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March 27, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 27 March 2022

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krazykiwi

Setting aside the hecklers who shouted “Fu*k Trudeau!”, the impeccably coiffured Canadian PM received a warm, convivial welcome at Number 10 Downing Street recently.

I’m guessing he wished he’d stayed there because his subsequent visit to the European Parliament saw this blistering attack by Christina Anderson, a Member of the European Parliament: ”You are a disgrace to any democracy. Please spare us your presence”. The 2 minute fusillade is jolly good, reminding us of Trudeau’s love of CCP authoritarianism because it would make implementing Climate Change policy a doddle.

Along with our very own Ardern, Trudeau has been under the expert tutelage of Heir Schwab of “You’ll own nothing and be happy” fame. The dismembering of liberal democracy by both of these trainee tyrants should see more holding to account of the type meted out by Anderson.
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March 27, 2022 8:09am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Was there any mention of this in our local MSM.
  
  Sorry I don’t watch, listen or read the local MSN.
  
  I am more relaxed and happier because of it.
  
  I am sure if Farange was still in the EU parliament he would have had some fun.
  
  Is our own Tyrant still being dogged by protesters?
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:20am
  - Bridgenag
    
    Nor do I
    
    Rely on this site for sense and debate
    
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    March 27, 2022 8:42am
    - glowworm
      
      Same here.
      
      Life can be tough enough with out having to put up with our established authorities in their plastic ivory towers.
      
      I don’t think they realise just how bad they have become. Or the damage they are inflicting upon our country and citizens.
      
      Tuning-out and with humour are two coping mechanisms. Thanks to those kiwibloggers who do filter and make fun of the bs for us… You are live savers.
      
      As Rodney said yesterday.
      
      Thank God for kiwiblog.
      
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      March 27, 2022 9:21am
  - mogg
    
    Fear not, our own home grown tyrant has one big problem, in that she believes her own publicity.
    She seems to think that by telling us what a wonderful person she is, she will regain her lost support. She really does believe in her team of 5 million crap.
    After her bad attitude towards the protest, eg high handed, condescending, insulting, people no longer see her through the rose tinted specs. All she has left are the Covid hypochondriacs .
    With policy of race based division, gross lack of economic competency, the biggest fall in living standards for more than thirty years, economists predicting rising interest rates for the next two years.
    HMS Ardern has already hit the iceberg and is holed below the waterline, what we are now seeing is a slow motion capsize.
    
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    March 27, 2022 1:21pm
- Master Mariner
  
  And just to reinforce this,
  I suggest people to read this in its entirety.
  https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Reimagining_Regulation_Age_AI_2020.pdf
  An excerpt ,
  
  “As an example, within New Zealand, nationwide
  discussions will have to involve New Zealand’s
  indigenous people, the Māori, and their
  worldview that everything living and non-living is
  interconnected. People act as kaitiaki (guardians)
  to preserve the land and everything on it, including
  intangible items such as data. Building trust and
  gaining social licence within a New Zealand context
  must recognize this Te Ao Māori worldview and
  have Te Tiriti o Waitangi (New Zealand’s founding
  document) and its principles at its heart.17 Having
  different voices and viewpoints in conversations and
  decisions is vital to stop the risk of creating new
  digital divide”
  
  Now you know where this comes from.
  
  The question is who voted for this ?
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:46am
  - pdm
    
    `The question is who voted for this?’
    
    Not mrspdm or I.
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:18am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Nobody voted for this, or the stuff I posted yesterday about NZ commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. I had never seen it until yesterday. I knew Ardern was a fan but had no idea how far down the path she was. She is a totalitarian, globalist lunatic. Agenda 2030 also one of her goals.
    2 years ago if anyone had mentioned this shit to me I would have thought they were nuts. The covid circus has led many of us to research these things and the more we look the more concerning it is.
    None of this is democracy.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:03am
  - Bill Felt
    
    At one with the land?
    
    Extinctions since Māori arrival
    Common name Scientific name Extinction date
    Adzebill Aptornis defossor and Aptornis otidiformis 15th century
    Bush moa Anomalopteryx didiformis 15th century
    Chatham Islands duck Pachyanas chathamica 17th century
    Chatham raven Corvus moriorum 8000 BCE
    Coastal moa Euryapteryx curtus 15th century
    Crested moa Pachyornis australis 1445
    Eastern moa Emeus crassus 15th century
    Eyles’s harrier Circus eylesi 1400s
    Giant moa Dinornis sp. 15th century
    Haast’s eagle Hieraaetus moorei 15th century
    Heavy-footed moa Pachyornis elephantopus 15th century
    Hodgen’s waterhen Gallinula hodgenorum 18th century
    Long-billed wren Dendroscansor decurvirostris 14th century
    New Zealand geese Cnemiornis calcitrans and Cnemiornis gracilis 15th century
    New Zealand owlet-nightjar Aegotheles novazelandiae 13th century
    New Zealand raven Corvus antipodum 16th century
    New Zealand musk duck Biziura delautouri 16th century
    New Zealand swan Cygnus sumnerensis 16th century
    Scarlett’s duck Malacorhynchus scarletti 16th century
    Scarlett’s shearwater Puffinus spelaeus 13th century
    Snipe-rail Capellirallus karamu 13th century
    Stout-legged wren Pachyplichas yaldwyni 11th century
    Upland moa Megalapteryx didinus 15th century
    Waitaha penguin Megadyptes waitaha 14th century[2]
    
    Source: Wikipedia
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:06am
  - Squeek
    
    Good question MM, “who voted for this?” And as well, who considered it was something that taxpayer money should be put towards? Without any obvious vote for this sort of stuff, why should the government have been spending money on it?
    
    Looking through the long list of contributors, on P25 of the WEF paper, I can’t help thinking that this is a gravy train for consultants, self-proclaimed PR experts, and the like. These people seem to be provided taxpayer-funded lifestyles off the back of a range of government funded “narratives”.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:16am
- tf78
  
  Croatia also gave him a good slapping along very similar lines – I thought he was going to cry.
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:53am
- All_on_Red
  
  Others at the EU also had a go.
  Here’s a sample;
  Kolakusic (Croatia) “Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months. We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, that they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes.”
  More;
  “Terhes (Romania) went on to criticize Western leaders more generally. “These imposter leaders of today’s west have brought the world into the chaos we find ourselves in today, precisely because they have strayed from the values that made the ‘west’ a free and prosperous world.” He added, “The departure of western leaders from these values (individual liberty, respect for rights and freedoms, etc.) not only made them lose their moral ascendancy but allowed the rise of tyrants like Putin.” More in the Link
  https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2022/03/24/justin-trudeau-gets-wrecked-after-daring-to-lecture-the-eu-parliament-about-democracy-n1583896
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:21am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Those former eastern bloc leaders would have grown up under communist oppression. Imagine their incredulity at seeing the very liberty and personal agency that freed them from that oppression being deliberately undermined by leaders of the so-called free west.
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:26am
    - glowworm
      
      I don’t suppose Jacinda Ardern will be visiting the EU anytime soon?!
      
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      March 27, 2022 9:42am
      - Matt Long
        
        The Wellington protests were I’m told not international news, Russia’s invasion swamped the government crackdown.
        
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        March 27, 2022 11:50am
      - Vory v zakone
        
        Hmm. I understand St Cindy will be making a trip to The Hague in the coming months 🤔
        
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        March 27, 2022 11:47pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Seen it on Fox, she told him at the end, do us a favour and don’t bother us either you’re presence, harsh, even for a vulgar socialist
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:39am
Paulus

See Goff has reveald that he is our new Ambassador to London – what he always wanted.
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March 27, 2022 8:15am
- krazykiwi
  
  Winston will be pissed. (Actually he is usually pissed.)
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:43am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Nice touch, kk.
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:58am
  - DeepBlue
    
    The US posting is still available and I suggest Winston will get this quick smart. The post becomes vacant this year and Jacinda will want Winston out of NZFirst Social Media and leadership pronto.
    
    Winston is giving Jacinda a real kicking.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:22am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Winston joined your protest KK, until he worked what a deadbeat you are who couldn’t control a kindergarten. I know tossing turds was your greatest hour but it put old Winnie off.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:25am
    - glowworm
      
      Thank you for sharing your wisdom, knowledge and life experiences with us all Brian – and for treating us with respect.
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:04pm
      - David Garrett
        
        You expect to be treated with respect – by that murderous POS?
        
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        March 27, 2022 3:52pm
    - Manu-Rau
      
      Sorry, but I’m not really interested in the opinions of a murderer.
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:13pm
      - Homas
        
        I had no idea. Quite a nasty habit he has there. You’d think he’d just keep under his rock with a track record like that.
        
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        March 27, 2022 3:35pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Your usual nasty comment Brian. You are indeed the nastiest prick on this blog.
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:13pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Give it up. Seriously. Just give it up. Nothing you say contributes anything to anyone on this planet. Not a single word. You contribute nothing. You are a completely worthless waste of oxygen.
      
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      March 27, 2022 11:33pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Looks like he is not going to stand in Tauranga, they reckon they will put up the fat controller up
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:40am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    And Trevor
    
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    March 27, 2022 7:32pm
- Bridgenag
  
  Does that mean all those jobs will be filled by the woke?………………..sigh
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:44am
- Nickc2
  
  Look at the shit hole he’s left Akld in. He makes Rotorua’s Steve Chadwick look like an amateur.
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:46am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Like Ardern as PM, Goff and the Auckland Mayoralty was nothing but a stepping stone in the CV. They had a career path long ago mapped out that had nothing to do with helping to make NZ a better place.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:05am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    In the Private Sector he would have been sacked long ago
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:38am
    - Nickc2
      
      It’d take a brave employer to even consider him.
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:16pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Tapsell the right of Rotarua council may well end up with a platform if she moves to Tauranga, hope she does, snd that will be a slap in the face for the vulgar left that say no Māori in Nats
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:42am
  - Matt Long
    
    Brown, Goff, who next? Auckland has a definite masochistic streak.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:53am
- pdm
  
  Paulus – he may not get it now that he has upstaged Ardern and Mahuta on the announcement about the announcement of the announcement that will follow.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:20am
  - Nickc2
    
    Hasn’t Winston been offered Ambassadorship to the USA, or was it as NZ’s representative to the UN?
    BTW, what’s Winston’s BFF Condi Rice up to these days? I’m sure Winston knows.
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:54am
  - Bridgenag
    
    Ardernity at its best!
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:37am
- ecco
  
  Oookkk I thought I read on kb that someone said he ran as an independent for the Auckland mayoralty and that he wasn’t holding out for a cushy ambassadorship. Clearly an inaccurate statement. He has and always will be labour through and through.
  
  Here’s the post made on 17/11/21 on GD:
  
  “That’s all conspiracy theory nonsense.
  
  We all know that Goff is an independent – he has nothing to do with Labour anymore.
  Thumb up 18 Thumb down 6REPLY REPORTNOVEMBER 17, 2021 9:37AM”
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:40am
- Tony Stuart
  
  With the exception of the period 1990-1993 (after he was defeated by Gilbert Myles!), Goff has occupied a seat at the public trough almost non-stop since 1984. Now the taxpayer will support his lifestyle yet again, and what a lifestyle it will be in London. You can almost guarantee that he’ll get a knighthood before he goes as well.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:14am
- crikey
  
  If true, he had better prepare himself for a short stay. A National/ACT government post-2023 election ought to be replacing him as quickly as possible. I wonder who they would put up.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:32am
  - DeepBlue
    
    Maybe someone who has become recently unemployed and is looking to share his wife’s UK cultural values with his young family.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:25am
Scott

The thoughts of Joe Biden speaking recently –

“And one of the things that I take some solace from is: I don’t think you’ll find any European leader who thinks that I am not up to the job. And I mean that sincerely. It’s not like, “Whoa…” It’s that — that —

The point is that when — the first G7 meeting I attended, like the one I did today, was in Great Britain. And I sat down, and I said, “America is back.” And one of the — one of my counterparts, colleagues, a head of state, said, “For how long?” “For how long?”

And so, I don’t blame — I don’t — I don’t criticize anybody for asking that question. But the next election, I’d be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me.”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/got-half-a-mind-to-ramble.php

The man generates a word salad and barely knows where he is. Sometimes he doesn’t even know that!
That the media continue to maintain this guy is onto it and capable of fulfilling the office of president of the United States is a shame on them. The emperor has no clothes.
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March 27, 2022 8:16am
- G152
  
  One might say he’s been trumped
  ROTFLMAO
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:41am
- mikenmildagain
  
  But has he bragged about ‘passing’ his dementia test yet?
  “Person, man, woman, camera, TV”
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:11am
- kowtow
  
  He also garbled some crap to the 82 nd Airborne , implying they’d see things in Ukraine . WH had to scramble to clear up he wasn’t sending in the paras .
  
