General Debate 13 January 2024

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kiwikidsnz

I received a “Happy New Year” message from Tower this morning. My vehicle insurance premium has increased by 49% – no claims, crimes or any other status changes.
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January 13, 2024 8:02am
- Jack5
  
  Not just in NZ …
  
  Home and auto insurance has turned into a nightmare for US households, says a weekly news summary in the “Wall Street Journal”.
  
  Householders face rising premiums, less coverage and fewer choices of insurers.
  
  Earlier, the newspaper reported insurers were also cutting market spending.
  
  The bright spot is that inflation is easing in repair costs.
  
  The report says the consumer-price index for motor-vehicle repair was up less than 13 per cent year on year in its most recent reading, for November.
  
  “That was the slowest annual jump since summer 2022.”
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:30am
- pdm
  
  kk – get quotes from a broker.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:51am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Lantern have slowly been creeping up my premiums over the last years. Vehicles, boats, caravan, house, contents, etc.
  Thing is, the very few claims I have made Lantern were very good at responding.
  Prado rear screen smashed in a storm. I organised the complete deal while on holiday in Alaska. Excellent.
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:30am
  - MCōs
    
    Sell some of your clobber and get your shoulder fixed up
    
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    January 13, 2024 11:34am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Yes, mine went up 40%, On top of 17% last year. Welcome to NZ.
  
  Runaway inflation and spiralling risk. Yay.
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:20pm
- Paulus
  
  Someone has to pay for other peoples claims.
  
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  January 13, 2024 1:38pm
- Prince
  
  State car premium up 16% for me … and the asset value down 16% !
  
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  January 13, 2024 2:03pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Mates looking after their mates in the Public Service?

Rather than being robust, the withering peer review suggested the draft report might have negative value.

Questions were also raised about the close relationship between the public service and regularly used consulting firms.

https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/01/12/reviewer-skewers-report-into-19b-covid-subsidy-scheme/
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January 13, 2024 8:11am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Posted on GD yesterday. MartinJenkins should take a reputational hit, but I expect they will continue to hoover up lucrative contracts.
  But wait a minute, the government is cracking down on the use of consultants. Yeah, right.
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:20am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    mike, this Government will remove or not use anywhere near the number of consultants Labour used. I’d suggest that the Government will expect Public Service staff (and there are enough of them now) to actually have the skills to do their jobs without needing validation or someone else to blame if things go wrong.
    
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    January 13, 2024 8:35am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      And the tooth fairy is real.
      
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      January 13, 2024 8:48am
      - Gravelroad
        
        Perhaps another round of wide ranging, community focussed working groups is called for to make up a bit of policy for the public service to follow.
        Would that help?
        Worked for Ms Ardern eh.
        Can I be on a working group hui in Te Whanganui a Tara this time? I could do with an all expenses paid holiday on the taxpayer to air grievances and demand an apology for something……..
        
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        January 13, 2024 2:50pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Difference is the centre right use consultants to create efficiencies. The far left (used to be the centre left but that overwhelmingly doesn’t exist any more) use consultants to create reasons for more consultants and yet more unproductive bloat.
        
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        January 13, 2024 3:43pm
    - Piniwi
      
      Sadly IVV there would need to be a massive training program for public servants to get the job skills they need at all levels. This would need to be preceded by a native kulture washing program to get rid get rid of all that force fed tripe. Above that there would need to be a reprogramming and structuring of the chain of command to replace the “team” culture. It is obvious that there is very little team talk within the multitude of teams but vertually no cross talk between teams within yhe various Departments. Anybody who has dealings with MSD or Work and income will surely think they are left handers only as there is NO indication of there even being a left and right hand. Let alone the funny sounding utterances in verbal intercourse with them making English sound like their second language.
      
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      January 13, 2024 10:30am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        An exception will be David Seymour’s new Ministry of Regulation. I’m sure that will have only the best people.
        
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        January 13, 2024 10:47am
      - Jack5
        
        Piniwi’s …. there would need to be a massive training program for public servants to get the job skills they need at all levels.
        
        Tell us more, Piniwi.
        
        Are these folk a caste of keyboard tappers and waiata chanters? Do we need to bring in the anthropologists?
        
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        January 13, 2024 11:05am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Pin,
        
        Forget the training programmes etc. Its not going to work.
        If a public servant can’t do their job then we can’t pay them. Simple.
        That is the best incentive to upskill.
        
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        January 13, 2024 12:53pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Ministers should be the bloody consultant, why have them otherwise, I understand designing a hospital maybe different, but it looks like labour used them for everything
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:02pm
  - AitchW
    
    Any evidence to support your assertion? Or is this simply yet another of your puerile straw men?
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:36pm
    - AitchW
      
      Just clarify, that was aimed at milky and his assertion that the current government will spend as much on consultants as the last.
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:57pm
- CJames
  
  All of those reviews, and reviews of reviews, were done under the previous government. Like most consultancy work, they are tainted by the review giving the predetermined answer. The same terms of reference given to the same consultancy but by the current government would invariably get significantly different findings.
  That is why one always needs to be wary of consultancy reports, especially when they stray into analysis of facts, not the facts themselves.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:03am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Anyone closely following the UK Post Office debacle will be acutely aware of what happens when Public Service Bureaucracies close ranks.
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:20am
  - Bridgenag
    
    YES , https://open.substack.com/pub/thenewera/p/miscarriages-of-justice?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:04pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From the article:
  
  The body of the peer review noted many things, including basic problems such as spelling mistakes, poor grammar, insufficient sourcing, and a table that wasn’t numbered or indexed.
  
  … Chapple wrote “If the waiter’s hands are a bit grubby, it’s often an indication that the restaurant kitchen is filthy.”
  
  Burn, MartinJenkins!
  
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  January 13, 2024 5:28pm
Yvette

Rise in Selwyn district road signs damaged, vandalised since December
Automobile Association (AA) Canterbury/West Coast Council national chairperson John Skevington said the fact it was happening on country roads was even more dangerous.
“What have people got to gain?
“Maybe they need to sit and think about the consequences of removing signs in country intersections.
“They’re hard enough to see at times anyway.”
He suggested the culprits’ actions could be putting their own family members at risk.
“What if [their] own family was hurt or killed just because of one of these stupid actions.
“The risk is horrendous, country intersections are getting a lot of attention at the moment.
“This increases the risk by about 80 to 90 percent, particularly in the dark.”
The council said tampering with the signs could have “severe consequences” and lead to life-threatening situations.

“tampering with the signs”
Adding Maori to road signs – indeed, placing Maori first as depicted in proposed examples – would surely exacerbate both problems –
legibility of the sign “particularly in the dark” (and at speed)
or motivating signs to be smashed down – if it is apparently happening already, why turn it into a national sport
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January 13, 2024 8:12am
- Dougal10
  
  The perps could come down south a bit further , it seems our local council sign man is now putting up signs telling you that there is an important sign ahead . Knocking them down with utes should be encouraged.
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:44am
- pdm
  
  Yvette.
  
  Son in law and a couple of mates got convictions in court in the early/mid 80’s for pinching and/or damaging a few road signs in Central Hawkes Bay one night when he was in his late teens.
  
  Affected him when he wanted to travel to Ireland with a short States stopover on a rugby trip in the early 2000’s. He and a couple of others in the team had to fly via Singapore or Hong Kong because they could not get entry visas for the States.
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:46am
  - rangitoto
    
    Now you can just walk across the Mexican border.
    
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    January 13, 2024 8:53am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Is this why Golriz is getting in a last overseas vacay before she faces the music??
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:21am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Where’s Golly?!
      
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      January 13, 2024 12:57pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Is it Maorification or ridiculously low speed limits?
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:29am
- gravedodger
  
  Surely Yvette in these days of Google maps, signage is becoming an increasing expensive irrelevance.
  My simplistic vehicle display tells me what road I am on and the iphone directions foretell how far to next intersection on a selected journey.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:02am
  - Jack5
    
    The digital Google maps in cars can be dangerous.
    
    They were for the Utah family who went off the road in Banks Peninsula and dangled above a 100m drop.
    
    You can read about it on page 1 and 4 on the Christchurch Star at the link below. A download is better than the online read.
    
    https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/68595958/the-star-january-11-2024
    
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    January 13, 2024 11:50am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    What happens when your mobile network goes down (or is knocked out)?
    
    I’ve a had a taste of that and it’s a warning to always have old school backups always ready.
    
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    January 13, 2024 3:45pm
- kowtow
  
  Some would call it grass roots activism.
  Just as the left wing and American media called burn loot and murder , “social / racial justice protests” .
  
  Goose gander and all that.
  ( I’m not condoning any criminal activity ,to be clear)
  
  But now that the authorities have recognised there is a danger to the public by erecting these social /cultural road signs they must take remedial action to prevent any further danger to the public and desist.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:31am
All_on_Red

“At White House Senior Living, our residents feel right at home,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ey2KXJ5kM&t=30s

Saul Alinsky smiles.
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January 13, 2024 8:14am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Best known rest home for the senile since 2017.
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:21am
  - ecco
    
    Dementia unit was set up there Jan 2021🤣
    
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    January 13, 2024 9:51am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I’d need quite some convincing that one of those two dotards is senile, but the other is not.
      
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      January 13, 2024 10:09am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Bonus just in.
        “My name is Joe Biden. I work for the Government in the Senate”
        https://x.com/greg_price11/status/1745900473524122008?s=20
        
        Plenty more out there of The Stumbler in Chief
        
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        January 13, 2024 10:26am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        And who said this?
        “All I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that’s the end of the magnets”.
        
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        January 13, 2024 10:29am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Magnets. I think Trump was imitating the mumblings that Joe Biden may say, but then the media screwed it around. They could not wait to discredit.
        Nobody knows the full context of what was being said.
        He does say some stupid things but the media own this one.
        
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        January 13, 2024 10:46am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Mikey we would be here all day comparing the disfunction of Biden with Trumps idiocy.
        But I think we would agree neither is really fit for purpose.
        
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        January 13, 2024 11:30am
      - virtualmark
        
        Red,
        
        What Biden actually said was “I work for the Governor and the Senator”. And his tone of voice is clearly joking. Watch the clip for yourself.
        
        (Biden was in a coffee shop with Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Bob Casey)
        
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        January 13, 2024 11:49am
      - All_on_Red
        
        The Government/Governor part is a bit obscure but he says Senate not Senator.
        Anyway, you’re defending the indefensible.
        The guy is clearly deteriorating.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:02pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Red,
        
        The people who published the original clip alleging Biden said “I work for the Government in the Senate” have since pulled it down … because it’s clear when you watch the clip that that isn’t what he said.
        
        But in your weird reality that somehow means I’m the one defending the indefensible?
        
