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February 17, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 17 February 2024

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General Debate

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Taipan Pete

‘Hala Aotearoa’ have started a petition to have Ziggy Marley removed from WOMAD because about 5 years ago he attended an IDF fundraiser, and last year signed an open letter supporting Israel shortly after the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Gasp, what a monster.

The petitioners absolutely have a right to their free speech, but boy does it piss me off that they try to cram their ideology down everyone else’s throats by canceling a pretty benign artist.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/350182334/petition-remove-womad-nz-headline-act-ziggy-marley
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February 17, 2024 8:10am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  who or what are Hala Aotearoa? Sounds like the usual astroturf campaign of a couple of deadbeat losers and a bit of Soros cash. Just like the so-called gun control “lobby group” that the media have on speed dial.
  
  rent a failed academic….
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:19am
- kowtow
  
  Oh the sad irony.
  
  A music festival cancelling someone , in favour of Hamas .
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:33am
  - Matt Long
    
    Maybe they could invite Hamas or their local affiliates to decolonise Woman.
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:55am
    - Matt Long
      
      Womad, autocorrect.
      
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      February 17, 2024 12:25pm
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        Oh I don’t know, freudian I thought. We have been shown exactly how Hamas plan to decolonise women!
        
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        February 17, 2024 12:29pm
      - blue collar
        
        I got booted out for hving a ciggy …. Family orientated smoke free outdoor fuckfest now …..
        
        Take more than Hamas to fix womad
        
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        February 17, 2024 3:34pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @ Blue collar: slightly off topic but a propos of your ejection…. a lifetime ago I attended a concert at the Auckland Town Hall, of all places, to see George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
        
        As soon as George and the Ds came out and ripped into their opening number, a guy a few seats along from me immediately lit up a joint. In those days, the Town Hall ushers were dressed in uniform and quite officious, shining their torch on any miscreants.
        
        One immediately beetled over, shone her torch on the offender and hissed “Put that cigarette out!” Between puffs, he turned to her and said “It’s OK, it’s not a cigarette!” and turned back to the show. She was so discombobulated she slunk off, with her bottom jaw only inches from the carpet.
        
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        February 17, 2024 10:36pm
- Close Hen Counters
  
  I was at son’s city apartment on Monday night and saw sky city in red and green colours ?supporting Palestine … certainly a bit early or late for Xmas
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:28am
  - Ruawai
    
    I thought the Auckland Museum got in trouble for the exact opposite, surely both can have their lights or none.
    
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    February 17, 2024 1:07pm
  - Local Miller
    
    I thought the red & green were for Valentine’s Day and meant to look like a red rose on a green stem.
    
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    February 17, 2024 2:04pm
- Break First!
  
  Its the current way of the world!!!!!
  Dont like something ban it or protest against it.
  
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  February 17, 2024 1:30pm
- Jake Dee
  
  So, this is a petty mean-spirited display AGAINST cancelling artists by trying to CANCELL AN ARTIST ?
  That’s like pissing in the office coffee pot as a bold act of civil disobedience to show everyone how easy it is to piss in the office coffee pot.
  I won’t support it.
  
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  February 17, 2024 6:11pm
CJames

With the Christchurch fire in the news, has people noted that the go to blame is “climate change/ global boiling/ newest buzz phrase? Only when you get to about paragraph 30 do you find out they are in pines or gorse and usually started by arsonists. Then look at the photos afterwards – the fire hasn’t been in grazed paddocks. And there is the problem and its solution.
They stopped grazing on the Port Hills. DoC stopped grazing on land around Lake Ohau. Same with other places that have burnt. Then either gorse took over or they had pines, either plantation or wildling. And guess what, when summer comes around, they are easy to burn. On Banks Peninsula, even native forests burn. And after fires, what do they do? Replant them in pines. I suppose it is better than planting gums, but only just.
So the solution is either go back to stocking animals, or just watch the hills burn every couple of years. Of course grazing means there needs to be restablished good fences, limiting the freedom to roam, and unleashed dogs should be shot on sight. An evil rural alternative is just graze bulls there with triple wire electric fences. But that solution is too hard for City Councillors to make, especially those of the red/green tinge. So get used to lots more fires.
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February 17, 2024 8:12am
- Grunter
  
  Well said CJames!
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:14am
- wsk12345
  
  Where did you get the idea that they (who?) stopped grazing on the Port Hills. I spend a lot of time up there and can assure you that there is plenty of sheep grazing, though possibly a bit less than 10 years ago.
  (I have dogs so am always noting where the sheep are at present.)
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:29am
  - CJames
    
    How intensely are they grazing – often a function of how big the paddocks are? There is a lot of long grass even in grazed paddocks, indicating stocking rates are very low.
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:26am
    - wsk12345
      
      Hard to say. Usually 3 out of 4 of the areas I mostly go have sheep but I don’t count them. Council (or leaseholders) have been building extra fencing up there the last couple of years, maybe to manage grazing better, who knows, can’t think of any other reason.
      
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      February 17, 2024 9:40am
    - Ghost
      
      Perhaps CJames you can tell us the last time you went up the port hills and what you observed.
      
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      February 17, 2024 9:57am
      - CJames
        
        It wa a while ago, but three of my kids live in South ChCh and they are up in those hills most weekends or after work. They report stuff back and send photos.
        
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        February 17, 2024 11:45am
      - CJames
        
        And last time I was down there, I cycled from top of Victoria Park to Castle Rock and back. The paddocks were very poorly grazed. Fences in bad condition. There was a lot of clumping, weeds out of control.
        Go on Google Earth (most recent March 23) where you can almost see down to individual sheep. Then compare the paddocks to early years.
        
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        February 17, 2024 12:21pm
      - Ghost
        
        It’s been a few months since I was there. So was wondering what you’ve seen there. My brother is in hills most weekends as well, but been a few months since I went there, guess it will be a lot longer now until I go back
        
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        February 17, 2024 12:21pm
  - Matt Long
    
    There’s some grazing in the Port Hills, just to be clear the sociopath Mayor of Christchurch admits there’s less fire risk on grazed areas; “Where it’s been grazed, it doesn’t burn the same as where it’s long grass,” he said.
    But despite this they will continue to destroy properties, endanger the lives of residents and emergency services because of their anti- human ideology; “we do want to get the Port Hills back to the way they were and unfortunately [part of that is] long grass,” he said.”
    It’s just fortunate that the smoke pollution from these largely preventable fires doesn’t contain the warming kind of CO²…
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/509339/port-hills-fires-mayors-question-use-of-land-for-grazing-and-forestry
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:10am
    - Matt Long
      
      Firefighters keep up the slog while the politicians fiddle.
      https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/02/16/port-hills-blaze-firefighters-push-on-despite-draining-work/
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:12am
    - Matt Long
      
      Oh, here’s another group of sociopathic greens who don’t give a stuff for the social cost of their policies.
      https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/news/southland-feds-slam-toxic-behaviour-from-fish-game/
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:14am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Councils infested with Green thinking?
  Dead trees must be left to decompose naturally and scrub (gorse etc) just left.
  They are all very quick to tell you about fire hazards in your home, but out on the wasteland, nothing.
  There are even rules about dead native trees not being milled or used as firewood.
  Up on the central plateau a nice chunk of black maire will burn in the lent all night.
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:57am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Grief!
    Who can afford to burn black maire, these days?
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:19am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Used to find the odd bit in Turangi when getting firewood for my parents. Permit to go into Kaimanawa bush access 10 to get manuka and find a bit left after clear felling.
      Man is id hard, and hard to split. Makes good polished bowls though.
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:10am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        You want to be in the bush at night when various bugs are grinding away on the Black Maire. Shit, what a noise.
        
        I’ve actually chainsawed both Black Maire and Jara (the latter from a replace 1950’s powerpole) and I blunted the saw both times with just one cut. Hardwood doesn’t even begin to describe it.
        
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        February 17, 2024 1:37pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Tom,
        A large chunk burn like a big coal ember, glowing red hot.
        I broke an axe head trying to split it. Hit the head with another axe and the head split.
        These were real blokes axes not toys.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:54pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Haha. Sounds about right.
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:25pm
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  The phrase “check for unintended consequences” should be applied to every “let’s change how we do this” plan. In Australia, the land of bushfires, similar unintended consequences arose from Green ideals but they have seen the error of their ways, finally.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:19am
  - Matt Long
    
    Maybe. It’ll happen again, the Australian greens will stop fuel removal and there’ll be fatal fires in Australia again within a decade, two at most.
    The greens are like the lunatic firebug in the movie Backdraft.
    https://youtu.be/JGB3ecyPT1w?si=arBlRJEWzjzjqbuc
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:23am
- MCōs
  
  Background article on the situation from the Press
  Third major fire since 1988
  https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350182127/port-hills-fire-started-pine-trees-burned-seven-years-earlier
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:22am
  - G152
    
    So who is the arsonist????
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:07am
  - Jack5
    
    In the Christchurch Press article linked to by Cossie, appears one Nathanael Melia, whose name crops up in an article at the site of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
    
    Melia and a colleague were commissioned to calculate what area of forest would be required “to achieve roughly the same change in temperature as reducing a herd of livestock by one animal.”
    
    The article equates, in global warming-ese, the equivalence of NZ planting an additional 770,000 hectares in trees against reducing livestock herds by 10 per cent.
    
    The global warming mob are running the debate on wildfire danger around expanding cities.
    
    https://pce.parliament.nz/publications/how-much-forestry-would-be-needed-to-offset-warming-from-agricultural-methane
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:59pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Witness the problem with slash during Gabrielle. Those pines got planted because there’s carbon credit money in planting them.
  
