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April 22, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 April 2022

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mikenmildagain

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Happy Earth Day!
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April 22, 2022 8:01am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes, went to Melbourne this time two years in a row, both times the lights were out in hotels, back to candle light, and the trains had people dressed up as animals
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:20am
  - curry4me
    
    It is “Earth Day”. This can only mean one thing. Go out and hire a Dodge Ram, or a Toyota Land Cruiser, and drive it from North Cape to Bluff. Thay’d be the “Green” thing to do huh?
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:39am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I thought I might just hire one and drive it around south Dunedin 😜
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:16pm
      - curry4me
        
        Yeah, driving one around South Dunedin would be a plan.
        
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        April 22, 2022 5:56pm
    - kevn
      
      @curry…. I just took a new Patrol out for drive. 5.6 litre petrol = grunt plus. Very slick vehicle. Perfect SI cruiser.
      
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      April 22, 2022 5:08pm
      - curry4me
        
        Sounds like a plan. I epect you’ll get a medal from “Green Lies” in 5,4,3,2,1.
        
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        April 22, 2022 5:57pm
- Keith White
  
  And who do we have to thank for Earth Day?
  
  “Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the “composted” body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.”
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:26am
- FrankC
  
  Ah yes! Today is the one day off the year when I replace every LED bulb in the house with an incandescent and leave then on all day. I also dig out all of the electric heaters, plug them in and turn them on. The oven gets put on full. The pile of old tyres that have been collected over the year are lit with great ceremony at sunset, to chants of “The greenies can go f**k themselves”
  
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  April 22, 2022 12:19pm
- cjn
  
  Alex Christoforou is reporting from Nicosia that the Germans and the Dutch are planning to drill for gas in the Black Sea in a UNESCO World Heritage site! The field is known to have billions of the stuff. They are prepared to chuck their green ideology, use the resources that the earth provides, keep their factories going and keep warm. Above all, stick it to Putin. What’s not to like? Happy earth day indeed.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:02pm
Scott

Chris Luxon came out yesterday and said that if elected National would get rid of the separate Maori health authority. The health system would target people based on need and not race.
National has already nailed their colours to the mast and promised they will repeal and replace three waters.

One can only hope and pray that the good people of NZ will consider more critically the bunch of irresponsible neo Marxist radicals that presently call themselves the government. In the middle of a pandemic they want to overturn the entire health system. To get rid of the DHBs brought in a by a previous Labour government to seek “equity” for Maori. Equity for these radicals means equality of outcome.

So according to them the system is racist if Maori people don’t have the same health outcomes as white people? This of course ignores personal responsibility for such things as diet and exercise by individuals. It ignores that Maori health is way better than it was in 1840 when average Maori life expectancy was in the 30s and old men were in their 40s.

But radicals like Andrew Little will overturn everything in a vain hope for equality of outcome. The new Maori health authority will institute race based apartheid favouring Maori and disadvantaging white people. Apparently they will have veto power over the other health authority whilst being a law unto themselves.

Make no mistake. This is the most radical, most unchristian government in the history of this country. The NZ public must wake up to the damage they are doing to the kiwi way of life.
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April 22, 2022 8:01am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Luxon has been saying this for months, why has it taken so long for people to pick this up, these people that say he is Labour lite beggar belief
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:25am
  - krazykiwi
    
    National has been Labour-lite for 30 years. Luxon’s words, encouraging as some are, are just words. His actions? Seriously, who knows?
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:24am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Can you point to one thing that has them on the same trajectory as this useless Marxist regime? Because I just can not see it, when ACT was set up 30 years ago, ACT were to chase the hard right, Nats to claim the centre to right, elections are only won in the centre, lose the centre lose the election, what is the suggestion you think Nats should do ? Chase the hard right as well as ACT and lose the centre for good?
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:21pm
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    Dr Reti “just asking the question” again
    https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/govt-back-down-on-veto-roundly-ignored-by-media
    
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    April 22, 2022 7:14pm
- Keith White
  
  Can Luxon be trusted?
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:26am
  - Keith White
    
    Bwahaha. Downvote away, the fact that y’all are triggered by just a simple question suggests that you’re very touchy and a bit cross about the realistic possibility he may not be trustworthy.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:47am
    - rockape
      
      Well the current PM certainly can’t. Where are those affordable houses Kiwibuild was going to produce. Where are all the jobs, why are we borrowed to the hilt. What has Jacinda delivered on that has made NZ a better place to live for Kiwis.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:11am
      - Keith White
        
        RA, I’d like to think I yield to no-one when it comes to the Marianas-Trench-depth of my disgust for the lying-and-incompetent current PM. That is quite different from believing the next one in line for the job can be trusted, yes?
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:19am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        And she swore to be the most open and transparent government, she has shown she is the most corrupt and untrustworthy PM we have ever had
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:25pm
    - Bevan
      
      I think the bigger question, is why are you so triggered by down votes?
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:24am
      - Keith White
        
        I find it amusing that asking a question gets downvoted. Methinks y’all doth protest too much, as the Bard saith.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:02pm
    - farbeyond
      
      Why don’t you tell us why we shouldn’t trust him and carry on trusting what’s happening under our noses for the past 5 years with clear impacts in housing, health, economics, racial & health divisions, education, poverty. Socialist ideas have been put to practice in other countries: they work until money runs out.
      
      Luxon may be labour little or whatever, but what he’s saying there are good news.
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:19pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Not touchy at all, just gob smacked when we have the most untrustworthy government in our history
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:23pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    I’m no Luxon fan, but there is more truth in any single sentence he utters than in the sum total of Ardern’s statements since entering parliament.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:47am
    - Keith White
      
      “Former Air New Zealand boss, turned National MP, Chris Luxon says he has “no recollection” of the company’s newly revealed ties with the Saudi Arabian military.” OK then Chris.
      
      This is not to say he at all likely to be as big a treacher* as Ardern – hard to see anyone descending to those depths. I am however intrigued that he is thought to be inherently trustworthy and will keep promises made when seeking office, after he gets elected. I’ve been voting for well more than a half-century and have yet to see such an electoral unicorn.
      
      *A treacher is a person who is treacherous.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:17am
      - Jack5
        
        Talk about black and White ….
        
        Air NZ’s newly revealed ties with the Saudi military were in the news media 14 months ago.
        
        They related to a subsidiary or Air NZ , through what Air NZ described as a third-party contract. The airline’s gas turbines unit worked on two engines and one power turbine module from vessels belonging to the Royal Saudi Navy.
        
        We haven’t been at war with Saudi Arabia and weren’t at war with Saudi Arabia. As a company, Air NZ has a duty to the 48 per cent of its shareholders who are not the State. The duty is to make a profit by legal means. The work for the Saudis was legal.
        
        The sale’s nothing compared with what Ardern is now doing for Ukraine, and she’d send them our old wheeled armoured vehicles if their armour was thick enough to stop the Russians’ serious bullets – and some ally would fly them to Europe. Ardern wouldn’t even charge the Ukrainians. Labour politicians and supporters think money just springs up like grass.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:25am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        We have been through this with passed and the new CEO, they all agreed that a price of less than $5 million would never have come across his desk, now what are you suggesting here ?
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:28pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        I guess Keith, Labour had better send Mike Williams off to Saudi to investigate this outrage. He’s done the job for them before in Australia with regard to John Key. And after all, the media has reported it as “ties” and therefore it couldn’t just be a simple sale, could it?
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:28pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Oh FFS, put it this way, I would rather trust him than this rotten corrupt Cindy Robbo side show
    
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    April 22, 2022 12:22pm
- curry4me
  
  That’s a really good move from Chris Luxon; promising to overturn the gummints racist policies.
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:41am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/465708/government-begins-drafting-indigenous-rights-plan
  
  Be very afraid.
  
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  April 22, 2022 2:48pm
- tf78
  
  Racism is a business and business is good.
  
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  April 22, 2022 5:27pm
krazykiwi

Trump is quite popular right now. Interested in commentary from the resident TDS sufferers, those whose heads have not exploded after seeing the linked charts.
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April 22, 2022 8:01am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Biden descended to Trump-like levels of disapproval ratings after his first year in office. The question is whether he can maintain that level to rival Trump as the most consistently unpopular president since WWII.
  https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/?cid=rrpromo
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:39am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That was according to the bullshit US woke media, in the real world he was polling in the 40s
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:26am
    - Caine9
      
      According to who? Most of the stats around popularity are made up, particularly when official statistics don’t tell the story some want to hear.
      A passionate belief that something is true, doesn’t necessarily make it so.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:04am
    - Its only I
      
      Genuine question.
      What is the fascination with the brand ambassador Trump?
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:31am
  - RoboRob
    
    I believe Biden is actually polling worse than Trump was at this stage of his presidency. According to some ‘left’ media sources Republicans usually poll worse than reality, so for Biden to poll worse than Trump is bad.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:03am
    - Batman
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Or to put it another way, for Trump to poll as badly as he did, during a golden economic period and record low unemployment, is an indictment on his performance by the public.
      
      Biden can at least attempt to blame a multitude of external factors including global inflation, the war, a tied Senate etc.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:13am
      - Don Beckett
        
        “….. during a golden economic period and record low unemployment,”
        And who was it that made it so ? Donald J Trump. Of course, the leftists claim that it was already tracking that way under Obama. Even if true, the US economy would never have hit the heights it did without Trump driving it. It has taken Biden only 15 months to reverse that success.
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:33am
      - blue collar
        
        Since you hv social media , Facebook , twitter , and search engines ( google ) owned by left wing nut jobs who then use them as censored political platforms
        Combined with msm think cnn or stuff here …. It’s hard to get your message across and dodge smear campaigns .
        Musk is sorting this , desantis , Candice Bergen , trump , Seymour n Luzon are the beginning of the pushback .
        The right will dominate and the madness will pass , everyone I know uses duck duck go , Facebook is the one to nail .
        Go get em musk
        How do we get rid of stuff ?
        I think we hv to send them broke , change ownership and provide new staff that report news not click bait , and no agendas from editors or columnists . Opinions are fine if balanced and reasoned
        At the moment the right is on a hiding to nothing worldwide , Fox News in the us , and the oz and uk versions and that’s it
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:57am
      - Batman
        
        Facebook is a massive booster of ‘conservative’ messages and personalities. It’s top ten posts every day are dominated by conservative sites and activists. so you’d be cutting off your nose to go after Facebook. Personally I welcome it if it means less Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino.
        
        Advocating for removing other media then saying Fox is what is allowed, is the opposite of free speech and free media. Which makes you the authoritarian with an agenda here.
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:09pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Polls have swung back to Trump, and daily Trump is being shown to have been right
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:32pm
      - Batman
        
        The generic Republican ballot you mean? Trump is still broadly unpopular and has proven himself unelectable.
        
        Meanwhile, Trump has been proven right about nothing at all:
        Iran? Worse than ever thanks to “maximum pressure” and pulling out of the JCPOA.
        Russia? Undermined NATO and provided the conditions for Putin to invade another country, while calling him a genius
        Economy? Proved that it is possible to poll under 40% in an economic boom with historic employment.
        Delusions? Proved that they don’t save you from being thrown out of office.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:16pm
      - blue collar
        
        I’m advocating proper journalism and free speech which all the above are against
        Hv a political leaning platform , fine , I just want it balanced .
        In Nz there is stuff who is a govt mouthpiece , and the herald …. Not enough journalism too many unbalanced opinions …. And Newshub which may be the best of the 3 .
        There is no right wing platform to counter stuff
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:06pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Dems are polling back where republicans were, but Biden is way down below where Trump was, these figures can be twisted big time
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:31pm
  - Phronesis
    
    The problem with that data is on the day they were elected Biden was on 55% and Trump on 44%. Yet the actual winning margin was similar. If you normalise the starting point to 50% to account for this obvious polling error then Trump was much more popular for his entire presidency.
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:10am
    - Batman
      
      So if you ‘normalise’ in your favour then it works in your favour?
      
      Wow, shocking stuff there.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:32am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Somewhere Mike, and I’m trying to find it, there’s a comparison of Biden v Trump average polls at the same time in their Presidency. And Biden has cratered so much, he’s below where Trump was.
    
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    April 22, 2022 2:34pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      The comparisons are in the link I provided above.
      
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      April 22, 2022 4:55pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes, they can say what they like about Trump, but he came from non politics stock, they hate the fact that he wanted to drain the swamp, the TDS fools should want the swamp drained as well, but hatred is at the centre of their TDS, it is very possible that Luxon may well want to drain the swamp also, let’s just see, he was quite strong on some points of He Puapua yesterday and He has spoken out about the extra 10000 bureaucrats at a cost of $2 billion a year, just maybe he will drain our swamp of pig troughers.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:54am
  - krazykiwi
    
    “it is very possible that Luxon may well want to drain the swamp also”
    
    Sadly, I disagree. Luxon is driven by polling and traditional ‘lets take office’ strategies, rather then by the kind of principles that draining a political swamp would demand. That person probably isn’t in parliament yet.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:41am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Luxon’s job is to appeal to swing voters not the right. The only way National has any impact is if they win elections. His personal preferences have little bearing on the job he has to do – and we likely won’t have clear idea of what they are until he is PM.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:29am
      - leoj
        
        …..a case of holding one’s nose when voting?
        
        Policy based on polling shows weakness.
        
        National has lost their spine.
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:28pm
    - blue collar
      
      Seymour is talking of closing unproductive departments Krazy , I’d call that swamp draining .
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:00pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Luxon has several times since day one referred to Labours 10000 extra bureaucrats, snd the value of 2billion, Seymour has just started saying it, again, people are not listening to what Luxon is saying
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:38pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        So would I. But MMP leads to lots of hui, and not so much dooey.
        
        The type of social, economic and political restructuring this country needs if we are to change the inexorable slide into neo-Marxist hell would, in my opinion, require both of:
        
        – FPP or an MMP coalition agreement with this public, and firmly in place before an election; and,
        
        – A PM who had campaigned on these initiatives and won
        
        We currently have neither of these, and so the most likely outcome based on past government changes, is tinkering at the edges which the other team scream blue bloody murder over, and which the National tribals pointed excitedly to as ‘progress’.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:40pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He has made comments of the 10000 extra bureaucrats bought in by this Marxist regime, he will do as previous Nat government’s have done, he will gut the bureaucratic bumfeeders and save 2 billion a year, now tell me, what part of that is not draining the swamp?
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:36pm
  - chukar
    
    If he doesn’t some one will have to!
    Trust has to be earned ,and so far National don’t cut it. Nowhere near!
    They have their own legacy of not keeping their manifesto promises.
    Just one example ,RMA history shows just how far National can be trusted!
    And don’t even look at their gutless climate change efforts.
    Many good hard working productive folk used to trust them.
    Not any more!
    
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    April 22, 2022 8:23pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  It’s true that he’s the least unpopular of the names listed, but he’s still in negative territory. Speaks to the overall calibre of runners, I guess.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:03am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Yes, agreed. It seems the market is more hot for blokey, boorish, bombasticism, but less so for senile wokishness kept in play by political fluffers. Perhaps Musk should throw his hat (and rocket and car) into the ring 🙂
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    If you are talking about Trump, polls in the states saying who would you vote for between Trump and Biden, he was polling at 54% quite high when you think independent support was double figures
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:29am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  CNN+ exploding as well
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:14am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Two weeks in and CNN+ struggled to make 10,000 daily viewers. Not the same metric, but Disney+ had 10,000,000 signups on its first day.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:20am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Is that the same Disney that the banana republic of Florida wants to punish?
      