        Maybe *you’re* the one losing their marbles?
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:42pm
      - ecco
        
        So I think Kamala is the one who hasn’t lost her faculties yet😘
        
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        January 13, 2024 5:39pm
Simon

Mental illness or grifting sums it up. Or are there any principal left around? In Labo , gweens, or M party. Jim Anderton maybe.
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January 13, 2024 8:26am
KH

Everytime I fly out of Dubai it’s a mystery as to which way Emirates has to thread it’s way to Europe. War zones abound and change. We zig zag all over the place.
The Malaysian Airlines plane destroyed over the Donetsk Republic. They thought it was an Ukranian night raider.
Now the Yanks claim to be knocking down Red Sea missiles heading for Israel. But I remember the Iranian airliner descending into Dubai. Quite close. Everybody died.
“We thought we were under attack” so said the cretinous Americans.
So be very dubious about anything you read.
So this week crossed the Mediterranean eastward keeping well north to avoid Libya. Then a big zig south. Then zagged east and across Eilat/Aqaba.
Bit Anxious. Down there is some nerd from Iowa with his finger on the button.
The safe way is Iran / Turkey.
It’s a mad dangerous world.
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January 13, 2024 8:28am
- All_on_Red
  
  ‘Iran has admitted “unintentionally” shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board.’
  11 Jan 2020
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51073621
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:46am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    At least a dozen civilian airliners have been shot down by various militaries since WWII.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airliner_shootdown_incidents
    
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    January 13, 2024 8:55am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Yes you wheel that out when Iran kills civilians. Pretty sure you wouldn’t if it was the US.
      
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      January 13, 2024 3:49pm
  - KH
    
    Good point Red.
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:50am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Thanks
      The whole ME is and always has been a mess.
      
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      January 13, 2024 11:31am
      - KH
        
        Early December was taken up over Iraq. Via Fallujah and Mosel. Avoiding Syria, turned left into Turkey.
        Surprised at that, because the locals are rocketing the USA bases there currently and the Yanks are getting twitchy. One side or the other could accidentally take out a civil aircraft.
        Uncomfortable.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:05pm
- gravedodger
  
  Very low danger on State Highway one in Lil ole NZ?
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:04am
- kowtow
  
  Nerd from Iowa ?
  
  Gor blimey , if it wasn’t for the Mad Mullahs the world would be much safer.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:22am
- Master Mariner
  
  Same thing happened when a US Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane with all killed.
  Exactly your point.
  Incidently it target swappwd on the run way with an Iranian fighter jet.
  Exactly your point indeed.
  Having worked there , The numerous calls to either coalition warships and or other Naval patrol vessels is seriously lacking communications with no one answeing each other.
  Generally a bloody nightmare
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:52pm
  - KH
    
    When they took down the Iranian aircraft I saw a video of the action on the bridge. All high fiving with baseball caps on backwards.
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:08pm
Yvette

Wellington residents are being asked to store up to 140 litres of emergency water per person due to the risk of severe shortages over the summer period.
But the request has left some in the capital baffled – with the region’s emergency management office admitting almost half of Wellington’s water is lost due to leaky pipes.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/12/wellingtonians-asked-to-store-emergency-water-as-leaks-worsen-risk-of-severe-shortages.html

Bottled water contains thousands of nanoplastics so small they can invade the body’s cells, study says
In [a] past study, Mason found each tainted liter of water held an average of 10 plastic particles wider than a human hair, along with 300 smaller particles. Five years ago, however, there was no way to analyze those tiny flecks or discover if there were more.
“It’s not that we didn’t know nanoplastics existed. We just couldn’t analyze them,” …
Instead of 300 per liter, the team behind the latest study found the actual number of plastic bits in three popular brands of water sold in the United States to be in between 110,000 and 370,000, if not higher. (The authors declined to mention which brands of bottled water they studied.) …

Dangers to human health
Nanoplastics are the most worrisome type of plastic pollution for human health, experts say. That’s because the minuscule particles can invade individual cells and tissues in major organs, potentially interrupting cellular processes and depositing endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenols, phthalates, flame retardants, per- and polyfluorinated substances, or PFAS, and heavy metals.

“All of those chemicals are used in the manufacturing of plastic, so if a plastic makes its way into us, it’s carrying those chemicals with it. And because the temperature of the body is higher than the outside, those chemicals are going to migrate out of that plastic and end up in our body,” Mason explained.
“The chemicals can be carried to your liver and your kidney and your brain and even make their way across the placental boundary and end up in an unborn child,” Mason said. …
https://us.cnn.com/2024/01/08/health/bottled-water-nanoplastics-study-wellness/index.html

These water tanks (including a downpipe diverter) can be purchased for $115.00 from Upper Hutt City Council while stocks last.
What is the tank made of?
UV resistant, food grade plastic. It is certified as meeting New Zealand standards for water storage.
Do I have to fit the tank to a downpipe?
No. The tank can be used to store 200L of tap water, which should be refreshed every 12 months. It can then be connected to the downpipe in an emergency.
Do I have to boil the water?
Yes. Health advice is to boil all drinking water from the water tank in an emergency.
https://www.upperhuttcity.com/Services/Water/Buy-a-200-litre-water-tank

How much will nanoplastics screw with your body after you have already screwed it by having covid injections and boosters?
Then there’s global warming, ‘boiling’ or something
(also perhaps expanding membranes to allow particles to past through)
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January 13, 2024 8:28am
- mikenmildagain
  
  You think a covid vaccination will increase your risk of harm from ingesting nanoplastics?
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:57am
  - Yvette
    
    Not as much, mikenmildagain, as it can damage your cognitive functions and simple comprehension, or identifying sarcasm or irony :o)
    
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    January 13, 2024 9:36am
  - I remember when
    
    Perhaps Nano Girl can tell you.
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:32am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      She’s the incredible all-knowing Kiwi “fact checker” for the regime?
      
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      January 13, 2024 2:47pm
- Matt Long
  
  Do Wellington Water staff get any kick backs from the water tank people?
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/506590/water-tank-manufacturer-reports-strong-demand-in-face-of-restrictions
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:08am
  - I remember when
    
    Thirty years ago when Auckland were having water access problems water tank sales were a boom activity!
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:30am
    - David Garrett
      
      I remember: Really? I remember at one stage it was illegal to install water tanks in new suburbs in Auckland…designed to force resident to take council water and pay for it I think.
      
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      January 13, 2024 7:43pm
- imalwaysright
  
  “Wellington residents are being asked to store up to 140 litres of emergency water per person due to the risk of severe shortages over the summer period.”
  
  Where do the council think people will get all of the water?
  
  Perhaps from the tap which is directly connected to the storage lakes!
  
  This will, however, be very useful to the council as they can then show us photographs of storage lakes that are at lower levels than normal.
  
  See, the council was right all along…
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:33am
Tomtoddy

Hertz is selling 20,000 EV’s and buying those dreadful fossil fuelled vehicles. Apparently there are limits to “saving the planet”.
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January 13, 2024 8:34am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Love Hertz
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:37am
  - Yvette
    
    … and truth hertz
    
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    January 13, 2024 9:37am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  This story
  https://electrek.co/2024/01/10/tesla-model-3-hertz-cheap-used-rental/
  tries to give the impression they’re just selling off their older stock, and they’re still on board with EV insanity.
  The reality is more like they’ve learned the hard way that EVs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:28am
  - Hollyfield
    
    As someone who regularly books rental cars for work, I never book an EV as I don’t know what the charging will be like in an unfamiliar town, and because I often drive between rural towns in the rental cars. I think the only people willing to use an EV in a rental situation would be those who already own one and are familiar with the charging requirements, and absolute EV fanatics. So not the majority of customers, as it appears Hertz has learned.
    
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    January 13, 2024 9:48am
    - cmm
      
      They were hoping for corporate customers who fall over themselves trying to be green.
      
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      January 13, 2024 10:42am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Cmm
        
        Apparently Uber drivers in USA were some of the most numerous users. I think they became uneconomic because of energy costs to the uber drivers and maintenance and insurance costs to the renters.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:09pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        They only do that in public, not when nobody’s watching. Or they think nobody’s watching.
        
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        January 13, 2024 4:12pm
    - KH
      
      Fully agree. Happy to use an EV, when most charging is done at home. With a rental car you mostly will be in an unfamiliar environment, so the charging is one more thing to manage, at a time you don’t need more things to manage.
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:14pm
    - KH
      
      It seems the experience is that resale value of EVs is much lower than equivalent ICE vehicles. European reports are the same. Thus cost of ownership is higher, thus rental companies are no longer keen.
      I guess it’s a new thing and will take a decade or so before we understand what the pattern will be.
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:20pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Isn’t there an app for finding charging stations? if not there damned well should be.
      
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      January 14, 2024 12:05am
  - krazykiwi
    
    They are disposing of ~20,000 EVs and replacing them with petrol-powered cars. Anyone trying to suggest this is a routine stock refresh has chosen the wrong hill to die on.
    
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    January 13, 2024 12:33pm
- ecco
  
  Good time to buy some more Tesla stock…
  
  4 7
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  January 13, 2024 9:55am
- mawm
  
  It’s a $245 million limit.
  
  I spoke to the owner of a small car rental company in NZ about EV’s. He said even with all the subsidies it is not viable to run them. He’s also sold off his.
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:33am
Matt Long

Starlink sends its first text to phones in Washington State. Cellphone signal black spots probably history within a decade.
The Paywalled article says any LTE phone will work with the low orbit satellite system, but then goes on to say it’s 5G?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/one-nz-updates-on-cell-tower-in-the-sky-plans-after-starlink-sends-its-first-text-via-satellite/3ROTMEHEHRH6HB6HY3XFDQOXQA/
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January 13, 2024 8:35am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  coming to nz soon
  https://one.nz/why-choose-us/spacex/
  
  5 1
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  January 13, 2024 8:46am
  - geoff3012
    
    Vodafone…wouldn’t go near them with 20ft pole…
    
    10 1
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    January 13, 2024 10:37am
    - sungsamning
      
      Yeah, I agree. Pity Starlink chose them.
      
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      January 13, 2024 10:40pm
- All_on_Red
  
  This proposal to turn a Space X Starship into a Moonbase is interesting.
  https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/180-days-for-a-spacex-starship-moonbase.html
  No update yet on the rumour that Elon Musk has heard our very own Mikenmild is a YUGE fan and wants to send him to Mars.
  Apparently Mikey is keen as Starship is bigger than his bedsit.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:35am
- NZer In Exile
  
  I thought 5G proper was a fairly short range thing. Like max about 500 metres. There are also a bunch of tech articles suggesting certain types of proposed 5G may interfere with Starlink. Perhaps Starlink uses a radio band or bands that some 5G operators would like to use?
  
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  January 13, 2024 2:59pm
- Tweedse
  
  Early days for this tech. It’s txt only, no calls or data yet. And there can be a considerable delay in delivery.
  
  Still if you need emergency help it’s better than nothing. Which leads to the question, what number do you txt in NZ for emergency help?
  
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  January 13, 2024 3:04pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    MUM
    
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    January 13, 2024 4:13pm
- krazykiwi
  
  I’m gobsmacked as how much of SH1 has little or no cell signal*. Anecdotally the coverage feels worse now than a decade ago
  
  * That’s actual signal, not cell tower channel capacity.
  
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  January 13, 2024 3:19pm
Ghost

China has created a new virus that killed 100% of mice

John Campbell – Lethal Infection of Human ACE2-Transgenic Mice Caused by SARS-CoV-2- related Pangolin Coronavirus GX_P2V(short_3UTR)
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January 13, 2024 8:36am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Crank alert
  
  5 37
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  January 13, 2024 9:09am
  - Ghost
    
    Don’t be so hard on yourself
    
    39 3
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    January 13, 2024 9:11am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    Geez Mike.
    
    John Campbell is a medical professional – you are not.
    
    I reckon he has a better handle on things than you…..
    
    Be better… let you inner troll stay asleep and add some value
    
    21 5
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    January 13, 2024 10:48am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      He’s a nurse spouting misinformation on YouTube.
      
