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May 17, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 17 May 2023

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General Debate

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Lee C

https://youtu.be/PUFeHr_HYW4
So, it turns out the FBI’s ‘investigation; into Trumps Russian collusion was not only without basis, it assisted the Democrats to relentlessly peddle their toxic narrative.
At the same time, the FBI actively suppressed any exposure of Hunter Biden’s laptop or collusion with foreign oil.
And of course ‘covid’ provided a great opportunity for Democrat-run states to amend voting laws to allow participation from all sorts of unproven ‘voters’.
But of course, we won’t be expecting any retractions or mea culpas from the shameless harlots who have persecuted Trump for committing the crime of being NQOC (British Army term = Not Quite Our Class). Nor any backdown on the notion that the Democrats might be – you know – corrupt.
The intellectual snobbery, collusion, corruption, and illegality that has been deployed against Trump is mind-blowing. IMO
Ps get vaxxed!
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May 17, 2023 8:04am
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Would you like to tot up the indictments and convictions – FBI/Mueller vs Durham?
  Did the Russkies want Trump to be elected? – Yes
  Did the Russkies do whatever they could to help Trump? – Yes
  Did the FBI fuck up? – Yes, as they often do
  Will this latest report change anyone’s mind? – No
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:11am
  - Planet B
    
    Ha ha nothing like complete denial. It’s not a river in Africa Mike
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:17am
  - sirknz
    
    I’m gonna need some citations there champ.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:22am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      You will get nothing – as usual from Mike
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:48am
      - JackRabbit
        
        Mike is just ab autobot.
        
        He never responds, he only reacts, Part of his programing.
        
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        May 17, 2023 11:40am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Look up the Durham report, it has slammed the FBI for inventing this hit job, it also mentioned something about interfering in the election, and also hiding Biden juniors crimes before the last election
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:47am
      - Mike
        
        Why hasn’t Hunter Biden been indicted? Are the Feds too busy persecuting George Santos?
        
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        May 17, 2023 11:27am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Mike @11.27am
        
        The FBI have said charges are pending, so keep up, the problem is it’s a Trumped up tax charge, but they had breaking news in the US yesterday stating that one of his countries he was frauding off one of this European corrupt nations, it was part of his divorce from his missus, funny it’s it, we are xpectwd to believe a woman woke up snd remembered she was rapped by Trump 30 years ago, but we are to stay silent when this was brought out during a divorce, but Bidens ex is supposed to be the liar, but this dodgy woman that had just seen Trump found not guilty of rape says this is one of my best days, she seems to have forgotten the charges of rape were found to be not guilty
        
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        May 17, 2023 1:40pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      He never, ever gives evidence of anything.
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:00am
  - softail 1450
    
    Mike <——– Still thinks his hero Joe Biden is qualified to be president and in charge of the nuclear weapons launch devices and codes, Mike's probably one of the 8% that still want Ardern as his PM.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:25am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Two nuclear footballs. One is with Joe all the time. No idea where the other is, but both are needed for a nuclear weapon launch.
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:46am
      - Matt Long
        
        Maybe with Kamala Harris?
        Feeling safer now?
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:33am
      - rockape
        
        I think Bidens is probably a fake and the real one is in the hands of a senior military officer.
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:55am
      - thirteenstars
        
        “I think Bidens is probably a fake and the real one is in the hands of a senior military officer.”
        
        Nice.
        
        It might also be a real football. Joey want to play catch?
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:01am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Kamala? Fuck no!
        I think it is with a group of 7 or 11 somewhere. Joe gives the ultimate say, having been informed first. The group would follow a flow chart with questions like “Is it retaliation? Is it proportional? Is it the right time?”
        All sorts of methodology. It would have to be unanimous or no go. This group are obviously not together and each has a component of part of the code. When the codes match it is on.
        When the Commander in Chief changes, the codes change. It is called a football because it is carried in a bag like a football bag.
        That is about all I know, from reading bits here and there.
        
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        May 17, 2023 1:56pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @rockape.
        More than one.
        
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        May 17, 2023 1:58pm
  - Scott
    
    Dear Mikey, we can only hope there is a cure for TDS as President Trump is living rent free in your head.
    
    Write this down. There is no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. The Durham report shows us there was no corroborated evidence for the FBI starting the investigation known as Crossfire Hurricane.
    
    The same FBI on the other hand has not pursued Hunter Biden’s laptop, the links between China and the Bidens and why 50 officials including intelligence officers falsely labelled Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation.
    
    There appear to be two standards of justice at the FBI, one for Trump and one for the Bidens.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:37am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      That seems to be pretty clear, wonder if Mike understands?
      He can be clever some days. Today might not be that day.
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:52am
    - virtualmark
      
      So when Trump’s campaign manager passed detailed voter information to his friend, who happens to be an officer in the GRU, that wasn’t collusion?
      
      I’ll answer the question myself. No it wasn’t collusion as defined in US law – I’m at ease with that. But it was collusion as that is defined in a dictionary (“secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose”).
      
      As I summarised yesterday:
      – Russia took actions to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election.
      – Trump welcomed that Russian help.
      – Trump’s intimates sought even more Russian help.
      – Trump’s campaign manager shared information with Russian intelligence.
      – All repeatedly lied about it.
      – Then, in office, Trump supported Russian policy goals.
      
      Kindest interpretation: Trump was Russia’s useful idiot.
      Harshest interpretation: Trump is a Russian asset.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:43am
      - Lenticular
        
        What part of the FBI has just disowned its actions and blamed former management don’t you understand?
        
        Good grief, the freaking FBI paid Igor Danchenko $1 million for his ‘evidence’ tying Trump to Russia, despite knowing that A) the evidence was junk and B) *Danchenko was working for Russia*.
        
        They altered the CIA’s assessment that “Carter Page is not a Russian asset [(and has worked for the CIA)] ” into “Carter Page is a Russian asset” and then submitted it to the FISA court!
        
        Just the last section of the Durham Report on the FBI’s indefensibly biased actions is game, set, match.
        
        Literally the only thing you guys have is Manafort, who got fired by Trump after, what, 1 month? 2 months?
        
        Get a grip. Even CNN is saying, “This exonerates Trump”. The FBI has disowned Crossfire Hurricane. It’s over. You were wrong.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:56am
      - Lenticular
        
        What part of the FBI has just disowned its actions and blamed former management don’t you understand?
        
        Good grief, the freaking FBI paid Igor Danchenko $1 million for his ‘evidence’ tying Trump to Russia, despite knowing that A) the evidence was junk and B) *Danchenko was working for Russia*.
        
        They altered the CIA’s assessment that “Carter Page is not a Russian asset [(and has worked for the CIA)] ” into “Carter Page is a Russian asset” and then submitted it to the court!
        
        Just the last section of the Durham Report on the FBI’s indefensibly biased actions is game, set, match.
        
        Literally the only thing you guys have is Manafort, who got fired by Trump after, what, 1 month? 2 months?
        
        Get a grip. Even CNN is saying, “This exonerates Trump”. The FBI has disowned Crossfire Hurricane. It’s over. You were wrong.
        
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        May 17, 2023 11:15am
      - Lenticular
        
        Was trying to force Nato to spend their promised 2% of GDP on defence a Russian policy goal?
        
        How about lethal aid for Ukraine? Remember, what Obama and Biden refused?
        
        Have you seen the footage of Trump telling the Germans that closing their nuclear power plants and relying on Russian gas means that “Russia has you over a barrel”? You should. It’s worth 1000 pages of liberal punditry.
        
        You have some pretty strange ideas of what aids Russia’s foreign policy.
        
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        May 17, 2023 12:00pm
      - Matt Long
        
        The Russians wanted Trump as President so they can be contained until dementia Joe gives the green light to invade Ukraine.
        So that he could drop the value of the oil exports by growing America’s energy production.
        If the Russians wanted anyone in power it was Hillary then Biden.
        
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        May 17, 2023 12:59pm
      - virtualmark
        
        The FBI paid US$200k to Igor Danchenko, not $1 million. The FBI does pay sources, it’s not illegal. Durham charged Danchenko and … Danchenko was acquitted. So not really a smoking gun there … more a cold spud gun.
        
        Clinesmith altered material in a warrant application and was properly charged for that. But the judge found it was a minor enough case that Clinesmith got 400 hours of community service.
        
        Meanwhile Manafort, Gates, Papadopolous and Stone were all found guilty and did prison time … until Trump pardoned Manafort and Stone.
        
        Trump consistently took Putin’s side in disputes, even disagreeing with his own intelligence community. His first impeachment was for standing over Ukraine when they were trying to arm themselves against Russian intrusion.
        
        Go back to what I said:
        – Russia took actions to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election.
        – Trump welcomed that Russian help.
        – Trump’s intimates sought even more Russian help.
        – Trump’s campaign manager shared information with Russian intelligence.
        – All repeatedly lied about it.
        – Then, in office, Trump supported Russian policy goals.
        
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        May 17, 2023 1:27pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They will do him for tax and ignore the rest, but the collusion with foreign countries was mentioned in his divorce, funds from one of these corrupt nations, it’s there in black and white
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:48am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      “appears to be”? It’s blatantly obvious. The deep state protect their own at any cost.
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:01am
  - Lenticular
    
    You say that convictions are a sure sign of guilt even when there is documented proof of serious misconduct by law enforcement and prosecutors.
    
    Congratulations, you turned into / showed yourself to be everything you said you hated.
    
    The detailed tip from Downer? Never happened.
    The briefing of Obama and Biden? Did.
    And yes, the FBI knew that the Steele dossier was junk right at the outset.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:41am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Jesus, what a hammering!
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:47am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Lee C – it’s been proven that the FBI have been acting inappropriately regarding Trump and favorable towards Biden.
    Mike – the fact the FBI have gone after Trump affiliates and not Biden affiliates proves you are wrong.
    Everyone else – what part of “favorable treatment” did you not understand?
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:13am
  - Ghost
    
    So you are claiming the Russians interfered in an election, there is another country that interferes in other countries elections, some country called the USA.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:06am
    - Mike
      
      That just points to the hypocrisy of most countries’ foreign policies. It’s not an argument for a country abdicating enforcement of laws protecting its own political system.
      
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      May 17, 2023 11:29am
      - Ghost
        
        Well Mike, they can’t go around bitching about a country doing to them exactly what they do to other countries and the cia has done far more to help install some of the worst people into power
        
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        May 17, 2023 12:51pm
  - bjools
    
    Some points to contend with there mike.
    Would you like to tot up the indictments and convictions – FBI/Mueller vs Durham?
    
    Irrelevant.
    
    Did the Russkies want Trump to be elected? – Yes
    
    Actually the answer is NO…evidence is…they didn’t start a war until he left office.
    
    Did the Russkies do whatever they could to help Trump? – Yes
    
    Evidence?????
    
    Did the FBI fuck up? – Yes, as they often do
    
    True…especially when HRC refused to comply with a congressional subpoena.
    
    Will this latest report change anyone’s mind? – No
    Wait and see, I don’t think Biden’s poll numbers could get much worse.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:22am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Did the Russkies want Trump? – No. Clinton would have been infinitely more helpful to them.
    Did the Russkies do whatever they could to help Trump? No, see above.
    Did the FBI fuck up? No, what they did was deliberate, which is way, way different to a fuck up. If what they did to Trump had happened to Clinton, or Biden, or in fact Obama, most of them that were involved would be in jail now. Mike, everyone realises you have bent over for Lenin, but surely even you must know injustice when you see it?
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:40am
  - colina
    
    The claim that the Russians wanted Trump is totally irrational given his aggressive foreign policy stance along with his insistence that the Europen Nato members significantly increase their military spending. They would have loved Hilliary with her stupid reset button.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:58am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Here’s a fun commentary thread from the long-time of blog of now retired Law Prof Ann Althouse (Very Liberal). One of the ones I liked:
  
  Oh, the poor FBI. It was duped!
  