  What a tool.
  
  Oh , was that covered by our msm . Nope . Now had itta been Orange Man Bad .
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Worse than that, he told his troops who are to be based in the NATO states that it won’t be long until they are on Ukrainian foil, a complete notch up, please hod don’t let Peters stand in Tauranga, he is as brain dead
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:47am
    - krazykiwi
      
      And now he’s advocating a regime change. From The Telegraph
      
      Chaos as Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin ‘cannot remain in power’. US policy in disarray as White House is forced to row back president’s call for Russian leader to be removed
      
      Joe Biden appeared to call for regime change in Russia, as he said that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” in a highly charged speech in Warsaw.
      
      “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” the US president said, as he urged democracies around the world to unite against the Russian president in a speech in Poland’s capital littered with historical references to war in Europe.
      
      The Kremlin issued a furious response, as critics accused Mr Biden of playing into Putin’s hands.
      
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      March 27, 2022 3:02pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Cacklin’ Kamala is a word salad guru too. This is from her visit to Poland
  ““I am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms of the eastern flank and our NATO allies, and what is at stake at this very moment, what is at stake this very moment are some of the guiding principles,” Harris said.
  
  I see Joe misspoke when he visited the 82nd Airborne in Poland. He told them they were going to Ukraine- whoops.
  Poor Psaki Hack had to walk that one back.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:28am
  - pdm
    
    Red – then there is the NewstalkZB newsreader at 8am talking about some place called Pole Land.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:19am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Cackling Kamila, and cacking Joe
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:48am
- Inandout
  
  Scott, yet we still get sanitised sound bites on radio where he sounds mostly lucid. Then go to streaming and OMG the man is a bumbling wreck telling a room full of military staff he will have US troops in the Ukraine. The WH goes into panic mode…no, no there will be no US troops in the Ukraine. How long can this continue?
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:29am
  - Phronesis
    
    His latest is to go off script and call for regime change in Russia, which is de facto calling for Putins assassination. I think Putin will seriously consider offing Biden for that but conclude that Biden is far more of a liability to the West than he is to Putin.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:41am
    - oldfella
      
      Phronesis: Joe is a nightmare for his handlers…
      White House Rushes To Clean Up Disastrous Remarks Biden Made About Putin During Speech
      https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-rushes-to-clean-up-disastrous-remarks-biden-made-about-putin-during-speech
      
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      March 27, 2022 11:55am
    - Mike
      
      US backing for ‘regime change’ should be confined to the third world. Speaking of the third world, what is the term for former members of the ‘second world’, like Russia, that will never count as liberal democracies but have not yet declined to third world status?
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:32pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        Fascist.
        
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        March 27, 2022 5:50pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    How long can this continue?
    
    Barring some kind of sudden tragedy, until 12 noon on Monday, 20 January, 2025. That’s how the system works. (Remember Reagan, and the scrambling that went on in the White House following many of his statements, particularly during his second term?)
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:00am
    - Nukuleka
      
      Well, yes but at least Reagan was well into his 2nd term before the early onset of dementia became apparent. It was obvious even during Biden’s campaign, before he was elected, that his mental capacity had weakened. Let’s list the achievements of Reagan, one of the 20th century’s greatest Presidents, alongside those of Joe Biden. Mmmmm……
      
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      March 27, 2022 11:12am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Well, yes, and Reagan was just short of 74 at the beginning of his second term; Biden was 78 at his inauguration.
        
        Clearly, Biden was not as sharp as we would all have liked during the 2020 campaign, but so what? The People got what a majority of them (51.26%) voted for, if only to rid themselves of Trump.
        
        I was responding to Inny’s question. You will note that I did not say, “[…], until at least Monday, 20 January, 2025.” That was because I think a second-term is actually (not, almost certainly) beyond Biden’s reach.
        
        A comparison of the achievements of Reagan, after eight years, and Biden, after one year, is irrelevant.
        
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        March 27, 2022 11:57am
      - David Garrett
        
        Nuku: Yes, Reagan is seen as one of the best presidents of the 20th Century…now, and with 30 odd years of hindsight.
        
        I was a student during his presidency, and he was widely seen as a joke. And talking of hindsight, I read a most interesting book on Nixon recently. In true Shakespearean fashion, the good that he did is interred with his bones; the evil – such as it was – lives on.
        
        Look at what he achieved: Detente with the USSR and the first SALT Treaty; opening up relations with “Red China”; getting the Yanks out of the quagmire that was Vietnam.
        
        And something else I hadn’t appreciated at all: it wasn’t just his paranoia; the eastern establishment – and the Washington Post – really were out to get him.
        
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        March 27, 2022 4:01pm
      - Mike
        
        Nixon ‘got the Yanks out of Vietnam’. Well sure, after he colluded with a foreign government to sabotage the peace talks in 1968, escalated the war, and invaded Cambodia. But if you ovetlook those trifles, his record on Vietnam looks great.
        
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        March 27, 2022 4:25pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Mikey Boy: How much do you know about Vietnam? Let’s say from 1945 on…By time Nixon was doing things he shouldn’t have it had already destroyed one President – Johnson – and may well have destroyed Kennedy’s presidency if he had lived.
        
        Realpolitik is not like meetings of your local LEC … it’s the real world, where things are almost always shades of grey, and things are very rarely simple.
        
        Here’s a good example: Churchill reluctantly sank the French fleet in 1940 – killing about 1400 sailors IIRC – because the Frogs had turned down the three alternatives given to them, and he couldn’t run the risk of the ships falling into Adolf’s hands. Messy, involved loss of lots of lives who had been allies a few short months earlier. Even worse than what happened in Cambodia and Laos
        
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        March 27, 2022 6:17pm
      - Mike
        
        Oh dear, David, please explain how the deaths of 1400 French sailors was ‘even worse’ than the many, many thousands of deaths caused by Nixon prolonging the Vietnam War.
        Are you sure that you studied history at university?
        
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        March 27, 2022 6:43pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @David Garrett @ 6:17PM
        
        […] – and may well have destroyed Kennedy’s presidency if he had lived.
        
        Almost certainly not so, David.
        
        One of the reasons why JFK was assassinated, was because he was close to announcing a withdrawal of US personnel from Vietnam.
        
        See JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters (2008), by James W. Douglass, Chronology, p. xxv, May 6, 1963: “[At a conference on Vietnam at Camp Smith, Hawaii, Defence Secretary McNamara] orders that concrete plans be drawn up for withdrawing one thousand U.S. military personnel from South Vietnam by the end of 1963[.], and p. xxviii, October 11, 1963: President Kennedy issues National Security Action Memorandum 263, making official government policy the withdrawal from Vietnam of 1,000 U.S. military personal by the end of 1963” and “by the end of 1965 … the bulk of U.S. personnel.”
        
        For more, see Chapter 3, “JFK and Vietnam”, including, on p. 134, “JFK’s now more extended hope was that, after the Diem government’s inevitable fall, he would then be able to ‘put a government in there that will ask us to leave[.]’”, and Chapter 4 “Marked Out for Assassination”.
        
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        March 27, 2022 7:12pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Ah…the French had been allied to Britain Mikey boy…the Cambodians were never the Yanks’ ally…secondly life was and still is considered to be cheap in the steamy tropics…if you know anything about Vietnam you ought to know that Westmoreland’s obsession with the “body count” entirely missed that point….even after the North Vietnamese, at the Paris peace talks, explicitly told the Yanks that it didn’t matter to them whether the war lasted 10 years or 20 or 30…their little brown guerillas who had seen the French off at Dien Bien Phu would just keep on coming.
        
        Have you ever lived outside New Zild Milky? Perhaps an 18 month OE to the UK?
        
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        March 27, 2022 9:32pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Steve
        An entertaining fantasy. I wouldn’t have picked you for an assassination theory buff. Please also do RFK, MLK and Marilyn Monroe for me.
        
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        March 28, 2022 7:18am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        David
        Always nice to see your racism out in the open: brown lives are ‘cheap’.
        And yes, the French were allied with the British, till they surrendered. You might ask if that prior status meant much to the relatives of the Aussie soldiers killed in Syria or the British sailors killed at Dakar. Anyway, as I’m sure you would agree: ‘wogs begin at Calais’.
        
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        March 28, 2022 7:23am
      - Steve Todd
        
        mikenmildagain: It surprises me that you appear to accept the notion that a “lone nut” murdered Kennedy, end of. I wonder how much reading on the subject you have done over the years. I’ve done heaps, starting about five or six years after it happened.
        
        In addition to JFK and the Unspeakable, you should also read, for example, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, Revised and Updated Edition (2013), by Jim Marrs. A brilliant book.
        
        As for Marilyn Monroe; no conspiracy there. Have you read “Marilyn Monroe: The Biography” (1993), by Donald Spoto? Another brilliant book. She definitely died of an accidental overdose.
        
        I have not read enough about the RFK and MLK murders to form an opinion as to the circumstances surrounding their murders.
        
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        March 28, 2022 9:26am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      He’ll be impeached after midterms next year (when Dems will lose Senate and Congressl if he doesn’t resign first. His corruption won’t be permitted to be swept aside
      
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      March 27, 2022 11:30am
      - Steve Todd
        
        As I said to Inny at GD on Thursday 24, the Republicans will not have 67 Senate seats after the mid-terms. Therefore, absent actual court convictions, neither Biden nor Harris will be (democratically) removed from office before 20 January 2025.
        
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        March 27, 2022 12:16pm
      - Inandout
        
        UN, given Joe’s serious mental decline it would be cruel to wheel him out until 2024. In any case, well before the Mid Terms the FBI will have enough on Hunter to indict him and Joe will be obliged to stand down. There are certain things that even the FBI cannot ignore and that is corruption involving anyone in the President’s immediate family. It seems inconcievable that those that administer the WH would turn a blind eye to blatant charges of back handers being recieved by the Biden family.
        
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        March 27, 2022 2:33pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @Inandout @ 2:33PM
        
        There would need to be a fairly rapid, noticeable, mental decline (beyond what we see now), before the vice president started the process of invoking the provisions of Amendment XXV, Section 4. For now, the president will be protected, just as Reagan’s inner circle (and Nancy) protected him.
        
        The yet-to-be proved corruption by someone “in the President’s immediate family”, i.e., by Hunter, occurred prior to the president taking office. Over the years, “[t]hose [who] administer the WH” have turned a blind eye to far worse than anything he might eventually be accused of.
        
        My prediction: Biden will leave office on 20 January, 2025.
        
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        March 27, 2022 4:05pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Well, the vulgar media keeps coving this shambles up, just like here, with Arderns total failure on all topics
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:50am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  It’s a simple choice Scott, he’s not in Putin’s pocket like dear Donald whose real phrase should have been making the USSR great again! He did his best however but he got robbed the last election according to, well…. him and a few tragics.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:21am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    TDS is everywhere these days. Putin would never have done this if Trump was still POTUS.
    #TRUMP 2024
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:42am
  - Nickc2
    
    Isn’t the Internet available under your rock Brian?
    
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    March 27, 2022 1:23pm
  - leoj
    
    You might want to wish that your safe place (under a rock) is comfy in Nov of 24.
    
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    March 27, 2022 3:23pm
  - Homas
    
    Those who assert a puppet/master relationship between Trump and Putin possess not only a febrile gullibility, but also (based on the timing of the panzer holiday currently at issue) a poor understanding of puppetry.
    
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    March 27, 2022 3:54pm
- virtualmark
  
  Scott, I think Biden is too old to be President, and he isn’t a great speaker.
  
  But two things.
  
  First, I can’t argue with his sentiment that Putin needs to be removed. Perhaps not politic to say it out loud. Perhaps better to say something like “Russia will remain a pariah state for as long as Putin is its leader”. But it’s actually a bit refreshing to hear a world leader say the truth and stand up for his values.
  
  Second, Trump is also too old to be President, and even worse as a speaker. Here’s a quote from today:
  
  “Energy is so expensive today. A gallon? You take a look at your, forget about it. The pump. You take a look at a barrel now. It will be two dollars. It could be, people are saying it’s going to go up to three— Think of this, people are saying…”
  
  And here’s one from earlier in the week when asked explicitly what he would do re Ukraine:
  
  “Well, what I would do, is I would – we would – we have tremendous military capability. And what we can do without planes, to be honest with you … without 44 year old jets … what we can do is enormous, and we should be doing it, and we should be helping them to survive and they’re doing an amazing job”.
  