      6 23
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      January 13, 2024 11:04am
      - JimBobJoe
        
        Evidence of misinformation in the link above you commented on.
        
        You can debate his work on excess deaths if you wish.
        
        But he is commenting on a published article in the link above.
        
        You are just being obnoxious and trying to discredit a credentialled person commenting on what he sees as stupid and dangerous research on nasty viruses that can spread from labs oto human populations maliciously or via cock up.
        
        Be better Michael, be better and play the issue not the messenger.
        
        Oh!, and nice to see you dismissing Nurses as not having the ability or training to comment on anything. I wonder what the Nurses Union has to say about a hard leftie criticising their members in that oblique way
        
        13 2
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        January 13, 2024 12:44pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Milky best not to take Wikipedia as gospel. To borrow from Jim Carey, it’s a giant colostomy bag that needs emptying.
        
        5 2
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        January 13, 2024 3:01pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        “spouting misinformation” now where have I heard that phrase before? It’s almost like you’re on part-time contracts for Fraser House and NZME, milky…
        
        2 2
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        January 13, 2024 4:15pm
      - ecco
        
        He’s got 3m YouTube subscribers. How many do you have Mickey😂?
        
        2 1
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        January 13, 2024 5:25pm
      - Ghost
        
        What misinformation, here’s the paper
        
        https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.03.574008v1
        
        2 1
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        January 13, 2024 5:30pm
      - O C Smith
        
        I often wondered why so many dt’s the above comments explains why. Your IGNORANCE deserves capitalisation!!!
        
        2 0
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        January 13, 2024 6:28pm
      - Sacha
        
        If he was just “a nurse spouting misinformation on Youtube” he wouldn’t get as many readers as he does
        You are being mischievous, to put it lightly, because you should know by now what the man’s extensive professional and academic qualifications are.
        Your comments sometimes are not worth the time it takes to read –
        
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        January 13, 2024 7:33pm
  - Aquarius
    
    Great to see you self identifying
    Though not really necessary since everyone is full aware
    
    10 1
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    January 13, 2024 12:20pm
- krazykiwi
  
  There is urgent need for governments to comprehensively ban this type of research and make their countries and their banking systems unavailable to anyone conducting or funding such research. Make these parties pariahs, and treat them like genuine terrorists.
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:40pm
Matt Long

I wonder if any of the people forced out of jobs, locked up, or locked out of the country, will be on hand to wish Arden well at her wedding?
44 3
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January 13, 2024 8:37am
- Jethrod
  
  All those Labour MP’s that lost their seats.
  
  32 2
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  January 13, 2024 8:57am
  - Positan
    
    From the published photograph, it’d appear Grant Robertson’s idea of formal attire for a wedding is as far off the mark as his capabilities as a Finance Minister.
    
    What a turkey to turn up in a t-shirt and shorts. He obviously lacks any sense of occasion.
    
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    January 13, 2024 6:01pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Positan: Wash you mouth out with soap! The Fat Controller is GAY so he can dress any way he damn well wants to…
      
      3 0
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      January 13, 2024 7:48pm
    - Ghost
      
      You mean the photo of him arriving well before the wedding? What’s the bet when the photos are published in the woman’s mag that would have paid a lot for them he’s not wearing those clothes?
      
      2 0
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      January 13, 2024 7:55pm
- Inandout
  
  Matt, I have a feeling certain drones will invade the nuptial exclusivity. Bloody difficult to bring down.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:25am
- ecco
  
  Champagne socialist to the core is Ardern. Unashamedly holding her wedding at one of the most expensive places in nz to hold a wedding. Obviously got used to the trappings of a ‘capitalist’ lifestyle that was funded by the nz taxpayer. The Craggy Range owners must also be closet socialists. Is that fella Peter Gordon involved in proceedings as well?
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:59am
  - Close Hen Counters
    
    I totally agree Ecco – the whole thing makes me want to throw up (particularly over my dumbarse colleagues who love her and continue to vote labour) I bet that haggy getting married at craggy doesn’t pay a cent for her NZ designer dress, free chef, woman’s day coverage …. For someone who destroyed New Zealand financially and socially, not a single child lifted out of poverty
    
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    January 13, 2024 12:03pm
    - Matt Long
      
      “not a single child lifted out of poverty”
      Don’t forget Neve, so at least one.
      
      17 1
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      January 13, 2024 12:28pm
      - Close Hen Counters
        
        Haha absolutely but the last time I mentioned sproggy I had a mod warning ⚠️
        
        9 0
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        January 13, 2024 4:19pm
    - ecco
      
      Agreed. There seems to be a hell of a lot of leaking of details of the wedding to her mates at Nzh. Having trouble avoiding those banal articles. Thank goodness for kiwiblog.
      
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      January 13, 2024 5:29pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Who is paying for the security?
  You know who.
  
  19 4
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  January 13, 2024 10:59am
Chuck Bird

The following is a letter from a well known lefty. It appears the Herald will publish anything alarmist. I say the threat of nuclear war is far more serious than the earth warming a little. Far more people die from extreme cold than extreme heat.

Four anti-submarine Poseidon P8A aircraft are costing us $2.3b (more if you include operating and housing costs). The price tag reflects the aircraft’s capacity to operate at long distances and its suitability for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. New hardware is being chosen to ensure “interoperability” with our defence partners, the US and Australia.

Real security should be achieved by focusing on the urgent regional issues posed by climate change and devastating cyclones, not hyped-up threats.

Maire Leadbeater, Mt Albert.
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January 13, 2024 8:40am
- Paulus
  
  Upon yesterday’s comments re the B737 Max it is said that there were non in New Zealand
  – except the new Poseidon of the Airforce is actually a modified B737 which fly’s around New Zealand often called calibration flight, I believe, occasionally.
  
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  January 13, 2024 8:53am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    They’re developed from an earlier 737 model than the Max.
    
    7 13
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    January 13, 2024 9:11am
    - Dougal10
      
      So was the max!
      
      4 2
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      January 13, 2024 1:40pm
  - Terry Dalee
    
    No.
    Calibration flight is a civilian operation run by Airways NZ calibrating radio navigation aids for NZ. It’s not done by a P-8, which also does not have the equipment required. It’s done by what ever civilian contractor Airways awarded the contract to. Usually it’s a Kingair turboprop doing it.
    
    The P-8 is used for fisheries patrol, search and rescue etc. It is a modified B737 800 fitted with a B737 900 wing so it can take more weight. Nothing to do with the MAX.
    
    The only MAXs flown in NZ are Fiji Airways and Batik Air. Neither are the B737-9 model with the mid fuselage plug.
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:30pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Frankly I thought she had dropped off her perch years ago.
  
  She is obviously the last person in NZ to realise what a P8 is for.
  
  14 2
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  January 13, 2024 10:20am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I see that Maire Leadbeater is the daughter of Elsie Locke. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
    
    To be fair, she’s been banging on about West Papua for ages, which I agree with.
    
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    January 13, 2024 5:39pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  “issues posed by climate change and devastating cyclones, not hyped-up threats” Not hyped up threats. The writer and the paper print this dross with not a whiff of showing any understanding of oxymoron.
  
  15 1
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  January 13, 2024 10:52am
- MCōs
  
  ‘our Air Force will be equipped with four Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft.’
  
  ‘the P-8A Poseidon will conduct a range of tasks including aerial surveillance of New Zealand’s areas of interest such as the Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ), the South Pacific and the Southern Ocean including the Ross Dependency and Antarctica.’
  And so on
  https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/our-equipment/aircraft/boeing-p-8a-poseidon/
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:59am
  - Simon
    
    The aircraft in future will also be used to ferry around mentally ill Gweens and Labo types to international conferences and other wankfeasts like Ardern’s trip to Antartica.
    
    9 3
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    January 13, 2024 11:12am
Yvette

“Waikato-Tainui has today drawn a contemporary aukati [line not to be crossed] with the filing of proceedings in the High Court,” he said. …

Kīngi Tuheitia is due to host a national day of unity at Tūrangawaewae marae in Ngāruawāhia on January 20, to discuss a national Māori response to the government’s so-called ‘anti-Māori’ policies.
https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2024/01/10/waikato-tainui-launches-high-court-action-against-the-government/

Has Mr Morgan “jumped the shark”?

And as the High Court case may be to maintain gains which, in typical practice, Labour had now yet delivered (Jackson still has the response of 72 hui in “targeted” consultation response to He Puapua, which he was then watering down, but parked on a shelf for the duration of the Election) does another HAPPY DAYS reference apply –
Hey I’m not the dreamer. I’m the dreamee – Fonz

Was not an earlier “a contemporary aukati [line not to be crossed]” the askari which Sharples in his UN speech finally supporting UNDRIP saying that the Treaty of Waitangi set the bounds of New Zealand’s engagement with UNDRIP.
Tuku is setting “a contemporary aukati”, having already crossed the Sharples / National askari.
There was not such muddied waters in crossing the Rubicon
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January 13, 2024 8:45am
- mikenmildagain
  
  What’s an askari?
  
  2 18
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  January 13, 2024 9:13am
  - Yvette
    
    An “askari” is an unobserved auto-correction by Mac Textedit, which defies the example set in the first sentence – “Waikato-Tainui has today drawn a contemporary aukati [line not to be crossed] with the filing of proceedings in the High Court,” he said.
    
    I regret this inconsistency. Thank you, mikenmildagain, for drawing attention to this mistake(s)
    
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    January 13, 2024 9:26am
    - kowtow
      
      It’s the Cockney version of Ask Siri.
      
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      January 13, 2024 11:16am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Askari is Swahili and was the term used for soldiers etc from E Africa
    
    15 0
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    January 13, 2024 9:34am
- pdm
  
  contemporary must be an original Te Reo word but insn’t askari Japanese?
  
  6 1
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  January 13, 2024 9:55am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    No
    
    Looked it up and is originally Persian and is related to lascar, a term used for Indian seamen on British ships.
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:23am
    - Yvette
      
      OK – I apologise again for such a seminal blunder
      
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      January 13, 2024 12:06pm
- Simon
  
  Lol – bosses at Tainui want bigger houses.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:14am
slightlyrighty

Scotties Boutique Google Reviews….

“A fashion paradise where Green Party MPs demonstrate their special brand of wealth redistribution – seizing their favourite outfits without the pesky interference of currency.

It’s one thing to advocate for reducing waste. But skipping the checkout is next-level eco-efficiency!

Five stars for a collection so magnetic, it’s practically criminal.”
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January 13, 2024 8:46am
- nathie
  
  Found another review:
  
  “Did you know (according to Wiki) that Arabic Keffiyeh scarfs are made in China?
  
  We pride ourselves in offering 100% genuine NZ and sustainably made hand crafted Keffiyeh’s, with the finest cotton imported from Palestine!
  
  Look fashionably dashing and save the planet at the same time one attends a peaceful rally in central Auckland in support of terrorists!
  
  A bargain at only $4,000 (normally $10,000) for this week only. Bound to run out fast!”
  
  Looks like the advertising was too tempting to resist??!!
  
  27 1
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  January 13, 2024 9:36am
- Simon
  
  Justice for Scotties.
  
  12 1
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  January 13, 2024 10:21am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Scotties Profits Matter
    
    9 0
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    January 13, 2024 1:21pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

A lot of Jan 6th footage banned. This one is not on Youtube.
4.45 in look at the crowd size.
This is the crowd that will give Trump the 2024 win.
It is over 1 hour long. Skip through like I did.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/YZOti4MuHPy8/
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January 13, 2024 8:59am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So the Trump Rally was not infiltrated right?
  What do lefties with TDS say now?
  