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      April 22, 2022 9:29am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        The same disney that has lost 1/3 of share price in last year and a half. What’s that phrase, Get woke go…?
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:30am
      - Batman
        
        I mean you can claim that but there’s no evidence that it is related to allegedly going woke.
        
        Only those who really want it to be true
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:28am
      - Weetbix3ways
        
        Not so much a punishment as removal of special treatment – like $10m a year in tax advantages.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:26am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        @Batman, evidence? It depends who you talk to, and I suspect you are talking to the wrong people, or nobody.
        Disney is taking hits for its current wokeness. Along with theme parks that weren’t open, the fact that it’s fallen behind in making blockbusters and a few other things. But there has definitely been push back against them regarding their pushing gender ideology, LGBT issues (and in their films) and dumb arse decisions like Gina Carano. No one I talk to is predicting that Disney will be permanently damaged by all this (the only ones that will be damaged are the CEO and some senior staff when in due course, the DCM arrives). The question is, how long will ordinary Americans keep up any boycotts and angst?
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:46pm
    - RoboRob
      
      One of those has product that people want to watch. The other has ‘journalists’ doing cooking shows.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:06am
  - curry4me
    
    Yes CNN = has become CNN -. It ceases on April 30th.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:43am
- Scott
  
  krazy – thanks for posting that. Trump is certainly loud and brash and bombastic. However he is insightful. He knows things. He is a patriot. He wants to defend his country. He wants to lift all people up by making sure the economy is creating jobs for them. Under his leadership the American economy boomed and everyone became more prosperous.
  
  Our Prime Minister smiles nicely and speaks nicely and most liberals love her. She is not loud and brash and bombastic. However she knows nothing. She is not proud of her country and its past. She won’t spend an extra dollar on defence. She is seemingly unconcerned about creating jobs. She goes all the way to Singapore and all she can talk about is climate change which will not create jobs. Under her leadership the New Zealand economy is tanking and inflation is the highest it has been in a generation.
  
  Sometimes you have to look beneath the surface of outward appearances and see the truth of things.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:28am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Just look at his abrupt response to Germany at the table over support for NATO a couple of years ago, he told them you want us to support you, yet you buy oil and gas from Russia, he told them it will create trouble for you , the woke media said it was a disgrace, I watched as he calmly explained his reasons, and now he is dead right, the idiot Biden signed off the Russian pipeline, and all has turned to shit, the media should humbly apologise, but silence is their middle name these days
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:35am
    - RoboRob
      
      Trump was very insightful in relation to Nato and Russia. Ironically the least interventionist president in recent times (Trump) turned out to have the best foreign policy.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:08am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Exactly, that’s before mentioning the southern border
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:40pm
    - kowtow
      
      One of the first things Creepy , Sleepy Joe did was shut down keystone XL.
      Still is of the view that biggest threat to US security is climate change , this while the southern border is overwhelmed , the Russians invade Ukraine and the Chinese expand in the Pacific .
      
      What an idiot.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:59am
      - Batman
        
        What was Keystone XL? A pipeline to pass oil to the Gulf Coast for export. It wasn’t a magic fountain of oil, or even an oil field!
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:02am
- RoboRob
  
  Dangerous topic!
  
  Initially I supported Trump, I liked some of his policy and his ‘I’m not a politician’ status. Late in his term I just gave up, the amount of discord around him and the polarisation you refer to put me off. For me it’s not about the man (although I do dislike the narcissism), more that I don’t want another 4yrs of fake scandals, extreme reporting and highly emotional political debate. One of my colleagues, who is a smart person, even went so far as to call Ivanka a prostitute.
  
  I would much prefer someone new, such as Ron Desantis. I know the left (and associated media) would still go crazy but it might be a little too obvious if they went quite so hard 😊 One can only hope.
  
  Re the poll results posted. Not as good for Trump as I would have expected!
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:01am
  - mawm
    
    During my lifespan every Republican President has literally been called “Hitler”. It’s what the Dems do. This time it was worse because their darling, Hillary, lost and lost badly despite their election cheating. The whole State Department had been moulded to support her and the DOJ to support the Democrats, so when an outsider won they did everything they could to destroy both his Presidency and him. To this day it is continuing as they try to find something criminal in his past so that he can be gaoled and prevented from running again. Without wholesale cheating they know they don’t stand a chance of winning.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:49am
    - Batman
      
      And every democratic candidate gets called a socialist 😂
      
      The rest of your comment is a fantasy novel mate.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:03am
      - leoj
        
        ….that’s because they are………
        
        12 1
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        April 22, 2022 12:32pm
      - Batman
        
        Proof of the reality bubble, thanks Leo.
        
        1 13
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        April 22, 2022 1:12pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        So you think the Squad pushing Biden into idiotic banning oil and gas when they were self sufficient in oil and gas is not socialist crap then you are blind as well as
        
        12 1
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        April 22, 2022 12:43pm
      - Batman
        
        Did you see what was actually banned? Some drilling on federal reserve land.
        
        And the squad wasn’t responsible, it was a campaign promise.
        
        You can live in your bubble all you like but it doesn’t make it true.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:31pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Every Dem does get called a socialist (and many of them now identify as such, you know ‘democratic socialist’). How does that change the assertion that Reps get called hitler (and now racist)? Do you disagree?
        
        To my recollection Don, Bush and Bush were all regarded as such. There was also a big push to imply the later were mental midgets.
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:21pm
    - blue collar
      
      Bang on mawm
      
      7 1
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      April 22, 2022 12:50pm
- ngatimozart
  
  Maybe amongst his own supporters. Interesting thing about polls and statistics. You can shape polls and statistics to reflect your own bias, or a preconceived answer.
  
  Case in point, very recent referendum in Donbas, Ukraine town which was overrun by Russian army. All the young ones who made up majority of population had left being evacuated to more secure parts of Ukraine, so only left a minority of older residents in the town. Town hall meeting called and majority vote to become part of Donbas Peoples Republic. Yet the voters present only make up a minority of the towns registered voters. It could also be argued that the referendum was done under duress.
  
  Another point about Trump, if he was President now he would’ve most likely hindered any support to Ukraine in it’s fight against the illegal unprovoked Russian invasion. He still thinks that the sun shines out of Putin’s arse, even after the evidence of Russian war crimes has been made public, and an independent war crimes investigation has started. BTW I have seen uncensored video of the Bucha and other atrocities. Not the stuff shown by media.
  
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  April 22, 2022 3:26pm
kevn

@kk… How does biden even rank?
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April 22, 2022 8:08am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Because he’s not bending over for Putin like the blackmailed Donald did.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:17am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Biden can’t even walk off the podium in the right direction let alone bend over.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_59agcnLAj4
    
    As Billy Connolly once said when referring to Reagan, “Reagan has his finger on the big red button – my father’s younger than him and we won’t let him near the remote for the telly.”
    
    The same applies to Biden.
    
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    April 22, 2022 8:26am
    - Batman
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      As Mike points out, this only shows that the US needs younger candidates.
      
      Trump can’t walk down a ramp and Biden ain’t any better as his medical did say his gait is a bit stiffer now.
      
      This is why I was a Pete guy, despite the ingrained ‘but can he win?’ homophobia against him that came with it.
      
      4 40
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      April 22, 2022 9:21am
      - Nukuleka
        
        Batman: It is not homophobic to oppose same sex marriage or to oppose same sex couples adopting children or using surrogacy to have children. It is simply an opinion based upon the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman and that children have the right to a mother and a father. I note that the Washington Post lists Pete Buttegieg in 2nd place behind Biden in its list of favoured Democratic candidates for the 2024 race. Interesting times.
        
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        April 22, 2022 9:45am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Fortunately Batman, for America, Pete didn’t win. His hamfisted handling of the Secretary of Transport that he was handed shows what might have been. NYPost reported: “Buttigieg was always going to be a lightweight transportation chief. He got the job as a reward for dropping out of the presidential race and throwing his support to Joe Biden — and also because he said he likes trains, having gotten engaged at a train station”.
        I’d dare to suggest that he would have been an even more lightweight President if he’d made it.
        
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        April 22, 2022 9:56am
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        If Buttegieg can be President of the US we may as well have Grunter.
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:02am
      - RoboRob
        
        Pete is widely regarded as a politician with no ideals or beliefs. He is extensively poll driven, if a poll says something is popular he is in favour of it.
        
        Apparently (I haven’t watched it), this is very clear in his documentry.
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:12am
      - Batman
        
        Sounds perfect for modern politics in the era of the ideologically-challenged anti-liberal movement then!
        
        He still gets called a socialist by the MAGA clan though. Funny that.
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:36am
      - Frank the tank
        
        Pete “buy a couple of kegs” will never be President after his Kelvin Davis-esque performance as Secretary of Transport. Small town mayor was his ceiling.
        
        Ron Desantis on the other hand:
        
        -Harvard/Yale Graduate
        -Navy Seal
        -Successful Governor. Turned Florida from Toss-up to Lean GOP.
        -Does what he says he will do
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:17am
      - Batman
        
        De Santis is a weirdo who is obsessed with revenge on donors (Disney), gay people, and who is having sex with whom.
        
        Gerrymandering is not a sign of success, in what should be a democracy.
        
        He plays to the culture war Maga base (which includes you my friend) and they absolutely lap it up like willing worshippers.
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:34am
      - leoj
        
        Your being a “Pete” guys says much.
        
        Commentator, moderator and now woke lefty.
        
        You do realise that most on here give you the red cross regardless of your comments. This reflects the fact that we know where you are coming from and that most here regard you as a nincompoop.
        
        How and why DPF continues to allow you to moderate is beyond belief.
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:39pm
      - Batman
        
        Oh very personal. I’m so hurt that I’m going to go to the pub later and have a nice time!
        
        Yes I realise that many here are extremely locked into their reality bubble of stringent reactionary anti-liberal views.
        
        When I said I was a Pete guy, I mean that as he was my preference of the Dem field. Not that I am actually a Democrat or am left wing. You’re just really keen for that to be true so you can continue ignoring alternative views.
        
        What does anyone’s political views have to do with volunteer work? I’m sure you’d be welcome to volunteer as well as long as you can be dispassionate in approving things you disagree with!
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:36pm
      - Swifty
        
        Frank the Tank – Desantis was never a Navy Seal, to my knowledge.
        
        He was attached to the Commander of Seal Team 1 to provide legal advice.
        
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        April 22, 2022 4:59pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Enough of your crazy conspiracy theories today Brian.
    
    23 2
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    April 22, 2022 8:42am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Most lab-created, super-heavy elements only exist for microseconds or nanoseconds before decaying. I believe have stumbled on a new element (118), which I’m calling Brianmcdonaldium. This element flatulently struggles into existence before being instantly pummeled to oblivion by nearby elements.
    
    49 5
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    April 22, 2022 8:43am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Atomic number 118 is already named oganesson.
      I suggest you update your jokes when cutting and pasting them from the internet.
      
      4 33
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      April 22, 2022 8:52am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I’ve got a name KK, and don’t hide away. You could say what you liked to me, in person. And no one has ever pummelled me into oblivion as you would find out dearest.
      
      1 54
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      April 22, 2022 8:53am
      - krazykiwi
        
        You misunderstand, Brian. The newly discovered element Brianmcdonaldium is comprised of your comments. Not of you personally.
        
        29 3
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        April 22, 2022 8:59am
      - Andrew S
        
        ‘You could say what you liked to me, in person. And no one has ever pummelled me into oblivion as you would find out dearest.’
        
        Whoa, hold your horses Brian. Never the less, I’ll play your BS game.
        
        ps, my nick name is Mako, I’m not Maori and I’m not a crim…..Drew
        
        21 1
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        April 22, 2022 9:04am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        And like a flatulent emanation, it occasionally lingers on, stinking up the joint.
        
        28 1
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        April 22, 2022 9:05am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Metaphorically you have, every time you post one of your inane comments. I presume your veiled threat implies physically. You obviously just haven’t met the right person yet.
        
        21 3
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        April 22, 2022 9:05am
      - Opie
        
        [deleted, unnecessary – Mod]
        
        0 4
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        April 22, 2022 10:26am
      - Opie
        
        So it’s OK for Brian to threaten krazykiwi, but not ok for us to call him on it?
        
        7 1
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        April 22, 2022 1:54pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Shee-ite Brian! That’s right, it’s all flooding back now. Prostitutes pissed on Trump in a hotel in Moscow. How could anyone forget about that?
    
    19 4
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    April 22, 2022 8:45am
  - bjools
    
    NO…that would be Obama….
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxEDomUlXw
    
    12 2
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    April 22, 2022 8:47am
    - pdm
      
      I thought Obama was not allowed to go anywhere without Michelle holding his hand.
      
      9 1
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      April 22, 2022 9:44am
  - alloytoo
    
    You appear to be about two years behind the news, the Steele dossier has long been discredited and the Durham enquiry is methodically unravelling the sordid trail which appears to originate with the Clinton campaign.
    
    24 3
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    April 22, 2022 9:00am
    - fredonas
      
      Fusion GPS was paid first by Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio to dig up dirt on Trump during the Republican primaries and after Trump got the nomination, Hillary paid Fusion GPS to continue their “investigation” to use during her campaign. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/us/politics/steele-dossier-trump-expained.html
      
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      April 23, 2022 2:38pm
  - Jim
    
    Brian, that story has since been officially resigned to the fiction section of Clinton’s memory hole. This is the more influential issue to consider:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54553132
    
    17 1
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    April 22, 2022 9:07am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No, his son bent over for Putin as we are going to officially find out soon
    
    15 2
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    April 22, 2022 9:36am
- Rich Prick
  
  Entertainment value, perhaps.
  
  19 3
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  April 22, 2022 8:18am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    More entertainment than you could handle RP.
    
    1 44
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    April 22, 2022 9:03am
    - Jimmy Brown
      
      Didnt you shoot someone?
      
      29 1
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      April 22, 2022 9:21am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      ‘no one has ever pummelled me into oblivion as you would find out’
      
      Have you learned nothing from your experiences, Brian?
      
      24 1
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      April 22, 2022 9:23am
      - David Garrett
        
        Nevermind: Of course he hasn’t! He’s a violent psychopath one uncontrolled rage away from his THIRD homicide…and although he likes to accuse me of “hiding in the swamp” he knows exactly where I live…funnily enough he’s never been out here…well if he has, he’s never had the guts to drive down the driveway. But then I’m not a 16 year old girl waiting for a taxi…
        
        Oh, and he’s MUCH taller than me…for some odd psychopathic reason he likes to remind everyone of that.
        
        42 3
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        April 22, 2022 9:51am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Personally, I think Brian McDonald and David Garrett are both deeply unpleasant people who have a history of violence, and implicit violent threats on this blog. I suppose one of them has a more extensively documented criminal history than the other, we should always remember that much crime is never reported, or never investigated successfully, let alone prosecuted.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:10am
      - David Garrett
        
        Milky: You say that I deserve to be regarded with the same odium as a two time killer – and put your name to that comment – I will sue your arse until you feel like you’ve been fucked by a train.
        
        17 3
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        April 22, 2022 12:25pm
      - David Garrett
        
        …but of course you’d never put your name to that slur because you are a sniveling gutless little internet troll…and truth be told you’ve probably got few assets other than your house in Tawa or Lower Hutt so you wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
        
        21 3
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        April 22, 2022 12:27pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Oh gear, David.
        Perhaps you had better start by contacting the publisher of the allegedly defamatory comments. Or even taking some advice from a lawyer who knows something about defamation.
        
