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February 27, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 27 February 2022

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General Debate

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Pineapple Lumps

Political landscape

I am not a tribal voter, I have tended to vote for parties based on policies that have most aligned to my values and principles. However, I understand that from early democracy, eg Ancient Rome, there have been binary divisions in politics, red team vs blue team. But the political landscape is a lot more complex than just left and right.

Some of the ideologies in society that parties represent are:

– Social: liberal v conservative
– Government: small v big
– Financial: capitalist v socialist
– Nationalist v Globalist

So a Globalist, socialist, big government, socially liberal party is left wing. As is a Nationalist, socialist, big government, socially liberal party. But the allegiance to a Nationalist or Globalist is a fundamental difference between these two parties.

It is this complexity that makes the left v right descriptor meaningless. The four major parties, while different on many of the metrics, are all aligned in being socially liberal. Just look at the way the Conversion Therapy Bill waltzed through its final vote yesterday. Just look at the number of NZers opposed to the anti-smacking bill, yet National never reversed this policy despite a referendum that clearly showed the public’s desire.

This is why opportunities exist for the likes of NZ First. Now I am not promoting Winston First. But if you examine their manifesto they promised a number of socially conservative policies on their 2017 election trail. These were of course the e first items to be knocked off the table during the negotiations and bauble handouts to form government.

Somehow we need to get parties to clarify where they stand on these ideologies and laws they pass should only be legitimate when they align with this. Had labour campaigned openly on both a globalist and socialist agenda would they have won enough of the vote to govern alone?
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February 27, 2022 8:00am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Hi Lumps, nice thought. But, politicians lie. Or, to be charitable, have to compromise on their grand plans according to their electoral success.
  
  What’s staggering is that all parties are not pressed on the detail of their policies pre election by both the media and by voters. If we don’t demand policy & then hold them to it then we end up with the government we deserve.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:17am
  - Mike
    
    Policy is complex, detailed and boring.
    People generally have simpler motivations for voting.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:08pm
  - Liberty
    
    Who is this “We”
    
    I remember the days when Redbaiter would virtually nail a poster to the fence by his nuts for such lefty drivel.
    
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    February 27, 2022 5:40pm
- Rusty
  
  Pineapple Lumps, great post by you. Personally I thought Winston Peters and NZ first were the closes we would ever get to a political party truly representing democratic values.
  
  No lefts or rights by them. But now they are gone and while I give them a slight chance of a revival in 2023 or after, I’m not hopeful.
  
  Looks like Nzers will have to vote for the lesser of the two evils next year.
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:04pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    NZ First’s carefully debated policy positions are simply ignored by Winston, any time it suits him.
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:03pm
    - mawm
      
      We need “Recall elections”.
      
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      February 27, 2022 3:30pm
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      and he will always go with socialist Labour.
      
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      February 27, 2022 6:26pm
mandk

Just a relatively brief comment on my time at the protest yesterday.

Everyone was in good spirits after the High Court judgement on Friday. I guess the highlight of the day was seeing that couple getting married in front of a big crowd and receiving huge cheers. It has to be the NZ wedding of the year.

I spent an hour and a half in the food tent, buttering bread, croissants, ciabatta rolls and hot cross buns for everyone’s lunch. It felt good to be able to serve, and it was a good opportunity to meet folk I would not normally meet.

After the food tent, I wandered round the parliament grounds chatting to people as I went. Yes, I have encountered one or two oddballs in my time at the protest, but they have the same right to express themselves as anyone else. Most of the people I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting have been what would be called ordinary, centre party voting Kiwis, who just want to live their lives with their human rights respected (Luxon, please note).

To add to Stalinda’s record of dishonor, I met the following good people who have lost their jobs because of the illegal mandate: a lactation consultant, a teacher with 20 years of classroom experience, a man who had been working for an Iwi organisation, and a medical secretary who was dismissed even though she worked entirely from home.

This will be my last comment from the protest. I have made a practice of having my comments ready to submit at 8.00 am, before I head out of the door to join the protest (or go to church beforehand on Sundays). Judging by the number of thumbs up and positive responses, my comments have been well-received. However, they seem to have been held for longer and longer in moderation, so it hardly seems worth the effort any longer. My comment yesterday had not yet been released three hours after I submitted it.

Anyway, I shall keep protesting until the mandates are swept away. But the fight will need to continue after that. All of the emergency legislation needs to be rescinded, and the Bill of Rights Act needs to be enshrined as New Zealand’s paramount law.

God defend New Zealand from self-serving, authoritarian politicians.

[You’re not special I’m afraid, the mods have just been busy over the last couple of days – Mod]
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February 27, 2022 8:01am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Had they taken off the tin foil hats and stopped looking for the source of the government dispersal of the pox , asking for a friend
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:54am
- Nukuleka
  
  A wee bit unnecessarily snide there, mods! I don’t think mandk was suggesting that the posts were anything special or deserved special treatment. It would be disappointing if mandk did indeed discontinue such posts from the protest. I find them interesting, balanced and illuminating.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:28am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    [Much like yourself. mod.]
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:56pm
- pdm
  
  mandk email me at cruliviig@gmail.com I may be able to offer a solution to you mod delay problem.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:28am
- mandk
  
  @ Mod.
  True.
  Apologies if it came across that way. It was not intended.
  Thanks for your work.
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:02pm
krazykiwi

Apparently…

Lockdowns keep people safe, and Israel had plenty of them

Masks keep people safe, and Israel had plenty of them

Vaccines keep people safe, and Israel had plenty of them

So how is that working out? This excess mortality chart from 2017 gives us a clue.
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February 27, 2022 8:01am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Question time.
  
  When mandates are gone, hopefully sooner than later.
  
  What happens to all those people who lost their jobs, is all forgiven and they get their jobs back, or does the punishment continue?
  
  What happens to the vaccine pass, does that go to?
  
  Will we need a seasonal flu vaccine pass, and more flu vaccine mandates?
  
  Is there any end to this vaccine nonsense.
  
  Eventually vaccine harm is going to have to be addressed.
  
  Who picks up the bill for that, I expect insurance companies are already running for the hills, have heard that life insurance claims have been declined because they died from an experimental drug. Pfizer will be covered by the government, so I guess that leaves the TAX payer picking up the bill.
  
  Hearing reports, out of the US, of a massive increase in claims for vaccinated people. Will premiums increase for the vaccinated, like they do with smokers and health issues.
  
  We have some idea of the short term harm but it will be some time before we know the long term harm, of vaccines.
  
  Silly question. If you are vaccinated can you be unvaccinated?
  
  Or is the damage to your immune system permanent, and you need to vax forever after.
  
  Why is the government silent on the contamination found in the vaccine. Scientists in multiple countries have reported on this.
  
  If it was found in food the product would be recalled immediately.
  
  Just for a laugh I watched a video clip of a large group of police jogging to apparently support the line.
  
  1. They were all running with masks, how stupid is that.
  
  2. The cop at the end of the line couldn’t keep up dropped back and eventually had to walk. Don’t they have to maintain a certain level of fitness.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:01am
- kevn
  
  Divide and (almost) conquered.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:20am
- NK
  
  Ardern keeps us safe, and thankfully there’s only one of her!?
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:22am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    I’d be more thankful if there was less than 1 of her.
    
    Perhaps she could be enticed to remain at Harvard.
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:36am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      It looks like Harvidians don’t want her and her wildness and failure there
      
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      February 27, 2022 10:56am
  - Mobile Michael
    
    She’s unleashed the unholy army of Karen!
    
    You know the ones – be grateful, you would be dead if it wasn’t for the PM. Forget your BORA rights.
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:05am
  - Black with a Vengeance
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    I shudder to think what may have happened under Collins rule in the early stages of the pandemic and am grateful to Jacinda for her exemplary leadership at the time…
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:20am
    - The Other Enoch
      
      That is sarcasm, isn’t it?
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:44am
    - peterwn
      
      Simon Bridges was the National leader at the time, not Judith Collins. Jacinda sought Simon’s help to get the initial special legislation and formed a bilateral Select Committee to deal with the Covid Response. Once things got moving, the bilateral Select Committee was abolished and Simon shunned.
      Simon would no doubt have taken a similar initial response to what Labour had taken, but when the picture became clearer would have done various things differently and better.
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:16pm
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        What JA did at the time was exemplary leadership and communication, based on the science.
        
        The inference is, in these present times…meh
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:47pm
      - Matt Long
        
        She and we were extremely lucky that the first strain of COVID-19 was not particularly contagious.
        She was slow to act on the borders, Bridges was pushing her to take the disease seriously a long time before she acted.
        
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        February 27, 2022 2:13pm
      - mawm
        
        Black – what she did was ditch a standard, rational pandemic plan with no science indicating the need to, ban therapy that could have saved lives at the whim of an American bureaucrat in the pocket of big Pharma even although there was enough science to use it, and put in place non pharmaceutical measures such as masks which at that time science new were ineffective. All to promote fear and vaccination – which BTW still is insufficiently tested to any scientific (medical) standard, and the worst and extent of its side effects yet to be revealed.
        
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        February 27, 2022 3:45pm
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        [Quit disrespecting other posters. mod.]
        
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        February 27, 2022 5:03pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  The Israelis are a tough people. They don’t take a gentle approach to attacks on their sovereignty.
  
  I wouldn’t want to be CEO Bourla of Pfizer when they work out the damage he has done to their country.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:34am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  How’s herd immunity working out at your Wellington super spreader event?
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:20am
  - Opie
    
    Pretty well. Only 2 cases amongst thousands. Over 500 cases in the rest of anything.
    
    … [You made your point – leave it out. mod.]
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:41pm
    - Doc Holliday
      
      You don’t know how many cases there are, only the number in hospital.
      
      Many of the protesters are suffering from 5G and other radiation, brain waves etc
      
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      February 27, 2022 6:47pm
- Positan
  
  Famous CNN analyst DEAD after taking Pfizer vaccine.
  https://dailyheadlines.net/famous-cnn-analyst-dead-after-taking-pfizer-vaccine/?utm_source=Mailer-DH&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:74176636&utm_campaign=RM%2010-31%2011pm%201000%20viral%20(Duplicate%20%231)%202-26
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:43am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    “Over the past several months, we have witnessed tons of celebrities, political leaders, and news personalities taking the jab live on television or on their social media accounts to sell the public on their safety”
    
    Invariably “following the science” aren’t they.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:22pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Obviously a coincidence. //
    
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    February 28, 2022 2:57am
- freemark
  
  Our Covid experience.
  Me 56, 100kg, long time heavy smoker & drinker, not very fit (obviously)
  She 36, 167cm, 66kg, non smoker light drinker.
  Both jab-free & mask exempt. Spent a fair bit of time at Camp Freedom, I’m in a large construction site bubble with mainly vaxxed cohorts, and plenty of (mainly mask free but predominantly jabbed) visitors. We’ve been taking the recommended supplements for about 3 months – Zinc, D, E, quercetin, NAC, home made quinine & juiced vitamin shots. Have had a massive sunshine boost all summer.
  Both started sniffling slightly over a week ago, no other symptoms. Very slight behaviour modification.
  Friday morning I knew it had come on, then spent about 36 hours pretty full symptoms. Combination of mild cold & good hangover.
  Slept a lot, haven’t eaten much, now on the second glass of red.
  Will stay away from others this week, RAT on Friday (ordered) before hopefully back at work Monday.
  Very pleased to have not taken that somewhat pointless & looking increasingly malign mRNA treatment. Didn’t even need the IV in the medicine cabinet.
  Now waiting & working towards the whole Covifiasco ending in a rush, which I have a hunch will start this week.
  Then we will need some serious enquiry into a) the whole disaster that was the Covid response & b) who & why responsible.
  I welcome local & global political upheaval to drain the swamp, and assert there should be criminal charges filed in many jurisdictions.
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:01pm
  - Jim
    
    Hoping you’re not 5’ tall lol
    
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    February 27, 2022 6:37pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I got back home after a week at the camp. I live a long way away, let’s just say it was quite a trip. I have a bit of a cack throat. A bit achy. Moderate headache which a couple of Panadol fixes. No different to any of the usual seasonal bugs. Not surprised at all considering 2 years of my immune system barely seeing a bug. It might be covid, I don’t know and don’t care. I’ll get over it just fine I believe.
    If the mandates and passes aren’t gone by the end of next week when I expect to be fully recovered I’ll be making the journey again. Better prepared this time too with a warmer sleeping bag. I forgot how bloody cold Wellington can be compared to the far north!!
    The majority of the people in that camp are beautiful. One of the best weeks of my life.
    
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    February 28, 2022 3:06am
Maggy Wassilieff

Our Dear PM has a busy month with Parliament sittings in March.

I think there might be a few revisions in the Covid-management plan on the near horizon..