  They’ve certainly learned their lesson. They’re not falling for any of that “Biden’s taking money from the Chinese” stuff…
  
  😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
  
  God, what a farce the FBI has become. Worse than the days of J Edgar.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:22am
  - Mike
    
    At least in those days the FBI concentrated on the real threats, Tom – dangerous infiltrators like King and the other radicals promoting absurdities like ‘civil rights’ or ‘peace’.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:45am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Give it up Mike. Another fail.
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:04am
- covfefe
  
  and has our MSM picked this story up??
  
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  May 17, 2023 11:07am
- Jim
  
  I’m sure this revelation will be well covered in the NZ news and media lol
  Seriously, I despair at how people still can’t see the scale of political and media corruption, it really puts Orwell to shame.
  
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  May 17, 2023 7:01pm
  - Mike
    
    Stuff has the Washngton Post coverage:
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/us-canada/300880318/report-sharply-criticises-fbis-probe-of-trumps-2016-campaign
    
    You’re welcome.
    
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    May 18, 2023 7:24am
Simon

Am reliably informed that the people running iwi are greedy, arrogant and stupid. They make up for it somewhat by hiring very good law firms. (the external lawyers if they can stomach the arrogance and stupidity can bill 3 times the going rate as the people running iwi have no concept of the value of money. Money from govt just pours into iwi)

Maori party are just as stupid and arrogant as their iwi controllers. Just watch those clowns in the Maori party turn off people / center voters with their arrogance just when they might be set to control parliament / force co-governance. The stupidity is breath taking.
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May 17, 2023 8:09am
- pdm
  
  Simon isn’t Iwi hiring Lawyers a sop to Colonialism?
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:26am
  - bjools
    
    and capitalism.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:25am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  See http://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi
  
  Here you can find out about Elite Maori, and where they are taking NZ.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:54am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Iwi have no concept of the value of money because it is not their money, it comes from Net Taxpayers – millions!
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:57am
  - unaha-closp
    
    NZ’s purple politicians kicking-cans-forever-down-road approach to government is pretty simple. Red tinged prefer to do so with a massive PR campaign to show how caring their placement of feet to can is for the kindest of strokes. Blue tinged will with maximum efficiency manage the passage of foot to can.
    
    It isn’t stupid to pick a good can.
    
    There is a great deal of stupidity involved, but it is not the Maori.
    
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    May 17, 2023 12:21pm
- I remember when
  
  “the people running the iwi are greedy, arrogant and stupid.”
  But that, whether factual or not, is not the real problem.
  The problem, is the failure to introduce adequate checks and balances.
  If you allow things to happen, you can’t blame the people who accept their good fortune and push it to the extreme.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:55am
hullkiwi

Luxon on the am Show this morning highlighting that according to an international literacy study that 50% of NZ 15 year olds are below literacy standards expected for 15 year olds.

Now please explain how this is being out of touch?

NZ has a very real education crisis that is destroying NZ’s future, we need change this October and not more of the lying and incompetence of the past 6byears to fix the mess!
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May 17, 2023 8:10am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Yes, and who was Education Minister from October 2017 until January 2023? None other than the current Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins.
  
  Fewer people (15.6%) have confidence that the Government is doing enough on numeracy and literacy than chose Christopher Luxon as their Preferred Prime Minister.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:17am
  - Kumbukani Obi
    
    I had an Uber driver in Wellington last week. Been here 10 years. Refugee from Iraq. Nice guy.
    
    Says he loves New Zealand. But despairs at what his children are learning at school. He told me he is tutoring them in maths and English at home. Yes an Iraqi home schooling his children in English 😂
    
    He had a funny story about his time in the refugee settlement centre in Auckland. They wanted to test his numeracy skills. They gave him ‘3+2 =?’. 😳
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:36am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      You may find this guy was a Teacher or even a Doctor in his homeland, and not able to work in that field in NZ.
      Yes they do exist, even to the level of throwing their past out the window and starting a new life. I remember a nice young girl working at Countdown years ago. No headscarf, and so happy to be here. All new, I had to explain vege types to her, she had not seen them before. Not there now, gone on to better things. She did seem very intelligent.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:10am
      - Kumbukani Obi
        
        He told me he was an engineer. Qualifications not recognised here. He told me that he brought his mathematics books all the way to New Zealand, via a couple of years in a refugee camp in Syria.
        
        The New Zealand schooling system has completely lost its way. Blame must lie at the door of the Ministry of Education.
        
        Incremental reform will not work. Parents needs to be given vouchers to purchase the education they want for their children. You might say that some can’t make those choices. In which case brokers will emerge to help them make the choices. Bad schools need to die and the good schools must be allowed to expand. Rationing access to good schools via the houses people can afford is an obsenity.
        
        So no, I just don’t see National fixing this mess. The last two National education Ministers have been awful.
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:46am
      - thirteenstars
        
        “Incremental reform will not work. Parents needs to be given vouchers to purchase the education they want for their children. ”
        
        That’s ACT’s exact policy.
        
        https://bit.ly/3BxIWJZ
        
        But as you suggest we are our own worst enemies as even those who should support parental choice and private provision are against such a policy because they don’t trust parents to make good choices.
        
        It really is nuts that they’d rather have a systemic failure where all kids are being dumbed-down, indoctrinated and mentally disabled because the presume to dictate what a tiny percentage of wayward parents might do with their rightful share of education funding. You could use that same argument against any such choice and individual responsibility be damned.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:13am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @Kumbukani Obi.
        There will be many like me. No actual qualification on paper, jack of all trades, master of none. Down to earth people who can handle almost anything in the trade side.
        Pity. they have come to a new land and life, but held back by Govt red tape.
        
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        May 17, 2023 2:05pm
- mandk
  
  I just heard Megan Woods on Hosking’s show, and she was explaining how the gov’t was fixing a problem.
  
  Her comment was “we’re doing a lot of work on it.”
  
  This seems to be the stock response from Labour Ministers, including Wood and Little.
  
  And, actually, it’s a completely meaningless response. It’s all a lot of energy (and taxpayers’ money) being expended to no good effect.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:26am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Doing “a lot of work” is code for “…meaningless memos being swapped between offices about the wording of Waiata…”
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:40am
    - hullkiwi
      
      …and when to do karakeha….
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:45am
  - RoboRob
    
    Yeah she is so all over her Minister of Energy portfolio that she hasn’t even read the report issued a couple of days ago into the power companies following their voluntary guidlines.
    
    She rabbited on about working hard for NZers to make sure they get the best electricty to keep them clean and warm. Personally I suspect she has treated energy as a portfolio that she can be hands off on. Now note the report a couple of days ago that the grid wont be able to handle new power requirements and to expect power prices to double in the next 5yrs.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:55am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      ‘Working hard for NZers?’ Really? When?
      If she was, it would be a first. Bur hey, she is very good at not answering questions and diverting.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:15am
    - Kumbukani Obi
      
      Just watch. If there is a National Government in 2027 and power prices surge, Labour and the Greens will scream the house down.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:49am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        They will be reminded of how Jaspinda fucked NZ over bigly, then ran away
        
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        May 17, 2023 2:08pm
  - RoboRob
    
    She claimed that attendance and performance hadn’t dropped markedly. Even though we have government figures showing the exact opposite.
    
    Quite a poor performance from Hosking this morning. However he redeemed himself by admitting it at the end of the interview 🙂
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:56am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I loved Mark Mitchell’s response.
    
    “They strive valiantly to achieve mediocrity”
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:02am
    - Kumbukani Obi
      
      Reminds me of a paper I read a decade ago about how to lift the skills of teachers in New Zealand. It referred to “promising pockets of excellence” amongst teachers. 🙂
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:51am
      - mandk
        
        I think there must be a handy guide for Ministers and Government Departments, containing stock phrases to be used in interviews and press releases to disguise inactivity and incompetence.
        
        There was also a report recently on Oranga Tamariki that said that it identified “pockets of good practice” (Translation: OT is almost completely useless.)
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:05am
    - Ehlana
      
      Striving valiantly is not the same as succeeding.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:58am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      “They strive valiantly to achieve mediocrity”. And fail. Dismally.
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:42am
  - Right of way is Way of Right
    
    Now now people, as one of the more competent ministers in Labour, or at least giving the appearance of competence, Megan is rather busy being the Minister for Energy and Resources.
    
    and the Minister of Housing.
    
    and the Minister for Building and Construction.
    
    and the Minister for Infrastructure.
    
    and the Acting Minister for Economic Development until last month.
    
    and the Acting Minister of Forestry until last month.
    
    and the Acting Minister of Police until two months ago.
    
    Remembering that since this government took charge, she has also held ministerial portfolios as Minster for Science, Research and Innovation, and Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration.
    
    9 Ministerial portfolios in less than 6 years!!
    
    If she had any Maori Whakapapa, she might consider defecting to TPM just to have a break!
    
    I do wonder how much time she has for the good people of Wigram who voted her in to parliament in the first place.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:19am
    - Taieri
      
      the Acting Minister of Forestry until last month
      —————
      
      What does the Minister of Forestry actually do?
      
      And why do we have separate ministers of housing, minister of building and construction and minister of infrastructure? Do housing and building and construction even require a minister separate from infrastructure?
      
      Perhaps it’s the time to institute a minister for simplicity?
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:40am
      - Right of way is Way of Right
        
        Like the Lorax, she talks to the trees…
        
        3 0
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        May 17, 2023 12:34pm
  - 7kiwi11
    
    I’m surprised she’s not doing the mahi!
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:45am
  - david
    
    Aaaawwww c’mon. It is a huge change from Nashie’s “we are working INCREDIBLY hard on this”. I would put a dollar to a knob of goatshit that fewer than 10% of them would know or even be able to define “a lot of work” without being laughed out of the Workingmens Club
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:19am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Woods was doing her best to defend Education Minister Jan Tinetti, who is totally in over her head. Fair play to Woods for sticking up for a ministerial colleague, but she was defending the indefensible!
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:22am
  - Clownworld
    
    We are the govt and we are here to help….run!
    We’re doing a lot of work = unproductive bad activities
    
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    May 18, 2023 4:04am
- softail 1450
  
  Hullkiwi, The literacy and numeracy figures might be in the toilet but Hipkins’s classes for ” how to hold your cellphone in one hand and never drop it” have a 100% pass rate ,now that’s progress.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:30am
- Nickc2
  
  Do we currently have School Inspectors?
  They were/are responsible for ongoing assessment of Teachers in the workplace, along with Curricula compliance, etc.
  IMO, if we still have them, they should be held responsible along with incompetent Teachers, Head Masters/Mistresses, School Boards, and relevant Unions.
  Throwing additional money at a deplorable situation does not change it. Holding people responsible and replacing them where necessary will IMO improve education standards in NZ.
  PS: Replacing the Minister responsible would be a great start.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:44am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    No school inspectors as such.
    
    ERO replaced them…
    
    My experience of ERO was that a couple of female ex-primary teachers arrive at your school for a couple of days and carry out a tick-box exercise to check that all the school’s paperwork is up-to-date…and that’s it.
    
    They didn’t come into my classrooms or ever observe me teaching.
    