  I think there’s a valid argument for age limits on politicians. (Don’t get me started on Feinstein and Grassley).
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:15pm
  - Mike
    
    It never fails to amaze me that anyone can think either of those geriatrics are of sound mind.
    
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    March 27, 2022 6:14pm
- Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
  
  president Houseplant
  
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  March 27, 2022 5:47pm
artemisia

Is there any ongoing and comprehensive published review of projects funded from the PGF or other investments by the government in recent times including the covid relief fund? Time to time a few of these are mentioned publicly, sometimes not in a good way. It would be helpful if responsible Ministers produced a regular summary view of all their projects, their status, the funding arrangements, the outcomes and including reports if any.

A huge amount of taxpayer money has been spent on many many projects and it would be good for taxpayers to know the funding was not spray and walk away.

Written questions look like a good initial avenue, perhaps supplemented by OIA requests to departments for further detail. And a good idea to have a single web page with summaries and links, updated on say a quarterly basis. Seems to me an Opposition coordinated approach to requests and their publication would be useful and not be too hard to achieve, as most of the work has (should have) been done by Ministers and their staff.
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March 27, 2022 8:17am
- tf78
  
  It makes you wonder what the Auditor General is actually paid for.
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:54am
  - Phronesis
    
    I have a friend in the AG’s office. They actually have a pretty good idea of what is going on but are regularly warned not to dig too deep by their leadership. The higher levels of the public service are effectively Labour MP’s but with better pay and job security.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:47am
- Nickc2
  
  Remind me again how much money was given to Jones to spend how he liked and what we Taxpayers got for it.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:36am
  - artemisia
    
    What taxpayers got will be in stark relief in a summary of projects with, in very large font, Outcomes achieved YES / NO.
    
    Bring it on.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:47am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I think 1M pine seedling were destroyed because there was nowhere to plant them, could be wrong.
    Another great Labour achievement
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:44am
    - chukar
      
      The changes to the ETS could mean exotics ( including conifers) are no longer the flavour of the month.
      Low performance indigenous forests well now that will be different!
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:52pm
- pdm
  
  ` It would be helpful if responsible Ministers produced a regular summary view of all their projects, their status, the funding arrangements, the outcomes and including reports if any. ‘
  
  Art, Arty, Arty, you cannot expect them to do that because to do all of that requires openness, honesty and transparency.
  
  All of which are totally foreign concepts to Ministers in the current government.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:44am
- Albert_Ross
  
  There’s a Excel spreadsheet listing all the projects which you can download at https://www.growregions.govt.nz/established-funds/what-we-have-funded/
  
  2,134 projects are listed but thanks to Excel technology it’s easy enough to add up the totals. It shows that they have so far committed nearly $4.4 billion dollars with the result that just over 134 net new jobs have been created. No details are given that would enable us to judge how many of those jobs have created the $33 million, each, of additional public value that would justify their creation.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:45am
  - artemisia
    
    Thanks Albert_Ross, who knew? That is a lot of taxpayer money.
    
    So there is a good basis to unlock some simple red/amber/green reporting so there can be targeted focus. Like where is the risk management plan for red and amber. Did ‘green’ and Completed meet the required outcomes before being closed down.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:05am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      … assuming that “required outcomes” were ever actually identified in SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) terms for any of the 2000+ projects, other than “create jobs” which is at least reasonably measurable but hopelessly distortive and unhelpful as a target outcome. (If you want to create jobs, ban motorized diggers and require that earthworks be undertaken only with the use of shovels or better yet, plastic spoons.) That information is not given on the referenced website. You might have thought there would be a link from each line of the spreadsheet to a more detailed business case or at least a summary, but how foolish and naive that would have been.
      
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      March 27, 2022 5:23pm
Matt Long

https://www.foxnews.com/us/colorado-14m-protesters-police-denver-demonstrations
Mostly peaceful BLM protesters awarded big payout in Denver.
These protests were different to the ones in Wellington in that protesters attacked the police first and were destroying and vandalizing property and it was led by Marxists.
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March 27, 2022 8:29am
Tomtoddy

For sheer uselessness and incompetence our PM and Ministers would be very hard to beat but the woman who is a shaky heart beat away from being the most powerful leader in the free world is putting up a good struggle to fence them off. Listen to half a minute of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DvAmoMGK80 and dont stop too long to think of the consequences of old Joe carking.
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March 27, 2022 8:40am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I remember a chat, in October 1976, with an American on who he would vote for. He said “the peanut farmer”, as his running mate was so far ahead of the other contender’s running mate.
  I think that Trump should have given more attention to that fact in November 2020.
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:59am
artemisia

I hope Mr Waititi MP has a read of the article in Stuff today about Xero – its rise and rise*. And let the enterprises he wants to cancel Xero know what they would be missing. And where Mr Drury gets his ability to fund the causes he chooses.

*Share price not so much in recent weeks but likely to recover as new customers are added every day and annual recurring revenue just keeps increasing.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/the-monitor/127849170/xero-the-15b-wellington-startup-that-revolutionised-global-accounting
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March 27, 2022 8:43am
- Nickc2
  
  If Xero produced Video Games, I’m sure Waititi’s remarks would favour Rod Drury.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:11am
- Yvette
  
  Rawiri Waititi MP @Rawiri_Waititi
  Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti organisation out there that use Xero products its time to send them back! Rod Drury Xero founder donated a huge sum towards the ACT party to actively campaign against Māori and to solidify White Supremacy in this country.
  
  1 – Are “Tangata Whenua” and “Tangata Tiriti” both racially loaded terms for “Maori”?
  2 – Is the “connection” to Xerox misinformation, debunked by – https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/03/maori_party_try_to_cancel_xero.html and https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/david-seymour-defends-xero-founder-rod-drury-after-national-m-ori-authority-chair-matthew-tukaki-calls-for-product-boycott-over-act-donation.html
  3 – “its time to send them back!” is direct incitement to action that is misguided by mis-information that is racial in motivation
  4 – “to actively campaign against Māori” – racist assumption, unless there is evidence referencing the purpose of the donation
  5 – “and to solidify White Supremacy” – see 5
  6 – “and to solidify White Supremacy” – slandering of ACT
  
  Why “hate speech” laws have not been delivered
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:38am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The funniest thing of the lot , it sounds like Drury is Māori
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:53am
Charmaine Hawke

I see Cat Paws passed away yesterday. What ever else you may think it is a sad day for those who loved her.
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March 27, 2022 8:49am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think her surname is: Pausé
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:24am
  - Charmaine Hawke
    
    Whoops should have checked, my bad
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:31am
  - David Garrett
    
    Maggy: Well it’s – or was – Pause (don’t know how to add the accute accent) but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t her given name.
    
    And I’m sorry, but I just don’t “get” the solemn words over this morbidly obese individual dying young. The risk of same is precisely why that level of obesity is called morbid.
    
    Just the other we here were mocking both her and the pink haired one – now because an utterly predictable early death has happened we are supposed to get all respectful and solemn? Sorry, but no.
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:48am
    - David Garrett
      
      …and just another reminder: just the other day several commenters made the excellent point that the late Ms Pause was doing kids a grave disservice by trying to normalize morbid obesity. Fat kids grow up to be fat adults, and many of said kids will inevitably follow this woman into an early grave if they end up as obese as she was.
      
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      March 27, 2022 9:53am
      - Inandout
        
        DG, spot on there. Morbid obesity is akin to heavy cigarette smoking so far as its effects on health and normalising extreme fatness is very much like saying ‘it is ok to be a smoker’.
        
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        March 27, 2022 10:46am
      - andrew davies
        
        And require a lot of health care dollars along the way.
        
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        March 27, 2022 10:51am
      - Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
        
        sudden death is being normalized. Google leading cause of death in 2030.
        
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        March 27, 2022 5:53pm
    - Matt Long
      
      On Android hold down the e key until you get é.
      
      11 2
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      March 27, 2022 9:55am
      - David Garrett
        
        Matt: I don’t use a phone to “access” KB…I use a PC. Can this be done using a computer not a phone? ( I just tried holding down the “e” key and got eeeeeeeeeeeee)
        
        21 2
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        March 27, 2022 10:01am
      - Steve Todd
        
        David: for é, hold down the Alt key and type 130; for É, hold down the Alt key and type 144.
        
        6 0
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        March 27, 2022 2:20pm
      - RdM
        
        David: Bookmark this:
        https://www.alt-codes.net/
        
        (These are Alt codes for Windows, not sure about Mac – possibly the Option key? But you can copy and paste from that page as well.)
        
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        March 27, 2022 2:37pm
      - glowworm
        
        Õh, thìß ís rēàlly çool, çhëērß
        
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        March 27, 2022 11:17pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      David, I guess because it’s not about her immediately after death but those who were close to her. We can give them a break to grieve before recalling her fruitcake delusions.
      
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      March 27, 2022 10:03am
      - David Garrett
        
        Alan: Fair enough…but I very much doubt any of the late Ms Pause’s loved ones are on here.
        
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        March 27, 2022 10:23am
      - Media hater
        
        How are her nearest and dearest going to feel now after you refer to her ‘fruitcake delusions’. Give them room to grieve, bro!
        
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        March 27, 2022 1:59pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        @MH, I’m sure they will silently agree – after all there but for sanity go you or I.
        
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        March 27, 2022 5:58pm
    - MarkF
      
      DG. On a PC hold down the “Alt” and the 0233
      
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      March 27, 2022 10:17am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Her Given name was:
      Caitlin Jeffrey Pausé
      
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      March 27, 2022 10:19am
      - David Garrett
        
        Maggy: OK…the my assumption – that it was an entirely adopted name was wrong…as assumptions often are.
        
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        March 27, 2022 10:21am
    - Flossie
      
      Don’t so many people turn in to virtual saints once they have died. Particularly if they die at an early age.
      The best funerals I have been to talk of the deceased as they actually were, warts and all. Not disrespectful, just honestly.
      
      12 1
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      March 27, 2022 11:31am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I try and avoid funerals… however, I thought I’d better put in an appearance at my Ph.D supervisor’s send-off.
        
        After about the 4th-5th speaker, I was strongly suspecting that I’d crashed the wrong do….until the final speaker who had only known Ross for a short time, and had accompanied him on his last overseas trip.
        Ross had told her that he needed a bit of assistance when negotiating steps and carrying bags, but apart from that was independent….
        She believed him….and spent the entire trip catering for his many fantasies that he was still physically capable of getting about.
        
        I finally recognised that I was at the correct funeral service.
        
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        March 27, 2022 4:42pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      Here are some options for ē, é etc.
      
      https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/type-accents-on-windows-10/
      
      5 0
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      March 27, 2022 11:37am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      My issue with DPF’s post revelations was not about the sadly departed Dr Cat Pause. It was astonishment that a New Zealand University can have a department of “Fat Studies” and that people can acquire degrees in fat studies, including PhDs.
      
      That is downright absurd. The world of New Zealand universities must have changed while I was not looking.
      
      And let’s face it – a degree from Massey in fat studies qualifies you for one occupation – teaching fat studies.
      
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      March 27, 2022 1:36pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Benedict: Quite so…but it’s not just Massey, or even NZ unis in general.
        
        I met a bloke in Tonga who was a graduate of some perfectly respectable uni in England. His degree was in “purchasing”…yep, that’s right, a degree in buying things.
        
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        March 27, 2022 2:06pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        We discussed that at home this morning. A degree in fat studies is as bad as a degree in smoking or a degree in drinking alcohol. The worrying thing is it might actually encourage some people to try and achieve in their chosen field. Be the “best” fat person, smoker, alcoholic, drug user etc. Creating an academic career path in these things is sending all the wrong signals.
        A bit like having a degree in politics and/or public relations. Now who do we all know who has a degree in both subjects Brenda????
        
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        March 27, 2022 11:56pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Death is as sad as it is inevitable.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:15am
- Homas
  
  I was wondering how long the legacy media were going to just ignore the mockery Crowder made of the whole fat studies sham – but now I wouldn’t put it past them to turn it into the latest front in the “hate speech” censorship campaign.
  
  No doubt we’ll be hearing she passed away due to an acute rupture of the stigmal gland.
  