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2202/S00200/act-has-some-rapid-advice-for-jacinda.htm
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February 27, 2022 8:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Then in May she is off to Harvard. They are going to turn her into an imaginary Doctor.
  What this go to her tiny brain – forcing everyone including the media to address her as ‘Doctor’
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:11am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    *watch this
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:14am
  - Tricati
    
    Bloody ‘witch doctor’ – that’s all
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:31am
  - pdm
    
    `They are going to turn her into an imaginary Doctor.’
    
    Do you mean like David Clark?
    
    Will she turn into a mountain biker and stuff up everything she touches. Ooops – forgot the second part happens already.
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:40am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Just like David Clark (divinity)and Megan Woods (astrology?)
      
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      February 27, 2022 9:00am
      - Nickc2
        
        Steve, FYI Courtesy Google:
        In situations such as formal correspondence, biographical sketches or formal introductions at a podium, the university who has awarded the honorary degree may address the honorary degree recipient as “doctor.” It is not appropriate for the recipient or others outside of the university to use this title.
        
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        February 27, 2022 9:12am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        I agree, but no good telling me, Nick. Someone needs to tell Jaspinda in a word soup waffle language that she can understand.
        Maybe a kid at the next daycare visit?
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:39pm
    - cmm
      
      At least Clark and Woods earned PhD’s (as lame as theirs are).
      
      Cindy would be getting an honourary PhD which is nothing.
      
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      February 27, 2022 9:49am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        That is what I meant by ‘imaginary’
        
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        February 27, 2022 10:14am
      - JFAP
        
        And, thankfully, recipients of honorary doctorates are only to be addressed as “Dr” by, and in connection with business of, the conferring university. So, thankfully, no Dr Ardern outside Harvard’s ivy-clad walls.
        
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        February 27, 2022 10:35am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      And Megan Woods, and Micheal Cullen
      
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      February 27, 2022 10:58am
  - tf78
    
    Dr Doom or Dr Know (nothing) – I can’t quite decide.
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:51am
  - Geoffs
    
    Thought there was already a Dr Dolittle?
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:12am
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Good to see David becoming more vocal in his opposition.
  
  I thought his position was good overall, but must be improved in three areas:
  
  1. Mask requirements: Well-worn and high-quality masks can help prevent spread.
  
  It is not possible for enough of the general population to achieve a well-worn or high-quality mask. In professional environments such as dental practices this is only achieved with proper fitting, testing, and training. Once on the masks cannot be touch or removed, so no eating, drinking, scratching ones face etc. These masks at $10 each are useless once the seal is broken. This standard is almost impossible to achieve in a professional workplace. No way it is achievable in the real world.
  
  So David needs to ditch the support for mask wearing.
  
  2. Boosters – instead of promoting Boosters David needs to recognise that the use of a booster produced for a 2019 virus, is completely useless against a 2021 virus.
  
  3. Vaccine Passport – David should be unequivocally calling for an end to these. Yet he states “Unless a new requirement for boosters is introduced, mandating is having negligible effect on vaccine uptake and should be dropped immediately.”
  
  Tacitly David is supporting the coercive use of mandates. He needs to rewrite this sentence to “Mandating should be dropped immediately.” If he feels he needs to explain that he should add “Mandates are a fundamental breach of human rights, should never have been used – shame on labour – and must be dropped immediately.”
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:27am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Calling for an end to vacine passports.
    My vax passport expires mid may.
    I have no idea what happens then.
    No-one has said anything about that or asked the question.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:13am
    - curry4me
      
      Nobody in government has any idea either. So, you’re not alone.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:26am
  - curry4me
    
    Ending the ‘papers please’ policy is what a ‘freedom party’ would do.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:25am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      If only there was someone on hand in Parliament who identifies as a libertarian.
      
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      February 27, 2022 12:24pm
      - mawm
        
        They all want a digital ID so they can keep tabs on you and your comments, thoughts and money. Everybody needs to learn from and remember what Trudeau and Freeland (you can’t make it up) did to the truckers and their supporters bank accounts because it was the wrong kind of protest.
        
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        February 27, 2022 3:57pm
- curry4me
  
  Oh, I thought ACT was a rival union for thespians. And I assumed Actors Equity would have something to say about that. It turns out they’re a political party that promotes freedom. Who knew?
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:20am
Lee C

DO you want some balance? Take a look:

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/melanie-reid-a-visit-to-freedom-village

See the Voices For Freedom people, hear stories from people who have been refused a voice.

Take an opportunity to make an informed choice.

I know, crazy, eh?
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February 27, 2022 8:08am
- Ruawai
  
  Great interview and especially the line at the end where one of the very calm protesters says they (the govt) talk with the Mongrel Mob and the Taliban but not them.
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:52am
  - curry4me
    
    Yeah, that was the punch line. Very well delivered.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:27am
Matt Long

Is there any good reason why New Zealand hasn’t expelled the Russian Embassy yet?
Is it because the government is waiting for the UN to tell it what to do?
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February 27, 2022 8:14am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Do you mean expel the “Ambassador”?
  
  Some countries have expelled lower level diplomats, but AFAIK no country has expelled the Russian Ambassador in response to the invasion. Because there would be nobody to berate.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:23am
  - Matt Long
    
    I mean the whole Embassy, Ambassador, spies, janitorial staff, the works.
    If the world let’s Putin think there’s general no disapproval for unprovoked wars of aggression against weaker neighbors it just emboldens him and Xi likewise get more aggressive.
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:57am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Well we could do that. That is called ending diplomatic relations. I’m just saying we would be alone in the world. So New Zealand would need to weigh up what it would achieve vs the costs.
      
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      February 27, 2022 9:22am
      - Matt Long
        
        Did New Zealand protest when Germany invaded the Sudetenland I wonder?
        
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        February 27, 2022 9:31am
      - Matt Long
        
        If New Zealand will not protest against Putin, where there is little risk to trade and security, what chance do you think there is New Zealand would register a raised eyebrow if the CCP invades Taiwan?
        
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        February 27, 2022 9:44am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        New Zealand would do little if China invaded Taiwan, which I expect will occur in the next 10 years.
        
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        February 27, 2022 9:47am
      - CrazyIvan
        
        Matt – yes, NZ did protest. It was one of the main voices in the Commonwealth against it. The NZ high commissioner in London was rated as one of the most hawkish, and Michael Savage declined a suggestion from the British that NZ thank Chamberlain for the outcome of the Munich Conference. As part of the Empire, NZ did not have any direct diplomatic relations with Germany, so everything probably went through London.
        
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        February 27, 2022 9:59am
      - Matt Long
        
        If Russia is successful, I would say within 2 years while sleepy Joe is a lame duck in office.
        On a brighter note Germany is now supposed to be supplying anti tank and SAM missiles to Ukrainian forces, although in numbers that won’t last long.
        I bet Poland is pleased it has NATO membership right now.
        
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        February 27, 2022 10:07am
      - Mike
        
        CrazyIvan
        NZ did have some direct contacts with Nazi Getmany. There was a trade agreement, and Germany had a consulate in Wellington.
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:15pm
    - blue collar
      
      Unprovoked ? If a country was signing up in 2 years time to join a group ( nato ) who will then plant army bases and missiles at my border and draw up war plans to deal with me if they ever need ….. I’d feel a tad provoked .
      Think South Island wants to join mob who want to eradicate north island .
      Threat is provocation , not necessarily physical .
      Just like the Cuban missile crisis
      
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      February 27, 2022 10:04am
      - Batman
        
        And pray tell, why do those countries feel the need to join NATO in the first place?
        
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        February 27, 2022 11:18am
      - Matt Long
        
        NATO was set up as a bulwalk against Soviet communist/socialist aggression.
        When did NATO threaten to invade Russia?
        Former KGB officer Putin’s dreams of a new empire are the only cause of friction between Russia and NATO.
        Lebensraum Moscow style.
        
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        February 27, 2022 11:30am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        Why do they want to join NATO? It’s a circular argument: as NATO expands, the Russian Bear bares its teeth more, therefore NATO “needs to” expand. How about NATO just stops expanding towards Russian territory?
        
        More to the point, why does NATO still exist? It was a Cold War alliance and the Cold War ended 30 years ago. It still exists because the US has and wants to maintain an aggressive posture towards Russia. Correspondingly, Russia has a rational interest in responding to that aggression. If NATO didn’t still exist and if NATO wasn’t expanding, then the Russians wouldn’t have just invaded Ukraine, because they would have no motivation to do so. The current manufactured outrage over the Ukraine fails to acknowledge that NATO is the aggressor and Russia has reacted with force. Russia’s incursion is simply to restore the Ukraine to a pre-2014 situation (i.e. before the US-led coup in Ukraine to remove the elected Yanukovych).
        
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        February 27, 2022 11:35am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        “Lebensraum Moscow style”
        
        Russian territory comprises about 1/6th of the entire globe. You are deluded if you think Putin needs more room. NATO is the entity that is and has been expanding its territory for the last 30 years.
        
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        February 27, 2022 11:38am
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        NATO was giving no indication that Ukraine could join. Quite the opposite in fact, especially in recent months. Ukraine has wanted to join NATO for over 15 years, but various NATO members always gad their objections.
        
        In any event the possible prospect that a nation might join a military alliance is not remotely a legal pretext for an invasion.
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:35pm
      - kowtow
        
        There is a long history here , and as stated before the break up of empire is rarely a tidy affair.
        
        Since 1997 and the Founding Act on Mutual Relations Cooperation and Security between the Russian Federation and NATO , there had been , it has been intimated , an understanding that former Warsaw Pact nations would not join NATO.
        
        But since then 10 have.
        
        Apparently at the NATO summit in Bucharest April 2008 GW Bush insisted that Georgia and Ukraine be invited to join , fanning their aspiration to become western nations. This laid the groundwork for the subsequent invasion of Georgia and now Ukraine.
        
        The Ruskies don’t want what they consider to be former territories to join what they see to be a very aggressive drive to their border .
        
        I don’t think this is justification for invasion and all the subsequent mess for people , but maybe the US and Nato should leave these countries to decide their own fates . In Georgia or Ukraine is there a huge majority in favour of joining western alliances ?
        
        Complex issues and always unfair on the little people.
        
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        February 27, 2022 2:34pm
    - peterwn
      
      Better to keep diplomatic relations no matter how obnoxious a government behaves. Many at the Embassy would be sickened and saddened as to what is happening. Far better to have them in place than to punish them (Putin and co could not care less). However any suspected KGB operatives at the embassy should be expelled.
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:23pm
  - CJames
    
    From Neil Oliver’s latest opinion piece
    “I do know this has happened because here in the West we have stood fiddling while Rome burns. We have watched the erosion of our freedom. We have watched while the very idea of liberal democracy is hollowed out, filleted, to leave behind nothing but an empty shell. People like Putin – and Trudeau and Ardern and Macron – watch what others get away with, what works in the furthering of nefarious ends – and act accordingly. Putin is in part our fault, just as Trudeau and Macron are our fault.”
    Ardern won’t expel the ambassador, she will take lessons.
    https://www.gbnews.uk/gb-views/neil-oliver-we-watch-ukraine-and-russia-but-at-the-same-time-we-should-watch-what-our-leaders-are-up-to-here-in-the-west/235533
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:27am
    - Nickc2
      
      It’s highly probable that in the not too distant future, we will need to rely on the importation of Russian Petroleum products as the rest of the world hunker down towards self-reliance.
      
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      February 27, 2022 9:34am
    - oldfella
      
      cj, some really funny stuff here – harkens back to an era when even NZ had a bunch of really sharp political cartoonists. Remember those days?
      https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/02/the-week-in-pictures-u-cranial-inversion-edition.php
      
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      February 27, 2022 10:18am
      - curry4me
        
        Thanks for posting these cartoons. They’re brilliant.
        
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        February 27, 2022 11:46am
- MCōs
  
  If we shut down the Russian Embassy, Russia will shut down the NZ Embassy leaving Kiwis living over there with nowhere to turn if they get into trouble.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:37am
- Simon
  
  BREAKING: Ukraine’s president says anyone who wants to help defend Ukraine can go to the country and will be given arm
  
  https://mobile.twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1497519799391649792
  
  There you go. Don’t go on about why doesn’t the gubbermint do something. Get yourself over there yourself and fight. Unless you are in a wheelchair you can hide in a tree and pull a trigger. Get over there.
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:40am
  - Black with a Vengeance
    
    Calling all the Kiwiblog Dad’s Army of tough as guts Old Zealand keyboard warriors…mount up!
    
    Those are your people over there. White Eurokraine needs you.
    
    We here in Pasifika don’t!
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:52am
    - RockyJ
      
      We would fight to defend our own country. From enemies from outside or within. No problem.
      
      8 1
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      February 27, 2022 1:31pm
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        Ta very much Pops. I feel safer already!
        
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        February 27, 2022 3:34pm
      - curry4me
        
        Our most dangerous enemies currently are in the Beehive, ‘academia’, and the ‘free press’.
        
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        February 27, 2022 5:11pm
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      I have no affiliation with Eastern Europeans, so happy just to observe from afar.
      
      When your ancestors homeland, Taiwan, is invaded, will you be heading over to support your brethren?
      