  That’s exactly how government policy creates a distortion in the market which leads to unintended consequences down the road.
  
  Of course, the geniuses in government don’t reverse the policy they just add more regulations which have other bad effects.
  
  Ship of fools.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:33am
- Jade Warrior
  
  CJames – your comments about the Port Hills are eerily applicable to what has also been happening at Whitireia Park in Tītahi Bay (albeit on a much smaller scale). Twenty years ago, sheep grazing also stopped in that park and as a result, both grass and gorse began to spread rapidly. By 2010 there was a wealth of fuel when a fire engulfed practically all of the park (in fairness, that fire was deliberately lit).
  
  The local council promised after that fire that they would keep on top of the gorse problem, but of course it was soon forgotten and gorse began spreading once more. It provided the fuel necessary for another recent fire in Whitireia Park, the cause of which is still under investigation.
  
  At least Whitireia Park has no wilding pine plantations. Small mercies.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:37am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    We have some very clever people in out Councils and Government.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:11am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Our* ffs.
      Looks like it is a Steve missing typos day. I proof read but I see the comment as an image so don’t see the typo until later.
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:46am
  - nathie
    
    Do you know what was the reason given for stopping sheep grazing (and by whom)?
    
    Asking as I used to visit that area many years ago and it’s a shame things have changed!
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:29am
    - MCōs
      
      No money in it maybe
      
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      February 17, 2024 11:50am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Health and Safety? Too dangerous, somebody might hurt themselves.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:56pm
      - CJames
        
        If it is similar to a lot of other farming near urban areas, then there would be a lot of sheep stealing and dogs killing the animals. The extent of that would make any farm unprofitable.
        
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        February 17, 2024 4:17pm
    - Jade Warrior
      
      Hi Nathie – unfortunately no, I don’t know why it ended. MCos is probably correct.
      
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      February 17, 2024 2:20pm
    - Grumpy Silver Top
      
      Maybe sheep are dangerous. Ha!
      
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      February 17, 2024 3:09pm
  - nzgoose
    
    Farming would be the cheapest way to keep fuel loads down. Questions should be asked, rates rises or farming??
    
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    February 18, 2024 9:02am
- Gertie
  
  Beef cows would be best to clean up. Sheep cant clean up long grass. Bulls would rather tussle than clean up. If its not suitable for cows with calves then R2 beef heifers or steers would do the job, and if a dog strayed into the vicinity they might chase out of curiosity but a herd of angry mummas would be dangerous for the humans attached to the dogs. I guess sooner or later they will tire of the fires and common sense will prevail.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:21am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  But the arsonists were motivated by their deep concern about the climate, so that makes it OK!
  
  There you go.
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:53am
- Break First!
  
  In my youth there were many “wild”fires in the Hutt Valley and on the adjacent hills.
  
  As they threatened nobody they were generally left to burn themselves out.
  
  Firebreaks were bulldozed in a few years later which seemed to limit the blaze.
  
  Regrowth sprang in to action almost immediately.
  Nature at work.
  
  No Climate change hysteria back then. In Fact the reverse with news items talking about the coming ice age.
  
  Personally I blame the internet.
  Now eveybody knows everything in a second or two (with vivid colour video) so it seems people must give an opinion on everything.
  
  [Mod – I’ve told you so many times now, drop the snarky jabs at the members of this blog]
  
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  February 17, 2024 1:37pm
Grunter

On yesterdays General Debate there was the usual to and from about wars – Ukraine and ME.

My strong view is that like most topics, the NZ MSM is reporting rubbish.

Below is a list of YT channels that present info and commentary on what they believe is going on. Most of them have been reasonably accurate at predicting what is coming next.

I take my pick on which articles to watch of course. Some of it I don’t bother with. I also check out Sky News Aust to see what they have to say.

If anyone has any other interesting channels I’d be keen to know.

https://youtube.com/@judgingfreedom?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/@militarysummary?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/@DanielDavisDeepDive?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/@TheDuran?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/@RedactedNews?feature=shared
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February 17, 2024 8:12am
- Philview
  
  I have started to become curious why the war in Gaza isn’t over yet. We get constant reports of a massively one sided Israeli invasion. If it was that one sided they would have finished the job by now. Is it the case that the Palestinians are actually putting up a hell of a fight?
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:56am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Waiting for more dollars from Joe so the hierarchy can get rich, and 10% for the Big Guy.
    The whole thing is corrupt.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:14am
  - Che Guava
    
    “I have started to become curious why the war in Gaza isn’t over yet.”
    
    It takes time to drive 2 million people out of their home and destroy the place so they can’t come back.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:39am
  - Matt Long
    
    A guerrilla war where the terrorists are embedded in the civilian population and use hospitals and schools for cover is a slow war if civilian casualties are to be minimised.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:56am
    - Che Guava
      
      There’s no evidence that Israel is attempting to minimise civilian casualties though. If they are, they’re failing miserably. But it’s not about Hamas, it’s about the collective punishment of an ethnic group that is an impediment to Israel’s long-stated goals, in terms of both demography and territorial expansion.
      
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      February 17, 2024 11:30am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Guava: “There’s no evidence that Israel is attempting to minimise civilian casualties though. ” Baseless claim.
        
        Guava: “But it’s not about Hamas, it’s about the collective punishment of an ethnic group that is an impediment to Israel’s long-stated goals, in terms of both demography and territorial expansion.” Baseless claim.
        
        You claim to be a Christian. The other day you were writing that anyone who uses the term “Mad Mullahs” is some kind of moron. I doubt you are a Christian. You seem very much like an online propagandist for Iran and/or Hamas, given the level of obsession and hatred for Israel/Jews. I note also not one iota from you ,ever, of recognising the dilemma Israel faces with a genocidal enemy on it’s doorstep that uses it’s own population (of mostly Hamas supporters) as human shields.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:13pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Jesus, look at all the downtickers for me and you.
        Today’s GD is infested with radical lefties!!
        
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        February 17, 2024 3:02pm
  - MCōs
    
    It’s mighty hard to dislodge people from their country
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:02pm
    - Jack5
      
      East Prussia, the homeland of NZ colonial wars soldier Gustavus von Tempsky, is an example of a country whose people were pretty much wiped out.
      
      As an early part of Germany to fall, Stalin used terror tactics on East Prussia, almost to the scale of Genghis Khan.
      
      East Prussia’s people were Germans descended from the Balts related to neighbouring people such as Latvians.
      
      Nearly all who weren’t driven out by the Red Army were killed. Orphaned children gradually fled to what is now Poland.
      
      A Russian census in 2010 found just 0.8 per cent of the people of Kaliningrad are ethnic Germans.
      
      There are old Baltic German buildings in what was previously called Konigsberg, and Kaliningrad’s Russians maintain the Lutheran cathedral burial site of the great philosopher, Immanuel Kant.
      
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      February 17, 2024 1:23pm
      - Taieri
        
        East Prussia’s people were Germans descended from the Balts related to neighbouring people such as Latvians.
        ————
        
        A significant part of East Prussia population comprised of Masurians and Warmians. The first were descended from the settlers migrating to East Prussia (then known as Ducal Prussia) from Masovia, in Nortern Poland. The second group settled in the former Royal Prussia. Both groups were ethnically Polish, spoke a dialect of Polish and were either Protestants (Masurians) or Catholic (Warmians). The majority of both groups moved to West Germany after WW2.
        
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        February 17, 2024 3:40pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    The reason that the Gaza war isn’t over yet, and has in fact massively expanded to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and The Red Sea, is that Israel, American and allied media have massively over sold it as some sort of anti-terrorist house clearing operation.
    Gaza has the population of a major city; it was never going to be cleared (of whoever Tel Aviv thinks should be cleared) in a matter of months by using anything less than Genghis Khan tactics.
    In fact, Genghis Khan would have offered the Palestinians a much better deal than they are currently getting from the Israelis.
    When the Great Khan and the Golden Horde rolled up to your city you were told “surrender now or everyone dies”. Then when you surrendered, you pledged allegiance to the Khan, paid tribute and were now under the PROTECTION of the Khan.
    People from any tribe could do very well in the Mongol Empire. Marco Polo was a Venetian and he had an important government job under the Mongols for years, because he was a clever guy who was good with languages.
    Israelis demand control over the Palestinians but they refuse the responsibility of protecting the Palestinians.
    It’s never going to work.
    Israel is trying to sit between two stools here, either they totally expel all Palestinians from their zone of control (can’t do it), or they absorb them into Israel and give them all full rights and protections (won’t do it).
    You can argue about the morality of it all you like but there is no morally correct plan that is also doomed to failure.
    
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    February 17, 2024 6:45pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Just a glimpse at one of your sources reveals this;
  
  ‘Founded in 2016, The Duran is a strongly right-leaning news and opinion website with ties to Russian state media. Based in Cyprus, the website’s editor is Alexander Mercouris, who in 2012 was disbarred as an attorney in London. According to the Telegraph, he then went on to become a “pro-Russian commentator on world affairs for Russian TV news outlets and websites.”
  