        1 12
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        April 22, 2022 1:43pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Earlier today the anonymous troll Mikenmild (aka “Mike”) compared me to the murderous Brian Ronald McDonald, suggesting that I had “a history of violence”. As will be obvious, the accusation stung – even from an anonymous troll.
        
        McDonald’s convictions are for manslaughter and murder, both in the High Court of New Zealand. My “conviction” was entered in the Fasi Magistrates Court in Tonga, in proceedings conducted in Tongan – I had a barely adequate translator to assist me – before a judge who had no legal qualifications.
        
        When I was fighting to regain my practising certificate in 2011, I asked the former Chief Justice of Tonga for a reference. He happily provided one. On the subject of the assault, he said this:
        
        I recall the incident that received some prominence in New Zealand towards the end of last year involving Mr Garrett’s conviction in the Magistrates Court at Nuku’alofa in April 2002 on an assault charge involving Dr Puloka, a local psychiatrist…although the incident was subject of considerable ‘gossip’ in legal circles at the time, the assault conviction came as some surprise because the reality was that Dr Puloka had a well established reputation for resorting to provocative acts and unruly behaviour when under the influence of alcohol. All the reports indicated that he was in such a state of intoxication at the time of the incident….I am aware that although he is related to royalty, he had been barred from the Royal Nuku’alofa Club on numerous occasions for his unruly behaviour.
        
        In 2006 [four years after the alleged assault] Mr Garrett was appointed to the ranks of Senior Counsel…I was Chief Justice at the time and the appointment was made after consultation with my brother judges on the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
        
        Readers can decide for themselves whether I actually assaulted Puloka – he didn’t deny hitting me and was fined $100; I was fined $10.
        
        If anyone would like a copy of the complete letter they can email me on: d.garrett@xtra.co.nz
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:47pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  It amuses me very much that supporters of Biden point to Trump’s obvious decrepitude, while supporters of Trump point to Biden’s similar weaknesses. It should be clear that neither of these doddering near-octogenarians is up to the very demanding task of presidenting.
  Peoples’ preferences for one or the other certainly cannot be based on their respective health or intellectual capabilities.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:27am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    The difference is Mike, that Trump can still hold a conversation, he can still coherently answer questions from reporters, still run a multi billion dollar business and still think. Biden, not so much. And by the way, you will recall that the Democrats INSISTED that Trump take a cognitive test, as they were assuring everyone that he was suffering mental degradation. Well he did take the test, and got through with flying colours. Biden on the other hand, has NOT been asked by the Democrats to take the test, and prima facie, wouldn’t have a dogs show of passing it. And if you, for one minute, think that Biden is OK mentally, you are a raving lunatic.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:11am
    - Batman
      
      I realise it is an article of faith amongst the MAGA brigade but the medical assessments simply don’t show a need for it.
      
      https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-unlike-trump-didnt-take-cognitive-test-annual-exam-sanjay-gupta-says-1651558
      
      Trump did it because his ego demanded he do it, and gave a North Korea-esque score of 30/30 for it. Then again, it is a test applied to people who are considered to potentially have dementia so passing it was probably straightforward for anyone not in a clear state of decline.
      
      The refusal to accept that Biden simply has a stutter and is slow on his feet, is telling that the believers don’t want to accept the possibility that the mental incapacity meme is not true.
      
      He is 79 and if he had it, he would be very advanced by now.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:45am
      - mawm
        
        “He is 79 and if he had it, he would be very advanced by now.”
        
        This is patently untrue. With age there is advancement of dementia but at what age is individualised. With regards to Biden he has many more symptoms than having a stutter and being slow on his feet like emotional instability, physical disorientation, loss of train of thought, making up stories because he can’t remember the past, etc.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:05am
      - Batman
        
        Can you please point us to your medical profile? as you clearly are professional and thus qualified to identify these traits.
        
        Otherwise that is just more regurgitation of the echo chamber’s talking points.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:33am
      - David Garrett
        
        He is 79 and if he had it, he would be very advanced by now
        
        I’m no expert in dementia Batman (there are several dementias aside from Alzheimers) but I’m not sure you are right. As I understand it, dementia can strike people as young as 45, and others die at 95 in full possession of their faculties.
        
        Winston Churchill was 90 when he died, and probably then senile, but ten years earlier he was PM for the second time. My own mother also shuffled off at 90 and, according to my sisters, was still sharp as a tack – and undoubtedly just as evil.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:10am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Enough with the Churchill worship. Churchill had already suffered minor strokes before being re-elected at age 77, and was severely incapacitated by a major stroke in 1953. He was clearly past it.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:18am
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        I have friends in their 40s who have had strokes, and both recovered well and one is a senior manager for DoC, and an avid hunter. So just like the age which dementia strikes, and how severe it might be at an a particular age, I will make the stunning observation that “It varies”.
        Mike: I don’t read any “worship of Churchill” in the statement that he was probably senile at 90 and was PM 10 years earlier.
        You do have an ability of late to infer things that aren’t there, and then try and attack a poster for it.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:03pm
      - mawm
        
        Batman – my qualifications are none of your business. Nothing I said about dementia is controversial however if you want to refute any of the points in my comment do so instead of making snide ill-informed comments.
        
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        April 22, 2022 5:27pm
  - RoboRob
    
    That’s because one of the two clearly suffers some degree of dementia. Hint it’s not the one that the Dems wanted to remove from office for mental incapacity.
    
    Interesting how the right is much less ‘nasty’ around mental health issues than the left was. Note that the Dems have 88yr old Dianne Feinstein who apparently cant even remember conversations she’s just had. This is only coming out now because Dems are worried she will stand again (and win because its California and any Dem will win).
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:22am
    - Batman
      
      Uhhh, several points here:
      
      – the left tried to remove him for blackmailing a foreign leader with war aid. Mental capacity was talked about on Twitter etc but never formally by Congress (glasshouses re Feinstein and all the other elderly folk there etc).
      
      – there is no evidence that Biden has anything more than a combination of being a bit older and having a stutter which he deals with and occasionally causes word replacement as a result.
      
      – Feinstein was raised last year but the mainstream media didn’t want to say anything and are indeed only now reporting concerns about it. She should retire as it seems she legitimately does have issues (which should not be diagnosed by anyone other than her doctor).
      
      – the right is passing Bills left right and centre which target vulnerable people such as LGBTQ and trans people. So the claim of less nastiness is totally without merit.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:30am
      - blue collar
        
        Vulnerable because they are trans or whatever ? Why are they vulnerable ?
        Who are you to put them in a victim box ergo that they deserve special treatment ?
        The right are passing laws to ensure equality for all ….. no special treatment .
        
        8 1
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        April 22, 2022 1:02pm
      - Batman
        
        They’re passing laws banning the recognition of these kids existence as regular kids. There’s no Bannon talking about straight people or God, because that is the preferred political view.
        
        I posted this elsewhere but this shows exactly how they’re vulnerable. Imagine growing up and trying to figure yourself out, then your teacher tells everyone that your parents are pedo groomers. It is disgusting stuff and an old bit of homophobia.
        
        https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2022-04-22/fear-anxiety-for-texas-trans-kids-under-gop-attack/
        
        “In one particularly harmful incident, her child’s teacher claimed, in front of the classroom, that the reason her child is transgender is because they were groomed by their queer parents.”
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:42pm
      - RoboRob
        
        You are conveniently missing my point.
        
        A number of very prominent Dems were pushing for impeachment based on mental capacity (whatever amendment it is). The unbiased media picked up on this and ran multiple hit jobs with phycologists saying that based on TV viewing they 100% could confirm Trump was loosing his marbles. It got so bad that Trump went and did the mental tests. Even after the testing there were calls that he had used his own doctor and it was fake.
        
        Ring a bell?
        
        I see you posting a lot about people in their bubbles and bias. You also seem unwilling to acknowledge facts when it goes against your view.
        
        p.s. One poster above says the red tick all your posts. I don’t, I even green tick the ones I agree with and are well made. It’s nie to have alternate views.
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:14pm
      - RoboRob
        
        @bat
        
        ‘I posted this elsewhere but this shows exactly how they’re vulnerable. Imagine growing up and trying to figure yourself out, then your teacher tells everyone that your parents are pedo groomers. It is disgusting stuff and an old bit of homophobia.’
        
        My understanding is that the law would stop this too. The idea is that kids less then 8yrs shouldn’t be dealing with these issues. Obviously if you are Trans and under 8 you would be best working with your parents on this.
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:18pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Agree, significant cognitive decline kicks in in your 50’s so we really shouldn’t have any septuagenarians in govt or other critical cognitively demanding professions where decisions can cost lives (surgeons, pilots, air traffic controllers….) . Biden, Trump, Peters, Pelosi, McConnell, Feinstein, Clinton, Sanders, Putin etc should all be ousted or kept out of govt.
    
    5 4
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    April 22, 2022 10:47am
    - Batman
      
      It isn’t guaranteed.
      
      Nobody seriously suggests that McConnell, Romney, Clinton or Sanders suffer from cognitive decline.
      
      Remember the Hillary health scare?? What hilariously innocent times those were, with that totally meritless accusation laundered by Russian state media.
      
      4 9
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      April 22, 2022 11:05am
      - mawm
        
        The primary symptom of dementia is memory loss. After Clinton’s famous interview where she declared she could not remember to numerous questions it makes hard to defend your claim that Clinton does not suffer from cognitive decline.
        
        One cannot say that any of those you mentioned has no cognitive decline without proper assessment. At least 25% of those 65 or older have some identifiable cognitive decline when properly tested.
        
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        April 22, 2022 5:49pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Agree, significant cognitive decline kicks in in your 50’s
      
      A totally incorrect generalization…see my comment above.
      
      7 3
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      April 22, 2022 11:12am
      - mawm
        
        Agree but there is a decrease in brain plasticity – ie a decreasing ability to alter neural pathways or make new neural connections.
        
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        April 22, 2022 5:54pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Bwhahahaha, he is number one for shitting his pants,
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:55am
Matt Long

Water quality standards proposal from D Parker for those who rent out a house or holiday home or air bnb includes, daily testing of Chlorine and pH for those who are spring fed plus UV treatment.
UV treatment for all rainwater fed systems, written plan for cleaning gutters every three months, carry water samples at 4 degrees Celsius to water testing facilities.
Here’s a special idea; that during a power cut access to water must be cut to avoid untreated water (UV) entering a house. If your power cut goes on for a week I guess you get stinky and hope your supply of grog doesn’t run out.
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April 22, 2022 8:09am
- G152
  
  Dont give them ideas
  
  11 1
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  April 22, 2022 8:10am
  - Yvette
    
    G152, negotiate your way around the Maori-language-dominant website – https://www.taumataarowai.govt.nz – and you will realise it is not a matter of “Dont give them ideas” but that those “ideas” already exist!
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:41am
    - G152
      
      Sorry.
      I can only understand English.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:48am
- CJames
  
  What does this relate to?
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:12am
  - Matt Long
    
    New domestic water standards to sit alongside 3 Waters.
    A response to the contaminated water supply in the Hawkes Bay
    
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    April 22, 2022 8:25am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The water in HB was contaminated a incompetent fool at DOC or the regional council, forgot to put lid back on borehole cover, the water was only polluted because of that incompetence and flood
      
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      April 22, 2022 8:57am
      - Matt Long
        
        Never waste a crises when it gives an excuse to introduce draconian regulations.
        
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        April 22, 2022 10:21am
      - CJames
        
        That wasn’t what actually happened if you bothered to read the report, but it was incompetent asset management by the District Council
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:12pm
- Stuart
  
  link?
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:23am
  - Matt Long
    
    Highlights from a slide show presentation, there’s much more.
    I believe Yvette has posted the official government link above.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:38am
- Albert_Ross
  
  So we don’t agree that if you rent a property from somebody, you should have a reasonable expectation that the water there is safe?
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:26am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Any reputable renter would make sure the people renting were told about the water source and to act accordingly. When we had just a bach and friends came to visit we would tell them, it’s creek water. We’ve never been sick, but if you’re concerned, boil it for drinking.
    It doesn’t need to involve more layers of bullshit bureaucracy, waste and incompetence. The world is already over regulated with moronic rules, particularly re “health and safety”. One of the reasons I stopped working on bigger job sites in Auckland in the early 2000s. Idiotic site “safety” induction courses.
    That’s always been the problem with bureaucracy, it’s like cancer. It keeps growing until it kills the host.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:40am
  - Matt Long
    
    Yes but are you prepared to pay an extra $50 per week for daily monitoring of chlorine levels to your rental?
    There have been cases of abysmal stupidity in allowing stock water to back flow into domestic supplies and mostly sensible regulations have covered this already. This a a slegde hammer to crack a nut.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:43am
- ClanMcleod
  
  We’re on tank water. Parker can go and impregnate himself.
  Our family have been drinking the stuff for 25 years without issue. Our community and many others for hundreds of years. Maybe he should try it.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:33am
- pdm
  
  I spent the first 17 years of my life on farms drinking water that was pumped into tanks from bores and supplemented by rain water off the roof.
  
  From memory once a year the tanks were emptied and cleaned of dead possums, rats and birds etc. No filters or other fancy stuff that I remember.
  
  Also no more diarrhea and other related problems than experienced in the other 59 years when I have been entirely on town supply.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:40am
  - graham
    
    I have lived on my lifestyle block for 15 years now, relying entirely on water caught from my roof.
    
    For the first few years we had no filters at all, but added some a while back. We simply use filters – no UV light or other fancy treatment. Three people in the house until recently including a child – no ill-effects at all. I clean the filters and gutters when I get around to it, maybe once a year.
    
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    April 22, 2022 8:48am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Sounds like every house around here too. Nobody has been sick and certainly nobody has died. One poor fool, new to the area, decided to get the water tested. Didn’t like the results and spent many thousands on putting in a high end UV system. 2 years later, same result. The only difference is everyone else in the street has a couple of thousand extra dollars and our neighbour has “peace of mind”.
      Their choice, as it should be. It certainly doesn’t need the heavy hand of the shiny bums and the extra expense that comes with it to justify these make work jobs.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:03am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I bet your bore was not left exposed to floods and sheep shit
    
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    April 22, 2022 8:58am
    - pdm
      
      Probably was G.
      
      As I recall the last one was down a steep bank by the woolshed nest to a swamp area of bullrushes and pukekos. Sheep and cattle were regularly in the paddock
      
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      April 22, 2022 9:48am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yes but the HB bore had a huge out let, it was supposed to have a screw on lid that was left off in by an incompetent, then the flood washed the sheep shit in, it was not the supply that was toxic, it was the incompetence
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:48pm
    - pdm
      
      Have no idea – the set up was of no interest to a teenager as long as the taps ran.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:10pm
  - Sacha
    
    We had a clump of chicken wire netting sitting over the down pipes to keep the pine needles out, When the gutter overflowed, we knew it was time to do a bit of clearing. I remember the concrete tank being cleaned out once when it was empty and we had a drought. That was the year we braved the largely unsealed and dusty Napier-Taupo road and went for a holiday to Taupo where there was water.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:05am
  - I remember when
    
    Benefits of a resulting stronger immune system?
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:16am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      No doubt. But of course, as covid has taught us, nature doesn’t know what it is doing and “science” and big pharma know best. Leave it to the the bureaucrats. //
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:05am
    - David Garrett
      
      I remember: I’m convinced the reason my children have no allergies – except one of them to penicillin – and just about all their mates have, is that they were brought up out here, on tank water.
      