      10 2
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      February 27, 2022 4:11pm
      - Bloody Dago
        
        Taiwanese highlanders – it’s in the iwi’s DNA here. What happens if China invades, will they accept the flood of refugees in NZ as their own. Fat chance of that happening
        
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        February 27, 2022 5:43pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    The open borders-supporting rainbow brigade currently virtue signaling/protesting around the world on behalf of the Ukrainians should be lining up any minute.
    
    15 2
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    February 27, 2022 11:53am
    - Nickc2
      
      They’re all talk, no guts!!
      Usually, people grow out of that when they leave University. However, there are a few dyed-in-wool types but most of them are now Labour or Green Politicians.
      
      12 1
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      February 27, 2022 12:14pm
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        If Twitter told them tomorrow that the Ukrainians were the ones to be repudiated, they’d be out with their Russian flags in solidarity.
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:01pm
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  Is there a good reason why New Zealand should expel the Russian Embassy? We didn’t expel the Americans when they illegally invaded Iraq. If the principle is that illegal invasions require diplomatic expulsions, then this seems inconsistent.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:50am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    You really need to stop these rationed and logical comments. I can see some people’s heads exploding.
    
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    February 28, 2022 3:19am
Souvlaki

Ardern & Labour clearly are feeling the heat. Haydon Munro, who ran Labours election campaign in 2020 , ‘professional’stablemate of the bigotted Neale Jones( Arderns former Chief of staff) has been given free reign in todays Herald to unleash an attempted hit on Luxon.
The article in my opinion at least, is way OFF the mark ,and the reasons become clear when the affiliations of the author are revealed. In short, it is unadulterated propaganda ….Labour begining to panic !

Hayden Munro: Christopher Luxon bows to pressure from protesters
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hayden-munro-christopher-luxon-bows-to-pressure-from-protesters/W6NBE3O25LCLMFAFRESNX3VOE4/
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February 27, 2022 8:17am
- NK
  
  And they wonder why more and more of us don’t bother with the MSM anymore.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:24am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    I did chuckle at Claire Levett carrying a hankerchief for her PM the other day. What a shower.
    
    69 2
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    February 27, 2022 8:28am
  - Souvlaki
    
    Yep….primary value lies in knowing what your enemy is thinking….of little objective value other than that!
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:13am
- Nickc2
  
  They (Labour) are desperate!
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:33am
- Gravelroad
  
  @Souvlaki
  This seems to be behind a paywall.
  I don’t read the Herald.
  Can anyone tell me – when the Herald publishes an opinion column (by someone other than their staff writers) which is clearly politically biased, do they offer a chance of rebuttal from someone on the “other side”?
  Hayden Munro has written a politically motivated column in support of the Labour Party.
  Will there be one in reply from the National Party in the interests of balance?
  If not, why not?
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:45am
  - ecco
    
    Anti Ardern articles in the Ferald are 98% behind the paywall. Anti the right articles are about 90% free to all in the Ferald. The Ferald subscription is worth it alone to read Steven Joyce’s pieces. They have trial offers sometimes. After the offer period you just ring them up and say you are cancelling and they extend this.
    
    The only problem is it’s PITA as they insist on you ringing them up to cancel where you end up waiting on their stupid phone line for a while. It’s quite fun with the subscription being able to comment on the Ferald articles behind the paywall, you can land a few hits on Ardern for a bit of daily entertainment. See if you can get 50-100 upvotes ?.
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:26am
- wilderbeast
  
  Met the said Mr Munro a few times. Immediately strikes as a narrow political animal who will push anyone and anything aside in the name of his tribal politics. That he can ascend through the Party ranks and write opinion pieces in the NZH says more about the parlous state of politics and the MSM in this country than anything else. I wouldnt trust him to bring in the mail.
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:01am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Heh, why not just get Willie Jackson to write a weekly column in the NZH on why people shouldn’t vote National…
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:43am
- peterwn
  
  Talk about shooting themselves in the foot – Granny Herald has paywalled the article.
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:32pm
- zulumonster
  
  And how did this slip past Stuff’s editors?
  “There are 14,941 new Covid-19 community cases reported today, and one person with Covid-19 has died, from an unrelated medical condition, health officials say.”
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127901041/covid19-one-person-with-covid19-has-died-14941-new-community-cases
  
  Finally a clear message that the person died with, not of, Covid.
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:53pm
  - curry4me
    
    That’ll earn them a reprimand, and maybe there will be less Cindybucks next time around.
    
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    February 27, 2022 5:13pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

The most disturbing aspect of the last few years is the loss of critical faculties by so many in the country (not that NZ is unique). Reasoned, graduated risk assessment is lacking. The best (house prices will keep on rising) and the worst (house prices will keep on rising) is assumed.

Translated into the covid situation, perspective is missing. Covid is not the Spanish ‘flu and never was. The vast majority of people will not contract a serious illness. Yet Chicken Ardern squarks that the sky is falling (that line would have worked better if Andrew Little was still Labour leader) & panic ensues.

This is worrying because the one thing we really need from our leaders is wisdom, ie the ability to exercise judgement. However, we have in Jacinda a leader in our own image. As I say, disturbing.
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February 27, 2022 8:22am
kowtow

The Media keep making assertions that the Freedom Folk threw shit at the police and spit on them.

Spitting on anyone is an assault , and on a copper is assaulting police , and must be dealt with as a serious matter.

Why has no one been arrested for assaulting police by spit , the only arrest was for an incident around a car and a bollard .

The police have also not shown any evidence that any poo’s been thrown at anyone.
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February 27, 2022 8:23am
- curry4me
  
  Because it didn’t happen.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:49am
- Paulus
  
  It has been suggested that the Police have said nothing to the so called acid/urine spray through which that three Policemen went to hospital was as a result of getting pepper sprayed by themselves acidentally.
  Silence, or let us know the hospital results.
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:32pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Have you not seen the video? It was their own pepper spray. Whoever w responsible for the acid story should be charged.
    
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    February 28, 2022 3:27am
- Thought Criminal
  
  Proof or you lied and it never happened.
  
  9 1
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  February 27, 2022 2:19pm
  - RichardX
    
    That would be a novel standard for KB, especially when it comes to why. The number of evidence free assertions made as to why someone acted the way they did is astounding.
    
    1 1
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    February 27, 2022 7:30pm
    - Thought Criminal
      
      There probably a different standard of proof for people chatting on blogs and public standards made by the police.
      
      3 1
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      February 27, 2022 8:20pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Last weekend the police stood between the protesters and parliament about 15-20 metres apart. Pretty hard to be spat on.
  
  Then they initiated a more confrontational approach this week. Pushing right into protestors. Lots of yelling and shouting. I have sat further back from a theatre stage and have felt the performers spit. Doesn’t mean it was deliberate or intentional.
  
  The police made themselves look bad on that first Thursday of the protest. They are trying to create a narrative to take the heat off themselves.
  
  To be fair, the police are the meat in the sandwich that has been created by Jacinda and Trev. It’s a no win position for them unless Jacinda talks with the protesters or concedes considerable control. So really trying to vilify the protesters is about the only card they have to play.
  
  We just need to remember not to swallow the click bait every time these stories are told.
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:47pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  What about the “acid” attack?! Turns out it was blowback from their own pepper spray. The video of it is hilarious. Obviously they need to teach them how to vote with windy Wellington.
  Many thousands of cameras everywhere. Zero evidence of any of these claims. Its the usual tactic of deflect and smear.
  
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  February 28, 2022 3:25am
Lee C

“They’ll [our politicians] talk to the Mongrel Mob, and the Taliban, but they won’t talk to us.”

Voices For Freedom.
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February 27, 2022 8:23am
- kowtow
  
  $tuffed who despise the Freedom folk doing another story on those misunderstood boys in organised crime .
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/127326665/two-worlds-meet-the-social-worker-mum-whos-also-a-mongrel-mob-wife
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:41am
- Opie
  
  Let me translate this.
  
  They will give $2.75 million to the mongrel mob to complete their drug supply chain and allow people with Taliban connections to come live here. Unless you are already a kiwi that is pregnant that knows some Taliban members then you cant come back.
  
  They wont talk to anyone that doesnt share their view because they are wrong. Its how the left operate.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:42am
Alan Wilkinson

NZ has the highest R value in the world and 96% vaxed reportedly. And still the Government and its media lackies lie about unvaxed risk to the vaxed.
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February 27, 2022 8:25am
- NK
  
  Where did you find the R value?
  
  13 1
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  February 27, 2022 8:26am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127899333/covid19-new-zealand-currently-has-one-of-the-highest-r-values-in-the-world
    
    38 2
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    February 27, 2022 8:30am
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      Goods grief!!!
      Stuff? “This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air”, ….
      Has the trough run dry? The worm turned? The wheels fallen off ?……. So many possibilities – And the” please give us a $ ” whine is a hoot as well!
      
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      February 27, 2022 8:46am
  - westernScientest
    
    Rako published one
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127899333/covid19-new-zealand-currently-has-one-of-the-highest-r-values-in-the-world
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:31am
- Opie
  
  No surprises. This is exactly what happened in every other highly vaccinated country.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:44am
- Blackbob
  
  The “R value”is an indication of the rate of infection and not a contest. All it shows is how far behind the rest of the world we are in respect to the Omicron version.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:58am
  - DeepBlue
    
    It would be great to see a time shifted chart country comparison. Where Day 0 is the first day Omicron was detected in the community. Then we may get a sense of our far along the exponential growth curve we are.
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:23pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    The high R value shows the vaccine is ineffective at preventing infection and infectivity. We have been lied to.
    
    13 1
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    February 27, 2022 1:27pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      That’s what happens when you deceptively give the Relative Risk Reduction number (94%) without giving the Absolute Risk Reduction figure (0.8%).
      It is malfeasance. It is corrupt. It was fully endorsed by Ardern and her “experts”. There should be criminal charges brought.
      
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      February 28, 2022 3:32am
  - mawm
    
    it probably more an indicator of how little community immunity there is to SARS-CoV-2. All the other countries had the virus circulation in their communities in large numbers. If I recall correctly the R value for Western Australia was not far behind. They have a very similar track record.
    
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    February 27, 2022 4:20pm
- Ruawai
  
  Wonder if it’s because we have been fortress NZ and have little or no natural immunity to Covid.
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:55am
- Stu2
  
  Depends how clever the modeller was.
  
  We had artifically low case numbers as we couldn’t process all the PCR tests, then case nunbers zoomed when lots of RAT tests started to contribute to the count.
  
  Easy to overestimate the R value of the back of that
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:21am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Labour spin – NZ leads the world again!
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:23am
BeaB

Luxon has them scared. Long anti-Nat rant on Radio NZ this morning. He dared to ignore Jo Moir’s rule book!
Then Hayden Donnell likened him to the appeasement policy followed by Clement Attlee!!
Some political editor.
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February 27, 2022 8:25am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Clearly another poll is doing the rounds
  
  27 2
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  February 27, 2022 11:06am
Tasman devil

Hmm, the Harvard graduation ceremony:
Concerned frowny face talking mindless drivel to a hall full of geniuses, and waving her arms around like she is trying to take off.

Best free show in town, not.
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February 27, 2022 8:26am
- peterwn
  
  Don’t think of Harvard now. The other outfit across the river would be a far better University.
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:37pm
- Nickc2
  
  IMO, that fact that Harvard has claimed Obama as one of its recent success stories says more about the lowering of the tone there in recent times.
  
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  February 27, 2022 2:02pm
Albert_Ross

Big shout-out to the woman on last night’s news who told the reporter asking “who has bought and paid for us?” to stop being so stupid.

Wasn’t it interesting though, how the presentation of the story itself actually proved the protestors’ point. The protestors’ case was allowed to be put only in general, unspecified terms by un-named, un-credentialled protestors, responding to questioning on the fly outdoors in the middle of a crowd. The counter-argument was put at greater and more thoughtful length by named professionals speaking well-rehearsed, prepared sentences from their own offices (and I bet they got to have another go at their lines if they fluffed it first time). And the reporters themselves still haven’t explained why they still haven’t made Jacinda explain how exactly vaccine passes are saving lives, or how implementing He Puapua is compatible with democracy, or how the Treaty established an equal partnership. I’m sure though that in their own minds they are convinced that they followed their much-vaunted regulations to the letter.
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February 27, 2022 8:32am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Might be because the claims about being bought and paid are actually only in general and unspecified terms. It is used here on KB to explain our justify any and all news which doesn’t align to the desired worldview.
  
  It is a childish tactic which has become acceptable to some in this time where everything is a choose your own reality adventure where everything you like is perfect and good, and everything you don’t is corrupt, bought off, and fake news.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:46am
  - John Pakes
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Well said Batman, spot on.
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:57am
    - Jack5
      
      It’s garbage, I mean: “everything is a choose your own reality adventure …”
      
      ?Batty, you’ve overslept with your little feet on the roof of the cave.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:53am
  - Matt Long
    
    Like Trump is corrupt, bought off and fake huh Batty?
    