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  March 27, 2022 1:04pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Homas: and don’t forget “glands” in general, upon which fatties used to explain away their obesity.
    
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    March 27, 2022 2:02pm
- Joely Doe
  
  One way to distract from the Crowder YouTube infamy. Even got DPF to take down the post…
  That’s taking one for the team!
  
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  March 27, 2022 4:22pm
Tom Hunter

Yesterday this WaPo cartoon was linked here at KB, together with praise about the guy being the “best political cartoonist in the world.”

Since my response sat for about four hours I’ll put it here again.

Good appellate judges faithfully follow the Supreme Court; great ones influence and help steer it. Several of Judge Kavanaugh’s most important ideas and arguments — such as his powerful defense of presidential authority to oversee federal bureaucrats and his skepticism about newfangled attacks on the property rights of criminal defendants — have found their way into Supreme Court opinions.

It really does not get more influential than that, while I see no evidence that the same can be said of Jackson, in complete contrast to that nasty little cartoon.

BTW, before you go apeshit about such “partisan” defences of Kavanaugh, observe that this is from DPF’s post of 2018, A Liberal’s Case for Brett Kavanaugh, and that the praise comes from Akhil Reed Amar, a professor at Yale Law School and constitutional law expert who has himself been cited by the Supreme Court in over 30 cases or as DPF said of him: “one of the rock stars of US constitutional law.”

Not to mention being a solid supporter of the likes of Obama and Hillary Clinton – and likely a Biden voter in 2020 as well.
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March 27, 2022 8:53am
- mikenmildagain
  
  But does Akhil Reed Amar like beer? Everyone knows what Kavanaugh’s legacy will be.
  Just joking, Tom. I know you love a little joke at the expense of your own tribe once in a while.
  But they are quite the spectacle, those senate hearings, aren’t they? I found out the other day that until 1916 the senate didn’t even hold hearings for supreme court nominees. And a nominee didn’t have to appear at a confirmation hearing until 1939.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:35am
- virtualmark
  
  Tom, since it’s me you were replying to yesterday …
  
  Kavanaugh is a smart lawyer. No doubt about it. He’s got a big brain and he knows the law. And he’s an aggressive lawyer too … the Federalist Society won’t have forgotten that he was the legal brains behind George W’s presidential win.
  
  But Kavanaugh also clearly lacks judicial temperament. That was clear in his confirmation hearing, especially in his closing remarks on the final day. Being a good judge is not only about being a good lawyer – I know plenty of smart lawyers who’d make poor judges.
  
  And Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations were credible. Not provable beyond reasonable doubt, no. But credible. Add to that Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick’s also credible allegations. I don’t think a Supreme Court justice should be appointed when there’s that much smoke there, even if we haven’t seen the fire. Supreme Court justices should be above reproach, and be clearly seen to be above reproach.
  
  (Sidebar: Clarence Thomas also fails this test, not only with Anita Hill but also with Ginni Thomas’ involvement in the Jan 6 insurrection).
  
  So no, I don’t think Kavanaugh should be on the SCOTUS. I expect there are equally smart lawyers who have more character and morality.
  
  Given your apparent Christian beliefs I would have thought you too would be concerned about character and morality as much as technical qualifications.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:08am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    You are welcome to make demonstrably erroneous statements, but nobody has been charged with insurrection with regard to events on January 6th, despite on of the most intensive investigations in US history. To therefore call it an insurrection is simply false.
    
    “On January 13, 2022, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against the leader of the Oath Keepers, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, and 10 associates, charging them with “seditious conspiracy,” the most severe charge levied against any of the alleged Capitol rioters so far.”
    
    So the most we can say is that “seditious conspiracy” charges have been laid, but even that is simply a charge that nobody has yet been convicted of.
    
    https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1
    
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    March 27, 2022 1:33pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Sigh … Clarence Thomas also fails this test, not only with Anita Hill, but also with Ginni Thomas’ involvement in the Jan 6 **seditious conspiracy**.
      
      Happy now?
      
      Dosvedanya troll.
      
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      March 27, 2022 3:58pm
      - Mike
        
        Did you read the Ginni Thomas emails about the ‘quantum watermarks’ on the ballots? Wild.
        
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        March 27, 2022 4:18pm
  - Homas
    
    “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter.”
    
    …in contrast to any verifiable details that might have carried the slightest evidential weight – presumably water-based?
    
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    March 27, 2022 2:26pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Homas, what I’m saying is that a Supreme Court justice should be so above reproach that there are not even credible allegations of misconduct against them.
      
      A “Caesar’s wife” test.
      
      Look at Ketanji Brown Jackson … there have been no credible accusations of any misconduct. AFAIK there’s been no accusations full stop. As was the case with Amy Coney Barrett too. And also with RBG, and Roberts, and …
      
      But not the case with Kavanaugh, or Clarence Thomas before him.
      
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      March 27, 2022 4:01pm
      - Homas
        
        How precisely, in terms of one’s own conduct, does one place oneself above suspicion arising upon the completely unsupported (in fact self-refuting, if we consider the accounts of the supposed witnesses) assertions of a serial-lying recovered-memory proponent?
        
        As for lack of misconduct on the part of the current candidate – ain’t it funny how that works when scrutiny is actually focused on the candidate’s judicial record?
        
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        March 27, 2022 4:23pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Homas,
        
        You don’t need to be a saint, you just don’t need to be a dickhead.
        
        Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations are credible. She leads a research programme at Stanford, so she’s not a nut. She raised the Kavanaugh event with her therapist in 2012 – well before Kavanaugh was nominated for SCOTUS. She passed a polygraph. The events were too long ago to arrive at any firm conclusion, but it’s a serious and credible allegation.
        
        There are at least a dozen possible options to fill a seat on SCOTUS. So why push Kavanaugh when there were equally good lawyers who didn’t have his baggage?
        
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        March 27, 2022 6:10pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Virtual, to say, now, that Blasey Ford’s accusations were credible, is just nonsense. There was absolutely nothing she said, or provided as evidence, that made them credible. Her star witness, her best friend, whom she claimed was actually at the party with her (at a place she can’t remember, in a year and on a day she can’t remember) said it didn’t happen. The other two, Ramirez and Swetnick were debunked as nonsense when the gave evidence. The smoke you claim is there, is actually flatulence from the Democrats arses.
    
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    March 27, 2022 8:57pm
    - virtualmark
      
      IVV,
      
      The events were too far back in the past for reliable witness accounts. So it’s “he said, she said”. But her “she said” had some weight and can’t be easily dismissed. She clearly showed she’d raised it in therapy in 2012, well before Kavanaugh was nominated. She passed a polygraph. She wasn’t/isn’t an overtly political person, and she had nothing to gain by raising this allegation. Cui bono? In fact all she got out of it was death threats.
      
      Calling it flatulence from the Democrats arses just says to me you’re too partisan on this.
      
      Trump had the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice. He must have had a lot of possible candidates to choose from – all with good legal/technical qualifications. I do believe there must have been at least one of those candidates who had better judicial temperament and less smoke lingering over their past than Brett Kavanaugh.
      
      As I said in my original post … he seems to be a very good lawyer, but a bit of a dickhead. The Supreme Court deserves better than that.
      
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      March 27, 2022 9:32pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Kelvin aces his exam question….

Q.
What sort of person takes the time to make a submission on a Bill going through Parliament?

A. A Grizzler

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2203/S00213/davis-should-apologise-for-arrogant-grizzling-comment.htm

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/hundreds-of-critics-voice-concerns-over-government-s-plan-to-overhaul-oranga-tamariki-monitoring.html
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March 27, 2022 9:04am
- krazykiwi
  
  Evidence that the Jacinda Junta regard democratic due process as an inconvenient annoyance
  
  51 3
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  March 27, 2022 9:10am
- kevn
  
  @Maggy… Just look at who the ‘grizzlers’ are.
  People who KNOW what they are talking about.
  Not this bogus clown circus running things. Down.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:18am
- pdm
  
  Klueless Kelvin strikes again.
  
  Just think – if Robbo had not elbowed him aside he could have been Deputy Prime Minister.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:29am
  - Tomtoddy
    
    Didnt take much of an elbow. Kelvin gives a whole new meaning to useless. You have to wonder what these vacant lots do all day.
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:36am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    He’s #3 in Cabinet.
    
    “When asked if he would apologise to the people he offended, Davis simply said he’s entitled to his opinion. That’s not good enough and the people who have to deal with Oranga Tamariki deserve better from the third highest ranked Minister in Cabinet.”
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:45am
  - Matt Long
    
    He would have been our Kamala
    
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    March 27, 2022 9:46am
Warren

With Phil Goff apparently set to become the High Commissioner in London after the local body elections when he will step down as Auckland Mayor, there has been suggestions of another of his former Parliamentry colleagues also being in line for a overseas Diplomatic Appointment.
Surely the suggestion that Trevor Mallard is in line for the Dublin Posting must send alarm bells in the political circles of New Zealand.
In the Herald column today on Phil Goffs apparent posting they also comment about the consideration of Trevor Mallard being the likely Ambassador to Dublin, this after his disgraceful behavior over the years.
To name a few , assault on another MP in the corridors of Parliament when a MP, a case of slander against a Senior Staffer where he acesed him of sexual misconduct that has cost the taxpayer over $ 200,000 and still hasn’t reached a ending, then the latest turning the sprinklers on protesters and turning the music up loud in the night to try and get rid of those protesting against Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister’s cruel mandate and vaccine laws.
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March 27, 2022 9:28am
- Matt Long
  
  Mallard ambassador to Dublin, sounds like an Irish joke.
  
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  March 27, 2022 9:48am
  - greybeard
    
    “A duck walks into a pub…..” sort of joke ?
    
    37 1
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    March 27, 2022 10:24am
    - Inandout
      
      grey, or more correctly.’a duck with a quack pass’ walks into a pub after being scanned at the door. We must be covid ready.
      
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      March 27, 2022 10:50am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Joke: Duck walks into a bar
      A duck walks into a pub and orders a pint of beer and a ham sandwich.
      
      The barman looks at him and says, “Hang on! You’re a duck.”
      
      “I see your eyes are working,” replies the duck.
      
      “And you can talk!” Exclaims the barman.
      
      “I see your ears are working, too,” Says the duck. “Now if you don’t mind, can I have my beer and my sandwich please?”
      
      “Certainly, sorry about that,” says the barman as he pulls the duck’s pint.
      
      “It’s just we don’t get many ducks in this pub.. What are you doing round this way?”
      
      “I’m working on the building site across the road,” Explains the duck. “I’m a plasterer.”
      
      The flabbergasted barman cannot believe the duck and wants to learn more, but takes the hint when the duck pulls out a newspaper from his bag and proceeds to read it.
      
      So, the duck reads his paper, drinks his beer, eats his sandwich, bids the barman good day and leaves.
      
      The same thing happens for two weeks.
      
      Then one day the circus comes to town.
      
      The ringmaster comes into the pub for a pint and the barman says to him, “You’re with the circus, aren’t you? Well, I know this duck that could be just brilliant in your circus. He talks, drinks beer, eats sandwiches, reads the newspaper and everything!”
      
      “Sounds marvelous,”says the ringmaster, handing over his business card.
      
      “Get him to give me a call.”
      
      So the next day when the duck comes into the pub the barman says, “Hey Mr. Duck, I reckon I can line you up with a top job, paying really good money.”
      
      “I’m always looking for the next job,” Says the duck.
      “Where is it?”
      
      “At the circus,” says the barman.
      
      “The circus?” Repeats the duck.
      
      “That’s right,” replies the barman.
      
      “The circus?” The duck asks again, “with the big tent?”
      
      “Yeah,” the barman replies.
      
      “With all the animals who live in cages, and performers who live in caravans?” says the duck.
      
      “Of course,” the barman replies.
      
      “And the tent has canvas sides and a big canvas roof with a hole in the middle?” persists the duck.
      
      “That’s right!” says the barman.
      
      The duck shakes his head in amazement, and says .. ………
      .
      
      “Why the hell would they need a plasterer??!”
      
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      March 27, 2022 11:08am
      - Lee C
        
        Duck goes into a hotel Lobby where drinks and certain items may be ordered and says:
        
        “I’m in room 34, and wondered if I might be able to buy some condoms here?”
        The receptionist says certainly sire, would you like me to put it on your Bill?
        The duck says:
        
        “What do you think I am, f**n pervert?”
        
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        March 27, 2022 12:14pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        A group of Romans walk into a bar. One of them hold up two fingers and says “5 beers please”.
        