      And just like everyone else who has commented thus, my tank has been cleaned out once in 15 years, and the gutters of grass and bird/possum shit whenever I get around to it. Oh, and when the tank was cleaned, there were the remains of two birds among the sludge at the bottom.
      
      Result: two happy very healthy kids with no allergies, and just the usual childhood 24 hour bugs.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:22am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Case closed. No need to invest in urban reticulated water at all. Just stop maintaining it altogether to encourage everyone to switch to healthier and cheaper tank water.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:22am
      - graham
        
        You’re on to it mikenmildagain.
        
        It would certainly help avoid the water shortages that we hear about every year if everyone caught their own water. Rather than trying to catch the rain in the limited surface area and store it in the limited holding capacity of our dams, imagine how much water could be caught and stored if every roof in New Zealand was catching water!
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:33pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Developed natural antibodies. Never figured out how those animals got in there, but they did. Late 50s, Te Kowhai (in the sticks)
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:20am
- artemisia
  
  Some such homes no longer wash their face anyway as rentals if the rents don’t cover the new compliance, costs and hassles. Common enough in rural areas. Add more compliance, costs and hassles and voila rented to family only. Or an additional implement shed.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:56am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  We have a water filter for unboiled drinking water. What moron thinks your bath water has to be uv-treated? Oh, a Lefty moron of course.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:01am
- DeepBlue
  
  Goodness. I’m on rain water, a few settling tanks and filters.
  All the UV filters are more power for off grid.
  
  The problem is that visitors don’t have the robust constitution of regular tank water drinkers so they can get belly ache, like us visiting India. Just leave them some bottled water or a boil note. That’s what rural living is.
  
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  April 22, 2022 7:47pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  So they’ll be closing all the DoC huts?
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:40pm
Tomtoddy

Some kid, wet behind the ears writing with the gall of an expert and given heaps of space in Stuffed suggests Transmission Gully is a bad idea. Building better roads is a waste and not needed the poor idiot concludes. We all need to be on bikes.

How do editors keep a straight face or sleep at night pushing such drivel?
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April 22, 2022 8:11am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They are trying to brain wash the young to vote green, it’s a problem for all, because the brain washers never appear to need to worry where their next dollar is coming from
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:00am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I read it. He is going on about the Easter jam at Peka Peka and saying that just proves that we don’t need motorways. The reason for the jam is that the motorway needs to be completed to beyond Levin, and preferably to Bulls. After that point the traffic seems to dissipate.
  
  His logic is absurd. Look at Australia. I have read about the history of roading investments in Australia. Until the 1980s, the highway from Sydney to Melbourne was much like New Zealand highways. Mostly two lanes. Same to Brisbane. The roads were dangerous and traffic jams were awful. There were also some high profile multi fatalities.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempsey_bus_crash
  
  Now you can get off the plane at Sydney Airport and drive 879 km to Melbourne on a freeway all the way. I have done it. And not a traffic jam anywhere.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:04am
  - MCōs
    
    Bulls is about 100km beyond the end of the Transmission Gully Road.
    That’s a lot of expenditure to relieve traffic congestion on holiday weekends; particularly building by passes around/over towns in the way like Waikanae, Bulls, Otaki, Foxton . . .
    Meanwhile north of Auckland the extension to the motorway seems to be taking forever, at great expense and it does nothing about the mess at Wellford after the Dome Valley.
    The problem in NZ, from my observation, is we don’t have the population willing to pay for a flash highway system, particularly when it’s cheaper to fly.
    
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    April 22, 2022 12:56pm
    - PaulL
      
      Yet you could get most of the remaining motorway between Auckland and Wellington for the cost of the Auckland trams. Are we willing to pay for the trams?
      
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      April 22, 2022 9:13pm
- Pavel
  
  Now that covid reporting is dying down Stuff have been forced to move some of their covid expert fact checkers into other departments. Writing opinion pieces fits perfectly with their recent work experience.
  The editor sleeps fine. Pre covid they were nearly bankrupt due to loss of advertising revenue but the government stepped in and fixed all that. Everyone at work praises him on how he turned such a useless company around and kept a bunch of obsolete journos, like the one who wrote that article, employed.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:06am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Editors have to put something in the blank spaces
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:22am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I’ll say. Especially between their ears.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:26am
Swifty

This incompetence from our civil service embarrasses us as a nation:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128421409/french-family-decide-to-sell-caf-and-return-home-after-dealings-with-immigration-nz

I’ve experienced first hand, and more than once, being asked for and having to furnish the same information repeatedly to the same government organisation and to say it is dispiriting is an understatement.

For years now, and especially since Covid, Labour and Green MPs, unionists, special interests, academics etc have praised our civil servants as literal ‘heroes’, ‘essential’, ‘unfairly rewarded for all they do’ etc all, of course, to keep them on side and oil New Zealanders up for more and larger civil service pay claims.

But what about this situation with this French family? Where is the accountability? Who will put their hand up for this incompetence?

Will the Minister resign? The CEO? Will someone in the middle rungs of Immigration be moved aside or out?

Or will the machine just roll on with nothing changing and no lessons being learned?

New Zealanders and potential immigrants to this country deserve better.
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April 22, 2022 8:16am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Labour’s immigration policies are disastrous and their department is an utter shambles. The only thing they can manage is a permanent lockdown do nothing. Just awful for everyone caught up in their idiotic incompetence.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:37pm
- krazykiwi
  
  “I’ve experienced first hand, and more than once, being asked for and having to furnish the same information repeatedly to the same government organisation and to say it is dispiriting is an understatement”
  
  One of my team, on a temporary work visa became unwell on return from a trip back to her homeland. With her visa due for renewal, she was instructed to get a full medical as part of the process. This she did. All clear. She’s probably healthier than I am. Then nothing for 2 months. Her next contact was from DIA saying her case manager had left, and the new case manager required her to get a full medical. Again. She is exasperated by the process.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:53pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    They don’t give a proverbial about anything except their rules and insane bureaucracy.
    
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    April 22, 2022 5:40pm
Frank the tank

So anyone else watching with bemusement the taxpayer funded pre-honeymoon of our Glorious Leader, the fisherman and the (selected members) of the team of $55 million.

So far they have achieved:
1). Kungflu testing (some failed LOL)
2). Wandering around Singapore port (find out where our containers are you f*ckers)
3). Singalong Karaoke with some people dressed up as Kiwifruit
4). Our Glorious Leader drawing some Japanese symbols (surprisingly not in crayon)

What’s next a trip to Disneyland Toyko? Visiting some washed up All Blacks playing rugby for Toyota?

FMD.
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April 22, 2022 8:17am
- bjools
  
  YUP…..looks like a tourist excursion to me.
  This is how a real leader behaves
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/pm-key-meet-us-president-white-house
  Ardern….not so much.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:34am
- mogg
  
  In Mariupol there are thousands of unburied corpses, civilians including children being bombed on a daily basis. Putin wants to starve the survivors to death / submission. What did Ardern have to say on this, “we must have rules based order”. She really is just a talking nodding head, the true definition of an airhead.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:14am
  - krazykiwi
    
    She’s completely wrong.
    
    What we need is order based on ethics and/or morals honed by civil discourse over centuries since the Enlightenment.
    
    In contrast, order based on rules, ie the arbitrary diktats of authoritarians, is what empowered Putin in the first place.
    
    Ardern probably aspires to be like Putin: Strong, decisive and sweeps the little people into the trash with nary a second thought to human rights.
    
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    April 22, 2022 2:00pm
- Harry Knuts
  
  I also wondered why the fisherman was in shot of the camera on some of these visits – has he crossed over to being on the public servant payroll perhaps? or just the one who carries the nappy bag?
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:52am
  - Batman
    
    Did you ask the same question about Bronagh Key or Mary English?
    
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    April 22, 2022 12:10pm
    - Frank the tank
      
      In regards to a short, sharp trade-based delegation trip what the hell is a spouse doing there in the first place. Sans child as well (it appears). It’s not like they haven’t been around each other.
      
      Remember this is on our taxpayer’s account and I would be asking the same question of a National PM’s spouse being on a trip of this basis.
      
      If you can argue for a specific reason for Gayford to be on the trip please enlighten us.
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:20pm
      - Batman
        
        It’s a week-long formal delegation mission to multiple countries where the spouses will be present at dinners and functions etc.
        
        It is entirely appropriate in diplomatic circles to bring your spouse. It’s a nicety but one that doesn’t get a single question when it’s a woman in tow.
        
        Re their daughter, well, people complain they use her as a prop when she appears in the odd photo and now complain that she isn’t there!
        
        I have a hard time believing you’d question John Key for taking Bronagh on those trips. You’re welcome to provide receipts of you doing so.
        
        This is all just partisan tantrum stuff because some people have a thing about Gayford.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:10pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She told us she was going there to talk trade, pathetic and full of shit, as we have trade deals with both countries, and all three countries including us are in the TTP, now what the hell was she to talk about
  
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  April 22, 2022 12:51pm
  - Batman
    
    When you sign a contact and have an active relationship with someone, do you then ignore them going forward?
    
    NZ is seeking improved trade terms and relations.
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:21pm
Prince

Tweet from TVNZ’s political editor. And they wonder why people question the media’s bias:

Maiki Sherman
@MaikiSherman
·
Apr 21
Is Christopher Luxon still intent on scrapping the Māori Health Authority or was he just kidding on that too?
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April 22, 2022 8:20am
- graham
  
  Most big companies have policies these days which essentially require those staff that are acting in an official capacity on social media to behave on the Internet and not draw the company into arguments or bring it into disrepute.
  
  I realise that Maiki Sherman is posting on her own private feed, but I’m quite surprised that TVNZ and other media organisations appear not to care if their reporters make blatantly political or biased posts. You would have thought that these organisations would be acutely aware of the poor optics if their reporters and political editors are perceived to have a blatant bias that could be seen to affect their job.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:32am
  - Paulus
    
    How could you say that Sherman is politically biased – she is both Maori, and heavily inclined Left.
    She wants Jessie’s job too when Jessie gets pregnant again.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:54am
  - Cassandra
    
    You’d think this person would be down the road pronto, but no, her (?) boss seems to agree, as does his/her boss etc. but will National sort this out? My recommendation to National is to post a note on every MPs screen: “What goes round comes round”. And add a definition of utu.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:05am
- Nickc2
  
  IMO, Maiki Sherman’s a Maori Radical masquerading as a journalist and using her position to influence public opinion rather than reporting unbiased facts.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:41am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Like Tova calling Seymour a cock womble…..
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:51am
    - Nickc2
      
      If Cindy heard her, she would recognise it as ‘Hate Speech.’ However, Cindy’s well known for selective hearing eh?
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:06pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      She knows her cock wobbles, JLR bring the worst of them
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:53pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He explained they won’t be dropping the holiday, he said it’s legislated, and once that holiday happens this June they won’t be going back on it, how the he’ll is that anything to do with getting rid of a separatist health board
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:42am
Frank the tank

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/florida-house-passes-bill-stripping-disney-of-self-governing-status

Happy now Bob? You have turned the Star Wars franchise into woke shite with the MCU heading the same way and now you have fu*ked yourself over at the happiest place on earth.

And the board of Twatter thought they had problems..

P.S. And that is why DeSantis has to be the next President as unlike Trump he gets shit done! he will build the wall.
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April 22, 2022 8:21am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Horseshit from petty Florida Republicans who have no ideology other than culture wars and using the power of the state to punish their opponents.
  
  It is corrupt. But that’s nothing new for the authoritarian anti-liberal movement.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:27am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Please explain how removing special treatment from one of the US’s biggest corporations is corruption? Disney (a Californian company) were literally attacking the Florida Government and trying to use their position to control what that Florida Government did. Disney bluffed De Santis and he called them on it.
    
    You use “culture wars” too often. You’re becoming one of those people that uses labels to ignore an argument. It’s not a good look.
    
    As for the “authoritarian anti-liberal movement” argument you keep using. It makes no sense. State teachers (lets be clear – this seems to be the main battleground of your “culture wars”) should not be teaching ideology to children, regardless of the ideology (including Christianity). Stopping them from doing this is not authoritarianism, it’s simply ensuring they do what they’re actually employed to do (you know, teach children, not indoctrinate them). Indoctrination of children is actually one of the main weapons of authoritarianism.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:53am
    - Frank the tank
      
      The proof is in the pudding. Florida was previously the bellweather seat and a toss-up. It is now a leans-GOP turning into a solid GOP state.
      
      This is in the main due to DeSantis and his fight against mandates and masking. Even democrat Floridians support his recent moves regarding education (and ironically won the Virginia governor’s race in 2021).
      
      Bat is salty over DeSantis. He was crowing in 2020 about how his approach to Kungflu would get him turfed out of office. In a reverse Midas the opposite occurred.
      
      Check his back story – impressive – college athlete; Yale/Harvard Graduate; Navy Seal then compare to Bat’s favorite Pete Butter “buy 2 kegs” – a B-grade small town mayor.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:42am
      - Batman
        
        Oh it must be nice to tell yourself comforting lies all the time, Frank. You live in the safest of safe snowflake spaces with no room for challenging thoughts.
        
        Florida is not solid GOP, it is still a swing state. Although the gerrymandering this week means it may not be harder to win. The state Dems have been pretty useless in Florida for a while.
        
        It is not due to DeSantis fighting the mandates and masking. That is red meat laced with crack which he has been feeding the base.
        
        The poll used to show Dems supposedly support the Bill was done by Republican research firm, Public Opinion Strategies. It was a cleverly designed poll to produce a bias answer for the GOP to use, which clearly was effective.
        
        Meanwhile in the real world, 60 percent of Americans object to such laws: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/10-americans-oppose-laws-prohibiting-lgbtq-lessons-elementary/story?id=83393478
        
        Destantis hasn’t been up for re-election yet, so I’m certainly not salty about the false claim you make. I just view Ron as a petty little piece of work with no actual governing principles other than attention and power.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:21am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Lol Batman, you haven’t done much reading about the Disney situation, have you? Republican’s “opponents” are the Democrats. A corporation with special rights given to them by the State Government, can equally have them taken away by the State Government. If Disney want to get involved in the rights and wrongs of policy making, then they get to suffer any consequences. Oh, and it’s not only the Florida Government that are giving them what-ho, their shareholders (and customers and subscribers) are voting with their feet. Who then, would be right?
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:25am
    - Batman
      
      Clearly you have done plenty of reading inside the swampy echo chamber.
      
      Disney pulled a donation at the end of last month. It’s always a case of follow the money with DeSantis. When Disney donated to him last year, it magically got the big tech censorship bill carve out two weeks later.
      
      Now DeSantis is mad and using the power of the state to undo a decades old arrangement, so he can go on Fox and tell the audience he is fighting the deep state pedos.
      
      Meanwhile, the people who live in Reedy Creek will face a $2,200 property tax increase, so they will quite literally be paying for Ron’s Trumpian pettiness.
      
      Erm, have you any proof of customers voting with their feet? Aside from a few die hard Maga people not buying Disney products, there is no impact. Certainly the streaming service has been posting decent numbers (which are self-selected by all these providers anyway so it is hard to tell).
      