    25 3
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    February 27, 2022 11:08am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    C’mon, it is not black and white.
    That the public interest journalism fund means that they have to be supportive of the principle of ‘partnership’ in Treaty matters however, 100% means that it would be hard to give equally weighting to: editorial criticisms of He Puapua, Maori Wards, 3 waters with Maori influence, concerns over the education agenda, a separate Maori health authority, etc. etc.
    So let’s not pretend that the $$ were not conditional, because the wording has been shared here many times.
    
    Let’s not also pretend that there can’t be some more subtle implication here, aroundfunded media expected to be ‘on message’.
    Couple this with the generally progressive and left-wing skewing of ‘journalists’ these days, not the least from affirmative action policies now in place seeking ‘under-represented peoples’- we might not say the media are purely & openly mercenary, but let’s not pretend there aren’t issues around public funding.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:09am
    - Batman
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      That is an assumption made by you, designed to suit your arguments.
      
      There is no evidence that just because the media have not taken the same hysterical approach to those topics as blogland has, that they’re somehow somethered or bound by conditions.
      
      The terms of editorial independence are very clear and the work funded is also clearly laid out. It doesn’t spill over into regular news production.
      
      I know that’s not what you want but it’s the boring reality.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:29am
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        The truth is the customer is always right, especially the biggest customer.
        
        So how much of MSM revenue has come from the Government over the past 2 years.
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:23pm
      - RockyJ
        
        Oh look! Here are the criteria for funding. Look up paragraph 3, section 3. https://d3r9t6niqlb7tz.cloudfront.net/media/documents/211114_PIJF_General_Guidelines_updated.pdf
        In my world if you accept money under specified conditions you are bound by those conditions.
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:36pm
kowtow

A Baltic former defence minister says the Ukrainians are doing well holding up the Ruskies and one of the important rallying points is their President holding out as a symbol of resistance . Creepy Joe wants to evacuate him.
You’d wonder , wouldn’t you.
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February 27, 2022 8:34am
- Brian McDonald
  
  I don’t wonder about that at all, rather why do you conflate an excellent comment with an insult. Don’t you have enough confidence in yourself to agree with the former Baltic defence minister without insulting the American president?
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:12am
- mawm
  
  think of the stories he could tell… Joe would rather keep him under wraps.
  
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  February 27, 2022 4:26pm
Alan Wilkinson

For another NZ media horror skim this meaningless and unreadable twaddle from a “communications consultant”.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300526071/finding-higher-wisdom-amid-the-parliament-protests-it-boils-down-to-mana
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February 27, 2022 8:38am
- Benedict Yu
  
  That is bordering on horrifying. You are correct. It is incompressible rubbish. Clearly people with “Communications” degrees are not taught to communicate.
  
  What does this even mean?
  
  “I tautauko (support) all those dedicated to serving this complex kaupapa (purpose) for our country in their chosen fields to avoid, mitigate, or remedy the actual or potential adverse effects of this pandemic.”
  
  ???
  
  Lesson for young people. Under no circumstances undertake a Combinations Degree if you want to learn to communicate. A much better bet would be Science, with a side serving of English Literature and Logic. And some Economics if you can fit it in.
  
  Can you imagine being required to read the output of that “communications” expert daily? ???
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:59am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    History degree as well, before History is lost and erased
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:05am
    - Paulus
      
      Real Truthful and not made up History is too late now !
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:36pm
  - mogg
    
    Or they could try reading a book.
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:12am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yup, don’t believe everything you read on the Internet – Abraham Lincoln
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:41pm
  - Black with a Vengeance
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    What does this even mean?
    
    “I tautauko (support) all those dedicated to serving this complex kaupapa (purpose) for our country in their chosen fields to avoid, mitigate, or remedy the actual or potential adverse effects of this pandemic.”
    ________________
    Oh come on. Surely you’re not that dumb ? Do you really need someone to walk you through it ?
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:14am
    - alex Masterley
      
      Word soup written in gibberish is my take.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:14am
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      It can be understood.
      Both literally, despite the sheer lack of purpose around injecting in extra words AND understood that it is virtue signaling rather than practical.
      
      In communications there is a rule: why use more words or more complex words that you have to?
      Because this is about the author’s ego, and not communication at all.
      I write technical documents and standards. While I don’t write here the same way I do for field or technical communications (which are reviewed and rewritten many times), the rules are to pitch it as a low-reading level and plain-as-possible English wherever possible.
      Not only because English is often a second language, but also that you should use the simple and common-use words rather than smarty-pants words.
      
      “Proliferation..”, “…ad infinitum” “Suffice to say {pure filler material}…” “tautauko (support)” “kaupapa (purpose)” “I often ruminate on mātauranga (wisdom) from my kaumātua, and kōrero….the weekend homily”
      Urgh.
      This is not sincere or effective communication.
      This is an ego-stroking masturabatory exercise.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:19am
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        This is not sincere or effective communication.
        This is an ego-stroking masturabatory exercise…
        _______
        I’d suggest you boil your little black kettle, make yourself a nice cuppa and have a wee lie down.
        
        Perhaps crack one off in celebration of your immaculate takedown…
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:00pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Yes you said that better than I could have. ? That is what gets me with Jacindaenglish. Yes it can be “understood” but at the same time means nothing.
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:13pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I will assume you are being sarcastic in order to maintain my good mood.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:23am
  - Matt Long
    
    The communications consultant has work forever with Whangarei District Council, they love that kind of stuff.
    
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    February 27, 2022 9:15am
  - bjools
    
    I tautauko (support) all those dedicated to serving this complex kaupapa (purpose) for our country in their chosen fields to avoid, mitigate, or remedy the actual or potential adverse effects of this pandemic.”
    So
    She supports someone, who does something to do with the pandemic.
    
    Who and what, she doesn’t say.
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:00pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Those who understand word soup waffle get it
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:44pm
    - bjools
      
      Steve, it just looks like she’s going for a high scrabble score.
      
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      February 27, 2022 4:33pm
- Black with a Vengeance
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  That was a good read, full of meaning, compassion and empathy.
  
  What’s your problem with it ? That is was written by an educated Maori woman ?
  
  Are you one of them stale pale frail males Old Zealanders totally devoid of Mana ?
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:04am
  - Jack5
    
    You must have read the Maori-language version, ?BWAV.
    
    I bet you thought it was gagana faʻa Samoa, and it confused you …
    
    Meanwhile, in English, her Stuff article is beyond Stuffed – it’s just blather.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:01pm
    - Black with a Vengeance
      
      If it were in Gagana Samoa it’d be even more incomprehensible to Old Zealanders.
      
      Our language when referencing higher knowledge is couched in allusion allegory and metaphor.
      
      Contemporary English as blather? Allow me to reference one of your great modern poets…
      
      Nowadays, everybody wanna talk like they got something to say, but nothing comes out when they move their lips.
      Just a bunch of gibberish! – eminem
      
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      February 27, 2022 12:49pm
      - Jack5
        
        BWAV’s: …Our language when referencing higher knowledge is couched in allusion allegory and metaphor.
        
        So anyone takes the meaning that occurs to them, and perhaps to them alone.
        
        No wonder Tongans had to come over and re-organise Samoa.?
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:18pm
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        Au contraire mon ami, one had to be schooled in the language of higher learning to interpret the true meaning.
        
        Samoa, and by virtue of close ties with our Tongan relatives, have 3 languages.
        
        That of the common people, that of the elders and that of the chiefs. The language of chiefs was assigned to their orators to speak and counter speak on their behalf. It was highly ritualised and esoteric.
        
        Tongans were allies to powerful factions in Samoa, by marriage mostly. They didn’t reorganize Samoa, merely shifted the power balance between different regions and families for a time.
        
        Many of Tonga and indeed Fijis royal lines originated in Samoa not to mention the Cooks, Tahiti and Hawaii.
        
        The biggest reorganization of Samoa came with the illegal occupation and racist policies of New Zealand in the 20th century
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:59pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    It’s verbose posturing drivel that means absolutely nothing except that its author is useless. Apart from that it’s wonderful to you I suppose.
    
    I have a part Maori grandson who has just graduated with high marks and started a great job with a huge international professional firm. Producing this gibberish is an insult to the intelligence of every race including Maori.
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:38pm
    - Black with a Vengeance
      
      Babysteps…
      
      We’ll start with the gibberish and progress to the next levels as you become more comfortable and less ignorant.
      
      Do try to keep up old chap!
      
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      February 27, 2022 2:03pm
- Inandout
  
  AW: Scary looking bird that one.
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:16am
- Trev
  
  That is totally woke rubbish pitched at intellectual midgets. I am Maori and can see through the pc drivel. She appears to have recently learn’t a few Maori words and is doing a bit of virtual signalling.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:23am
  - Black with a Vengeance
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Pitched at intellectual midgets you say?
    
    Well i think you knocked it out the park with your Virtual signalling.
    
    As a Maori, i would have thought you rapt in seeing Maori words used in context with meaning explained and going a long way towards maramatanga.
    
    Then again im not an intellectual giant blessed with a seer like ability to discern woke PC drivel from authentic Maori opinion.
    
    I learn’t me some good learnings today. Tihei Mauri ora. Good on ya Trev…Kia kaha!
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:46am
    - Jack5
      
      ?BWAV’s ….im [sic] not an intellectual giant …
      
      Bloody hell, I’m shocked. Disappointed. Let down. You’re not the great ~~Black~~ Brown mystic I took you to be.
      
      It’s as though a mighty coconut suddenly fell from the highest palm.
      
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      February 27, 2022 12:21pm
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        Perception is not reality.
        
        Oh by the way, I found that missing apostrophe, and a few more I might add, just for good measure…
        
        ”””””””””’“¯\_(ツ)_/¯“
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:59pm
      - Jack5
        
        ?BWAV’s Perception is not reality …
        
        Wow! What were you on last night, BWAV? Can we all have some?
        
        Can kava do that? Niu won’t.
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:14pm
      - Black with a Vengeance
        
        Stick to the bland vanilla Kool aid, Jack!
        
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        February 27, 2022 2:08pm
    - Bridgenag
      
      What percentage Maori are you?
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:13pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Well said, Trev. Maori are far better than that crap.
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:43pm
    - Black with a Vengeance
      
      Oh the irony of calling out virtue signalling…
      
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      February 27, 2022 2:06pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        I would definitely not insult any of my Maori friends with that twaddle. Not virtue signalling, just a simple fact.
        
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        February 27, 2022 9:50pm
- Peter Lane
  
  I thought I recognized the face.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/big-read-the-endless-road-to-a-divorce-settlement-what-happened-when-one-woman-became-her-own-lawyer-and-went-all-the-way/BOFH3SIJB2HY3WURL35NPQJ6MY/
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:25am
  - Jack5
    
    That’s a great story, Peter. Ex airline stewardess married to property developer, a house in St Heliers, an $8m getaway property with its own cricket pitch in Marlborough, then, after eight years, it all goes pop, with debt of $92 million.
    
    Fine journalistic work by David Fisher, but Sparks’s piece in the Herald is E-grade junk. Example:
    
    “I’m not going to dive into details about the complexity of what’s going on. Suffice to say it’s a Rubik’s Cube of cause and effect, action and reaction – and relief and grief.”
    
    Never before has Erno Rubik’s puzzle been so mis-used.
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:55am
- Master Mariner
  
  War underlines risks of NZ’s new fuel import regime: Save our Tankers campaign
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/war-underlines-risks-of-nzs-new-fuel-import-regime-save-our-tankers-campaign/JHLN3YAGWUU5EH4XGVSN3JIOTA/
  
  Sorry Premium. But you get the Gist.
  
  Next thing Fuel prices are now blamed on Ukraine / Russia war not too mention inflation. Dont be fooled by this as already priced in . Watch the video in the Link.
  
  Inflation blame has now moved from Covid too War in Ukraine.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:36am
  - Jack5
    
    Yep, and Milton Friedman was right:
    
    Inflation is always and everywhere, a monetary phenomenon. It’s always and everywhere, a result of too much money, of a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.
    
    The Government and Reserve Bank have effectively “printed” billions of dollars during the Covid epidemic. That is what is driving inflation, which lags, and which is only beginning.
    
    Some of the Government spending has been dubious: a hundred million here, thirty million there.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:49am
  - virtualmark
    
    MM, how is the new fuel import regime pragmatically any different from the old fuel import regime?
    
    Seems to me the only change is that the tankers sailing here are carrying refined product instead of crude.
    
    But either way we’re still dependent on someone else’s ships coming over the horizon carrying hydrocarbons from foreign lands.
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:24pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The writer – Sarah Sparks – is the Chairperson of the Covid-19 Community Panel, which comes under the aegis of the DPMC (Department Prime Minister & Cabinet)
  
  https://covid19.govt.nz/about-our-covid-19-response/independent-advisory-groups/community-panel/
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:47am
  - Jack5
    
    Here’s the full membership of the panel, as described on its web site:
    
    Sarah Sparks – chair, Anthony Taueki, Dr Api Talemaitoga, Dr Aram Kim, Callum Woodhouse, Jordon Milroy, Dr Margaret Brown, Michelle Mascoll, and Dr Hafsa Ahmed.
    
