asking you to consider is to bring together everyone from [Former Vice President Abdul Rashid] Dostum, to [Former President Hamid] Karzai and in between, if they stand there and say they back the strategy you put together, and put a warrior in charge, you know a military man, [Defense Minister Bismillah] Khan in charge of executing that strategy, and that will change perception, and that will change an awful lot I think.
  …
  GHANI: Mr. President, we are facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10-15,000 international terrorists, predominantly Pakistanis thrown into this, so that dimension needs to be taken account of.
  Second, what is crucial is, close air support, and if I could make a request, you have been very generous, if your assistance, particularly to our air force be front loaded, because what we need at this moment, there was a very heavily reliance on air power, and we have prioritized that if it could be at all front-loaded, we will greatly appreciate it.
  And third, regarding procedure for the rest of the assistance, for instance, military pay is not increased for over a decade. We need to make some gestures to rally everybody together so if you could assign the national security advisor or the Pentagon, anyone you wish to work with us on the details, so our expectations particularly regarding your close air support. There are agreements with the Taliban that we [or “you” this is unclear] are not previously aware of, and because of your air force was extremely cautious in attacking them.
  And the last point, I just spoke again to Dr. Abdullah earlier, he went to negotiate with the Taliban, the Taliban showed no inclination. We can get to peace only if we rebalance the military situation. And I can assure you…
  BIDEN: [crosstalk]
  GHANI: And I can assure you I have been to four of our key cities, I’m constantly traveling with the vice president and others, we will be able to rally. Your assurance of support goes a very long way to enable us, to really mobilize in earnest. The urban resistance, Mr. President is been extraordinary, there are cities that have taken a siege of 55 days and that have not surrendered. Again, I thank you and I’m always just a phone call away. This is what a friend tells a friend, so please don’t feel that you’re imposing on me.
  BIDEN: No, well, look, I, thank you. Look, close air support works only if there is a military strategy on the ground to support.
  
  Copied from Michael Smith News (Aust)
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:12am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Biden broke his promise and withdrew the Air Support when they closed Bagram.
    That lack of support played a part in causing the Afghani Commanders in the Provinces to give up and accept bribes from the Taliban and defect- causing their troops to run too.
    That triggered a cascade of collapse from Province to Province.
    It’s all about money for the Taliban. Always has been. The Religion is just a way to enforce control.
    Some good news though. Quite a few aircraft and helicopters managed to escape to Uzbekistan.
    //
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:53am
  - Fletch
    
    THIS is what an impeachable phone call with a president actually looks like.
    
    From transcript –
    
    And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.
    
    Story on Reuters –
    
    https://www.reuters.com/world/excerpts-call-between-joe-biden-ashraf-ghani-july-23-2021-08-31/
    
    So now it is pretty much genocide in Afghanistan. There are hundreds of American hostages who couldn’t get out. The worst decision and worst surrender in American history.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:17am
- BeeJay
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  So now the Trumpers have written off Joe and it’s time to turn their rhetoric against Kamala Harris. You need to talk to a few exporters to get the facts about current shipping problems instead of trying to make up an issue that involves the current US presidency!
  Closing Chinese ports?? Try creating new ports specifically to accept the log shipments from around the world!
  Lack of containers??? You’ve obviously never been to Tauranga for a long time where there are huge areas covered with empty containers waiting to be used! They’re looking for ways to get the containers back into the Northern hemisphere so much so that they have even been loading export logs into containers to reduce the stock!
  Where are you getting your information from? Time to review??
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:33am
  - CJames
    
    Rather than show your prejudices, how about just Googling it?
    https://www.globalialogisticsnetwork.com/blog/2021/06/17/the-ongoing-container-shortage-is-expected-to-last-till-2022-heres-all-you-need-to-know/#:~:text=The%20global%20shortage%20of%20shipping%20containers%20that%20started,enough%20containers%20to%20deal%20with%20the%20shipment%20demand.
    Or is that a vast rightwing conspiracy?
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:13am
  - CJames
    
    And here is why they are piling up in Tauranga
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125620556/empty-shipping-containers-pile-up-despite-global-shortage-and-ghost-ship-runs
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:20am
    - BeeJay
      
      You read Stuff? Enough said!
      
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      September 2, 2021 12:41pm
      - CJames
        
        I am quite happy to quote Stuff to show that it is such common knowledge that even the left bias reporting has acknowledged the problem. You, on the other hand, seem to know nothing outside your bubble.
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:08pm
  - gravedodger
    
    @BeeJay what bit about the empty containers at Port of Tauranga might just be at the wrong end of the supply chain escaped your towering intellect, asking for a friend trying to get goods from The CCP
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:36am
    - Jack5
      
      Master Mariner could clear this up.
      
      Isn’t the problem that we need refrigerated containers for our exports, while the containers that pour into Auckland with consumer goods aren’t refrigerated?
      
      So we have plenty of non-refrigerated containers and a shortage of refrigerated ones.
      
      And there is an international problem:
      
      https://youtu.be/gW3_NCxjFZM
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:41am
      - Paulus
        
        All Kiwifruit boats are all fast reefers from Tauranga.
        That is boats that only carry refrigerated good in the vessel and not containers.
        They are in and out within 24 hours often.
        Sleek, fast, and white.
        
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        September 2, 2021 1:30pm
      - Master Mariner
        
        Bang on Jack 5,
        We need Reefer for chilled/ Frozen exports..
        Frozen must be -18 C and chilled 3-4 C. Then there’s goods coming here which are just boxes.
        20 foot equivalent unit TEU and Forty foot Equivalent units..
        
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        September 2, 2021 2:00pm
      - Jack5
        
        Paulus, I’m no expert, but the nautical site below describes “reefers” thus:
        
        A reefer ship is a container ship that exclusively carries refrigerated containers.
        
        I’m guessing there are types of reefer ships: those that carry only, or some, containers; non-container ships for cargo such as kiwifruit and bananas.
        
        Regardless, dairy and meat industries rely on refrigerated containers. Tauranga, our largest port, is handling nearly a million containers a year.
        
        https://www.porttechnology.org/news/what-is-reefer-in-shipping-terms/
        
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        September 2, 2021 2:28pm
      - CJames
        
        Remember Tauranga was so crowded a month or so back that coal for Huntly had to go to Auckland.
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:05pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  I took a look at using the 25th amendment to push Joe out, It’s 25th Amendment time – or something?,
  but it’s basically tougher than impeachment so really not a starter:
  
  Advocates would have to convince a majority of the cabinet and a supermajority of the Congress (2/3s as with Impeachment) that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” – not politically, but as a matter of medical fact. That isn’t going to happen here since Biden (or more precisely his staff) has the power under the amendment to counter “that no inability exists,” and would not go along with it. Kamala Harris, who would have everything to lose if she failed in the attempt, has never shown she takes such risks. Congress, which would be called upon to follow through in the unlikely event the cabinet pulled the trigger, is not going to vote for it, even if the GOP holds the Senate and House after the 2022 elections.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:33am
  - RoboRob
    
    I dont think the GOP should go down the 25th route. Biden does the Dems more harm in place, try to impeach would just strengthen the Dem support, as it did for Trump. Leave the Dems as the party of impeachment 🙂
    
    If things get bad enough the Dems will move Joe on themselves or perhaps his own staff will raise issues.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:09am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Yeah. I make that point in the post as well. The Democrats are stuck with this pair through the 2022 Mid-Terms and into the 2024 election.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:20am
    - Inandout
      
      RR, I rather think Pelosi will ask Nurse Jill to invent some serious illness that will necessitate Joe stepping down. Considering the utter contempt most of the allies now have for the White House ‘leadership’ the possible next move from Kamala will be to announce she may step aside because the post will need someone of ‘great strength’. I am not sure of US electoral procedure in this case but I presume a caretaker President may be acceptable. The absolute hatred for Trump has created one of the most disastrous Presidential administrations in living memory.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:33am
      - gravedodger
        
        @ Inandout
        That person is Nancy Pelosi until the mid terms and she is deeply flawed and over eighty years old.
        That theory would depend on Harris abdicating and that aint gunna appen
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:41am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Another drawback to the 25th route, and in fact to most ways to move the senile old fool along, is that appointing a new VP will be tricky. The Senate is split 50:50 and if Joe resigns and Kamala ascends to POTUS, there’s no tie breaking vote available to the Democrats in the Senate unless they can convince one or more of the RINOs like Mitt Romney to vote for their choice.
      
      Do you think they could persuade Harris to resign first, and appoint someone else ? Who could they appoint that has any real level of support, HRC, Warren, Mayor Pete, Stacey Abrams, even Bernie ? The talent pool available is remarkable for its lack of depth and ability.
      
      It does seem likely that they will soldier on as long as possible with Joe, and rely on the MSM to carry their water on this. The sudden outbreak of journalism over the Afghanistan debacle is being shutdown as we watch, with all the tamest outlets running puff pieces pushing the chosen narrative that Joe’s actually a hero for getting us out – and those that oppose that are forever war neo-cons. Nothing at all about the total fuckup that the withdrawal was, not, he’s a hero, and hey, did you know that Joe’s oldest and DEAD son Beau served in the military, why, he’s practically a gold star dad himself !
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:01am
      - RoboRob
        
        Very clever spin from the Dems. Its now all about the amazing withdrawal under such desperate circumstances. Ignoring the fact the desperation was caused by the incompetence of the evacuation play.
        
        Who in their right mind decided to give up Bagram airbase and remove most of the soldiers BEFORE beginning the evacuation? This is only surpassed by the US actually giving the Teletubbies a list of all the American and Afghan supporters remaining!
        
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        September 2, 2021 1:10pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    DNC has enough dirt on Joe’s corruption to get him to resign – can threaten Hunter and his brother with prosecution for being bagmen as well as Hunter with prosecution for his many documented criminal misdeeds as well. Biden serves at the DNC’s pleasure.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:30am
    - RoboRob
      
      Correct. We wathced this with Coumo. While Coumo was required the Dems treated him well and protected him (even though he was not well liked). Once he was no longer needed (as an attack vehicle against Trump), they quickly changed track and released / supported material against him. The compliant media then followed instruction.
      
      Eveyone knew about Coumos treatment of woman and what he did around COVID, only after Trump was gone did it come out.
      
      The same can happen to Biden as well, if the Dems think it would help them.
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:17am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Isn’t it intriguing that older people are considered basically useless in the workforce, but the American public can vote in an individual that is falling apart before our eyes. The mid terms are going to be fascinating, Kamala may end up with very little to giggle about.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:40am
  - All_on_Red
    
    That perception could be wrong, although Biden is clearly flawed.
    https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/do-some-cognitive-functions-improve-with-age
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:36am
- kowtow
  
  If you think about it , there’s no way that anyone with half a brain could believe that pap , and it won’t be her work it will be prepared by some “staffer” or other .
  
  (And, of course, the climate crisis is fueling a lot of this. When we look at the stronger typhoons that have disrupted shipping lanes and sea level rise, which threatens port infrastructure as an example. So these are the many issues that are causing these disruptions.”)
  
  You have to ask yourself why are they pushing these falsehoods ( and why won’t the Far left media party fact check them as they did all things TDS )
  
  It’s cos they’re using climate catastrophe to recreate the world , in their own image.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:40am
- Master Mariner
  
  I guess the real question is what lies in the future regarding Supply Chains/Lines here in NZ.
  Near term ( 1-2 years ) its going to get worse. What are marginally loss making now will/ are getting cut/reduced to bring vessels into NZ and I believe it will have to get “subsidised” at some stage just to get Boxes ( Goods out), Same as Airlines coming here with a Government subsidies.
  
  A “reasonable” article below touches on issues but not complete.
  
  https://www.newsroom.co.nz/export-delays-loom-as-empty-shipping-containers-pile-up
  
  Freight costs Worldwide below.
  https://fbx.freightos.com/
  
  https://gcaptain.com/fertilizer-shows-global-supply-chain-crisis/
  
  Ok, Long term Strategy would be too form a NZ /Australian liner service as a National and Strategic asset and use Small feeder vessels to Major Aust Ports to World Markets.
  
  Some companies are chartering vessels just to guarantee getting goods in/out at huge expense but at least have “certainty and security”.
  
  It really seems to me we “nationalise” and “privatise” the wrong utilities and Assets with out any Strategic thinking.
  
  Think Power companies and Ports etc.
  
  In reality the “Global Community” is shrinking fast and the sooner we start more manufacturing here through training/initiatives the better as we are barely registering on the World Radar way down here.
  
  Typhoon Season in China Sea has been happening for millenia.
  https://gcaptain.com/shanghai-mega-ports-shuttered-as-typhoon-in-fa-slams-east-china/
  Not too sure what climate change has got to do with it.?
  
  The sooner NZ realises the World has changed and not going back to Normal the better.
  The “new normal” will have some very dark clouds ahead, But foresight and preparation will be key.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:55am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    takes decades to build up manufacturing businesses. Only a mug would do it in NZ given high labour and regulatory compliance costs. Manufacturing isn’t coming back to NZ.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:33am
  - RoboRob
    
    One of our clients in Aus are seeing their freight costs rise by a minimum of 200%, often higher. They haven’t increased their retail prices for years but have had to do so twice this year to cover the freight costs. Stuff that was costing ~$1000 to freight is now ~$6000.
    
    NZ and AU should look at some sort of ‘Domestic carrier’ freight system both for between AU/NZ and in and out of the two internationally. I imagine there would be strong support for such if it was feasible. AU could easily link to Singapore for example.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:23am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Exactly RR.
      Question is how to without Unions getting a stranglehold and Government’s misguided intervention.
      Here’s the dilemma.
      We really need to put the Strategic interests of the country front and center .
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:56am
  - Nickc2
    
    Foresight and preparation by this Govt? Don’t hold your breath, it could be fatal.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:45am
  - Jack5
    
    Master Mariner’s on course.
    
    Port of Tauranga has talked of the need for a coastal shipping service in this country of islands where roads are continually broken by earthquakes and floods. It’s idea is a feeder network to Tauranga.
    
    Would Master Mariner’s suggested Tasman fleet work the whole coast, or just Auckland or Tauranga?
    
    Some overseas lines now pick up cargo from secondary ports as they move up and down the coast, and also serve Australia. Is this an example of the service Master Mariner recommends?
    
    New Zealand also needs coastal shipping of goods within the country, from Auckland south. Historically this was stifled by bitter port and shipping labour disputes, but these now seem to be in the past.
    
    Beyond that, it’s hard to disagree that an Australasian shipping hub is the way to go.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:52am
    - RoboRob
      
      As a non shipping expert, I wonder if it would be best to have one (maybe one per island) hub that connects to AU. This would maximise the traffic from the hub and get greatest efficiency.
      
      The hub would then ‘spoke’ out to the various regional ports.
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:57am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Agree.
      If interested ?
      i will put in a post tomorrow and give the question the Due Dilligence that it deserves ( Plus spell checker ).
      But in a nutshell, it will require putting the Country First.
      I have always admired J.F Kennedy statement along the lines off ” Not what the country can do for you , But what can you do for the country”?
      I think this is where we need to go.
      How do we do this?
      it will require a big cultural change.
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:21pm
      - nathie
        
        Yes please!
        
        NZ needs ideas and you have ’em!
        
        (Muppet Show running things in Wellington? They have no ideas at all)!
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:26pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  As I put it in my link below, Harris is pretty awful across-the-board but right now she has one overwhelming advantage over Biden.
  
  A functioning brain.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:04am
  - Mrs_Right
    
    That’s questionable whenever she starts laughing uncontrollably when asked about serious issues.
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:09pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Tom, I think you have taken a leap of faith with the last sentence. I would have put that her only advantage is that she is prepared to sleep with whomever will advance her cause. And thinking of whichever poor bloke is involved, it makes the bile rise in my throat.
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:36pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  FYI and this is not Premium
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/fall-of-afghanistan-criticism-of-biden-grows-over-serious-serious-mistake/5I2ADW7FIAJVPWPGV4CC43E5HY/
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:20am
- NZer In Exile
  
  US Idiocracy 2021. It would be funny if they weren’t causing so much damage.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:41pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Forget COVID. There’s trouble brewing in North London. EPL sees Tottenham P3 W3 top of the table vs Arsenal P3 W0 bottom of the table.

Now that’s a global crisis.
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September 2, 2021 8:01am
- Libertarians are right
  
  You know that Arsenal has literally been hit by Covid and have had multiple players out because of it right?
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:31am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    That may be true, but they’re rubbish in any case.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:32am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Global crisis? I think not. More the restoration of the rightful order of things.
  
  Great tweet from former gooner Mesut Ozil pointing out that “it’s a process” which is what managers usually say just before the chairman declares their support, which is just before they get sacked.
  
  Someone clever noted there were more points on the umlaut in Ozils’ name than Arsenal had scored all season! Two more in fact – no goals, no points, no hope. COYS!
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:39am
Vory v zakone

Senator Rand Paul giving it to the #fakenews media on the Hill…

‘To every snot-nosed “journalist” who accosted me in the halls of Congress and spouted Fauci-isms denigrating natural immunity— read the science!’

Harvard Epidemiologist Says the Case for COVID Vaccine Passports Was Just Demolished

“The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.”

Put another way, vaccinated individuals were 27 times more likely to get a symptomatic COVID infection than those with natural immunity from COVID.

A Death Blow to Vaccine Passports?

The findings come as many governments around the world are demanding citizens acquire “vaccine passports” to travel. Vaccine passports are morally dubious for many reasons, not the least of which is that freedom of movement is a basic human right.