      The share price is certainly going to be volatile given the uncertainty caused by the rash reaction of the Governor and his pet legislature (another juicy topic re their abrogation of responsibility).
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:59am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        De Santis has decided to punish Disney by relieving it of the burden of being responsible for all the municipal infrastructure servicing its site. He has also decided that he can do without Disney’s money and that attacking the major reason tourists visit Florida will work out well for him.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:30am
      - Batman
        
        He’s still got Spring Break and retirement villages though!
        
        Fun.
        
        Oh and the meth Gators 😜
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:35am
      - Frank the tank
        
        LOL you missed the cruise industry.
        
        You two would love Gatorland especially the female keeper that wears the MAGA hat.
        
        But don’t worry with 6 parks (2 more on the way); 10-odd hotels and 2 retail precincts there ain’t a snowball chance in hell Disney are moving from this site. The capitalization of the precinct alone would be New Zealand’s annual GDP.
        
        Ron knows this and has Disney over a barrel.
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:34pm
      - Batman
        
        That doesn’t make it acceptable governing practice. Acting like a mob boss (how very Trump) is not exactly a good thing.
        
        Yeah they employ nearly half a million people I think?
        
        That seems like something Ron should factor into his decisions…
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:47pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    I’d dare say the initial deal was the corruption dear Bat.
    
    Or would you be happy for Amazon to set up a distribution centre in Lower Hutt where they don’t have to adhere to NZ’s workplace laws on such things as minimum wages?
    
    Funnily enough the good people of Florida don’t share your view of the GOP and DeSantis.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:27am
    - Batman
      
      Oh I’m certainly not approving of such deals. Only disapproving of rash legislative change for political pettiness.
      
      DeSantis can be popular and also be a petty, corrupt supplicant. They’re not mutually exclusive. Florida is a weird place, after all.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:38am
      - Frank the tank
        
        Ever been Bat. We have.
        
        We found Floridians hospitable, lovely people almost without exception.
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:38pm
      - Batman
        
        Oh the hospitality is for sure real and warm.
        
        There’s still the Florida Man angle though
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:45pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Wouldn’t Disneys woke agenda be the ‘culture war’?
    
    The state keeping sexual agendas out of under 8yr old schooling sounds pretty sane to me. Also seems like an ideology to me? You know ‘the God, Family unit’ type Republican ideology.
    
    What was insane was that Disney could act as a local government and tax locals. What a weird agreement and probably time for it to go.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:37am
    - Batman
      
      But that was never the issue and not the purpose of th Bill. It is designed as a virtue signal to solve a problem that never existed, and in the process attacks the kids who actually are trying to understand who they are.
      
      If the god and family unit is so strong, why do you need to ban the mention of gay people in school?
      
      I agree it is weird re Disney. But at least have a proper look at it before ditching it in a rush to satisfy political culture wars.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:25am
      - Frank the tank
        
        No it wasn’t. The virtue signaling was from the political hard left. It is entirely sane to argue that young children shouldn’t have gender identity taught to them by schools. Most parents fell this way both in the US and NZ.
        
        The don’t say gay narrative has as much truth to it as pee-gate and Hillary’s pizza shop.
        
        Listen to Bill Maher’s comments regarding the bill. Unless of course you believe Maher is a closet Trump supporter Bat.
        
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        April 22, 2022 12:43pm
      - Batman
        
        You’ve skipped over the part where young children are not being taught gender identity. It might come up in some individuals cases but it is not being taught.
        
        The Bill itself is worded to conceal the real purpose and affect.
        
        Yeah I’ve seen what Maher has to say and don’t agree given the premise for the Bill is false to begin with.
        
        Meanwhile kids are being abused, just by bigot teachers who read too much Maga media and have swallowed the decades old homophobic moral panic lies.
        
        https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2022-04-22/fear-anxiety-for-texas-trans-kids-under-gop-attack/
        
        “In one particularly harmful incident, her child’s teacher claimed, in front of the classroom, that the reason her child is transgender is because they were groomed by their queer parents.”
        
        What the fuck is wrong with people? Leave the kid alone.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:30pm
      - Taieri
        
        You’ve skipped over the part where young children are not being taught gender identity. It might come up in some individuals cases but it is not being taught
        ————-
        
        But it is. No doubt due to the popular demand.
        
        https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1019542/Relationships_Education__Relationships_and_Sex_Education__RSE__and_Health_Education.pdf
        
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        April 22, 2022 4:18pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  You do realise the wall was being built font you ?
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:42am
Matt Long

Luxon was in Northland yesterday, his meeting with Federated Farmers had on of the highest attendences in recent years. (I didn’t attend.)
Feedback was he spoke well and had a good grasp of issues, he received a warm ovation at the end with one farmer reported to say he had hope for the first time in years.
Spoke against 3 Waters in definate terms.
As some people may have noticed I’m not personally a Luxon fan, however I do wish him the best if he will work for the good of the country.
If he betrays rural people like Key did I think the back lash will be intense, the level of anger in the community is the highest I remember since Lange and Douglas took a torch to the provinces.
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April 22, 2022 8:21am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Matt, I hate to break it to you, but Northland, Rangitata, New Plymouth and Wanganui, all rural seats went with Labour. To say there is a level of anger, well, it’s of their own doing.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:50am
  - plc
    
    Add Taranaki to that as well….
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:27am
    - pdm
      
      And Tukituki.
      
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      April 22, 2022 9:52am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    There is a reason for those rural seats. National was doing nothing for them, so they voted Labour. A high percentage now wish they hadn’t.
    My employer (Light engineering workshop) did the same and freely admits he made a mistake.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:33am
    - Matt Long
      
      Wouldn’t it be great if people had to get over 50% in a political and policy consequences paper before they were allowed to vote.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:55am
    - kowtow
      
      They were idiots to vote left and had the alternative of ACT . No excuses.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:05am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Bullshit, it was COVID, and COVID alone, farmers did not vote for Labour either, farmers wives who would usually vote Nats voted for the lies and scaremongering, that they well snd truly know was lies snd scaremongering now, every single regional seats will head back to Nats snd by large majority
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:57pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    All rural seats won by Labour will all go back to Nats, and I think a shock in Māori seats is coming for Labour, MP are often polling well above recent average, they will be disenfranchised Labour voters
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:44am
  - Matt Long
    
    NZ is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, getting effective representation is one of the big issues for food producers as we are easily out-voted by those who have no skin in the game even in the most rural electorates.
    Groundswell is an attempt to address this.
    Along with this numbers 2 and 3 in National party were integral in the Klutz’s Coup prior to the 2020 election killing National’s vote. At least Act got some traction.
    There was some incredibly stupid voting leftward “tactical” voting in that election.
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:06am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      This election they will vote Nats to keep the greens out 😜
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:59pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hmm, but the problem Northland is Matt Kings new party. He will have huge support up there, and many of the farmers will vote for him, unless Nats do a deal if he gains traction, then I expect the vote to be split, and a very unpopular Labour candidate to come through the back door.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:03am
  - MCōs
    
    Matt King’s new party will be lucky to get 500 votes, if it makes it as far as the election.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:40am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He is very popular in Northland, he will take many votes up there, but he has said that a lot of the support he is getting is coming from Labour voters
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:00pm
  - The Boss
    
    Matt is a good guy. National simply will have to do an Epsom type deal with him.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:43am
    - curry4me
      
      If Matt King does get Northland, he’ll likely hold it. If he gets 5%, he might have a couple of MPs too. It’d be a good idea for National to do an Epsom deal with him.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:02am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        He we not get 5% or anywhere near it, but he might split enough of Nats vote for them to lose
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:04pm
      - The Boss
        
        If he wins Northland, he does not need 5% to have a couple of MPs. Look at the Maori party. One seat, two MPs.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:46pm
    - Matt Long
      
      I can’t see national doing an accommodation but it would make great sense, if voters were convinced King would get an electorate seat it would give protest and conservative voters a realistic home.
      My guess is that National would like to keep that demographic under their thumb or out of Parliament.
      Northland’s polling will be one of the most interesting in 2023, if King has a sniff a lot of voting could go his way, if not Winston First may be the Phoenix again.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:22am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        We have only ever seen polls in electorates specific, once when they prayed for Peters to win the by election, snd 2020 when they knew Nats were going to lose the hinterland, if Nats were going to lose Tauranga, we would have seen polls already, note no sign as the northland but election had from day one
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:07pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Not if he can’t get enough support, I have no problem with a deal if he is getting the traction, but if he is just taking 15% of Nats vote from Nats in Northland there is no way they should do a deal, snd the vote would be split leading a dead beat back in
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:02pm
  - plc
    
    Sounds an ideal opportunity for Tamiti Coffey
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:44am
  - chukar
    
    Somehow the Nats need to build some trust!
    Their performance in the past does not give anyone confidence.they will repeal or change any thing Labour has put in place.
    Binding manifesto promises in the past were regularly broken because of MMPs “requirements to work with other parties “ among other reasons
    RMA is the classic example but there are many many others.
    What that means is nothing is sacrosanct and the politicians just obey bureaucracy.
    Bureaucrats have had a good 4 years!
    The examples are myriad
    The big question is : how can we trust any of them!
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:16am
    - curry4me
      
      Many on the “right” assume that ACT will keep National honest.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:05am
      - Matt Long
        
        The problem as we have seen with the Key Governments local government co-governance implementation and their refusal to amend the RMA if it involved removing racial discrimination is that Act is powerless to keep them honest.
        If Act were able to get enough votes to hold as many seats as National keeping them honest would be a possibility, sadly Act is falling quite sharply in the polls.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:27pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Putting up billboards saying three waters will be gone is a but different to Key saying he would get rid of Māori seats cause Peters used to spout it
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:08pm
- Keith White
  
  Politicians who betray their voters get zero effective backlash. They simply pout and go on to higher-paid grifting in or out of public office.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:42am
- Cassandra
  
  We’ll said, Matt. But remember much of this is self-inflicted. Where were these angry farmers last election?
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:07am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    We have polled them at work through d largest agri company in the country, I can assure you that farmers did not support or vote for Labour, that was an utter lie, from what we can make out, it was farmers wives that swung, snd it was because they were scared witless the COVID pix, they now know that’s bulkshit
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:10pm
    - PaulL
      
      Doesn’t even have to be farmers. There are a lot of support industries in even the most rural of electorates, and plenty of teachers and others as well. Some farmers may have gone Labour, as some farmer’s wives (or husbands). But I’d guess that the bulk of the swing was people who didn’t own their own land / run their own business – workers in support industries, farm workers, perhaps even adult children of farmers.
      
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      April 22, 2022 9:25pm
Ra Henare

THe largest Proganda war in History.

Why are no facts published to support claims from both sides in the Ukraine conflict.

Example.
The Rocket attack on the train station.
The missile is identified and agreed by both sides.
But thats it.
The missiles Serial number is available. it was made in 1991! Its a dumb missile. Ie aim and fire and hope it hits what you are aiming at. If it was transferred to Ukrainian forces would think that Russia would be crowing about this.

Its trajectory can be used to backtrack where it was fired from.(using debris) why doesnt anybody claim where it was fired from. Russian controlled territory or Ukrainian.

I am sure the US (& Russia) are monitoring all missile activity and could identify and backtrack
But Silence from both parties.

I have given up trying to work out the truth(first casualty of war) coming from any media.

and yes I do read RT.com as well as Western Media including Aljazerah and for my sins CNN and FOX

As far as I am concerned its a waste of Civilian lives. But that is true of any Military Action imitated by politicians.

https://www.rt.com/russia/554138-kramatorsk-train-station-attack/
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April 22, 2022 8:24am
- Batman
  
  Citing RT is like citing the China Daily, it basically is a fairytale wrapped in a nationalism-boner.
  
  Sometimes there isn’t a need for the level of detail you profess to need, because it is happening live in front of all of us.
  
  I wouldn’t expect the US or the west to give that level of military intel detail. It will be captured by action reports etc and be part of history but for now it is all chaos and human misery, as you correctly point out.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:25am
  - plc
    
    So about as reliable as Stuff then?
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:28am
  - Ra Henare
    
    No problem, hid in your cave. IT will protect you from the outside world.
    
    They tell me ignorance is bliss.
    
    Its happening live..Yep large joke. What you see happening live is only part of the story. Usually couched in personal emotional terms.
    
    I guess Jacindas emoting over the last 2 years has conditioned you to look at everything thru an emotional lens.
    
    I prefer to think for myself.
    
    Loved the bit about RT. Guess you havent read it and just rattle on to show your bias. Methinks RNZ and stuff are your unbiased sources of truth.
    
    Good luck to you and your family
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:47am
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

Don’t know whether anyone else here has been following the ‘Johnny Depp v Amber’ Heard trial?

You get fantastic day-by-day coverage on TMZ.

Yesterdays revelation will have seen things swing in Johnny’s favor…..

https://twitter.com/WhiteAlakazam/status/1516860518614679556

(one thing I would never do…. is blame Gladys 😀 )
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April 22, 2022 8:26am
- Frank the tank
  
  Gives a new meaning to the old saying of “did you shit the bed this morning”….
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:53am
- MCōs
  
  Depp is suing Heard for libel because she inferred he was a wife beater.
  He has to prove he isn’t.
  From the bits I’ve seen & heard he’s making mighty heavy weather of it.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:01am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    What about the bit where the evidence showed she cut the top of his finger off with a kitchen knife?
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:46am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    That’s why I despise libel law. She gets the benefit of the doubt because she’s the defendant. It’s backwards because he’s actually the defendant – she made a statement of fact (i.e. not an inference) and his only defense against it is to sue her. She should have to prove her claims, not the other way around.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:59am
  - Nukuleka
    
    MCōs: please learn the dictionary definitions of ‘infer’ and ‘imply’. The difference was drummed into me at my very fine primary school.
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:02am
- Raphael
  
  the fact that #MePoo has been trending on the Twitter verse is hilarious
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:23am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    But but but Cuomo’s vulgarity doesn’t count to #mespew
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:47am
Surely Knott

Herald Headline: “Covid Shock: Auckland teen tests positive twice in 6 weeks” accompanied by covid test picture. But key Auckland is irrelevant – it’s “fully vaccinated teen” that is the scientific curiosity and should be in the headline . And he was very sick and symptomatic that’s why they gave him a second test. Safe and effective.
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April 22, 2022 8:27am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Also what needs remembered is that the first test was PCR, NZ still runs the PCR at a ct of 45 making the results completely unreliable. Even worse, the second test was an RAT, that is a straight up coin toss. I had a good friend who had all the symptoms. Had 2 RATs a week apart. Both came back negative.
  It’s a completely meaningless, clickbait headline from some hack struggling to put a couple of legible paragraphs together.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:26am
- Raphael
  
  I have a mate in South Africa (older chap, his kids and I went to school together), he is double vaxed and boosted (work requirements as has to travel a lot). He just got Covid for the third time.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:28am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Or did he get one of the other multiple cold and flu type respiratory illnesses? The tests are very unreliable.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:08am
    - Surely Knott
      
      Flu has disappeared apparently so must be covid
      
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      April 22, 2022 6:19pm
RRM

Hi, brains of Kiwiblog…

Our Miss 17yo just told us she’s considering quitting year 13 of high school, because she’s got an offer to travel in Germany for several months with her friend and the friend’s (recently divorced, made of money) German dad.

Is this the sort of thing that wealthy German parents do?

The friend is a bit quirky and mildly autistic and doesn’t have a lot of friends other than our daughter. So there seems to be some possibility that the offer is legit.