    The panel’s terms of reference say the panel includes representation from: “Maori, Pacific, LGBTQ plus, disabilities, rural, youth, older person’s communities, other nationalities and health.”
    
    The terms of reference say the panel’s primary role is “to co-ordinate and integrate New Zealand’s Covid-19 response across the public, supporting Ministers to evolve and improve the response, while clearly and consistently communicating to the public”.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:02am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    This Government is even worse than we thought!
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:45pm
- rouppe
  
  Yeah, I stopped reading after the first couple of paragraphs due to the painful way it’s written.
  
  I’m coming to the point of view that it’s lazy, actually. If you want to express Te Reo, do it. But do the whole thing in Te Reo.
  
  If you want to communicate something with me, you need to communicate in a culturally appropriate way. Which for me is in English.
  
  Really, the logical extension of all this for someone really committed to communication, is to write everything in the dozen different languages that are common in this multi cultural society: Te Reo, English, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Dutch, Mandarin and many others.
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:01pm
pdm

How many people walked across the Auckland Harbour Bridge yesterday?

I have seen suggestions of $10,000 and $50,000. The true number is probably somewhere in between I guess – but what is it?
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February 27, 2022 8:44am
- pdm
  
  Oooops sorry about the $ signs – I will call it a typo.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:50am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Waste of time asking the leftist media – they can’t count
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:06am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  My Labour friend told me about 289 people and I trust Labour.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:12am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Someone smart could feed the footage into an AI crowd counter & then we’d all know.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:28am
- Jack5
  
  If it’s true, don’t tell protesters …
  
  Is it a myth that if a mob of people march in step across a bridge it will shake the hell out of it?
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:26pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    No, it’s correct. That’s why a marching army breaks step when crossing a bridge, as the vibration set up could match the harmonics of the bridge structure & cause it to fail.
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:43pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      True. Happened with the Blade of Light footbridge from St Paul’s across the Thames to the Tate Modern when it was first opened. They had to hastily close it & add bracing.
      
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      February 27, 2022 3:19pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Millennium Bridge
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Bridge,_London#Resonance
    
    Angers Bridge
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angers_Bridge
    
    Broughton Suspension bridge
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge
    
    All suspension bridges
    
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    February 27, 2022 3:34pm
TT500

There’s no pleasing some people.

Adern and her open sewer the MSM continue to
condemn the good people of NZ as they press on
implementing The Great Reset and Build New Zealand Back better.
Inch by inch New Zealanders are taking back their
country from the tyrant and the other 119 college kid wannabe commies

God bless them and God defend New Zealand
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February 27, 2022 8:47am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Let the tyrants continue. I don’t want to see a beaten at the polls result, I want to see a huge crash into the middle of the hole they are digging, plus lots of thermonuclear meltdowns. I want them to suffer like they have made Most of NZ suffer!
  Is that a bad thing??
  
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  February 27, 2022 2:03pm
Benedict Yu

These “experts” are an absolute menace.

““For me, the key question is – is our thinking sufficiently innovative and inclusive when we deal with a post-Covid world. It’s such a different world. What we need to address and who’s going to provide the innovative thinking that will help us navigate this new world?”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300524557/when-the-faeces-stops-flying-a-new-new-zealand-will-emerge

It is just a bunch of incomprehensible rubbish. I suspect it is code for “now is the perfect time to turn New Zealand into a socialist, ethnic-separatist nation”.
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February 27, 2022 8:48am
- Gravelroad
  
  One thing that has come out of the protests and the Labour Party’s response to them, is that this party and its leader, Ms Ardern, have formed the most authoritarian and divisive government ever seen here.
  That is nothing to be proud of.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:59am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Thing is they refuse to admit it. Must be someone else’s fault – 9 years of National is the usual diversion
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:05pm
- cmm
  
  The question is whether they really want a post-CV19 world. Perhaps not.
  
  Germany had the Nuremberg trials. The main purpose of that was to pin all the evil on a few so that the rest could be labelled “Good Germans” and reintegrated into a civilized world.
  
  South Africa had the Truth and Reconciliation hearings for people to purge the past allowing both sides of the conflict to more or less work together going forward.
  
  Neither were 100% successful but they did mostly take down the them-vs-us barriers.
  
  So what is going to happen with the barriers created here? What’s going to happen with people who were fired? What is going to happen to rebuild trust?
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:59am
  - Nickc2
    
    What is going to happen to rebuild trust
    IMO, most NZers who are capable of original thought have lost trust in their Govt, Health System, Legal System, Fourth Estate, Local Bodies and Logistic Services.
    A very sad state of affairs!
    However, from such a sorry and deliberately run down state, Cindy’s great reimagining of NZ Society will be implemented in her image. South Seas Socialism will be upon us, like it or not.
    The only way this can be prevented IMO is by pre-emptive intervention by genuinely concerned and motivated NZers. Protest action by those against Govt Mandates have started the ball rolling.
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:31am
    - curry4me
      
      The decision Justice Cooke delivered last week concerning the fired cops, and soldiers goes some way to increasing trust in the legal system.
      
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      February 27, 2022 12:01pm
      - Nickc2
        
        One instance only. What about all the land given away by the Legal System along the East Coast of the NI based on tales my Great Great Granny used to tell me stuff.
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:59pm
      - Paulus
        
        Cook’s dcision will be Appealed as not in Ardern’s interest.
        
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        February 27, 2022 1:48pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    @cmm:
    What we have here now is essentially the government (all parties) against the people – and I don’t mean just the protesters as there is still a sizeable section at the other end relying on Ms Ardern and Bloomfield to keep saving them by not opening the borders and continuing health mandates.
    And that will be difficult to push back.
    Labour Party is only interested in manipulating and taxing scared, “vulnerable” people – whether they be rich or poor – and they are not bothering to hide it.
    National doesn’t seem to know where it stands on most issues. It is difficult for them as Labour has cornered the market on business financial support and has the academic, public service and celebrity Influencers on side. And National cut loose trade workers, the rural sector and farmers quite some time ago.
    Greens and Maori parties just there for the ride and what largesse might come their way through co-governance demands and grievance payments.
    ACT seemed to offer an alternative, but when the chips were down in the protesters game, they gambled the wrong way and now they offer only cosmetic points of difference.
    When most of the covid thing has settled down, I don’t see the Labour Party allowing any great investigations or commissions into their response.
    They will hunker down and start campaigning for re-election in 2023 with tone deaf Ms Ardern at the helm – as if nothing has happened.
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:34am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Nothing has ‘happened’ except control
      
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      February 27, 2022 2:13pm
- Jack5
  
  The Ardernist media again trots out Mr Multiculturism, the sociologist Spoonley.
  
  He’s not only a Massey academic but a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany. The institute describes itself as “one of the foremost centres for the multi-disciplinary study of diversity”.
  
  Spoonley holds a “science and technology” medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand, which now calls itself Royal Society Te Aparangi.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:22am
  - Batman
    
    Oh Jack, it’s a bingo card of everything you hate! ?
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:23am
    - Jack5
      
      ‘Morning, ?Batty!Or should I say, morena pekapeka!
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:41am
kowtow

Sad story .

Big front headlines around death in US of Joeli Vidiri , unvaxxed , caught covid .
Inside the headline is again “Vidiri dies after catching covid”

But the details ofthe story tells us he’s had kidney disease for a long time , at least since 2008 and had a kidney transplant in 2015.

The msm are again playing the fear factor here .

Not good.
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February 27, 2022 8:49am
- Batman
  
  You’re comment proves the case for vaccination to protect oneself and others.
  
  If you have co-morbidities you need to get vaccinated or you will probably be up shit creek when you get covid.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:53am
  - patreon_36178434
    
    My god
    Is that the first intelligent thing Batty has ever said ?
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:58am
    - Manu-Rau
      
      Quite possibly, but it didn’t stop me downticking the idiot.
      
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      February 27, 2022 1:44pm
      - curry4me
        
        I just scroll right past.
        
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        February 27, 2022 5:21pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I agree, Batty Boy. But why do the rest of us have to get vaccinated?
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:30am
    - Batman
      
      It is extremely basic vaccination immunity logic.
      
      It has been proven for decades and while it’s more complex with covid, it is still fundamentally true.
      
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      February 27, 2022 11:32am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        What is the logical connection between Batman getting vaccinated for his own safety, and this act being relevant to anyone else’s safety?
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:39pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Batman: yet again you have swallowed the hook of fallacy deep.
    
    Giving immortality to the mortal is something only God can do. While many kiwis have placed their faith in Jacinda, her lowly mortal status is about to be revealed.
    
    Closing our country off for 2 years has limited the spread of disease and delayed the time of death for some. But also it has weakened the immunity of the entire populace.
    
    We must at sometime pay the piper, vaxxed or not, the elderly and the terminally ill, will be the most likely to die as Omicron spreads.
    
    It’s time to spit out the hook. Id encourage you to put your faith in God, who promises you life eternal.
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:36am
  - rouppe
    
    Sure. But if you choose not to, the consequences shouldn’t impact everyone else by way of mandatory isolation, and masks everywhere
    
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    February 27, 2022 6:22pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Condition had the same very rear disease as Lomu, he was diagnosed a couple of years after Lomu, I thought this was a well known fact, where they got 2008 from is strange, I would have thought it was many years earlier
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:12am
- waikatosinger
  
  Transplant recipients take immune suppressors and have to be very careful about taking vaccines. It is likely that he refused the vaccine on medical advice.
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:16pm
kevn

@pdm… Bridge is 1km long, several lanes, rows of people. = 5k maybe?
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February 27, 2022 8:49am
- CJames
  
  For numbers I look at length, width and allow one person per square metre. The average spacing is for stationary and allows for non-people objects. When walking, double the space. Photos seemed to show 8-10 across, and the whole bridge, so I would get same number as Kevn
  
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  February 27, 2022 9:32am
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Kevn I like the approach.
  Density was more like 10-20 per metre of bridge.
  So 1000m gives 10,000 – 20,000
  
  Might be in this years NCEA maths.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:00am
Tasman devil

The Prime Muppett is addressing the Harvard graduands so they feel superior.

Two minutes should do it.
20 3
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February 27, 2022 8:49am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump slamming NATO Leaders over Russia.
https://thepoliticalinsider.com/flashback-trump-slammed-nato-leaders-for-being-totally-controlled-by-russia/?
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February 27, 2022 8:51am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Breaking News – France has just surrendered//
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February 27, 2022 8:52am
- Blackbob
  
  You mean the France that just impounded a Russian cargo ship in the English channel?
  
  14 0
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  February 27, 2022 9:00am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    France has been occupied twice. This time they are going hard, and going early//
    
    12 1
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    February 27, 2022 2:19pm
Cassandra

See Barry Brill’s column on Breaking Views. This former National Cabinet member reviews, among other things, the myopia of Chris Luxon.
10 2
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February 27, 2022 8:53am
- Don Beckett
  
  Yes, I’ll run with Barry – knew him well in our younger days, and I’d take his word every time.
  
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  February 27, 2022 5:49pm
3-coil

Interesting to see that the DomPost has, as of yesterday, abandoned its long-held policy of not publishing letters to the editor from an anonymous/nom-de-plume signee.

Yesterday’s hand scrawled missive from 11yr old “Miles” via “Miles’ mum” is loaded with anti-protest “poo” anecdotes, and bleating that he can’t go fishing (“in the bay”??) and his terrified Thorndon granny can’t pick him up from his decile-10 Thorndon school anymore. The editor obviously saw that poor wee Miles had cannily hit most of the agreed Labour/MSM attack points against the protesters (aka river of filth etc) so deemed it newsworthy.

Thankyou DomPost for walking the talk, supporting Stuff’s drive for more truth and free speech. I look forward to more honest and incisive anonymous DomPost letters, written freely without the author’s fear of public scrutiny or retribution. Perhaps the MSM’s great leap back to honest, objective journalism and the public’s right to free speech has finally begun! Every cloud…
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February 27, 2022 9:00am
mikenmildagain

Did anyone get answers to their questions about what happened to the blog roll, recent comments, etc that used to appear on the right of the page?
12 4
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February 27, 2022 9:06am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

From FB. Wonder if this works?
https://fb.watch/bqgVst3xvv/
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February 27, 2022 9:14am
Fishing in the dark

Why does NZ has the highest R-value for Covid in the world. That’s the price we have to pay for being locked up during the crucial Covid time, try to chase complete virus elimination and the lowest death rate plus vaccination which is actually not vaccination just a treatment for may be avoiding difficult illness.
But by end of day this vaccination even after the third one in 3-4 month you are back to square one.
There is no death occurring out of only the virus, there will be always heavy underlying medical issues, like on a heavy influenza.
NZ Herald is still on a scare trip – Joeli Vidiri tragedy: All Black dies in US after catching Covid-19 on wedding trip – if you read further he suffered on severe underlying medical issues.
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February 27, 2022 9:30am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://thepoliticalinsider.com/trump-unloads-putin-always-wanted-ukraine-but-i-said-you-cant-do-it-predicts-taiwan-next/?
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February 27, 2022 9:41am
- Master Mariner
  
  An interesting insight from Kissinger himself.
  