    They did away with the compulsory 20 min silent reading immediately after lunch break that Rongotai College had instituted and successfully run for years. ERO said it was wasted teaching time.
    It wasn’t…
    
    They also did away with Wellington High School’s vertical Form classes (whereby students from year 9-13 shared form time together) and told the school, form classes had to be based on same year groupings. (madness,…. as my girls gained friendships across a wider age range when they started High School than if they’d just been grouped with 13 year old all day long)
    
    I also encountered them when I was on a student teacher on section at an all boys school. There were 4 of us on section at the time of the ERO inspection and the silly women would not believe all 4 of us that in the couple of weeks we had been at the school, we had not observed Big boys bullying each other.
    
    They seemed to have a fixation that because it was boys school, bullying must be rife.
    
    In summary: I found ERO to be a bunch of low-ability, unimaginative, power-hungry bullies.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:36am
  - hullkiwi
    
    They are ERO (Education Review Office) inspectors. But the ERO process is a joke. It is a box ticking exercise.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:36am
    - Kumbukani Obi
      
      Interestingly – the current Chief Executive of the Ministry of Education was, prior to taking up her position, the Chief Executive of the Education Review Office. 🙂
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:54am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The left say he is out of touch, but he doesn’t believe what the left want is success, the left are the only ones marching in time
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:51am
- leoj
  
  Education Dept is too busy ramming maori down the throats of students, not to mention that this bastard government is doing the same to we, the citizens.
  
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  May 17, 2023 4:10pm
Tony Stuart

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if, instead of ringing up National MP’s to try and manufacture a “leadership crisis”, journalists actually held the Prime Minister to account for lying about crime in Hawke’s Bay after Cyclone Gabrielle:

Nash wrote the suggestions were made “not as police minister”, despite him holding the portfolio at the time.

The first idea was deploying more police officers to the region, in addition to those already committed to assisting in the cyclone response.

The second was to “dispatch Wally” – presumed to be Police Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha – to sit down with gang leaders and “bang their bloody heads together and get them to stop this s***”.

Rumours of gang members carrying out crime in cyclone-hit areas were widespread at the time, however, police never confirmed the level of gang involvement.

Nash said the matter was “pretty serious”, claiming “security and policing” were the top concerns at a local business leaders meeting.

Coster made a brief response: “Hi Minister. I’ll call you now.”

On February 20, the day after Nash’s text, Hipkins accused National and Act of promoting unsubstantiated rumours regarding the level of crime in Hawke’s Bay, saying “any suggestion that things are out of control is just wrong”.

“Amplifying those kinds of rumours isn’t helpful, and it doesn’t help police do their jobs,” he said.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/sacked-minister-stuart-nash-texts-to-police-commissioner-contradicted-pms-comments-on-cyclone-crime/TOQYJHNTSFENJMY7QDXYXPJZ4M/

There is so much wrong here. Nash, obviously knowing that the Police Minister shouldn’t be texting the Commissioner about operational matters, and Coster immediately phoning Nash, presumably to discuss the latter’s suggestions.
‘
But by far more serious are the lies Hipkins told about crime in Hawke’s Bay. It was clear at the time that there was a whole lot of criminal activity going on, but Hipkins expressly denied it. Worse, he gaslit the public by claiming accusations were unsubstantiated, when it was clear that they were in fact very real accusations.

So why is the media obsessed with the Leader of the Opposition? Surely they should be ringing Labour MP’s and Ministers asking them if they have confidence in a Prime Minister that tells outright lies during a time of crisis. Or is political point-scoring of more importance than the truth?
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May 17, 2023 8:12am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Labour Government covering for Gangs yet again
  
  (and specifically the Hawkes Bay Mongrel Mobsters).
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:24am
  - Mike
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    This has been covered this before on Kiwiblog. It’s just a matter of colours: Labour (red) prefers the Mongrel Mob, while National (blue) prefers Black Power.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:29am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Did we ever find out what happened to the $2.75 million of our money Jacinda handed over to them?
    
    Asking for a taxpayer.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:31am
    - softail 1450
      
      Maggie Pie , as the old quotation goes ” they spent 2.7 million dollars on drugs,whores,and alcohol and the rest they wasted”, there’s plenty more money where that came from.
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:36am
      - kowtow
        
        Similar to ;
        
        “In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol – it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.” – George Best.
        
        26 0
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        May 17, 2023 8:45am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        LOL! I’m going to use that later 😀
        
        12 0
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        May 17, 2023 9:03am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        My one was when someone asked if I was doing Dry July. I said I hadn’t drank on 22 days. Not in a row or anything stupid like that…..
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:11am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        softail, I think that one came from George Best, “I spent a lot of my money on booze, fast cars and birds. The rest I just squandered”.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:47am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Last report was that there had not been an official report/audit.
      
      And some folks on the programme have relapsed….
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018868587/relapse-reports-upset-gang-based-rehab-programme
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:39am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        ‘Programme a failure’.
        – Steven Manning (Crown Prosecutor)
        
        “I think we are doing very well”
        – Harry Tam (Mongrel Mob life member)
        
        LOL!!!
        
        19 0
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        May 17, 2023 9:15am
    - Keith White
      
      MP, I think Cheech & Chong said it back in the day…
      
      “Up in smoke, that’s where my money goes
      In my lungs and sometimes up my nose
      When troubled times begin to bother me
      I take a toke and all my cares go up in smoke
      
      https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/3043581/Cheech+%26+Chong/Up+in+Smoke
      
      (Mod: link goes to the page for the full lyrics and the music.)
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:49am
    - Nickc2
      
      Perhaps it was used to cover their drug-dealing loss of earnings during the Covid fiasco?
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:02am
- pdm
  
  Crime is still happening in the worst hit areas. Friends who had to be lifted off their two story roof by helicopter at the peak of flooding were looted about 10 days ago.
  
  Fortunately they had been able to get back in to the house and take away anything salvageable – which was not much as you can imagine.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:31am
  - Sacha
    
    Think positively – at least they had less rubbish to remove !
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:29pm
- kowtow
  
  We all know why .
  
  This regime is their meal ticket . Literally.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:46am
- Tricati
  
  Tony, until National grow a backbone and really push back on the media narrative they will continue to be the lead ‘negative’ story.
  The continual focus on the performance of National leaders (Bridges, Collins, Muller and now Luxon), who are in opposition, compared to the lack of scrutiny over Ardern’s departure, and importantly, Hipkins oversite as minister in charge of the Polytech shambles, MIQ shambles and subsequent legal action, performance as Police minister (low bar after Poto Williams I know) and absolute debacle in education which he was lead minister.
  I’m still not convinced Luxon is National’s answer but he must realize he will never get a fair deal from the MSM, so in my opinion, should adopt a more forceful approach when dealing with them. Sitting on the fence is providing the MSM with the ammo to denigrate him, and National, so he needs to use some of the funds they have collected and use other media options to hi-lite the absolute shambles the current government has created. Either that, or hand the leadership to Nicola Willis, who will garner the lost woman vote now Ardern has vanished, and at least can push back in a discussion with media.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:18am
  - Ghost
    
    If you want him to attack the media that will just lead to more attack stories by the media and not getting his view across, changing leader will achieve nothing
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:30am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Perhaps Mr Luxon should respond to such questions:
    
    ‘I’m the Leader of the Opposition. You should really be asking the Minister of zzz that question’.
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:05pm
  - Paulus
    
    National does not have control of the $55 million plus $25 million that Labour give to the media.
    He who pays the piper call the tunes remember.
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:43pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  All of Labour and their cronies will be in for a show next year.
  If National has the stones they should call out this constant lying that goes unreported.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:26am
- oldpark
  
  @Tony Stuart 8.12 am .
  
  Was hard to forget the massive attack on Helen Clark in late 90s .Yes by her own colleagues.
  Michael Cullen led the charge wanting her dumped as leader.
  Her crime she was known as Mrs 2% her image and track record did not look good to Labour or their sycophants NZs far left so called Main Stream Media .
  Yet in 1999 General Election she won that election in a virtual land-slide .She also went on to win in 2002 2005.
  Not bad for a person who was known as Mrs 2% prior to 1999 General Election .
  So when all the rat bags from so called NZs News Outlets and their sycophants daily set out to kneecap NZs next PM Christopher Luxon on a so called 16% popularity, beats the hell out of Helen Clarks’ known as Mrs 2%, or do that bunch of sickos and waste of space clowns suffer from selective amnesia .As well as her subsequent victory and popularity.Lest we all have forgotten .
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:00am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Just like the story about the 501 that broken into hotel during covid to get drugs off the GF and next minute the solo mother was living it large staying in 5 star hotels and was broke, he said it was lies, but I bet anything it was true
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:29am
- Beach Haven expat
  
  I said at the time how the Government was clearly trying to have its cake and eat it after wanting praise by trumpeting they stuck in 20-ish extra cops in from out of area but then saying there was no uptick in crime. So why were the cops dragged in?
  
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  May 17, 2023 11:25am
- Piniwi
  
  Fair go Tony that is not very likely with a bought and paid for media which as we know are contacted every Monday to set the agenda which dictate the narrative for the week. Would you honestly expect any editor to deviate from those instruction at the possible cost of loosing his/her handout and actually do some investigative journalism.
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:02pm
- leoj
  
  No matter how hard you try, Tony, I refuse to vote for a National Party led by Luxon, who is a maori sympathiser and who threw Pugh under the bus for questioning climate change.
  
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  May 17, 2023 4:12pm
Paulus

So what do you expect from a Left Wing Government – here too !
The FBI are more crooked than the Mafia, and have been for ever from J.E. Hoover start.
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May 17, 2023 8:13am
cmm

As much as it sticks in my throat I think Mike/mma/whatever might be right: kiwiblog is a conservative echo chamber that does not reflect more general NZ attitudes.

Why do I say that?

The last few days have taken me to parts of the internet I do not often visit. One in particular is toyota.co.nz

Toyota has long been an extremely trusted NZ brand. For as long as I have lived in NZ, Toyota have put a lot of effort into market research etc to link themselves to “being Kiwi”.

We all remember the iconic Barry Crump and “Bugger” ads.

Not any more. Now Toyota is a river of woke.

Either Toyota have :
* Gone from some of the best marketeers/brand makers to idiots or
* They are indeed reading the room, Aotearoans are woke and we’re in an echo chamber.
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May 17, 2023 8:15am
- ClanMcleod
  
  cmm – I disagree, we’ll see how this transpires, but I believe we are witnessing the creation of a fake narrative. A lot of money is being spent manufacturing a ‘reality’ that isn’t based on anything other than fertile imaginations.
  
  The companies that push the agendas have read the room wrong. When they are exposed the backlash is brutal. Bud Light is the most obvious example. The recent Netflix show ‘Cleopatra’ is getting a 1% review on Rotten Tomatoes because the cast a black woman as Cleopatra.
  
  Bad Cattitude did an excellent blog post on the topic recently, I highly recommend reading it to understand this phenomenon.
  
  so what then happens to companies who mistake this manipulated substrate for reality?
  
  you get a pretty bad map.
  
  what happens when they decide “hey, the kids online love this it’s gonna be a smash hit!” and “this got 9 gajillion likes, we’re onto a winner!”?
  
  oopsie.
  
  past a certain point of discourse distortion, that which “tests well” online is actually a recipe for disaster.
  
  The backlash to the whole trans thing is just starting to gain a head of steam. It isn’t remotely close to peak, when it comes, those companies who embraced it are going to realise they made a horrendous mistake. The same with all of the other ‘latest things’ that people are being told to be outraged about.
  Trust your gut, you’re right on this, they are wrong.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:26am
  - cmm
    
    To a certain extent, everything is fake – including how a nation sees it self.
    
    In the Barry Crump days, how many NZers were really Crumpies? But NZers were wanting to see themselves as Crumpies and bought themselves Hiluxes.
    