There also seems to be some possibility that our daughter will get sex-trafficked or worse, and we’ll never see her again. (She is tall and pretty and would not look out of place in a photo with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell.) She has no money of her own and would be completely dependent on people we don’t really know, in a foreign country on the other side of the world. The dad smokes heaps of weed, apparently did a lot of coke with his ex-wife in their youth and seems to be made of money, whe have no idea what he does for a living.

The friend and her dad haven’t raised any of this with us.

Miss 17 doesn’t have a passport so nothing is going to happen over night. But it all seems very dodgy to us and we are thinking about next steps. (Obviously telling her we forbid it is liable to backfire!)
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April 22, 2022 8:33am
- Batman
  
  Don’t do it.
  
  I don’t think sex trafficking is a likely possibility in this context on this front but the simple loss of year 13 versus a few months travelling is not worth it. The final year of school is key for qualifications and getting herself set up for a career in whatever she chooses.
  
  Then there’s the fact you don’t know them well enough, which is a very valid reason not to let it happen. You could bargain with her that she can do whatever she likes once she leaves school, as a compromise.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:18am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Sage advice. I agree. Finish school, and do a gap year backpacking or whatever. Wealthy, coke-snorting, adult males are the amongst the last types of person you would want Miss 17 spending time with.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:24am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Agree with the advice but disagree re. Yr 13. Yr 12 is the important year as those are the grades that count for University/ course entrance. Yr 13 is more about personal growth/ maturity/ transition from school into adulthood.
    
    Living with locals in another, non English speaking country has its benefits; but on the facts presented, this is not an option I would be happy about.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:34am
  - blue collar
    
    Christ …. I agree with batty … we’ll said sir !
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:15pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Other than being German, your daughter’s friends dad sounds a lot like my partner. I ‘d say just go for it.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:39am
- Rodney Hide
  
  Hi RRM
  
  I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do in your situation. I woukd do everything i could do to stop her.
  
  I would find out everything I could about the dad. I would be talking to him. Even then it would be no.
  
  I would let her drop school. Work at McDonald’s for a year. And then see. Or commit to a trade.
  
  Kids have got to learn to look after themselves and provide for themselves at 17 but that doesn’t mean throwing them to the wolves. At 17 they should know what it takes to earn their keep.
  
  I mean that in all sincerity and with compassion. Learning to sponge off a another dad, dodgy or not, is not learning self respect and independence.
  
  Good luck
  
  Rodney
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:13am
- rjay
  
  Suggest she talks to her local rotary club for an exchange. More support.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:20am
- mawm
  
  RRM – Just too many red flags. Dealing with emotional female teens is difficult as one doesn’t want to lose them but one still needs to guide them. We had to do a lot of bargaining with ours who just wanted to party and to follow bad boys. She is now a very level-headed exceptionally successful business woman.
  
  Maybe the best option would be to confront the father about this being an unacceptable situation and get him to withdraw the offer.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:25am
- mikenmildagain
  
  She’s nearly halfway through the school year – is she interested in, or committed to, finishing any particular qualification?
  Perhaps you could provide incentives for her to delay. I’d say you definitely need to find out more about her plans and the people she would be living with. And tell he what your concerns are.
  But if she is determined to leave, there is no way to physically prevent it.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:40am
- RRM
  
  Thanks all!
  
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  April 22, 2022 12:22pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  How about a carrot – offer her a reward if she completes year 13 with good grades – A car or $10-20k to help with a gap year or a month or two holiday overseas with a parent or relative over summer (cheap in Vietnam-Thailand-India), give her a taste of what she could enjoy if she keeps herself on the rails. Expensive, but probably cheap in the grand scheme of things given money you’ve put into raising her.
  
  Another option: find her a summer job somewhere exotic (winter sports in northern hemisphere, summer in Queenstown, 3rd world volunteering. Might giver her the adventure and change of scenery she’s after.
  
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  April 22, 2022 4:58pm
- jgw739
  
  A tricky bind RRM.
  
  From her perspective it is the opportunity of a lifetime and even if you manage to talk or bribe her out of it, she may hold it against you forever.
  
  Is there any way that you and/or Mrs RRM could go with them, at least for a few months?
  
  If not an option, would any of her other friends be willing? In fact what do her other friends think about the whole caper?
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:06pm
Benedict Yu

Regular readers will recall that I am not a fan of hybrid English-Maori broadcasting in New Zealand.

I decided to have a look at the efforts to revitalise the Welsh language in… well Wales 🙂

It is a very well resourced plan. I looked at the resource material for Welsh and English broadcasting at the BBC.

English

https://www.bbc.com/wales

Welsh

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09plwg7

As I expected, these well designed services are separate. I did not find any English-Welsh pidgin in evidence.

Which makes sense. Just think about it. Wales will have many people where English is a second language. Chinese, Hindi, Urdu will be a first language. If these folk are listening to an English language broadcast, the announcer breaking out in Welsh and then back to English is going to annoy the hell out of them.

Yet that is exactly what we have done in New Zealand. A unique experiment globally (maybe apart from of PNG).
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April 22, 2022 8:39am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I think what is happening is an accelerated development of a more distinctive New Zealand English. NZ English has already incorporated many Maori words over the years.
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:48am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    No. What I hear on RNZ is a mix of Maori and English.
    
    “I tino karawhiu te marangai, the rain really lashed down.”
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/collections/kiaora/guyon's-morning-mihi
    
    That is NOT English. It is Maori and English.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:34am
    - graham
      
      And it’s the same on One News. I can’t even begin to transcribe some of Simon Dallow’s mish-mash where he attempts – unsuccessfully – to jam the two languages together.
      
      mikenmildagain, yes here in New Zealand we have incorporated some Maori words into our language over the years, and some words and phrases work well – kia ora is pretty well recognised and easy enough to say. But what Benedict describes above is a prime example of something that just doesn’t work. It doesn’t roll off the tongue, and virtually nobody would have a clue what it means if a translation wasn’t provided. So why force it?
      
      It’s like the bizarre obsession with trying to rename Auckland as Tamaki Makaurau. Nobody talks in casual conversation about how “yeah we’re planning to get away from Tamaki Makaurau for the weekend”, or “man the traffic in Tamaki Makaurau is just awful these days”. “Tamaki Makaurau” simply doesn’t roll off the tongue; it’s not easy to say. Whereas “Auckland” is. So no matter how much the media attempts to manipulate us into using the name “Tamaki Makaurau”, it’s doomed to failure.
      
      And as for chatting to mates and just casually saying, “I tino karawhiu te marangai” … pffft. Forget it.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:17am
      - Nickc2
        
        What is Te Reo used for? What relevance is it to Non-Maori NZers? What use does it have overseas? What percentage of Maori use it in everyday language?
        IMO, if you address these questions, the answer can only be FIGJAM eh?
        A few years ago, a Customs Officer (Douanier) at Charles de Gaulle Airport asked me what the Maori bit on the inside of my Passport meant and I had to tell him in my best School Boy French I didn’t know. He stamped my Passport and almost threw it back at me whilst muttering something I didn’t understand in French that I could only deduce wasn’t complementary.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:36am
      - Batman
        
        Imagine what the French would say if other nation’s customs officers did that? They would be outraged at the offence against their self-evident greatness.
        
        The French do have a tendency to be fairly arrogant and racist. Such a wonderful combination.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:44am
      - Taieri
        
        The French do have a tendency to be fairly arrogant and racist.
        ————
        
        Quite a racist statement.
        
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        April 22, 2022 1:36pm
      - Jack5
        
        Mike/Mikenmild is wrong in his (now voted invisible) 8.48 post. He said: “…what is happening is an accelerated development of a more distinctive New Zealand English”
        
        Nope, this is not a dialect of English evolving. This is a political Woke campaign to change the main spoken language in NZ. It is led by, among others, State TV, State Radio, and the subsidised print media.
        
        What these Wokies are creating is, instead of a new English dialect, a pidgin language that would be comprehensible only within NZ, and would replace not only international English, but also Maori language.
        
        Let NZ Pidgin wither and die.
        
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        April 22, 2022 3:17pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Only in the deluded it has
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:49am
  - Clyde
    
    You need to read Joe Bennett’s most recent column published in the ODT yesterday on this descent into stupidity. What RNZ broadcast is not NZ English – it is a ridiculous mish-mash of two languages and is nothing other than ideological BS. End of story.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:52am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Do you have a link? I can’t find it.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:29am
      - Clyde
        
        It is behind a paywall, but if you are outside the Otago region, you can access it via Pressreader and your library.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:33am
    - DimChappie
      
      Do you have a link, I can’t find it on their website.
      
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      April 22, 2022 10:34am
    - Don Beckett
      
      The bastardisation of both languages.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:18am
  - Cassandra
    
    That’d be OK, mike, eg whanau seems to be the word commonly used for family (not be me), but this goes much, much further than that. Most of it is unintelligible.
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:11am
    - graham
      
      And in fact, from what I understand the use of “whanau” to mean “family” is actually a very lazy and inaccurate habit. One could almost class it as cultural appropriation.
      
      From the Encyclopedia of New Zealand:
      
      Whānau is often translated as ‘family’, but its meaning is more complex. It includes physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions and is based on whakapapa. Whānau can be multi-layered, flexible and dynamic. Whānau is based on a Māori and a tribal world view. It is through the whānau that values, histories and traditions from the ancestors are adapted for the contemporary world.
      
      Lived experience of whānau
      
      Whānau relationships include those with whāngai (foster children) and those who have passed on. There are roles and responsibilities for individuals and for the collective. The structure of whānau can vary from immediate family to much broader collectives. The most important features of whānau that distinguish it from family and other social groupings are whakapapa, spirituality and the responsibility to marae and hapū.
      
      I personally do not use the term “whanau” because it seems to me to be quite different to what I understand as my family, and to have far broader implications.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:21am
  - Ehlana
    
    English normally incorporates words from other languages when there is no existing English word, for example, amok, guru, and safari. That makes sense.
    
    I don’t see why, if you only speak English (and only 3% of us actually speak Maori) you would start randomly replacing English words with Maori ones. I work with people who speak a variety of languages from all over the planet and have never encountered any of them doing this.
    It seems to be a peculiarly NZ phenomena and a very recent one, promulgated largely by the government and the media.
    
    It also seems pointless – you either have to phrase your speech so that the meaning of the Maori word is abundantly clear from the context (in which case, why bother?) or, like an advert currently on TV, you actually fail in the basic purpose of communication – to convey meaning to others.
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:20am
- Andrew S
  
  Interesting Benedict that you mentioned PNG, I’m guessing that PNG refers to Papua New Guinea?
  
  Fun fact. When Golriz Ghar…. wears a tee shirt declaring ‘free East Timor’ with Chole Swarbrick as her off sider…….Cholies father was a fundamental/pivotal member of PNG’s downfall.
  
  It’s a bit rich when Chole and co spout from the pulpit from Auckland pretending to be holier than thou
  
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  April 22, 2022 8:55am
  - Matt Long
    
    PNG’s downfall? Can you expand on that and what PNG has to do with East Timor?
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:30am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I have a Walsh friend, he is as mad as a cut snake, but he often wonders off into their Gaelic garb, and when he speaks to his boozy mates in the middle of their niche always speaks it, but it was never rammed down their throats as he says
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:06am
- Loddenthinks
  
  “Yet that is exactly what we have done in New Zealand.”
  
  Not all of us, Benedict.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:08am
- Yvette
  
  Taumata Arowai is the Labour Government’s answer (from last mid-November) to the 4th part that was missing from “3 waters” – a new entity to cover water quality –
  
  The following quote from https://www.taumataarowai.govt.nz/te-mana-o-te-wai/ is a direct copy/paste –
  
  TeMana oteWai draws onateaoMāoriperspective to recognise the whole-of-system approach towai, frommaungato moana, or kiutakitai. This all of system approachconsists of the fundamentals of tīkanga,mātauranga and kaitiakitangaMāori,  whichisauniqueapproachfor Aotearoa and all New Zealanders.
  
  Good luck to any new New Zealander with English as a second language in endeavouring to understand that
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:03am
  - Taieri
    
    Good luck to any new New Zealander with English as a second language in endeavouring to understand that
    ————–
    
    Good luck to any New Zealander with English as a FIRST language in endeavouring to understand that.
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:21pm
- Raphael
  
  South Africa has 11 official languages.
  
  Apart from the odd borrowed word that will always creep in, when people are talking they don’t start in Zulu, drift to Xhosa, have a sentence in Ndebele, waffle a bit in siSwati, move on to English and finish in Afrikaans.
  
  They pick a language they’re talking in and stick to it.
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:48am
MCōs

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There’s something not quite right about the death of Kaoss Price at the hands of the police.
Sure Price was an unsavory character and he’d rammed his car into a police vehicle, but he was unarmed and his car was disabled.
There was more than one police on the scene.
Surely they could have apprehended the guy without shooting him, I’d have thought?
The police have been mighty vague on details.
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April 22, 2022 8:42am
- Jimmy Brown
  
  Are you for real??
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:25am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Course he’s not!
    Cossie just likes to wind people up. 😀
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:43am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Deliberately ramming a vehicle with your own is an extreme act of violence and potentially lethal. Then he attempted to hijack other vehicles. Seriously, what do you think was going to happen?
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:31am
  - MCōs
    
    What happened between the ramming and the attempted hijackings that required the police to kill the guy hasn’t been explained.
    I doubt whether the police shot him as he was trying to get into someone’s car.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:53am
    - Don Beckett
      
      I seem to recall hearing a report that he was in fact armed – but that seems to have been buried.
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:22am
    - Frank the tank
      
      If there is a real threat to officers lives or that of the public they are permitted to use firearms.
      
      Ramming stationary vehicles at speed and attempting car jacking would meet this requirement.
      
      It’s obvious ‘Kaoss’ is the new Steven Wallace
      
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      April 22, 2022 12:48pm
- Cinematic
  
  Let’s go with your sage analysis then mcos. Or do we have an investigative authority to handle such things?
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:38am
- Sideoiler
  
  There’s something not quite right about the death of Kaoss Price at the hands of the police.
  Sure Price was an unsavory character and he’d rammed his car into a police vehicle, but he was unarmed and his car was disabled.
  There was more than one police on the scene.
  Surely they could have apprehended the guy without shooting him, I’d have thought?
  The police have been mighty vague on details.
  
  It is not often that find myself agreeing with you MCos, but something definately smells in this case. NZ police are shooting and killing members of the public at 11 time the rate of their counterparts in England and Wales.
  That they are able to do so with impunity is an absolute disgrace.
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/crime/licence-to-kill-startling-truth-about-nzs-fatal-police-shootings/
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:46am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    “his car was disabled”
    How do we know it was ‘his’ car.
    More than likely it was stolen.
    
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    April 22, 2022 12:51pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    Perhaps England and Wales aren’t turning into gang-dominated crime-ridden holes like New Zimbabwe.
    
    I’m guessing you can still walk at night along Oxford Street or Piccadilly circus. Queen Street or Lambton Quay not so much.
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:08pm
  - blue collar
    
    Mcos n sideoiler …. Put yourself in the police shoes .
    Someone has just tried to kill you with a car , drive at speed at them then ram their car … then trying to carjack cars …. Is he armed ? … it’s an outside threat not involved in the original stop … something major is up right ?
    You tell him armed police and to put his hands up or drop to the ground and he doesn’t comply …. It’s not a taser situation , how do you know he won’t knife a civvy to get their car in desperation ….. or comes at you .
    Police hv a shit job , they just went to work , ordinary traffic stop , think officer hunt …. At the end of the day , don’t fuck with police , do what they say … or else .
    