  “These are principles, not prescriptions. People familiar with the region will know that not all of them will be palatable to all parties. The test is not absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction”
  
  https://www.henryakissinger.com/articles/how-the-ukraine-crisis-ends/
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:56am
- MCōs
  
  According to Trump
  
  ‘On Russia invading Ukraine, Trump said he told Putin, “I said, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not gonna do it.”
  “But I could see that he wanted it,” Trump said. “I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length.” ‘
  
  When these guys get together there is a transcript.
  They can’t just chat like two old codgers at the bowling club.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:40pm
Tasman devil

Michael Wood and Megan Woods…… can’t see the Wood for the Woods.
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February 27, 2022 9:53am
- Master Mariner
  
  Both thick as 2 short planks
  
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  February 27, 2022 2:10pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    ……dumb as a sack of hammers.
    
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    February 27, 2022 5:50pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Candace Owens for Vice President?
Do it!
https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/tim-scott-kristi-noem-and-candace-owens-are-cpac-attendees-top-2024-vice-presidential-candidates-if-trump-runs-again/amp_articleshow/89834476.cms?
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February 27, 2022 10:01am
gump

It’s really sad to see that Joeli Vidiri has died of covid-19 in the USA.

If only there was something that could have given him a chance at surviving the infection. Something like a … vaccine.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/joeli-vidiri-tragedy-all-black-dies-in-us-after-catching-covid-19-on-wedding-trip/WPEIZMWTGOGAU44KJUN4LPHHBY/
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February 27, 2022 10:02am
- Paulus
  
  Did Vindiri not have a very serious Kidney disease ?
  
  [Please, read the link. mod.]
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:51pm
- Cinematic
  
  Not everyone can take the vaccine, some for medical reasons.
  
  6 1
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  February 27, 2022 3:03pm
Maggie Pie

How come you never see Putin wearing a mask?
18 2
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February 27, 2022 10:04am
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  Coz he’s not a pussy?
  
  14 4
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  February 27, 2022 12:42pm
- Bridgenag
  
  Maybe he has the saline jab as well
  
  8 2
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  February 27, 2022 1:19pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    As well as?? Many so called leaders.
    I know who you mean! Do as I say, not as I do.
    
    6 1
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    February 27, 2022 3:26pm
- Nickc2
  
  If you’ve seen the length of the table he sits at during interviews etc, spit doesn’t travel that far.
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/18/italian-craftsman-claims-putins-unique-oversized-table
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:29pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Who needs a mask when you’ve got all the biowar gear?
  
  https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/10/02/thanks-to-covid-19-vladimir-putin-has-become-almost-invisible
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:38pm
Than

This morning I have been intrigued by the urban legend of “the Ghost of Kyiv”. The story goes that a Ukrainian pilot in a MiG-29 shot down 6 Russian fighters, before being downed by a surface-to-air missile.

The highest probability of course is that the story is (essentially) fiction. For a bunch of reasons it’s a pretty unlikely tale.

But that said, unlikely tales do happen. Any individual Medal of Honor or Victoria Cross citation taken without other context would sound pretty improbable. In non-military examples, the idea of a patent-clerk becoming one of the greatest physicists of all time, or Tom Brady / Lebron James achieving what they did would sound equally unlikely.

Specific points;

* A Mig-29 carries 10 air-to-air missiles (several models), plus 150 cannon rounds. Shooting down 6 enemy aircraft with this weapons load is not impossible, but would require a high success rate. (It’s also not impossible that the pilot managed to land and be rearmed / refueled).
* In the most commonly cited version, two of the kills are versus Su-35s. These aircraft are significantly more advanced that the Mig-29. Again, not impossible, but it would mean the Ghost was victorious twice against opponents in much superior aircraft.
* Reports from observers on the ground mean little to nothing. Modern fighters operate high enough you can’t really see much anyway. And in this case both sides are operating the same aircraft types, so there is no way to tell who is who.
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February 27, 2022 10:11am
- Batman
  
  I saw this tale too than and I agree with you that it is most likely a bit of a myth. Though it isn’t totally out of the question if we say it’s maybe 20% exaggerated, then it’s far more likely… And maybe only one Su-35.
  
  But as you say, myths can sometimes be true. And they do have good uses as motivational tools in situations like this.
  
  The Ghost of Kyiv is a pretty great one.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:16am
  - Than
    
    Agreed. The Ghost could be completely made up, perhaps an exaggeration of one pilot’s actions, or combining the achievements of several pilots into one story.
    
    And as you say, even legends can have an impact. How much more nervous do you think Su-35 pilots will be for the next day or so?
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:00pm
  - Jack5
    
    Kyiv …. talked about this on the blog last night, but now that ?Batty’s interested …
    
    It’s always been “Kiev” in the English language, but the Woke or trendy or angry have changed it to “Kyiv” thinking this is the Ukrainian spelling and “Kiev” is the Russian spelling.
    
    Here is the Ukrainian spelling: Київ. Here is the Russian spelling: Киев. Both languages use Cyrillic.
    
    To the tin ears of us native English speakers, the main noticeable difference between the way Ukrainians and Russians pronounce the name of Kiev is Ukrainians seem to end the word with a “v” while Russians seem to end if with an “f.”
    
    But changing the spelling to Kyiv only throws up a challenge: how to pronounce the strange looking dipthong “yi”.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:56pm
John Pakes

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
So what do the numbers say?
Perhaps the recent Change.org petition that gathered 140.000 signatures in a very short time holds an answer.
The message of the petition was ” Tell the Protestors to go home – They are NOT the majority”.
Could it be that the reality is that the Wellington protestors are indeed vastly outnumbered, and are but a fringe minority?
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February 27, 2022 10:15am
- All_on_Red
  
  So what if they are?
  
  36 5
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  February 27, 2022 10:29am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Perhaps another indication that the united response of all parliamentary parties to the protest is based on a broad public consensus.
    They’ve had a say – time to go home.
    
    8 30
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    February 27, 2022 10:35am
    - All_on_Red
      
      The Shelly Bay protesters still there?
      Surely they have made their point by now
      Looks like economic blackmail going on.
      Which is probably worse than hippies camping at Parliament
      
      32 4
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      February 27, 2022 11:44am
      - Nickc2
        
        The Shelly Bay protestors know that if they stick to their reason for being there, this Govt will cede to their wishes. Remember Ihumatao (same Govt)?
        
        31 2
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        February 27, 2022 11:56am
      - John Pakes
        
        The Shelly Bay protestors have basically told the Parliament protestors to piss off.
        
        4 21
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        February 27, 2022 12:48pm
      - Mike
        
        You think the two protests are the same? You don’t think that the scale of disruption means anything?
        
        9 7
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        February 27, 2022 1:02pm
      - Nickc2
        
        John Pakes @12:48PM
        Only because the Parliamentary Protestors have cast shadow on them and their cause.
        
        15 2
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        February 27, 2022 1:13pm
      - virtualmark
        
        How about both the Parliament protestors *and* the Shelly Bay protestors all go home?
        
        3 5
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        February 27, 2022 2:28pm
- Hollyfield
  
  Yeah, minorities don’t deserve to have an opinion. We should get rid of MMP and go back to FPP to ensure minorities don’t have a voice.
  Let’s also tell all minority groups in NZ to go home.
  //
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:37am
- H. Upmann
  
  JP: Oh yes, the sheep are definitely the majority. Everyone knows that.
  
  15 3
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  February 27, 2022 10:40am
- Trev
  
  Yes they are a minority of about 30% (anti mandate) but support for their position is actually growing. I am “vaxxed” and boosted but believe the mandates have outlived their usefulness and should be scrapped. The same for MIQ. Act parties recent pronouncements most accurately reflect my views on Covid measures. IMO Labour has made error after error in their timing of Covid management though with some prompting they got the first lockdown only a little late. A lack of listening to a diversity of experts and alternative non epidemiologist views has cost the country dearly both economically, socially and even medically when all the deaths through missed treatments/diagnosis, suicides (stats not being released recently) Yes our death rate is low but you would expect that with an isolated island nation with low population density. The collateral costs will be with us for years. I look forward to a commission of inquiry to the gvts handling of Covid.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:43am
- Pavel
  
  In a democracy, whilst you govern to the will of the people you also respect the rights of the minorities. That is how a true democracy works.
  There are lots of minorities in this country, gays, non Europeans, Trans, greenies, Muslims etc. Do we just sign a petition and tell them to shut up and go home because their the minority?
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:48am
  - John Pakes
    
    Pavel, I would expect any government to govern to the will of the people, that is true democracy. A Government will listen to the voice of a minority and attempt to accommodate them. This is what happens in New Zealand, but a minority cannot, and should never expect, to be able govern. That is why we elect a government that represents, as near as possible, the majority.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:56pm
    - bjools
      
      and of
      3 waters?
      Maori constituencies on council, mandated over local opposition?
      etc etc
      
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      February 27, 2022 2:44pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      You’re such a hypocrite Pakes
      
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      February 27, 2022 3:02pm
- emmess
  
  No, that petition was promoted by the MSM and boosted by Change.org
  
  On the other hand, this petition grew organically
  https://www.change.org/p/new-zealanders-nz-convoy-2022-show-of-support-anti-mandate-protest
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:08am
  - John Pakes
    
    You are talking bullshit. You can offer no evidence that the petition was promoted by what you call MSM, and it was not boosted by Change.org.
    As an example, Change .org did not place the petition in it’s featured listing.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:59pm
- bythesea
  
  Did your opinion about the “End the illegal mandate” protest change when you found out on Friday that the mandate was illegal?
  
  I mean when you get new information like:
  – vaxed are spreading omicron as much as unvaxed
  – govt is proven to have acted illegally
  
  Do you re-evaluate?
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:09am
  - John Pakes
    
    No, I suggest that you read the court ruling again and come out of your own echo chamber.
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:00pm
    - bythesea
      
      Mandate for police and defense force workers was struck down. Unfair dismissal. Illegal mandate taken contrary to advice. Judge was very dismissive.
      
      Care to say what is missing?
      
      Or are you playing pie segments here
      – its “just” the police and defense force
      
      National and ACT are both saying get rid of the mandates (with different timing).
      
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      February 27, 2022 2:09pm
- GT Build
  
  John you need to remember that this petition was pushed in Wellington where we have mostly jacinda luvies and they don’t like people that show up the idiots that are in government. So much is falling over at moment jacinda and co can’t spin fast enough
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:20am
  - virtualmark
    
    Alternatively … the petition was pushed in Wellington where we have had enough of these protestors blocking roads, causing businesses, schools, universities and public transport to be closed.
    
    I’m good with their right to protest. But they have no right to stop the rest of us going about our legitimate day-to-day business.
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:30pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The protesters have not closed businesses, schools or universities. Management of those institutions have taken those decisions themselves. That might be right or wrong, but “you made me do it” belongs in the playground.
      
      13 1
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      February 27, 2022 3:25pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Tom-ah-toe, tom-ay-toe.
        
        Those institutions are closed because of the actions of the protestors.
        
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        February 27, 2022 4:22pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      You have not been stopped from going about your business.
      Inconvenienced yes, stopped. No.
      
      But thats what Protests do. Inconvenience people.
      Thats why they are Protests.
      
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      February 27, 2022 5:49pm
- Rich Prick
  
  I thought you lefties were right into minority rights? It would seem that a minority must be the correct sort of minority.
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:18pm
  - John Pakes
    
    It has nothing to do with left and right. Are you suggesting that the right do not believe in the rights of a minority? That surely is what the Parliamentary protest is all about?
    
    2 22
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    February 27, 2022 1:04pm
    - Rich Prick
      
      Where did I say that the right doesn’t care for minority rights? Just pointing out the left’s inconsistency.
      
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      February 27, 2022 2:50pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Ironically the position you find yourself in here on KB. Here you are welcome to hold and share your minority view. Some will even read and listen to you.
  
  Yet on the doorstep of our democracy, you suggest our leaders should not engage with the people, you no doubt support the Speaker imposing restrictions on the media engaging with the people, and you advocate they should just go home ie shut up / keep quiet.
  
  Sounds like you are happy to have a dictatorship. Myself I’d prefer debate and representation.
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:39pm
- rouppe
  
  You must realise that 140,000 is also not a majority…
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:36pm
- bronny1
  
  Here’s the thing. I could share a protesters go home petition on fb and get no responses at all. But if I shared a Support the Protesters petition I get all this bullshit form all the woke laptop class friends.
  So I don’t share covid views on studies etc because I’m sick of the ignorant uninformed yet heated and utterly certain they are right responses and bullying eg it’s safe because 8 billion doses have been given. And pandemic of the unvaccinated. Whereas the people who are anti the mandates won’t say anything as like me they have learned not to stick their neck out for bullying.
  