Moreover, CDC research shows that vaccinated individuals still get infected with COVID-19 and carry just as much of the virus in their throat and nasal passage as unvaccinated individuals

Vaccine passports would be immoral and a massive government overreach even in the absence of these findings. There is simply no historical parallel for governments attempting to restrict the movements of healthy people over a respiratory virus in this manner. Yet the justification for vaccine passports becomes not just wrong but absurd in light of these new revelations.

https://fee.org/articles/harvard-epidemiologist-says-the-case-for-covid-vaccine-passports-was-just-demolished/
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September 2, 2021 8:02am
- Fletch
  
  Oh, and he is also Doctor Rand Paul (a medical doctor, not someone with a doctorate like Jill Biden). He probably has more of an understanding than some other senators and/or media pundits.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:23am
  - Ed Snack
    
    “Dr” Jill doesn’t have a real “doctorate” anyway, it’s an Ed D, which was granted as a political favour for positively hopeless dissertation- you should try to red it sometime !
    
    In my experience, people with even a genuine PhD only insist on being called “doctor” for two reasons, personal inadequacy or as a joke.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:07am
    - thirteenstars
      
      It’s an old trick used by chiropractors.
      
      I’ve seen many of them who talk on non-chiropractic medical topics and refer to themselves as Dr. Joe Bloggs, but it’s only in the fine print that you learn they’re not an MD.
      
      It might have been a Seinfeld episode, or Frasier, where at an event attended by many “doctors” someone had a medical emergency. The cry went out: is there a doctor in the room! But it was answered with only awkward silence.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:09pm
    - Adroit
      
      You guys have it around the wrong way. There is a long backstory, and obviously popular usage has changed, but PhDs were the first doctors. Medical doctors were called so as a courtesy.
      
      Anyone with a PhD has absolutely earned the right to be addressed as such. The only people I have encountered that refuse to addressed those with PhDs as Dr are those riven by jealousy or as a result of their own sense of inferiority.
      
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      September 2, 2021 4:24pm
  - Jack5
    
    Rand Paul is, or was, an ophthalmologist, but his medical registration seems to have lapsed.
    
    https://theweek.com/articles/493531/rand-paul-real-doctor
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:46am
    - MCos
      
      So he’s an eye doctor.
      
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      September 2, 2021 4:32pm
Andrei

💉💉💉💉💉 💉💉💉💉💉 💉💉💉💉💉 💉💉💉💉💉

💉💉💉💉💉 💉

Letter of the day μ (MU)

The 12th letter if the Greek Alphabet and the latest variant of the dreaded Coronavirus that has the hand wringers flapping about

It is a Columbian strain and has displaced the yesterday’s South African C.1.2 variant as a fear focal point.

C.1.2 has yet to be dignified with a Greek letter, as far as I know, and may quickly pass into history without that honour as the lab coats find newer ever more deadly, ever more transmissible and ever more dangerous variants emerging in the slums of Kiberia etc.

Meanwhile I am going triple masked, face adorned with shield and at great risk to my life, to queue outside the supermarket in the vain hope they have finally got the coffee pods that fit my machine back on the shelves.

First world problems eh
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September 2, 2021 8:02am
- Lance
  
  I don’t know what it’s like in the rest of Auckland but there is NO meat to be bought in West Auckland supermarkets, yet the butcher shops remain closed.
  
  Very serious first world problem.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:06am
  - Inandout
    
    Lance, most of Auckland voted for the Covid Queen so if your bed lacks meat still lay in it.
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:07pm
  - Hollyfield
    
    Maybe it’s part of the grand plan to turn us all vegetarian?
    
    Our supermarkets in a central Auckland suburb have limited meat options eg last week there was only mince or sausages. Yesterday there were a few more items, but total meat products were limited to 6 per customer. This results in more frequent visits to the supermarket.
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:24pm
Tomtoddy

I was told by a rather screeching, loud female the other day that I need to be thankful for having Ardern as Prime Minister. She is saving lives I was told. “Just shut up and be thankful”. When I asked politely at what cost, I was told it did not matter if it was billions. “For the first time we have a caring, kind leader, the envy of the world and all you can do is criticise her”. MMMmmm!!!

I offered the idea that Ardern is not really into saving lives but simply grandstanding, pushing her idealism, hogging the limelight and holding the nation to ransom to keep people like you in her thrall. That was rejected with more screeching. There was some debate about how many might die if this kind Prime Minister had not “saved” us all. I was instructed that she would take whatever steps necessary to keep Kiwis alive and safe. It was time for me to be grateful.

I then meekly asked why this modern day saviour rejected the upgrading of the Tauranga to Katikati highway where 27 people have been killed and over 80 people seriously injured preferring to spend the same money on a cycleway over the Auckland harbour. Kindness?? Caring?? The conversation drew to a close.
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September 2, 2021 8:03am
- tf78
  
  Tom – keep up the good work, thank you.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:05am
- Rich Prick
  
  They really do love their false goddess.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:08am
  - Ruahine
    
    Just been looking at the pics of the queues of cars lining up at the fast food outlets. It then dawned on me that this so-called elimination strategy of Arderns is actually not really to save Nana and Grandad in the Rest Homes and the Retirement Villages. No it is to ‘protect’ the obese gluttons who have little concern for their health individually to the point where many cannot even be bothered to get vaccinated. They are of course likely to be Arderns voting base and concentrated in Auckland. Mean while the rest of us are bullied, and bossed and criticised using the power of the state to prevent us from going about our own business and taking care of ourselves. Yes, we are getting vaccinated even though it is not really the magic bullet that was hoped for.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:27am
    - artemisia
      
      A magic bullet is still a bullet.
      
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      September 2, 2021 8:38am
    - Jack5
      
      It is puzzling, Ruahine.
      
      Just as when TV or the subsidised print media look to illustrate reports about people going hungry they have to settle for pictures of fat folk.
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:48am
    - Paulus
      
      Did not realise that a number of the top Pacifica Church Leaders were members of the Pacifica Labour Party Committees.
      No wonder they have electoral control in South Auckland, and appear to be quite wealthy.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:35pm
    - kloyd0306
      
      Amen.
      Had the two jabs but still have be in lockdown and still have to wear a mask.
      No one (especially this incompetent govt.) seems to know why.
      Conclusion: The jabs mean nothing.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:43pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Harsh!
      
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      September 2, 2021 7:23pm
- Gravelroad
  
  @Tomtoddy-
  “I support strong government, but not overweening government sustained by cronies, ciphers and a personality cult.”
  Margaret Thatcher – former Prime Minister of the UK.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:32am
- rockape
  
  My plumber came round to service my sewage system. He was fuming about Jacinta. I asked if he was trading his Hilux for an ev. He wasn’t and said he had just bought. 5.7 litre Cheney Ute as a toy just to piss her off. Good bloke!
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:29am
- thirteenstars
  
  JDS (Jacinda Devotion Syndrome) seems to track TDS quite closely, I’ve noticed.
  
  Ardern can do no wrong. Trump could do no right.
  
  Yet the TDS sufferers in the National Party machine (of which there are many) are bewildered by JDS, which I find to be a nice irony.
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:17pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The MSM is coming in heavy with hits on Judith Collins today.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/450566/power-play-judith-collins-reaction-to-covid-19-criticism-risks-familiar-public-backlash

It’s dirty politics folks…and our national Broadcaster is stirring the pot.

When will it hold This Government to account for the developing crisis in Auckland?
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September 2, 2021 8:03am
- krazykiwi
  
  Yes, exactly the play they used to topple Bridges. Look for the MSM starting to give air to the egoes of Bishop and Luxon in the hope they both take the poisoned bait.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:10am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Our Media, leftist hacks that they are, are just copying tactics used by their fellow travellers overseas.
    
    The way it works is this;when the National Party or Collins screw up. Then that’s the story.
    When the Labour Party or Ardern screw up, the National Party or Collins reaction is the story.
    That way they can employ maximum beat up on National and Collins.
    
    And remember; ‘ Modern Journalism today is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn’t know because they might reflect badly on Jacinda Ardern’
    JT
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:26am
    - G152
      
      Come an election where National get power I suggest they allow any news with penalties for bias.
      And bias as measured by column inch like it used to be
      
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      September 2, 2021 8:35am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Just be clear to journalists that any politically biased journalists and media organisations receiving public funding will be out of a job when National are next in power.
        
        And National govt have to set up an endowment for an explicitly right wing media outlet – to provide assured funding over long term (duration of next left wing govt) to balance left wing legacy media organisations. Other larger democracies have this, but nz is too small.
        
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        September 2, 2021 9:43am
      - RoboRob
        
        @UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        No need to put RNZ on notice. They should be gone burger come the next non left government. One of John Key’s biggest failures was failing to defund them.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:27am
      - Muttonbird
        
        @UrbanNeocolonialist. Don’t go there.
        
        Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of 30 January 1933. By early February, a mere week (later), the government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state’s broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:29am
      - Happychappy
        
        I am worried on what could happen at the next Election as I really think it won’t mater whoever’s is Leading the National Party , I base my views on having been to two or three National meeting in the last three months and three quarters of those that are there are in their Seventies or older.
        National don’t seem to have the young followers that the Labour Party have and the left in Politics seem to have refreshed their image with young leaders in Union Movements and their Party , with Jacinda Ardern being the biggest part of it .
        In the 1960’s onwards until the 2000’s the union was lead by older activists that were not liked by union members like Andrew Little and co but now it is younger people running it with new ideas that has create more members .
        This is the same in the media on the radio you have the types of Jono and Ben on the hits that fawn over Jacinda Ardern dailly, in the media you have Tova O’Brien, Jessica Mutch McKay, Ryan Bridge and a lot more that are younger than our Prime Minister that sway the tide whether right or wrong, which going back in the older days people perceived that most were neutral and never took sides like they do today.
        Barry Soper confirmed this weeks ago when the Speaker Trevor Mallard was under fire for his disgraceful behavior which has cost the taxpayer thousands of dollars by saying if you ask the Prime Minister the hard questions that should asked you won’t get the chance to Question her at other stand ups because she doesn’t want those questions asked.
        So with national only having the older generation to vote for them they have to change their way some how to get the numbers to win a Election and really the Party needs refreshing to be able to achieve that.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:02am
      - Jack5
        
        Muttonbird, you’re right.
        
        That’s what’s happening in NZ right now: State TV, State Radio, and the rest bought off with subsidies.
        Muttonbird’s:
        
        “Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state’s broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate.”
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:21am
      - Isobar
        
        I am not sure how this fits into National’s position on freedom of expression and speech.
        
        But if they want to something out of the Chinese Communitst Party’s playbook, that would be a real concern.
        
        Its funny and really scary how freedom of speech seems to only apply to oneself these days.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:32am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Muttonbird
        
        There is a difference between allowing dissent and paying for it. RNZ takes tax payers money. I am saying no more publicly funded media, this removes the ability for the govt to control the narrative (what we are seeing now with the funding to all media).
        
        @Isobar
        As above. You can be pro freedom of speech without having to pay someone to actively speak against you. Freedom of speech in the media is enhanced (not reduced) by removing government funding.
        
        If you look at Stuff and others, at the moment we have the reverse situation. These sites cannot speak against Labour for fear of losing interviews with the PM and / or ‘COVID’ funding.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:03pm
      - Isobar
        
        Rob – i do actually agree re public funding, but thats not what was outlined in G152’s post which i was replying to:
        
        “Come an election where National get power I suggest they allow any news with penalties for bias.
        And bias as measured by column inch like it used to be”
        
        This is bascially arguing for state control of media. That would be a terrible step to take.
        
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        September 2, 2021 1:29pm
  - Ruahine
    
    Luxon is Muller Mark II.
    
    16 0
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    September 2, 2021 10:38am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Muller is a wet, a bit like a passing shower.
      
      By comparison Luxon is a tropical deluge.
      
      11 1
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      September 2, 2021 12:04pm
- Nick R
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Collins is a dead woman walking after her tantrums yesterday. Seriously, how long is National going to tolerate a leader who loses it live on breakfast TV? Surely it’s got to be Chris Bishop’s time.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:10am
  - Yabster
    
    Bollocks Nick- good on her for putting that silly bitch in her place. You do realise if it not Collins, Bishop, Luxon (please no!) would get the same biased treatment.
    
    66 5
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    September 2, 2021 8:31am
    - crikey
      
      Exactly right. The state-funded media’s objective is destabilisation.
      
      28 1
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      September 2, 2021 8:38am
    - Nick R
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      She didn’t put anyone in their place. She looked like a toddler who needs a nap. She did not look like a PM in waiting who could handle a pandemic more competently than the current lot. John Key never had tantrums live on TV. People have got to stop making excuses for her.
      
      6 48
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      September 2, 2021 8:42am
      - Yabster
        
        Key never had to put up with a bribed media either…
        
        21 3
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        September 2, 2021 9:23am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        And you support Orduren?
        The whole present govt should be subjected to the strongest penalties as they are not capable of carrying out the execution their high offices and the duty of care implicit under their social contract. They are overpaid fraudsters. Sycophantic public servants are no better.
        
        22 4
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        September 2, 2021 9:27am
      - doggone7
        
        Ardern answers a Hosking question in a way her loathers don’t like and she is arrogant and petulant, not being accountable and showing she’s no leader.
        
        Collins responds as she did yesterday and she’s putting the interviewer in her place, showing she’s not putting up with crap and showing she’s a great leader.
        
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        September 2, 2021 9:50am
      - alloytoo
        
        She must be getting close to the mark.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:51am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      The simple reality is:
      Ardern is PM….and should like PM’s before her, be subject to absolute scrutiny, she alone (considering the ineptitude of her cabinet), is responsible for the decisions we HAVE to obey. (No thought that is supposed to be the other way around).
      Collins is doing what all opposition leaders are supposed to do,especially in the absence of an honest and competent press, ask the hard questions.
      As citizens we should expect honest and competent answers…I am still waiting for our “transparent” PM to do that.
      
      22 1
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      September 2, 2021 10:08am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I think Collins performed well on play school TV1. It is about time she grew a pair and railroaded the sycophants
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:34am
  - Prince
    
    Since when is calling out the obvious bias of the interviewer ‘losing it’ ? Many of us have been waiting years for someone to hit back to ridiculous statements like ‘did you have a test before leaving Auckland’ ? WHen did that become a requirement ? Why would the Opposition leader need to contact the Labour Party Pacifica president ?
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:50am
  - Lance
    
    Her estimation went up in most peoples eyes, just not the fawning Cindy sycophants.
    
    52 4
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    September 2, 2021 9:11am
  - Stu2
    
    Have you heard Chris Bishop speaking? Endlessly verbose. Doesn’t sound prime ministerial
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:43am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Bishop is a good MP but he ain’t PM material
      
      19 0
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      September 2, 2021 10:46am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Perhaps it’s a bit early to draw that conclusion.
        
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        September 2, 2021 7:28pm
- kowtow
  
  Yes last night Toxic Tova revelled in being able to again undermine Collins by saying her behaviour had raised eyebrows in the Nat caucus .
  
  And the ODT cartoon today is against Collins too .
  
  The Media really do go after the Nats and fail to hold power to account .
  
  Appalling.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:13am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The French solved the problem of an irksome ruler.
    
    13 4
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    September 2, 2021 9:28am
  - Nickc2
    
    and they wonder why we don’t buy their newspapers (so-called) or buy their advertiser’s products.
    
    13 1
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    September 2, 2021 9:30am
  - Liberal Cliche
    
    Because National bow to the media every time, if collins just called them fake news and ignored them, she’d gain for more popularity, in fact she should even go on the offensive, but she never does, always defense, this doesn’t help at all.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:29am
    - Nickc2
      
      Yes, I keep hoping she’ll let loose on these MSM liars and stretchers/manipulators of truth and let the blood flow as it will. However, I keep telling myself they are keeping their powder dry until the election campaigning propper starts because many NZers have a very short-term memory.
      In saying that, a little bit of real-time argy-bargy wouldn’t go amiss would it just to keep these deceitful dying bastards on their back feet?
      
      5 1
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      September 2, 2021 1:34pm
  - david
    
    They who control the editing suite, control the message.
    The real question is how do you enforce impartiality?
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:36pm
- riffer
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Judith Collins isn’t helping herself if yesterday’s display is anything to go on. What the country needs now is an effective opposition, with calm and rational behaviour above all from the LOTO. We didn’t get anything like that yesterday.
  If you don’t want the media to shoot you down, stop giving them the ammunition…
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:17am
  - Vory v zakone
    
    Fraser House certainly ain’t sending their best and brightest Concern Trolls these days…
    
    65 4
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    September 2, 2021 8:25am
    - sooty
      
      Bring back stephie. He was an idiot, but he was our idiot!
      
      35 2
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      September 2, 2021 8:51am
    - riffer
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      FFS. Why is it that if somebody doesn’t agree with you then you think they’re paid for by the Labour party?
      
      It’s nothing to do with them. I was trying to be nice but actually – fuck you.
      
      Judith Collins was out of line and out of control yesterday. The majority of the population thinks she’s a raving fucking looney and they’re turning off the national party in droves.
      
      And you clowns in this echo chamber think its an example of strength. Moronic. Watch the National party get under 20% in the next “rigged” poll.
      
      I don’t really give a shit about any political party. But I do give a shit about how our country is being run. There’s a heap I don’t like about what the current government is doing.
      
      But I am damn certain if that sociopath at the head of the National party were in charge we’d be completely fucked.
      
      And nobody in the Labour party is paying me to say that. I have no political party affiliation whatsoever. I’m a classic swing voter.
      
      So seriously, if you want to talk about something rationally go right ahead. But leave the Fraser House shit out of it because you sound like a bleating idiot.
      