  The Duran’s director is Peter Lavelle, the host of RT’s (Russian state news outlet) political debate program CrossTalk.’
  ‘Overall, we rate The Duran as a Questionable source based on far-right-wing bias, promotion of Russian propaganda, right-wing conspiracies, a lack of transparency, use of poor sources, plagiarism, and failed fact checks.’
  https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-duran/
  This
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/28/pro-putin-commentator-faces-prospect-fraud-charges-yard-admits/
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:51am
  - Che Guava
    
    So what? Do you have any comments on their substantive content though, or are you just relying on attempts at character assassination by someone who doesn’t want you to listen to anyone who doesn’t conform to a given narrative?
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:27am
  - mawm
    
    AoR – Have you not noticed that anybody who dares think differently, and point out that the Western propaganda is just that, is immediately labelled a Russian stooge, a Putin puppet, etc and gets fact-checked by some unknown group? NB – Media Bias/Fact Check is a pet project of radical leftist David van Zandt, and the Telegraph follows the Trusted News Network’s (set up by the BBC) narrative slavishly. Hardly unbiased sources themselves.
    
    At present the Ukrainian troops are abandoning southern Avdeevka and fleeing westwards. Ukraine is spent, they do not have the manpower to continue. Extra artillery munitions or F-16’s are not going to save them.
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:00pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    All_on_Red as much as I am sick of Guava’s fire hose of anti Israel/Jews propaganda and bluster, most “fact checker” sites are overwhelmingly just purpose-built factories for selective and sleazy spin covering for stupid lefty crap.
    
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    February 17, 2024 2:34pm
  - Grunter
    
    AOR
    Your choice, don’t check them out yourself. Keep soaking up the MSM propaganda.
    
    There’s plenty of quality Blogs and Substacks saying similar stuff to these guys. They always quote sources. They always make it clear when they are offering their own opinion on something and explain why with some level of critical analysis.
    
    Over the past 12 mths these guys have accurately predicted the mess that is Ukraine today.
    
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    February 17, 2024 2:59pm
G152

Looks like the Russian ‘president’ has solved the uncertainty of long term government in spite of elections.
By now he must have had up to a hundred opponents tragically die .
Time he was putin his place
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February 17, 2024 8:16am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Seems to remind me of activities in another country
  Get rid of your opposition by jailing them on TRUMPed up charges.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:22am
  - Philview
    
    Putin’s recent historical list of grievances against the West reminded me of the debate going on in New Zealand. If Putin lived in NZ he would be going on about the evil of colonisation and the struggle of the indigenous population, the need to shift away from western style democracy.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:08am
    - nathie
      
      Worth a read (since you mentioned historical grievances and deluded nutcases):
      
      Ethnic imperialism is exactly what we’re facing in Russia right now. Putin doesn’t want Ukraine’s wheat farms. Nor is he motivated by some world-conquering ideology. He simply wants Russia to rule over all the places he views as being within its historic and linguistic sphere of influence.
      
      “The Ukraine war is ultimately about Poland”.
      
      https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-ukraine-war-is-ultimately-about
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:31am
      - Che Guava
        
        He’s trying to keep an expanding and hostile NATO at bay, because that is in Russia’s security interests. No need to invoke falsities. Even Putin is obfuscating when he invokes the history of the region. It’s about the reality in 2024, rather than the past reality in 1024.
        
        “He simply wants Russia to rule over all the places he views as being within its historic and linguistic sphere of influence.”
        
        Sounds much more like Netanyahu in the Levant than Putin in Eastern Europe.
        
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        February 17, 2024 11:34am
      - nathie
        
        What rubbish you write Che.
        
        Why do you keep repeating such falsehoods when actual facts and other commentators have taken their time to discredited it?
        
        Try actually reading the article and learn something more than your propaganda points comrade.
        
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        February 17, 2024 12:47pm
      - Che Guava
        
        “Why do you keep repeating such falsehoods when actual facts and other commentators have taken their time to discredited it?”
        
        They may have taken time, but nobody has ever discredited anything I’ve said on this topic and many others.
        
        I did read the article, and the author is wrong. I note too that the author has a Ukraine flag in his Twitter bio, so it’s obvious that he is not in touch with reality and is pushing a line. His line is that of the US State Department and the Pentagon, both of whom see Russia as a threat to their fading dominance, so of course they can’t be honest about the part they played in provoking the invasion.
        
        It makes no difference to me, and I gain nothing personally, from one or the other explanation being the correct one, but my explanation is the correct one and anything otherwise is wrong.
        
        My explanation is supported by geopolitical reality and is the most elegant explanation, whereas “your” opinion (really, Noah Smith’s opinion) that Russian imperialism is the explanation is a convoluted account that is not supported by any aspect of geopolitical reality.
        
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        February 17, 2024 1:52pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Guava: “nobody has ever discredited anything I’ve said on this topic and many others.”
        
        You often make these kinds of bloated and empty claims about yourself.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:37pm
      - Burtland
        
        “He’s trying to keep an expanding and hostile NATO at bay”
        
        NATO was a sleepy old dog until idiot Putin prodded it.
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:57pm
  - virtualmark
    
    AFAIK Trump lives in a mansion, flies around the country in a private jet, and has due process in the courts.
    
    AFAIK Trump has not been poisoned with a nerve agent, thrown in an Arctic Circle prison, and is still alive.
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:04am
    - Che Guava
      
      Putin doesn’t need to pretend that anyone other than he is in charge in Russia. The opaque oligarchs who run the West need to maintain the illusion of a democratic society run by people like Trump and Biden. It’s really a difference in degree, not in kind.
      
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      February 17, 2024 11:39am
      - nathie
        
        LMFAO!
        
        Putin’s mansions and wealth make anyone else look like amateurs!
        
        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13027669/Putins-lavish-portfolio-properties-Russia.html
        
        https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2022/jun/20/russian-palaces-villas-and-yachts-linked-to-vladimir-putin-llcinvest
        
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        February 17, 2024 12:52pm
      - Che Guava
        
        So what. What does Putin having mansions have to do with anything? My contention is that there are always elites who control any society, the only difference is that sometimes it’s clear who those individuals are, and sometimes it is far from clear.
        
        In an authoritarian regime, at least you know who is in charge and who to give credit or blame to, whereas in a democracy, there is an endless procession of figureheads who are never held responsible and who are replaced for the next figurehead every so often. Meanwhile, those who hold actual power go on largely unnoticed.
        
        As I posted in another thread today, democracy is merely the illusion of popular sovereignty, while public opinion and therefore consent is actually manufactured through mass media in accordance with the goals and aims of an elite.
        
        Huge time, effort and resources go into maintaining the illusion of popular sovereignty, whereas authoritarians don’t need to bother. Either way, every society is ruled by an elite of one kind or another.
        
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        February 17, 2024 1:43pm
      - Paulus
        
        Tt is also reported that Putin is still the richest man in the World as he takes whatever he wants, usually just 10% of everything Russian, and invest same all over the World.
        Failure to do what he wants him gets dealt with like Navalney.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:09pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Or hanging them in a jail cell.
    
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    February 17, 2024 3:05pm
- Clown
  
  Why don’t you go to Moscow and say it to Putin yourself? But you won’t do that – because just like all lefties you’re all bark and no bite.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:30am
- Lance
  
  Yes, I see Navalny has mysteriously died
  I am sure somehow this will be blamed on the Nazi’s in Ukraine etc etc etc etc
  Putin is definitely channeling the ghost of Stalin
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:59am
  - mawm
    
    Lance – Now do the CIA and the USA State Department. You could start with JFK and probably go all the way to Epstein and Imran Khan. Putin is an amateur in comparison.
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:09pm
    - nathie
      
      Another Putin sympathiser!
      
      Check out what your hero has instigated of late in order to suppress dissent of Russian people.
      
      https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-people-putin-is-suspected-of-assassinating-2016-3
      
      https://www.dw.com/en/the-long-list-of-putin-critics-targeted-by-the-kremlin/a-66624689
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/the-mysterious-violent-and-unsolved-deaths-of-putins-foes-and-critics-alexi-navalny
      
      https://www.newsweek.com/putin-critics-dead-full-list-navalny-1870692
      
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      February 17, 2024 12:56pm
      - mawm
        
        As I said yesterday when someone posts anything contrary to the Western narrative out comes the Putin stooge attack. It’s infantile!
        
        Let’s have a list of Clinton H’s suspected “arkancided” people in her orbit. It’s a lot longer than Putin’s.
        
        There has long been suspicion that many of the attacks on Russians in the UK were done by the Brits themselves at convenient times to disrupt Russian elections, etc. I don’t have any references, but just like in your links above, they are “suspected”. Did you know that Navalny had been recorded conspiring with an MI6 agent to set up a colour revolution?
        
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        February 17, 2024 4:41pm
      - nathie
        
        Ok I see where you are coming from and take the “Putin stooge” remark back.
        
        But I gotta ask do you come across any leporids when going downhill? 😉
        
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        February 17, 2024 8:21pm
- Taieri
  
  Time he was putin his place
  ———–
  
  By whom?
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:06am
  - David Garrett
    
    Taieri:
    That indeed is the question. Somehow I can’t quite see the CIA taking him out like some sort of communist head of government, such as Allende in Chile.
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:33am
    - Break First!
      
      David, Who would replace Putin? Would they be any better or would they be worse?
      
      Its interesting that many commenters say take out Putin, I guess with no idea who or what would replace him.
      
      Those old enought to remember Russia after the end of the USSR would remember the caos and opportunity for radicals to be in charge. Then teh Iron fist of Putin arrived and forced law and order back in to the country.
      
      You might not like Putin, but what is your alternative.
      
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      February 17, 2024 5:03pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Most likely his replacement will be worse. Such systems see worst come to top.
    
