General Debate 19 February 2024

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NeverMindTheBollocks

Just imagine, for a moment, that the Greens get their way & shut down fossil fuel extraction.

* a lack of goods being produced will see hyperinflation (too much money chasing too few goods), followed by bank failures as debt repayment collapses.
* Concomitant, businesses will fail, both because virtually all of them rely on fossil fuels & because of the bank failures. The electricity & internet grids will likewise fail.
* Central government can’t survive widespread bank failure, so they will fall. And so on.
* A likely outcome is a return to subsistence agriculture, local government (or warlords).

Of course, most of those countries that have fossil fuels won’t stop extracting them; they’ll simply march in & take over those fools that do.

This should be mandatory reading for every young person.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/10-Reasons-Why-the-World-Cant-Run-Without-Fossil-Fuels.html
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February 19, 2024 8:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  All you say is just what the Greens want. De-evolution to save the planet.
  It is a mental disorder.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:29am
  - imalwaysright
    
    S.O
    
    If they cared about the planet they would acknowledge scientific evidence that contradicts their ideology.
    
    Greens are only interested in controlling other people.
    They all have Daddy issues and are looking for revenge.
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:41am
    - gravedodger
      
      Very sorry iawr, that would require a cognitive ability that is entirely missing in their makeup.
      Observe if you will, the cell phone and the clothing, all oil dependent at every demonstration of their personal utter hypocrisy.
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:52am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Scientific evidence does not tell them how the planet feels, or how they feel.
      As I said, they have a mental disorder.
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:03am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Don’t panic! Chloe says green economics will provide a fairer society for all…
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:14am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    AOC must teach her.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:04am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Re: the consequences of not using fossil fuels – yep, that’s the plan.
  On top of that, if you believe the alarmist claims, we’ll all be colder as well.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:25am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    WHY ARE MY PRICES CHANGING
    
    My Inbox, from Mercury Energy this morning where they’ve included a link about New Zealand’s Journey to Net Zero.
    
    We’re on a journey all right, but with no heroes involved, no hope and a seat in hell at the end of it – Dantes version that is, most likely the Ninth Circle.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:47am
    - ISeeRed
      
      We must vote National in the upcoming election! Only a responsible sensible conservative government can stop the climate crisis cultists!
      
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      February 19, 2024 3:59pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Ah! This is more of that laughing while crying stuff isn’t it. 🙂
        
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        February 19, 2024 11:53pm
  - R
    
    Won’t we have all drowned due to the rising sea levels, as the boiling earth
    melts all the world’s ice
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:47am
- Im Right
  
  Yes….BUT, what the Greens always do (the left in general), with any report that goes against their mantra, is any sensible well researched paper/opinion is gone over with a microscope, NOT the facts presented nor the analysis, but who authored it and a back ground check on the author as well as the company/institution that they work for or commissioned the report, all they have to find is ONE person who previously worked for an oil company, or the institution received a donation (amongst hundreds of donations) from some organisation that is involved with fossil fuels and BINGO!! the whole report is trashed as ‘big oil’ propaganda.
  Works every time, and the report is dismissed by the left as a whole.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:48pm
  - Local Miller
    
    And if they can’t find such a person/donation/whatever, they will trash the report as “big oil” propaganda anyway.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:52pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

RNZ has surveyed schools eligible for the taxpayer-funded $150 per head donation replacement.

De La Salle College in Otara is eligible for the scheme but has opted out, instead asking parents to pay $120 per student. Principal Myles Hogarty said that this was for philosophical reasons.

“Parents are asked to contribute and have ownership in their son’s education through a minor financial contribution. We did not join the Government donation scheme as we are opposed to the creation of a hand-out mentality. Removing a parent’s obligation to fund their son’s education builds a culture of dependency on the state to provide more and more.” Based on figures provided by the school, this philosophical stance meant the school missed out on almost $90,000 in 2023.

I bet RNZ weren’t expecting that comment!

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/509520/school-donations-continue-to-yield-millions-of-dollars-for-wealthier-schools
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February 19, 2024 8:02am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  NMTB, when I was on school board, the donations were for extra-curricular stuff. For instance, taking the kids sailing or kayaking. Tramping (Tongariro Crossing), that sort of thing. So the donation was for things that were over and above the cost of delivery of the Government (teacher Union) driven curriculum. Schools are “wealthier” because they have the kids of wealthier parents attending. I hope RNZ aren’t making a case that it’s somehow unfair.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:13am
  - thirteenstars
    
    If that’s the case then I remember my parents paying a small fee towards things like school camps. I can’t remember how much it was but even if it was five or ten dollars that was the 70s and it would be the equivalent of at least $50 today.
    