    I fought the law and the …. Law won
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:31pm
    - MCōs
      
      I’m not putting myself in the police shoes.
      That’s their job, which they’re trained for.
      Besides.
      I wasn’t there, which is why the police need to explain to the public what actually happened.
      Furthermore
      When the police arrested Brenton Tarrant a video soon emerged of two police doing the business.
      One finds it difficult to believe no video exists in this instance.
      
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      April 22, 2022 4:16pm
  - zulumonster
    
    Are you suggesting they are just better shots or is it a little more complex?
    
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    April 22, 2022 3:14pm
    - MCōs
      
      I’m suggesting we’re not being told what happened.
      Price was unarmed. No gun. No knife. No other weapons. No longer in possession of a car.
      
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      April 22, 2022 4:06pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    On seeing the footage of the police car, it seemed to be damaged all along one side as if sideswiped, as opposed to there being a smaller, stove-in area consistent with being rammed.
    
    I’m sure the series of events were frightening, but whether lethal force was the correct or only possible response is unclear. Hopefully the IPCA will get to the bottom of the matter.
    
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    April 22, 2022 4:52pm
Frank the tank

https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128420776/four-reasons-netflix-may-be-doomed-as-a-brand-and-what-we-can-learn-from-it

No it’s because your offerings are shit and woke now.
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April 22, 2022 8:50am
Brian McDonald

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/police-killing-of-kaoss-price-drastic-friend-says/ar-AAWsgxi?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=d6fb072494564bb8a9ea7b4a6dde3d33
That this 22 year old did not have a weapon was clear from the outset, now just what danger he was presenting becomes clouded.
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April 22, 2022 8:55am
- RRM
  
  Police:
  he had already deliberately rammed a vehicle with his car, and was actively trying to hijack other cars when approached.
  
  Family friend:
  He’s a good boy, he dindu nuffin!
  
  🤔🤔🤔
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:00am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He was using a vehicle as a weapon, he tried to run people off the road more than once
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:07am
- Rocky Jnr
  
  Who cars what some little shit-kicker mate of Kaoss says. It was not his responsibility to keep other members of the public safe, that was the function of the Police in attendance. I would be interested to hear the occupants of the car Kaoss was trying to hijack have to say.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:09am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “He turned around again and came back, this time ramming into the police vehicle at speed.
  
  Police say he then got out of the car and attempted to commandeer a number of vehicles from members of the public who had stopped.
  
  He was shot while trying to get into one of these cars…”
  _____
  And you are asking why he was shot? He was imposing grave danger to all those drivers he was trying to hijack.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:10am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    The world is better off without the useless prick.
    Thanks police.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:15am
  - Swifty
    
    The killing of a citizen, any citizen, by agents of the state is a matter of utmost concern.
    
    A full and complete inquiry is required, as I’m sure will occur.
    
    Once complete, we can then make our judgements on the actions of the deceased and of the police.
    
    I ask us all to not rush to judgements, either way.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:16am
    - kowtow
      
      Everyone , particularly the Media Pardy know full well there will be a full coroners inquiry, inquest whatever into this , among other investigations .
      
      That’s why the Media pardy , who hosted the leader of the maori party last night also questioning this are so very very wrong in their approach to covering this tragic event …….tragic for the Coppers involved .
      
      NZME is also guitly of sensationalism and speculation and should be ashamed of themselves.
      
      We sleep peacefully in our beds as there’s folk out there willing to put themselves on the line for our slumber. ( paraphrased)
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:20am
      - Swifty
        
        I quite agree with you kowtow, I’m very much pro-police and had the media very much in mind when I wrote the comments above.
        
        But equally we must regard the police shooting citizens as actions of absolute last resort – to be used only when other lives are in direct danger.
        
        Again, I await the investigation with interest.
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:46am
      - kowtow
        
        swifty
        
        And evry Copper knows they will be held to account by an independent judicial review in such circumstances .
        
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        April 22, 2022 11:56am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      “The killing of a citizen, any citizen, by agents of the state is a matter of utmost concern.”
      
      It is a matter of regret. That is different to concern. All shootings by police will be investigated. AFAIK New Zealand police do not have a track record of shooting people without good cause.
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:04pm
  - plc
    
    Not sure why taser not employed.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:32am
    - kowtow
      
      yeah , yeah !
      
      late at night , just been nearly killed by a violent Loon , adrenaline pumping …… let’s see , should I offer him a cuppa , a cuddle , or some encouraging words……
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:22am
    - Nickc2
      
      Out of effective range perhaps?
      
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      April 22, 2022 11:48am
    - kowtow
      
      NZME radio news saying he was “unarmed”.
      
      Nope , he was armed with a car and using it as a weapon.
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:21pm
    - blue collar
      
      Officer hunts traffic stop
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:33pm
    - Taieri
      
      Not sure why taser not employed
      ————–
      
      Or Kindness…
      
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      April 22, 2022 3:39pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    How many times do I repeat ‘the Police do not shoot at me?’
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:34pm
- Southern Raider
  
  Maybe ramming a stationary police car with a 2 tonne speeding object, trying to car jack multiple members of the public, having priors of dangerous driving around schools and crashing into cars with young kids inside who were injured
  
  Stop trying to out woke yourself. The guy was a complete looser, came from a looser family and Taranaki is bette off without him
  
  The High Court judge is the one you should be blaming as without her Kaos would have been safely locked up
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:13am
  - RichardF
    
    But he was a sweet kid who had a mean fend. Could have been the next Sonny Bill Williams according to someone who played rugby with him 10 years ago.
    
    Sadly this guy made a number of bad choices in life and it caught up with him in the end. The facial tattoo and choice of associates sealed the deal. And the name didn’t help. Seriously, how did that one slip past the Registrar-General?
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:14am
- I remember when
  
  Perhaps it was the way he was going to drive if he gained access to a car!
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:13am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Apparently he rammed a police car with his vehicle. Vehicles have become a weapon of choice in many places around the world. Ramming a police car isn’t a very smart thing to do.
  I’m sure all the other relevant details will come out.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:13am
cas

Why has Jacinda been wearing a coat overseas? Singapore is bloody hot and bloody humid.
Asking for a friend.
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April 22, 2022 8:56am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hmm, the old pregnancy thing again? Funny, because she has been wearing it in the house as well, usually the rule is no coats, but as usual Mallard looking below the belt
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:52am
- Clyde
  
  I noticed this as well. Never goes below 30 degrees in Singapore, but she has also been wearing a coat when she deigns to grace Parliament with her presence lately. Very strange.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:56am
- pdm
  
  cas – mrspdm was saying exactly that on Wednesday evening.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:56am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Bun in the oven? Hey, when is that next Election?
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:32pm
- MCōs
  
  Singapore undoubtedly is hot outdoors.
  Indoors there’s no telling what temperature the aircon has been set to.
  
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  April 22, 2022 3:57pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Even Jacinda could not be so stupid as to announce an immediate ban on the import of chemical fertilisers.

Could she?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/20/sri-lanka-fertiliser-ban-president-rajapaksa-farmers-harvests-collapse
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April 22, 2022 8:56am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  NZ will need fertiliser for growing corn to make biofuel. So yes, she could ban it and NZ will just import biofuel. Think climate change – or something
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:51am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Don’t be too sure about that
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:52am
Maggy Wassilieff

Jacqui Dean tries to throw some light into our opaque Government

I have screeds and screeds of paper with blocked out sections of text that have been sent to me in response to my Official Information Act (OIA) requests. Why large parts of government documents need to be blocked out when there is clearly no national security risk, beggars belief.

These documents primarily relate to the Government’s $1.2 billion Jobs for Nature programme which has so far failed to deliver the jobs it promised and has fallen well short when it comes to widely accepted standards of reporting.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/opinion/128424662/waitaki-mp-jacqui-dean-governments-lack-of-transparency-a-major-failure
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April 22, 2022 9:02am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  This opinion piece was up on the Front page of the Stuff site at 7am this morning… but had disappeared from view by 9am.
  
  I had to use google search to find it again.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:07am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Big brother
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:10am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    What concerns me Maggy is what lengths this regime will go to to stay in power and prevent their deeds coming to light.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:22am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Like mental health money, jobs for nature billions will be used by chubby fingers rose where to cover up lost billions in incompetence.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:09am
Stellaboxer

The only people that can keep the Māori language alive are Māori themselves and that will only happen if it’s useful. Trying to create an artificial hybrid of English and Māori is both cringe worthy and patronising. Hand wringing middle class “ progressives” who are usually so concerned with offensive speak don’t seem to have considered how offensive this ridiculous effort is to those of us whose native language is being bastardised. I have no problem with giving what support is practical to Māori in their efforts to keep Te Reo alive but this virtue signalling nonsense is not organic and is doomed. Only the Labour Party could put out a public information ad with so many non English words in it that it’s nonsensical to the vast majority of the intended audience.
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April 22, 2022 9:09am
I remember when

The NZX 50s worst performing stock, in terms of shareholder returns, in the last quarter was travel software company Serko, followed by cancer diagnostics firm Pacific Edge, Ryman Healthcare, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and cinema software company Vista Group.

A mirror to how the economy is going?
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April 22, 2022 9:10am
krazykiwi

Netflix woes, and are Harry and Megan grifters?

But perhaps its biggest problems is that a streaming service that once attracted viewers with widely-praised exclusives such as Stranger Things, House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black now finds itself in somewhat of a content crisis.

The streaming service, which is now competing with $15million-an-episode Disney+ blockbuster series The Mandalorian, appears to be pinning its hopes on its own big-money exclusives.

But several, including Red Notice – its most expensive project ever – and the newly released Anatomy of a Scandal, come under fire from critics – even if they have been well watched.

And Netflix is also facing another expensive outlay in the form of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, having shelled out for a $100million deal with the couple in September 2020.

As of yet, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are yet to produce any published content for the streaming giant. But the company will be pinning their hopes that their upcoming series documenting the recent Invictus Games will prove value for money.

$100m for nothing? Netflix appear to have been royally screwed.
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April 22, 2022 9:15am
westernScientist

I have been noticing this a lot in the last few months in the various pieces about the economy (The most recent on being written by the amazingly incompetent current finance minister https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128414420/grant-robertson-on-inflation-there-is-no-silver-bullet). Why is it that people seem to think that the economy is good, because it grew 5% (according to the government), even when inflation is at 7%? Yeah its not quite apple for apples because there are other things going on in the GDP which are not represented well in the CPI, but still, I dont see prices going down anywhere.

In one breath how can you say: “The economy is good, because GDP growth is 5%” and “The cost of living inflation is the end of the world”.
NPCs.
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April 22, 2022 9:23am
- westernScientist
  
  And to add to that, “unemployment is really low, like 3.2%, because of the great central planning of labour!”
  
  Meanwhile 11.1% of the working age population are on the MAIN benefit.
  
  https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/115473/nz-faces-rising-living-costs-and-higher-unemployment-time-large-number-people
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:51am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  After the next Election the State Sector will get cleaned out, some 11,000 I think. They will go on the dole (no real jobs) and National will get the blame.
  Clockwork, every time Labour comes into power. The sixth Labour Govt is far worse than the previous five
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:26pm
- kowtow
  
  GDP , GDP .
  
  What’s this GDP thingy ?
  
  Our media pardy and the int’l media went gaga when Ardern and Co said “GDP schemee dee dee, we’s so great we gunna have a Well Being Budget , cos we so caring , you see ”
  
  And they bought it , loved it , coo’ed about it all day long ”
  
  Well folks , how’s your well being now ?
  And where’re all those Media luvvies when ya need ’em to hold this bunch of wreckers and nincompoops to account ?
  
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  April 22, 2022 2:59pm
I remember when

Gun toting gang members have become a matter of “huge” public concern, Hawke’s Bay judge Russell Collins says.
Te Kahui Kani, who has “Dogwar” tattooed across his forehead, was sentenced to 2 years 3 months plus the 77 days on remand, for possessing 3 cut-down pistols, unlawfully possessing ammunition and possessing a Class C drug.
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April 22, 2022 9:24am
- plc
  
  That can’t be right….Jacinda removed all the guns
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:35am
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum reckons she can remember when these were called….. ‘Chinese Gooseberries’

LOL!!

https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/1516940545327009793

(…and omg the comments 😀 )
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April 22, 2022 9:27am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, the music appears to have been copied from a funeral march.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:50am
  - Don Beckett
    
    That’s correct Maggie. I grew up in Te Puke through the 1940’s & 50’s, and many people had vines growing in their yard which would grow over the fence onto a footpath or a paddock behind their house. As a kid, on our way home from school we would sit & pick a few & eat them. It was common for people to gather some in a bag. It was the same for blackberries & wineberries, and also feijoas grew almost wild, & quite common, along with some citris.
    The McGloughlin family & their partner, who were apple & pear growers, developed the chinese gooseberry and re-named it ‘kiwifruit’. They were also looking at feijoas, but stuck with the chi’berry.
    I knew the family well – was friends, and still am, with John & Peter – the sons. Their father George was a good friend of my father.
    Ah for the halcyon days of my youth. 🙂
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:40am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Kiwifruit is ‘Zespri’ overseas, according to our Thai friend. She has never heard of ‘chinese gooseberry’
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:22pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        She may have 70 years ago when that was what they were called.
        
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        April 22, 2022 2:37pm
      - MCōs
        
        Kiwifruit is known as Kiwi in Thailand.
        
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        April 22, 2022 3:53pm
      - Jack5
        
        An article from NZ Geographic on the arrival in New Zealand from China of what became kiwifruit:
        
        https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/made-in-china/
        
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        April 22, 2022 4:13pm
      - curry4me
        
        It’s advetised in Korean supermarkets with an ad where the national anthem is being sung in Maori. Once you stop, and look at the ad, it becomes what is being advertised.
        
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        April 22, 2022 6:29pm
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… Almost like taking the piss moments. x2
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:54am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They weee always know as Chinese gooseberries, I think they came from China and we developed them and renamed them Kiwi fruit, don’t think they were called that in the 70s , possibly even the 80s we always called them Chinese gooseberries, the change as far as I remember was a marketing term that stuck
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:55am
- MCōs
  
  So can I.
  The fruit that is.
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:01am
I remember when

“In principle every extra person we add to New Zealand’s who’s unvaccinated increases the risk of transmission of Covid 19 and any other disease they’re not vaccinated for,” said Professor Michael Baker.

Would that be an increase of .00002% ?
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April 22, 2022 9:37am
- mandk
  
  Why does Baker say “In principle”?
  
  Is he just theorising?
  
  Is there any empirical basis for what he says?
  
  20 1
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  April 22, 2022 10:22am
  - Matt Long
    
    No he’s modelling, all models are flawed, some models are useful, but not his.
    
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    April 22, 2022 11:55am
- Raphael
  
  and any other disease they’re not vaccinated for
  
  So is Baker suggesting that visitors to NZ need to be vaccinated against every disease we have a vaccine for?
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:54am
- Ehlana
  
  In principle, every extra person we add to New Zealand who is fertile increases the risk of unwanted pregnancy too.
  
  Seems like stating the obvious. More people = more chance of something happening.
  
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  April 22, 2022 12:31pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Baker seems to be following the steps of Fauci.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:18pm
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Baker is just trying to stay in the limelight. The man’s an idiot and best ignored.
    