    People are still buying Toyotas in droves, so there is clearly still something going on.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:38am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Toyota make good, reliable vehicles. Certainly during that era, 80s and 90s. I think they may have slipped a bit lately. They’ve started outsourcing a lot of their parts to cheaper labour markets. But those Hiluxes, Hiaces and the Corolla in particular were super reliable.
      
      The difference with the use of the Crump type character for marketing is, firstly, those characters actually existed, we all knew one or two. Old school bushmen, down to earth, common sense. Secondly, they were traits that were desirable in a vehicle, as well as people!
      What sort of role model is a man dressing up as a woman? If that makes me old fashioned I’ll wear it. It certainly won’t make me buy their product, in fact it will have the totally opposite effect which is what seems to be happening.
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:51am
      - cmm
        
        I’ll bet you that the average NZer doesn’t know a Crump type person or a Speight’s man.
        
        Far more likely to know 20 vegans and a one-legged Bhudist lesbian.
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:34am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        You forgot Landcruisers..
        I guess Toyota are now targeting the pansies.
        There is no shortage of them
        
        9 2
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        May 17, 2023 9:37am
      - Yvette
        
        What sort of role model is a man dressing up as a woman? If that makes me old fashioned I’ll wear it. :o)
        
        So, mate Mcleod, how ‘trans’ is a petrol / electric hybrid?
        AFAF – for sure!
        
        2 2
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        May 17, 2023 10:02am
      - MCōs
        
        Have you got an issue with Buddhists?
        BTW
        Barry Crump was nasty chap; nobody to set up as role model for anyone
        
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        May 17, 2023 4:32pm
    - Kumbukani Obi
      
      Men might ditch Bud Light because they have gone woke.
      
      But I doubt that advertising carries much weight with New Zealand motor vehicle buyers. People buy Toyotas because they are good cars.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:57am
      - thirteenstars
        
        That’s not the point.
        
        Wokeness is not a surface attribute with companies operating as usual behind the marketing gloss.
        
        The conflict, cancelling, mistrust and general cognitive distress created in woke environments impacts work performance, and affirmative action, “equity, diversity and inclusion”, which focuses on superficial characteristics and conformity, and not the best qualified eventually compromises quality and safety.
        
        When that car malfunctions or that plane crashes, was it because of some technical issue, or because the pilot or mechanic was given the job because they were the right race or gender or had the right opinions?
        
        6 2
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        May 17, 2023 10:30am
      - Matt Long
        
        Hilux is living off its reputation from the 90s, I don’t know of any serious commercial user now using a new Hilux.
        
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        May 17, 2023 1:11pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Actually, I don’t think it’s directly the wokeness of the show that kills shows like Cleopatra. Instead, it’s the promotion of writers & directors etc based on their woke ideology rather than ability who then turn out horrible product because they’re terrible at their job.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:23am
  - Piniwi
    
    Right Clan I have just watched available episodes of a series called The Diplomat and was wondering who did the casting from the very first episode. They obviously conformed to the new casting code and covered all the bases at the cost of denigrating the entire production. Luckily it was just another free steam so just watched it for some light wind down entertainment. Still the best sedative watching some mindless TV.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:15pm
  - General
    
    Only way to pass this on to you was to reply here.
    Please check this out if you get the time brother
    https://rumble.com/v2o7ad2-streaming-with-laurie-gagan-prions.html
    (Skip the intro) Two very accomplished scientists who’s discussion is incredibly enlightening.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:18pm
    - General
      
      Audio is messed up until the 10 minute mark. apologies. Was watching it live myself and didn’t catch the start.
      
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      May 17, 2023 3:10pm
- sirknz
  
  The ‘best marketers’ just follow whatever BS is cool on social media at the minute. I’ve worked with enough of them to know that they are basically the ‘colouring in with crayons department’ of just about every organisation that employees a team.
  
  The majority of the marketers I studied with at university (degree had three different disciplines you could choose from) would swallow whatever BS was foisted on them and accept the text book as the truth, the good ones I studied with all tended to be more right leaning and were able to think for themselves.
  
  Just because a big corporate employs people who think ‘woke’ is the way, does not mean that they are accurately reading the room. Most of them couldn’t find their own arse with both hands and a guidebook.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:31am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    sirknz – if you haven’t, read the article I linked to from Bad Cattitude. That’s the whole point of it, that the problem is, the censorship of social media, the banning, blocking, deplatforming etc means there is a completely distorted message emanating from those platforms. Marketers using that as their go to for what the latest trends are are making a big mistake.
    Manufactured narratives that won’t last.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:54am
  - The Feed
    
    Correct, Sirknz.
    
    I used to work in marketing. There are some exceptions, but marketing departments are mostly staffed by conformist followers who think themselves to be mavericks. They are the second thickest group of people in any given company.
    
    The thickest work in PR.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:40am
  - Piniwi
    
    Right sirknz or what everybody else is doing. If you want to see how it was done in the past then have a look at the new movie “Air” about how Nike broke into the basketball footwear market.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:19pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    The problem is HR departments, jammed with woke humanities grads, doing initial filtering for job applicants and picking out people according to their preferences, ie prefer lefties where bosses generally care only about competence.
    
    Interestingly side effect is that it’s now been noticed statistically that plump and otherwise non-threatening females have an advantage in screening processes over more attractive women that HR drones feel threatened by. Perceived hotness in females is a disadvantage to hiring.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:36pm
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Thank you – you are not always wrong yourself.
  I think I prefer to regard Kiwiblog not as an echo chamber but as a safe space where snowflakes can air their many grievances against the modern world.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:33am
  - RightNow
    
    We can tell by how well you settled in here
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:53am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    Lol Mike. We are glad you can say what you want here…. I would hate for you to have nothing to do between meetings and crosswords at work….
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:58am
    - Mike
      
      At least you’re not one of the snowflakes who think commenting on Kiwiblog is my job.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:21am
      - Taieri
        
        At least you’re not one of the snowflakes who think commenting on Kiwiblog is my job
        ———–
        
        Do you have the time for a job?
        
        8 2
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        May 17, 2023 10:43am
  - leoj
    
    Think you’ll find that snowflakes and pansies are the domain of the left, where you reside.
    
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    May 17, 2023 4:17pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Look at Anheuser-Busch for your answers……..
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:35am
  - sirknz
    
    And soon to be followed by Miller-Coors.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:42am
- kowtow
  
  Nope .
  
  The Bud Light business shows there’s still some sense out there.
  I believe it to be the same here .
  We don’t hear about it as the Gate Keepers ensure otherwise.
  Then there’s the fear factor of being targetted , cancelled losing your livelihood or better yet , govt etc contracts .
  Etc
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:49am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Gone from some of the best marketeers/brand makers to idiots
  
  You might be interested in “The phenomenon of corporate leaders not caring as much about their customers…” – and their precious Corporate Equality Index (CEI) score.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:04am
- Dave
  
  Regardless of Toyota’s marketing, too many comments in KB uneasily remind me of the time not so long ago when ardent Labour supporters railed at National’s and John Key’s incomprehensible, widespread support.
  
  Like many on KB, I strongly object to the spread of co-governance, the incompetence and wilful unaccountability of the government, yet these do not seem to be issues of major importance in opinion surveys of the wider population.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:43am
  - Ghost
    
    Last political survey I did a week ago was asking about 3 waters and Co governance
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:49am
- Ghost
  
  What was on Toyota website you didn’t like?
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:12am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  So you don’t believe the 5 year Durham report? The report that came after the leftie that investigated the allegations found that Trump did not collude
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:34am
Bridgenag

Russian Disinformation?
Censorship and propaganda will not protect “democracy”, they will destroy it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/russian-disinformation?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

“Elon Musk has clearly come down on the side that he will have to cooperate with governments if he wishes to keep Twitter alive. His vision of an un-tainted social media platform have vanished (if it ever really existed), as his goals to make “X” a one-stop financial platform are bigger than his goals to keep Twitter free of censorship. It took the threat of loss of profit to get him to hire a WEF official as CEO of Twitter. All appearances are that he has caved to the USG, EU and the WEF. Twitter will revert back to just being another arm of the government, it is just a matter of time and incrementalism.”
In the same vein…..

Confusion vs Clarity
Critically Thinking about what the Left is doing
JOHN DROZ JR.
https://open.substack.com/pub/criticallythinking/p/confusion-vs-clarity?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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May 17, 2023 8:20am
Mike

Happy World Hypertension Day!

[Mod: here’s hoping you never suffer from hypertension Mike. It’s not something to celebrate.]
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May 17, 2023 8:25am
- igm
  
  Good Lord, he who celebrates Conscientious Objection . . . definitely unwell!
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:00am
  - Mike
    
    You may be interested to know that Florida just enacted a law protecting conscientious objection. Doctors with moral, religious or ethical objections to LGBTQI people are no longer required to provide them with medical treatment.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:13am
    - Wayne Mapp
      
      It must surely be a breach of the Hippocratic Oath if it is actually as you have reported it. However, I imagine the grounds to refuse treatment must be in respect of specific types of procedures, such as transgender surgery.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:34am
      - Kumbukani Obi
        
        “However, I imagine the grounds to refuse treatment must be in respect of specific types of procedures, such as transgender surgery.”
        
        No.
        
        “Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill allowing medical providers to deny service to prospective patients, or refuse to perform certain procedures based on their moral or ethical beliefs.
        
        The new law, known as the “Protections of Medical Conscience Act,” easily passed the Republican-led legislature, even though it does not define what constitutes a “moral” or “ethical” belief.
        
        https://www.metroweekly.com/2023/05/florida-law-will-allow-doctors-to-deny-treatments-to-lgbtq-patients/
        
        It allows doctors to refuse any treatment that conflicts with their “moral or ethical belief”. It is clearly designed to protect doctors who refuse tp provide “gender affirming” care such as hormone treatment. However, I could see that extending to some doctors simply refusing to see trans patients.
        
        I am not sure it is a problem. If you are a trans person, you hardly want to consult a doctor who won’t provide you with the care you want. Better off finding another doctor.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:08am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Wayne Mapp – unlike my wife who was denied treatment at an Auckland medical centre because she wasn’t wearing a mask, even though she has an exemption. Even though there is no requirement to wear a mask as a patient according to the government rules.
        Or my being forced to be seen in the car park in the middle of winter at the same medical centre for the same reason. I also had a government issued exemption.
        Hippocratic oath? Not at this medical centre.
        
        Needless to say, neither of us have been back. If I ever go in again it will be in a box and not through choice.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:21am
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        Kumbukani Obi,
        
        If that is the effect of the law (an ability to deny all treatment) then it is almost certainly a breach of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. The amendment relating to equal treatment. The law will be challenged in the courts and may get to the US Supreme Court. Even under the current composition of the Court, they would strike it down.
        A much tighter exclusion would be OK.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:58am
    - Matt Long
      
      Medical treatment or cosmetic surgery to “turn them into the other sex.”
      
      4 2
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      May 17, 2023 9:54am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Good to see it isn’t only “anti vaxxers” who get denied access to treatments. That would be the worst kind of bigotry.
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:17am
- Mike
  
  Thanks Mod. I’d discuss all my diseases but, as you know, Kiwiblog is not a great place for disclosing personal information.
  Nothing wrong, in my opinion, with promoting special days for special people. My only regret is that there are too many causes to fit into the limited number of days in the year, especially if one occasionally notes some of the other significant anniversaries, religious festivities, etc.
  Re hypertension specifically, if a reader here is one of the one billion or so people with this condition, I can only hope that they find the content here humorously relaxing, rather the stressfully triggering.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:09am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    BS Mike. I disclose lots here – including Prostate Cancer.
    You only talk about diseases.
    A false something……?
    