      12 47
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      September 2, 2021 9:33am
      - Cinematic
        
        Oh my Riffer. Do settle down. We’re all friends here.
        
        15 6
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        September 2, 2021 9:52am
      - Muttonbird
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        Judith Collins was out of line and out of control yesterday. The majority of the population thinks she’s a raving fucking looney…
        
        …I am damn certain if that sociopath at the head of the National party were in charge we’d be completely fucked.
        
        100% true. Well said.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:03am
      - Libertarians are right
        
        Were you also one of the “I used to vote National” bots that Labour and the media used to get rid of Simon Bridges? Nothing you have written on here suggests you are in the middle at all. At best you swing between Labour and the Greens.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:07pm
      - riffer
        
        Sorry dude,
        
        Only parties I’ve never voted for are Social Credit, Christian Democrats, Conservatives and the Alliance.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:50pm
      - kloyd0306
        
        The fact that you own up to being a “classic swing voter” merely indicates that you have no real, hard and fast principles.
        In other words, you can be bought.
        Develop a spine and take a stand.
        Compromise is a way of simply giving up on your principles.
        That you have voted Labour in the past is very telling. It means that sometimes, you’re an idiot.
        
        5 1
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        September 2, 2021 1:54pm
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        Welcome swing voter! – it is good to have someone onboard who might be purely swayed by evidence or emotion, and not set in an ideological camp.
        
        I think the Never/Always support Jacinda or Judith doctrine is no good for NZ either. Kind of tedious if you know a persons take on an event purely by their loyalties.
        But to be fair, I have seem nothing redeeming about Jacinda’s leadership so far. Hugs don’t count and the kindness is so contrived.
        Judith I feel has not had a fair suck of the sav, and media it always trying to knock her down quite obviously.
        I want a strong National party to slow down the pace of ideological damage or reverse some of the worst economic vandalism of Labour.
        I dont see a replacement to Judith either, and think her potential has been perhaps critically affected by her own party and media.
        David Seymour I like very much for intellect, sound bites and humour, but I will say the media has been very soft on him – and I hate to say the media might be being nice to David as a way to hurt the Nats.
        ACT eats Nationals lunch.
        I rate the media as perhaps even worse than politicians, because at least we KNOW why politicians do what they do.
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:11pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Stupid argument. The media have gotten too brazen. They are openly attacking National now and if National just take it they might as well give up.
    
    I get it that some people see it as a sign of weakness from Judith but it’s a long game. You agree with the nasty journalist so you don’t have a problem with their dishonesty. Rational people however would. They just need to know about it and that unfortunately will take time and public anger.
    
    That’s why people like you are running around making it about Judith. You need to hide Labour’s dirty politics because when people realise your dishonesty, it’s game over.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:45am
    - riffer
      
      There was nothing Indira Stewart said yesterday that the majority here wouldn’t think perfectly acceptable had it been coming from Mike Hosking and directed at Jacinda Ardern were she LOTO.
      
      Nothing nasty at all. Your bias is showing.
      
      6 29
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      September 2, 2021 10:21am
      - RiP NZ
        
        And if Winston Peters answered . acted exactly the same way he would be celebrated as ‘ holding them to account’ or some such BS.
        
        Sexism – your bias is showing.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:42am
      - Libertarians are right
        
        Except, and this is really important – Hosking is open about his bias. Everyone knows his agenda. All these incredibaly dishonest Left Wing activists pretend to be unbiased. That’s a really big difference. Also – did Hosking attack Jacinda for leaving Auckland after the case was announced? That’s the same thing right?
        
        12 1
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        September 2, 2021 12:10pm
      - RoboRob
        
        My issue is that its a one way street. The media (Hoskings and HDPA asside) just dont ask that sort of question of JA. If they were fear, yes I would said Judith didn’t handle it well, but they are not.
        
        Judith is likely rightly highly frustrated. No mention in the media about NZ being the only country to suspend parliament during a covid lockdown but all hell breaks loose when Judith (as JA did) flys to Wellington.
        
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        September 2, 2021 1:20pm
      - Paulus
        
        Who is Indira Stewart ? – good Scottish surname but not another Irish who currently abound in the media.
        
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        September 2, 2021 1:41pm
- artemisia
  
  Indira Stewart is now on the front page accused of political bias. That label will follow her around for years, justified or not. The biter bit.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:41am
  - Nickc2
    
    Frontpage of what? Mad Magazine perhaps.
    Don’t tell me she’s overtaken Tova, Jess, Katie, Simon Dallow and John Campbell in the Biased Leftist Lunatic Stakes.
    
    19 10
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    September 2, 2021 9:39am
    - artemisia
      
      Herald Online today, well above the fold. Thing is for a long time people will be saying – Indira Stewart isn’t she the one …. (question fades away).
      
      21 2
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      September 2, 2021 10:03am
      - riffer
        
        The Herald eh? That bastion of political neutrality.
        
        Give me a break. They’re as politically biased as the Spinoff.
        
        14 5
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        September 2, 2021 10:21am
      - Nickc2
        
        Yes, you are probably right.
        IMO TVNZ1, the Herald and Stuff have become Who’s in the Zoo entities. Unfortunately, they all receive some degree of funding from the NZ taxpayer (that ever-decreasing commodity).
        I fear it will take a very brave Political Party to terminate funding and make these entities sink or swim on their own merits.
        However, bring it on!
        
        12 1
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        September 2, 2021 12:37pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That will give her terrific status amongst the Left.
    Way to go girl!
    She’ll be our new Media star…and she’s younger than some of the other journos.
    
    21 1
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    September 2, 2021 10:08am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Does better looking and ‘of color’ count too? Watch out Jessica, watch out Tova…
      
      12 0
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      September 2, 2021 10:33am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        It’s a very low bar Maggy, to be fair.
        
        9 0
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        September 2, 2021 11:36am
    - oldfella
      
      Woman’s Weekly cover coming up?
      
      12 0
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      September 2, 2021 10:35am
    - lifesgood
      
      Female part Indian part Pacifica…she ticks nearly all their boxes
      
      19 2
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      September 2, 2021 10:49am
- Isobar
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I think Collins needs to get her anger under control.
  
  If you want to be the prime minister you have to remain, cool and calm and deal with matters professionally.
  
  You cannot let something so small as a lame breakfast interviewer get under your skin. If you get rattled so easily you have no hope when you’re negotiating with the United States on a FTA or dealing with some sort of global crisis with other global powers. You will get eaten alive.
  
  As nice as the display was for Collins fans yesterday as some sort of perceived fight back against the media. The only thing swing voters and middle NZ saw yesterday was a tantrum and a opposition leader getting rattled over essentially nothing. She will win no votes continuing down this path.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:49am
  - riffer
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Exactly my point Isobar.
    
    Pity it was lost on the raving loonies who can’t see past their own collective political biases.
    
    9 40
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    September 2, 2021 9:34am
    - Cinematic
      
      Yep a PM must behave like a robot. No emotion allowed. Unless it’s faux pity and concern it seems.
      
      31 3
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      September 2, 2021 9:58am
      - Isobar
        
        Not at all – its important to be seen as a person and to be personable.
        
        But dont forget some of the biggest criticisms of Ardern has been how she has showed too much emotion.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:22am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Did you actually watch the interview?
    Collins didn’t lose her rag… she was calm, controlled and firm and refused to be brow-beaten by an interviewer who wasn’t on top of her material.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:10am
    - Peter S
      
      Oops. Hit downtick instead of uptick.
      
      7 0
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      September 2, 2021 10:16am
    - riffer
      
      Maggy – if Jacinda Ardern talked to a interviewer like Judith Collins did yesterday would you say the same thing about her? I very much doubt it.
      
      4 24
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      September 2, 2021 10:28am
      - lifesgood
        
        She will never be tested.
        
        22 0
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        September 2, 2021 10:51am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I try to refrain from saying too much about our Dear Leader at the moment.
        
        I revert back to that old chestnut:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVNAbOT8R_A
        
        11 2
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        September 2, 2021 11:00am
      - Lance
        
        “Now Mike…Now Mike.. Now Mike”
        
        12 1
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        September 2, 2021 11:33am
    - Isobar
      
      Yes i did watch it, a couple of times in fact. Collins got clearly rattled, it was a trainwreck of an interview. Which is my point, if she is in the final stages of negotiating with the US on a FTA – is that how you expect her to carry on?
      
      Even if the interviewer was not on point, Collins is the only that will be judged by the interview. The interviewer is not running for public office, people are only interested in Collins response. She needs to look like she can handle tricky situations – yesterdays efforts gave me no confidence she can – and this was only a lame breakfast interview.
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:27am
      - kowtow
        
        ‘i did watch it, a couple of times in fact.’
        
        Must live a very boring life.
        
        9 1
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        September 2, 2021 12:21pm
  - gravedodger
    
    @ Isobar, As when the Petulant PM flops back into her seat at Qtime when the Opposition get her riled before Trev the Muss steps in to hand out lifebelts. Now that behaviour is a long way short of remaining calm and cool, sort of inconvenient facts in a way.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:56am
    - Isobar
      
      So you’re saying the velocity at which someone takes their seat in the chamber is the real issue we should be looking out for?
      
      I think you’re totally missing the point of my post. It is concerning that Collins totally lost it after an interview with a daytime tv breakfast host. Based on this she would not be able to handle herself well at all in an actual negotiation situation.
      
      I mean if this was John Key he would have handled that so much more professionally and the whole thing would not have blown up into what it is now – a saga that has dragged across days and shone the light on the Nats at the very time when the focus should be on the governments failures.
      
      But this is Collins, the days of Key are long gone and National will keep languishing in the twenties until she is gone.
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:07pm
      - Jack5
        
        Isobar seems like yet another Leftist sowing dissension within National’s supporters.
        
        These posters spring up in Kiwiblog when Ardern is on the edge of the political cliff, as she is right now with her Lady Canute pandemic policy.
        
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        September 2, 2021 2:39pm
      - Isobar
        
        Jack5, i didnt realise everyone had to be perfectly aligned here on their views and everyone has to toe the (current) blue party leadership line.
        
        Essentially what you are saying here that offering an alternate view AND having other people agree with it is a …. bad thing?
        
        Collins is essentially turning into the right equivalent of Jeremy Corbyn. Loved by a vocal minority of voters but will never win enough mainstream support to win an election. I know you have the blinkers on and cannot see it but as it stands at the moment, it’s not Ardern that’s closest to the edge of a political cliff.
        
        The sooner the Nats wake up to that and actually remove entirely the full team behind the disastrous 2020 campaign, the better served they will be.
        
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        September 2, 2021 5:01pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I say good on Collins for standing up to her. Muller would have been chewed up and spat out.
    
    21 1
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    September 2, 2021 11:26am
    - Nickc2
      
      Sorry Jack5, I reported you by mistake.
      However, I agree with your post and was attempting to apply an uptick.
      
      3 1
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      September 2, 2021 3:29pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Are you proposing to send her off to the TCTHFF *
    
    * Training Centre for Tilty Head and Frowny Face
    
    4 0
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    September 2, 2021 4:03pm
- Mrs_Right
  
  Probably when our government stops paying them.
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:11pm
- PhilP
  
  Maggy…..They had to find the most unflattering photo of Judith to head the “story”.
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:29pm
  - Jack5
    
    Like the Waitangi video clips of Don Brash getting mud thrown at him and of Steven Joyce being hit by a crazed Leftist’s dildo.
    
    Biased State TV repeated these clips endlessly for months, even years.
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:42pm
Yvette

As … people in ICU across the region reached eight …
Auckland’s hospitals are asking others around the country to send intensive care nurses to help them cope with the Covid outbreak.
The call-out went out Tuesday night after the number of people in ICU across the region reached eight, with three of them on ventilators.
There are 32 patients in hospital.
The highly specialised nurses provide round-the-clock, one-on-one care, and without them patients can not be moved into intensive care.
It was estimated 30 nurses with ICU training were needed in Auckland to help in the outbreak, with another 30 to help in managed isolation facilities. [1]

And, telling us “ICU bed-to-patient ratio not enough if Delta cases increase, expert says”, is the 1-News item [2] and “Bevan conceded that five beds for every 100,000 people would not be enough, meaning other life-saving surgeries would need to be cancelled.”

But – Bevan is the vice president of the College of Intensive Care and says the country has “a model of care that is world-leading” after spending the past 18 months working and learning from overseas colleagues who have “borne the brunt of the pandemic”.

… Bevan said the best way of mitigating that scenario [teams would be stretched “thinner than they are now”] is to prevent numbers “exploding in the first place is by adhering to the current “public health measures”.
He said high vaccine uptake numbers are crucial.”

He should have perhaps also appealed for everyone to drive very carefully too and exercise great care in all else they do, as a serious car smash or other event that put a couple more people in ICU could seem to exceed their total capacity.

[1] https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/auckland-hospitals-calling-more-icu-nurses
[2] https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/icu-bed-patient-ratio-not-enough-if-delta-cases-increase-expert-says
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September 2, 2021 8:06am
- Cinematic
  
  Yes, it seems ANY stress on the hospitals is to be avoided at ANY cost. This is clearly absurd.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:29am
Maggy Wassilieff

This article on the need for good ventilation in our MIQ, work places, schools, buses, houses needs to be widely publicised.

https://sciblogs.co.nz/public-health-expert/2021/08/30/throwing-open-the-windows-the-need-for-ventilation-improvements-as-part-of-covid-19-outbreak-control-in-aotearoa/
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September 2, 2021 8:06am
- Andrei
  
  God defend Aotearoa from public health “experts”
  
  The very same people who think young men surfing in the sunshine and fresh sea air present a danger to society.
  
  Hells bells my late Mother, God rest her soul, was a fan of fresh air as a way of keeping kids healthy and she didn’t have qualifications in Public Health, just a degree in common sense
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:12am
  - sooty
    
    As a way to achieve fresh air in buses.
    We will be removing all windscreens!!!
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:54am
  - Ehlana
    
    “Go outside and play”, said every mother, everywhere, once upon a time.
    
    I believe ACC keep statistics on sources of injury. It would make sense to halt those which are the highest sources, on the basis of reducing competition for health resources.
    
    But is surfing really one of them? I would have guessed activities involving the consumption of alcohol and other drugs.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:15am
    - Ra Henare
      
      https://www.acc.co.nz/newsroom/media-resources/sport-and-recreation-injury-statistics/
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:44am
      - riffer
        
        Good stats, but doesn’t really address Ehlana’s question. Last I heard (although you could be excused for thinking so in this country) consumption of alcohol and other drugs isn’t considered sport or recreation. It does look like, based on those figures, that sport injuries are on the decline. That’s probably a reflection of our continued decline in exercise, rather than through any good management, but I would very much doubt I’d ever see government admitting that.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:30am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Yes, mine was a fresh air fiend too!
    
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    September 2, 2021 7:36pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  I won’t read it Maggy, it appears not to refer to New Zealand so I’m not interested.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:04pm
Tomtoddy

It would be amusing if it wasn’t so darn serious. The media assail every day with biased, one-side only stories on Covid and climate change then do a survey chortling how a high percentage of people agree elimination is the right strategy and the climate is killing us.

Pathetic, sad, dangerous.
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September 2, 2021 8:08am
igm

In recent years all media have been infiltrated by leeching envious left-wing losers masquerading as journos.
We can only hope when taxpayers’ money runs out, and that is getting very close, they will lose their sustenance, currently paid to them in the guise of free and impartial news.
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September 2, 2021 8:10am
- kowtow
  
  When the Nats do eventually get back in , and as the public accounts are in such dire straits ( due in no small measure to the fear mongering and panic porn of the Media pardy ) there can be no excuses for not going line by line through the budgets and cutting out all the waste , blubber and non essentials …….
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:48am
  - Lance
    
    I hope National sell off all state media and cut all grants to them when they get in.
    The butthurt screeching from the luvies would be hilarious.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:15am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      The State media should at least be expected to be neutral. They are not the Govts propaganda dept–or are they?
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:32am
    - riffer
      
      The funny thing is, when National are in, the media are right wing sycophants. When Labour are in, the opposite.
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:31am
      - riffer
        
        Having said that, I do believe journalistic integrity and impartiality has gone to hell. But it was happening long before the government tried to prop the industry up.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:32am
      - MCos
        
        According to Richard Nixon they were all infiltrated by leeching left wing losers masquerading as journos back then.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:06am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        bollocks. NZ media in a 2014 survey self identified as left:right wing in a 4:1 ratio. A year when an election showed NZ to be predominantly right leaning – journos, mostly heavily indoctrinated young women with activist mindsets (why else get into a poorly paid profession) are a million miles away from being representative of the population.
        
        Since then media have swung farther and farther left. There are a few middle aged hold outs journos and interviewers to the right, but almost entirety of NZ journalism is middling to hard left.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:09pm
      - kloyd0306
        
        Only a leftie, dumbass Labour supporter could make such a claim.
        Absolute nonsense.
        
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        September 2, 2021 2:00pm
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        Some people on the Daily Blog still think the media are right wing/conservative.
        Not sure what they are smoking, when media is woke & virtue signaling at every chance – and the puff pieces on the first family are gut churning.
        The lack of interest in the likes of He Puapua, and the quoting of the ethno-state racists in the Maori party so frequently, suggests interest in advancing the interests of SJW identity politics far more than social conservatism or anything right of centre.
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:23pm
- curry4me
  
  igm: I hope ACT make them eliminate RNZs,and TVNZs ‘news’ and ‘current affairs’ units. They won’t do it on their own. No backbone. I think most of them probably patronize Dominatrexes. They seem to enjoy a good thrashing. Why else would they put up with this treatment?
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:15am
  - riffer
    
    I guess you meant dominatrices.
    