  14 6
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  January 13, 2024 9:09am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That is the best coverage I have seen. So much more is suppressed.
  The coward Ray Eps left early. He had done what he wanted to and ran.
  The Kangaroo Committee was a joke – not much shown.
  So, Trump supporters Rally, then peaceful protesters, then the troublemakers who had flags and Trump attire, but who were plain and simple rioters.
  This was all pre-planned. It was on social media 2 to 3 weeks before. If Pelosi had approved Trump’s 2 requests for National Guard Troops it would not have happened. Traitor Pelosi knew all the time.
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:11am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Steve,
    
    Same gameplan at the Parliament protest .
    
    7 2
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    January 13, 2024 10:44am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yes, unwanted ratbags there too.
      
      9 2
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      January 13, 2024 11:05am
  - RichardX
    
    If Pelosi had approved Trump’s 2 requests for National Guard Troops it would not have happened. Traitor Pelosi knew all the time.
    
    It is like a religious belief for you, isn’t it?
    
    You have no evidence to support your claim and you have been given evidence that refutes your claim yet still you repeat what Trump said.
    
    Nothing from Steven Sund supports your claim.
    
    Testimony from Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg refutes your claim.
    
    What can you offer other than Trump saying it happened and you really really believing him?
    
    8 12
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    January 13, 2024 10:58am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Pelosi has stated that she turned down the request for the troops.
      
      11 2
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      January 13, 2024 12:18pm
      - RichardX
        
        Please provide evidence for your claim.
        
        3 8
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        January 13, 2024 12:24pm
    - virtualmark
      
      It’s a cult.
      
      2 5
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      January 13, 2024 1:46pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Code name Eps Ray.
    You can see right through him.
    
    7 1
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    January 13, 2024 1:29pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    When you look at the colossal damage and mayhem aided and abetted by the dems, during a supposed global emergency where people were supposed to social distance, mask up and stay at home, the Jan 6 witch hunt is obviously a grossly corrupt weaponisation of the system at it’s worst.
    
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    January 13, 2024 3:55pm
iMP

TRUMP.

1. Anyone with any political nous knows the NY fraud trial is a political hit-job; I hope he is acquitted; but even if he isn’t, it will help his cause with his base and many middle swing voters. Everyone knows the Clintons and the Bidens are corrupt as hell. Lessor of two weevils.

2. VIRGINIA is really interesting. The Republican there has surged in support, beyond even the Trump votes an election ago. This may foreshadow and absolute canning for the Democrats. Here’s more….

https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/01/10/republicans-win-virginia-special-elections-in-blowouts-against-democrats

3. There’s no Q. Trump will win the Primary nomination; no one can beat him, as they need his base; and without the Trump base, the Repubs will lose. They know this. Trump isn’t that bad once you get past the Dem hystrionics. African-American voters are saying economic life was better under Trump than Biden. That’s how most vote. They don’t care about Dem hyperbole.

4. The racist epithet against Trump was largely based on his Wall rhetoric, saying Mexicans were coming across who were rapists and drug users. Now the Southern Border has become a huge crisis, unmanaged by Biden, it has become an issue of political-management failure, and the slurs v Trump have dimmed. Trump has also been shown to be right (he has amazing political instinct). In the end Americans like strong leadership, and action, and they will forgive TRump’s foibles. (Stand by for Epstein reveations re Bill Clinton).

5. The best thing to happen in recent US politics, is the Dems confirming Biden as their candidate. He is woeful. Americans know this. Embarrasing even. I predict his epithet in 2024 will be “No Show Joe” as he refuses to debate TRump, or front up to campaigning.

6. I can’t see how the Supreme Court will uphold the Civil War law v Trump to exclude him from the ballot. They will talk about the law’s intent; and that would be a HUGE position to take, to exclude as ex-Prez on such a long ‘incited a riot’ bow when he said on the day, and I quote “You have to go home now. We have to have peace…We have to have law and order.”
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January 13, 2024 9:05am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Trump is clearly ineligible for office under the fourteenth amendment. However, I expect the ridiculous supreme court will perform some extreme mental gymnastics to allow him on the ballot.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:18am
  - Inandout
    
    m&m, that is exactly why the SC was established all those years ago, above the odour of politics and a quiet place where Judges contemplate. Notwithstanding the disgraceful and unlawful invasion of SC Judges residences by foaming pro abortion mobs.
    
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    January 13, 2024 9:33am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Above politics, huh? And above petty ethics rules, too.
      
      6 23
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      January 13, 2024 9:55am
      - Inandout
        
        m&m, the members may be chosen by the respective powers in government but something appears to happen when they reach SC status. Even the late supposedly Dem leaning Ruth Bader Ginsburg displayed views not in keeping with Dem thinking. I think those Justices know they are in a unique position and act accordingly.
        https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx
        
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        January 13, 2024 10:26am
  - Matt Long
    
    If only our Mike could be the omniscient benevolent dictator CheRa prescribe for world utopia, how much happier everyone would be.
    
    13 4
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    January 13, 2024 10:00am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      No such thing as a benevolent dictator.
      
      5 13
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      January 13, 2024 10:06am
      - cmm
        
        Benevolent dictatorships are the foundation of the more functional African countries.
        
        18 4
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        January 13, 2024 10:49am
      - JackRabbit
        
        Mike, unless you were bought here by the stork, dropped overboard from a passing Ferengi freighter, or created in a lab for the movie ‘critters’, your parents were your benevolent dictators for the first 16 years of your life.
        
        “Mike, don’t you eat your poo.”
        “Mike, eat your greens.”
        “Mike, don’t pull the cat’s tail.”
        “Mike, brush your teeth.”
        “Mike, go to bed now, you have school in the morning.”
        “Mike, put the toilet seat down when you are finished”
        …….
        
        16 4
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        January 13, 2024 11:16am
      - Che Guava
        
        It’s not the system per se, it’s the people. South Africa is a democracy, but it’s practically a failed state. However, when it was undemocratic under apartheid, it was a very advanced society. So clearly, just having a particular system is insufficient, which is my argument (not “muh, bEnEvOlEnT dIcTaToR”).
        
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        January 13, 2024 11:43am
      - MCōs
        
        “However, when it was undemocratic under apartheid, it was a very advanced society.”
        I suppose that depended on who you asked
        
        Likewise here
        Some people here considered the previous administration as a malevolent dictatorship and others the Muldoon government as a dictatorship
        Except both were defeated in democratic elections
        
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        January 13, 2024 12:15pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        mikenmildagain: “No such thing as a benevolent dictator.”
        
        But a dictatorship by tribal rule is OK?
        
        5 2
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        January 13, 2024 3:31pm
    - Che Guava
      
      As I pointed out yesterday, there is no reason why democracy should produce a better society than an undemocratic one. In other words, there is no reason to assume that 1,000,000 decision makers will make a better decision than 1, just because more people were involved. This is just an assumption that people have without any real basis.
      
      Careful reading and understanding would have revealed that the thrust of my comment was not that an autocracy would be better in every case – the thrust was that there is no reason to assume democracy would be superior to an autocracy because of some inherent feature of democracy.
      
      Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, no one was able to respond with a positive case for the superiority of democracy yesterday, so I wonder if they would like to have another go today. This shouldn’t be too difficult, if democracy is indeed the best of all possible systems.
      
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      January 13, 2024 11:32am
      - Dave
        
        Lord Acton: Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.
        Y
        An inherent advantage of representative democracy is that those who would represent us are constrained by the need to retain support of both their colleagues and the public, to whom they must periodically justify themselves in open debate, and further constrained by the knowledge that they will not always have power.
        
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        January 13, 2024 12:45pm
      - Matt Long
        
        No idea there Che, best to ask the millions flooding into Europe and the US about the relative benefits.
        As I’ve argued else where the dominant religious heritage and its current influence are also strong indicators of a counties desirability.
        
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        January 13, 2024 12:49pm
      - Che Guava
        
        “No idea there Che, best to ask the millions flooding into Europe and the US about the relative benefits.”
        
        For decades, polls have consistently shown that majorities in both Europe and the US don’t agree with this policy and want it stopped. Yet it doesn’t stop and in fact gets worse.
        
        You’re claiming that these people are coming to live in a democracy where, presumably, the will of the people is respected and represented. But obviously the will of the people as it pertains to immigration is irrelevant in practical terms, so you’ve refuted your own argument with your example.
        
        They aren’t coming for “democracy,” most of them are coming for the free resources that the majority of people in Europe and the US oppose giving to them.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:06pm
      - Che Guava
        
        “An inherent advantage of representative democracy is that those who would represent us….”
        
        And that’s the point: what if they represent us, but the collective “we” are making really bad and destructive decisions?
        
        To illustrate: What if your kids all wanted to eat ice cream at every meal, so you let them – after all, as a believer in the superiority of the majority will, and as a non-autocratic parent who prefers to represent the wishes of his kids and act on their will, you’d have to give them ice cream on demand.
        
        What if, though, as an autocratic parent who understood that kids cannot eat junk food all the time, you ignored the will of your children (because your children were wrong) and instead gave them what they didn’t ask for, which is a balanced diet. They’d be better off, even though their will was denied.
        
        Note that I have never said “autocracy is better than democracy.” My claim is that “democracy is not a guarantee of the best outcomes” which I think is self-evident.
        
        There is no reason to assume that a majority opinion is the best opinion simply because it is the majority opinion. Consequently, there is no reason to assume that a non-democratic society will necessarily be inferior to a democratic one, or vice versa.
        
        We obsess over the form of decision-making, rather than what matters more, which is the content of decision-making.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:26pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Guava, one more time.
        
        A crap/vile/evil dictatorship can not be voted out.
        
        A crap/vile/evil democratic leadership can.
        
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        January 13, 2024 3:34pm
      - Matt Long
        
        The hordes would not be fleeing their countries of origin if their destination had not reaped the advantages of a freeish market with property rights, kept in place in the USA by a constitution, and various institutions designed to rein in the power of government.
        That western institutions are failing is not in question, they’re failing because they’re departing from the precepts that formerly gave them competitive advantage and turning instead to socialism and autocratic government.
        
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        January 13, 2024 3:40pm
      - Dave
        
        One can believe that democracies are better than autocracies without claiming that every single decision by a democracy will always be better than every single decision by an autocracy. You appear to be demanding perfection from the former, but not from the latter.
        
        On average, the free flow of ideas in democratic debate will probably produce more rational decision-making with less corruption and brutal repression than autocracies, and where democratic governments make mistakes, the mistakes can be corrected by peaceful changes in government.
        
        As for the analogy of parents deciding what’s good for children, you need to explain why you think autocrats are not wannabe despots but wise, incorruptible and benevolent parents and the public are ignorant children.
        
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        January 13, 2024 7:21pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        Happy to be proven wrong but I don’t believe a full democracy has ever gone to war against another full democracy. These philosophical musings about alternative forms of government are a bit silly – try replacing democracy with an alternative and see how you like the reality.
        
        South Africa under apartheid was indeed an advanced society with highly developed infrastructure – because the people running it were, although racist, very competent administrators (and far better than the current clown show). But it was all fake and totally unsustainable. (Of course, I’m sure we all agree the transition to full democracy should have been done much more slowly).
        