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    May 17, 2023 5:42pm
- Ghost
  
  I agree with the mod, you need more self awareness of what you post. For those with hypertension it’s nothing for them to celebrate or be happy about. An awareness day to educate people is what it is, a post saying so would be better than making it sound like a celebration day.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:45am
Maggie Pie

a bestie tweets…

New Zealand is a country.

Aotearoa is an ideology.
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May 17, 2023 8:28am
- pdm
  
  Maggie
  
  Aotearoa is purely a mythical place.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:34am
  - sirknz
    
    Isn’t it just outside of Huntly?
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:42am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Invented/Dreamt up by a British Colonial Administrator – Sir George Grey.
    
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    May 17, 2023 8:49am
    - Mike
      
      Remember when Muldoon wouldn’t watch TV dramatization of Grey’s life because he already knew all about “Good Governor Grey”?
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:15am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I never watched ” The Governor”.
        
        After years of just learning NZ history (social studies) through primary school.. I couldn’t summon an ounce more interest in the topic.
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:47am
  - kowtow
    
    Also a “colonial” construct . Wasn’t it a White Fella who invented it.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:04am
    - Mike
      
      It’s interesting how languages change. Some people who readily use English words, phrases and idioms unknown in the nineteenth century even seem to think that te reo Māori should remain unchanged over the same time period.
      
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      May 17, 2023 9:19am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Such a pity Maori didn’t write down their Myths…
        
        Nowadays I just see reworkings of stuff I’d read ages back written by Pakeha chaps.
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:42am
      - Mike
        
        Perhaps there are some cultures whose myths are unmediated by time and contact with other cultures, but I’ve never read of any.
        Here’s an amusing recent example:
        https://unherd.com/thepost/the-truth-about-king-charless-green-man/
        
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        May 17, 2023 9:50am
      - Ehlana
        
        I think they see it as trying to preserve their culture Mike. There’s no way of knowing how Maori culture and language would have developed if they had continued in isolation. I’ve noticed that people attempting to preserve in these situations often seem to resist any change, even those most people would find beneficial.
        
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        May 17, 2023 10:34am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    No pdm, I think you will find that Aotearoa was referred to by Maori as the North Island, straight from Kupe. Initially when a cloud on the horizon was sighted they cried “Aotea! Aotea”. So calling New Zealand Aotearoa is a straight lie. And a lie that is proven by Maori oral history.
    Then there’s “Tamaki Makau-rau”. Sheesh.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:59am
ClanMcleod

Let’s summarize what we now know of the negative efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines, and why vaccinated people—not the unvaxxed—suffer frequent bouts of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 vaccines—and the new bivalents, of which they are a part—are alarmingly and irredeemably unsafe, as well as ineffective for the advertised purposes. It is increasingly recognized by laypeople, physicians, and scientists throughout the world that the COVID-19 vaccines are neither safe, nor effective, nor reversible.

In this article, I show irrefutable proof that the COVID-19 vaccines are irredeemably ineffective.

They were never safe and effective.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/a-colossal-failure-around-the-world_5260961
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May 17, 2023 8:30am
- hmmokrightitis
  
  Attended grad ceremony at Vic yesterday, my eldest from my AM, bless him, a great day was had.
  
  Interesting to note that the student speaker – amazing woman, spoke so well – referenced the heart issues she was hospitalized with after Jab 2, and the impact on her life. Powerful and brave stuff.
  
  Maybe the truth tide is turning.
  
  Seymour and his “no one cares about you” comment might be about to find himself on the wrong side of history.
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:23pm
  - leoj
    
    I so wish that Seymour would get up to speed on this.
    
    His denial of the excess mortality rate is very concerning, except that he, along with the 119 MPs, were not prepared to discuss the mandates during the protest. That is equally disappointing.
    
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    May 17, 2023 4:23pm
- Jim
  
  The first 25 minutes of the recent International Covid Summit 3 hosted in the European Parliament tells the truth
  https://youtu.be/bFLPWWCAHfQ
  
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  May 17, 2023 7:20pm
- mawm
  
  Clan – This is late at night and I might repost it tomorrow. The Covid Public Enquiry in the UK has some interesting stuff. Dr Clare Craig is probably the best. Here is an excerpt.
  https://metatron.substack.com/p/covid-public-inquiry
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:27pm
Tony Stuart

The convicted “Mama Hooch” defendants are claiming they will suffer “extreme hardship” if their names are not permanently suppressed:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/132052656/extreme-hardship-if-mama-hooch-sexual-predators-are-named-judge-told

If ever there was a case where name publication was required to protect future potential victims it is this one. Men who drug women so they can molest them do not deserve the protection of name suppression, and should have thought of potential “extreme hardship” before they spiked drinks.
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May 17, 2023 8:31am
- sirknz
  
  If they are found guilty at the end of the trial then their names should be published.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:33am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    They were found guilty, and are awaiting sentence. There’s absolutely no reason for continued name suppression.
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:26am
- Blog-aholic
  
  The harm (apart from the harm they created) will be for their wives and their children. That said their names are well known in the community so it will be only the rest of NZ that doesn’t know.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:37am
- alex Masterley
  
  All I can say on this subject is that the “Mama Hooch” offenders were entirely responsible for the situation in which they find themselves. Name supression should not be available to them at all.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:43am
  - sirknz
    
    If they are found guilty, publish their names.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:50am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      They were found guilty late in April:
      
      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/04/two-men-found-guilty-for-raft-of-drink-spiking-sexual-assaults-of-young-women-at-popular-christchurch-nightlife-spots.html
      
      They have yet to be sentenced, and are probably wanting to keep their names secret because they know that as sex offenders, they will be very unpopular with the rest of the prison population.
      
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      May 17, 2023 11:31am
      - Ehlana
        
        Sex offending is also very unpopular with the victims and the general public.
        
        Perhaps people who don’t want to suffer public opprobrium should refrain from the disgraceful conduct that attracts it?
        
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        May 17, 2023 1:40pm
Maggie Pie

‘Christopher Luxon rules out working with the Maori Pardy’

John Tamihere, Prez-of-Te-Maori responds….

“What National are trying to do is scare people into thinking if the Hories get anywhere near power, we’ve got problems. That’s just so untrue and it licences people to keep attacking us as they do. I guarantee you, on October 15, if we hold the balance of power, Mr. Luxon will come calling”
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May 17, 2023 8:40am
- Blog-aholic
  
  How self depricating of Mr.T to speak for all Maori and call them that name….
  
  I doubt that he actually believes he represents all Maori at all and in fact he probably speaks more of his and the so called elite tribalists self interests….
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:44am
  - Ehlana
    
    Perhaps Mr T is trying to distinguish those he speaks for (Hories) from the rest of the Maori community? I think only about 10% of Maori voted for TPM, so it is a distinction that should be made.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:36am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Like Winston Peters, Tamihere is only interested in what’s good for John Tamihere.
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:32am
- peterwn
  
  John Tamahiri does not like this because he would not be able to ‘negotiate’ with National to force Labour to up the ante. Chris Luxon recognises this and will not allow it to happen. Winston Peters tried the same trick on Bill English in 2017 but Bill put away the cheque book fairly quickly.
  
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  May 17, 2023 8:54am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes and I hear he did tell Peters to take a hike, when I think about it, Ardern thank English for standing aside, Peters should have woken up and said okay we won’t push further
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:42am
- Swifty
  
  Maori Party people have given New Zealanders all the evidence they need to conclude how much of a disaster we will face with the Maori Party in charge.
  
  They don’t need Luxon to tell them – we can see it and work it out for ourselves.
  
  The Maori Party in its current form is a racist, radical, incoherent, extremist group of larping misfits whom even the great majority of Maori don’t support let alone everyone else and who’s policies will rapidly hasten New Zealand’s social and economic decline.
  
  They no more represent Maori than I represent all whiteys.
  
  They represent only themselves and the political and economic interests and ambitions of John Tamihere and his supporters and funders.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:04am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He said if that’s the case then we don’t be in government, people call MPs liars, but tgd Nats when the rule the scum out, always stick to their words, take a hike racist Tamahire
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:39am
- Paulus
  
  John – Dream On !
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:09pm
peterwn

Well, well, well. Otago Daily Times wrote a piece on yesterday’s Gore Council extraordinary meeting acknowledging the Public Interest Jornalism Fund, then paywalled it (apart from three teaser sentences). Perhaps NZ on Air should ask for the money back.
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May 17, 2023 8:41am
tknorriss

I think Labour has just lost the Christchurch vote with the decision to require Christchurch to chlorinate its water.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/490037/christchurch-told-to-chlorinate-its-drinking-water-after-bid-for-exemption

Please National, promise to restore our beautiful unchlorinated water and Christchurch will love you forever.
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May 17, 2023 8:46am
- peterwn
  
  Not sure any politician would want another ‘Havelock North’ situation. In that case an artesian source unexpectedly became contaminated. When this sort of thing happens people demand that ‘it must not happen again’. This was one of the things that helped drive ‘three waters’ – to remove water supply safety from the whims of local politicians.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:41am
  - Ghost
    
    Plenty of councils look after their infrastructure, you want them punished because of a town that didn’t
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:54am
  - tknorriss
    
    The problem is that our council has spent millions upgrading our water infrastructure so that it met the government’s requirements.
    
    But, they have got there only to find that the goal-posts have shifted. So, the government has made it basically impossible to meet the required standard whatever we do.
    
    People in Christchurch will be hopping mad over this. If you are not from Christchurch, you probably don’t know how much our beautiful unchlorinated water is valued.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:03am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Rainwater here. Nothing else.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:28am
    - peterwn
      
      Complete with possum and bird poo.
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:58pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The bloody greenie from HBay regional council left the lid off the testing point, sheep shit got washed in thanks to that idiot, it’s quite possible if he was a greenie that it was sabotage, they knew the storm was coming
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:48am
    - gravedodger
      
      Sheepshit?? my information was a septic tank outfit dumped in rural land and a rain event led to Human waste entering an inadequately protected Bore head
      
      1 0
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      May 17, 2023 2:47pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I seem to be the only person in NZ who likes chlorinated tap water. (Raised on the stuff in W(h)anganui.)
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:51am
  - tknorriss
    
    Different strokes for different folks I guess.
    
    But, not the way people feel down here. What the government is doing is akin to pissing in your beer.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:15am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I worked for a scrap metal dealer down there in the early 90s, horrible water, very calcified. The inside of the water cylinders were disgusting, same with kettles and jugs. Half a cup of shampoo just to get a few bubbles when washing your hair. Maybe it changed since then?
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:31am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      That’s a pretty accurate description of W(h)anganui water…… Tasty, with all those Ca ions.
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:48am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    We have done in our water, but you can never taste it, went to a brand new 300 mill hotel in Auckland and water at the restaurant tasted like a swimming poll, complained, they said it’s chlorine, don’t you have it in your water, shot back and said yes, but you can’t tase it, I said you have just spent 300 mill on this hotel yet you can put a filter on the water from the restaurant, walks away red faced shaking his head
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:51am
- Kumbukani Obi
  
  The water is undrinkable. I found a well out by the Heathcote River which draws water from the aquifer. I fill up a 20 litre container every couple of weeks. Free.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:13am
  - tknorriss
    
    I agree. The chlorinated stuff is putrid.
    
    4 1
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    May 17, 2023 10:16am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They put too much in, we have chlorine in ours, you can not smell it or taste it
      
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      May 17, 2023 10:53am
      - tknorriss
        
        That is probably because you have become accustomed to it.
        
        Anyway, I am not sure chlorination will help you much with the lead in your water down that way, lol.
        