        7 3
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        March 27, 2022 6:01pm
      - Mike
        
        An Irishman, a Welshman, and a Scotsman walked into a bar. The barman said “what is this, some kind of joke?”
        
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        March 27, 2022 6:08pm
  - pdm
    
    Do we not have an embassy in Outer Mongolia for him to be Ambassador?
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:49am
    - Mike
      
      Outer Mongolia is not a country.
      
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      March 27, 2022 6:05pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I wonder if he hates the proddies
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:58am
  - Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
    
    haven’t the Irish suffered enough ?
    
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    March 27, 2022 5:57pm
- peterwn
  
  “assault on another MP in the corridors of Parliament when a MP” That assault was at the far end of trivial, the ‘victim’ did not lay a complaint, and it only went to court because some busy-body saw it on TV and laid a private prosecution. The judge should not have accepted the prosecution unless the ‘victim’ had laid a complaint or indicated that he wished a prosecution to proceed. In the ‘ponytail’ incident the judge rejected the prosecution and warned the busy-body (same person) not to have any contact with the ‘victim’ who had deliberately chosen not to make an issue of it.
  Therefore as much as I dislike Trevor I would niver hold that ‘assault’ incident against him.
  I think Phil and Trevor are capable of doing an acceptable diplomatic job in both cases. The Embassy staffs do the important stuff anyway.
  The only time I remember a diplomat being recalled for political reasons was when Rob Muldoon had Hugh Watt (a former senior Labour Minister) recalled from London, but his credentials and suitability for the position were dubious.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:04am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    But will he shag his mistress on the high commission dining table or stay in his limo to avoid the rain at an Anzac Day service?
    Surely there are some entertaining shenanigans in store.
    On a slightly more serious note, would the be the first political appointment to our Dublin embassy? Is there a symbiotic relationship between these appointments and funding MFAT’s craving for more and more embassies. But perhaps the politicians will have the last laugh when all the plum positions, such as the ambassadorships in East Timor, Ethiopia or Myanmar, go to ‘retiring’ MPs.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:54am
  - Manu-Rau
    
    See my comment below, about Trêvor Mallárd threatening to shove a Heineken bottle up the IRB Chairman’s arse in 2002. The IRB HQ is in Dublin.
    
    IMHO, Mallárd is unsuitable for any public appointment, much less a diplomatic appointment……let alone a public or diplomatic appointment in Dublin.
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:43pm
- graham
  
  Spot on, Warren.
  
  Trevor Mallard has shown himself time and time again to be a bully, a buffoon, and an unpleasant oaf.
  
  The thought of him representing New Zealand on the world stage, where you would expect someone who has at least some degree of sophistication and diplomacy, is depressing. People will look at him and think, “Is this the best they could find?”
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:10am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Wait for his antics after a night on the Liffey Water
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:14am
- Nickc2
  
  Cindy dispatches like minded tyrants to the Northern Hemisphere to assist Biden and Harris destroy democracy as we know it.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:40am
- Manu-Rau
  
  Ah, Dublin — the home of the International Rugby Board. I seem to recall the very classy Trêvor Mallárd once threatening to stick up a Heineken bottle up the IRB Chairman’s arse.
  
  Whatever have the Irish done to deserve a POS like Mallárd?
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:36pm
westernScientist

So a couple days ago DPF blogged on a bit Steven Crowder did re- Massey uni grievance studies, the local ‘star’ has sadly past, but no, we dont know why, just died in her sleep.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/128179041/massey-university-academic-cat-pause-dies-suddenly
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March 27, 2022 9:32am
- krazykiwi
  
  Quite a few people ‘dying suddenly’ these days. I wonder what’s going on?
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:37pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    We’re not allowed to mention the elephant in the room…….either of them…….
    
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    March 28, 2022 12:05am
Cassandra

In a Telegraph article this morning, a columnist points out that the days of “the peace dividend” are over. Government expenditure intended for health and welfare will now have to be diverted to defence. And not as a one-off, probably for decades ie it’ll be the new normal. Australia certainly recognises this. When will NZ political parties wake up to the fact that the free load is over?
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March 27, 2022 9:42am
- PeeJay
  
  See Japan is even starting to have a debate about hosting US nuclear weapons.
  
  With China looking at buying up south pacific countries and building naval bases, the security dynamic looks a lot more complex than it used to be.
  
  While a horrid thought, can’t help but wonder if Putin would have attacked Ukraine if they’d kept their nuclear weapons after the fall of USSR.
  
  Whether or not you think the Iranians are truly despicable, it’s very easy to understand the appeal of nuclear weapons – not agreeing with it, just recognise the value they have as a very powerful deterrent.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:50am
- nathie
  
  Reality check: Minister of Finance Grant Robertson is having the Minister of Defence Penni Henare cut defence capabilities by selling two patrol boats to Ireland and are still wanting to sell one-third of the Army’s protective armored fighting vehicles.
  
  Prime Minister Ardern is of course missing in action and not commenting on any of this, in fact her advisers had the NZ Defence Force announce the patrol boat sale – there is no Beehive or Ministerial statement on the sale.
  
  Sadly, I’m not making this up!
  
  Unfortunately National has said nothing on this (as it was actually their idea in the first place a few years ago when they were still trying to balance the books at the time).
  
  Perhaps ACT’s David Seymour could comment and ask the question of the government, why are they selling capable and effective defence equipment at a time when more than any other since WW2 they may very well be needed?
  
  NZDF Patrol boat sale media release:
  https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/two-former-rnzn-inshore-patrol-vessels-sold-to-the-republic-of-ireland/
  
  These same patrol boats assisting with the recent boating tragedy up north:
  https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/nzdf-assistance-in-search-and-rescue-off-north-cape/
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:00am
  - Bevan
    
    TBH, those IPVs are worthless in any conflict – 3x 50 cals won’t do shit to anything except a fishing boat.
    
    Time NZ started investing in naval vessels with more destructive capability – even the Anzacs are woefully underarmed. But said weak as piss Def Min and Grant will see that doesn’t happen.
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:28pm
  - Mike
    
    There is nothing wrong with getting rid of military equipment we don’t use and never will use.
    Remember please that buying the patrol boats and an armoured car for every soldier was the deal in case people got the idea that F-16s and a third frigate could be bought. A product of internal NZDF politicking.
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:45pm
- Nickc2
  
  It won’t happen under the current Govt.
  Should at some time in the near future, Chinese Warships or Military Aircraft come anywhere near NZ, Cindy, Mahuta and silly Willie will be out waving their Chinese flags of welcome whilst Robbo will be just behind them shaking his begging bowl and changing unintelligible words that in Te Reo that translate to Long Live Xi Jinping and Belt & Road.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:26pm
westernScientist

These people just dont have a basic understanding of elementary physics do they.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/128130801/hydrogen-plans-for-southland-will-push-up-household-power-bills–simon-upton

So instead of H2 we should use (grid) electric for everything. Ignoring the generation problem (somehow they all seem to think that getting rid of the smelter will fix that), how on earth is the grid meant to deal with this massive increase in load, just the load from EVs will kill it soon, let alone converting all these boilers from coal to electric etc.

I guess one could argue that Transpower could have a ripple switch like system for all of the cars, boilers etc. but then who would want to use them, you would never know if your car got charged, or if you were going to be able to use your boiler today. Not only that, a system like that might be sufficient to protect some of the grid, but what happens when everyone want to use their fast charger on the same street, the local wiring just isnt going to be able to cope.

But no, it is hydrogen generation that is going to push the cost of power up.
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March 27, 2022 9:47am
- JJ56
  
  Difficult to tell what the argument is here, but electricity for EVs isn’t a problem – it won’t happen all at once, and we do have lots of relatively low cost wind (the roaring 40s) and geothermal. Boilers are being converted to biomass.
  
  But making hydrogen out of electricity and sending it overseas would only be contemplated by a couple of generator companies that desperately need a negotiating position with an Al smelter.
  
  They could probably do much better threatening to do other things with the electricity, but less likely to get a subsidy from a hydrogen-struck government.
  
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  March 27, 2022 7:17pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Generating electricity via wind power is neither sustainable nor economically viable. The old maxim is as true now as it always was. You get nothing for nothing. End of story.
    
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    March 28, 2022 12:09am
- Hebe123
  
  Have a look at last years Transmission Planning Report on its website. They evaluate heat electrification needs at locations with boilers or likely to have a need.
  Transpower is arguably the best government entity we have when it comes to planning and delivery, largely due to being regulated for the last 15 or so years.
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:41pm
70andstilllearning

A very good piece by Damien Grant – well worth the read – albeit on $tuff. He concludes with:

“We are a successor state to a remarkable empire and a proud sovereign nation with, inexplicably, the Union Jack still affixed to our flag.
This new history teaches our children none of that. It is not history at all. It is social engineering.”
Couldn’t agree more.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128161959/if-this-history-curriculum-is-shaping-our-future-the-outlook-is-bleak
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March 27, 2022 9:58am
- Justitia
  
  Ardern’s “history” syllabus is applied critical race theory. It is distorted, one-sided and little more than “hate speech” directed at children of European extraction. Large areas of history before 1840 have been suppressed, presumably because they might prove unflattering to Maori. Similarly New Zealand’s many achievements on the world stage in war and peace or in science and sport have been deliberately ignored. If this is Ardern’s “proudest legacy” then clearly she has no love for this country. New Zealanders are being used as fodder for her globalist ambitions.
  
  Parents must make clear to schools they will not tolerate this vile indoctrination being rammed down their children’s throats.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:44am
- bco90
  
  Sovereign nation?
  
  Maybe in practice, but a representative of the Queen still confirms who our leaders.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:01am
  - David Garrett
    
    bco: You understanding of our constitutional arrangements appear to be as good as your written English ability.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:08am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Oh dear, Muphry’s Law strikes again.
      
      13 4
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      March 27, 2022 11:45am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Who’s Muphry ?
        
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        March 27, 2022 5:39pm
    - bco90
      
      I missed one word.
      
      The governor General officially appoints the prime Minister, and the Queen appoints the governor General. The Prime Minister being the leader of the largest party in parliament is largely a mere convention. It’s literally in the PMs job description to give advice to the sovereign or the sovereign’s representative. The sovereign isn’t the PM, it’s not the people either. It’s the Queen. So, as a matter of practice, we are sovereign, but a representative of the Queen is still the one who appoints our prime minister and sits in a higher position.
      
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      March 28, 2022 12:48am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Funnily enough, the curriculum makes no specific reference to the New Zealand flag. Even more importantly, it omits a requirement for children to be taught the history of Zealandia, the female figure should proudly displayed on our coat of arms.
  Let’s have a list of dates and facts (Rodney Hide would like that) for all Kiwi kids to memorise so that we can be sure everyone knows our ‘true’ history.
  I’ll make a start:
  14th century – Humans reach New Zealand, but don’t have a proper name for it
  1642 – Abel Tasman visits and generates a name for the country, but doesn’t land, which is a good thing, because the Dutch were bad colonists
  1769 – James Cook makes the first proper discovery of New Zealand and provides the natives with pigs, chickens and nails
  1807 – Muskets arrive. This was a good thing, because natives need the benefits of civilisation, but also a bad thing, because natives who get firearms kill each other in large numbers.
  1814 – Samuel Marsden brings Christianity to New Zealand. This was a good thing, because it gave the natives a reason to stop murdering each other with the muskets.
  I’m sure Kiwibloggers could collectively build the curriculum better than any of those pesky historians who have been inventing stuff in recent decades.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:11am
  - Jack5
    
    Not bad, Milky, but let’s not make too much of a hero out of “Flogger Marsden.”
    
    This,about Marsden’s record across the Tasman, is from an Australian web site:
    
    No aspects of Marsden’s activities did more harm to his pastoral work or to his historical character in Australia than his reputation for extreme severity as a magistrate. This was firmly set by September 1800 when, in the course of an inquiry into a suspected Irish uprising, Judge Advocate Richard Atkins and Marsden had a suspect flogged mercilessly in the hope of securing information about hidden weapons.
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:18pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Nothing much as changed since 1807, they’re still at it. The only difference is that Patches have replaced Cloaks.
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:42pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Not bad Milky…but you leave out the period from 1814 when the Musket Wars really got going, up to 1840, when English law replaced the law of the musket, or brute force.
    
    In 1842 a Maori called Maketu was convicted of double murder and sentenced to death (the only sentence then for murder). There was considerable concern that the Maori Chiefs of the Auckland region would not accept the sentence and try and prevent the hanging.
    