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        January 13, 2024 11:44pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Perhaps mike, if I may give you a tip. You clearly have no understanding of the 14th, so do try and stick with things you actually do know about. It will be difficult for you, but I’m confident you will be better for it.
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:56am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Please help me with your explanation.
      
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      January 13, 2024 11:43am
  - Jigsaw
    
    I have just checked the 14th amendment and you are right that it says anyone guilty of participation in rebellion shall be not be eligible for offic – but I am just a little surprised that you consider this just for being accused and apparently you don’t worry about such small niceties as there having to be a trial……..
    
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    January 13, 2024 12:59pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Re-read the amendment. Nowhere in there does it say you need be convicted in a court. And none of the people who have previously been banned from office via that amendment had criminal convictions for insurrection.
      
      Now go read the two Colorado judicial decisions, where they cover this ground at length and set out why a criminal conviction isn’t required.
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:50pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      […] you are right that it says anyone guilty of participation in rebellion shall be not be eligible for office […].
      
      No, it doesn’t say that. mikenmildagain, at 9:18AM, above, is clearly correct.
      
      The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, states—
      
      No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, […], to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
      
      No mention of the word, “guilty”.
      
      In fact, historical precedent confirms that a criminal conviction is not required for an individual to be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (see : https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/past-14th-amendment-disqualifications/). You should read the whole thing, but this extract puts it in a nutshell—
      
      “Historical precedent also confirms that a criminal conviction is not required for an individual to be disqualified under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. No one who has been formally disqualified under Section 3 was charged under the criminal ‘rebellion or insurrection’ statute (18 U.S.C. § 2383) or its predecessors. This fact is consistent with Section 3’s text, legislative history, and precedent, all of which make clear that a criminal conviction for any offense is not required for disqualification. Section 3 is not a criminal penalty, but rather is a qualification for holding public office in the United States that can be and has been enforced through civil lawsuits in state courts, among other means.”
      
      Unfortunately, I agree with mikenmildagain, that “the ridiculous supreme court will perform some extreme mental gymnastics to allow him on the ballot.”
      
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      January 13, 2024 2:10pm
  - Lee C
    
    This just in from CNN:
    In a stunning revelation that has sent shockwaves through the hallowed halls of bureaucracy, a Washington bureaucrat has come forward with a claim that could potentially redefine the very fabric of American democracy. According to the anonymous official, former President Donald Trump allegedly looked at them in a peculiar way during a routine meeting, prompting fears of a clear violation of the 14th Amendment.
    
    In a hastily organized press conference, the bureaucrat argued that Trump’s gaze, described as “intense” and “piercing,” violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. Legal scholars and constitutional experts are now grappling with the groundbreaking question: Does an unsettling glance constitute a disqualification for the highest office in the land?
    
    Critics argue that this revelation adds a new dimension to the ongoing debate about presidential eligibility, questioning not only Trump’s political acumen but also the very essence of his right to hold office. While some dismiss the claims as a desperate attempt to grab attention, others insist that we cannot ignore the potential consequences of a president with a penchant for peculiar looks.
    
    As the nation holds its breath, one thing is certain: the eyes of justice are watching, and they demand answers to the burning question – can a wayward gaze disqualify a president?
    
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    January 13, 2024 2:41pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      All very silly.
      
      The Disqualification Clause, Section 3, refers to persons having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [Constitution of the United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
      
      Your scenario is outside the scope of Section 3.
      
      The Equal Protection Clause, Section 1, refers to States being unable to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
      
      Again, given that Donald Trump is not a State, your scenario is outside the scope of Section 1, also.
      
      Ah, well. No doubt you had lots of fun putting all that together, so at least there’s that.
      
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      January 13, 2024 3:20pm
- RichardX
  
  It will be interesting to see if these opinions will be more accurate than some of your previous attempts to foretell the future of US politics.
  
  iMP
  … Biden will step down in a year/18 months, and Kamala Harris (who couldn’t win a single Pres. delegate herself) will take over….
  
  JANUARY 4, 2021 8:58AM
  
  iMP
  DPF, none of this maters.[sic] Kamala Harris will be President early-mid Term,….
  
  https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/01/the_counting_of_the_electoral_college_votes.html#comment-2867920
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:29am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Can I predict they will be no more accurate?
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:44am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  3.
  Many African-Americans are leaving the “plantation” thanks to people like Candace Owens. They realise that they have just been used and abused by the Dems for decades.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:29am
Jack5

QUICK READ:
Rich Irish riot about immigration surge
Poor NZ cousins don’t care about theirs

Irish unhappy but NZ inflow higher

Almost the same population in the Irish Republic as in NZ, but our immigration outruns even the Irish influx.

“Pro-immigration elites” have turned the Irish Republic into a powder keg, says a commentator in the Telegraph

Michael Murphy writes that since the anti-immigrant riots in Dublin in November, a migrant hotel in Galway have been torched.

He says Irish politicians and media have been quick to blame “far-right” hooligans.

“But the same people now hand wringing about right-wing extremism have themselves been busily heaping gunpowder into the barrel. Ireland has in recent years opened its doors to enormous numbers of immigrants – more than 140,000 arrived in the year ending April 2023, contributing to growth of almost two per cent in its population.

“The new arrivals needed to be housed in a country which has a shortfall of 250,000 homes, and other public services stretched thin.”

In the year ended October, New Zealand had 245,600 migrant arrivals , and a net migration gain of 128,900.

The Irish Republic had a population of 5,281,600 at 1 April, 2023.
New Zealand’s population as listed at Statistics NZ, is 5,269,200.

The Irish economy has further to fall than NZ. The CIA World Factbook ranks the Irish Republic at fifth highest in the world by real (i.e. inflation adjusted) GDP per capita. It ranks NZ 42nd. These are 2021 figures. In the September 2023 quarter, NZ’s GDP per capita fell 0.9 per cent, compared with NZ GDP falling 0.3 per cent.
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January 13, 2024 9:11am
- I remember when
  
  All immigrants are not equal.
  One of the reasons our intake is largely accepted, allowing that our housing situation is a problem, is because they are usually highly educated, hard working and still connected to their families.
  A quick perusal of secondary school dux lists will confirm their attributes.
  They are here because we need their work skills.
  They also are not housed together in bulk.
  
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  January 13, 2024 9:50am
  - Jack5
    
    Poster “I Remember When” on immigrants: …they are usually highly educated…”
    
    Those are the immigrants the world is competing for.
    
    NZ, at No. 42 on world wealth list (by GDP per capita) compares poorly with the US, Canada, Australia, even Britain as a possible new home. We do need highly skilled migrants, such as doctors, nurses, engineers.
    
    However, many or most of the latest immigration surge is of the low to medium skilled – builders’ labourers, restaurant workers, and the like.
    
    The incoming individuals aren’t the problem. The trap is the flawed belief that immigration always drives growth, and that the higher the immigration the higher national economic growth.
    
    That’s the case only if you measure growth by pure GDP rather than by GDP per capita. For the different results from these measures consider India: third in world by GDP, 160th in the world by GDP per capita.
    
    Those pushing for high immigration in NZ have been: the Woke universities; private “colleges” in the student visa racket; the real estate industry, whose income is commission based and thus thrives in soaring prices from a housing shortage; and industries that rely on low labour costs, such as restaurants and hotels.
    
    To get the highly skilled elite migrants we compete with the rest of the world for we need to supercharge our economy. Heavy immigration, tilted to lower skill standards, does not do that.
    
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    January 13, 2024 10:33am
Yvette

Dame Anne Salmond: How to split a society
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/01/13/dame-anne-salmond-how-to-split-a-society/

Societies that once had a strong sense of collective identity are being split into mutually hostile camps, based on a ‘them vs us’ mentality. NZ must do everything it can to stop political elites deliberately fuelling divisions to enhance their own power. …

Young anthropologists who had been conducting their field work in that country described how a society in which many Serbs and Croats thought they had solved their historical differences was deliberately split apart.
It began with small acts of violence that rapidly escalated. In mixed communities, where families had intermarried and strong friendships had been forged, soldiers from one ethnic group forced men from the other at gunpoint to rape their neighbours’ wives, in places where their children had played together. …

Ordinary citizens also need to be astute, and recognise when they are being played by self-interested political agents, whether domestic or international.
In our small, intimate society, we would be wise to hold fast to mutual goodwill and a sense of decency, recognise genuine grievances and do our utmost to address them, and look for the best in each other.
As I learned in 1993, when countries fly apart, there are no safe places to hide.

• Anne Salmond is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Auckland, and was the 2013 New Zealander of the Year. She became a Dame in 1995 under National, and was awarded the Order of New Zealand in 2020.
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January 13, 2024 9:29am
- nathie
  
  Except Dame Anne Salmond’s Newsroom article is actually slagging off ACT/NZF/National for supposedly being the “political elites deliberately fuelling divisions to enhance their own power”.
  
  Of course no mention of the radical/activist Left and their tribal and “political elites deliberately fuelling divisions to enhance their own power”, which has brought this issue to the fore.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:27am
  - Yvette
    
    I actually read the article thinking “Yes, that is what Labour has done” rather than “This is what ACT/NZF/National are going to do”.
    Dame Anne Salmond’s agenda need not negate her examples or argument.
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:20pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      I would be very surprised if Anne Salmond, “a Distinguished Professor at the University of Auckland, and was the 2013 New Zealander of the Year. She became a Dame in 1995 under National, and was awarded the Order of New Zealand in 2020” publicly acknowledge that she is a member of the opinion forming elite, which she obviously is.
      
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      January 14, 2024 12:27am
I remember when

Youth crime: Young offenders often child victims of family violence, neglect: HB Today.
Haami Hanara, who knifed a man to death when he was 14, did so after a childhood of neglect and abuse.
He has no memory of his biological mother and received little adult supervision during his childhood, often left on his own in a house with no-one looking after him.
He lived a deprived life.
He was exposed to drugs, violence and gang-related criminal activities from an early age.
Oranga Tamariki got involved with him when he was 6 months old but the attempts by state authorities and his extended family to help him were inconsistent and ultimately ineffective.

So does this mean that race based discrimination isn’t everything it is made out to be?
Is it possible that in many cases general wellbeing and proper treatment far outweighs cultural concerns?
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January 13, 2024 9:38am
- NothingLeft
  
  getting these kids into homes with caring parents as young as possible should be priority number one, stability, enthusiasm/focus and means of candidate families should be primary deciders before any consideration of familial relationships.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:29am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Not having kids born to uncaring/violent parents in the first place would be better.
    
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    January 13, 2024 2:04pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Would this have been much less likely to happen if the perp’s parents had actively engaged in getting educated before having children?
  
  Not asking this to “punch down” on the parents but to point to a root cause of this needless ongoing societal mess in NZ. The current coalition needs to gather Maori leaders (who aren’t racist separatists) to form a plan to get everyone (including those who identify as “Maori”) up to a decent standard of education.
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:14pm
Ghost

Why aren’t you there?
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January 13, 2024 9:39am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Many if not all NZ South Africans will agree.
My Grandfather came to NZ from South Africa before WW1. He saw trouble then. Gave away his farm stock and walked off the land – onto a ship.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/south-african-living-in-nz-warns-about-what-is-coming-in-new-zealand-if-co-governance-is-not-stopped/
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January 13, 2024 10:24am
- mawm
  
  In the aftermath of the Boer war certain segments of the white society were disenfranchised. With a surname of Otto I would assume he was of German ancestry and had probably integrated into the Boer farming community, supported the Boers over the Brits and after formation of the Union (1910) found he was one of those despised by them. Maybe he’d also had his fields salted, his stock killed, his home burned down and his wells poisoned. There was nowhere for him to go as the now British government excluded them from the economy. I could be wrong and it was the formation of the ANC in 1912 that made him leave.
  