    Much as I loathe the partiality of our media (in both directions) I think we would be poorly served without them.
    
    If we relied purely on press releases over social media it would be so much worse.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:34am
    - curry4me
      
      riffer: I did some leafletting for the NC party during last election. Pitty they’re almost defunct. If TVNZ, and RNZ lost their ‘propaganda’, and ‘Cultural Marxist affairs’ sections, TV3 might take the hint and cut down on the bias. Or Sky Australia might send a couple of reporters over.
      
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      September 2, 2021 4:08pm
  - Mark
    
    Curry you are one sick puppy.
    
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    September 2, 2021 6:01pm
Maggy Wassilieff

A few months back one of the trolls on this blog took to mocking the way Taiwan had handled the Covid-19 pandemic.

Looks like that country was able to bring it’s April-May outbreak under control very rapidly without putting the entire country into a harsh lockdown.

Notably, Taiwan has still not implemented a full-strength nation-wide lockdown in response to COVID-19. However, Taiwan appears to have succeeded with outbreak control and has reported zero cases in the community by late August 2021 (see graph in the Appendix).

The following article discusses how a number of other countries are handling their Delta outbreaks:
https://sciblogs.co.nz/public-health-expert/2021/08/31/lessons-from-jurisdictions-that-are-battling-their-own-delta-variant-outbreaks/
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September 2, 2021 8:12am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Unlike Hawaii (Comparing Apples to Islands):
  
  you probably didn’t know Hawaii just hit an all time high for covid hospitalisations – because the MSM can’t blame a lack of masks, lack of vaccines, lack of lockdown harshness, President Trump, Trump voters, or Republicans in general for this data. Hawaii is as solidly Democrat Party as California or Illinois.
  
  Also check out the chart comparing cases in the state to Texas. As one commentator says:
  
  … opposite approaches yet same trajectory. Adjust your narratives accordingly
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:39am
- MCos
  
  Here’s an article from a month ago outlining the approach Taiwan has taken.
  It’s seems to be more contact tracing based than here. Particularly with tracking where people go before there’s an outbreak rather than after as we do here.
  https://thediplomat.com/2021/07/why-taiwan-is-beating-covid-19-again/
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:46am
- Taieri
  
  Ha, the Zero Covid Cultists strike again. Wonder, how their over-inflated egos will survive the moment when ink in the money printing presses runs out. As it inevitably will.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:23am
- Ra Henare
  
  Always interesting to cross check anything from this “team”
  eg they say.
  But in April 2021 Taiwan experienced its biggest COVID-19 outbreak
  
  John Hopkins graphs says started in mid May!
  
  But interesting to note the CFR death rates have not followed previous CFR in the recent blips of cases in those(and many other) countries.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:55am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The outbreak began in April…
    
    . Taiwan’s current community outbreak began in April with cargo plane crews at the Novotel at Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport. The hotel violated COVID-19 rules by housing quarantined flight crews and non-quarantine guests in the same building. In mid-April, Taiwan also lowered quarantine requirements for non-vaccinated flight crews from five days to just three. At least 29 cases are linked to the Novotel cluster, including hotel staff. Officials say cases in the Novotel cluster, the Lions Club cluster, and the cluster of cases in Wanhua’s red light district were all infected with the same strain of the coronavirus—suggesting they have a common source.
    
    https://time.com/6050316/taiwan-covid-19-outbreak-tea/
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:23am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Yep, and I remember asking Stupidboy if he was going to gloat the same way when Covid slipped past our borders, like he did with Taiwan.
  Taiwan was still beating us on certain metrics anyway, so his point was feeble and purely some sort of shameful joy that a pin up for limited lock downs & Covid success having a setback made NZs performance seem better in comparison.
  Well, fast forward a little bit…..
  What ever happened to that odious creature anyway?
  
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  September 2, 2021 3:28pm
MCos

“With Joe Biden seeming rapidly advancing into dementia”
People have been saying that for years now.
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September 2, 2021 8:13am
- kowtow
  
  And yet they still voted for him.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:49am
  - Vory v zakone
    
    Yeah but now those voters are rolling over in their graves ?
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:00am
    - curry4me
      
      Vory v zakone: Mmmmmm…. stealing that.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:16am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Anyone that can’t see that sleepy Joe’s exit from the oval office is terminal needs a seeing eye dog.
  Rapidly advancing just doesn’t cut the mustard.
  But you are right he has been in decline for many years, and everyone knew clearly what they were going to get.
  December 2011
  “You know you’re a success when you look at your kids and realize they turned out better than you.
  Joe Biden ”
  April 2013
  “How I learned to love the New World Order.”
  “In the good old days when I was a senator, I was my own man.’
  Joe Biden
  2012
  “Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars. Guess what? Yes we do”
  Joe Biden.
  1993
  Banning guns is an idea whose time has come.
  2015
  “I did not grope the wife of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter or the daughter of Sen. Christopher Coons. I don’t put drugs in drinks or give drinks to underage females. And all those photos about me inappropriately touching girls, they are blown-up.”
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:03am
- RW Capitalist
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=933hKyKNPFQ
  “you’re getting as bad as Biden”
  But beside that, their are some eerily relevant moments re Afghanistan.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:55am
- Ed Snack
  
  And he is, surely you’re not falling for the “Joe has a stutter..” fake storyline are you ?
  
  Joe’s fallen a long way from where he was, and as he started as at best a petty corrupt mediocracy that’s getting pretty low.
  
  One thing the whole affair demonstrates is the continuing power of the MSM to create and sustain a narrative almost regardless of the underlying facts.
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:24am
Cinematic

I think Mallard has erred badly in enforcing the very limited numbers in parliament. Labours strength is in numbers not in performers.

Mallard has effectively called a short line out only to find he has no jumpers. JC and the team are warming nicely to their work.

Expect carnage for Labour until Mallard reverses these absurd restrictions in desperate need of reinforcements.
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September 2, 2021 8:18am
- kowtow
  
  The the publicity arm of the Labour Party ie our msm have questioned the sitting at all .
  
  And yet the front page headline of the Odt is a tribute to a Seymour question .This from a paper that ran an anti qt story the other day . They are so conflicted.
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/south-island-%E2%80%98completely-let-down%E2%80%99
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:52am
  - riffer
    
    One man’s conflicted media is another man’s journalistic impartiality. You can’t have it both ways. Either the media are completely biased or they are not
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:36am
- Weinerpoop
  
  Great call, this is exactly when we find out the depth of talent in the Labour caucus.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:06am
Maggy Wassilieff

We have a serious situation developing in the Auckland hospitals..and our national broadcaster is blaming the patients for causing the disruption, fgs!

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018810699/covid-19-hospitalised-patients-causing-disruption
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September 2, 2021 8:18am
- graham
  
  You really have to wonder if, having written the story and the headline, anybody takes a moment to step back (metaphorically speaking) and proofread or just think about what they’ve written.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:35am
  - Gravelroad
    
    @Graham-
    No, they just press publish and there it is – published – often with no further scrutiny or oversight.
    Posters on here would experience more overview on their commentary than many reporters.
    That’s the power most of these so-called professional journalists and opinion writers have these days – many of whom are still really just learners.
    I was at a meeting a couple of years ago when a local newspaper editor justified this by saying there was no money to pay for offices staffed with the former range of editor, senior reporters, news editor, subs and proof readers – that’s old fashioned thinking.
    Most reporters, especially in the provinces, now work at home. They do their story and self publish.
    Cause, no money – see?
    But then she claimed that advertising revenue was still very strong…….
    Back in the day, if I wrote up a report at the paper I worked at (which was family owned) and I made a mistake, it was picked up usually before publication.
    Now no one cares and there are few, or any, consequences for the writer/broadcaster who just continues merrily on their way further emboldened by their own agendas and quest for celebrity status.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:01am
Tony Stuart

There’s a growing staffing crisis in our hospitals, especially in ICU; RNZ reports:

Auckland’s hospitals are asking others around the country to send intensive care nurses to help them cope with the Covid outbreak.

The call-out went out last night after the number of people in ICU across the region reached eight, with three of them on ventilators.

There are 32 patients in hospital.

The highly specialised nurses provide round-the-clock, one-on-one care, and without them patients can not be moved into intensive care.

It was estimated 30 nurses with ICU training were needed in Auckland to help in the outbreak, with another 30 to help in managed isolation facilities.

College of Critical Care Nurses chair Tania Mitchell said the country’s intensive care units often work together and support each other.

But there was a limited pool of nurses and morale was low, she said.

“With out a trained nurse, intensive care beds could not be used,” she said

“There has been a large increase in the equipment needed to look after an ICU patients in New Zealand since we have been preparing for an outbreak of Covid, but not a similar increase in trained staff to care for these patients,” she said.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/450542/auckland-hospitals-calling-for-more-icu-nurses

New Zealand has the second fewest ICU beds per capita in the OECD. There’s no point commissioning new beds however, when they aren’t staff to provide the specialist care required.

Combine that with the current Delta variant outbreak, which has eight patients in ICU in various Auckland hospitals, three of whom are on ventilators, and you have the perfect storm. Well, a perfect storm if you’re not requiring intensive care, anyway!

So where is Andrew Little on this? And how many of those languishing on Immigration NZ’s residency processing list, or even worse, on the closed-off Expressions of Interest list are qualified, experienced ICU nurses?

This government talks a good game, but talk is cheap. Labour has been in power for almost four years now, so the “nine years of neglect” excuse has worn thin. Labour’s inability/reluctance to actually do anything, whilst promising nurses a pay freeze, has come back to bite them on the bum. Let’s just hope they don’t need treatment in ICU!
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September 2, 2021 8:21am
- Simon
  
  The way to look at is like Countdown selling bog paper. Normally Countdown can handle bog paper sales. Just like the health system can handle normal shit. (well sort of muddle through) Then the ro panic hits and the Countdown shelfs are empty. The race to buy toilet paper. Abnormal demand. The covid works the health system way.
  
  Countdown District Health Board gets all these ro patients and the wards cant handle the abnormal demand. The gubermint knows this – hence if they double capacity it doesnt matter. Its a losing battle.
  
  In Aust they are sending non covid patients home. Some will die.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:33am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    There’s some synergy there Simon, but staffing shortages in our hospitals have been an issue for some time now. Staffing levels have been a major sticking point in the nurses’ contract negotiations with the Government, and the Covid outbreak has merely brought those into greater focus.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:55am
    - curry4me
      
      Tony Stuart: Does one ever hear of staffing shortages in Southern Cross hospitals? What about St George’s in Christchurch?
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:21am
    - nathie
      
      And Grant Roberston borrowed $50 billion for Covid i.e. Labour have/had the money to fix up any problems including paying for retired/former nursing staff to return and boost numbers!
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:05am
      - riffer
        
        Governments borrow to stimulate economies. It’s what they do.
        
        If National were running the show they would have done the same. They just would have delivered it in tax cuts to who they believed were the deserving.
        
        Same policy, just executed slightly differently.
        
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        September 2, 2021 10:38am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        National + Act would have addressed the pressing needs bought on by covid – properly effective quarantining and ramping up of medical services in preparation for when Covid spread through our population. Unlike the endless fuckups, pissing around and failure to deliver while throwing vast sums of money at low quality spending splurges that Labour have given us.
        
        Most inept govt in NZ’s history, and their propaganda efforts via buying off media and employing hordes more propagandists on tax payer money has set a new low for Democratic process in NZ.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:17pm
      - riffer
        
        yeah sure UrbanNeocolonialist.
        
        sure they would have. They would have been just as useless, because nobody knew how this was all going to play out.
        
        I still reckon we’d have way more infections and death under National. But given that it would probably have been the old, the infirm, the poor and the minorities I doubt most people on here would have given a flying fuck about that anyway, so long as their share prices kept going up.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:57pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Rubbish riffer,
        some of us on this blog have been warning as to how this Covid virus is going to play out in our Country since February 2020.
        
        It has been a host of lefties trying to trash folks who have been warning that our PPE gear wasn’t up to scratch, our hospitals were ill equipped, our Quarantine was crap, etc, etc.
        
        We’ve had months to get decent systems in place to protect the old and vulnerable.
        Look to the Left for the failures to act in a timely and efficient manner.
        
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        September 2, 2021 1:46pm
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        Have you seen what the 55 billion was spent on though?
        90% gone, and >$300 million on art grants alone.
        Still MIQ in Auckland CBD. Could have built facilities, or created systems for contact tracing or MIQ management.
        Aside from what they failed to do: ICU capacity went backwards.
        remember how we were soiling our pants over NY and Milan hospital scenes? No worries mate, art to the rescue!
        I would have preffered the funds to have some linkage onto Covid management, but no – free money, low quality spending.
        No worries, can always print more!
        
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        September 2, 2021 3:40pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  I was at lunch in Cambridge the day the lockdown’s were announced and met a senior nurse who works part-time at Waikato to help them out.
  
  Her descriptions of overflowing ambulance bays, corridors and the like, with overworked staff, was pretty awful to listen to. One old woman fell out of her wheelchair, smacked her face and put blood everywhere. Given a compression bandage and told to hold it over the wounds. She did. For an hour.
  
  Nurses being asked if they can provide just an extra couple of hours at the end of their shift. The woman’s husband is a GP and he’s asked her why she keeps walking back into a burning building? This is admittedly Waikato, which does not have a good reputation to start with, but it was before the latest Covid scare. Clearly the whole system is fragile.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:46am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    I can well believe that Tom, and I believe this situation is replicated right across the country. Little has played hardball with the nurses in contract negotiations, but the public will never support a politician against the nurses.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:00am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I’ve managed to answer my own question about Immigration NZ waiting lists…
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/07/more-than-1000-registered-doctors-and-nurses-waiting-in-new-zealand-residency-queue.html
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:49am
  - kowtow
    
    It’s not just health professionals .
    
    We allegedly have a housing crisis . Yet there’s thousands of tradies who are here already and their residency is in limbo , they can’t plan , their children have no rights in tertiary etc
    
    Not kind at all.
    
    They’ll be off to Oz .
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:56am
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      “Toot toot, chugga chugga – Big Red Car!”
      Who needs houses or hospitals, we’ve got a “Big Red Car?”
      Sing it with me, Comrades!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZKXMn-56e4
      
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      September 2, 2021 3:45pm
- Isobar
  
  I think this is years and years of underfunding. It costs around $5,500 per ICU bed per day. We could double what we have but it will add hundreds of millions to the health bill. Not to mention training all the extra staff required – which takes years.
  
  This is something i think we can and should do – especially given my father in law was looked after in Christchurch ICU a couple of ears ago by amazing staff, but squalid facilities.
  
  But these things cost money and there isnt a want to people to pay higher taxes to fund these things, so what can you do. Its not until you actually visit an ICU until you realise how dire the working conditions are there and just how amazing the staff are who have to work in there.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:58am
  - Ehlana
    
    Unfortunately, we need to do two things. One politicians quite like – opening new medical facilities gets a pretty picture on the news. Announcing increased health spending on more staff and treatments looks caring.
    
    The other nobody will vote for. It’s called looking after yourself. It’s unfashionable. You don’t get drunk, or ingest drugs of unknown provenance. You eat enough to stay healthy, but not more. You get a good night’s sleep, plenty of fresh air and exercise. And you do all of this, everyday, for the rest of your life. There are no guarantees – illness and injury may still strike. But it does reduce the likelihood and the severity.
    
    And if we all did that, we wouldn’t need so many hospital beds.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:26am
    - Muttonbird
      
      Heavy regulation on the food and alcohol industries and their advertising, and a 4 day week, then?
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:10am
      - david
        
        A typical “government knows best” response to a suggestion that people hold their health in their own hands to a great extent Mbird.
        Newsflash: the government often does not know best, people who are well educated are more than capable of leading active, healthy and productive lives without having their hands constantly held and their decisions made for them.
        There is none so blind as them which cannot see.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:56am
      - Muttonbird
        
        Elhana asked for us all to not drink, take drugs, and don’t over-eat. They also asked us to make time for exercise and a good night’s sleep.
        
        Our profit driven system works against that in every way, asking us to consume more, and to work and commute ever increasing hours in the day.
        
        If you want healthy people the narrative has to change.
        
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        September 2, 2021 12:17pm
  - Taieri
    
    We could double what we have but it will add hundreds of millions to the health bill.
    —————–
    
    How many BILLIONS have been spent keeping people confined to their homes so far?
    
    Not to mention training all the extra staff required – which takes years.
    —————–
    
    There’re 8 universities and 15 polytechnics in this country – what useful purpose do their serve?
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:28am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    I guess you missed this Kiwiblog post from August 7 where Andrew Little puts his finger on it:
    
    Andrew Little is visibly annoyed by the problems he’s encountered in the health system since taking on the portfolio following last year’s election.
    
    “We’ve put so much extra funding into the system since we’ve been in Government and the same pressures that were evident three years ago are evident now.
    
    “So, what I’m saying is how can we possibly have pumped in billions of extra dollars, and it not appear to have made a difference?’’
    
    Every Right-wing MP should remember that quote for years to come whenever some Leftie whines about how an ACT/National government are big meanies for not spending enough on our public healthcare system.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:43am
- alloytoo
  
  Say if we had $50 Billion covid fund maybe we could have trained up a few or imported a few.
  
  but alas it has been squandered.
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:07pm
- calendar girl
  
  Well said, TS.
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:54pm
- Mark
  
  Bugger me Tones you are still here ,I had assumed you had been laughed off.Hey just asking for a friend how many pay rises did the Ngats give the nurses in 9 years .I just run into 2 at the Maryborough hospital here in Queensland and they said they could not remember any.I am sure they were wrong.Give us the good oil please old fruit.
  