    After some consideration (Maketu was of high birth IIRC) the chiefs in the Auckland region declared that the hanging should proceed, as it was now the law of Queen Wikitoria which applied, and Maketu was clearly guilty.
    
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    March 27, 2022 2:00pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I begin to see why NZ History/social studies had little appeal for me at school (although I always got higher marks in social studies than in maths/science or foreign language).
    
    I’m not too stressed about the new history syllabus for primary and junior High Schools….. most kids will tune out if they hear the same stuff, year in, year out.
    
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    March 27, 2022 2:58pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Just as with having religious education rammed down your throat as a kid. Most eventually wake up to the hipocrasy and inconsistency, and frequently it serves as a foundational lesson in trusting authority figures (the existence of lying adults)
      
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      March 27, 2022 4:26pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Jack and David aren’t really getting the programme. They seem to want to write chapters in a textbook. The requirement is for a curriculum. That must surely be restricted to dates, a few unambiguous facts and whether children should know something was a ‘good thing’ or a ‘bad thing’. Otherwise how will we ever be sure that kids are getting the right things to remember.
    So, Jack it’s enough to know that Marsden brought the gospel to these hitherto heathen land. And David, I hadn’t even go to the treaty yet, so how about I continue for a bit so that you can grasp the idea?
    1840 – the few surviving Maori begged for British protection, the French were told better colonists were on the way. These were good things.
    1843 – the British forgave Maori trespassers for killing settlers on their land at Wairau. This was a good thing
    1845 – Hone Heke chopped down a flagpole. Governor Grey taught him a lesson, then gave Maori printing presses and flour mills. These were good things, and it even became safe to put up the flagstaff again once Heke died.
    
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    March 27, 2022 3:43pm
    - David Garrett
      
      1840 – the few surviving Maori begged for British protection,
      
      Are you being facetious Milky or, God forbid, admitting that the Maori would have been considerably worse off if the other would be colonisers had taken on these Isles?
      
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      March 27, 2022 9:39pm
- DeepBlue
  
  One does wonder why the left fought so hard to keep the Union Jack on our flag, just because John Key was behind the referendum.
  
  23M does now seem a pathetically small number some compared with 60B. Remember the good old days when 500M was a huge budget item for a hospital upgrade.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:45am
  - Nickc2
    
    That principle’s what Robbo’s applying to our massive debt.
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:45pm
bythesea

For those of you who liked the “Please Explain” Aussie political cartoon series (Pauline Hanson), there is an interesting interview with the creators from a couple months back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWom0iyDiK8

They pitched for 6 episodes and got 20.

If you haven’t seen them, the series is set in a school (parliament) with the pollies as the students and the political system as the subject.

Campaign donations was a good one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcT2R9fMfJE

And cost of housing another one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQ_MiwLgKw
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March 27, 2022 10:04am
- ISeeRed
  
  They are hilarious. We need a Kiwi version.
  
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  March 27, 2022 6:28pm
- curry4me
  
  Yeah, I’ve seen the lot, and posted some here. They’re brilliant. I hope they make another 20.
  
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  March 27, 2022 6:42pm
dcrane

The so-called Michigan governor kidnapping plot from late 202o was an FBI psyop/entrapment operation, right from the beginning.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/24/the-fbis-fafo-kidnapping-plot-unravels/

This was just 3 months before the Jan. 6th Capitol riot, which was exacerbated by provocateurs who are being left suspiciously unmolested by the FBI (esp. Ray Epps). And the FBI head who oversaw the Michigan entrapment operation was moved to the Washington district shortly before January 2021.

The FBI has been running a long game to discredit the populist right.
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March 27, 2022 10:05am
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  I’m not one of those people who claim that Patriot Day on Jan 6th was a wholly astroturfed event, rather than a genuine expression of popular indignation, but it is clear from the Whitmer story and many other curious events and circumstances that it is in the FBI’s interests to exaggerate the threat posed by so-called “far right extremists” in America, and that there were federal agents and/or operatives involved in stoking up the crowd and encouraging them to go inside the Capitol, for the purposes of thereafter being able to treat Trump supporters as domestic terrorists, giving the authorities all of the additional powers that come with this categorisation.
  
  Funnily enough, we also have evidence of foreign actors being involved, in this case, Serhiy Dubynin, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi who has also been active in the events surrounding the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe. Quite a tangled web indeed.
  
  https://gab.com/AmericanAFMindy/posts/107990090815507840
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:29am
  - dcrane
    
    I agree that there was “genuine expression of popular indignation”. What I would dispute is whether more than a tiny minority were there with anything resembling a pre-planned “insurrection” in mind, and that those that were are likely to prove to have been part of an FBI operation (wittingly and/or not) as with the Michigan case.
    
    Most were there for a protest. And most who went into the Capitol did so with a combination of assumption that it wasn’t actually illegal (because signs/barriers were gone already) and/or that it was “their turn” to break some rules in support of their own politics, after watching the BLM left do so with little punishment for almost a year (and I have some sympathy for the latter).
    
    Entrapped or not, those who broke major rules (property damage, harming police) should be appropriately punished. But any government or other political entities who helped create this or worsen it deserve greater punishment.
    
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    March 27, 2022 3:06pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Entertaining fantasies, no doubt.
  I found this documentary interesting about the FBI’s actual priorities:
  https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witness/2019/11/27/the-feeling-of-being-watched-surveillance-in-a-us-arab-community
  Assia Boundaoui grew up in the Arab-American neighborhood of Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago which counts among its residents about 200 Muslim families. Her neighbors believe they have been under surveillance for a decade or more. When she explores her neighbors’ experiences, Assia discovers thousands of pages of FBI documents which prove that the neighborhood was the subject of counter-terrorism investigation before the September 11 attacks. Code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal”, the surveillance operation amassed more than 30,000 documents on Muslim residents and neighborhood organizations, though no arrests or links to terrorist activity were ever made.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:53am
  - dcrane
    
    Certainly also very true, and also important. The FBI has entrapped many Muslims during the past two decades.
    
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    March 27, 2022 3:09pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Be Kind, Team of 5 Million,
Take your jab for your whanau
Follow the science

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018835178/cultish-the-linguistic-tricks-cults-use
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March 27, 2022 10:08am
- Matt Long
  
  “It converts you, it conditions you and it coerces you.”
  
  A cult uses techniques like ‘love bombing’, which gets people into the fold.
  Sounds about right.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:19am
- Yvette
  
  Maggy Wassilieff
  
  from your link –
  What really drives people towards cults is language, says linguist Amanda Montell.
  Her new book Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism explores the linguistic patterns that cults and cult-like brands use.
  
  And the last paragraph of a rather long article –
  So how does she advise people be alert to cult-like groups?
  “I would say if a form of language cues you to have a strong emotional reaction, but causes us to stop asking questions; if it forces you to separate yourself from those who don’t know how to use the language; if you find yourself becoming ideologically bound to a set of terminology, filled with a sense of elitism just for showing up, those are some cues that you might be involved with a group that’s a little too cultish for comfort.”
  
  Like learning Te Reo
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:32am
- Paulus
  
  Who is this guy Tama Riki ?
  Seems to be told to be everywhere is puzzling.
  
  14 3
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  March 27, 2022 10:44am
- KKKKatee
  
  No thanks.
  
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  March 27, 2022 1:34pm
- Hebe123
  
  I had the same reaction to that interview!
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:43pm
PeeJay

After reading the Kainga Ora post this morning, I thought how easy it would be to do a pile-on and list departments or crown entities that should probably be raised to the ground by an incoming National / ACT government – could be a very, very, long list.

I then thought, how about a fun challenge to the good folks of this fine blog.

In the spirit of positivity (or posidividy?), can anyone list any department or crown entity that has improved since 2017 (unlikely I feel) or has at least stayed reasonably static and would not present a problem to an incoming National / ACT government?

I suspect the theme, if the challenge is taken up, will be technical departments where the Minister has little to do with the department on a day to day basis and there is an absence of ‘woke’ issues as a focus.

As a starter, I would think Trade has done ok under O’Connor (note Trade, not the full department)?

Any takers?
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March 27, 2022 10:15am
- Jack5
  
  More housing stuff-ups described beyond the paywall at the Herald today – this time the delays to the 1000-home Karaka development in South Auckland.
  
  People have bought sections as long as two years ago but builders can’t get on with work because they can’t get water connected. Meanwhile building costs have risen as much as $300,000 a house.
  
  And let’s not forget Tane asleep at the Reserve Bank and Finance Minister Robertson, They have let inflation get a head start, and everyone knows the longer you wait to fight inflation the more painful for citizens.
  
  You can blame incompetence on inflation for the housing bubble persisting making home ownership out of the question for a swathe of young New Zealanders.
  
  The Left will blame inflation on Covid, on the Ukraine invasion and sanctions, but the chief reason for our inflation is Labour’s mad spending while Noddy at the Reserve Bank has kept interest rates near zero. (Luxon’s thicker partners will blame it on rising minimum wages.)
  
  Martin Friedman on inflation: it is always a monetary phenomenon: it is made by, or stopped by, the central bank.
  
  I like another quote of Friedman’s: inflation is taxation without legislation.
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:21am
- mikenmildagain
  
  The trade part of MFAT can probably measure its success by the increased number of officials it has posted overseas. But that wouldn’t include the numbers of officials from other department (MPI, NZTE, Tourism) also sent overseas – should they be counted as separate successes?
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:56am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  What trade under O,Connor? What has he delivered? A deal with Britain one year after Aussie got one, and it only replaces the British part of the EEC
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:05pm
  - PeeJay
    
    I do acknowledge that as achievements go it’s a very low bar, but compared to his comrades across government, O’Connor would probably be considered as an amazing success story!
    
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    March 27, 2022 6:40pm
- GJM
  
  Anything with commissioner in the title like human rights, children commission since they are not going to solve the issue that pays so well.
  Women’s affairs department.
  Big cull at the ministry of education combined with introducing charter schools and bulk funding
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:25pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Here’s a list of agencies I compiled in 2011. Candidates for disestablishment or merger:
  
  1. Broadcasting Commission
  2. Charities Commission
  3. Children’s Commissioner
  4. Earthquake Commission
  5. Electricity Commission
  6. Families Commission
  7. New Zealand Fire Service Commission
  8. Health Sponsorship Council
  9. Human Rights Commission
  10. KiwiRail Holdings Limited (yes, a fire sale required)
  11. Local Government Commission
  12. Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Commission)
  13. Maori Television
  14. Mental Health Commission
  15. Ministry for Culture and Heritage
  16. Ministry of Social Development (Keep, but rename ‘Ministry of Essential Welfare’ and re-task accordingly)
  17. Ministry of Māori Development
  18. Ministry of Women’s Affairs
  19. Ministry of Youth Development
  20. Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
  21. National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women
  22. New Zealand Game Bird Habitat Trust Board
  23. New Zealand Fish and Game Council
  24. New Zealand Quality College
  25. Drug Free Sport New Zealand
  26. New Zealand Teachers Council
  27. New Zealand Walking Access Commission
  28. Ngai Tahu Ancillary Claims Trust
  29. New Zealand Artificial Limb Board
  30. New Zealand Film Commission
  31. Office of Ethnic Affairs
  32. Plant Variety Rights Office
  33. Public Sector Training Organisation
  34. Real Estate Agents Authority
  35. Registrar of Unions
  36. Removal Review Authority
  37. Retirement Commissioner
  38. Social Workers Registration Board
  39. Sport and Recreation New Zealand
  40. Standards Council
  41. Standards New Zealand
  42. Tertiary Education Commission
  43. Te Puni Kokiri
  44. Radio New Zealand Limited
  45. The Bioethics Council
  46. Transport Accident Investigation Commission
  47. Valuers Registration Board
  48. Walking Access
  49. War Pension Services
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:51pm
  - Mike
    
    Please providea list of the merged agencies and their functions. Will they be as good as MBIE or the Ministry of Health?
    
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    March 27, 2022 4:36pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Nah. You can do that, Milky.
      
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      March 27, 2022 5:31pm
      - Mike
        
        I’m a great believer in not abolishing or merging agencies, or establishing any new ones. Useless agencies should just be starved of money.
        
        4 0
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        March 27, 2022 6:01pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Have a +1 from me, milky.
        
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        March 27, 2022 10:18pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      As “good” as the MoH? After their complete disaster of the last 2 years how can you use that adjective in the same sentence as the MoH? They’ve been a complete shit show.
      