  I suspect I’m not alone in this. Less shares = less signatories.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:39pm
curry4me

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6333851749990369/?multi_permalinks=7186536321388570&notif_id=1645789568469364&notif_t=group_highlights&ref=notif

Auckland, and Christchurch F&R Marches on Saturday.
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February 27, 2022 10:32am
curry4me

https://www.tfrc.org.nz/post/united-non-compliance

Here is what the F&R people want to see happen re mandates, etc.
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February 27, 2022 10:32am
NeverMindTheBollocks

I’m a bit worried about the Police officers at the protest. All that standing around with kilos of gear on their hips can’t be good for their posture. I predict the physio bills will be enormous.

Perhaps they should issue deck chairs, so they can sit down for a bit.
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February 27, 2022 10:33am
curry4me

https://www.facebook.com/ethan.smith.14418101/videos/1554867701552991

Saturday F&R March in Aucklad.

The cops said nobody would be allowed to march over the bridge. However, the organizers had made arrangements before the march. It looks like there were 5,000 people.
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February 27, 2022 10:33am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  5,000 criminals who illegally trespassed onto a motorway.
  
  They’re no better than the cycling psychos who did the same.
  
  Freedoms and rights to be fucking dickheads, more like.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:11am
  - Lee C
    
    Gosh Battyman, I know I ordered flat white, but didn’t expect that much froth.
    
    38 6
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    February 27, 2022 11:55am
    - oldfella
      
      Batty’s running defence on a coupe of fronts today. Must get tiresome, sometimes.
      
      31 4
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      February 27, 2022 12:08pm
    - curry4me
      
      Perhaps the machine was malfunctioning?
      
      12 1
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      February 27, 2022 12:12pm
    - oldfella
      
      [Grow up and move on, final warning. mod.]
      
      1 6
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      February 27, 2022 12:25pm
  - Jimmy Brown
    
    You need to get out more batman.
    
    25 4
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    February 27, 2022 11:57am
    - Biscuit
      
      Jimmy, I’d prefer it if some people just stayed in their bedrooms!
      
      10 2
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      February 27, 2022 1:22pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    So the people pulling down the Berlin Wall were just criminal vandals were they?
    
    I was one of your criminals. Walked into Onepoto Domain yesterday past 10’s of police. Zero communication that what I was about to participate in was illegal, criminal activity. Must have walked past 100 police, said hello to them all and wished them a nice day. Many replied in very happy friendly manner. Zero told me what I was taking part in was an illegal activity. Some actually took masks off, were smiling and giving thumbs up.
    
    Organisers cleared this protest with police. It was not an illegal activity.
    
    #Rightsideofhistory
    
    26 2
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    February 27, 2022 12:46pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    “5,000 criminals who illegally trespassed onto a motorway”
    
    Surely you know that trespassing is a property offence, and not a crime?
    
    19 3
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    February 27, 2022 12:57pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Rodion
      Batman is about 12…
      
      13 1
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      February 27, 2022 3:09pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Sort of like the BLM marchers broke all the laws as well
    Funny the media didnt describe them all as Criminals.
    
    Looking back I cant find your post declaring BLM marchers as criminals?
    Did I miss it?
    
    7 0
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    February 27, 2022 5:52pm
- Surely Knott
  
  Yip. The you can trust us because we have standards to adhere to Herald ran a front page story saying it wasn’t safe, wasn’t supported by police, and protestors would be arrested and blocked from getting on the bridge. Despite the media running a deliberately false story to try and dissuade protestors people turned up in their thousands. And the police were there in mass and supporting the bridge crossing safely. Imagine how many would be there if the media hadn’t threatened the public. As well as the mass turnout , their was overwhelming support from the drivers going the other way with honking, yelling freedom out the window, and thumbs ups etc.
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:11pm
Warren

I am just wondering if we will see a exodus of the Government’s MP’s doing overseas trips on the basis of their portfolio’s before the next Election as our borders open up for International Travel.
I say this because the mood of the voter seems to be changing and suggesting there is every chance we could have a new Government if this trend continues, and then you have Damien O’conner making the same excuses for his continuing trips to Europe and the Middle East, with that he hopes to finalize the UK Free trade agreement and progress a deal with the EU.
This after the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and himself had preached to the public the deal had already been agreed to in principle after his last trip to the UK and was waiting to be confirmed.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/02/25/minister-to-complete-final-steps-of-uk-trade-deal-negotiations/
The taxpayer will be funding more MP’S trips abroad as they wonder how long they will have to wait to remain MP’S in this Labour Government that has lost the plot and many of the people that supported their Leader Jacinda Ardern.
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February 27, 2022 10:46am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Yep,
  The Pollies have been 2 years without their overseas junkets…
  
  They’ll be out of NZ all winter, I’m guessing.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:47am
  - Biscuit
    
    Maggy, it’s been AGES (a couple of months, no?) since Little Jimmy Shaw got to go use 2,500 litres of fuel an hour to take a first-class ride on a tin budgie to the latest climate conference where the rest of us will be told that doing such is a no-no…
    
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    February 27, 2022 1:27pm
- chukar
  
  So long as they stay overseas and don’t comeback please let it happen!
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:52pm
Maggie Pie

Happened to bump into Fleur from tennis at NW before.
(Bitch had the LAST pkt of Pandoro Flatbreads in her trolley)
Anyway, she was telling me they’ve got friends who live in Fenton Circus, which is just round the corner from Gilda’s place.
They’re all quite worried apparently, that when Gilda finally loses interest in the protest and comes back up to Auckland, the type of bogans she might now welcome as visitors to the neighborhood 🙁

https://twitter.com/mattkearns_/status/1497471547728347140

>>>I was telling my partner about it….he said he could just see a line-up of portaloos on the cliff edge at Paratai Dr. LOL!!
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February 27, 2022 10:52am
- MCōs
  
  That chap who got married has a haircut that would be remarkable in your neck of the woods.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:04am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    LOL!!
    What would be even be more remarkable was if his wife played tennis 😀
    
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    February 27, 2022 11:59am
Brian McDonald

Because Germany has set the ball rolling, the West should push on and not be intimidated.
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February 27, 2022 10:55am
- Jack5
  
  The ante is raised …
  
  The West has decided to shut some Russian banks out of the SWIFT payments system, and the United States and European partners also say they will restrict the Russian central bank’s ability to support the rouble.
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:04pm
  - Cinematic
    
    Yes, SWIFT denial will be hugely challenging for those banks.
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:53pm
Maggy Wassilieff

I’ve been following how Iceland has been coping with its Covid cases .. as it seems to have a similar number of deaths from Covid as NZ.

Since March 2020 about a third of Iceland’s population (123,000 cases) has tested positive for covid…and currently there are 61 deaths (most having occurred during the 2020 & 2021 outbreaks – before omicron)

NZ, by contrast, has had 71,000 cases (about 1.5% of the population) and 56 deaths.

I can’t see that NZ is doing brilliantly at saving lives from Covid-19.
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February 27, 2022 11:12am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  NZ does not have 51 cases, the 5 the other day have still to be added to the 56 , making NZ 61 the same as Iceland, don’t know why our deaths lag on the global counter, but perhaps they go to the coroner first
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:17am
- MCōs
  
  Doesn’t matter who you are there’s always someone who’s better/worse.
  
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  February 27, 2022 11:20am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    But that’s not the point…
    
    Our Dear Leader told us that NZ had the lowest number of Covid deaths in the OECD
    
    Our guiding principle for the past two years has been to protect lives, and livelihoods. And that is what we’ve done.
    Our confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths have been the lowest in the OECD for each of the past two years.
    
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/full-text-and-video-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-s-statement-to-parliament-ahead-of-2022.html
    
    Now, if a little old lady stuck in the boondocks can quickly work out that NZ did not have the lowest number of deaths in the OECD from Covid-19, then I would have thought that a highly paid researcher in the PM department’s or the Min. of Health could have also found that information.
    
    In other words… we are being fed a load of bullshit about how wonderfully well our little country is doing.
    
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    February 27, 2022 12:00pm
    - gump
      
      The text you quoted says “the lowest in the OECD for each of the past two years” but the statistics you’re quoting (such as 71,000 cases) are for 2022.
      
      New Zealand did quite well for the last two years. Things have gone pear-shaped in the third year.
      
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      February 27, 2022 12:12pm
      - bjools
        
        Things were going pear shaped before covid.
        
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        February 27, 2022 12:28pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Check out Iceland’s and NZ’s covidmeters and you will see that there were times in 2020 and 2021 when the number of covid deaths in NZ surpassed that of Iceland.
        
        e.g.
        Oct 16 2020 – Iceland 11; NZ 25
        Dec 14 2021 – Iceland 36; NZ 47
        
        https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/iceland/
        
        https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/new-zealand/
        
        Things went pear-shaped in NZ at the start of the pandemic – when we got 25 deaths amongst the elderly in the first few months of the outbreak.
        
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        February 27, 2022 2:07pm
    - Pavel
      
      “Our guiding principle for the past two years has been to protect lives, and livelihoods”. Lives, maybe, but livelihoods no. How many people have not just lost their livelihoods due to the mandates but also all the businesses who have paid a massive price; gone into debt, remortgaged or lost their homes, lost their life savings etc? Many livelihoods have been destroyed. With closed boarders hospitality has been hammered and when their on their knees they get hammered again with the passes and limits. The middle class have paid a massive financial burden for all this and had their livelihoods destroyed. 70% of us were told we are non essential while the rest, including all government employees, never missed a cent. Sweden never locked down, how many livelihoods did that destroy compared to the way Jacinda did things?
      
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      February 27, 2022 12:56pm
Maggie Pie

Our cleaning lady has just tweeted vid of captured Russian soldier. She’s also provided translation….

U: what the f–k are you doing here?
R: we were on a training exercise and ended up here,
U: sure you did we heard that same bullsh*t in august 2014

https://twitter.com/UkraineNews0/status/1497515326283694080

(Poor kid looks about 17 🙁 )
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February 27, 2022 11:21am
Yvette

This morning I dutifully signed in at the supermarket – first name and phone number – and as I did, I thought, “If they fired all the contact tracers on Friday – sending some an utterly insensitive text message at 8.15am when their assumed shift was to start at 9am – so the contact tracers are gone, why the fuck am I doing this?”
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February 27, 2022 11:41am
- Nickc2
  
  That very communicative Ministry of Health eh?
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:04pm
- lifesgood
  
  [Totally OTT & unnecessary. mod.]
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:31pm
gump

I notice that the “But her emails” crowd has gone very quiet lately.

Does it have anything to do with Trump taking classified documents with the highest possible level of security classification when he left office?

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-took-docs-highest-levels-classification-mar-a-lago-wapo-2022-2
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February 27, 2022 11:55am
- All_on_Red
  
  Old attempt to get Trump and thoroughly discredited as a pointless smear
  Do try to keep up
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:12pm
I remember when

BBC News:
Watched segment last night showing an encounter between a Ukrainain women and a Russian soldier.
Basically, the woman was telling the Russian he shouldn’t be there and to go home.
The Russian was politely telling her not to get in the way.
It went on for a few minutes with the woman being very specific and the soldier not quite being sure what to say.
I thought that poor soldier, being made to do what his leader demanded.
That, I thought, must be awful.
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February 27, 2022 11:56am
- gump
  
  The translation of the conversation spoke to her bravery in confronting the soldier.
  
  She told the soldier to carry sunflower seeds in his pockets so that flowers would grow where his body lay on Ukrainian soil.
  
  Sunflowers are the national flower of the Ukraine.
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:16pm
  - Manu-Rau
    
    Actually, Ukraine is an independent country. ‘The Ukraine’ is a province of the former Russian Empire and Serviette Onion.
    
    Only those who support the invasion would call it ‘the Ukraine’.
    
    That said, I acknowledge your point and even uptick you – probably for the first time ever.
    
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    February 27, 2022 2:31pm
    - Biscuit
      
      Indeed, Manu-Rau…
      
      I was in Ukraine some 15 years ago … and using ‘The Ukraine’ for ‘Ukraine’ (or even ‘The Crimea’ for ‘Crimea’) would quickly see you thrown a withering look or 69…
      
      They’re a TAD touchy in this part of the world as as to what name you use to refer to their country. A few years later, in Яussia, people would mention the Яussiдn Federation (and never plain ol’ Яussiд) or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (rather than the Soviet Union).
      
      Such quibbling about your country’s name would never happen in the Republic of Aotearoa, mind!
      
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      February 27, 2022 5:06pm
    - Jack5
      
      Manu-Rau’s ‘The Ukraine’ is a province of the former Russian Empire …
      
      Really? I thought neither the Russian language nor the Ukrainian language had a definite or indefinite article (i.e. the equivalent of “the” or “a”).
      