    We also held fundraisers for special activities, which I think is a good way to go since it teaches kids some business skills at the same time.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:03am
    - Sacha
      
      When my children were at primary school (some decades ago now) we had fund-raising for such activities as school camps, so that ALL the children in the group could attend, even if their parents couldn’t afford to pay. The unspoken reason was so that no-one would miss out, and that no child should feel deprived and no child would be able to claim superiority by virtue of their parents being relatively well off.
      Back then, if a Dad had a concrete mixer, the Committee would ask him to help out with laying a new path, and there would be a gang of Dads to work with him. The mums would make scones and tea. Social networks were formed.
      Mind you, this WAS small town New Zealand –
      
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      February 19, 2024 12:25pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        The school wouldn’t let fathers anywhere near that kind of work these days.
        
        Regulation kills not only initiative but the kindness of a helping hand.
        
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        February 19, 2024 1:44pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        There were Wallys around in the 1960s..
        
        When my eldest brother started at the local High school my old man volunteered to bang up some booths and shelters on Gala Day.
        
        After being instructed where the constructions were to go and what sizes were required, the old man set to work… only to be constantly harassed by someone from the Gala committee to change something or be “assisted” by someone who didn’t know how to hammer a nail.
        
        That was the last time he volunteered his time and skills (qualified carpenter) to any school.
        
        (Great from my p.o.v. – He never bothered turning up to any Parent-teacher meeting)
        
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        February 19, 2024 2:10pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        When I was on the Board Sacha, the same parents turned up to help time after time. And generally, there’d be not that many. And yes, there’d be fund raising as well. Pretty much always being organised by the same people, who put in hours and hours of their time. Fund raising also helped with building facilities that MOE wouldn’t fund (after all, you have x number of kids, you only get x number of sqm of building space).
        
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        February 19, 2024 2:23pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      13stars
      You are aaa little bit short!
      $10 in 1972 is equal $156 today
      
      https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/about-monetary-policy/inflation-calculator
      
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      February 19, 2024 3:06pm
- NoFax
  
  Small correction, De La Salle is in Mangere.
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:24pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Quoted from RNZ.
    
    Please direct your feedback to https://www.rnz.co.nz/complaints#:~:text=Submit%20feedback%20on%20an%20RNZ,your%20message%20is%20passed%20on.
    
    You have not been charged for this service.
    
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    February 19, 2024 12:56pm
Flossie

Very unfunny “cartoon” in NZ Herald this morning. To me showing the PM as announcing tax cuts for rich is next to disinformation.
Sorry I don’t know how to provide links.
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February 19, 2024 8:04am
- Peter Lane
  
  Totally agree. Every day we’re subjected to this garbage. Emmerson is the worst of a very bad bunch.
  
  I have no problem with the government being lampooned as long as there is a bit of balance – a word that seems anathema to these clowns.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:08am
- Paulus
  
  Typical cartoon from a Herald media arsehole.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:34pm
Bridgenag

File under “Good to Know”: From Robert W Malone
“Sea lioning is a trolling or harassment tactic commonly deployed in online discussions and blogs. It involves the attacker asking relentless and insincere questions or requests for evidence under the guise of civility and a desire for genuine debate. These requests are often tangential or previously addressed, and when well deployed the attacker maintains a pretense of civility and sincerity, while feigning ignorance of the subject matter. Sea lioning is aimed at exhausting the patience and goodwill of the target, making them appear unreasonable.”