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      March 28, 2022 12:22am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Transport Accident Investigation Commission?
    
    Really?
    
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    March 27, 2022 8:12pm
- chukar
  
  PJ,
  Scratch O Connor ,ref balance of payments almost worst ever!
  
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  March 27, 2022 3:30pm
  - PeeJay
    
    Agreed – I don’t think he’d done an amazing job – far from it, but I just thought, being positive, which agencies / departments would not need major surgery in an incoming National / ACT government. In that light, Trade looks like something that needs a refresh not a complete re-build.
    
    Judging by the lack of responses, National / ACT would probably need a three year term just to clear out the garbage!
    
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    March 27, 2022 6:45pm
oldfella

The US Week in politics. Always good for a laugh…
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/the-week-in-pictures-womens-question-edition.php
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March 27, 2022 10:19am
Tony Stuart

Another dreadful health situation which Andrew Little will doubtless blame on nine years of neglect by National:”

A Wellington man diagnosed with prostate cancer was forced to take a reverse mortgage out on his house before he was even diagnosed due to COVID-induced delays within the public health system.

It was July 5, 2021 when Ewen Ritchie went to see a doctor for an examination which revealed his prostate-specific antigen was higher than it had been before.

Ritchie’s doctor referred him to Wellington Regional Hospital to undergo an MRI scan, and by October 26 Ritchie had the scan and was awaiting his results.

“So then I heard nothing and I kind of assumed that must mean it was a false alarm, everything’s okay. I kind of just put it aside.”

But seven weeks later, on December 13, Ritchie was called in for a meeting with a urology specialist and told they’d found a lump.

“I was quite shocked about that given the delay between the two [hospital visits].”

The next step for Ritchie was to undertake a biopsy to determine what the lump on his prostate was. But a couple of weeks later he was advised the biopsy was scheduled for May, meaning he’d have to wait nearly five months.

“That was really the major problem, knowing that early detection and all that is important,” he said.

Ritchie’s son, who Newshub agreed not to name, says a five-month window between identifying a lump and undergoing a biopsy just isn’t good enough.

“We’re reading cases in the media around cancer patients that haven’t acted on things quickly and then have that actually kill them.”

Ritchie didn’t want to wait five months without knowing if he had cancer or not, so sought help through a private doctor.

“He saw me in January and I had to pay $7500 for a biopsy to be done at Southern Cross Hospital.”

That’s money Ritchie doesn’t have, and he had to apply for a reverse mortgage just so he could fund it. But it was just as well he did, as his biopsy confirmed the lump on his prostate was indeed cancer.

“God knows what would have been the result had I just left the appointment to May and then gone in and seen them then.”

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/03/wellington-man-forced-to-take-out-reverse-mortgage-to-pay-for-private-cancer-treatment-due-to-public-health-delays.html

A five-month wait for a biopsy, a relatively simple procedure, is simply not good enough. Labour has been the government for four and a half years now; far too long to still be blaming previous governments. It’s time for Little to actually take some responsibility for the failings of the system.
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March 27, 2022 10:27am
- graham
  
  I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but I still see people praising the almighty Jacinda for saving us all from Covid, pointing to our low death rate compared to other countries … all the while ignoring *EVERY* *OTHER* *MEDICAL* *ISSUE* that has been delayed or ignored because of Covid.
  
  It’s incredibly sad to see people are so blinkered and gullible.
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:44am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    And elderly men are essentially expendable commodities to this government. Now if it had been a 40yo woman with breast or cervical cancer “the system” would have moved at the speed of light!
    
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    March 27, 2022 12:10pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Not true, Tony
      
      There’s delays in cancer treatment across the board
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/exclusive-cancer-delays-45000-fewer-breast-screens-due-to-covid-prostate-backlog-also-terrifying/YIVEIFNFEUIVTYDSU3ENIWJZCU/
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/454170/cancer-treatments-delayed-due-to-covid-19-reti
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018813573/confused-claims-of-covid-compromised-cancer-care
      
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      March 27, 2022 1:31pm
  - cjn
    
    Graham: Your point is a good one. There is also the fact that the statistics of some countries (especially the USA) were made more dire by the corruption of officials who refused to allow cheap and effective early remedies to be used, controlled the media, stoked up fear and who muzzled doctors and directed everyone to wait for the vaccine. I’m referring particularly to Dr Fauci and Jacinda Ardern.
    
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    March 27, 2022 1:16pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Little to actually take some responsibility for the failings of the system.
  
  Little doesn’t see any of his failings.
  
  He just word-soups away the damning evidence:
  
  https://www.national.org.nz/andrew-little-reduces-icu-beds-mid-pandemic
  
  Little said it didn’t make sense to say the fund $4m spent had resulted in $13,000 sessions, because every day more sessions would be delivered from long contracts.
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300549534/mental-health-25m-fund-has-only-delivered-304-sessions-in-18-months
  
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  March 27, 2022 10:45am
  - Jimmy Brown
    
    “9 long years of neglect”..yadda yadda
    Labours got nothin.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:52am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Prostate Cancer is not given the same attention as breast cancer.
  However, I am on an ‘active surveillance’ program for low level cancer that seems to be working OK. Had first biopsy resulting in two positives out of 12, MRI 3 months later, second biopsy 3 months after that (gen anesthetic – 35 samples, all clear)
  So it is now PSA every 3 months and MRI every 6 months. No need for biopsy unless something changes.
  So it sounds like Ewen Richie has met the DHB Admin uselessness. Time to make a noise, Prostate Cancer kills if it migrates
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:36am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I was listening to a podcast a while ago that claimed that dogs could be trained to smell prostate cancer (or any kind of cancer or virus) with a much higher degree of accuracy than any PSA test.
    
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    March 27, 2022 11:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Interesting Mike. Quite possible I guess.
      https://dogsdetectcancer.org/can-dogs-smell-cancer/
      
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      March 27, 2022 12:11pm
      - Mike
        
        The argument was partly that humams are a visual species, so we rely on tests, etc that we can see – red or blue etc, and that relying on dogs’ sense of smell just doesn’t fit with our biases.
        
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        March 27, 2022 12:52pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/do-you-know-more-about-basic-human-biology-than-bidens-scotus-nominee-take-the-simple-one-question-quiz
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March 27, 2022 10:31am
Maggie Pie

Only just home from Mass.

There’s a story in $tuff about National Leader Chris Luxon unwittingly meeting with anti-vaccine mandate protester Lance Goodman….co Managing Director of Goodman Contractors.

Here’s Lance, filmed while dancing on the steps of Parliament 😛

https://twitter.com/LexRegina72/status/1507819518307213312
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March 27, 2022 10:47am
- nathie
  
  Well if one is middle-aged and has an “ok” body, may as well flaunt it, so good on him! Bonus points too for defying the Duck!
  
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  March 27, 2022 11:16am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Any entertaining sins to confess this week, Maggie? What’s the usual penance for living in sin?
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:00pm
- I remember when
  
  Goodman Contractors is one of Kapiti’s most successful family businesses.
  Formed in 1994 by Rick and Helen Goodman with their children becoming involved in the family business.
  Before joining the business their sons had to learn a trade, so Stan beccame a civil engineer, Lance a welder fitter and Vaughn a plumber.
  They now co-direct an industry leading business that owns over 150 items of earth-moving machinery, on top of 50-plus company vehicles.
  John Goodman died last year.
  The Waikanae business has undertaken major ciivil engineering projects throughout the country including the Kapiti Expressway.
  Thousands of people have been employed by the company over the years.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:08pm
- Matt Long
  
  Lots of outrage about Luxon’s comments about bottom feeders on Twitter.
  He should clarify that he meant journalists?
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:09pm
- Muttonbird
  
  “Unwittingly”?
  
  Sure.
  
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  March 27, 2022 1:24pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Yes, place the emphasis (unwittingly meeting) where it’s due.
    NB: Trevor Mallard had an unwitting meeting with Tau Henare in the halls of Parliament when he ran into his fist.
    
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    March 27, 2022 1:31pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Talk about crack me up 😀 😀 😀
  I sent my partner’s mum the link. She just replied….”wonder if it’s the same guy that I’ve seen posting here under the pseudonym Ron Jeremy?”
  
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  March 27, 2022 3:26pm
oldfella

If this history curriculum is shaping our future, the outlook is bleak
The most remarkable aspect of this version of New Zealand’s history is the exclusion of almost any topic that does not impact Māori. Everything is seen through this lens. What happened to Richard Pearse, Charles Upham and General Bernard Freyberg?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128161959/if-this-history-curriculum-is-shaping-our-future-the-outlook-is-bleak
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March 27, 2022 10:57am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Great stuff. Please add them to my list above.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:01pm
- Nickc2
  
  …..and our most eminent scientist ever, Lord Rutherford.
  
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  March 27, 2022 1:35pm
  - Mike
    
    Please add him too. This is crowd-sourced curriculum development.
    
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    March 27, 2022 5:29pm
  - JJ56
    
    Did they include Maurice Wilkins (DNA) or Alan MacDiarmid (conductive polymers)?
    
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    March 27, 2022 7:35pm
I remember when

SST Focus: Maori collaboration in ‘three waters’ a chance to share know-how: Ngahiwi Tomana:
“Hastings District Council had already reaped the benefits of a partnership with iwi on wastewater, and if it had adopted a permanent partnership model on drinking water, one of our region’s tragedies could have been avoided.”
Apparently this type of benefit can not be gained by Maori simply standing for council in the usual way.
They need to make Papatuanuku central to their considerations.
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March 27, 2022 11:15am
oldfella

Update on the ‘Milked’ doco, now on YouTube.
It was mentioned yesterday in GD when this was posted… https://rachelstewart.substack.com/p/cows-and-cowards?s=w which illustrates the power of cancel culture today.
The good news… the doco tries so hard to be woke that although it starts with a map of NZ, it refers to us initially as Aotearoa New Zealand, and from then on only as Aotearoa.
Which I’m sure will confuse many of their international audience, probably not what the doco makers intended.
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March 27, 2022 11:27am
- Matt Long
  
  I wouldn’t imagine anyone but the terminally stupid getting excited about those tired old faces saying the same old things on film.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:13pm
CAKE FACE1

I listened to Marcus Lush on talkback a couple of evenings while driving. I then listened to a variety of socialists on magic as well.

It is interesting to listen to lefties; especially now that the parties they support are in power. How will they try to justify the economic and cultural vandalism the government is implementing at the moment?

The answer is, they don’t discuss the present at all. Their entire programmes are dedicated to nostalgia. All discussion topics are about fifty years ago or more.

Lefties don’t seem to be able to bear to speak about the here and now. This is understandable in a way. Discussing the situation now is just going to depress audiences.

Yet what we are experiencing at the moment is their policies, and their world view.

Perhaps they hope that their terrible policies will deliver a world that mirrors their sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the long gone past?

It won’t. Their policies are scorched earth in nature, and don’t lead to a sentimental past, or a pleasant future.

I think that New Zealand is in crisis at the moment, and the crisis is steadily worsening every day.

I can only hope that Mr Luxon and Mr Seymour have a detailed plan to turn this around, and I hope they get elected in eighteen months time.

It is not a happy place to think about what the consequences of another three years of socialist government will be for our country.

The socialist road is well worn, and leads to ruin. We need to change roads, before it’s too late…
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March 27, 2022 11:32am
- Inandout
  
  CF, I usually listen to Lush while soaking in the bath and hardly anyone phones in, just texts. When another person stands in for him the lines are always busy. Lush I have found will not tolerate any direct criticism of Jacinda, he just ends the call.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:23pm
- Harriet
  
  “….. All discussion topics are about fifty years ago or more…..”
  
  The left in NZ are pitiful as next year it is the 50th anniversary of Pinochet permanently getting rid of comrade Allende and a heap of his useful leftist idiots, and another heap over there, and look, over there too.
  
  Two years later it will be the 50th anniversary of that idiot Whitlam getting kicked out of the Australian parliament as PM.
  
  And the anniversary of one other grandest of experiences for the Right.
  
  The sacking off Wellington NZ. 😎
  
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  March 27, 2022 8:20pm
I remember when

A conversation about the fact that regenerative farming is all the ‘buzz’ in university circles.
As usual, horse before the cart by questioning how they are going to teach it rather than testing its outcomes first.
Much of the farmland that have received large rainfall amounts has reverted to a form of regenerative farming.
Excessive growth, heavy weed infestations, uncertainty about how best to control the weeds.
8 4
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March 27, 2022 11:53am
- GJM
  
  First of all you need to define regenerative agriculture. There doesn’t seem to be a common agreed definition, and the whole thing seems to be imported from the US.
  It appears to refer to grass fed, rotational grazing, etc just like we do anyway.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:33pm
  - I remember when
    
    Yes. It means defining what regenerative farming means.
    Whether and how it is made economical.
    