  Has anybody else been astounded by the hypocrisy of the South African ANC government’s legal case against Israel for genocide when they all sing “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”? – something that is actually occurring!
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:55am
  - Paulus
    
    Genocide by Israel comes to the top at the UN as South Africa put this forward –
    Of all Countries accusing Genocide we now have South Africa of all countries !
    Wow.
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:45pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Of course we in the west are subject to a slant on our news.
    The Arabs needless to say have a different view/slant
    
    https://sana.sy/en/
    Arab International
    
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    January 13, 2024 3:57pm
  - julesnzuk
    
    I think it’s the Economic Freedom Fighters who sing that – deranged clowns in the red berets. Julius Malema’s rabble. (Note: not defending the ANC who are clowns also).
    
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    January 13, 2024 11:51pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Steve, the downticker spat out his kornies at your post.
  
  As we know, co-governance is not about co-governance, it is about stealing assets from those that created/mined/farmed/built them, handing them over to the ‘indigenous’ who will run the, into the ground.
  
  Then years/decades later, the elites and/or their descendants who financed and helped foment the original activism that overthrew democracy, walk in and buy up said assets at fractions of cents in the dollar.
  
  Often by way of shell companies within shell companies, or with loans and financing to govt, purchase of govt bonds, green initiatives, and when the payments default they have a bargain.
  
  It is happening all over the world.
  
  Robertson was able to conjour up 10, 20, 50 billion with an entry in the computer, any time he chose. But we are lead to believe that NZ was so poor they needed Blackrock, an ‘expert’ in sustainability, with huge investments in coal and oil, to invest a measly 2 billion to help us with ‘green initiatives’.
  
  Ardern was not shutting down oil and gas as a green initiative. She was mothballing them for Blackrock.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:12am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Co-Governance is a scam. Half voted in, half appointed. Then the appointed have the power of veto.
    Tyranny by the Elite Tribal Maori.
    
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    January 13, 2024 11:34am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      As even Milky himself points out, there is no such thing as a benevolent dictatorship.
      
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      January 13, 2024 4:16pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        So you’ve never worked for a good boss, had a business mentor, godparents, and you miraculously appeared on this earth all fully grown up?
        
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        January 13, 2024 6:13pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Jack all of those people have no right in NZ to be “dictators”. They are bound by laws that protect both children and employees from “little hitlers”.
        
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        January 13, 2024 6:40pm
Simon

Gonzalo Lira apparently murdered in a Ukraine jail.

NZ should be neutral. The Democratic party is a crime organisation, GAE will bring NZ down and most of GOP are scum as well. Putin is a turd. NZ should be neutral, it’s the only moral position.
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January 13, 2024 10:26am
- Jake Dee
  
  Was just about to post on this, curious to see if any Kiwibloggers knew of or cared about Gonzalo Lira.
  As far as I can see he was not “Murdered” directly but unjustly imprisoned, left to rot and die from an easily curable aliment, pneumonia.
  His only crime was speaking his mind and making powerful enemies in Washington, most prominently Victoria Nuland. He was an American citizen and journalist imprisoned in a country utterly dependent on American aid and as far as I can see the state department did nothing to save him.
  The man was a bit of a dick and his “Coach Redpill” stuff was cringe, he could have just shut up and got out earlier, but he stuck around spoke his mind and it cost him his life.
  It’s a damned shame.
  
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  January 14, 2024 12:37am
Maggie Pie

Hard to believe the number of mealy-mouthed whingers on FB saying how ‘upset’ they are about Cindy’s wedding costing well into 6 figures.
We attended an Indian wedding here in Auckland a couple of years back….. that little extravaganza exceeded a couple of mill. It went on for a week after we left.

SHEESH!!
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January 13, 2024 10:30am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Was it a good gig for you and your fellow caterers?
  
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  January 13, 2024 10:41am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Milkey! Happy new year. Good to c you back.
    Wot U get up to over Xmas?
    
    Actually thort of you a few weeks back when I read where Hutt residents
    had been told by the council not to Poo 🙁
    
    You been yet?
    
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    January 13, 2024 11:06am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      He just talks it.
      
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      January 13, 2024 11:35am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Not funny tho SteveO. Must be DREADFUL living there
        
        Even Chris Bishop came out yesterday and said…. “it’s not fair that Hutt residents should continually have to live surrouned by the smell of poo on a daily basis” Can’t even open your windows apparently. Imagine the effect that must be having on residents mental wellbeing 🙁
        
        All milkey can do is HOLD ON….help is on the way.
        Bish was saying an upgrade to the Seaview Treatment Plant is expected within the next few years.
        
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        January 13, 2024 11:52am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Its fixed now Maggie so you can come down and slum in the Hutt anytime now… you might even bump into Mike on the Queens Drive with a cup out … we have a real problem with Manic Street Preachers (lefties) and begging on the main drag in Hutt City…
      
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      January 13, 2024 12:55pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Vote for shit. Get rewarded with the constant stench of poo. Poetic justice.
      
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      January 13, 2024 4:18pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Lol Mags, when I was in India pre Xmas, went an had a look around the Basilica of Born Jesus in Old Goa. A wedding was being set up in the grounds of the Basilica. For a lazy 2,500 guests! Groom to come in to ceremony on an elephant. In Kochi, the hotel we stayed at had a wedding. Went on for 4 days with around 500 attending. The hotel had 4 different set ups on their grounds, 1 per day. Insane.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:05am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Yes, it’s amazing the lavishness on display. Money no object.
    We were the only white faces there. My partner sources luxury cars for the groom and his family.
    Not your average Uber-drivers let me tell you 😎
    
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    January 13, 2024 12:05pm
    - Jethrod
      
      Who are the goto flash drivers in Auckland now?
      
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      January 13, 2024 4:45pm
- MCōs
  
  We went to a number of flash weddings in Bangkok
  I figured I was invited on account of being a whitey and therefore fabulously rich and good for a multi million baht contribution
  We also went to an upcountry wedding where I was roped in to knot the bridegroom’s tie. Nobody else knew what to do
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:57am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Yet I always thort thats where they were invented.
    
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    January 13, 2024 12:10pm
- Ghost
  
  Is this Clarke being brought to the wedding….
  
  https://youtube.com/shorts/Y6AT6GqFlE8?si=fCC9MGZlwe3Hw65D
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:16pm
- jonno1
  
  Attended Princess Salote’s wedding in Tonga in 2003. That extended over five days with lots of food and festivity.
  
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  January 13, 2024 1:04pm
- Paulus
  
  Ardern was not Indian was she ?
  
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  January 13, 2024 1:47pm
mikenmildagain

Fascism re-emerging in Italy?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-fascist-salute-rome-rally-acca-larentia-killings-giorgia-meloni-rcna132992
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January 13, 2024 10:36am
- Simon
  
  Nbc Mike…..
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:16am
- Che Guava
  
  The article says it’s “concerning” and the usual suspects come out to condemn it, but as far as I can see, the article doesn’t explain why it’s concerning.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:23am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Coz Fascism was not an unqualified success first time around?
    
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    January 13, 2024 11:41am
    - Che Guava
      
      The Allies won the war due to weight of numbers and thus material advantage, not because democracy is an inherently better system than fascism.
      
      Because so many people don’t know much about anything, they accept blatant falsehoods as fact. This is just such low-level thinking that it’s really of no value.
      
      I’m unsure how losing a war is an indictment of the inherent value of a given political system. For example, the authoritarian Spartans soundly defeated the democratic Athenians, so how do you explain this?
      
      It is a fact that both Italy and Germany (particularly) were spectacularly economically resurgent during the 1930s, while the Allied nations were still mired in the Depression. And from what starting-point did Germany achieve success? The democratic Weimar Republic, which was a disaster economically and socially.
      
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      January 13, 2024 11:52am
      - MCōs
        
        There was a downside too
        
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        January 13, 2024 12:45pm
      - Che Guava
        
        There’s a downside to any political system, because humans aren’t perfect. Are you seriously suggesting there is no down side to ours?
        
        We can tell there is a downside by the number of people who are dissatisfied with it as it fails them on so many levels and who are, as in this case, turning to and resurrecting alternatives from the past.
        
        People are clearly rejecting “liberal democracy” across the world. They are disillusioned. The cracks are showing and cannot be painted over any longer. All political systems have a finite shelf life, and ours is no different.
        
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        January 13, 2024 12:57pm
      - Bernard Black
        
        “It is a fact that both Italy and Germany (particularly) were spectacularly economically resurgent during the 1930s, while the Allied nations were still mired in the Depression.”
        So how exactly was this miracle achieved then Che?
        Simple, Hitler and the Nazis borrowed massive amounts of money, thats how they financed the new roads and infrastructure and got millions back to work, the German people were oblivious to what was happening, but welcomed the economic upturn with open arms.
        Unfortunately they had absolutely no intention of paying it back, the plan was always war and to loot the riches of conquered Europe.
        Being a good friend, Mussolini followed Hitlers lead.
        Great plan huh, really worked out well for them🙄
        
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        January 13, 2024 4:30pm
      - Che Guava
        
        “Simple, Hitler and the Nazis borrowed massive amounts of money, thats how they financed the new roads and infrastructure and got millions back to work, the German people were oblivious to what was happening, but welcomed the economic upturn with open arms.”
        
        That’s just false.
        
        https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/19/hitler-vs-bernanke/
        
        “Let’s look at the facts: When Hitler came to power in 1933, the German economy was in a shambles. Millions of people were out of work, a number of large banks had collapsed, the market for German exports had dried up overnight, and a US-led lending freeze (withdrawal of credits under the Young Plan) had thrust German industry and finance into a severe slump. By 1932, German industrial production was nearly half of what it had been a year earlier. Unemployment soared from 1.5 million in 1929 to more than 6 million in 1933.”
        
        “The Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, at a time when its economy was in total collapse, with ruinous war-reparation obligations and zero prospects for foreign investment or credit. Yet through an independent monetary policy of sovereign credit and a full-employment public-works program, the Third Reich was able to turn a bankrupt Germany, stripped of overseas colonies it could exploit, into the strongest economy in Europe within four years, even before armament spending began.”
        
        “Besides this, taking into account the lessons learned during 1914-18, Hitler aimed at creating an economy that would be independent from foreign capital and supply, and be well protected from another blockade and economic war. For Germans, all of the above was proof that Hitler was the one who had not only brought Germany out of economic depression but would take it directly to prosperity with new pride. German popular trust in the Fuehrer rose dramatically.”
        
        https://nationalvanguard.org/2015/08/how-hitler-defied-the-bankers/
        
        “Hitler began a national credit program by devising a plan of public works that included flood control, repair of public buildings and private residences, and construction of new roads, bridges, canals, and port facilities. All these were paid for with money that no longer came from the private international bankers.”
        
        “The projected cost of these various programs was fixed at one billion units of the national currency. To pay for this, the German government (not the international bankers) issued bills of exchange, called Labor Treasury Certificates. In this way the National Socialists put millions of people to work, and paid them with Treasury Certificates.
        