Recognise them on Kiwiblog?
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February 19, 2024 8:09am
- Matt Long
  
  Yep.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:27am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Not missing one of them.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:30am
- KiwiSapper
  
  Sorry, no I don’t. please tell me about it.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:30am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    Very droll… that comment made me grin!
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:19am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Well done.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:20am
Dudley Quaffquaff

What are learner drivers taught about moving forward on a green light when they are prevented from turning right by oncoming traffic? Back in the old country I was taught to move forward, past the lights, and wait in the middle until the oncoming traffic was stopped by the lights and then complete the turn. But here I’ve seen drivers wait at the lights, holding up the drivers behind them who want to go straight on, such that by the time the oncoming traffic is stopped by the lights – so are we, and nobody has been able to get past the lights. Nobody seems to object to this (in terms of horn tooting) so are they right?
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February 19, 2024 8:14am
- pdm
  
  I am with you Dudley.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:25am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Learner drivers can’t drive because the driving instructors can’t drive.
  They don’t even understand that when a red arrow goes out they have full access to the intersection.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:33am
- Homas
  
  I always go here:
  
  https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0427/latest/DLM302188.html#DLM303039
  
  Clause 4.5 states in relevant part “…a driver approaching an intersection or an area controlled by traffic signals must not enter the intersection or controlled area if the driver’s intended passage or exit is blocked by stationary traffic.”
  
  So you can have one car out there in the intersection per se (Melbourne styles) but not a queue, I guess.
  
  I think that is the only relevant bit, but my advice is worth precisely what you’re paying for it…possibly even less…
  
  While we’re on the general topic, as an oftentimes pedestrian, I’d be mighty obliged if motoring folk could cast their eyes over clause 4.4:
  
  “(1) A driver entering or exiting a driveway must give way to a road user on a footpath, cycle path, or shared path (as described by clause 11.1A(1)).”
  
  Hint – your vehicle fully straddling the footpath does not satisfy the requirement to “give way”.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:17am
  - gravedodger
    
    Yes but common sense suggests that queuing and going on the amber light improves traffic flow substantially. One vehicle per cycle is damn stupid.
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:56am
    - Paulus
      
      Common sense is no longer in our vocabulary after the Ardern era.
      
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      February 19, 2024 1:35pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Common sense was long gone before she tried to steal it.
        
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        February 19, 2024 3:57pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    4.5 is possibly referring to traffic that is backed up so far that you can’t drive through the intersection and therefore would be stranded when your traffic lights turn red. Some intersections have yellow crosshatching to specifically warn drivers not to enter.
    
    But when turning right and having to wait for oncoming traffic to clear there’s no such danger because when the lights turn red the oncoming traffic stops and you can turn out and away from the intersection.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:08am
    - nova
      
      Allowing one car to move into the intersection is allowed providing their exit isn’t blocked. A pedant could argue that a second car is allowed providing it enters whilst the car in front is still moving forwards to the turn space, given the legislation specifically refers to passage blocked by “stationary traffic”.
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:41am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        My point is what is that ‘stationary traffic’ doing in the middle of the intersection – blocking right turning traffic?
        
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        February 19, 2024 3:59pm
    - Dave
      
      … because when the lights turn red the oncoming traffic stops…
      
      Would that this were true.
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:31pm
    - miltonF
      
      Except for when the oncoming traffic doesn’t stop when their light turns orange/red. Which can happen quite a lot during heavy traffic when drivers try to sneak through.
      
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      February 19, 2024 4:59pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I always thought blocking an intersection was illegal.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:11am
    - sirknz
      
      I have seen police who were blocked by vehicles on an intersection do nothing about it.
      
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      February 19, 2024 4:32pm
- miltonF
  
  I used to do this. Move forward into the intersection waiting to turn right. But I’ve been caught out too many times by idiot oncoming drivers running their orange/red lights. Leaving me floundering in the middle of the intersection on a red light. If there is quite a bit of traffic I always now wait at the light. I only move forward if there is little traffic.
  
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  February 19, 2024 4:56pm
Matt Long

What would happen if a dark skinned Harvard Professor published a study that contradicted the prevailing narrative about police discrimination?
The Professor would need armed guards and face being shut down, “Fryer, who became the youngest tenured Black professor at Harvard at age 30, was suspended for two years from the university in 2019 after he allegedly engaged in “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. He continues to deny the allegations.

At the time, then-Harvard dean Claudine Gay claimed Fryer’s research and conduct with other employees “exhibited a pattern of behavior” that failed to meet expectations within the community.”
Never, never attempt to present facts that contradict The Narrative.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/harvard-professor-all-hell-broke-loose-study-found-no-racial-bias-police-shootings
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February 19, 2024 8:18am
- Matt Long
  
  If the facts contradict The Narrative, then bury the news.
  According to CNN, the shooters were dark skinned whites.
  https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1759106509236273213?s=20
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:21am
  - Matt Long
    
    Fortunately we have totally unbiased misinformation specialists to prevent the facts from getting in the way of The Narrative.
    https://x.com/BjornLomborg/status/1758524687632757174?s=20
    
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    February 19, 2024 8:24am
- Blog-aholic
  
  The very same Claudine Gay, now departed because of her addiction to plagerism……
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:23am
  - Che Guava
    
    “The very same Claudine Gay, now departed because of her addiction to plagerism……”
    
    As I’ve successfully argued on numerous occasions, Gay departed because of her insufficient obedience to her Zionist donor masters.
    