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  September 2, 2021 6:08pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Pelosi is an evil POS.
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/nancy-pelosi-blocks-republicans-from-reading-names-of-fallen-military-heroes-on-house-floor/?
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September 2, 2021 8:23am
- curry4me
  
  Steve Otto(North Shore) : Well, it’s par for the course. She is a Dem after all.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:23am
- mandk
  
  Many liberals are fascists under the skin.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:27am
  - kowtow
    
    The American use of the word “liberal” is a complete misnomer. We as good Anglo Saxons should avoid that usage and use it in its proper meaning;
    
    Liberal “a person who understands and respects other people’s opinions and behaviour, especially when they are different from their own”
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:02am
JibberJabber

Bart Simpson is in the house…
https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1432659725993144321
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September 2, 2021 8:24am
Simon

You are not fully vaxxed until the third dose.

Doesnt matter. Have said before NZ doesnt open up because of the hospitals. The system is creaking after an “outbreak” of 600 cases – with 6 to 7% in hospital.

Say 70% of population ro vaxxed against the alpha variant – not delta they open up and 20,000 covid cases – 6% in hospital. The hospital system collapses. Many dead in other non-ro medical areas – like delayed operations, screenings etc.

NZ doesnt open. The hospitals cant handle it.

Simples.
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September 2, 2021 8:26am
2ic

Some help here, please!

Official data from Public Health England:

SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England
Technical briefing 21
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1012644/Technical_Briefing_21.pdf

Have a look at Table 5 for the Delta variant figures – pages 22-23:
Attendance to emergency care and deaths of sequenced and genotyped Delta cases in England by vaccination status
(1 February 2021 to 15 August 2021)

UNVACCINATED:
Cases: 183,133
Deaths: 390
= 0.213% mortality

FULLY VACCINATED (>= 14 days after 2nd dose)
Cases: 73,372
Deaths: 679
= 0.925% mortality

So fully vaccinated are 4x more likely to dies from Delta than unvaccinated? Am I missing something?
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September 2, 2021 8:27am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I can’t see where the Fully vaccinated data comes from.
  I’ve read through the report and can only see the Unvaccinated info.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:52am
  - 2ic
    
    Second to last column: “≥14 days post dose 2”
    
    That’s 2 weeks after second dose of the vaccine.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:04am
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Yes.
  
  You really need to look at the number of deaths as a percentage of the total number of people in the vaccinated/non-vaccinated population.
  
  If 100% of the population was vaccinated then 100% of the dead will come from the vaccinated.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:54am
  - Ed Snack
    
    No, by separating the two populations out you can consider the death rate in each. You would need the if you were looking at cases, but not at deaths amongst those who contracted Covid.
    
    What is likely a confounding issue is the age profile. Likely the vaccinated population is heavily skewed to older people who are considerably more vulnerable. You would need to stratify the data by age to see how the rates by age cohort compare.
    
    So, interesting figure and potentially alarming, but does need further investigation. Which is a problem with all the data one seems to see, data purporting to show any desired result. There is a lack of a considered and professional statistically valid analysis of the numbers, and of the data collection. For example it is very hard to assess the risks of vaccination because in many places data on vaccination side effects including deaths is not mandatorily collected. So one really has little idea of how relevant any specific set of numbers are.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:33am
- covfefe
  
  Some of it may be age-related – i.e. older more likely vaccinated and also more likely to do poorly. I haven’t read – but unlikely there has been multivariable analysis to try to deal with cofounding factors.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:02am
- Littletramp
  
  Yes you are missing context, the vaccinated are most likely the old folk, often past the average life expectancy age and the un-vaccinated are the younger and healthy folk who can fend off the infection naturally.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:07am
  - Surely Knott
    
    The unvaccinated will also include people who are incredibly vulnerable to both covid and a vaccine reaction. What about people who are in hospice and already dying are they being vaccinated. . Healthline also says people who think twice about getting vaccinated are:
    people with allergies
    people who are pregnant or breastfeeding
    people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19
    people with underlying medical conditions
    children and adolescents
    
    People who are pregnant would be vulnerable to both vaccine reactions but they are also significantly more likely to become sick with covid including just after birth. So it’s wrong to think only vaccinated category would contain vulnerable people.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:31am
  - 2ic
    
    Thanks for pointing that out (I should have thought of it myself!).
    
    They also have an age-split which would account for that somewhat, so here are the figures for = 14 days after 2nd dose)
    Cases: 40,544
    Deaths: 27
    = 0.067% mortality
    
    Still doesn’t make a great case for the vaccine.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:32am
    - 2ic
      
      Sorry – didn’t put the full figures:
      
      Under 50 years old:
      
      UNVACCINATED:
      Cases: 178,240
      Deaths: 72
      = 0.040% mortality
      
      FULLY VACCINATED (>= 14 days after 2nd dose)
      Cases: 40,544
      Deaths: 27
      = 0.067% mortality
      
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      September 2, 2021 10:34am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Hmm, well, that’s a better set of numbers and certainly a bit concerning. The under 50’s are probably a bit more homogenous as regards Covid with a smaller number of vulnerable people.
        
        Should look and see if other places with reliable records show a similar pattern.
        
        On the face of it though, gives the lie to the claims that being vaccinated reduces ones chance of dying from Covid, and this excludes any deaths from the vaccine itself which could only make the figures worse.
        
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        September 2, 2021 11:37am
- westernScientest
  
  The patient age, the UK vacs roll out started at the oldest and moved to the youngest, they had very high vacs rates (>90%) of very old/sick people very early in the year. So the people that had a the most chance of dieing in the next 28 days (how the uk measure covid deaths, any death within 28 days of a positive test) are also the ones that have the highest vac rates, and have been vaced for the longest. It is also possible that they are now seeing a reduction in efficacy of the vacs as they had it so long ago, and so that is leading to more deaths in the old/sick group.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:12am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Yep, but see the under 50 year old numbers, largely eliminates that argument though there are probably some people under 50 in the especially vulnerable group who have been vaccinated as a priority. Seems unlikely that in that age group the numbers in that vulnerable group are enough to completely change the picture, though I guess it is possible.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:39am
- Yvette
  
  @ 2ic – From England’s statistics – So fully vaccinated are 4x more likely to dies from Delta than unvaccinated? Am I missing something?
  
  Is vaccine effectiveness waning so fast that we’ll all need booster shots? Is Delta more dangerous to younger people? Do we all need to go back into lockdown? And the flip side to anxiety is fatalism: If vaccine effectiveness fades so fast, why bother getting the shot in the first place?
  
  … We see Israel, one of the first countries in the world to vaccinate a majority of its population, suffering a brutal new wave thanks to Delta. The “simplest” explanation would seem to be that Delta is vastly more dangerous, and that the vaccines aren’t working well against it.
  
  The writer mentions Simpson’s paradox –
  Wikipedia – Simpson’s paradox, which also goes by several other names, is a phenomenon in probability and statistics in which a trend appears in several groups of data but disappears or reverses when the groups are combined.
  
  So the article continues –
  Because the vaccine uptake in Israel has been much higher among older cohorts (as it has been in other countries as well, including the U.S.), the unvaccinated population skews much younger. So comparing the unvaccinated with the vaccinated is, in part, comparing the young and the old. And because the elderly are far more vulnerable to serious illness from COVID than the young, if you compare a younger population with less vaccine-uptake with an older population with higher vaccine uptake, the rates of serious illness due to COVID are similar — which makes it look like the vaccines aren’t working even though they are. If that analysis is correct, then the surge in hospitalizations in Israel may well be adequately explained by Delta’s extreme contagiousness alone, since much higher numbers of cases will inevitably mean more hospitalizations and more deaths, even if the percentage is much lower than it would have been in the absence of widespread vaccinaton.
  https://www.yahoo.com/news/simplest-explanation-delta-surge-still-095512097.html
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:25am
  - 2ic
    
    Yes, but see my added results above for under 50’s (i.e. excluding elderly):
    
    UNVACCINATED:
    Cases: 178,240
    Deaths: 72
    = 0.040% mortality
    
    FULLY VACCINATED (>= 14 days after 2nd dose)
    Cases: 40,544
    Deaths: 27
    = 0.067% mortality
    
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    September 2, 2021 3:48pm
Happychappy

I happened to be in Hamilton yesterday and drove past where the COVID-19 vaccination station was by the Waikato Stadium twice once at 10.30am and the other at 1.30pm without seeing a queue either time.
So it seems in Hamilton the need to get vaccinated is not as urgent as shown in Auckland and other parts of the country.
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September 2, 2021 8:28am
- MCos
  
  According to the MOH projections the vaccination rate for the Waikato DHB is slightly ahead of forecast.
  There’s all sorts of interesting info on their web site.
  https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:17am
  - Cinematic
    
    Hahahahahahaha…seriously.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:06am
YesMinister

Jacinda has only done what needed to be done to keep us all captive. We have had well over a year, and billions of dollars of printed money and we have no ICU capacity to speak of, and the ICUs we do have are not properly equipped with extraction and filtration systems. Our equipment and staffing is pitiful.

Idiot NZ’ers apparently have no problem with this. The media is not reporting on it nearly probingly enough. How can a country amid a global pandemic put close to ZERO new resources into nursing, and instead freeze their pay, and buy basically no new equipment for hospitals, most of which have not been updated since the 70’s.

The excuse for these lockdowns is that we don’t have the medical capacity. That was maybe a decent excuse in Feb 2020. In September 2021, people should be up in fucking arms about the government continuing to run down the health system and instead choosing to destroy the economy and pump inflation.

These are the days of million dollar homes, five dollar cucumbers, and not a doctor in sight. The negligence is extreme. Kiwis should be furious. I can only conclude we’re just too stupid en masse to notice.
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September 2, 2021 8:30am
- Master Mariner
  
  “I can only conclude we’re just too stupid en masse to notice.”
  
  Great book explains it in my mind.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Captive_Mind
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:25am
- SilverSurfer
  
  Cant get much more on point than that!
  
  Brilliantly said YesMinister!
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:57pm
Vory v zakone

Worldwide reaction to the coming tyranny ?

https://youtu.be/prPUvKSGKC0
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September 2, 2021 8:32am
- Vory v zakone
  
  You won’t see this on #OneWokeNews or indeed any MSM
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:41am
Maggy Wassilieff

Gang thugs ruling the roost in Emergency accommodations

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/126218672/clean-up-your-own-blood-horror-claims-from-inside-wellington-emergency-housing
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September 2, 2021 8:33am
- Jack5
  
  The police commissioner could take a guitar down and sooth them with “kumbaya”.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:56am
I remember when

TV3: The Project:
“We could have nipped Delta outbreak in the bud.”
The story was about how a number of people who felt unwell, being typical Kiwis, didn’t get a covid test. If they had, the outbreak could have been stopped before it got a hold.
So what were the reasons they might not have gone for a test.
Delta, they have been told repeatedly, is serous so you will know when you get it. All the reports and warnings have made this clear. It’s different, not like ‘old’ covid, even children and under 40’s will be in danger. Fear factor.
I’ve been tested a number of times and have never had covid.
If I could take a spit test, at home preferably, it would be more convenient and I would be more likely to take one. What they are doing in London.
The government is in control at MIQ, apart from a few people trying to put Labour down, there is no covid in community – so it can’t be.
A number of coughs and pollen on car so it’s hay fever time.
Who wants to be covid positive – if there is an outbreak it will be my fault.
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September 2, 2021 8:38am
- kowtow
  
  TV3 blaming kiwis for not getting tested ?
  
  Did they canvass the notion that the so called hard and early Ardern regime response failed to ensure the sewerage got tested , daily or even twice daily , and if not why not ?
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:00am
- YesMinister
  
  It is hilarious the cognitive dissonance they are pushing, isn’t it. A virus so dangerous you don’t even know you have it might kill us all. Now take this vaccine which never went through animal trials, and also has no longitudinal data but is perfectly safe if you ignore the myocarditis especially in young, fit men.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:05am
  - MCos
    
    If you think that’s seat of the pants stuff read about the polio vaccines.
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:26am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Yes, a lot of injuries and deaths occurred as vaccines were rushed out. To partly account for that, Polio was (and is) a lot more lethal than Covid.
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:42am
      - MCos
        
        Apart from 1916 when 7000 deaths occurred generally one or two thousand deaths per annum occurred in America until the population was vaccinated. The last death appears to have been about 1991.
        The more lasting legacy was the kids who suffered some degree of paralysis including Mitch McConnell.
        https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/reported-paralytic-polio-cases-and-deaths-in-the-united-states-since-1910
        
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        September 2, 2021 5:42pm
cas

Congratulations to Sophie Pascoe and Nikita Howarth and Danielle Atkinson. The behind the scenes stories of these Paralympians is amazing. I read somewhere that Pascoe had to have the fibula and main nerve cut out of her leg to stop the constant pain. They do us proud.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-paralympic-metal-nikita-howarth-didnt-want
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September 2, 2021 8:42am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Sophie left nothing in the tank last night, and actually collapsed after the race, needing oxygen. She had perked up by the time of the medal presentation, and hopefully will be OK for her final event today.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:50am
  - Jack5
    
    Sophie Pascoe is a hero.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:57am
WaveyDavey

Today’s Herald poll is illuminating

Support for the govt’s elimination strategy is consistent across every metric except one

Age, location and gender all irrelevant. The govt has a clear mandate to pursue elimination

The only outlier is income. Basically if you earn above $100k pa then you’re 10-12% out of step with everyone else

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-nz-herald-kantar-poll-shows-what-new-zealanders-think-about-elimination-strategy/LVB5RB7NN3AODM5GT4DQRJHL7Q/
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September 2, 2021 8:44am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Suits me. I’m quite happy to sit at home and watch, as my family is apparently. We’re all doing just fine mentally and physically.
  
  So I guess I can afford to watch all these people bring the pain on themselves, although there really has been little pain to date, thanks to government handouts.
  
  But that can’t last forever. Even the Victorians have given up on zero-Covid, and they’re as socialist as we are.
  
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  September 2, 2021 8:57am
  - oldfella
    
    Tom: Victoria and NSW have both taken the same step.
    “Australia’s two biggest states have abandoned COVID zero, but it’s still a long path to freedom”
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-02/victoria-and-nsw-abandon-covid-zero-analysis/100426124
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:55am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Yeah, have just written about it here –
      The end of the Zero-Covid policy? – but had not seen that headline.
      
      Maybe minds began to change when the rescue dogs were shot?
      
      Also Singapore:
      
      “It is no longer possible to bring covid-19 cases down to zero, even if we lock down for a long time. Therefore, we must prepare for covid-19 to become endemic, like the flu or chicken pox,” Lee said on Sunday during a speech to commemorate the country’s National Day, according to a transcript from the Strait Times.
      
      Wonder when the penny will drop here? I’ve heard some faint squeaks from Hipkins and then Adern that suggest a – slow – change is coming.
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:06am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      And even Stuff is reporting Singapore’s retreat from elimination..
      
      In a frank address to the nation last weekend, Singapore’s leader Lee Hsien Loong reaffirmed the shift, stating elimination was “no longer possible” and that the country must “change gears”.
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300397244/what-new-zealand-can-learn-from-singapores-covid-success
      
      We may have to wait until next year though before our Dear Leader changes the message…
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:29am
- kowtow
  
  I’d wager that outlier has a higher IQ too.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:12am
- I remember when
  
  When was the ‘elimination’ strategy ever the correct policy.
  It never had an ‘end game.’
  It had no idea of what the eventual overcome of the parademic would be.
  There was no clear ‘timeline’ for the discovery and production of a vaccine.
  At no stage was there a cost/benefit figure.
  We still have no idea of the eventual cost in terms of outcomes for health, finance and future business.
  Despite the constant reference to ‘science’, it was controlled almost entirely by fear.
  At no time was recognition of the effects of covid on different age groups used effectively.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:36am
  - septic skeptic
    
    There is a perfectly reasonable end game for the elimination strategy. Once everyone who wants a vax has had the opportunity to have one, we can open up. This will have saved a substantial number of lives and long covid cases. Not 80,000 or anything like that, but substantial. Once we open up then over time our population will grow to live with covid – through a combination of vax, boosters and/or natural immunity from exposure.
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:19pm
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Which, of course, is in no way an elimination strategy
      
      What you describe is a “buying time” strategy and I have no problem with that
      
      Mind you, I’d like to know what our target is
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:10pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  Reminds me of a story:
  One day before the big crash, that caused the great depression.
  A stock broker was outside the exchange, getting his shoes shined.
  The “shoe shine boy”, was say how he was about to put all his money on a certain stock. The broker thought, “That’s the stock I was going to invest in”.
  He went in and sold everything.
  The day I’m taking advice from someone who knows less than me. Is the day I lose.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:37am
  - Spoff
    
    Sound advice. Having lived through several crashes, I can attest that when the office boy is charting stocks, its time to get out.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:25am
curry4me

ASTERISK RESIDENCY: Episode 33.
Direct from Harveywood, here is this week’s episode of Asterisk Presidency. Brought to you by the CCP, MSM, Wall Street, $oros, ANTIFA, BLM, CDC, Nordstream, globalists, ‘academia’, FBI, CIA, NSA, the Taliban, and Cuba.
Last week on Asterisk Residency, Kabul Joe refused to negotiate with terrorists. Has he just said yes to them this week? Will Kabul Joe retaliate against the homicide bombers by feeding their remains into a meat grinder? Was Kabul Joe’s news conference the result of a bad medication day? Did ‘Dr Jill’ fudge his medication? Does ice cream lower its effectiveness? Was it Russian fudge? Should Kabul Joe have retired when his age exceeded his IQ? If Kabul Joe was working for the enemy, what would he have done differently? Also last week, Hunter sold some paintings. Will they lose value if Quemala pulls the 25th? Will she rescue America from Kabul Joe? Has General Milley sent the Taliban owner’s manuals for the captured kit? Did he include a CRT DVD in Arabic? Is he still a general? Wasn’t Benedict Arnold a general too? Does he have a green beret, or a green tutu? Would green hair match his uniform? What would Patton, Eisenhower, or Bradley think of him? Will SCOTUS hand Kabul Joe another defeat this week? Will the Taliban beat them to the draw? Will Republicans impeach Blinken before Kabul Joe? Is Quemala uncomfortable under the bus? Is it still the Biden-Harris administration? Will she hold a press conference? Has HC got a Quemala voodoo doll? Was Kabul Joe checking his watch, or his rosary beads at Dover AFB? Are black republicans still black? What about Hispanic Republicans? Are either of them ‘raycist’? Will Rachel Mad Cow get a book deal when her show ends? Will anyone read it? With the donated equipment, has Kabul Joe put the ‘war’ back into Afghan warlord? Is his call to Ghani impeachable? Will Pelosi try to impeach Trump instead? Stay tuned folks!
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September 2, 2021 8:57am
Odakyu-sen

With the lockdown, I have too much time on my hands.