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    February 17, 2024 5:32pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Don’t get ahead of yourself, you don’t know how or why Navalny died. If you decide that he was definitely murdered on orders of Putin and don’t keep an open mind about other possibilities, then all subsequent information you get will be influenced by that prior assumption.
  Personally, I think the chance that Navalny was murdered is 50%. The other 50% is some sort of illness or a legitimate suicide.
  BTW, I think the chance that Prigozhni was deliberately killed is about 95%. The other 5% is a freaky accident (drunken mercenaries with grenades perhaps) that knocked Prigozhni and several of his top people off the board at a conveniently excellent time.
  Also BTW, I think the chance that the official MSM story of the Salisbury poisonings is correct is about 5%. That story is a string of utterly bizarre coincidences.
  
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  February 17, 2024 7:13pm
pdm

I spotted this over at The Herald and as usual it is paywalled – but here is a small sample.:

`An education training provider is inviting school principals to bring “your togs, snorkel and passport” for a five-day leadership school at a five-star Pacific Island resort “against the backdrop of a Fijian sunset”.’

What bullshit.

Principals should only attend this course it it is held during School Holidays and they pay their own way.
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February 17, 2024 8:36am
- Close Hen Counters
  
  Same paper has ev owner stressed about being caught in traffic on SH2 and running out of electricity hahaha … paediatric clinics may offer taxi chits but not helicopters love.
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:41am
  - Keith White
    
    A worried mother with a really ill child is someone to be laughed at?
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:23am
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      No Keith, we are not laughing about the tragic circumstances of her child with an elevated blood sugar level.
      What we are laughing about is that she chose to buy an electric vehicle which had been loudly encouraged by our politicians. Believe a politician, or anything else that is false.
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:00am
      - surfing
        
        It could have been a combustion engine … the point is that traffic in the Tauranga area is at congestion levels 3 times over which something would have been done in any other city.
        
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        February 17, 2024 3:54pm
  - Ghost
    
    What’s funny? The state of our roads because of the Ardern government neglecting them has caused this. People missing medical appointments, school changing its timetable. Do you think a sick child being stuck in traffic and having their blood sugar levels drop because a simple trip is taking hours is funny?
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:34am
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      Let me explain ghost
      1. The child has chronic medical issues that are awful and she is going to a paediatric clinic – a place patients generally don’t go to if they are sick … sick kids go to ED/ward/ICU. I would never laugh at anyone who has any medical illness
      2. SH2 hasn’t suddenly become bad and I think the mother needs to consider that on planning a trip anywhere – we have plenty of issues with patients not being able to attend appointments in Auckland due to traffic, accidents, can’t get off work, sick kids at home, no parking and work around these issues by offering Telehealth appointments instead … I’m sure Tauranga do the same
      3. Any parent travelling a sizeable difference with kids in the car need to plan ahead re food/beverages/ toileting esp in an area where there are roadworks or potential delays. More so a parent with a diabetic child – parenting 1.0
      4. I don’t find any of the Ardern shambles government funny
      5. Have a great day – my rooster is out of town so you have had the pleasure of my womansplaining 🙂
      
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      February 17, 2024 11:16am
      - Ghost
        
        Let me explain, your whinging about this woman is pathetic and speaks more of you than anything. You haven’t commented about the school having to change its schedule because of the road works or the other people missing their medical appointments, you decided to make an attack against a woman who is a caregiver to a sick child, and by the look of the article a caring and loving mother, because she has an electric vehicle. She had packed extra supplies because she knows how to care for her child. How about instead of whinging about a mother protecting her child you focus on the actual part of the story and that is the disgraceful condition of the roads. Some of you just like to bitch and whinge rather than grow the hell up and find compassion for your fellow New Zealanders.
        
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        February 17, 2024 11:31am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        In an ICE (internal Combustion Engine) car you could get off at the nearest exit and go to a petrol station. In a coal/gas/hydro powered electric car, not so much. Less charging stations and no guarantee they aren’t full or out of order. I’m thinking anyone who owns an electric car isn’t one of the “battlers”. Battlers can’t afford the down-time or the purchase cost.
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:58pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Principals should not be learning on the job. They should have been trained before becoming a principal. If they need leadership training it should be done locally and economically.
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:46am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Schools are not for learning anymore. Reading, writing, and math are out but snorkeling is learning?
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:59am
  - mawm
    
    They have to see the coral reefs before global warming kills them off. //
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:12pm
- kowtow
  
  Apparently they got a $6000 pay rise for “professional development and well being’ .( Don’t know who awarded that , but no doubt funded from our taxes)
  So surprise surprise some enterprising ( who knows former teachers?) set up”businesses” to provide alleged professional development and well being coarses”
  
  Funny thing is the article interviews various principal types who tell us how world leading education here is ……..bwahahahahaha.
  
  Anyone here 0ver 50 who recalls the good ole days when principals and teachers just got on with it and actually educated the pupils in their charge , when the vast majoridy of pupils actually used to turn up to school every day , unlike the world leading absences and lack of ability of teachers , reported only yesterday……..
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:54am
  - Ian Boag
    
    principals and teachers just got on with it and actually educated the pupils in their charge
    
    You could leave school at 15 (lots did) and even get to be an apprentice with no qualifications if you felt like it. If you hung around for another year you could have a go at School Cert where 50% failed, most of who then left school then with no quals ….
    
    Yep… it was great … the kids were much better educated ….
    
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    February 17, 2024 2:13pm
    - Burtland
      
      we now just pretend they all pass – progress
      
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      February 17, 2024 7:11pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        “How it used to be” – about 50% of students on the scrapheap (unqualified) after 2-3 years of high school … not a very hard bar to match ….
        
        Should we go back to that?
        
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        February 17, 2024 7:46pm
- Keith White
  
  There is no limit to the amount of your money they are happy to spend on themselves.
  
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  February 17, 2024 1:00pm
Grunter

This will make you laugh, or puke….

Climate change + Trans + Racist. Remember to refer to “They” nicely 🤣

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-admin-unleashes-woke-trifecta-trans-official-calls-climate-change-racist
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February 17, 2024 8:37am
- Inandout
  
  Grunter, little wonder the US is having problems recruiting in their armed forces when a cock in a frock is an Admiral.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:22am
  - kowtow
    
    Looks like they’re close to “full employment” there .
    
    Why would you join for shitty pay and conditions and to be killed or maimed for some President’s self promoting image (Mr Trump honourably excluded from that Hall of Shame)
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:00am
Yvette

A perspective
Imagine the journalistic hysteria if a member of the current government asserted that teaching young people about homosexuality represents the systemic rape and perversion of our children.

Set that alongside the total non-response to Debbie Ngarew-Packer accusing the current government of deliberate systemic genocide of Maori.
– “Is the Media Biased Against the Right of Politics?” Kiwiblog 7am, a guest post from a reader

For various reasons the media have not one real keyboard warrior among them
And where is a “conversation” of why the Government operates State television and radio, each with websites, and all not operating as impartial investigative institutions as each their charters probably set out that they should?
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February 17, 2024 8:40am
kevn

campbell on 1Ewes talking at length about the East Coast slash problem. Not watching, but being in the room, but I didn’t hear any mention of the the Govts $63 million recovery package.
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February 17, 2024 8:41am
- Positan
  
  Campbell’s emotion-wringing style of “reporting” is far too dredgingly overblown for intelligent viewing.
  
  Every item loses my interest as soon as I hear his name mentioned.
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:48am
- Im Right
  
  And can one assume Kevn, that the direction of the narrative will be focusing on what National need to urgently do to make things better, ignoring the 9 months, of a Labour Government, have had in the aftermath of the cyclone.
  Why hasn’t National done this yet…why hasn’t National done that yet etc etc
  Seems the media has quietly forgotten 6yrs of spend spend spend….no results…no results…no results.
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:49am
- pdm
  
  Selective interviewing of locals too.
  
  I know a long time Tolaga Bay, now semi retired, farmer and Honorary Kauumatua ( he is Pakeha) whom Campbell refuses too meet with to discuss the problem.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:00am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Akshlly, last night’s story was about Ernslaw One (Malaysian owned) losing its FSC certification…and how the company may now have trouble selling its logs.
  
  Ernslaw One is just one of the companies responsible for the slash problem on the East Coast…..trouble is, the forestry companies are still indulging in crap practice and the slash problem looks to be with us for the next 30 years at least … unless someone can run a wood-processing plant economically in the district.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:31am
  - pdm
    
    Maggy – they have no option but to get that slash into heaps and burn it during winter.
    
    Unfortunately my two brothers in law are now deceased but they loved nothing better than pouring petrol on such heaps and setting it alight in controlled conditions.
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:56am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Seems to be the only practical solution at present
      (to deal with the piles of slash all over the hills and in the gullies)…
      
      but such slack, untidy forestry practices should never be occurring.
      
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      February 17, 2024 10:09am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Just don’t tell Chloe or Greta.
      
      10 3
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      February 17, 2024 10:18am
    - G152
      
      We used to turn the slash into posts strainers batons and poles.
      It seems nobody does that now
      
      9 1
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      February 17, 2024 11:12am
    - Jake Dee
      
      All of which could be converted into some sort of biogas with a bit of funding and infrastructure.
      Renewable resource and green energy.
      