    Gay’s plagiarism, while real, played about as much actual part in her downfall as this guy Fryer’s alleged “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” which, like in Gay’s case, was just a facade behind which his actual “crime” was disguised (i.e. narrative contradiction).
    
    I think most people can understand the dynamic between the allegations and the real motivations in Fryer’s case, yet, willfully or not, they are ignorant of the equivalent dynamic in Gay’s case.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:36pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘successfully argued’
      Snigger- more like people ignored you and moved on
      
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      February 19, 2024 3:19pm
      - Che Guava
        
        Step up to the plate, if you dare. I’m always happy to debate any point. Nobody’s stopping you, except yourself if you get my drift.
        
        I get a lot of downticks for someone who is ignored. Not that many rebuttals, though, which is odd given how wrong people think I am.
        
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        February 19, 2024 3:36pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        You’ve been fisked by me before-on more than one occasion and memorably, when your own links showed you to be wrong. Lol
        Personally I think youre an extremist and so tend to ignore your nonsense.
        
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        February 19, 2024 9:16pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Not departed, demoted to her previous position.
    
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    February 19, 2024 8:59pm
- Notsofast
  
  Here is one of the best discussions, starts with music but goes onto criminology.
  Heather Mac Donald
  She is 67, knows plenty.
  
  1hour 6 minutes
  
  https://youtu.be/yKyPPxMeiuE?si=YGYaPT073XYKQ308
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:06am
- Che Guava
  
  “Never, never attempt to present facts that contradict The Narrative.”
  
  Tell me about it. In the last few months, perceptive readers of this blog will have seen demonstrated that people, independent of their political persuasion, tend to react badly when their sacred cows are culled before their eyes, no matter how much they like to tell themselves that they go only wherever the truth leads them.
  
  The irony of your comment is that you are one of the main “offenders” in this regard.
  
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  February 19, 2024 2:29pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Fortunately you have assisted our own perceptiveness with your onw words stating that you deplore Homosexuality and think its immoral.
    You think women should never be in a position of authority as they are inferior to men in that role and you ain’t very fond of “The Joos”
    
    I think your overly verbose too and you seem to think that writing a lot of words is ‘winning the argument’.
    
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    February 19, 2024 3:23pm
    - Che Guava
      
      “…you deplore Homosexuality and think its immoral.”
      
      This is the first time you’ve ever correctly represented anything I’ve ever said. The funny thing is, you think that stating my position is an “own.”
      
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      February 19, 2024 3:33pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        I do gaze in wonder how open you are about your Bigotry
        And I said own words not ‘as an own’
        Which illustrates the ongoing issue of your comprehension problems
        
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        February 19, 2024 9:56pm
  - Matt Long
    
    The difference here is the professor did research using real data, found the data did not meet his expectations and ran the data again with the same results before publishing it.
    He did not for example say the Joos or whites have corrupted the database and bring out a paper twisting the data to conform to his prejudices.
    n.b Disagreeing is not the same as shutting down or deplatforming.
    
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    February 19, 2024 3:46pm
Maggie Pie

A besti asks…

So what changed?

“Let’s wake up, get up, and stop living in the past.”

– John Tamihere (Oct. 1, 2000)

https://twitter.com/NMadeinNZ/status/1759032357670302121

The gravy train pulled into the station and JT jumped aboard, that’s wot.

(the comments are delicious 😀 )
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February 19, 2024 8:21am
- pdm
  
  MP – he also became best mates with the activist Willie Jackson.
  