Here’s a thought for science fiction fans.

If the future does not yet exist, how could anyone ever be “from the future.”
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September 2, 2021 9:04am
- RW Capitalist
  
  or the most common statement these days.
  “On the right side of history” When talking about the present. It appears, that those that said that inn the recent past, have been wrong.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:30am
- riffer
  
  Depends on whether you believe in eternalism or not really. It’s an interesting philosophical argument.
  
  You obviously take the view that the future does not yet exist. Others may hold a different view, and may believe that past, present and future all exist at the same time. Others believe that there is no such thing as time.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:42am
- MCos
  
  Maybe there’s no such thing as time, tenses don’t exist and that which we think of as ‘past’, ‘future’ & ‘present’ are coincidental.
  It’s presumptuous of us to think because we can’t figure something out in the human brain, or even a thousand brains, it’s impossible.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:43am
- Ehlana
  
  If someone has come from the future, the future must exist…
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:13am
- cmm
  
  Maybe that’s why it is called fiction.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:31am
- Spoff
  
  If time travel were ever to be possible, its odds on that at some time in the future, some travellers would have made it back to our planet and time or to times gone by.
  There are several paradoxes involved which readers can look up:
  Predestination Paradox, Bootstrap Paradox, Grandfather Paradox, Polchinski’s Paradox, The Butterfly Effect – lots more.
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:19am
- Ed Snack
  
  There is no past and no future, there is only now.
  
  Or time is a dimension and all time exists already.
  
  Or the correct interpretation is that people can appear from “a” future as there is no one future.
  
  Finally, there is no real problem with becoming ones own grandfather or grandmother that a temporally well adjusted family can’t deal with. h/t THHGTTU, apropos Zaphod I believe, due to an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine.
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:47am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    To quote Master Oogway:
    
    “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, that is why it’s called the present!”
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:55pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    THHGTTG
    
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    September 2, 2021 4:18pm
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      Aha! Another Douglas Adams fan!
      
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      September 2, 2021 5:17pm
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    If all time existed already, free will would not exist. We would merely be automatons in a grand game of chess.
    
    I don’t buy into the “multiverse” concept. Imagine how much energy it would take to create a copy of the universe at each possible bifurcation of destiny.
    
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    September 2, 2021 5:20pm
I remember when

Is the Stewart Island oyster farm Bonamia ostreae parasite story about to explode on MPI.
NZH Business: 14/6/17: “Thousands of tonnes (4000 to 6000) of South Island oysters bound for landfill.”
June,2017: “Angry residents demand answers>”
Newsroom: 4/4/2018:
“Was oyster probe flawed from the start?”
“The MPI report said mortality records of oysters at the farm “were not recorded as it was ‘impractical to do so’.”
“That’s unacceptable for many reasons.”
So was the whole operation government error at its very worst.
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September 2, 2021 9:22am
- Jack5
  
  Who clammed up on this?
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:50am
RW Capitalist

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html
First polls are in, post the suicide bombings, post the leaving 10% behind etc etc
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September 2, 2021 9:28am
KevO'Brien

It’s world wide. Some day a little truth will emerge.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/fake-delta-variant-fourth-wave-another-lockdown-upcoming-financial-crash-worldwide-economic-social-sabotage/5751819
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September 2, 2021 9:38am
lazza

Quote:
“So now the Trumpers have written off Joe and it’s time to turn their rhetoric against Kamala Harris”.

Quiz:
Do you agree (Uptick) or not with this statement?.

Prediction of our now typical KB punter:

” A 10? to 1 Uptick”.
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September 2, 2021 9:42am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Joe was finished 20 yrs ago….he’s been doing his “weekend at Burnies” act ever since.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:57am
- cmm
  
  It is a VP’s job to make the Prez look good.
  Kamala achieves that.
  
  As bad as Joe is, the back up is Harris and nobody wants that.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:08am
- kowtow
  
  “Trumpers” didn’t write off Creepy Sleepy Slippy Joe , he did that himself .
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:55am
Captain Mainwaring

https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/300397166/shunter-locomotive-railway-wagon-plunge-into-picton-harbour

And how we all laughed when Richard Prebble wrote about the very same thing happening 30 years ago.
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September 2, 2021 9:42am
- RW Capitalist
  
  In reverse instead of drive?
  
  3 1
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  September 2, 2021 9:58am
  - Paulus
    
    This was an unmanned shunter driven by a man with a toy in his hands.
    OOPs
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:11pm
    - sooty
      
      He put his toy control down to piddle on the wagon wheel and knocked the control.
      He had his back to the train!
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:36pm
Stu2

There was a story on stuff about the two students who flew from Auckland to Dunedin and Wgtn respectively.

The women who flew to Dunedin actually flew to Chch then took another flight. So she was on two aircraft and in three terminals.

Her flatmates said WHAT!! when she arrived and raised the alert. She has had a negative test.

Hope she isn’t a medical student, that would be a hopelessly bad look.
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September 2, 2021 9:58am
- Joely Doe
  
  Could be a med student. Have 2 kids there now – both confirm that the current crop of med students are dumb and dumber.
  Doesn’t help that intakes have changed to stop the brightest getting through.
  Disappointing to see ‘right’ kids with weaker exam results getting in ahead of the ‘wrong’ type of student, with better grades.
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:21am
UrbanNeocolonialist

Youtube slow-walking back it’s censorship of ivermectin. Too bad they’re complicit in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths over there parroting of Big Pharma agendas. History will not be kind to them.

Formerly *all* “Claims that Ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID-19” were banned, which could include simply discussing papers that suggested so.

Now YT bans “Categorical claims” instead of all claims.
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September 2, 2021 9:59am
Spoff

Informative website UK Column News back online:
https://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-1st-september-2021
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September 2, 2021 10:15am
Tony Stuart

An excellent op-ed this morning from Ryan Bridge, who is filling in on Newshub’s AM Show:

OPINION: Looks like Jacinda is cancelling Christmas for Kiwis stuck overseas.

And again, some critics argue it’s because the Government’s been caught off-guard by an entirely predictable situation and proven themselves seemingly incapable of forward-planning.

We’ve seen that with the vaccine rollout – where they’ve performed a cunning U-turn after being caught with their pants down having to slow bookings.

One minute saying we don’t need more vaccines, the next – we’re working day and night to get it.

Same goes for the Kiwis stuck offshore who’ve just been told not to come home for Christmas because we don’t have enough room in MIQ – and that we’ve had to halt the booking system for weeks amid our outbreak.

“That means there are no vouchers available to be booked through the voucher website at the moment,” COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.

You might think fair enough – our COVID-19 cases take priority in our MIQ facilities, sure.

But the Government was warned about a shortage and advised by some officials to develop purpose-built facilities.

Australia did – and the company that built theirs offered to build ours for pretty cheap way back in August last year, which Newshub revealed a few months back.

When asked why they weren’t built ages ago, Ardern said: “Certainly the scale.”

Hipkins said: “It’s not a flip-flop at all… I said I certainly wouldn’t rule out doing it in the future.”

Hmmm, you see, there it is – not ruling out doing it in the future.

I’m not ruling out doing an ultra-marathon next year. I’m not ruling out going to Mars. It’s an entirely meaningless thing to say.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/09/ryan-bridge-kiwis-asked-not-to-come-home-for-xmas-due-to-miq-unavailability-why-wasn-t-this-planned-for.html

Until a few months ago, I thought Bridge was something of a leftie. Then he did a Talkathon which raised $345,000 for the Child Cancer Foundation, and over his non-stop 30 hours of broadcasting, a different side of his personality emerged.

In recent weeks, he’s been filling in on the AM Show for the retired Duncan Garner, and may be appointed as Garner’s replacement. He’s certainly showed a refreshing willingness to hold politicians from right across the spectrum to account, including the Prime Minister.

Today, when he suggests that the Government has been caught with its pants down in regard to MIQ facilities, he’s dead right. MIQ has been a cock-up since the system was first introduced. Remember “Thelma and Louise”, the Covid-positive women who were allowed to drive to Wellington from Auckland? Remember all the people who have simply walked out of MIQ and gone shopping? Remember the cock-up when arrivals from several different flights were mixed up on a bus taking them to a park to exercise? And remember all those people who have been unable to get an MIQ booking even after spending hours hitting the refresh button on their computer, whilst NZTE employed students to do the refreshing for them?

MIQ has been an absolute clusterf$ck for the Government, and now Kiwis wanting to come home before Christmas are seeing the chance to get an MIQ booking being snatched from their grasp. If you seriously believe that the “lobby” gives you a guarantee of an MIQ berth, just look at the residency and Expression of Interest queues at Immigration NZ going absolutely nowhere.

In closing, Bridge says “The Government’s doing a generally good job on COVID-19, but that’s little comfort to those stuck offshore who believe more could have been done to avoid this situation.”. He’s right on the money.
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September 2, 2021 10:16am
- Muttonbird
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I remember Thelma & Louise. They were busted out of MIQ early after the lobbying of one Chris Bishop.
  
  Kiwis overseas are going to have to accept they can’t swan in and out for holidays in the middle of a pandemic.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:40am
  - krazykiwi
    
    There is no pandemic, and under the Geneva Convention all New Zealand citizens have the right to freely enter and exit this country.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:29am
Stu2

Oh dear god

There is a Stuff story today saying “But it would be risky to move the South Island to level 2 while the Auckland outbreak is not contained, Auckland University Professor Shaun Hendy said”

Should be at level 2 now. The reduced health risk is not balanced by the economic harm
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September 2, 2021 10:25am
- cmm
  
  I wonder how he tweaked his model to tell him that.
  
  It is ridiculous that SI was ever in any level during this wave, let alone L3 or L4.
  It is also ridiculous that Wellington and SI are on the same levels – given that Wellington has had active cases and SI has had zero cases in the last 12+ months.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:29am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Hendy is fine, he still gets his paycheck. Bugger everyone else.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:50am
- alex Masterley
  
  I do wish Hendy would STFU.
  He is giving Bradbury a run for title of the man who is most wrong.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:53am
  - Spoff
    
    Comrade Bradbury is a classic Kina – all spikes on the outside, soft and gooey inside. A sniff of fear and he dissolves into an establishment line-tugger.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:39am
- mandk
  
  Paying attention to what Hendy says is as dangerous to your health as catching COVID.
  
  I say this as an expert (well, I do have the same qualifications as Hendy has in this matter).
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:45am
cmm

I’m been dodging as much as possible, but today I had to wear a mask for the first time when going to get a blood test.

The sign in process was worse than I faced going into military intelligence buildings.

Funny thing was two nurses having a chat. They both pulled down their masks and leaned in close to eachother (probably 50cm or so). Once they’d finished their natter, up came the masks again!

The only time a mask does any good is when there are droplets flying around – like when you’re talking.
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September 2, 2021 10:26am
- Ed Snack
  
  And yet as far as we can tell, Covid is effectively never passed on in that way. As an aerosolized virus any droplets would be a minor boost to the aerosols. The aerosol droplets reach deep into your system which is where the virus does best.
  
  So masks are total con, but as we’ve seen lots of times before, a lot of people, possibly even a majority, actually LIKE being conned in this way.
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:53am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Sickening. Taliban wearing American uniforms and equipment, showing off what they have gained.
https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/watch-taliban-terrorists-wear-full-us-military-uniforms-and-gear-inspect-americas-arsenal.html
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September 2, 2021 10:30am
- Muttonbird
  
  Waste not, want not. That’s what I always say.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:41am
  - Jack5
    
    That was a successful troll raid you made on Kiwiblog from about 6.0 last night, Muttonbird.
    
    You flew in when most Kiwibloggers had signed off. Too few remained to downtick you to solitary confinement.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:14am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Or as my great grandmother used to say “Wicked waste brings woeful want”.
    
    Yep, great job your man Joe did, wasted so much equipment that all his enablers will get even richer selling replacements.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:54am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Fortunately, all the choppers and aircraft left behind have been disabled, so the Taliban’s initial joy has turned to disappointment
    
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    September 2, 2021 12:30pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Unfortunately, only aircraft left at Kabul Airport were disabled. There is no official word on other stuff (including aircraft) captured around the country by the Taliban being disabled.
      https://www.kcrg.com/2021/08/31/pentagon-says-military-aircraft-left-kabul-airport-was-disabled/
      It’s not difficult to disable these aircraft, a grenade in the cockpit is usually sufficient to keep the ragtops entertained for a while.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:01pm
      - Paulus
        
        But as a PR exercise they look great still.
        
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        September 2, 2021 2:13pm
    - rangitoto
      
      They will have no trouble getting assistance from Pakistan, Russia or China.
      
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      September 2, 2021 1:49pm
    - cmm
      
      What does disabled mean?
      * Thermite through the engine & gearbox, then set on fire?
      – or –
      * Tape around the doors saying “US property – do not use without correct authorisation”.
      
      Even the spares are valuable trade commodities on the arms black market.
      
      People make a big song and dance about the Taliban not having qualified pilots and maintenance staff. Well nor did Sierra Leone have qualified pilots and maintenance staff – but there found them when needed.
      
      Lotsa mercenaries out there. Lotsa opportunity to hire out equipment.
      
      Since Taliban don’t really have a use for Blackhawks, they could easily trade these with another foreign government who can put them to better use and get more equipment more suited to their theatre (ie. utes, trucks, RPGs, small arms, ammo). One Blackhawk costs around USD6M new and will trade for over a hundred technicals (Hilux + Dshk).
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:44pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        $6m for a Blackhawk? I think there’s a decimal place or two missing.
        
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        September 2, 2021 7:57pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Nope
      
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      September 2, 2021 4:56pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    Classy stuff there Muttonbird.
    Really classy …..
    
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    September 2, 2021 1:17pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    You waste your time here and just invite retaliatory comments against Cinders in her basement.
    
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    September 2, 2021 6:41pm
kowtow

The good Catholic.

‘US President Joe Biden pledged to defend abortion rights on Wednesday after a law that bans the procedure after six weeks – before many women even know they are pregnant – took effect in the conservative southern state of Texas.’

https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1608669-20210902.htm?spTabChangeable=0
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September 2, 2021 10:40am
- lifesgood
  
  He’s not a Catholic, just pretends to be.
  
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  September 2, 2021 3:13pm
- virtualmark
  
  He’s a Catholic, and seems pretty devout too given how regularly he goes to church.
  
  But he’s a liberal Catholic. Catholicism is a broad church (boom boom) that spans several different camps. Biden is from the Catholic tradition that gave us the current Pope (and also Pope John Paul I back in the 1980s).
  
  Personally I’d much rather deal with a liberal Catholic than the other extreme of the intensely conservative wing of Catholic Church such as Opus Dei and the Croatian Catholics (for example).
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:12pm
Rusty

Getting tired of the same worn out expressions our PM and health director use on the Jacinda/Ashley tv afternoon show?

..”a measure of”.. “there are blah blah number of cases today”.. ..”places of interest”..
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September 2, 2021 10:44am
- krazykiwi
  
  This is a sacred ritual. The high priests must intone The Truth™, and we must emotionally prostrate ourselves before them.
  
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  September 2, 2021 11:44am
Maggy Wassilieff

Julie-Anne Genter talking sense

Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter told The AM Show the first thing the Government could do is to prioritise Kiwis over “international competitors in sports” and “Government employees going overseas and coming back from an expo in Dubai”. She’d earlier tweeted it was “pretty rough” for Kiwis overseas, singling out “international athletes” and “film crews”.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/coronavirus-greens-join-national-in-calling-for-purpose-built-miq-facilities.html
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September 2, 2021 10:45am
- cmm
  
  Still, purpose built MIQ facilities would be a very dumb thing to build.
  
  How long does it take to build anything? It would take 5 years.
  
  If the plan is for Fortress NZ to still have MIQ 5 years from now then something is really, really wrong.
  
  As I have said before, what’s wrong with MIQ in camp sites? Fresh air etc etc.
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:49am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    It only takes six months to do the building. But it takes years to get the resource consent from your local money-grabbing council.
    
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    September 2, 2021 10:53am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I agree camp sites would work…
    
    But if you brought in a team of builders from certain Asian countries and supplied them with a site and materials, you could have a Howard Springs set up within a few weeks.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:36am
    - nathie
      
      The government could also utilise containers (eg if they were already pre-fitted and ready to transport in to place, then presto just connect up to (pre-installed power, drainage and sewerage etc …. so this is assuming all of this should have been started if not last year, ideally in the past … but even starting now gives us future supply if only Labour would “think”)!
      