        They put it in our water for about a year, and it was disgusting.
        
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        May 17, 2023 11:42am
- MCōs
  
  Auckland water is chlorinated, which suits me just fine.
  ‘Damn the council for chlorinating the water.
  Pass me those chicken nuggets “
  
  5 1
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  May 17, 2023 10:41am
  - tknorriss
    
    Yeah, you obviously haven’t tried our water down here. I can’t stand the taste of the stuff in Auckland either.
    
    4 2
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    May 17, 2023 10:50am
    - Individual Responsibility
      
      tknorriss
      some years ago when a young woman school pupil was visiting from a Leeds U.K. high school and billeted to our family in Sumner, I observed that she appeared to drink a lot of glasses of our water; when I asked her about it and she replied along the lines of “….. this water tastes so pure I can’t get over it; where I come from, our drinking water may have passed through up 8 other people by the time it reaches our home.”
      Ever since then, I’ve held to the view that it is criminal to add chemicals to reticulated drinking water, evidently in the name of public health, reducing teeth cavities in teeth.
      If that is so, why not fund fluoride tablets for those deemed necessary, or desirable, and leave the reticulated water alone?
      Equally, if adding chemicals to reticulated water is deemed essential for public health, why not add iodine, selenium, folate, vitamin D, vitamin B6, and anything else health experts might come up with?
      
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      May 17, 2023 4:00pm
Captain Mainwaring

No new cartoon on $tuff this morning.
Obviously run out of anti-National material.
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May 17, 2023 8:54am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Stuff is having technical problems…
  
  Argh… We are having technical problems. For live news updates, click here. We’re pulling out all the stops to get back to normal ASAP.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:14am
  - mandk
    
    Translation:
    “We have spent all our share of the government’s $55 million slush fund, and have requested an immediate top-up”.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:22am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Thanks for that Maggy. I wondered why all the stories are a day old.
    I guess that once they sort it there will be another anti-Luxon cartoon waiting to go.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:01am
- Matt Long
  
  Bob Jones on Stuff. https://nopunchespulled.com/2023/05/16/hopeless-stuff-2/
  
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  May 17, 2023 1:30pm
Maggie Pie

My partner was saying he read where Wellington’s ‘LOAFERS LODGE’ had only just been issued with a BWOF in March.
Must have given the tenants peace-of-mind knowing the building had been certified as having everything required under the Code and was properly maintained.
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May 17, 2023 9:00am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I wonder if the Lodge knew they were housing a convicted arsonist?
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-fire-known-arsonist-says-police-have-been-interviewing-him-about-fatal-loafers-lodge-blaze/WIG36KVLRREB3HKPFX3LZDNHEQ/
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:53am
- mogg
  
  There is a lot more to this than we are hearing. All buildings for public use should have at least a two hour fire break, floors, walls, ceilings, and especially doors with closers. This is to isolate public areas while people are escaping. This type of building was also subject to random inspections under threat of closure if any rules were being broken, especially fire doors being wedged open.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I hear it’s a converted wharehouse
    
    2 1
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    May 17, 2023 11:00am
  - artemisia
    
    Do those rules apply to Loafers Lodge?
    
    I don’t know, but I do know what a BWOF compliance certificate requires. And it is not trivial.
    
    There are already strict tenancy rules around boarding houses. If they start closing down due to bad publicity where will the occupants go? Many are not going to be accepted for a private rental and there is a bit of a social housing waiting list.
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:25am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hshahaha, no sprinklers, someone told be it was a converted wharehouse, the government better not have been cutting corners to make them selves look good, I note Megan Wood was a no show even though she is minister for housing and also emergency housing
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:58am
  - artemisia
    
    Sprinklers not required in this case. Wellington City Council issues the BWOF annually, and there are a number of hoops to jump through, including signoff of the specified systems required for the building by IQPs (Independent Qualified Persons on the council’s approved list).
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:06pm
  - Scooter
    
    Hmmm wouldn’t that be a scandal to bring the Govt down?
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:58pm
- Paulus
  
  To have the Building owner put in a sprinkler system would not be worth it – it would cost more to do that than the building is worth at todays labour and equipment costs, and to get a Council Permit would alone buy a new building.
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:14pm
  - Sponge
    
    I heard someone on the radio earlier (ZB but I don’t know who) saying all buildings like this should have sprinklers mandated. As you rightly point out Paulus this would result in this sort of low cost, low decile accomodation closing due to the cost (my business is heavily involved in BWOF compliance so I know the level of cost already and it is breathtaking) and there would be any number of the bottom of society tipped onto the street or into motels.
    
    Letting the emotions of one terrible event control your decisions will produce poor outcomes. Unfortunately that is something that I have absolutely no confidence this appalling government understand.
    
    “You can’t put a price on safety” may make a good sound clip for a politician but the reality of that is something altogether different.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:52pm
- Scooter
  
  Meanwhile residential landlords have to spend $$$ for heat pumps so tenants are nice and warm. No wonder rents keep increasing.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:55pm
I remember when

The joys of present day Emergency Department.
Patient, 96, sprains ankle and spends 36 hours in ED.
Couple, both in their nineties, one with note from their doctor to enable early attention the other support, wait for 14 hours before son takes over the support role.
Patient finally gets a bed in the corridor after 17 hours.
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May 17, 2023 9:00am
- cmm
  
  Which hospital was this?
  
  Last time I went to Chch hospital a year ago with an Afib attack at 2 am I was seen in 30 minutes, talked to the cardiologist within an hour, had blood test results in three, in the operating theatre for a defib within 14 hours of arrival and out of hospital by 5pm.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:54am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    My mother had a stroke last year, she went in the ambulance at midnight, she was still in A&E when I left her at 1pm the next day
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:01am
    - cmm
      
      Which hospital?
      
      I think the results you get vary wildly.
      
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      May 17, 2023 1:06pm
I remember when

Tired old, grey, white men.
Berkshire Hathaway being fronted in a five hour Q&A session by Warren Buffett, 92, and Charlie Munger, 99.
Of course, none of the young bright things will be impressed or even notice.
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May 17, 2023 9:13am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Engraved brass thingy behind my partners desk…..
  
  “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep,
  you will work until you die”
  
  – Warren Buffet.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:25am
  - cmm
    
    I make money while I sleep, but I still intend to work until I die. I suspect Warren Buffet will too.
    
    I enjoy my work.
    
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    May 17, 2023 9:50am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Had that framed and hung that on my wall years ago Maggie. And it’s still working for me today.
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:08am
- mogg
  
  What I like about WB is that he drives around in a beat up old car. He eats McDonald’s hamburgers and hot dogs, washed down with Coca Cola.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:37am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Silly old coot.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:44am
    - mogg
      
      There speaks a woman who has never been keyed.
      
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      May 17, 2023 11:31am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Not quite troo moggie.
        Happened one night when I was parked in Parnell.
        
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        May 17, 2023 12:10pm
    - Paulus
      
      Silly very very rich old coot.
      
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      May 17, 2023 2:16pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    He also owns NetJets, who have hundreds of Private Jets and he uses them to get around.
    Some Taxi huh.
    
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    May 17, 2023 4:47pm
surfing

Half of 15 year olds cannot pass a maths and numeracy test.

And teachers are asking for a pay rise? Ha! Stop your woke focus on all things Maori, reform and embrace performance pay, and refocus back to the educational basics. Then I might support teachers!

Nurses strike they maybe had 2 or 3 days of strikes over a year… teachers are striking once a week.
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May 17, 2023 9:27am
- NothingLeft
  
  Can’t quickly fix the generation of teachers that have been indoctrinated in poor pedagogy favoured by far-left ministry of Education ideologues that prioritize “the (far-left-indoctrination) message” over educational fundamentals.
  
  AI chatbot tutors are likely to be the saviour of education within 2-3 years – able to shift gears and teach children on an individual basis at their own speeds, not belabouring things that are understood, and able to spend more time on things that are not in order to get the best out of all children. Should allow a return to the ideal of egalitarianism in education that modern public education has destroyed with the gulf between Decile 1 and Decile 10 schools.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:06am
  - Burtland
    
    not so easy – chatbots can be trained to have bias – who trains the chatbots?
    
    Musk has already pointed this out and is training his own
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:15am
- mogg
  
  98% of 15yr olds in decile one schools are unable to read and write satisfactorily.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:40am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    And teachers have been going on strike for a pay rise……
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:09pm
- I remember when
  
  Councillor stands up for Mongrel Mob gang’s fence insignia near playgroup: NZ Herald.
  Napier Councillor has defended the Mongrel Mob signage saying it’s not intimidating.
  They said the Mob and gang pad had long been a part of the Maraenui community fabric.
  The Two-story house has been owned and operated by the gang for over a decade.
  A large “Mongrel Mob” in black lettering appears on the bright red fence under a separate sign of the gang’s insignia.
  This lettering is metres long and about a metre in height.
  City of Napier District Plan: Chapter 58 Signs (18 pages).
  Includes through the Plan, the Council attempts to minimise the negative effects of signs on the environment.
  
  So a Councillor appears to support signage that –
  (a) Is outside Council guidelines
  (b) Advertises the presence and activities of a gang know for their illegal activities.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:47am
- rockape
  
  Nurses pay still isn’t settled. They have been offered 3% with inflation at 7%. Watch this space. Plus their pay equity claim is still outstanding. More strikes will happen. I am guessing July August.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:49am
  - Burtland
    
    what about their holiday pay – sorted?
    
    Pay equity can never be sorted. When is enough enough?
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:20am
    - rockape
      
      PAy equity is mainly sorted except the back pay and pay for very senior grades. It’s now in others hands not the negotiating teams.
      Back pay is too difficult and complicated so they need to just give nurses a reasonable lump sum.
      As an idea of how complicated:
      Mrs has gone from an annual rate of about 60k to an annual rate of 146k, gets penals as well but has worked full time for some of the period but part time for the last 3 years. It’s a bean counters nightmare !
      
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      May 17, 2023 1:08pm
    - Paulus
      
      Holiday has been approved by the High Court and could cost several billions when backdated.
      More borrow easy.
      
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      May 17, 2023 2:19pm
- GJM
  
  Striking for a pay rise for a part time job as well. Having doen a lot of work at schools, don’t believe teachers when they say they are working hard for all the holidays.
  
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  May 17, 2023 5:28pm
MCōs

Humans doing the hard jobs on minimum wage while the robots write poetry and paint is not the future I wanted
Karl Sharro
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May 17, 2023 9:39am
- cmm
  
  I don’t know who Karl Sharro is, but I assume he is some intellectual who thinks hard jobs are vile.
  
  Sure, don’t send people down mine shafts and other dangerous work if you can send a machine, but hard work itself is not something to be avoided.
  