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    March 27, 2022 1:52pm
CAKE FACE1

I have spent a lifetime trying to understand socialists.

There are some that are going to support the system, because they are low level grifters / moochers / looters. These types live in Wellington, and work for the State in bogus jobs, on huge salaries. These people are rational in voting for socialists. National / ACT could try to appeal to their conscience, but they will never convert them. Instead, these characters actually convince themselves that they are a better human being because they are socialist, ignoring all history’s lessons.

Similarly, the beneficiaries vote socialist for obvious reasons. It would be better for their lives if National / ACT won, and they had to get a job, but they’re not going to vote for this.

Then there are the working poor. They should vote for ACT, but routine and family affiliations mean they vote socialist – because their family has always done so. National and ACT should target these voters for conversion.

Next are the intellectual and activist class. These people have huge hubris, and support socialism, because in their head they have some utopian plan that they believe will outperform capitalism.

Trying to point out that centralised plans have always lead to mass death and suffering gets short shrift from these characters. Whereas every centralised plan in history has failed, their plan alone will work, they will insist. Their conceit is fuelled by foolish pride, meaning that these people will never concede anything. Their utopian plan is the one! The thousands of others which have been tried and failed were no good, unlike their plan.

Of course, these people explain why socialist government always end in division. Why does a Chris Trotsky hate the Cindy central plan? The answer is, because it’s not the Chris Trotsky central plan. Agreeing on competing central plans is very difficult, and ultimately impossible, if you are a socialist.

New Zealand, after decades of weakness by National governments, is very socialist in composition. If National / ACT win next time, they mustn’t waste their victory.

What they should do is implement policies that support the working poor. Increase the band so that the working poor pay zero PAYE. Increase GST to pay for it. Don’t increase unemployment benefits (after raising GST), so the working poor can earn far more than the unemployed. The incentive structure needs to be fundamentally adjusted, so people are encouraged to work.

These are the types of policies National needs. The tax cut offered should have been to lift the bottom tax bracket, eventually taking out one third or half of taxpayers out of PAYE. This would have been far more popular than reducing the top rate of tax.

I think that for National / ACT to win, they need to attract working poor as well as middle class voters. This is where they need to up their game.

Make it so…
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March 27, 2022 11:57am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Even if National/Act win, the socialists will still not get a job. They are welfare dependent even with a State bogus job
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:06pm
  - GJM
    
    True but it is cheaper for us to pay the wellington moochers the dole instead of their bloated salaries. We can then get them to work for the dole or time limit it.
    
    9 2
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    March 27, 2022 12:37pm
- Ipanema69
  
  Agree with your point with respect to introducing a tax free band for everyone.
  
  Not sure that you would have to increase GST to pay for it.
  
  Reducing govt expenditure in non critical areas would be a good start.
  
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  March 27, 2022 12:12pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Good summary..and accords with my experience over a lifetime.
  
  Apart from making life easier for the working poor through tax breaks, I would actively target programmes of education and training that lead to practical or transferable skills.
  
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  March 27, 2022 1:20pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Democrats on Ukraine:
Amazingly the same ppl who want to take away our guns-mainly leftists-are the same saying we need to arm the Ukrainians. Do they not realize that’s exactly why war hasn’t reached our US shores in our lifetimes?!
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March 27, 2022 12:03pm
- Mike
  
  Didn’t the ‘war on terror’ make a little visit to the US in your lifetime, Steve?
  
  7 2
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  March 27, 2022 12:57pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    You must be on about the Japanese being on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska
    
    4 2
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    March 27, 2022 2:38pm
    - Mike
      
      Not in my lifetime, Steve, but I didn’t realise you were quite so old.
      
      1 2
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      March 27, 2022 5:54pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Not in my lifetime, it was WW2. The only time the enemy were on US soil.
        Btw, I am 70 this year
        
        1 0
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        March 28, 2022 8:14am
- MCōs
  
  Depends what you mean by ‘war’.
  There’s cyber warfare, war on drugs, 9/11, Jan 6.
  America hasn’t been invaded by another country in the sense that Russia has invaded Ukraine. It’s not practical.
  Those guns that nobody is taking off anybody would be perfectly useless in a war situation.
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:39pm
oldfella

George Orwell could almost be talking about Cindy and her handling of the Covid crisis.
‘At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question.’
Orwell in a preface he wrote for Animal Farm (1945), dropped by his publisher and not seen until 1972.
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March 27, 2022 12:05pm
- Mike
  
  I am sure that there are a vast number of ideas you accept without question.
  
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  March 27, 2022 5:51pm
Jack5

New Zealand as a Silicon Valley?

Bull-dust blowing politicians keep throwing this up as a goal, and Dileepa Fonseka, at Stuff, raises some reality versus mirage. The non-Government promoters, ever short of workers, state the answer is immigration,and more immigration.

Consider a more successful digital country. It has a population about a quarter of New Zealand’s.

Estonia’s where Skype was developed, and it’s taken the road of focusing on education (it takes 15.5 per cent of the national budget), and innovations such as:

– E residency, which allows people around the world to start Estonian businesses without being in the country.

– Digital ID’s for citizens, embracing tax payments and voting.

I looked for ranking of Estonia’s education, and found this, from 2018:

Estonia’s 15-year-olds rank 1st in reading, science and mathematics in Europe. In the world, Estonia’s students rank 5th in reading, 8th in mathematics and 4th in sciences.

Time New Zealand got a realistic view of itself. We don’t have inherent super-skills in technology.

We are slipping to the back of the pack as we focus schools on BLM-style, anti-colonial history teaching, and on promoting a remote, tiny indigenous language. What we need is education focus on (world) science, maths, and major international languages, including English.

While our madness continues, talk of NZ becoming a Silicon Valley is hot air.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/08/how-estonia-became-a-digital-society.html
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March 27, 2022 12:06pm
- kevn
  
  @Jack5… People must be confused thinking that being social media users is tech savvy.
  
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  March 27, 2022 1:31pm
- Mike
  
  I certainly can’t imagine Estonians promoting their indigenous language or teaching any anti-colonial history, Jack.
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:28pm
  - Jack5
    
    The kids learn English, Mike.
    
    In 2012 half Estonians spoke English, a high proportion given that Estonia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1990, and that it has been left with a Russian ethnic minority of 25 per cent.
    
    Estonian children in “middle school”can learn, a as their first foreign language English, French, German or Russian, and most learn English.
    
    Estonians don’t have Black Lives Matter anti-colonialism. They just relish their independence from Russia.
    
    Estonians don’t think that Estonia has a unique indigenous “science,” and, helping their sense of history, their native language has been a written one for about 700 years.
    
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    March 27, 2022 8:08pm
H. Upmann

Cake: “‘I have spent a lifetime trying to understand socialists. ‘”

Give up mate. You will never win and I am sure there are more meaningful things to ponder and occupy your mind.
12 2
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March 27, 2022 12:18pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Just imagine a sensible person then take away reason and accountability 😉
  
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  March 27, 2022 7:54pm
Maggie Pie

Had to larf…
.
I was just talking with Ma earlier to see what she’d been up to.
She was saying she bought one of those little push-button ‘Hand Tally’ counter thingies so she could record how often Marcus Lush says “UMM…..Anyway” in the course of his show.
Reckons on Friday it was 133 times between 8 & midnite.

No wonder it’s only retards who bother listening to him.
17 3
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March 27, 2022 12:59pm
- MCōs
  
  Shock Horror
  
  Old lady locked away in retirement gulag with radio and counter thingey.
  
  6 10
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  March 27, 2022 2:16pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    You’d be a long time listener wouldn’t ya Cossie?
    
    10 3
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    March 27, 2022 3:31pm
    - MCōs
      
      The last time I remember listening to talk back radio that I recall was when Brian Edwards was on Radio Windy.
      
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      March 27, 2022 5:27pm
- BeaB
  
  Ben Thomas could probably match him with the number of times he says ‘you know’ as he snuffles away.
  
  8 2
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  March 27, 2022 2:19pm
  - David Garrett
    
    BeaB: YES!! Isn’t that so fucking annoying? But nowhere as bad as “like” as a verb: “I was like, and she was like”….Fingernails on a blackboard.
    
    2 2
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    March 27, 2022 10:36pm
- Mike
  
  It’s a bit rude to call your own Ma a retard.
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:29pm
Inandout

Wall St, NY, bombing 1920.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/wall-street-bombing-1920
First I have even heard of this event and the identity of the bomber was never discovered.
6 0
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March 27, 2022 1:26pm
- Mike
  
  For the same era, look at the Bath School murders.
  
  1 2
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  March 27, 2022 5:42pm
KKKKatee

Our new house build begins tomorrow. Something to look forward to. We’ve had a rotten 4 weeks with the sudden death of a son-in-law in Hong Kong. We can’t get there to comfort our daughter and her small children. Here’s hoping Hong Kong will come to the realisation that they can’t control Omicron and it’s better anyway if every man & his dog gets it and life can get back to normal. I’ve had it. I survived. I’m unjabbed but with natural immunity.
14 3
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March 27, 2022 1:45pm
- MCōs
  
  Anyone who has had covid-19 has a degree of natural immunity; on average thought to be about three months.
  You obviously didn’t have it previously otherwise you wouldn’t have become infected.
  Not everyone gets infected. I was talking to a couple of blokes today whose wives had both been infected, but not them.
  I don’t know what sort of immunity that’s called.
  
  5 8
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  March 27, 2022 3:52pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    If it is related to blokes and their wives it will be called Heard Immunity 🙂
    
    8 1
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    March 27, 2022 5:34pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Regarding the period of immunity, it is complicated. Immunity generally attenuates more quickly for at-risk cohorts, but elements of any immunity can be very long lasting. For example, people born prior to 1918 that are still alive amazingly still have neutralizing antibodies to the 1918 flu pandemic strain. The same is true for those recovered from SARS-CoV-1 around 19 years ago.
    
    7 1
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    March 27, 2022 5:43pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    BS. You have zero idea what the immunity level is for natural immunity. “Thought to be”. Thought to be by who and based on what???? You are talking out your arse again.
    
    1 0
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    March 28, 2022 12:39am
Maggy Wassilieff

The damaging/deadly ideology of “natural birth”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/26/shropshire-maternity-scandal-300-babies-died-or-left-brain-damaged-says-report
9 1
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March 27, 2022 1:56pm
- Mike
  
  We see far to many misuses of language, like ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ being taken as synonyms for ‘good’.
  
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  March 27, 2022 2:32pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    We see far to many misuses of language
    
    two write
    
    Tho’ it wasn’t the language I was highlighting… It was the ideology that overwhelmed commonsense when medical intervention was required at an early stage of labour.
    
    10 1
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    March 27, 2022 6:39pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Mikey: Good Lord…the second time today I find myself in agreement with you.
    
    When I hear some dopey woman – it is usually a woman – waxing lyrical about this or that being “totally natural” I love to point out that tobacco, hemlock, deadly nightshade and fly agraric mushrooms are all “totally natural”…Oh and rhubarb leaves boiled as a vegetable substitute. Killed a lot of hungry Britons in WW II I believe.
    
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    March 27, 2022 10:41pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I’m not a biologist, I’m a Champion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBO7KH3b2W8
2 2
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March 27, 2022 4:30pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

19 years ago my wife gave birth to our son and today my son is pregnant and I’m gonna be a grandmother……
14 3
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March 27, 2022 4:32pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Had to larf when Ma said….”My generation had Wonder Woman, your generation has to wonder if it is a woman”
  
  LOL!!!
  
  20 3
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  March 27, 2022 4:54pm
Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes

has anyone found any comment from our govt about the talibans u-turn on girls in schools? didn’t jacinda send them $3m ? or was that the Montreal MOB?
5 0
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March 27, 2022 6:08pm
greybeard

I see that Sharon Murdoch’s filth is still being published.
7 2
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March 27, 2022 6:55pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  But who takes any notice of it?
  The woman is an idiot.
  
  5 1
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  March 27, 2022 9:32pm
Swifty

Ukraine.

Missiles inbound…..

https://leakedreality.com/video/detail/587
3 0
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March 27, 2022 7:19pm

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