      Then join 2-3 containers together to provide more space for larger families etc.
      
      Ah but slight flaw in plan could be the escalating costs of containers, I understand! Imagine that, they could be $1M container homes cost wise! All thanks to the lack of forward and competent planning by these nincompoops in charge trying to ~~run~~ wreck the country!
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:51am
    - cmm
      
      The thing that takes the longest is for all the glue in the red tape to cure.
      
      It does not matter who does the building if they are tangled up in the red stuff.
      
      No doubt we’d get the worst possible outcome:
      * After 2 years of a 5 year build, CV19 goes away (like very previous pandemic).
      * We’ve spent a bunch of money and now sit with a half-built MIQ facility that is useless for other purposes.
      
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      September 2, 2021 12:02pm
  - blue collar
    
    Hi guys first post , am a drainlayer with a hort degree . Anyway , We built a 2000 bed ( separate room , dunny n shower , king single , tv ) camp in oz , fully self contained , own sewerage , drainage , water , security fenced , roads , kitchen , laundries , guard house , gyms , pubs , recreation courts , airport luggage scanner , in 6 months . Cost $100 million . In the desert in wa , 45 degree heat , flies . We used dongas ( portacom type buildings but way better ) , pre made , just add furniture n plumb n wire in . Held down by screw type anchors , good for cat 3 cyclone ( had a cat 2 whilst there n all good ) build a few of these n free up miq for kiwis coming home . Not hard , took about 200 odd of us to build plus about 100 office n engineer etc types . Check out atco ( company supplying dongas ) pick em up when finished n pull screw anchors out , reinstate land … but as you guys say , clean out cbds from housing Nz types n put em in there after the covid crap . Been asking the boys why we aren’t doing this from the beginning n we just assume no one in govt has any practical knowledge on what’s possible
    
    Don’t know how to add link , but check out ATCO Australia accomodation villages
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:22pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Welcome blue collar. Sound like you did a good job. When you said ‘no one in govt has any practical knowledge’ you were right on the money. Ours is the least capable government in New Zealand’s history. Shameful, but true.
      
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      September 2, 2021 9:53pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  “Julie-Anne Genter talking sense”
  How is that possible?
  
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  September 2, 2021 10:53am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    A stopped clock is right two times every day; just sayin’…
    
    24 1
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    September 2, 2021 10:54am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      That clock needs the cuckoo putting back in
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:50pm
  - Ruahine
    
    I wonder if she was wanting a MIQ slot so that she could go home to the US for Christmas but was not able to.
    
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    September 2, 2021 11:12am
    - nathie
      
      Well if the smart-arse “new boy” can do so, why wouldn’t she be “entitled” to also do so too, perhaps she thinks?!! 😉
      
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      September 2, 2021 11:57am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        After all, she has a newish baby to show off. Perfectly normal to want to commune with the folks.
        
        Just like a whole lot of other New Zealanders.
        
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        September 2, 2021 8:00pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  The solutions for MIQ have been obvious since early 2020 (Dedicated provincial quarantine camps far from cities). Govt has done nothing to get that right, just like everything else they (don’t) do.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:37pm
oldfella

Tony, what about a broken sundial? Not right even once a day! 😉
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September 2, 2021 11:04am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ZqBLcIvw0

The Origins of Russian Authoritarianism.

Why has there never been a consistently functioning Russian democracy? No functioning system of public accountability? Why is Russia so incredibly corrupt? Why is it that Russia seems to have spent almost the entirety of its history as an authoritarian state? In this video, I will explain to you the political developments that over the course of centuries came to shape the authoritarian Russian state. [22:10]
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September 2, 2021 11:07am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LjgVCRUSBU

Saudi Arabia and Russia’s big move in the Middle East.

Both Russia and Saudi Arabia want to push back, and they are looking at Iran to do the job for them. Watch this video to know what is happening. [7:13]
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September 2, 2021 11:07am
redflagged

According to The Ministry of Health 2 hours ago,

“You can get vaccinated at any time.”

https://twitter.com/minhealthnz/status/1433172889356935171?s=20

Yeah, I’d say that’s not true.
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September 2, 2021 11:10am
oldfella

‘History of meth’ among topics to be taught in Mob-led drug rehab programme
Drug and alcohol counsellor and justice advocate Roger Brooking is astonished the Mongrel-Mob led meth rehab programme was given $2.75 million on the strength of a proposal with what he says are “meaningless” targets and a curriculum that includes sessions on “the history of meth”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126247343/history-of-meth-among-topics-to-be-taught-in-mobled-drug-rehab-programme
I wonder how the Taliban will spend their $3 million? Teaching the history of poppies?
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September 2, 2021 11:10am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  So many possibilities for Meth Education:
  
  Cooking classes: Baking meth
  Chemistry classes: Pharmacology of meth
  Economics classes: Profitable marketing of meth
  Social Studies class: Pyramid schemes that work
  P.E. class: Stand-over techniques
  Maths class: Volumes and scaling up or down
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:12pm
- MrTips
  
  The media is once again being disingenuous here.
  National, through funding to the Sallies, had a drug rehab program going in Hawkes Bay for EIGHT YEARS. It seemed to be working.
  
  Then it stopped in 2017. Gee, what changed in 2017 I wonder, that could halt that program?
  
  Then in 2020, money goes back into Hawkes Bay drug rehab, but straight to the gang.
  
  THATS the story here.
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:27pm
krazykiwi

I’m crunching some numbers relating to overseas voting in the 2020 election.

This is important because based on the MIQ situation, very few of these voters will be eligible to vote again in 2023.

More work to do, but I can say that the following MP’s would not have won their seats in 2020 had there been zero overseas votes

Auckland Central SWARBRICK, Chlöe Charlotte Green Party
Invercargill SIMMONDS, Penelope Elsie National Party
Maungakiekie RADHAKRISHNAN, Priyanca Labour Party
Northland PRIME, Willow-Jean Labour Party
Whangārei HENDERSON, Lorenza Emily Preston Labour Party
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September 2, 2021 11:20am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  KK
  
  With overseas NZ’ers not being able to get home for the 2nd Christmas in a row Labour will lose one hell of a lot of overseas votes.
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:13pm
  - Paulus
    
    They do it on line anyway so they still think she will save them, and along with the other ladies, will continue to idolise her from her overseas media.
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:17pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    My daughter and her husband are part of a large group of ex-pat Kiwis in London. Since mid-2020 the only conversation has been mostly incandescent rage at the MIQ situation.
    
    Many of these who did vote last time voted Labour or Green, and have sworn to not do so again.
    
    Of those that didn’t vote, they now want the opportunity … so express this disgust at the Ardern governments trashing of their human rights.
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:18pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I’ve got similar with the Aussie rellies.
      What’s the betting that a couple of months before the election, there will be easy entry back into NZ for a wee while (until another viral mutant arrives)?
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:49pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Easier just to change the law, extending the time limit to six years.
        
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        September 2, 2021 8:04pm
- Steve Todd
  
  I will be very interested to see what you come up with, krazykiwi — hopefully, including your calculations.
  
  In the meantime, a quick reaction from me. From the figures I noted at the time, the Greens received 180,347 preliminary votes, being 7.57% of all Party votes cast, up to and including polling day. The party received 46,407 special votes, being 9.23% of all special votes received, for a final total of 226,757 Party votes (7.86%).
  
  As we all know, the Greens always do well on Special Votes.
  
  Okay, let’s look at the Auckland Central electorate. Chlöe Swarbrick’s final majority was 1,068.
  
  There were 2,218 Overseas special votes, of which Chlöe received 967, Helen White 761, and Emma Mellow-Sandford 426.
  
  (For completeness, there were 4,633 special votes cast before polling day, of which Chlöe received 1,728, Helen 1,504, and Emma 1,082.
  
  On top of that, there were 2,496 special votes cast on polling day, of which Chlöe received 851, Helen 743, and Emma 702. In addition, the six votes cast in voting places where less than 6 votes were taken went 4 to Chlöe, and 1 each to Helen and Emma.)
  
  In other words, Chlöe increased her election night majority from 527 (9,081 less 8,554), to 1,068 (12,631 less 11,563).
  
  Back to the Overseas specials. How on earth do you work out that Chlöe Swarbrick would not have won Auckland Central without the Overseas Special votes? Not only was she comfortably ahead on the night, but she increased her Election night majority with each of the four categories of additional votes cast!
  
  (Source: https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2020/statistics/votes-by-voting-place-electorate-index.html.)
  
  So, it would seem you are at least partially blown out of the water already. Like I say, I look forward to seeing your final conclusions / calculations.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:39pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    That’s helpful, Steve. Thanks. I’ve been working with the summary data, but as you show bringing in each of the electorate data at the voting place level is important.
    
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    September 2, 2021 4:50pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Thanks, krazykiwi. As you can see, if we remove the Overseas Special votes from Auckland Central, Swarbrick’s majority over White would still be 862.
      
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      September 2, 2021 5:04pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      krazykiwi: I have now had a quick look at the Electorate outcomes in respect of the other four candidates that you say “would not have won their seats in 2020 had there been zero overseas votes”.
      
      Invercargill
      
      Penny Simmonds’ majority is 224. Liz Craig (L) received 97 more Overseas Special votes than Simmonds. Therefore, had there been zero overseas votes, Simmonds’ majority would be 321.
      
      Maungakiekie
      
      Priyanca Radhakrishnan’s majority is 635. She received 257 more Overseas Special votes than Denise Lee (N). Therefore, had there been zero overseas votes, Radhakrishnan’s majority would be 378.
      
      Northland
      
      Willow-Jean Prime’s majority is 163. She received 172 more Overseas Special votes than Matt King (N). Therefore, had there been zero overseas votes, King would have held the seat by 9 votes.
      
      Whangārei
      
      Emily Henderson’s majority is 431. She received 136 more Overseas Special votes than Dr Shane Reti (N). Therefore, had there been zero overseas votes, Henderson’s majority would be 295.
      
      Therefore, of the five MPs you mentioned, four of them would still have won their seats. Only Willow-Jean Prime would have failed to take her seat, falling 10 votes short, but she would, of course, have been re-elected via the List.
      
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      September 3, 2021 7:56am
oldfella

I’m not into conspiracy theories, but there are some questions that need to be asked about this lockdown. Like who knew what, and when. If we had a professional MSM in this country someone would be digging around.
https://thebfd.co.nz/2021/09/02/the-lockdown-was-planned/
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September 2, 2021 11:22am
- krazykiwi
  
  That’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s evidence of the public being told last. I’m no Ardern supporter, but in truth this kind of thing is big enough to demand some kind of pre-planning. What’s clearly wrong is the Government pretending that this didn’t happen, and then lying to cover it up.
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:01pm
lazza

Quote:

“As I have said before, what’s wrong with MIQ in camp sites? Fresh air etc etc.” ..

Unquote.

OR waddabout … campervans …

OR unused military accom (Papakura … Linton … Trentham … Waiouru … Devonport … Ohakea) …

OR … relocatables on green sites …

OR … dis/under used hospital facilities wards

OR ANYTHERE BUT! … City Hotels FFS!!! … with their expensive air conditioned (Bugs-galore) inappropriate facilities in close proximity to centres of high density populations.

Geez what a cluster … another public policy disaster brought to you by … this useless lazy lousy Labour Government’s “thinking”

*DOHH … oxymoron! “Thinking”!! ?? … don’t be silly.
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September 2, 2021 11:34am
- Ian Boag
  
  Whatever was done would require roads, footpaths, power, water and sewer. Caravans, campervans, relocatables, repurposed containers, whatever. A subdivision. Not much point building a new MiQ facility for less than 300-odd people (number plucked from the sky). Say 200 dwelling units.
  
  Then there are food/rubbish to deal with. All this would require some staff who would have to live somewhere handy.
  
  Barrack type accommodation probably doesn’t provide an appropriate level of distancing.
  
  Tents don’t pass the sniff test as soon as the weather degrades. The campervan idea was tried for the first Wuhan evacuees then dropped. There must have been a reason.
  
  Look up Howard Springs – the big Aus quarantine centre. A disused mining camp that holds 850. Lord knows how long it would take to build that from scratch here ….
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:12pm
  - I remember when
    
    Barracks style buildings mean infection possibility reduced because of increased air movement, ventilation.
    
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    September 2, 2021 1:38pm
    - curry4me
      
      I remember when: On Sept 1st 1939, the army began a crash building program for new barracks at Burnham camp.
      
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      September 2, 2021 4:25pm
      - Jack5
        
        An old passenger ship, the Wanganella, housed workers at Deep Cove during construction of hte Manapouri power project.
        
        Cruise liners are being laid up, or being scrapped.
        
        Leasing or buying a couple of those might be a reasonable alternative to building a site.
        
        The cruise liners at the following link were for sale before the pandemic, which should have slashed demand and prices. A liner to house 2,150 or so for $US150 million. Or the Marco Polo for 820 passengers and 356 crew for just $US15 million ($NZ21.2 million).
        
        https://www.cruisebe.com/old-cruise-ships-for-sale
        
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        September 2, 2021 8:54pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    “unused military accom (Papakura … Linton … Trentham … Waiouru … Devonport … Ohakea) …” already have the infrastructure – or does the defence force sleep and shit on the ground?
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:54pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Nominated builder: Twyford.
    
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    September 2, 2021 6:34pm
krazykiwi

Someone has chronicled WHO and Merriam-Webester’s conveniently, and quietly altered definitions of: –

– Pandemic
– Vaccine
– Herd Immunity
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September 2, 2021 11:37am
- cmm
  
  There are many other definitions which have changed deliberately or not. Perhaps the most important is the definition of “case”.
  
  Until we got modern testing technology, the definition of case was a person showing symptoms that is clinically diagnosed. Now it also includes asymptomatic people returning positive PCR tests.
  
  When an asymptomatic case dies, that’s now a CV19-positive death. Previously it would not have been.
  
  With all these changes, it is very difficult to determine how bad the pandemic is vs previous events.
  
  Bottom line though is that we’ve survived far worse before.
  
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  September 2, 2021 12:14pm
  - mandk
    
    “Previously it would not have been.”
    
    Are you sure about that? I understood that anyone who died within a certain period of time after being tested positive (28 days in the UK) would be recorded as a COVID death, even if they were hit by a bus.
    
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    September 2, 2021 1:33pm
    - Paulus
      
      My Cousin from Arizona died recently and was declared a death from the Virus.
      He was 89 and in a home with serious long term Parkinson as well !
      
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      September 2, 2021 2:20pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  We are being played by those who do not produce anything – by that I mean a physical product that you manufacture, sell and get Taxed for
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:35pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/report-biden-wasnt-checking-watch-just-making-sure-there-was-no-blood-left-on-his-hands?
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September 2, 2021 12:02pm
Monique Watson

Heartwarming story and the best reason for why a student had to start his English class a week late. From my former Nanny, now a Professor:

Here’s a small, bright light for anyone having a bad week.

A student and their family called the school at the beginning of the first week to let us know that they were stuck in Afghanistan. Their flight had been canceled and they were trying to get another one ASAP.

We didn’t hear another update for over a week. Middle of last week, they called to say they had safely made it out of Afghanistan and were slowly making their way home.

Today, this student showed up and I am so happy to see this kid I’d never met!
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September 2, 2021 12:06pm
Yvette

Covid cases versus testing numbers
Yesterday’s (Wednesday) 75 new community cases in NZ today, 74 in Auckland, were supposedly the result of the 6500 tests from the day before across the Auckland region.
While the previous (Tuesday) new case number was 49, all in Auckland, with around 12,700 swabs taken across metro Auckland the day earlier.

So, has 51% of tests compared to the day before (6,500 on Wednesday, against 12,700 Tuesday), produced 51% more cases (74 divided by 49 = 1.51)?
And if 75 cases (Wednesday) from 6,500 test found 1 case per 86.66 tests, if they did 12,700 tests as those on Tuesday and divided that by the 86.66 rate, would that have found about 146.5 cases?

Even just thinking about covid can probably cause brain damage.
But, as well as actual case numbers of course, why can none of the many ‘experts’ so often otherwise consulted by media, or the Health Service itself, not provide more informative case-to-test factors, when there is such variation in testing numbers?

Reference for Wednesday 75 cases –
Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 22,158
Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) 6,500
https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/media-releases/75-community-cases-covid-19-one-new-case-managed-isolation-more-84000-vaccines-administered

Note: Magic Talk this morning in a Peter Williams comment quoted the 22,158 rather than 6,500 when 74 of the cases were in Auckland.
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September 2, 2021 12:07pm
- cmm
  
  White positive test ratios are interesting, it is another statistic that should be used with caution.
  
  There are so many variables at play that are changing all the time. Useful statistics really only emerge when testing is fully randomised and the variables do not influence testing.
  
  Human response change the profile of the testing, so comparing test ratios is problematic.
  
  For example a possible progression through a wave might be something like:
  * First a bunch of nervous-nellies get tested. Since it is early in the game few are likely to be infected.
  * Then, a bit later, it is people who feel a bit of a lurgy or think they’ve been to an area of interest. Probably more likely to be positive.
  * Then, a bit later still, different people tend to be going for tests.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:22pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The description is in the link. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/breaking-dod-foreknowledge-kabul-airport-bomber-denied-permission-fire-predator-drone-lock-13-us-heroes-dead/?
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September 2, 2021 12:39pm
MrTips

IverMercktin™ or Pfizermectin™

Coming to a store near you.