  Enough said!!
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:44am
  - sirknz
    
    You mean Shanghai Willie?
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:33am
- Grunter
  
  Always follow the money. JT is now a very wealthy Maori Separatist.
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:52am
  - Im Right
    
    As is Willy Jackson Grunter!
    No different to the BLM top tier all suddenly millionaires…..go figure eh?
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:17am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Saw Willie on am Fri with Paul Goldsmith .
      He kept accusing Goldsmith of national looking after their rich mates.
      Goldsmith sat there taking it instead of saying to Willie
      
      ” Tell us about your rich mates Willie .
      Show us all where you live Willie, show us all how rich you are Willie, tell the poor maoris you claim to speak for why you are so rich and they are so poor.
      Where has their money gone Wealthy Willie ?”
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:01am
- Stellaboxer
  
  So what changed? The man’s a grifter plain and simple as I have commented before when there was money in being the moderate Māori John was your man when the money was in being radical likewise. So what changed? Well not John just where the trough is now.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:08am
slightlyrighty

Why is Wellington Central so tribally Green?

I see that the gap between the Green Candidate and Karl Tiefenbacher has reduced to about 160 votes with specials still to be counted.

Why is it that the people of Central Wellington seem to be becoming conditioned to Vote Green without thinking?

In the Last Election we had one candidate (National) in Wellington Central with the most impressive CV with a 25 year career as a Human Rights Lawyer, working for the NZ Government, Working for the Defence Department, the UN, as a tutor at University level, Was the Vice Chair of the Legal (Sixth) Committee of the General Assembly, worked as the legal advisor for the Sri Lankan campaign for peace and justice. and much more besides!

We had another candidate (Green) that had been a student Politician and a Graphic Designer for a community Law office. and that’s it. The sum total of this candiadtes achievement.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s something in the water…..except that system is buggered as well!
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February 19, 2024 8:27am
- Im Right
  
  Te Aro is infested with young activists….the ‘rent a crowd mob’, those that will turn up and protest for the inclusion of anything that sniffs of socialism and of course anti-capitalism….
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:21am
- virtualmark
  
  Mainly because Wellington Central has a lot of university students (the Vic Uni hostels are concentrated in the central city, and many/most student flats are in Te Aro or Mt Victoria). But then add to that a lot of recent university graduates live in flats in the central city.
  
  Both those groups overwhelmingly vote Green.
  
  I think Karl Tiefenbacher was a bit fortunate that this bye-election was held during the University summer break, because otherwise the extra student population might have moved the result the other way.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:32am
  - RoboRob
    
    More that a bit fortunate I would say!
    
    Interestingly we hosted a group of testosterone infused 18yr old men watching MMA. Without prompting at one stage there was, quite vitriolic, comments about the left and progressives. This was led by the son of a solo mother who works to support his mum and brother.
    
    I wonder if this is the trend we are seeing in the US too. Men, young and old, moving sharply to the right and woman hard left? Perhaps its that MMA fans a right wing, who knows 😊
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:00am
    - Che Guava
      
      Hitler and Mussolini are quite big among the youth right now. That’s why the thought police are always squealing about “online Nazis.” I think its the aesthetic and the recognition of the similar social decay as occurred in the 1930s. I can’t see a bunch of testosterone-fueled youth fawning over “right wingers” such as Thatcher and Reagan like their grandfathers do.
      
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      February 19, 2024 3:42pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Female journalists also seem to like MMA, if TVNZ is anything to go by. It’s very odd.
      
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      February 19, 2024 8:25pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        Not odd at all. There are stories from ancient Rome about upper class women getting private audiences with Gladiators backstage at the colosseum.
        The odd thing is that there are people who don’t believe that males and females have different innate psychological traits, despite literally millions of years of evidence.
        
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        February 19, 2024 9:11pm
- kiwikidsnz
  
  “the system…” should be that only ratepayers are allowed to vote.
  
  The left’s argument that tenants pay rates via rent is arrant self serving nonsense.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:43am
  - NoFax
    
    Of course the tenant pays the rates – you think the landlord doesn’t take rates into account when calculating the costs? However, I think it’s funny that the Left can see how these costs are passed onto the tenant but other costs they imposed are somehow absorbed by the landlord.
    
    7 1
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    February 19, 2024 12:32pm
G152

How about those protesting for the Palestinian all get together, fund a couple of B747 and fly to the Gaza and do their protesting there.
Or just maybe that might be a little getting real????
15 1
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February 19, 2024 8:29am
- Burtland
  
  14 additional flights to Taylor Swift concerts – none to Gaza
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:39am
- RoboRob
  
  They should fly to the states. From my limited experience with these protesters it is much more about being Anti US then pro palestinian. It’s the whole ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ shtick.
  