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  May 17, 2023 9:48am
BeaB

I’d like to know why nearly 75% don’t like Hipkins, according to the polls.
Surely we all love this cheeky chappy boy from the Hutt.
Why isn’t the media interested? Rhetorical question of course.
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May 17, 2023 9:42am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  77% in that poll from newsbludge
  
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  May 17, 2023 11:04am
BeaB

8-year-old grandson tells me his teacher is urging them to go to the local intermediate school where they’ll ‘learn lots more Māori’ instead of to the new local junior high which she says won’t teach them any. This is despite Te Reo names plastered across its frontage and threatening-looking totem poles at the entrance.
Perhaps it’s all for show.
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May 17, 2023 9:47am
Grumpy Silver Haired Female

Yay! Gore ratepayers showed us how democracy works by turning out in force to support their new Mayor at the meeting yesterday. One news showed a clip of the Mayor calling for a proposer for the vote of no confidence – uncomfortable silence. The end. A really good news story. Makes me more hopeful for the election.
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May 17, 2023 10:05am
- KH
  
  Gore. The ridiculous Gore councillors have behaved badly and shot themselves in the foot.
  The nasty ones (the majority) should resign and maybe stand in the by election
  They won’t resign because they have finally woken to the reality, which is Gore people won’t ever vote for them again.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:55am
  - Nickc2
    
    Honestly, I didn’t think people could get to be so ignorant and arrogant as their CEO.
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:21am
MCōs

All day long our house has been fizzing as my wife listens to election news and commentary from back in the old country.
The most popular party is Move Forward who’s you leader spent a couple of years at school near Hamilton before heading off to America. They won all 30+ seats in Bangkok.
The next big winners were Phuean Thai. Between the two they have well over half the 500 seats.
Unfortunately the senate is made up of 250 unelected seats and they refuse to back them and the PM is elected by a majority of the 750 seats.
Heading towards trouble in the streets at worst.
Phuean Thai especially can generate huge crowds, in the millions.
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May 17, 2023 10:16am
- Maggie Pie
  
  A bit off topic Cossie…but did you know Thailand makes the best Sweetened-Condensed-Milk in the world?
  I use it to make my ‘Vietnamese Coffee’…..it’s really fab, no other tastes as good.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:25am
  - cmm
    
    IIRC Pams or one of the other budget brands comes from there last time I looked.
    
    Hint if you ever find yourself offered tea in a South African Indian household:
    * They boil the tea with milk and water.
    * They will offer you milk. If you say yes then in go 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk.
    * They will also offer you sugar. Spoons are table spoons.
    
    I found this out when my standard order was tea with milk and two sugars. I have never been able to face sugar in tea since.
    
    Diabetes is big in the SA Indian community.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:23pm
    - mawm
      
      I thought it was only the SADF that added condensed milk to their urns of tea/coffee/brown swill. I could never tell the difference it was so unbearably sweet.
      
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      May 17, 2023 8:36pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  This is literally why we are concerned with the movement towards “Co Governance”. Thank you for showing us a real world example where unelected people in seats of power can undo the will of the people.
  
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  May 17, 2023 11:01am
- Jack5
  
  Presumably, Mrs MCos listens to Thai election news via the internet.
  
  Do people other than radio hobbyists listen to shortwave these days?
  
  I guess if Thai news was available on shortwave, listeners in NZ would pick it up at night, when shortwave works best.
  
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  May 17, 2023 11:59am
  - MCōs
    
    I don’t listen at all
    My wife does and passes on the salient points, including one of the MPs spent years in prison in Australia for importing drugs.
    He went back and changed his name.
    A few years ago he was talked about as a prospective PM.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:16pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Does anyone have any insights as to what the USA is planning for PNG?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018890480/concerns-png-could-sign-new-us-millitary-pact
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May 17, 2023 10:32am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Prezzy Biden was sposed to visit there next week.
  But i just heard on Fox he’s pulled the plug.
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:42am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Cheers…
    
    PM Marape was hoping for some trade deals and business set-ups, I think.
    
    I wonder if our wonder boy will pull the plug too.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/us-president-joe-biden-cans-historic-visit-to-png-for-pacific-summit-and-australia-quad-meeting/SIIQHIEHVRHK5LKX5IVFJLC6CY/#:~:text=US%20President%20Joe%20Biden%20has,which%20includes%20India%20and%20Japan.
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:52am
  - Nickc2
    
    Yea, he’s pulled the plug. He was scared Kamala might stage a Take-Over Coup in his absence. //
    
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    May 17, 2023 11:10am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Harris couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery Nick. Biden is in no danger of Harris organising anything.
      
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      May 17, 2023 2:12pm
  - kowtow
    
    He was also not up to travelling to the UK for the Coronation.
    
    Can you imagine how the media would deal with this inability to show leadership qualities had it been their Favourite Hate Figure , Orange Man Bad.
    
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    May 17, 2023 2:18pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      No President of the USA has ever attended a British Coronation…. something to do with rebellion and revolution.
      
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      May 17, 2023 7:01pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        There’s really only been a couple where attendance would have been practicable
        
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        May 18, 2023 7:23am
  - Scooter
    
    Pulled the plug or just pulled out?
    
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    May 17, 2023 10:39pm
Jack5

The Hipkins mashup-mess of the country’s polytechnics, now branded Ara Te Pukenga, is in a deal with China’s Shenyang Jianzhu University to offer a degrees in information technology and construction.

“Scoop” reports:

The joint institute will offer three undergraduate programmes: Data Science and Big Data Technology, Information Technology and Quantity Surveying.

Up to 250 akonga will be enrolled in the programme annually with the first intake due to begin their studies in September this year. After three years in China, they will have the option of completing their fourth and final year at Ara | Te Pūkenga.

Students who study in New Zealand for their final year will be awarded a dual New Zealand and Chinese degree; those who complete their programme of study in China will be awarded a Chinese degree only.

Why would Chinese students want to finish the degree in NZ unless the mish-mash polytechnic was going to throw in, as the incentive, NZ residency as the path to NZ citizenship.

Hipkins must have resurrected the student-visa rort.

Footnote: The “akonga” word in report is not standard Chinese – it’s Maori for student. In Chinese, the word for student is more difficult: 学生

“Ara” in first meaning on the online Maori dictionary is listed as “heck, look – an expression of surprise or amazement”, and then, also, as “a way, path, lane, passageway, track, course, route,” or ” line of weaving, layer of toetoe thatch on a roof, etc”.

“Pukenga” is listed as meaning ” repository, skill, expertise, lecturer”, and as “specialist, expert”.

Too bad NZ doesn’t have a simple word for it, like academy, or school, or polytechnic.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2305/S00250/te-pukenga-expanding-offering-in-china.htm
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May 17, 2023 10:38am
- Taieri
  
  Why would Chinese students want to finish the degree in NZ
  —————-
  
  Chines students or Chinese akonga?
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:47pm
- Ehlana
  
  So this thing we’re not allowed to call a mega-polytechnic is setting up a degree course under which NZ students will spend 3 years studying in China, then return home for year 4?
  
  Why? Are we seriously unable to teach Data Science and Big Data Technology, Information Technology and Quantity Surveying in New Zealand?
  
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  May 17, 2023 1:48pm
  - Jack5
    
    But for NZ kids who haven’t been brought up bilingual in mainstream Chinese?
    
    A tough path to go from NZ secondary school to technology study in China, in Chinese, especially at an institution in the top 10 per cent in China.
    
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    May 17, 2023 3:16pm
- cmm
  
  It is fairly common for Chinese (and other) students to come to NZ with a Chinese (or whatever) engineering degree, then do a BEng Tech or some diploma at an NZ techso that they have:
  * A western qualification
  * Some English language proficiency in their technical field.
  * Much better CV.
  
  This opens the gateway to a more lucrative career in a western country.
  
  A joint Chinese/NZ degree thus makes a lot of sense for students:
  * Study the bulk of your qualification in China (cheaper, own language).
  * Finishing year in NZ for the English/Western component.
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:30pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  The Chinese use their diaspora, especially their student class, as a way to infiltrate foreign academic and research facilities.
  
  Its clever – send hundreds of thousands offshore every year, everyone a potential intelligence asset, some actually trained as spies and then let them sift through the western world via Universities and technical institutes.
  
  The West, outside the intelligence agencies, see it as wonderful and a way to integrate the PRC into the world… the CCP see it as a classic Sun Tzu strategy to sow intelligence assets in many levels of the enemies society. Cast enough seeds you never know which will be of use or when … but you hold a tie on all of them via their familial connections back in mainland China.
  
  Even better send attractive females to universities offshore and have them hit on nerds and policy wonks… its a mainline based on percentages that you will get infiltration into some senior public servants family after a couple of decades. And the CCP thinks in decades long strategy
  
  Our government agencies have a reasonable seasoning already… hell the CCP have had MP’s elected into the NZ parliament who are highly suspect to say the least!
  
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  May 17, 2023 5:09pm
vand

Our granddaughter goes to a liberal high school – the English teacher is covering the movie jo jo rabbit and talking up the wonders of socialism for some obscure reason. She is constantly warning of the danger of indoctrination , whilst indoctrinating them herself. Irony escapes her . In other words she is an activist masquerading as a teacher.
The photography teacher told the class this was not his best subject! Mediocrity is celebrated!
One music teacher has a transgender teenager. Meanwhile the trans gender team are given a lot of attention at the school .. The alphabet people get regular meetings with the school principal.

As to any learning actually happening it’s no doubt possible , but not guaranteed!
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May 17, 2023 10:48am
- sirknz
  
  Jo Jo Rabbit? Is that the film directed by and starring Taika David Cohen as the bad guy in WW2?
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:04pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The headline would lead you think that all is well with Children’s literacy in NZ

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/490048/pandemic-had-little-effect-on-kiwi-kids-test-scores-by-end-of-2020-report

The detail within tells a very different story….
New Zealand’s spread of scores was one of the widest, ranging from about 360 to 650 points and the results indicated socio-economic factors had a significant impact.

Internationally, children from richer families recorded average scores 86 points higher than children from poorer backgrounds. In New Zealand the difference was 84 points.
;
;
The 18 percent of children from New Zealand schools where principals said they had strong emphasis on academic achievement had average scores 73 points higher than the 26 percent of children at schools where principals said they had a moderate emphasis on academic achievement.
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May 17, 2023 11:04am
- Swifty
  
  We have a world class education system, we just need to pay our teachers more.
  
  //
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:39pm
- Taieri
  
  26 percent of children at schools where principals said they had a moderate emphasis on academic achievement
  ———————
  
  What’s the purpose of a school with a “moderate emphasis” on academic achievement?
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:49pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    What’s the purpose of a school with a “moderate emphasis” on academic achievement?
    
    A sinecure for Labour supporters.
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:50pm
  - Ehlana
    
    I think the assumption that schools should emphasise academic achievement is now regarded as a relic of colonial oppression Taieri.
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:52pm
  - cmm
    
    Teachers really do live up to the old commie-era Russian saying:
    “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”
    
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    May 17, 2023 1:57pm
    - Keith White
      
      The hourly rate for most teachers averaged out over a year of working hours is phenomenally high.
      
      The hourly rate for most nurses averaged out the same way over a year is phenomenally low.
      
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      May 17, 2023 2:18pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Wealth is highly correlated with intelligence – wealthy parents are almost all smart, and they ensure their kids are going to best schools. Egalitarianism of NZ’s past is dead.
  
  And intelligence is highly heritable – IQ of kids of 130 mum and 130 dad will average about 118, IQ of 70 mum and 70 dad will average about 82. Poor, unintelligent people no longer marry smart people – we live in a society highly stratified by intelligence, so poor unintelligent folks will inevitably have mostly have poor unintelligent kids.
  
  It’s very unfair, vastly removed from the socialist ideal/doctrine of “the improvability of man”, but it is sadly reality. And any education policies that assume something other than this reality is true inevitably fail.
  
  The only fix to this unfairness is eugenics in some form – Gattaca style genetic screening of embryos for intelligence, some future advanced medicines to optimise brain development in kids who didn’t win the genetic lottery, or intelligent sperm donors (cheapest and lowest tech fix, if every woman used genius sperm to get pregnant then kids IQs would go up by about 10-15 points on average)
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:56pm
  - cmm
    
    Raising a genius kid is a stupid household is not really a recipe for success. The kid will come under immense pressure to stop “acting white” etc.
    
    No there are no need for eugenics. What we need to do is reduce the anti-improvement effects of welfare.
    