All about the dollars
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September 2, 2021 12:54pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Interesting. Yes, it has ALWAYS been about the dollars. If the sheeple start to balk at the prospect of jabs every 5-8 months, then let’s make it easier for them to swallow – literally.
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:02pm
Belladonna

Dear God, We’re now going to have Lotto for MIQ spaces…..
“Yesterday, the Government promised it would also change the way MIQ rooms were allocated. Instead of ‘first-in, first-served’, rooms would be allocated almost like a lottery, with people registering for space and then being selected at random.”
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/virtual-queue-miq-room-bookings-coming-hipkins-says

Words fail me…..
Has the Government *no* concept of triage – that some people have greater need to be here in NZ (personal health, dying family); and that NZ has greater need of others (Doctors, Vets, Isolation nurses)
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September 2, 2021 12:57pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  If the Government controls the lottery… then they can “randomly” choose who to let in.
  
  Why isn’t there just a straight booking system, whereby folks come in in order of their registration for their desired days.
  
  How the heck can they make plane bookings or job arrangements if they don’t know whether they’ll be in the lottery pool?
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:38pm
  - Paulus
    
    Labour declared voters and membership will get priority.
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:21pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    They can choose who to let in? Already do. MP for Tijuana got away with it – others, not so much
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:58pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Since almost everyone who comes to NZ does so by plane, why not just extend air ticket booking to include MIQ accommodation, thereby ensuring a 1:1 match.
    
    You know, give the job to someone who’s already doing it.
    
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    September 2, 2021 8:09pm
- MCos
  
  That system is in place already.
  Emergency Allocation & Time Sensitive Travel Allocation requests can be made.
  I’m guessing here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if every second traveler applies for one of those and some poor sod is allocated the job of putting the requests into two separate piles.
  
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  September 2, 2021 1:49pm
  - cmm
    
    “requests can be made”. Put it in the round filing cabinet.
    
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    September 2, 2021 4:14pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  I have a daughter waiting in the UK to bring some of my grandchildren back so they can see a dying nana (on the other side.)
  It’s been a lottery so far dealing with the variables.
  
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  September 2, 2021 6:30pm
Critical Thinker

Is Life Worth Living? – By Alfred Austin

IS life worth living?
Yes, so long as there is wrong to right,
Wail of the weak against the strong,
Or tyranny to fight;
Long as there lingers gloom to chase,
Or streaming tear to dry,
One kindred woe, one sorrowing face
That smiles as we draw nigh;
Long as a tale of anguish swells
the heart, and lids grow wet,
And at the sound of Christmas bells
We pardon and forget;
So long as Faith with Freedom reigns,
And loyal Hope survives,
And gracious Charity remains
To leaven lowly lives;
While there is one untrodden tract
For Intellect or Will,
And men are free to think and act
Life is worth living still.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFz6BvS-oL8
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September 2, 2021 1:06pm
Critical Thinker

“If this isn’t failure, what does failure look like exactly?”

Manchurian candidate Biden.

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1433214951699763203
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September 2, 2021 1:17pm
- emmess
  
  If Biden thinks it was a great success, should he not be crediting Trump for it?
  A few days ago, he was blaming Trump for the withdrawal plan, complaining that he had no choice but to follow through with it.
  Well Joe, what is it?
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:18pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Your Queen is at the podium of truth.
The more waffle time means less questions get asked
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September 2, 2021 1:22pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Can we not call it the Podium of Truth?
  
  Better contenders might be: –
  
  The Podium of Obfuscation
  The Podium of Diversion
  The Podium of Lies
  The Podium of Self Aggrandisement
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:30pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    Podium of Odium
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:50pm
  - MrTips
    
    PodiumOfTooth™️
    
    13 0
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    September 2, 2021 2:57pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    All of the above come under the ‘truth’ bit. Just ask anyone with a communications degree
    
    5 2
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    September 2, 2021 3:00pm
  - kowtow
    
    Alliteration is always good.
    
    Podium of Poo.
    
    Sorry I can’t help myself.
    
    11 1
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    September 2, 2021 3:18pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    The lecturn of lies
    The soapbox of spin
    
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    September 2, 2021 4:31pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Folks .. nice. I like them all 🙂
    
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    September 2, 2021 9:47pm
I remember when

So today it is 56% of cases people in lockdown.
Let’s see. Cases 1 pm, 1/9/21.
Mangere church sub-cluster = 320 cases.
High risk population, large family grouping, possible low vaccination rates.
Lockdown should work a treat.
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September 2, 2021 1:27pm
- MCos
  
  The church is in Favona not Mangere.
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:27pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Favona does not have a Te Reo name – or does it??
    
    5 1
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    September 2, 2021 3:02pm
    - MCos
      
      Favona is Portuguese and that area of land was named in honour of Vasco Da Gama by the local Maori when he made an unrecorded landed there in 1498.
      
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      September 2, 2021 5:11pm
      - Sponge
        
        If it is unrecorded how do you know about it?
        
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        December 2, 2020 5:15pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Must have been when the Tangata whenua gave him a hunk of honeycomb from their Apiary.
        
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        September 2, 2021 5:56pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Surely not Portuguese, MCos, must have been Egyptians or Phoenicians.
        
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        September 2, 2021 6:02pm
  - Cinematic
    
    Wow you managed to split the thinnest of hairs there.
    
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    September 2, 2021 3:38pm
    - MCos
      
      I was looking at the map the other day because that particular church is close to my house in Mangere Bridge, a few ks from Mangere Town Centre, but a world away.
      
      3 1
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      September 2, 2021 4:55pm
    - graham
      
      No, it’s not hair-splitting.
      
      Favona is different to Mangere. For that matter, Mangere East is different to Mangere Central, and both are quite different to Mangere Bridge.
      
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      September 2, 2021 6:03pm
Yvette

Newsroom yesterday September 1, updated today – Peeni Henare: The buck stops with Māori

As Defence Minister, Henare was in the thick of that operation [“to get New Zealanders and Afghans who had helped Kiwi soldiers out of Afghanistan as the Taliban took control”] and when it was clear national lockdown was coming, he spoke to Ardern about what to do.
“She was clear with me, given what was unfolding in Afghanistan, that she would prefer it if I was in Wellington.
“And on balance with that and the unfolding Covid situation, it was decided the Prime Minister would focus on Covid and it was agreed I would front Afghanistan.’’

Henare told Newsroom he’s “completely okay’’ with taking the lead on defence but part of his decision to stay in Wellington was to be available to front on Māori health if the opportunity arises.
It hasn’t yet at the 1pm press conferences with only Ardern, deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson and Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins taking the stage , but Henare says there’s more to it than that.
“There are more avenues than that, and for the most part I’ve been given licence from my colleagues to do that across a number of platforms. I’ve been on national television and national radio speaking about both defence and Covid.’’

“And if I have the opportunity at a 1pm press conference, then I’m here for that,’’ Henare says.
He’s taken time to look back on previous lockdowns and believes the messaging around the Covid response for Māori should have been better. Specifically, there should have been more of it.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/peeni-henare-the-buck-stops-with-maori-to-get-vaccinated

This afternoon Minister Peeni Henare appeared in the 1pm stand-up … sort of … at about 1.20pm Ardern announced $23m funding boost for Whānau Ora. Then at 1.23 Peeni Henare gave details of the funding, and lasted about 2 – 3 minutes, and later answered a few questions.

In other media: Associate Minister of Health Aupito William Sio said the funding would go towards Pacific health and disability services, community vaccination services and improving communications to specific groups within the Pacific community
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September 2, 2021 1:43pm
- Paulus
  
  It will go to the Church Leaders for distribution.
  The larger well heeled and dressed gentlemen are members of the Pacific Island Labour Councils.
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:23pm
  - nathie
    
    Yes, that’s the Labour way, that’s how it works with their “interests” (in this case, as of many, Pasifika)!
    
    Or else, to “approved” Pasifika community groups (which more than likely to have “people” connections back to Labour).
    
    Again, that’s the Labour way ….
    
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    September 2, 2021 3:42pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum and all her neighbors never miss the 1pm briefing.

She just txt to say how much they all wish that Ayesha Verrall was the Minister for Whanau Ora….. and Peeni Hanare had been allocated the Seniors portfolio.
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September 2, 2021 1:45pm
- emmess
  
  Thanks for the heads up
  I had forgotten to down vote for the last few days
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B53H2o_4SVc
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:22pm
- cmm
  
  The briefing is best watched with the sound off.
  
  Lots of scratching.
  
  Either wee missy has nits or she’s nervous and lying.
  
  6 1
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  September 2, 2021 4:47pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  The rubbish that comes out of WINZ for Seniors is appalling. The Minister seems to have receded to kindy age to agree with her PM.
  
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  September 2, 2021 6:23pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING…

“I always wanted to be a ‘Technition’……now I are one”

https://twitter.com/MalangKhostay/status/1433142475313532932

😀
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September 2, 2021 2:24pm
Tony Stuart

There’s been an escape from a quarantine facility at Ellerslie today of a Covid-positive man, who has since been arrested.

https://twitter.com/AnnaLeask/status/1433253960320647174

It’s a little odd that the PM didn’t think to mention this in her 1pm Sermon on the Mount, given how importantly she regards openness and transparency.
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September 2, 2021 2:43pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  Further to the above, the Herald is reporting that the man escaped at 10.30am this morning, two and a half hours before the 1pm stand-up.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-police-find-man-who-allegedly-escaped-from-miq-in-auckland/I7BJDJR7U6CJTXW6URQGPZ3VTM/
  
  Did nobody tell the PM about this, or did she not think the public needed to know about a Covid-positive individual being at large in the community?
  
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  September 2, 2021 2:46pm
  - westernScientest
    
    bishop put an application for an extra question to ask about it, but as you can guess it was turned down by the duck
    
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    September 2, 2021 2:59pm
    - Muttonbird
      
      Bishop probably organised the escape!
      
      [Mod – don’t make ridiculous and potentially defamatory allegations]
      
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      September 2, 2021 3:38pm
    - Tony Stuart
      
      It gets worse. It’s now being alleged that the bloke absconded at 12.30am this morning, but the Police weren’t notified until 10.30am. Heads need to roll.
      
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      September 2, 2021 3:59pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        The heads roll all of the time, do not stop. Playground Fair, balls in the mouth.
        “You know what? I have never seen your face”
        Apologies to Billy T James
        
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        September 2, 2021 4:43pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Jaspinda knows, but when you have a degree in communication you get to know what not to communicate …..
    
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    September 2, 2021 3:06pm
The Boss

Something to light up your day:
https://thebfd.co.nz/2021/09/01/briefing-bingo-2/?utm_source=envelope&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=SocialSnap
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September 2, 2021 2:59pm
Maggy Wassilieff

40 min press conference where Judith Collins presents solutions to the MIQ lottery.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/covid-19-how-national-s-proposal-to-fix-broken-miq-system-compares-to-government-s-solution.html
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September 2, 2021 3:07pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  It was an impressive performance from Bishop and Collins; well informed, and putting forward a strong alternative instead of simply criticising the Government. That’s what an Opposition is supposed to do.
  
  Well done Judith Collins too, not getting drawn in to answering hypothetical questions about Christmas needing to be cancelled.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:01pm
Cinematic

Looks like this outbreak is going to comfortably storm past Hendy’s 1,000. Such a tricky virus.
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September 2, 2021 3:43pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  He originally said 100 I think.
  
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  September 2, 2021 9:15pm
krazykiwi

So true.

Zero COVID once recruited almost unanimous advocates in world governments, “global health” organizations, and “public health experts” far and wide. Yet today, just 18 months after its first implementation, the Zero COVID ideology is so rare and so unpopular that you have to travel to remote parts of Oceania or within the confines of an elite American liberal arts university in order to find it.
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September 2, 2021 3:44pm
- Cinematic
  
  I’ve a sneaking suspicion that the Net Cost of covid to Sweden will be substantially lower than for NZ.
  
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  September 2, 2021 3:53pm
Surely Knott

We’ve been told that even the fittest, healthiest youngest, men can die of covid, and the examples nz media have used to illustrate the point are dreamy looking buff men who didn’t get the vaccine.

1. John Eyers. is described as the fittest healthiest person we know . He is also a body builder. His picture shows his topless body as extremely cut. And he “died after refusing the vaccine”

2. Then fitness influencer Dmitriy Stuzhuk, in Newshub who “thought there was no covid-19” also a body builder who died unvaccinated with covid “triggered heart complications.” The message is clear it was covid deaths due to antivax attitudes.

But is it possible that these unlikely death outcomes for healthy men at this age bracket could have been influenced by hormones or steroids? Maybe not. But it’s worth noting that “Anabolic androgen steroids (AAS) and performance-enhancing drugs have been previously reported to trigger severe viral pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome in young patients.” I don’t think that information has ever been covered by our media shouldn’t young men in particular be informed.

The British Medical Journal case report of another young patient concluded “This case describes concerning, evident progression of COVID-19 in an otherwise healthy man; such progression is unlikely to be due to other risk factors other than the misuse of AAS.”

https://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/2/e241572

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2020/10/fitness-influencer-who-thought-there-was-no-covid-19-dies-after-contracting-virus-on-holiday.html

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-super-fit-twin-brother-dies-of-virus-after-refusing-vaccine/SN3OOOGQELDHCGLLFDX5FJKFRE/
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September 2, 2021 3:55pm
- Cinematic
  
  The msm pushing what are extreme outliers for deaths from this disease can only be seen as deliberate attempts to create fear. It’s sick hysterical journalism. Shameful.
  
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  September 2, 2021 5:29pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Government admits vaccine ad information was incorrect.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/126242692/genuine-error-led-to-incorrect-information-in-covid19-vaccine-ad-government-says

I know all my aged buddies around here believe that the vaccinations will stop them catching Covid-19.

They get angry/upset if I mention that this ain’t necessarily so.
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September 2, 2021 4:11pm
- krazykiwi
  
  From MOH website
  
  Catching and passing on COVID-19
  The Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) is effective at reducing the number of people who get COVID-19.
  
  It’s harder to find out how well the vaccine stops people passing on (transmitting) the COVID-19 virus. Recent studies show that the Pfizer vaccine can reduce transmission of the virus.
  
  Three things:
  
  1. This page has been updated in the last two weeks. The name ‘Comirnaty’ was added
  
  2. They link to a 4 month old MoH document which claims that vaccinated people were less likely to transmit the virus
  
  3. The evidence that viral load of vaccinated and unvaccinated is identical has been around for ~6 weeks.
  
  So they updated the name of the drug, but didn’t update the ‘recent studies’ bit.
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:43pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    updated the name of the drug,
    
    I’ve been watching that….
    
    the bad news is not going to be associated with the Pfizer name…. more confusion for Lay people.
    
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    September 2, 2021 4:54pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) might be effective but it has not been manufactured yet.
    The present approved one is free of liability to Pfizer. The newer on is not.
    There is quite a row about this internationally.
    
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    September 2, 2021 6:12pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  As good a reason as any for not taking it. Even more so when the manufacturers refuse to accept any liability for what they supply. Are we guinea pigs being fattened up?
  
  How can our govt accept “vaccines” without any guarantee of quality control or fitness for purpose?
  
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  September 2, 2021 6:16pm
cmm

One my customers in USA is putting V stickers for every jab on people’s work ID cards so your vaccination status is on display to angst-filled co-workers.

One V, 2 Vs, soon to be three or more Vs.

I suppose it will soon be 6 Vs and they can be arranged in a star.
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September 2, 2021 4:11pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  For most that will be whoooossshhh
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:45pm
- kevn
  
  @cmm… Who always wanted a V8?
  
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  September 2, 2021 4:58pm
Happychappy

Heard a rumour today from a pretty good source that the Springhill prison guard and others from the Auckland area partied in Huntly during the lockdown before he was found to have Covid.
I wonder why this has not been released to the public by Jacinda Ardern or Ashley Bloomfield.
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September 2, 2021 4:34pm
- Inandout
  
  Happy, I remember partying before the iron shield came down. I wonder if Jacinda enjoys getting merry with alcohol like many of us do?
  
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  September 2, 2021 6:30pm
alex Masterley

I wait to read the reportage in the Herald/stuff about the daily tally, as, if I watch the sermon from the podium of light I just get angry.
Something i have noticed is that the daily tally is advised in numbers and then Bloomfield moves onto percentages of the daily number who caught the viris while isolating and the percentage who caught it in the wild (so to speak). why the switch to percentages is made hasnt been made clear. On the numbers of infections at the moment talking percentages is totaly irrelevant.
Likewise the efforts to track down the source of infection of those who didnt catch the virus from isolation partners is not stated despite that being of some importance to is all. Especially when you find people with covid are still wandering around relatively recently visiting supermarkets, visiting chemists and the like.
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September 2, 2021 4:45pm
ecco

Wow they might need to start splitting up the general debate into morning and afternoon sessions. I’ve never seen so many comments being posted.

Has anyone noticed the NZH must have been told by Ardern and co to start putting the vaccine banner back up, as to how much % of the population have been vaccinated. Still only 28% fully vaccinated but trumpeting that only 48% unvaccinated.

So probably still last on the league tables. It would be good if they could post the league table calculator from World of Data. Would give a much better perspective on how poorly the NZ rollout has been. You can get this on the Sydney morning herald site.
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September 2, 2021 5:34pm
- Stu2
  
  28% fully vaccinated is the % of eligible people figure.
  
  From a health risk perspective % of the popn is more important, and that is 25%.
  
  The higher number is relevant to tracking completion, but not absolute risk
  
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  September 2, 2021 7:23pm
- Prince
  
  I wonder how they calculate the total population.
  Based on the last census, which was (another) complate shambles under Labour/Green/NZF Govt ?

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