        Under the National Socialists, Germany’s money wasn’t backed by gold (which was owned by the international bankers). It was essentially a receipt for labor and materials delivered to the government. Hitler said, “For every mark issued, we required the equivalent of a mark’s worth of work done, or goods produced.” The government paid workers in Certificates. Workers spent those Certificates on other goods and services, thus creating more jobs for more people. In this way the German people climbed out of the crushing debt imposed on them by the international bankers.“
        
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        January 13, 2024 5:44pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        I disagree. Sucess in war, over the long term is an excellent mark for the effectiveness of a political system. There is a reason why The United Staes, and The British Empire became as large and as powerful as they did. They both outplayed competitors for the same territory The French, Spanish, Dutch etc.
        And if you want to consider Sparta’s victories you should also consider their slide into defeat and obscurity. They were close minded and couldn’t adapt, stuck in one way of life and one patch of territory. The world passed them by.
        
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        January 14, 2024 12:58am
    - Jack5
      
      Still seem to be plenty of Italians on the anti-Fascist, or Communist, side:
      
      https://youtu.be/8y8zEzk9-A8?si=yB7W4NmPuyvwR3ku
      
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      January 13, 2024 12:06pm
    - Che Guava
      
      Aren’t these so-called fascists expressing their right to express their conscience and their political views, surely the sign of a healthy democracy? If democracy is what it is claimed to be, then fascists or any other group should be able to run for election unimpeded and win if they are sufficiently popular – that is the democracy we all cherish, is it not?
      
      In truth, “democracy” is not really about that at all, but is really just a label given to, and a justification for, a particular system that holds sway and that has a natural interest in preventing any competition to itself. Certain language is used to signify a challenge to the system and to denounce and undermine it, then we are given a “choice” between only those acceptable options that will not threaten and will sustain the system.
      
      To maintain the status quo means you need censorship of competing or threatening (perhaps “concerning”?) ideas, and when you have such censorship, you aren’t in a democracy in its truest sense. So what we call “democracy” fails on its own terms.
      
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      January 13, 2024 12:42pm
      - ISeeRed
        
        More and more I think “democracy” should be shortened to “demo”. What we have in the West doesn’t seem the genuine article anymore.
        
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        January 13, 2024 2:40pm
- BananaLlama
  
  I suppose it would be if we only read articles published in English
  
  The Acca Larentia Massacre is commemorated every year by right-wing militants, and the celebrations do not fail to arouse political controversy. The first commemoration took place in Centocelle the year after the ambush, on January 10, 1979
  
  Suddenly journalists standing bolt upright in 2024 demanding that Giorgia Meloni does something.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:31am
- cmm
  
  Why not? The Nazis live on in the form of Volkswagen (aka Hitler Motor works).
  
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  January 13, 2024 1:06pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Milky can you succinctly summarise the deeds of alleged “fascism” in Italy there?
  
  Thought not. All bluster and BS as usual.
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:21pm
I remember when

Who are the young offenders?
Fewer than 100 a year under the age of 17 years end up in an adult court each year.
In the year ended June 2023, of 1545 aged 10-17 who appeared in the Youth Court, 72 were convicted and sentenced in adult court.
A further 27% had their charges dismissed, discharged or withdrawn.
Eighty two percent of young offenders were male, nearly two-thirds Maori and 21% European.
In a Ministry of Justice report in 2019 – 97% – of the 10-13-year-olds who’s offending was serious enough to warrant formal proceedings, had been the subject of prior child welfare notifications to Oranga Tamariki.
It was the same for 89% of adolescents requiring a formal outcome.

This is probably only the tip of the iceberg!
So why is it that every time a new approach is suggested, that those involved, the left and many Maori authorities rise up in arms?
Surely, solving the problem is more important than who controls the outcomes.
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January 13, 2024 11:00am
goNZ1

Logging onto nz ferald this morning expecting to see the key headlines and major events in the globe overnight,and what do we get?
The ex ex PM wedding day, the msm absolutely gushing over her,O wonderful,you can feel the worship radiating off the screen!
O excuse me,I need to rush off to the bathroom..
22 1
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January 13, 2024 11:11am
- All_on_Red
  
  Will Golriz turn up in her new Dress?
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Is that the dress she runs away in?
    
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    January 13, 2024 2:54pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Don’t know whether I’m surprised or not to hear that Luxo and Winnie are there.
  
  They are all besties out of hours presumably?
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:57am
  - ecco
    
    Luxon was at the asb tennis presenting the men’s winner trophy today.
    
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    January 13, 2024 5:43pm
mikenmildagain

Well, that’s a surprise:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/12/hydroxychloroquine-covid-increase-chance-death-trump
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January 13, 2024 11:26am
- NothingLeft
  
  Studies on what worked best, Hydroxychloroquine was about 40th.
  https://c19early.org/
  
  But a whole lot of very cheap safe and effective treatments were studiously ignored and bad mouthed by the gas-lighting Big Pharma corrupted political-medical establishment. They’ve shown they are not to be trusted when there are pharma profits and abusive political powers at stake.
  
  Cheapest and most beneficial were: lose weight and get exercise. As well as some nasal sprays when start to feel sick and of course Vit D and ivermectin prophylaxis, but no profits or control opportunities in any of those.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:36am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Covid-19 is a three-phase disease: viral replication, then hyper inflammatory illness and then oxidative stress.
    
    HCQ alters signalling pathways and transcriptional activity which are key parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus replication. This means HCQ is only beneficial in the early stages of the disease so by the time someone is symptomatic (and sufficiently ill) to seek medical care the viral replication phase is almost over … meaning HCQ would be of little use.
    
    Used early it is effective, ie positive risk benefit ratio. Use late it can’t be effective so likely negative risk benefit ratio. If pharma wanted to discredit HCQ then simply funding well structured research targeting the wrong disease phase would do it.
    
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    January 13, 2024 2:31pm
- JackRabbit
  
  The Guardian is not known as a purveyor of truth.
  
  The chances of the main stream media reporting the truth are about the same as you winning more than $50 in lotto buying one ticket a week. It’s nice when it happens, but relying on it is a sign of madness.
  
  And only amateurs use someone else’s opinion for the source of their “research”.
  
  The actual truth about increase or decrease in Covid deaths after taking hydroxychloroquine is buried deep.
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:49am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Indeed. Billionaire Funds the Guardian to Tune of $116 Per Reader of Print Edition. It is a failing propaganda rag that would have made Prava’s editors blush.
    
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    January 13, 2024 2:43pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      The only reason the mash media has not gone broke, is because they depend on the laziness of the public to not bother doing their own research or checking the raw data.
      
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      January 13, 2024 6:32pm
Chuck Bird

Live updates: Suppliers, protesters arrive at Hawke’s Bay vineyard for Jacinda Ardern’s wedding

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/live-updates-suppliers-arrive-at-hawkes-bay-vineyard-for-jacinda-arderns-wedding/MPK6QFWXYVEYLOWYSOX24J2BUU/
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January 13, 2024 11:37am
- Che Guava
  
  Who cares?
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:09pm
- kowtow
  
  Huge utes bringing in all that gear and a portable generator !
  
  “Our” generation’s fossil fuel moment .
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:22pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Small generator – and it is not “on the back of a trailer’ it is a trailerised unit.
    That would be a generator that runs floodlights – if that! Ask a guy who knows.
    
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    January 13, 2024 3:29pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    But but but Jacinda declared we’re in a “climate emergency”. Why not use all that trougher money to go full “green” powered wedding?
    
    Clothes made of organic cotton on a no-fossil fuel farm and hand made on a hand powered weaving loom?
    
    Thought not.
    
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    January 13, 2024 4:24pm
I remember when

Chief-Dolphins could be among coldest NFL games ever: NY Times.
“It’s gonna be brutal,” one meteorologist said of the frigid forecast.
The National Weather Service listed a low around -8.
Wind chill could mean it feels like between -20 and -30 degrees.
6 1
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January 13, 2024 11:38am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Cowboys v Packers 1967 NFL championship: 12.5 min
  
  Temp was -15F = -26C – with wind. The band had bloodied faces because the instruments had stuck to them.
  
  But check the contrasting comments between the Cowboys and Packers players. Admittedly it was the Packers home stadium and they were used to that shit.
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:25pm
Biscuit

I waited and waited…

But no belated invite, and/or accompanying helicopter seat, to The Nuptials.

Still, me being dressed in my third best suit isn’t a complete waste. In that, and with matching socks, I must be a cinch to run a place in the Fashions In The Field at Trentham, right?

Watch out for me on Trackside!
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January 13, 2024 12:17pm
Jack5

In the pre-nuptial agreement: Clarke Gayford to manage the couple’s finances!

Whew!😁
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January 13, 2024 12:22pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Believe nothing that you read or hear about her or him.
  
  Besides which she will have her own finances, and portfolio finances. Surely you are not expecting Nefertiti to take over and rule the world with their personal funds?
  
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  January 13, 2024 6:21pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Reality bites!

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2024/01/hertz-selling-20-000-electric-vehicles-to-buy-petrol-cars.html
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January 13, 2024 12:24pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  One of the significant financial benefits of an EV is the lower cost of electricity vs petrol/gasoline.
  
  While the customers would enjoy those lower driving costs, Hertz would not have benefitted from that.
  
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  January 13, 2024 1:33pm
  - Dougal10
    
    When you are making the electricity out of diesel or jet A1 how does that work. Taxes must be distorting the prices
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:53pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    One of the significant financial benefits of an EV is the lower cost of electricity vs petrol/gasoline.
    
    Paid for by those motorists who use said petrol/gasoline.
    
    I suspect that the EVs were not all that popular. If they were consistently preferred over petrol/gasoline, they would just charge (excuse the pun) extra for an EV.
    
    A rental car is either:
    For someone on a business trip who doesn’t want to waste precious time reading a book while the EV charges.
    
    Or:
    People on holiday that slaved all year to be able to afford the holiday, and don’t want to waste half their holiday time queuing for a fast charger, or pissing around for hours on a slow charger when they really want to be out on the road enjoying the country, being miserable stuck watching the EV charging.
    
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    January 13, 2024 6:28pm
MCōs

I see the UK & the US are overtly attacking the Houthi controlled part of Yemen
This isn’t going to end well except for the Viktor Bouts of this world
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January 13, 2024 12:32pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  You think the USA and company should have just continued to shoot down the missiles and drones being fired from Yemen? Playing defence never works for long in war, though I’m not surprised it took this long before going after the launch sites and associated stuff.
  
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  January 13, 2024 12:44pm
  - cmm
    
    I don’t think that is what MCos is saying. Clearly the Houthi activity could not be allowed to continue.
    
    But I do tend to agree with him that this is an escalation opening up a new conflict between new belligerents and could potentially draw in others.
    
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    January 13, 2024 1:01pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Fair enough but I don’t think it’s an escalation that could have been avoided forever. I’m not going repeat what I wrote here, The New Geo-politics Sparked From the Middle East, but I think it’s clear that an Iran-Russia-China alliance (with the latter well in the background) is using this situation and others to grind down the US and Western powers in general.
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:26pm
      - Ghost
        
        China has been playing the long game. You are right, they are in the background to all these conflicts, building up their forces while the USA and NATO are depleting their supplies.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:40pm
      - cmm
        
        While they might help speed things up a bit, USA is doing a good job of grinding itself down.
        
        Don’t stop the enemy while they are destroying themselves springs to mind.
        
        USA are in an unrecoverable federal debt spiral, now owing around $US100k per person (including every child and illegal “immigrant”). They are the most entitled people on earth and there is absolutely no way they will want to tighten their belts. This can only end one way, but it could take decades.
        