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    May 17, 2023 3:20pm
thirteenstars

A self-described “anti-capitalist” café and coffee shop in Canada named The Anarchist with a “pay what you can” business model will close at the end of the month after just over a year in business.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/16/toronto-anti-capitalist-pay-what-you-can-cafe-closes-after-year-in-business/

Surpise, surprise. The anarchist gets an education in applied stupidity.
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May 17, 2023 11:21am
JimBobJoe

Aucklands almost daily shooting…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/teenager-shot-during-road-rage-incident-across-auckland-armed-police-guarding-sandringham-petrol-station/BZS5LVKITFHRDKY7NGK4D25H64/
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May 17, 2023 11:27am
- sirknz
  
  Aren’t we glad that Jacinda got all the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens…
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:02pm
  - Keith White
    
    That gun was not on a registry that’s the only reason that happened.
    
    /sarc
    
    11 1
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    May 17, 2023 2:19pm
- Scooter
  
  In her hood as well
  
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  May 17, 2023 10:46pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/new-videos-of-julians-seminars-have-just-arrived/
Video 38 min. A good explanation of what is happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-HsRtbEP10&t=244s
4 1
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May 17, 2023 11:43am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Oh boy, I hope people get what is going on.
  
  4 1
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  May 17, 2023 11:52am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  There are three videos. 2nd:
  
  https://vimeo.com/827086188/c3871ee7e0?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=13723213
  
  4 1
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  May 17, 2023 12:15pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    36 min in is excellent
    
    2 1
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    May 17, 2023 12:41pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Third video:
  
  https://vimeo.com/827087934/f8ea40791e
  
  A lot is repetitive – different audiences.
  
  1 1
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  May 17, 2023 12:46pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    This is great. An explanation of the happenings before and around The Treaty.
    
    Please watch from the start. Why do Maori not understand this? They have their own version, from 1989.
    
    3 1
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    May 17, 2023 1:13pm
    - Keith White
      
      “…it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his income depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.
      
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      May 17, 2023 2:20pm
Maggie Pie

Anyone know how Jack Brazil is getting on after being shot?

Unfortunately I am now unable to access either his Twitter or Insta accounts. Don’t know what I’ve done to deserve being treated like that?
And I see police are STILL looking to identify the man who was in his car with him 🙁

People say it’s a funny old place, Dunners.
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May 17, 2023 11:46am
- KH
  
  Indeed. The interesting story of Jack Brazil (social justice warrior and former Green Party candidate) is being well PR managed, and the public is not to know.
  Any info on this folks ?
  
  8 1
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  May 17, 2023 12:16pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    TBH, you would have thort JACK could identify the guy who was in the car with him, eh? As Alice said……curiouser and curiouser.
    
    13 1
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    May 17, 2023 12:43pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Any comment sought from the Greens by the media?
    
    0 0
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    May 18, 2023 7:29am
Jack5

Will a second Electron rocket launch at the Mahia Peninsula next Monday at 5.30pm attract many people, or is the site a long drive away for most people?

It will be the second of two Electron launches by Rocket Lab for NASA. These are installing satellites that will monitor formation and evolution of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes.

Details:

https://investors.rocketlabusa.com/news/news-details/2023/Rocket-Lab-Sets-Date-for-Second-NASA-TROPICS-Launch-to-Deploy-Storm-Monitoring-Constellation/default.aspx
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May 17, 2023 12:16pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The hoi polloi (and mana whenua) cannot access the southern third of Mahia Peninsula (including the coastal waters)
  
  https://www.rocketlabusa.com/assets/Uploads/RL-Still-Testing-Public-viewing-advisory5.pdf
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adDyUMmweYQ
  
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  May 17, 2023 12:49pm
Maggie Pie

Look personally, I don’t have a real problem with someone being a ‘Karen’ when it comes to animal cruelty. Just saying.

https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1658416552373530624
0 1
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May 17, 2023 12:47pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, she looks like a Coro actor, maybe Kirk’s missus.
  
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  May 17, 2023 1:36pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Nice work if you can get it…

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/490071/the-500k-contract-for-covid-19-memes-that-was-approved-by-then-police-commissioner-mike-bush
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May 17, 2023 1:02pm
- Ghost
  
  Saw better memes made free of Ardern and her ministers during Covid.
  
  5 0
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  May 17, 2023 1:03pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Try this 🙂
    
    5 0
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    May 17, 2023 1:33pm
- cmm
  
  If Africa they’d call it corruption.
  
  6 0
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  May 17, 2023 1:08pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  RANDON IMPERTINENT QUESTION
  
  In light of this revelation, should Chippie immediately advise King Charles to annul Bushie’s knighthood?
  
  Honestly, it staggers belief!!
  
  6 0
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  May 17, 2023 1:31pm
- kowtow
  
  If only RNZ and Co would do as detailed indepth reporting on all the billions squandered over the scamdemic and indeed around decisions to lock down etc ie that scary overseas phone call Ardern took.
  
  Bit seeing who the protagonists are in this meme story I see why .
  
  7 1
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  May 17, 2023 2:52pm
Swifty

A dangerous bloody nut case:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fraudster-wayne-thomas-pattersons-gold-scheme-foiled-by-postie/LNHDTW77IZC4TINBZII5GSEA2Q/

This guy will end up killing, if he hasn’t already.
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May 17, 2023 2:04pm
cmm

“Police have zero tolerance for offending involving firearms, particularly when police are targeted,”

I don’t they’re nearly as picky when the cops are not targeted themselves.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/police-car-allegedly-shot-at-in-bay-of-plenty-two-arrested-in-kawerau-and-te-teko/TNUXZB2EV5HHBIXSV5I73RAJZQ/
3 2
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May 17, 2023 2:13pm
- Keith White
  
  Seems weird how all senior politicians are not scared 24/7 of being randomly assaulted and perforated by the self-actualizing eeeevil guns carried by the Corruptocrats’ Protection Squaddies.
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:23pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Agreed. Zero tolerance should be zero tolerance. It is an absolute, so saying ‘particularly’ suggests they have some tolerance for offending that does not involve police.
  
  It is a mute point anyway, because the police have historically demonstrated plenty of tolerance for firearm offences by gangs, including possession of illegal weapons.
  
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  May 17, 2023 2:37pm
  - cmm
    
    There are really two sides to this:
    * Cops deserve more protection because they have to face the baddies no matter what. They don’t have the option of running away.
    * Cops deserve less protection because they have special toys. Cops carry firearms in their vehicles for the purpose of self defence (and the defence of others). Us mere citizens are not allowed this.
    
    2 1
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    May 17, 2023 3:16pm
    - Keith White
      
      Cops have – and not infrequently exercise – the option of not turning up in time, or at all.
      
      2 0
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      May 17, 2023 3:22pm
  - kowtow
    
    How about protecting the public .
    Particularly people being shot up and chased around town.
    
    We have slipped into a state of literal lawlessness .
    
    I blame this soft on crime regime.
    
    5 1/2 years of negligence.
    
    3 0
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    May 17, 2023 4:31pm
  - Mike
    
    moot point
    
    0 1
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    May 17, 2023 5:30pm
- GJM
  
  The only burgalry the cops ever put any effort into solving, was when they left the back door of the PalmerstonNorth Polcie Staiton open and 11 guns got stolen. Similarly for car thefts, when crims drove off with police cars and the handguns when missing.
  The proles – they don’t matter.
  
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  May 17, 2023 5:42pm
MCōs

Watching baseball
Pitcher hits a batter
A bunch of people rush out to see how he was. Not the batter, but the pitcher
Not too good as it happened. The next bloke hit him for a home run
1 0
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May 17, 2023 2:22pm
Maggie Pie

In answer to a question from MP Helen White, Megan tells the House….. KO will be building a further 715 homes in Lower Hutt over the next few years.

Sounds good to me 😀
3 1
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May 17, 2023 2:40pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I doubt that they’ll be going up in Days Bay or Lowry Bay.
  
  6 0
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  May 17, 2023 3:45pm
  - Mike
    
    No, they’re going in more accessible and friendlier neighborhoods. Some will remember Lowry Bay residents’ long and expensive, but successful, fight to stop a bird sanctuary that might have attracted the hoi polloi.
    
    0 6
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    May 17, 2023 5:19pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Mike will end up with a lovely three Storey one next to where he lives with Mum
  
  2 1
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  May 17, 2023 4:28pm
  - Mike
    
    Better than when I were a lad. There were hundred and sixty of us living in small shoebox in the middle of the road.
    
    0 4
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    May 17, 2023 5:10pm
    - Keith White
      
      You had a shoebox? Looxoury…!
      
      4 0
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      May 17, 2023 5:41pm
  - Burtland
    
    apparently you need a big dog if you live in one of those multi-units – the people have trouble figuring out which one they live in
    
    1 1
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    May 17, 2023 5:59pm
Maggie Pie

Remember I posted ealier in the week, that the Council again had a suckey-truck in Remuera cleaning out the stormwater drains.
This after that idiot Goff had cancelled the service about 4 years ago as a ‘cost-saving measure’….even encouraging residents to do it themselves 🙁

Thankyou Mayor Wayne!!

https://twitter.com/1NewsNZ/status/1658651735567548417
4 1
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May 17, 2023 4:19pm
- kowtow
  
  If they’re not cleaning out drains , can they be surprised at flooding .
  
  3 1
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  May 17, 2023 4:27pm
Mike

Why can’t NZ have politicians who are as entertaining as those in the US?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/truth-challenged-rep-santos-faces-first-step-expulsion
1 4
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May 17, 2023 5:04pm
- Ghost
  
  Because our media is complicit in covering up the actions of our current government, and that we no longer have a free and unbiased media to openly report on it
  
  5 1
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  May 17, 2023 5:07pm
  - Mike
    
    Look, George Santos makes fantasists like Jami-Lee Ross or Rawiri Waititi look like rank amateurs. We deserve more entertaining crooks.
    
    1 4
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    May 17, 2023 5:13pm
    - Surely Knott
      
      Who is the fantasist?
      Ardern who ran an authoritarian strategy she named the “elimination strategy” of a mutating coronavirus relying on a non-sterilising experimental vaccine. Ardern: “You will not get sick and you will not die” “Jacinda Ardern confident enough Kiwis will get COVID-19 vaccine for herd immunity without being forced to”
      
      Or Jamie Lee Ross who was headlined as a conspiracy theorist by Newroom who said,
      “This is a very real virus and is harming very large numbers of people around the world,” he said.
      
      However, he continued, “it is wrong is that [sic] in the process the Government has taken so many rights and freedoms away from people. The Government has also given far too much control to an unelected doctor [Ashley Bloomfield], and trampled our Bill of Rights in the process.”
      
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      May 18, 2023 1:08pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/warriors/132041938/manu-vatuvei-to-return-to-warriors-wellbeing-department-set-to-be-released-from-prison-for-importing-meth

They must be bloody kidding.
7 0
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May 17, 2023 6:30pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Do drugs and prosper, boys.
  
  2 1
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  May 17, 2023 6:54pm
- Keith White
  
  I don’t know about you but whenever I have had a personal or professional setback I swiftly engage in importing large quantities of illegal toxic drugs that harm and kill people – and also enrich me – because otherwise how could I regain and retain my self-respect?
  
  /sarc
  
  Oh, and apparently the real guilty entities are “the pressures” and “the spotlight”. He was an innocent victim of these kPas and lumens.
  
  Foxtrot Foxtrot Sierra.
  
  3 1
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  May 17, 2023 7:44pm
- Surely Knott
  
  By comparison Israel Falau was permanently banned from the entire sport for reading fundamentalist scripture..
  
  0 0
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  May 18, 2023 12:56pm

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