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      February 17, 2024 7:28pm
- cas
  
  On the day this was announced the Newshub reporter asked Luxon ‘what took you so long’. I don’t remember that sort of question to the previous Government.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:45am
Flossie

I note that mammograms will be available to women up to 74 as opposed to the current limit of 70. That’s great and well done to those who pushed for this.
However I had my last one aged 69, and many months before my 70th. I am now 72 and as the new upper age limit won’t be in force for at least a couple of years I’m never going to get another one. Unless of course I pay.
Just a bit of a selfish moan really.
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February 17, 2024 8:48am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m in the same boat…. $300 for a titty squeeze…
  
  I have a feeling that experience will be placed on the back burner.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:35am
MCōs

Life’s cheap as dog tucker in Russia
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February 17, 2024 9:01am
- Che Guava
  
  Wake up to reality – politics is power, no matter what country you’re from. Political assassinations or other deaths for politically motivated reasons aren’t something “they” do but that “we” are above.
  
  What do you think intel agencies like the CIA, the Mossad, MI6 etc spend much of their time doing? Cracking safes with the aid of stethoscopes, wearing false moustaches, opening people’s mail and tapping their phoneline?
  
  A large part of their workload is shooting people in the back of the head, arranging “accidents” for problematic individuals, perpetrating false flag incidents, and grooming “lone wolfs” who go out and assassinate politicians. Another aspect is making sure that such actions are never covered in the domestic press, while the actions of their geo-political opponents are.
  
  In fact, one of the reasons you believe that Putin (or some other out-of-favour leader) is alone in this sort of behaviour is because of the actions of intel agencies,who utilise the “free press” to make you think this way.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:01am
  - Grunter
    
    Exactly – the Hollywood version of the world – “Goodies & Badies” gets played out everyday in the MSM.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:47am
    - Che Guava
      
      The majority of people are stupid, and stupid people tend to prefer black and white explanations. Nuance and grey areas complicate the simple explanations that stupid people crave. Propaganda simply doesn’t do its job when moves beyond the repetition of simplistic explanations and ideas.
      
      Hence, what we are instructed are our putative opponents can have no redeeming features, while conversely, we are beyond reproach, morally superior and live under the best of all socio-political systems.
      
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      February 17, 2024 2:05pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        On the other hand Guava, if one never gets a handle on any issue and is constantly expanding the universe of “nuance” nothing ever gets done. So the facade of seeking “nuance” can be a great propaganda tool for getting people divided and battling back and forth while achieving SFA ( a perfect weapon of war actually if you can inject this into an enemy population).
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:42pm
  - mawm
    
    Che – Very well put. The Western Intel Agencies can pretend they are ‘holier than thou’ when they are probably the worst offenders. The Brits have form and the CIA is a murderous organised crime syndicate that would make the Mafia blush. We should not be part of this and need to leave the 5Eyes.
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:22pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      mawm: “The Brits have form and the CIA is a murderous organised crime syndicate that would make the Mafia blush. We should not be part of this and need to leave the 5Eyes.”
      
      The integrity of these orgs can (and should be) be monitored and improved.
      
      You’ve also got to look at what these orgs are up against from true scumbag regimes. Sometimes playing nice (especially with dedicated scumbags) will cause you to lose and lose bigly. Their brief is not to lose.
      
      “We should not be part of this and need to leave the 5Eyes.”
      Yeah nice, if only there was a force field around NZ that made it immune to what is going on in the world. Create a vacuum and something will fill it. Careful with what will fill the vacuum! Think about which world powers could end up controlling NZ.
      
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      February 17, 2024 2:49pm
      - mawm
        
        NZer – Nothing is perfect but the US intelligence agencies are worse than most. Essentially there are 3 powers that could control us – Russia who has no interest, China who has shown no expansionist desires and the US.
        
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        February 17, 2024 4:50pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        mawm: “the US intelligence agencies are worse than most”
        
        Oh really? Worse than North Korea? Russia? China? Iran?
        
        One of these things is not like the other. Which is the regime backed up by a constitution that guarantees you can vote out parties that don’t stop intel agencies going rogue (especially on their own people)?
        
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        February 17, 2024 5:35pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        mawm: “China who has shown no expansionist desires”
        
        South China Sea expansionism, for starters.
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:22pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        The clever answer here is for NZ to make balancing deals with all those powers so we can’t be controlled by any one of them.
        Also, even if Americans can vote out their leaders (and I don’t think that is true) NZ certainly can’t.
        As I have mentioned before, North Dakota has more influence in Washington than Wellington does.
        
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        February 17, 2024 7:39pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Jake Dee: “The clever answer here is for NZ to make balancing deals with all those powers so we can’t be controlled by any one of them.”
        
        You mean sort of like making deals with the Mafia and The Feds at the same time? You’d have to be very careful what deals you make!!
        
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        February 17, 2024 9:13pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        Making deals with both the Feds and the Mafia?
        They both do deals with each other. They did a deal in WWII to keep the Italian fascists out of the New York docks.
        Richard Nixon did a famous deal with Mao, it was one of the high points of his career and he hated communists.
        If you want an idea of how an effective foreign policy actually works then you can’t do much better than “Yes Minister”. Sir Humprey Appleby explains to the Minister Britain’s foreign policy in Europe,
        
        “Minister, Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last five hundred years: to create a disunited Europe. In that cause, we have fought with the Dutch against the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Germans and Italians. ‘Divide and rule,’ you see. Why should we change now, when it’s worked so well?”
        
        New Zealand needs real options so it needs to develop the leverage that will give us those options. If you only shop at one store you will always be paying the prices that store sets. We need to shop around.
        
        “What appalling cynicism!”
        “Yes, we call it diplomacy Minister.”
        
        https://vimeo.com/912082520
        
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        February 17, 2024 9:37pm
- virtualmark
  
  Always has been.
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:05am
Scott

This morning I saw Alwyn Poole’s post from yesterday about slow traffic and roadworks and I can share his frustration.

Yesterday we went from Whangamata to Taupo which is supposed to take 3 hours. By the time we were stopped three times for roadworks it took closer to 4. Endless cones and endless waiting at traffic lights and endless 50km zones.
Outside of Taupo the road becomes 80km and then 50km well well before the city limits.

The previous government wanted us to travel in cars less. The roads are still in a shocking start and if Simeon Brown and his colleagues can restore our roads to that of a first world country he will have the votes of many of us motorists for many a long year.
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February 17, 2024 9:02am
- CJames
  
  Lucky you didn’t try the ETA. There it is down to 30km/h while they install cheese cutters to make an already narrow road narrower and impossible for people to pass a broken down truck.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:30am
- MCōs
  
  Late summer is road works season.
  All year round is crazy drivers having accidents season
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Just shows you what can be done in 6 years when you have no idea.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:21am
  - Vinicius
    
    Sadly Jacinda, Chippie, Greens, and friends did have an idea. It was to turn all their bonkers left-wing ideas and philosophies into public policy and make life a pain in the posterior for all of us.
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:28am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I have just read an X post saying red alert, it goes on to say Hipkins is having high profile meetings about his impending resignation, they suggest he is now toxic just like what happened to Ardern, looks like you won’t have too worry about they pair anymore, let’s hope he resigns from his electorate seat as well, bye elections are fine when the left create them
      
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      February 17, 2024 1:15pm
      - Vinicius
        
        I watched and listened to Hipkins during question time in Parliament earlier this week. I couldn’t help thinking that the fire has gone out of him.
        
        Then at the start of Question Time on Thursday Peters raised this spurious and cheeky Point of Order
        
        Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister): Point of order, Mr Speaker. I’m not too certain whether we’ve got an organisational or structural problem or some teething problems in your office, but having checked the questions of the House today, I thought there’s something drastically wrong, because there are no questions to the Prime Minister.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:08pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      6 times the loopy left have done it.
      Will they get another turn? I think so. The Marxists of the future are in pre-school now.
      
      3 3
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      February 17, 2024 3:32pm
      - Burtland
        
        the marxists in the schools are still there
        the marxists in the universities are still there
        the marxists in the public service are still there
        the marxists in the unions are still there
        
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        February 17, 2024 7:24pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  NZ can probably power itself for the next 500 years using plastic road cones as a fuel source.
  
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  February 17, 2024 5:39pm
Maggie Pie

Putting away the NW click&collect order yesterday afternoon when my partner arrived home early for a swim.
He gave me a hand with the unpacking and was mildy shocked at the size of bill.
Prompted him to say…”You’d have to wonder what that useless Labor appointed
Pierre van Heerden does all f***ing day”
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February 17, 2024 9:19am
- Keith White
  
  I’m sure Pierre van Heerden, like the majority of people sucking on the taxpayers’ teat, does his job to his entire satisfaction… and makes a solid profit.
  
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  February 17, 2024 9:35am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    People with knowledge of the matter say he’s pulling 700k!
    
    That can’t be right, surely to God?
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:20am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Is he actually a govt (IE taxpayer) paid person? Looks like he’s a lobbyist for the industry.
      
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      February 17, 2024 5:46pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        YIP. YIP. Appointed to the position by the then Labor Min for Commerce and Ardern asslicker…. Duncan Webb.
        
        His roots in the industry run deep.
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:34pm
AndyW

I’ve just read the Stuff article about the Sudanese refugee who travelled back home for a holiday and lost his tax-payer funded accommodation. I know I’m not the sharpest tool but I though a refugee was someone who had to flee their home because of threats to their safety. Surely if it’s safe to holiday back in your country of origin it’s safe to move back??!! Seems like basically every ‘refugee’ is an economic one; look no further than Golriz.
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February 17, 2024 9:33am
- fernglas
  
  I see he had a 3 year old daughter to a wife who has never been to New Zealand, so it seems this is not the first time he has gone back.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:13am
  - Keith White
    
    And for sure, flights there and back are not cheap.
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:06am
- peterwn
  
  Ahmed Zaoui went back to Algeria and was politically active. It has not turned out well for him. He is languishing in an Algerian prison cell and seems likely he will be there for a wee while yet.
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:21am
  - David Garrett
    
    peterwn: Was this the same Ahmed Zaoui who couldn’t return to Algeria for fear of immediate assassination?
    