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      February 27, 2022 9:56pm
Hugh Jarse

Could the media now start playing the “Comrade” speech by our current PM, she must be awfully proud of it now and all New Zealanders need to know what political doctrine she supported only a few short years ago.
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February 27, 2022 12:03pm
I remember when

I was just thinking how lucky we are that we don’t have a personal ID number in New Zealand.
It would be awful, you would feel like the government was controlling you.
Shouldn’t be necessary, now that we have vaccination passports with our name, date of birth and that we may be asked for photo ID.
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February 27, 2022 12:11pm
- bjools
  
  2 things
  Like “Logan’s run” it has an expiry date.
  Be prepared for the tax on sarcasm.
  
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  February 27, 2022 12:25pm
- kevn
  
  Drivers licenses have become the most important card you carry.
  
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  February 27, 2022 2:13pm
- MCōs
  
  You have several ID numbers by other names.
  
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  February 27, 2022 10:24pm
bjools

From one generation to another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY
From protesting a war and the draft (mandated service)
To today’s mandates.
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February 27, 2022 12:19pm
bjools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbmS3tQJ7Os
The very definition of poignant?
Today.
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February 27, 2022 12:23pm
Surely Knott

Friday’s court case “police mandates” hinged on the purpose – “to provide workplace continuity”, and it was overturned because the disease was now endemic, everyone had time to prepare – get vaxxed, hospitals prepare, and that they couldn’t prevent scientific evidence.

“For example, there is no direct evidence of advice from the Director-General, or any other person on the relevant health science issues. Indeed the contemporaneous documents record that the
Minister had received advice that further vaccine mandates were not needed for health reasons. This gives rise to a significant issue as to whether the measure could then be demonstrably justified on health grounds associated with the spread of the virus.”

So what is the purpose of general societal mandates and are they legal. The protection framework bill describes the purpose of the bill as “The purpose of this order is to prevent, and limit the risk of, the outbreak or spread of COVID-19 and to otherwise support the purposes of the Act.”

If the purpose is to “prevent and limit the risk of an outbreak” it has failed and is no longer relevant. The judge already said it is widespread and endemic. We no longer have a zero covid strategy.

The second part of the purpose is limit the spread.
But does it do that. Where is the evidence and the modelling to show that mandates limit spread. And limit the spread how and from whom. There is no document to support this. And again like the Police case, it is endemic and widespread and everyone who wants a vaccine can get one. Is it reasonable to override the bill of rights to limit the spread of an endemic disease. Finally Michael Baker has admitted that was never the purpose at all. It was to nudge for the purpose of vaccination. That is illegal. It has not been tested in court is restricting your civil rights legal to nudge you to take a medical product that doesn’t stop transmission. It is illegal and immoral. #end the mandates.
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February 27, 2022 12:38pm
I remember when

Japan:
Now reporting 68,821 new infections on average each day.
That is 73% of February 9, which was the highest daily.
Daily deaths 220 .
Japan has administered at least 223.8 million doses of covid vaccines so far.
Enough to have vaccinated about 88.6% of population.
They don’t give first/second dose data.

Anyone who doesn’t believe in the necessity of vaccination and then booster doses just isn’t following the science.

What is the science of booster doses during a peak wave, when on days 0-14 they may not give any cover.
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February 27, 2022 12:38pm
- Littletramp
  
  Deaths “with” covid is the key detail you need to know here. In an epedemic, it is feasible that every single person who dies each day could have covid.
  Details matter but they are not being given.
  
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  February 27, 2022 4:50pm
TT500

I’m sure everybody will join me in wishing the newly
weds who were married at the Freedom Village yesterday all the very best for the future.
What a special thrill for us all they chose to have it on OUR front lawn.
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February 27, 2022 12:47pm
- bjools
  
  Remind him, that the only vows he needs to remember are….
  “YES DEAR”
  From a man married for 37 yrs
  
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  February 27, 2022 1:01pm
Rusty

The world moves on from the covid hysteria but we stay in the time capsule of March 2020.

To prove how ridiculous this hysteria from our Govt really is — just look at 130,000 Russians invading the Ukraine.

Neither the Russians or Ukrainians could care or fear less about a flu strain killing them.

But no, we have to scan, wear masks, get a jab, and social distance in public —- what a joke!
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February 27, 2022 1:12pm
Maggie Pie

Here’s a question….

My partner had made an appointment to go through an ‘Open Home’.
It’s not that far from where we live and we’d watched for the last few months as the Developer spent an absolute fortune landscaping the Pool area. My partner was keen to get some pics of the surroundings to pass onto our guy for different planting ideas.
He shot out the back with his camera while I took the ‘guided-tour’ inside.
Anyway, the question I have is…. Is it acceptable for a Real Estate Agent to take a dump in the house just prior to the arrival of potential buyers ?
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February 27, 2022 1:54pm
- kevn
  
  Dump can be unavoidable but ro*ting has been known to happen. At the finish of the open home of course. An Auckland thing.
  
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  February 27, 2022 2:14pm
- Rich Prick
  
  I was wondering where your story was going … didn’t expect that. For clarity, the bathroom was used? It may change my answer.
  
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  February 27, 2022 2:58pm
Yvette

The Police Association says officers who lost their jobs should be allowed to return to work after a High Court Ruling quashed a Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
And a lawyer says the ruling has implications for other employers.
Yesterday the High Court upheld claims that the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for police and defence force staff breached their rights under the Bill of Rights Act.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/covid-19-police-association-wants-unvaccinated-cops-back-on-the-job-after-court-ruling-on-mandates.html

1 – Does resigning in good faith, but because of an illegal mandate, constitute wrongful dismissal and as such require the offer of reinstatement and compensation? – to state the full possibilities, and …

2 – Who is actually responsible for the illegal mandate – politicians or advisors – so, should the opportunity apply, the populace can vote them out?
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February 27, 2022 1:57pm
Mummy

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/127885970/omicron-nz-why-covid19-hospitalisations-may-not-be-clear-cut
Finally after all this time they are admitting that there is a difference between dying with covid and because of it.
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February 27, 2022 2:03pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Megan Woods says that NZ will not be directly affected if Russian oil supply is curtailed by sanctions.

Does she not understand how markets work?

She is dumber than a bag of hammers.
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February 27, 2022 2:06pm
- Biscuit
  
  NMTB, you need to put it into a context Megan would understand.
  
  If the biggest pie factory on the planet goes under, there will be a few immediate effects:
  
  1. The price of spot market pies will increase
  2. That price will stay inflated until such time as either the pie factory in question re-opens or some other pie factory incresees production to cater for, oh, massive pie consumers on the other side of the globe…
  
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  February 27, 2022 5:12pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    1000 upticks 😆
    
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    February 27, 2022 5:56pm
  - MCōs
    
    What she said was that our fuel supply will not be effected.
    Our supply is sourced elsewhere.
    The cost is a different matter. That’s what happens when sanctions are applied.
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:19pm
- curry4me
  
  She’s a socialist politician. Understanding economics would get her cancelled.
  
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  February 27, 2022 5:36pm
Maggy Wassilieff

In the covid daily report we learn that one case has died…and for the first time that I can remember, we are told that the covid-infected person died from an unrelated medical condition.

and one person with Covid-19 has died, from an unrelated medical condition,

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127901041/covid19-one-person-with-covid19-has-died-14941-new-community-cases
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February 27, 2022 2:17pm
- mandk
  
  But this unfortunate person will still be counted as a covid death.
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:11pm
- kevn
  
  Imagine, a young Aussie died of a jelly fish sting.
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:22pm
  - mandk
    
    But was it a covid death?
    
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    February 27, 2022 6:46pm
- graham
  
  Considering this, and Mummy’s post above, is it possible that following two years of people trying to get the full story and the real statistics behind the fear-mongering that we have all been subjected to – and being dismissed as “conspiracy theorists” and generally ridiculed – the media is FINALLY starting to actually do their damn job and look a bit deeper into it themselves?
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:23pm
- bythesea
  
  Such self serving hypocrites aren’t they, the whole lot of them – stuff – public health officials – govt.
  
  The call has gone out to steer the ship the other way.
  wonder how many of the public will notice.
  
  There was a trick they did a couple days ago where they had 5 covid deaths with only one in ICU the day before. “with” for most of those 5 then…
  
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  February 27, 2022 3:31pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

“Tamaki Makarau is home to the South Pacific’s largest Polynesian population….and could soon have it’s first Pacifika mayor”

– stuff

As my partner’s mother just said, “I can hardly f—ing wait”
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February 27, 2022 2:26pm
kevn

Being a young thang, your mil just wants the free bus.
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February 27, 2022 3:21pm
Maggie Pie

Tatiana is a mine of information when it comes to Ukraine.
Luckily her sister has made it to Poland, so she can get back to her regular cleaning schedule.
She was just telling my partner that the West has finally imposed a SWIFT ban on Russia which will deny their banks accessing the vital global financial network and severly damage the economy.

My partner just called his FX guy to… buy USD sell RUB.
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February 27, 2022 3:58pm
- kowtow
  
  The west , so funny .
  
  Deny them banking.
  
  How to pay for all that gas “we” still buy from them .
  
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  February 27, 2022 5:20pm
waikatosinger

If the Queen can have Ivermectin to treat her covid then why can’t I?
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February 27, 2022 4:43pm
- Doc Holliday
  
  Ivermectin? Where on earth did you read such nonsense?
  
  Oh, sorry, have you got worms?
  
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  February 27, 2022 6:52pm
  - Zoomfatigued
    
    About as “Doc” as Dr Seuss….
    
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    February 28, 2022 7:43am
bjools

Been thinking.
This war in Ukraine seems to be looking more and more like the Alamo.
The defenders are making them pay such a price and holding them up. So the rest of the world is preparing so as to stop any further expansion by Putin.
Including other non NATO countries.
I believe that this bravery and fight in the Ukrainians will be a moment of …This far and no further, for the Russians.
The Russians will lose the taste for more.
The rest of those in the region will be better prepared.
However, in the short term tactical advantage belongs to the Russians.
BUT as far as any strategical advantage re this region, he has already lost.
Perhaps over the next 5yrs, Ukraine will have it’s freedom and independence again.
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February 27, 2022 5:05pm
- bjools
  
  I hope/ wish for better.
  
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  February 27, 2022 5:06pm
- Rusty
  
  Hope your right.
  
  What is the fighting mettle of the average Russian soldier?
  
  The Russian army has not engaged in any major military conflict since Afghanistan in the 1980’s.
  
  Contrast that with the US, Britain, and Nato forces in say the last 30 years with the first gulf war, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
  Could the Ukraine become another Afghanistan for Russia — we will see?
  
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  February 27, 2022 7:20pm
  - bjools
    
    Agreed but
    “Could the Ukraine become another Afghanistan for Russia — we will see”
    Unfortunately not, he still has not committed all of his troops.
    He will be more ruthless, opponents will be killed, imprisoned or driven out.
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:07pm
TT500

@ bythesea
100% correct. I liken them to the contents of the
septic tank on my farm. Which ironically i pump
out about every three years.

But have faith ‘ bythesea ‘ I sense a rising tide of
anger amongst the public as the blowtorch starts to be applied
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February 27, 2022 5:12pm
LB

Just got booster, vaccine pass expiry date moved from 30/5/22 to 1/6/22, I got myself a whopping two days of freedom juice, take that mandate haters!
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February 27, 2022 5:42pm
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  Ah yes. Vaccinating our way to freedom sounds like a good plan.
  
  https://gab.com/BeachMilk/posts/107861263244386224
  
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  February 27, 2022 7:17pm
  - LB
    
    This was sarcasm if it wasn’t obvious, my employer will make life difficult if I don’t
    
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    February 27, 2022 8:09pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      The cartoon I linked to is sarcasm-free. Nobody is free when they need to receive regular top-ups of an ineffective vaccine in order to participate in society. In fact, that is bondage, not freedom.
      
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      February 27, 2022 8:49pm
Warren

ChristChurch family being “unhumanely” forced out of our country because 4 year old daughter can’t get residency even though she was born in New Zealand, because she has a disability and her medical bills run into tens of thousand dollars a year.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/02/christchurch-family-being-inhumanely-forced-out-of-country-because-4yo-disabled-daughter-can-t-get-residency.html
This how our kind and caring Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Government treat people that came to New Zealand to help rebuild ChristChurch after the deadly earthquake.
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February 27, 2022 7:43pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  We haven’t heard the end of this one.
  Cindy the saviour will get so much flak over this disgraceful decision that I’m confident that the family will get to stay.
  The child’s medical costs over her limited lifespan will be a drop in the bucket compared to how much our useless Govt. wastes on other shit.
  
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  February 27, 2022 8:39pm
  - MCōs
    
    Here’s a similar case from 2016. It’s not new.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/16/prestigious-academic-to-quit-new-zealand-after-autistic-son-refused-residency
    
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    February 27, 2022 10:08pm
bjools

I see that our media has missed it again.
They are saying that sanctions on Russia,will effect their energy exports, but the White House is saying, that the sanctions are specifically designed NOT to.
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February 27, 2022 11:54pm

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