  Of course there are some that are just anti Semitic too.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:03am
- Jake Dee
  
  Can’t get into Gaza by air or sea, it’s been under blockade for years.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:13pm
Matt Long

Waka Koha has figured out a new way to pay for bicycle lanes. Speed cameras will no longer be run by police.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/revealed-transport-officials-plans-to-quadruple-speed-cameras-triple-traffic-tickets-and-save-lives/XIFM2JACOJF5RJV3GC4CSYCJEI/
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February 19, 2024 8:30am
- cas
  
  Speaking of police, I was breathalysed yesterday morning while heading out of town. This is the second time in 6 months, I have been stopped for a breath test near town at 11.30 in the morning. About 6 police on duty. not a good use of police resources I thought.
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Many pisspots are over the limit when driving to work at 7am.
    Not mentioning someone I know..
    Out in the bright sun doing 3 x WOF, “did you get on the piss last night Steve?”
    “I get on the piss every night mate”
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:39am
  - peterwn
    
    The Police still find drivers who have high alcohol content and hence are a road hazard at that time. If they were catching zilch drink-drives at that time they would not bother.
    
    10 2
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    February 19, 2024 9:44am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      What? You think the strategy is data-led?
      
      Have you not been paying attention?
      
      0 1
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      February 19, 2024 8:27pm
      - peterwn
        
        Please explain. Or does Sarge say ‘we have nothing better to do today, so let’s send the booze bus to High Street’.
        
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        February 19, 2024 10:28pm
  - Ghost
    
    They will be the road unit, and if they stop someone driving drunk and causing an accident then great.
    
    5 2
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    February 19, 2024 9:49am
    - gravedodger
      
      I know functioning alcohol users who are a damn sight less of a hazard than a teen ager on meth who will just boot it if threatened with a stop by plod. yet I remain unaware of any drug testing at those road block surveillance efforts.
      
      6 0
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      February 19, 2024 11:36am
      - Ghost
        
        So when I was in primary school one of my friends was coming home from a holiday in the bus. The bus went past their mother’s car, she had been killed by a drunk driver. Actually I’ll go further and tell you their mother was decapitated in the accident. They saw their mother’s car, they knew their mother was dead.
        
        When I was in intermediate my brothers friend was killed by a drunk driver.
        
        When I was in high school, 4 kids in the school were killed when driving drunk they smashed at speed into the back of a parked truck
        
        No, drunk drivers aren’t safe on the road.
        
        9 0
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        February 19, 2024 12:17pm
      - Ghost
        
        Whoops meant to add this
        
        https://www.transport.govt.nz/area-of-interest/safety/drug-driving-testing/
        
        2 0
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        February 19, 2024 12:32pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        You certainly seem to be unlucky when it comes to drunk driving deaths in your circle, Ghost. Perhaps I live a sheltered life, but I can’t say that I’ve ever known anyone to die in a car accident involving alcohol or drugs.
        
        0 0
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        February 19, 2024 8:30pm
- Grunter
  
  NZTA – lets use their correct names. It makes it easier to understand who you are discussing.
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:55am
  - Matt Long
    
    Until the current board and executives have received their DCM, the organisation is functional and the Roads are being maintained, they’re still Waka Koha.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/509316/emails-reveal-concerns-within-waka-kotahi-about-name-change
    
    12 1
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    February 19, 2024 9:33am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Alwyn Poole may have come up with the most apt name:
      
      Waka Conetahi
      
      18 0
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      February 19, 2024 10:09am
      - fightingtemeraire
        
        Drive around Rifle Range Road and the area in Hamilton.
        
        There should be a cull.
        
        4 0
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        February 19, 2024 10:53am
    - Matt Long
      
      Video of the current CE here, and it’s no wonder our roads are shot.
      
      3 0
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      February 19, 2024 10:54am
      - Matt Long
        
        Oops, Here
        https://x.com/TheRedbaiter/status/1759064309160935700?s=20
        
        2 0
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        February 19, 2024 2:46pm
  - Paulus
    
    In passing I see that St John is having to cut back as funding is becoming limited.
    I have supported St John for years, and paid for their use, but have and will not subscribe when they became some Maori name Hato Hone.
    I am not alone I understand – sad, but they are a great organisation – I had a Heart Attack recently so I know and will pay them, but nothing extra as they would like.
    Become St John again !
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:46pm
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350184047/praise-and-protest-big-day-contrasts-chris-luxon
Can anyone recall when Tova O’Brien ever questioned or criticised Labour Party politicians in the same way as she undermines Luxon here?
Why does the msm so shamelessly seek to now hold the new government to account for policies that the people voted for when they ever did it to Ms Ardern and her crew?
And the snide comments about Luxon’s appearance illustrate a bully in the playground mindset from Ms O’Brien.
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February 19, 2024 8:32am
- Vinicius
  
  I made a new year’s resolution that I’m sticking to which is to no longer click on, read or share online these biased clickbait puff pieces by journos like Tova, Audrey Young, Jenna Lynch, John Campbell et al.
  