    Obviously his kebab cart wasn’t as successful as he had hoped.
    
    21 1
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    February 17, 2024 11:40am
    - peterwn
      
      Yes, and also the same guy who flushed his passport down the aeroplane gurgler before claiming asylum. I think the judiciary showed a lack of brains and judgment in this instance.
      
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      February 17, 2024 9:28pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        showed a lack of brains and judgment in this instance.
        yeah, like trying to flush your passport down an airplane toilet.
        
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        February 17, 2024 9:42pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    He can rot in their jail for all I care.
    How much has he cost the NZ Net Taxpayers?
    
    4 4
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    February 17, 2024 3:43pm
Ghost

Patrick Morrisey‘s letters to the vice president about her asking her to use the Twenty-fifth Amendment. He ends his letter perfectly. If the president is mentally fit then he must face charges for mishandling of documents.

Letter
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February 17, 2024 9:54am
Vinicius

The NZ Herald are reporting that organised begging gangs travel to Rotorua to make up to $400 a day from ‘generous’ locals.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/beggar-groups-travel-to-rotorua-to-make-up-to-400-a-day-from-generous-locals/QTRCFGRNPNFEBG3ZKN2NZSS7PQ/

The beggars forced a McDonalds to close.

The problem with unruly out-of-town beggars got so bad at McDonald’s Rotorua nearly two weeks ago the franchise owner had to close the business in the middle of the day for about 15 minutes until police arrived.

• Rob Parry said his staff asked beggars on the property to move on but they abused the staff and threatened to return.

• Parry said staff had to take action when the beggars returned with three or four more people, acting in an intimidating way.

“We had to close the restaurant for a small portion of time . . . It just goes to show it can happen any time during the day.”

Being a full time grifter and scrounger has its advantages. How many of these clowns are also on the benefit? Probably all of them.
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February 17, 2024 10:09am
- Inandout
  
  Vin, what an absolute hell hole Rotorua has become.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:34am
- Gertie
  
  We have a regular beggar outside the four square in Mango. Not long ago he approached me for money. I had had a particularly harsh week on the farm and was feeling a little stressed. So I told him politely to go and find work. The rather athletic looking lad abused me quite rudely. Just as I had expected.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:34am
  - peterwn
    
    In the old days the vineyard owner would have rounded them up to work in his vineyard on ‘equal pay’. At least they had some incentive to work.
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:25am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  This is why beggars were outlawed or moved on in past times, eventually they start “demanding with menaces”. They will be gang run and probably low level drug dealers as well. You see that with the beggars in Wellington. Just another example of what six years of being kind, ineffectual policing and no detriment in the “justice” system gets you.
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:19am
  - peterwn
    
    The old fashioned wording included – ‘being a rogue and vagabond in that he solicited alms in a public place’ or similar wording.
    
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    February 17, 2024 12:14pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The stupid people give money and the beggars come back for more.
  Bit like the Govt really.
  In the early 70s our family knew a guy (customer) who was collecting the dole in 3 different places. Hamilton, Raglan, and Rotorua. It was paid in cheques then. No computers to check.
  
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  February 17, 2024 4:05pm
  - MCōs
    
    Do you notify the WINZ like good citizens or do you prefer whining about him?
    
    3 3
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    February 17, 2024 5:50pm
  - peterwn
    
    Then there was this sparky who was claiming 100+ benefits until he got caught.
    
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    February 17, 2024 9:32pm
Maggie Pie

Interesting to read that Islam was the fastest growing religion among Maori.
Because the stats from the last census wont be available until May, we have no idea exactly how many Muslims are in NZ, but can we assume the same thing is happening here?

https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1758366407144755589
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February 17, 2024 10:10am
- Paulus
  
  And do you expect to get any accurate statistics Why cannot we get truthful figures and not made up ones from the Census when Maori only participated to a limited extent, so we are being fed again made up figures as usual.
  There cannot still be 16% Maori (more like 9% has been leaked) as the population of non Maori as increase last year alone by 160,000 non Maori immigrants, and we are told the guessed total figure of New Zealanders is 5.4 million.
  Why cannot we get some accurate and not made up figures from the Statistics Department ?
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:05am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Let’s not forget tho Paulie who the Minister in charge of the last census was…..Debra Russell.
    
    LOL!!
    
    (see my GD post from yesterday for further confirmation) 😀
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:23am
- peterwn
  
  Are the Mormons losing their touch?
  
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  February 17, 2024 12:16pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The sniff test tells me money is involved.
  
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  February 17, 2024 4:10pm
  - MCōs
    
    Where do I sign up?
    
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    February 17, 2024 5:50pm
Its only I

Start sending your donations, Trumplethinskin has another 354 million PLUS interest from 2019 to pay.

Stormy Daniels hush money next…you know the whore he had sex with while his wife was at home with his son.
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February 17, 2024 10:21am
- mawm
  
  Its – Is that fact or just B/S made up by you? Actually you don’t need to answer that as we already know the answer.
  
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  February 17, 2024 12:29pm
  - Its only I
    
    Oh dear.
    
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    February 17, 2024 1:23pm
    - mawm
      
      Just asking – Trump has denied having sex with Daniels. She has no proof. And “while the wife was at home with the son” is gratuitous libel. So it is B/S.
      
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      February 17, 2024 4:56pm
      - Its only I
        
        Yeah, sure, what ever trump says is 100% true.
        Sorry your boi just isn’t what you think it is.
        
        He is in trouble for hiding the hush money as lawyers fees. His signature and burger grease are all over the documents. Lets see what happens in March
        
        Funny how anyone who has ever suggested Frumpy rode the “Horse” has never been sued. Jailed for assisting old stinky from hiding it though.
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:09pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        IOI which US law states one must tag NDA agreement money as “hush money” if it’s all handled by one’s lawyer?
        
        [Mod – just to let you know, that member hasn’t posted here for a long time, this is not them]
        
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        February 17, 2024 6:32pm
- virtualmark
  
  https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-trump-raise-the-settlement
  
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  February 17, 2024 2:39pm
  - Its only I
    
    So much money siphoned off the election.
    
    He did say he was a billionaire right?
    Nah, he is a broke ass fraud.
    
    1 6
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    February 17, 2024 3:38pm
    - mawm
      
      You do post nonsense. He’s not broke. Do you have any proof of siphoning off money? Of course not.
      
      3 1
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      February 17, 2024 4:57pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Trump’s PACs have been paying his legal bills. Over US$50m in 2023.
        
        The RNC has also been part-funding his legal bills. And now Trump is basically making a hostile takeover of the RNC in order to get access to all their funding streams … and I bet it won’t be so he can spend it on down-ticket campaigns.
        
        (Trump’s PAC has got nearly all the small-dollar donors, but the big billionaire/corporate donors have been directing their money to the RNC … and Trump wants that money).
        
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        February 17, 2024 5:19pm
Maggie Pie

And not a great weekend for Trumpy by the sound of things 🙁
Just lost his court case in New York and been fined $450 million!!

Bet he never has to pay a cent.
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February 17, 2024 10:40am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Judge Arthur Engoron will have one sorry arse when Trump wins as POTUS.
  Trump will ream him. Anyway Trump Jr and Ivanka can run the family business quite easily.
  
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  February 17, 2024 10:52am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Wait, Engoron has fined the two sons $4M and banned them from business for 2 years.
    Someone is riding for a fall.
    This will be appealed I guess.
    A lawyer for Trump, Chris Kise, said the former president plans to appeal the verdict, calling the decision a “tyrannical abuse of power.”
    
    If banks gave Trump preferential loans on inflated price then they have not done their homework!
    
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    February 17, 2024 10:57am
    - virtualmark
      
      If he wants to appeal he’s going to have to post something like 20% of the amount in bond. So about US$70m just to appeal.
      
      3 3
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      February 17, 2024 11:10am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Indeed, totally victimless crime.
      
      Who would have thought that banks did due diligence before lending money to business people?
      
      They must be protected from such madness!
      
      9 2
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      February 17, 2024 12:04pm
      - virtualmark
        
        The simple summary is that the law works on intent, not outcome.
        
        A simple example … you try to hire someone to kill your wife, but it turns out that someone was an undercover police officer and now you’re charged with *attempted* murder. Your wife is still safe and sound, but you’re going to the big house.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:28pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        The banks must have their own valuers who have some clue if things don’t add up.
        This Engoron guy is going to get reamed. Seen a photo? What a nasty looking little germ he is imo.
        
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        February 17, 2024 5:35pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Engoron is a New York State judge, not a federal judge.
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:11am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    And what about that demented old imbecile Biden?
    
    Commenting on the sudden death of Navaldy in prison, (who just coincidentally happened to be Putins’ political rival), Joe said….. “it’s disgraceful how Vlad eliminates his opposition”.
    
    Black, Pot, Kettel.
    
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    February 17, 2024 11:16am
    - virtualmark
      
      So help me understand.
      
      Biden is a demented imbecile.
      
      And Biden is also, at the same time, a criminal mastermind who is subtly pulling the strings of the New York state judiciary, without leaving any fingerprints.
      
      3 4
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      February 17, 2024 2:42pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Biden is just a remote controlled puppet. Others are pulling his strings. Pretty obvious considering he doesn’t know what year it is or where he is half the time.
        