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        January 13, 2024 1:52pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        USA is doing a good job of grinding itself down.
        Again I agree, as I said here today, they see the USA as being weakened by internal dissension, polarisation and rot in both political and cultural dimensions, as well as economic and financial problems, plus badly depleted military logistics systems. (links in the original post)
        
        It’s rather depressing when you consider that the previous highest US GDP-Debt ratio was at the end of a war, not with one(s) on the horizon – and that before we get into the much reduced US number of boring things like blast furnaces.
        
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        January 13, 2024 2:00pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The dems and assorted far left are doing a good job of grinding the USA down.
        
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        January 13, 2024 6:49pm
    - MCōs
      
      The current problem is Israel v Hamas, that is being rapidly expanded to include the whole of Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, plus Iran and now Yemen, the US, the UK, Russia, Syria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and whoever else is in the area
      My wife, who looks at a lot of news and commentary from Thailand, is also worried about Myanmar and China
      In the meantime we have other more pressing issues to deal with in NZ
      
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      January 13, 2024 1:36pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Well worth the read, The “Axis of Resistance” Strategy in the Israel-Hamas War
        
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        January 13, 2024 2:04pm
Ghost

House committee receives classified UAP briefing
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January 13, 2024 2:00pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  For a more informed press release, ask Joe Biden.
  And can someone please give those UFP photographers a course on camera settings? Like lose the manual focus?
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:19pm
Maggie Pie

Anyone else been affected like this?

Picked up our ‘Clik & Collect’ from NW earlier. Two matters of concern 🙁

Jazz apples (o/s)… subbed with Granny Smith

Vogels Original Toast (o/s)… subbed with Fruit & Spice Thick

Wot has hapened to this country?
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January 13, 2024 2:41pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Uneducated pickers can’t read and don’t give a shit?
  
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  January 13, 2024 3:37pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Forgo Church tomorrow morning and head to your local supermarket yourself for some early shopping.
  
  It’s often a soul-affirming experience…and even if it isn’t and you have to stand in a queue with the great unwashed, consider it as your week’s penance.
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:11pm
- Ghost
  
  Untick allowing substitutes
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:16pm
- Close Hen Counters
  
  I did an online order for my blokes back in aucks while I still slum it for another week in pauadise. Zero specials and stuff really pricey – countdown must know the punters are back at work and hitting them in the pocket. I once had Pinot Gris substituted for a Merlot ffs
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:23pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, up until recently I was informed PnS Palmy was selling both Vogels original bread or spicy for $2.99. That is a steal. As for apples well my trusty old Cox’s Orange went tits up this year after goodness knows how many years since it was planted by previous owner. In its heyday the apples were as big as a goat’s balls and juicy; the apples that is.
  
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  January 13, 2024 5:37pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Can you opt for “no substitution” in your online shopping profile/settings? Even though you’d think substitution should be “opt in” only (IE giving people stuff they haven’t asked for is a dumb idea).
  
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  January 13, 2024 6:52pm
Albie

Sorry MP, no sympathy. I would never be affected by that because I’m a foodie and would never trust a worker drone to pick fresh produce or meat. Pre packed dry goods fill your boots. Having said that, I always shop daily and even dry goods are under scrutiny!
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January 13, 2024 3:33pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Aaaahhh but if you click and collect you get some better goods from out the back which don’t even get to the display shelves.
  I have bridges for sale but nobody responds to my TradeMe ads.
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:23pm
Warren

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2023/11/limiting-migration-well-out-of-my-decision-making-parameter-reserve-bank-governor-adrian-orr.html
Because National has endorsed this immigration policy is this his want to saying not his fault that inflation is not likely to come down anytime soon and that is Nationals fault because of there policy.
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January 13, 2024 3:38pm
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION

What’s going on with the ‘maorification’ of the ASB Classic?
Anybody would think they invented it.
I’ve enjoyed the game for the best part of 30 years now and can honestly say I’ve never ever come across a Maori player.

SHEESH!!

(Even heard my partner say something eerily similar about the T20 last nite)
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January 13, 2024 4:33pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  https://amta.co.nz/origins/
  
  A History of Maori Tennis
  
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  January 13, 2024 4:43pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    WOW! Thanks for posting Magz. I had no idea about that.
    Took gymnastics at school so that’s probably why.
    
    Tell you one thing from reading of the background …..that horrible Rawiri clown could do to take a leaf out of Sir Apirana Ngata’s book.
    
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    January 13, 2024 5:21pm
    - David Garrett
      
      ..and for those who still believe the Maori were oppressed and suppressed by colonization, note that that article mentions two (of many) notable Maori who were knighted: Sir Maui Pomare, and Sir Apirana Ngata. Along with Pomare, Sir Peter Buck – like Pomare also a doctor and politician – was knighted for services to the Maori people, particularly in public health.
      
      In the back rarely trodden corridors of parliament, there are numerous pictures of members of the Legislative Assembly, New Zealand’s Upper House, which was abolished in 1950.
      
      There are numerous Maori members in those pictures; in some years there were more Maori than pakeha. Some oppression.
      
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      January 13, 2024 7:39pm
- ecco
  
  Asb still a very woke organisation. Will take them a while to get out of that mode. But agree it was puke inducing all the haka stuff and wooden trophies.
  
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  January 13, 2024 5:45pm
  - Ghost
    
    You can probably thank the event organizers for that, tennis Auckland and tennis new Zealand.
    
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    January 13, 2024 5:51pm
- MCōs
  
  I expect Dame Ruia Morrison and Shane Bond, Trent Boult, Adam Parore, Heath Davis, Maia Lewis, Rebecca Rolls, Lea Tahuhu and Suzie Bates. are not well known in your neck of the woods
  
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  January 13, 2024 5:48pm
  - greybeard
    
    2% maori blood does not make you a maori.
    And those people who DO identify as being maori seem to prefer team sports as opposed to individual ones: where are all the maori cyclists, swimmers, car drivers, athletes, skiiers, etc ?
    It is noticeable that many Pacific Island sportspeople are involved in individual sports: athletics, boxing, etc.
    
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    January 13, 2024 5:56pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  A minority of self righteous wowsers/posers have decided their ideology is important enough to inflict on the majority without any majority buy-in.
  
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  January 13, 2024 7:18pm
MCōs

Aussies getting worked up about Oz Day and it’s still a fortnight away
https://au.news.yahoo.com/angry-woolworths-customers-confront-staff-over-australia-day-move-064709748.html
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January 13, 2024 5:00pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Normal Aussies are sick of fascist lefties trying to blackmail the majority with their infantile tantrums.
  
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  January 13, 2024 5:31pm
  - MCōs
    
    I wasn’t aware of that
    
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    January 13, 2024 5:51pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/301037890/auckland-council-removing-thousands-of-rubbish-bins-from-public-spaces
This short-sighted stupidity pretty much sums up the idiocy of council managers and employees all over New Zealand.
What on earth do they think will happen next ? Yes, of course, people will simply chuck their rubbish on the ground, over fences, in the gutter, wherever, and council employees will then be required to clean it up.
At a much higher expense than if the bins had been there !
Last year I asked Kapiti Coast District Council to increase the number of bins at the end of my street from one to two, because I had noticed that it overflowed quite regularly. It is at a beach access point, with lots of daily foot traffic, two legs and four ( lots of doggy-doo bags ). But no, “they had no plans to locate another bin there , but thanks for my communication”.
KCDC would rather install a rainbow piece of rubbish than pick up the real stuff. Idiots.
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January 13, 2024 5:54pm
Maggie Pie

Times have changed for the best I guess.
I was restricted from wearing white at my wedding by the Church.
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January 13, 2024 6:09pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Definitely not my fav. PM, but she does look gorgeous in that gown.
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/01/the-big-day-everything-we-know-about-dame-jacinda-ardern-s-wedding/_jcr_content/par/image.dynimg.full.q75.jpg/v1705122123443/jacinda-ardern-clarke-gayford-wedding-CREDIT-SUPPLIED-130124.jpg
  
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  January 13, 2024 6:16pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP… no denying, they do make a FAB couple 😀
    
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    January 13, 2024 6:42pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Maggy: Really? to me it looked like it accentuated her big arse…the “Australasian arse” we used to call it, back in the day. One of of my oilfield mates opined that the cause was “too much netball and dairy products”…mind you he was a derrickman and not a doctor, so that opinion is probably not worth too much!
    
    On the positive side, it drew attention away from those enormous teeth…couldn’t help noticing that when the fisherman smiles you can barely see his teeth, while she looks like a horse who’s just won the Melbourne Cup…
    
    Oh, you bitch Garrett! And of course I have now revealed that I clicked on the damn story…shame on me.
    
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    January 13, 2024 7:00pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      ? to me it looked like it accentuated her big arse
      
      Hell, if you reckon that’s a big arse, I don’t think you’ve been out and about much these days.
      
      Trust me… She looks great… much improved from the scrawny appearance she had a couple of years ago.
      
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      January 13, 2024 7:12pm
    - julesnzuk
      
      Bit of a silly comment, David – you sound like an obnoxious, insecure schoolboy. Perhaps consider the idea that whoever has told you that you are funny may not be your friend.
      
      Btw, I despise Jacinda Ardern and everything she stands for. Unlike others I saw through her drippy drivel from the start. But even I can acknowledge she looks nice there. Stunning gown.
      
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      January 14, 2024 12:06am
- artemisia
  
  Always understood white was traditional for first marriages. End of.
  
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  January 13, 2024 6:47pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Not if you’re already well up the duff….
    that was according to my grandmother anyway.
    
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    January 13, 2024 6:58pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I’m sure you would have looked ravishing
      
      https://vogueballroom.com.au/perfect-wedding-dress-for-pregnant-brides-how-to-find-the-best/
      
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      January 13, 2024 7:06pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Has she been married before? Never heard that.
    
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    January 13, 2024 7:03pm
greybeard

Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford were finally married today at a bloody expensive capitalist venue in Hawkes Bay.

The blushing bride wore a gown designed by Juliette Hogan, Mr. Gayford wore a custom-designed outfit by Zambesi, the Greens male guests wore clothes available to everyone from The Warehouse and the female (?) Greens guests were all resplendent in unique outfits supplied unintentionally by Scotties of Ponsonby.

Everyone had a great time. Apparently.
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January 13, 2024 7:10pm
- David Garrett
  
  greybeard: You are such a naughty boy…God, imagine the stilted conversation at the table where one of the “Greens guests” were seated! I suppose a few flutes of vintage Bolly would have loosened up the conversation…
  
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  January 13, 2024 7:27pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Did Golly G attend by CCTV like she does mostly these days?
  
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  January 13, 2024 11:17pm
lifesgood

How bloody ridiculous. Dressed like a blushing bride in white complete with veil. Absolute nonsense, they have a 5 year old daughter for goodness sake! They should have gone quietly to a registry office but I guess she misses being the centre of attention. Personally I suspect it won’t last but we’ll see.
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January 13, 2024 7:55pm
- Ghost
  
  Her wedding she can dress how she likes. So they have a child, big deal.
  
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  January 13, 2024 7:58pm
Rich Prick

I’ve avoided all msm news, I imagine the show is over and I won’t need a bucket. Just have to avert my eyes from the slags mags stand at the supermarket for the next six weeks while I nip in for the Asahi six pack.
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January 13, 2024 11:04pm

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