  The more clicks these articles get the more they’ll keep on publishing them.
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:41am
  - Biscuit
    
    Vini, perhaps against my better judgement, I read Tova’s spiel today.
    
    Well, until I ran into the paragraphs I copy below:
    
    ‘His visit was cut short but Luxon told Stuff he still plans to attend the annual rainbow community event next year.
    The constitution of our prime minister perhaps less fragile than that of the country.
    “The state of the nation is fragile” was the key takeaway from the PM’s big speech and it’s hard to argue with’
    
    What on Earth are you trying to say in that second paragraph, Ms O’Brien?
    
    You seem at least one verb short.
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:37am
    - Gravelroad
      
      If you look at the photo of Mr Luxon (wearing blue shirt) I took it to mean that Ms O’Brien was slyly referring to his physical “constitution” ie maybe he had put on some weight – aka “fat shaming” which we know is totally unacceptable when referring to other people – especially of the female kind.
      Been eating too many biscuits, eh Biscuit….
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:08am
      - Biscuit
        
        Tova wouldn’t dream of ‘fat shaming’ any female, Gravelroad.
        
        But it’s curious that, although happy to go after Chris Luxon, she hasn’t managed to note that there’s almost a solar eclipse here in Wellington any time her bestie’s ex- Minister of Finance stands up…
        
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        February 19, 2024 11:23am
    - David Garrett
      
      Biscuit: She is more than a verb short mate…
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:27am
      - G152
        
        She has the IQ of a damp lettuce leaf if thats any help
        
        8 1
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        February 19, 2024 11:33am
  - NoFax
    
    They aren’t journalists, they are activists. I’ve also decided not to go to any legacy media website as well. I gave up broadcast media 15 years ago. The money is running out and I’m happy to see these hateful outlets die.
    
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    February 19, 2024 12:37pm
- pdm
  
  Had you not noticed that before Gravel?
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:46am
- MCōs
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Mr Luxon is criticized endlessly on this forum, but don’t let anyone else climb on the bandwagon, particularly a young female journalist
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:48am
  - Nukuleka
    
    Rather missing the point, MCõs. As you so frequently and wilfully do.
    
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    February 19, 2024 8:56am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Is Tova still considered a young journo? Go figure.
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:00am
    - MCōs
      
      She’s about 41.
      I would say that was young, although way older than Simeon and Brooke
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:27am
  - Yabster
    
    comparing kiwiblog to stuffed is ridiculous- young? I suppose that depends on your viewpoint- she is 42 ! Yes she is female- but how is that relevant? She is part of the socialist biased left MSM – you must be a big fan mcos.
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:01am
    - pdm
      
      Tova presents and photographs well.
      
      It is when she opens her gob in interviews or publishes Opinion pieces (of drivel) that her true colours show.
      
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      February 19, 2024 9:32am
      - kevn
        
        pdm… Like Joanne Forbes, aka mihi something.
        
        13 0
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        February 19, 2024 9:51am
      - RoboRob
        
        After Stuff folds next year expect to see Tova standing for Labour. I believe she will be their leader at some point, maybe not for the next election but probably the following.
        
        10 0
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        February 19, 2024 10:07am
      - David Garrett
        
        Tova presents and photographs well
        
        Really? But then no accounting for taste as they say…to me she is borderline anorexic. But then I’ve always liked women with a bit of meat in their bones.
        
        6 1
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        February 19, 2024 10:29am
      - Jack5
        
        DG’s post at 10.29 …I’ve always liked women with a bit of meat in their bones.
        
        Holy shit, DG!
        
        Attractiveness of women relates to their looks, not to how they would be when cooked.
        
        5 0
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        February 19, 2024 4:26pm
  - RoboRob
    
    This site is an open forum to discuss politics. Of course people will have positive and negative positions on people and policy.
    