        6 2
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        February 17, 2024 5:51pm
  - Its only I
    
    So Trumps a fascist?
    Is that why MAGA has this fascination with authoritarian figures?
    
    1 2
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    February 17, 2024 1:25pm
- virtualmark
  
  Yep, we’re about to find out how rich Trump is.
  
  US$360m for Trump (Trump Jr, Fredo and Weisselberg have separate fines), but then there’ll be about US$60m or so of interest on top of that (9% pa since the charges were filed).
  
  So call it US$420m on this, plus US$80m to E Jean Carroll … ouch.
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:09am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Yes, how dare he scare the swamp. He must be destroyed!
    
    8 2
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    February 17, 2024 12:05pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    There are a lot of appeals yet to come.
    
    Given the lawfare of the last 8 years it seems likely there will be significant reform of legal systems should Trump be re-elected and Republicans retake house and Senate.
    
    9 2
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    February 17, 2024 12:09pm
- mawm
  
  Maggie – there are so many things to appeal that decision on.
  
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  February 17, 2024 12:31pm
  - Its only I
    
    If you know something Trumps lawyers don’t then I’m sure they will fly you out to be part of the team.
    Trump’s brand fantasy has is meeting legal reality.
    
    Trump is a loser, he was as a democrat and nothing has changed.
    
    This idea its left v right is what is beating trump.
    Many, many republicans are sick of Trump and his MAGA maggots… as the election results keep showing.
    
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    February 17, 2024 1:18pm
    - mawm
      
      The conduct of the trail and preventing Trump presenting certain evidence by the Judge is enough for staters. You mustn’t let your hatred for Trump and your imbecilic adherence to the “narrative” cloud your judgment.
      
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      February 17, 2024 5:04pm
      - Its only I
        
        You probably shouldn’t let “bobbin” Habbas enhancements distract you from the truth.
        
        Habba didn’t even know how to enter evidence or conduct herself. The trial was theatre for the Truth Denying Sycophants, that’s it.
        
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        February 17, 2024 7:05pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Narrator: No, in fact there aren’t many things to appeal the decision on.
    
    2 3
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    February 17, 2024 2:35pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  They are getting desperate to stop the tsunami of brutal pay-back coming their way when Trump is reinstalled.
  
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  February 17, 2024 6:34pm
Chris Nisbet

EV owner worried about running out of electrons…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/bay-of-plenty-state-highway-2-motorists-planning-lives-around-horrific-traffic-delays/VASCMWBIHRBGVDVOH4VAZX4VBM/

Snigger.
I wonder which concerns her more… the (alleged) climate crisis she thinks she’sfending off, or getting where she wants to go?
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February 17, 2024 10:56am
- Lance
  
  Ummm… doesn’t an Ev only use power when it’s moving?
  So are they running the aircon?
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:06am
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    There’s always some load on the battery.
    Yup, turning on the heater or aircon will drain the battery faster.
    
    8 0
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    February 17, 2024 11:20am
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      An air con or heater draws little power compared to the traction engine. I can’t see either drawing as much as a kilowatt. That would allow even a small 24kw EV battery to power the air con/heater for almost 24 hours.
      
      My Nissan LEAF has a display that shows you how much energy you are taking out or putting into the battery. The display hardly budges when I turn on the air con or heater.
      
      So basically if an EV is not moving it’s not really using much battery power.
      
      2 0
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      February 17, 2024 1:48pm
      - Paulus
        
        Even if you are in a traffic jam for up to two hours in the summer sun ?
        
        1 0
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        February 17, 2024 2:14pm
      - info@cruzpro.com
        
        Yes.
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:34pm
      - rouppe
        
        She can still make a decision to turn off the aircon and open windows. Not to mention manage her charge levels better.
        
        It seems to me that she views her battery charge like a fuel tank, and thinks she’s going to run out of fuel by moving slowly (more efficient in an eV than petrol) or stopped (virtually nil consumption in an eV compared to petrol)
        
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        February 17, 2024 2:37pm
- cmm
  
  Having an EV is like having a special needs child. You have to redesign your life around its needs.
  
  For the zealots, their EV is a new hobby or a baby. Running around gathering charging stats and figuring out when to charge next, remembering it’s little foibles.
  
  No thanks. I want a friggin transport device. Something that serves MY needs, not me serving its needs.
  
  My car is somewhere around half full. I will probably fill it tomorrow, but Wednesday next week would be fine too – still leaving me with well over 100km range to spare.
  
  And filling it will take less than a minute. Less than 2 minutes from when I get out of the car to getting back in – including paying.
  
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  February 17, 2024 11:43am
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    We bought our first EV ten years ago.
    
    Love it so much we bought another one a year ago. We now own two of them and our life doesn’t revolve around their needs.
    
    In all those years of ownership neither has been serviced other than two new tyres, one new 12v battery, two wiper blades and windshield wiper fluid. We managed to do that service ourselves.
    
    It takes less than 30 seconds to plug the EV charge plug into the EV in the evening.
    
    Unless you actually own an EV it will be difficult for anyone to be objective in their statements about EV’s.
    
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    February 17, 2024 2:43pm
    - Inandout
      
      info, I presume you aren’t concerned where the electricity comes from and EVs are your choice of vehicles. I would be annoyed if this winter there is a major EV load on our electricity supply and I can’t cook an evening meal or heat water. On the plus side EV sales are stalling and as my daughter once owned a Tesla she wasn’t pleased at the many hundreds spent keeping the car on the road, She has since ditched the EV and 8 months later the dealer hasn’t yet been able to find a buyer.
      
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      February 17, 2024 3:43pm
      - info@cruzpro.com
        
        I do care about reliable supply of electric energy.
        Hopefully the power generators are analyzing the future needs of Kiwis.
        
        When Marsden oil refinery stopped converting oil into petrol, diesel and avgas they stopped using a lot of electricity which became available for other uses.
        
        Most EV’s are charged at night when excess power is available at lower rates.
        
        Sorry to hear about your daughter’s poor experience with her Tesla. When visiting the USA last year about ten % of the cars we saw were Teslas!
        
        In any event, a year after purchasing our first EV we put 5.3kw of solar on the roof. On a good day that array creates 36kw hrs and we export about half of that to the grid. I’m doing my bit to make sure you will be able to cook your evening meal and have hot water.
        
        3 0
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        February 17, 2024 5:29pm
      - info@cruzpro.com
        
        Kudos to the moderators who are still doing their thing at 5:30 pm on a Saturday evening. 🙂
        
        5 0
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        February 17, 2024 5:40pm
      - KH
        
        Inandout
        “…………I presume you aren’t concerned where the electricity comes from…….”
        So you live in an electricity free place, light it with candles and cook over the open fire ?
        
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        February 17, 2024 7:24pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    You have to alter your life for an ICEV too, it’s just you are used to it.
    
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    February 17, 2024 7:48pm
- Inandout
  
  CN, my goodness that woman and daughter look veganish.
  
  4 2
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  February 17, 2024 12:48pm
  - greybeard
    
    Rather odd names as well.
    
    4 0
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    February 17, 2024 1:42pm
Grunter

Neil Oliver – “What if….?”

This is very good IMO. His questions about WWI is interesting.

It’s about a 15 min watch (great accent too!)

https://youtu.be/hjhWrHFFVV0?feature=shared
2 2
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February 17, 2024 11:12am
- cmm
  
  What ifs tend to be rather pointless because they don’t consider the whole picture.
  
  Incidents don’t cause wars. It is the political pressures of the time.
  
  4 2
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  February 17, 2024 11:49am
  - Don Beckett
    
    .”…..It is the political pressures of the time.”
    
    And political pressures of the time cause incidents – which sometimes lead to confrontations, and occasionally wars.
    
    4 1
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    February 17, 2024 12:53pm
Swifty

An excellent Triggernometry with Peter Boghassian – Why Critical Thinking is Dead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey_0ApAtRcs
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February 17, 2024 12:54pm
fernglas

I’ve discovered why this country is in the shit. It’s because its people are by and large useless. Since being back I have had contact with 5 different services. All of them have fucked up, from not being legally licensed to do what it claims to do, to mislaying emails, to not knowing anything about an area in which she is a specialist team member. It’s a disaster; only a few weeks to get major things sorted, plenty of notice to everyone, and yet not one single person has done their job properly. Productivity does not consist of empty promises.
13 0
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February 17, 2024 12:55pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  And have you noticed no matter WHO you call these days to complain or get something sorted out, there is only about a 5% chance of speaking to someone you can actually understand a word they say.
  
  Personally, I think it’s a deliberate ploy by all government departments, and Sky, so people just hang up.
  
  8 1
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  February 17, 2024 1:34pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    MP most of those call centres outsourced to the Philippines or India seem to be designed to just send people around in circles until they give up in despair (for anything but the most basic transactions, and even those become a mentally exhausting ordeal!).
    
    4 1
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    February 17, 2024 4:37pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Sorry to hear about your poor experience but I can testify that there are also a number of good competent operators. At least in Whangarei.
  
  If you’re having problems with incompetent people you might try limiting yourself to older operators (age wise).
  
  2 0
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  February 17, 2024 1:36pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  FG please see the film “Idiocracy” . Pretty much where we are heading right now.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdPmNM0IF7Y
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz8YpgNcEPg
  
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  February 17, 2024 4:31pm
- Burtland
  
  the best one Ive seen is the power company closing the account but leaving the power connected – when inquiring with the power company, they say youre not a customer.
  