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    April 22, 2022 9:08pm
Tony Stuart

Well done to the Police in Portugal; they’ve made an arrest for the murder of Madeleine McCann almost 15 years ago.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/world/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-suspect-charged-in-germany-says-portugal-prosecutor-reports/
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April 22, 2022 9:49am
Littletramp

A sign of the times?
Albanese had a nightmare start to campaigning, so they quickly pulled him in behind closed doors under cover of catching covid, and will closely manage anything that comes out of his mouth until he gets back on track – ala Biden campaign from his basement in the last US election farce.
Just wait for our next election, when we will be told some B/S story to enable postal votes.
This is why they are extending the masks etc as long as they are allowed to by the public, to keep up some visible semblance of a health scare.
This is why it is important to get rid of mask use now – it offers zero health benefit and 100% political benefit.
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April 22, 2022 9:52am
Maggie Pie

We watched the Sky debate the other night between Scomo and Albo.
How anyone could even consider voting for that little weasel Albanese is beyond us. Scotty won hands-down!

Then on this mornings ZB News, we hear Morrison come out and apologise for responding to a woman who said she had an autistic child…”That he feels blessed having two normal healthy kids”

Why would you have to apologise for saying that?

SHEESH!!
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April 22, 2022 10:19am
- surfing
  
  Apologising was woke.
  
  People are not equal, it is ok to feel sympathy for people born with genetic conditions.
  
  If anything , point this back at the woke — why would any parent want their kid to have autism? Unless it is high functioning autism that infers super powers like learning Icelandic in 2 days.
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:56am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Learning Icelandic is no more a super-power than say, learning maori. Utterly useless outside a tiny country at the end of the world.
    
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    April 22, 2022 12:06pm
    - Stellaboxer
      
      It’s not even very useful in a country where a tiny minority speak it.
      
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      April 22, 2022 9:18pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    You are sooo right surfing! ‘WOKE’ is the word.
    
    Bit like the Deputy-Police-Commissioner here the other day, apologizing to the whanau of that criminal scum Kaoos Price for stopping him a bullet. Honestly, everyone we know wants to see those cops get a medal.
    
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    April 22, 2022 12:10pm
    - Frank the tank
      
      Us too.
      
      ‘Kaoss’ has become the new Steven Wallace.
      
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      April 22, 2022 1:12pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoQ_dhSc-HM

China’s Solomon Island Pact which Shocked Everyone – TLDR News

China have recently announced a security pact with the Solomon Islands, securing Xi’s power in the Pacific Ocean and concerning neighbouring Australia and New Zealand. So in this video we’re going to explain the deal and why it might not be as it seems. [8:50. The TLDR crew are a believable version of The Guardian. They’re not earnest, or shrill.]
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April 22, 2022 10:35am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuRElJkJp3s
CNN + Becomes CNN -.

It’s happened! It’s finally happened! CNN+ is officially shutting down all as more and more woke media absolutely implodes! In this video, we’re going to look at the embarrassing CNN catastrophe, we’re going to see how it relates to similar disasters among comparable woke media outlets, and stick with me to the very end of this video when I’ll reveal why we can be absolutely certain that the days of wokeness are indeed coming to an end. [10:12 Story starts at 1:32. They should get Mark Dice to do voice overs Brian Stelter’s slot. That’s why they only had 10,000 – 150,000 viewers. There are cat ladies on YT with more viewers. It couldn’t happen to a nicer outfit.]
8 2
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April 22, 2022 10:35am
- Batman
  
  I’m waiting for this guy to cover the testicle tanning documentary.
  
  I might be waiting a while.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:26am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I could post a vid of me perineum-sunning if you want Batsy?
    
    9 5
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    April 22, 2022 12:02pm
    - Biscuit
      
      Perenium-sunning, heh…
      
      Easier to just buy a bottle of product from the chemist and, erm, ‘bleach your ring tone’…
      
      7 1
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      April 22, 2022 12:55pm
      - Biscuit
        
        Oops, perenEum…
        
        4 1
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        April 22, 2022 12:55pm
      - mawm
        
        Batman – The correct spelling is perineum.
        
        4 0
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        April 22, 2022 6:11pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW1nqKeziPg
Denmark Follows UK to Send Migrants to Rwanda. EU Mildly Concerned. -;)

This couldn’t happen in a Fourth Reich Member! Or could it? Well, it has. Can we ask ScoMO to send the 501s there?) [4:15]
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April 22, 2022 10:37am
ClanMcleod

A Federal judge in the US has overturned the mask mandates, numerous videos on Youtube from passengers and crew on planes cheering and smiling when the decision is relayed to them.

https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/us-airlines-dump-mask-mandates?

So when is Brenda going to stop mandating the utterly meaningless, virtue signaling badge here in NZ? Not that I’ve ever worn one, nor will I.
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April 22, 2022 11:46am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Lifting mandates = losing control. Not going to happen.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:14pm
Maggie Pie

PEOPLE WHO CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY NOT WANTED HERE.

Ever wondered what HOOPS a normal, entrepreneurial, hard working, white Christian family has to jump thru, in order to get residency in this country?

Read it and weep 🙁

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128421409/french-family-decide-to-sell-caf-and-return-home-after-dealings-with-immigration-nz

(My partner was wondering if Behrouz Boochani even had a chest X-ray?)
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April 22, 2022 11:59am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  French family running a Cafe? Nope, can’t have that, capitalists. Get someone else who will vote Labour
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:12pm
- Jack5
  
  Are Muslims running NZ’s immigration system?
  
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  April 22, 2022 6:37pm
ClanMcleod

No surprises here, the media yet again caught lying and distorting the truth in another pathetic attempt at getting ratings.
Trump’s interview with Piers Morgan. Apparently Trump (wisely) has an audio of the interview which shows that Morgan is a liar and a fraud.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/21/donald-trump-attacks-piers-morgan-deceptively-editing-interview/
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April 22, 2022 12:32pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “Do you think I’m a fool?”
  Trump, “I do now, yes!”
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:09pm
- MCōs
  
  Those two guys deserve each other.
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:19pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Probably, but as you may well have noticed, I am ultra critical of media that lie and distort the truth. For many people around the world, the mainstream media are still their primary source of information which makes them immensely powerful. Of course, that power is waning by the week as they repeatedly get caught out not doing their job and shilling to the highest bidders.
    
    The media are an extremely powerful weapon in the wrong hands. They are an amazing tool when they do their job properly and report objectively. When idiots like Morgan abuse that power as it appears he is doing here, they drive their profession deeper into the gutter which has serious negative implications for all of us.
    Think what you want of Trump, but the point of my comment is still that Morgan is an idiot who has blatantly abused his position of power to generate traffic to whateve media he is owned by.
    
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    April 23, 2022 8:27am
Aunty

Interesting map. It looks like Ukraine is sending back flowers all over Russia.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?ll=55.65677751902095%2C93.73405304604245&z=3&mid=1TJ8zbdzBV-Q5_WYUEtV13QGOL9LF8nbQ
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April 22, 2022 12:42pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Friday afternoon fun. This will make Republican heads explode.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/04/aoc-running-for-president-in-2024-heres-why-it-could-happen/
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April 22, 2022 1:03pm
- Frank the tank
  
  Yes please.
  
  No ability to win the rust best, Midwest, South East or indeed the Mid South on the electoral college.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:16pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Oh look at the downtickers! Don’t you crazy lefties want AOC to be POTUS?
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:40pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  That would be amazing. I could just imagine the debate. She would get destroyed and then come out afterwards claiming that she was scared that her opponent was going to rape/murder her and really that’s all it was about. Her opponent just really wanted to have sex with her and was raging because she wouldn’t let him.
  
  As ridiculous as this sounds, it’s actually the kind of crap she says.
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:54pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Some of the shit she says is off the planet
    
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    April 23, 2022 8:07am
Don Beckett

Can’t see it – she is dumb as a sack of hammers.
But then, they elected Biden.
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April 22, 2022 1:08pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Prob better than horizontal Harris
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:10pm
  - blue collar
    
    😅
    
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    April 22, 2022 1:35pm
- curry4me
  
  Having AOC run would definitely add interest to the 2024 election.
  
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  April 22, 2022 6:33pm
Keith White

This did not last long…

Wednesday’s Luxon: “We will cancel Matariki as a holiday.”

Today’s Luxon: Christopher Luxon confirms National will keep Labour Day and Matariki holiday if elected in 2023.
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April 22, 2022 1:08pm
- kevn
  
  I though it labour Day being canned? Some media cartoon said that.
  
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  April 22, 2022 5:18pm
  - MCōs
    
    Doesn’t matter what he says, does it?
    
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    April 22, 2022 10:10pm
Maggie Pie

Worth sharing….

And it’s something I honestly never knew until now.

A bestie tweets 😀

https://twitter.com/missreadit/status/1516975034543513600
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April 22, 2022 1:40pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Need a stadium for that (Roman style) Pay per view. Front seats cost gazilions, seats at the back Govt subsidised.
  No cameras OK?
  
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  April 22, 2022 1:45pm
krazykiwi

Musk is on the cusp of pocketing a bonus from Tesla of $23bn, thought to be the biggest in corporate history. Imagine the tax bill.

I’d shift from California to Texas too. This is $US3 billion in income tax that Newsom’s little socialist empire won’t be getting.
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April 22, 2022 2:12pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The United Spot, good analogy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-t9rtS0YSc
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April 22, 2022 2:15pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  ‘There is nothing funnier than a leftist out of power’
  
  – Rush Limbaugh
  
  LOL!!
  
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  April 22, 2022 2:29pm
Suze Wainwright

Interesting that the Labour MPs and submitters in favour of the Rotorua Council Bill are saying – there, there – you right wingers have just been misinformed and don’t understand your maths; when Rawiri Waititi MP is now on record as saying 50/50 partnership over all important matters and Maori veto over the really important stuff is exactly what he wants and expects
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April 22, 2022 2:28pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

A CDC issue, not a Court issue? Told you, in NZ Baker is doing the same!! Fucking control freaks!
https://rumble.com/v11v8fj-dr.-faucis-latest-comments-are-his-most-dangerous-yet-by-far.html?
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April 22, 2022 2:43pm
RdM

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-rod-jackson-was-new-zealands-response-to-the-pandemic-proportionate/RAHWMAPNC7DCN264PQARE5MPYI/

(Yes, it’s behind a paywall (Premium) but if you look for a Chrome or Firefox addon called Bypass Paywalls Clean you can read it and other paywalled articles from what seems like hundreds of news sites across the globe. Updated often.)

Extract from toward the end:

“There is no way that endemic Covid will be as manageable as endemic flu.

The only sustainable proportionate response to Covid-19 is for New Zealanders to embrace universal vaccination.

It is likely that vaccine passes will be required again if we want to live more normally and for society to thrive. It cannot be difficult to make the use of vaccine passes more seamless.

Almost every financial transaction today is electronic and it must be possible to link transactions to valid vaccine passes when required.

Almost 1 million eligible New Zealanders haven’t had their third vaccine dose, yet few are anti-vaccination. Rather, thanks to vaccination and other public health measures, the pandemic has been an anticlimax for many New Zealanders and the third dose has not been a priority.

As already demonstrated, for the vast majority of New Zealanders, a vaccine pass is sufficient to make vaccination a priority.“

(My bold emphasis)

And some think that a push toward a digital ID and some sort of social credit system is just a conspiracy theory.

I’ve heard this guy on the radio…

Read that again:

“It is likely that vaccine passes will be required again if we want to live more normally and for society to thrive.”
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April 22, 2022 3:46pm
- mawm
  
  It’s literally criminal to force people to be “vaccinated”. If there is risk there has to be informed consent given without coercion. Daily there is more being published about the risks of mRNA “vaccines”, and it’s not good news.
  
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  April 22, 2022 6:18pm
- RdM
  
  For disambiguation, I’m in the ~10% who will not take “the jab”, I think the above is horrifying, I was prompted by the previous comment mentioning “control freak”.
  
  He seems to me manic on the radio.
  
  The irony of requiring vax (& mask!) mandates to be ‘normal’ and the resulting financial ruin, hardly thriving, seems to escape him.
  
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  April 22, 2022 11:03pm
Jack5

European Union states have lifted imports of Russian oil to 1.6 million barrels per day after dropping to 1.3 million bpd in March, the Wall Street Journal reports.

It says some oil is being shipped from Russian ports “destination unknown”, then mixed at sea with oil from other sources. This ploy has been used with oil from other countries facing export bans, such as Iran.

The newspaper reports that a tanker, Elandra Denali, was off the coast of Gibraltar when it received three loads of oil from tankers that left from the Ust-Luga and Primorsk ports in Russia. The Elandra Denali is headed for Rotterdam.
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April 22, 2022 4:06pm
- kowtow
  
  EU .
  
  One billion Euro of arms to Ukraine .
  
  Fifty billion worth of imported oil and gas from Russia .
  
  Who’s side are they really on.
  
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  April 22, 2022 4:58pm
  - kevn
    
    @kow… Got to keep the steel furnaces going to make more arms.
    
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    April 22, 2022 7:03pm
- Taieri
  
  It says some oil is being shipped from Russian ports “destination unknown”, then mixed at sea with oil from other sources
  ———
  
  It’s not as simple as that as another partially loaded tanker would be required. Such an operation would have to be performed in a good weather and at least one tug would be required to maintain the positions (and distance between) of the vessels. Also, blending would be required to effect mixing, otherwise oil can be identified. All in all, not a very practical solution, unless only small quantities are involved.
  
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  April 22, 2022 7:42pm
Maggie Pie

Twitter bestie asks ‘random-impertinent-question’

Receives a number of ‘random-impertinent-answers’ 😀

https://twitter.com/conspiracytalk9/status/1517326318806786048
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April 22, 2022 4:17pm
Swifty

So today yet again RNZ’s Wallace Chapman discusses co-governance on The Panel and yet again discusses it with two people BOTH in favour of it.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018839162/the-panel-with-chris-finlayson-and-ella-henry-part-2

RNZ is not even trying to be impartial anymore.

RNZ is a left/Labour propaganda arm; has been for decades – no more chances, no more attempts at reform, they should be dismantled.

Our democracy is too important to have major organs of the State so partisan towards one side of the aisle.

Scrap public broadcasting!

Let ideas compete on a level playing field, not one side luxuriously funded by the taxpayer to spread their views unchallenged.
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April 22, 2022 5:16pm
- MCōs
  
  Chris Finlayson is very much on the right side of the aisle. He was a National mp for nine years.
  
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  April 22, 2022 10:04pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Oh boy, Candace Owens venting her spleen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSrtVEXxF40
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April 22, 2022 6:09pm
Maggie Pie

Wendy Petrie (1EWES): “Price was shot while trying to commandeer a member of the publics car”

My partner (yelling at the telly) : “HIJACK you stupid bitch!!”

Me: “Another wine dear”?
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April 22, 2022 6:16pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  (1EWES)?
  Punishment.
  Wind has dropped.
  Drinkies – spa pool
  
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  April 22, 2022 6:22pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Mags: Why are you still watching that stupid Government news?
  FFS ! Most of us dumped it 30 years ago.
  
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  April 22, 2022 9:28pm
greybeard

Are Grant Robertson and Megan Woods on the same diet?
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April 22, 2022 6:46pm
kevn

@Grey… Eating their way to good health.
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April 22, 2022 7:02pm

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