  NZ companies are full of genius’
  
  2 0
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  February 17, 2024 7:49pm
kiwikidsnz

It’s easy to see why NZ has one of the lowest levels of corruption in the world…oh, wait…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-property-developer-dave-henderson-pushes-for-day-in-court/KTM4BEORXFCRBCS6C74XBAEOZA/
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February 17, 2024 2:01pm
thirteenstars

Toyota NZ ad: Let’s Get to Carbon Neutral. Not Mars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a07P24atsaw

Just a horrible ideological message disguised as an ad. Obviously aimed at Musk’s SpaceX, which is infantile, but the deeper message is one of retrenchment, anti-intellectualism and the soul-destroying idea that humanity is not capable of doing many things at once.

Again, witness a civilisation committing suicide, and we’re all along for the ride to hell.
8 0
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February 17, 2024 2:05pm
- Burtland
  
  14 additional flights to Melbourne for swifties – so much for global warming
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/map-reveals-why-taylor-swifts-biggest-fans-are-airlines-serving-eras-tour/GQBLYROQINENBCGGTIY6L6II4M/
  
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  February 17, 2024 7:54pm
Maggie Pie

OMG… just bort the luncheon dishes back up from by the pool.
Not a breath of air down there today and 34 degrees!

Does anyone know if the trains are running?
9 1
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February 17, 2024 2:22pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  You are thinking of travelling with the general riff raff?
  
  5 0
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  February 17, 2024 4:52pm
rouppe

Woman terrified that her eV is going run out of charge stuck in Tauranga (admittedly bad) traffic.

Ev’s don’t use energy while standing still (like ice cars do) other than for accessories. They are also generally more efficient at slower speeds that highway speeds.
She wasn’t worried about getting there if there was no jam, so clearly thought she had enough charge for that. If she was really worried she could have turned off her aircon, any lights she was running, unplugged her phone from charge, turned off the radio, anything using any electricity.

So this fear is just ignorance. People like this vote.
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February 17, 2024 2:31pm
- Albie
  
  Rouppe. You are taking the piss, aren’t you? Are you telling me that if you are on a road trip in your EV and range anxiety is getting the better of you, there are steps you can take, such as turning the a/c off on a hot day, or the heater off when it’s cold?
  
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  February 17, 2024 5:06pm
- cmm
  
  “Ev’s don’t use energy while standing still ”
  
  Yes they do.
  * The power electronics are designed for efficiency when operating at high power. They are relatively inefficient at low power.
  * EVs have cooling systems for the batteries and motors etc.
  * They have electric pumps for brakes and power steering.
  * They have electronics.
  * In hot/cold weather they use power for aircon, heaters and fans.
  
  The last item especially is a huge factor when you’re stuck for a couple of extra hours.
  
  Sure petrol cars consume petrol when idle too, but since you store a massive amount of petrol in a car that’s not such a worry.
  
  People doing road trips with EVs probably don’t plan their journeys with large safety margins because they’d then never go anywhere.
  
  After using my petrol car for a week I’ve used a bit over half a tank. I’ll probably fill up tomorrow. But if I leave it until Wednesday or so no worries. And I would still have about 150km or range left then.
  
  EVs remind me of my father. He was an alcoholic, always worried about where his next drink was coming from. Completely prioritised his life around booze. Same for EVs.
  
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  February 17, 2024 8:30pm
virtualmark

Good news. Sounds like Karl Tiefenbacher has won the Wellington City Council seat that Tamatha Paul has evacuated.

Hopefully that’s another rational voice on the council that will shift the balance a bit.
13 0
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February 17, 2024 3:03pm
- mandk
  
  The WCC website has declared Tiefenbacher has been elected.
  
  Look whom he beat: https://geordierogers.com/
  
  Wellingtonians just dodged a bullet.
  
  11 2
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  February 17, 2024 4:07pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Why do people who call Wellington, “PONEKE”, all like him?
    
    4 2
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    February 17, 2024 4:37pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Because they are trying to keep up with the other w*nkers they associate with??? Don’t want to be embarrassed or shamed at the next dinner party I guess.
      
      4 2
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      February 17, 2024 4:54pm
- artemisia
  
  I expect to see more WCC decisions needing Mayor Whanau’s casting vote. That would focus (even more) pressure and public attention on her.
  
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  February 17, 2024 5:25pm
Maggie Pie

What a bloody CHEEK!

Low-skilled migrant and drain on all NZ taxpayers, who has done SFA to benefit this country since his arrival here, is accusing National of having….. “an incoherent immigration policy”

https://twitter.com/RMarchNZ/status/1758568749622513728

As someone commented…’we’d all be millions better off if he just f***d off back to where he came from. And took his wife with him’
14 1
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February 17, 2024 3:51pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Minister for Tijuana can have sex and travel.
  
  6 3
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  February 17, 2024 4:49pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The United Spot. If you watched Court this week, you will appreciate this.
Fani Willis.
Funny AF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKvJc9qU5SQ
3 4
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February 17, 2024 4:21pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

More:
Letitia James. Again funny AF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–qgr906uuY
3 3
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February 17, 2024 4:30pm
thirteenstars

On the campaign trail, Christopher Luxon time and again picked on the massive staffing increase at the backroom Public Service, which collectively has grown by 15,000 since 2017.

And as National put it in its pre-election fiscal plan (our emphasis):

“Labour inherited a very tidy set of books from National in 2017. But since then, Labour has increased spending by 80 percent and seen debt blow out from $5 billion in 2019 to $104 billion in the latest forecast.”

Yet, despite all that pre-election signalling, the new Government’s only proposal to address Grant Robertson’s monumental growth in the costs of Wellington is to cut the budgets of [checks notes] some Public Service departments by 6.5% or (in a limited number of cases) 7.5%…

Worse still, Finance Minister Nicola Willis is tasking the departmental CEO’s to lead the process and deliver ‘proposals’ on how best to reduce their budgets. That is akin to asking the foxes to guard the hen house and is politically dangerous.

We need only see recent news reports to see how bureaucrats can (and will) threaten politically sensitive frontline services to understand how they will protect their patches – and the empires the same CEOs have created…

https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/newsletter_240217

It’s a good point. If spending rocketed by 80%, surely 70+% of that can’t be justified. But it’s the same old story. The ratchet only goes one way.

There’s concern the Digital Services bill will not be discarded despite the Nats decrying it. If so it’ll make the PIJF rort look like small change compared with what the legacy media companies will reap from it.
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February 17, 2024 4:46pm
Maggie Pie

Things that make you go “hmmm”

People with knowledge of the situation are saying Chippy has been in hi-powered meetings all day to discuss how best to announce his resignation as leader.

Watch this space….
15 1
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February 17, 2024 5:06pm
- greybeard
  
  Feb 28th would be good, he could share the limelight with GG.
  
  10 0
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  February 17, 2024 5:15pm
- Ghost
  
  It’s not that hard.
  
  Dear nz, I quit
  
  I realise the job needs someone who has a passion for honesty, hard work and transparency. Labour will now spend considerable time finding a leftie who knows what that means.
  
  12 0
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  February 17, 2024 5:33pm
  - Swifty
    
    I watched a bit of him speaking in the house this week – hell it was just so depressing.
    
    It was all him just purely taking pot shots at Luxon, having him on about who (Winston, Seymour etc) said what in the past and does Luxon agree with his now partners in government.
    
    No vision, no intelligence, no putting the heat on about great issues facing the country, no carrying himself like he’s our man for the future – no, just petty point scoring about personalities.
    
    It was just pathetic. Schoolboy stuff.
    
    Long they remain in opposition. They and he have got nothing.
    
    10 0
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    February 17, 2024 6:50pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Who will be the new ring leader?
  
  3 2
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  February 17, 2024 6:37pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Robbo 😀 😀 😀
    
    4 1
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    February 17, 2024 6:52pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Robbo’s amazing clown show?
      
      4 1
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      February 17, 2024 7:22pm
      - nathie
        
        Why not, he is well qualified to be the ring master!
        
        2 0
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        February 17, 2024 8:25pm
  - Ghost
    
    Kiri? Oh wait.
    Nanaia? Oh wait.
    Michael Wood? Oh wait.
    
    Hmmmm
    
    8 0
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    February 17, 2024 7:11pm
Swifty

My daughter has just texted me from the Ponsonby Road Pride Parade where the National float has just passed by her (Willis and Bishop were in attendance).

People around her were spitting and cursing the ‘c word’.

Yep, the hate just flows through them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oy6DwHAi70
2 0
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February 17, 2024 8:15pm
- lifesgood
  
  Shame on National for being a part of it, have a bit of dignity and ignore it. Surely there are more important things to worry about than people’s sexual preferences and this parade is kind of sordid.
  
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  February 18, 2024 1:18pm
Jack5

A further indication of the slowdown in motorists moving to electric cars?

Nickel is important in electric-car batteries. The price of nickel ore has fallen 40 per cent or so in the last year.

Now the West Australian Government, probably anticipating still lower d\ prices, has announced a 50 per cent rebate in miners’ state royalty for 18 months, repayable over two years, for when nickel ore is below $A20,000 a tonne.

The spot price of nickel is $US16,084 a tonne. That’s about $24,623.

Sanctions on Russian nickel exports drove a surge in nickel’s price two years ago to $US100,000 a tonne, causing a temporary suspension of trading in nickel on the London Metals Exchange.

You can see the dive in the world nickel-ore price graphed at this web site:

https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/nickel-price?op=1
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February 17, 2024 10:59pm

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