    Stuff has editorials that paid staff write. When labour was in power the paid staff wrote ~ 95% positive stories on Labour. Since the new government was formed the paid articles are ~80% negative. There have probably been more negative stories about Luxon in < 100 days then JA received in the 5yrs before she left. I heard a report on the radio that Luxons recent speech was 'the last time he could blame failures in the economy or education on the previous government', sound fair?
    
    The media are showing their obvious bias. The majority of NZ was dissatisfied with the previous government and wanted change. A media that continually fights against that change will not get watches, listens or clicks. They will reap what they sow.
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:02am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Yes Robo, one of those reports that the current govt will no longer be able to blame the previous govt for anything, comes from Massey University ‘expert’ on NZ politics, Grant Duncan
      
      19 0
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      February 19, 2024 9:34am
      - RoboRob
        
        I am rapidly heading to the point where I dismiss anything that comes out of an ‘experts’ mouth. Especially University ‘experts’. You know, the academics with generally zero real world experience in high paying jobs totally isolated from the actual economy.
        
        Sadly, and stupidly, I am at that point with scientific studies. I now assume BS and wait for the follow up studies. The latest stupid study is one claiming the insects aren’t in fact attracted to light at night and that it disorients them instead. Real world experience makes me highly sceptical if this sort of garbage study.
        
        15 0
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        February 19, 2024 10:13am
      - RoboRob
        
        Checked out his personal site. He claims to be impartial however a look at his posts gives a pretty good hint of where he actually stands.
        
        https://marlin-gopher-zaza.squarespace.com/blog
        
        The most recent 6 posts…
        
        ‘Where to now for NZ Labour?’
        ‘Ardern’s resignation: was it timely?’
        ‘What’s wrong with democracy? ‘
        ‘The long Covid-19 emergency: when does it end?’
        ‘Te Pāti Māori calls for constitutional change ‘
        ‘Labour’s income insurance proposal ‘
        
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        February 19, 2024 10:19am
      - Local Miller
        
        @Robo Actually the one about insects being confused by the lights is probably correct. Insects have compound eyes, which is essentially a cluster of hexagonal tubes with a lens at the top of each one and a light sensitive film at the bottom. Flying under the moon or sun, both of which are far enough away that the insects small movement cause little change in the image, allows the insect to navigate level flight (keep the light pattern constant). In the presence of a local light source, the change in angle in the compound eye becomes much larger as the insect flies, so to fly what it “thinks” is horizontal relative to the ground, it actually needs to fly in a circle around the light (keep the light pattern constant), eventually flying into the light. This concept has been understood for quite a long time, certainly at least since the compound eye was largely understood. In simple terms, the insect is confused. It thinks it’s flying horizontally, but is actually flying in a circle (more a random ball) around the light.
        
        3 0
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        February 19, 2024 4:18pm
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Surely Tova’s rapidly progressing through her ‘youth adjacent’ phase by now…?
    
    14 0
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    February 19, 2024 9:11am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Yep, she’s only 10 years away from Menopause…could well be in perimenopause.
      
      9 0
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      February 19, 2024 10:54am
      - Jethrod
        
        Needs a rugrat PDQ!
        
        3 0
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        February 19, 2024 1:24pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Forgotten to have children
        
        1 1
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        February 19, 2024 9:33pm
  - I remember when
    
    MCos:
    You forgot strident and vicious.
    
    4 0
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    February 19, 2024 9:38am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Factually incorrect MCos. O’Brien is not a journalist. O’Brien is similar to Mike Hosking, in that she gives her opinion about what is happening in NZ.
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:19am
    - MCōs
      
      Commentator then
      
      3 0
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      February 19, 2024 11:28am
- David Garrett
  
  Gravel: Absolutely. That rave is nothing more than the skeletal Ms O’Brien’s opinion; she makes absolutely no effort to be balanced in any way – it could be summarized in one sentence: “Chris Hipkins and Labour good; National and Luxon bad”.
  
  But on a wider note…why do National polis feel the need to virtue signal at this and other ridiculous “gay pride” events? (I do hope Seymour didn’t attend). Anyone with any intelligence knows Gays are born not made – we might as well have a “Short Pride Day” for vertically challenged chaps like me.
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:58am
  - DaleK
    
    He did. As did Brooke VanVelden. https://www.instagram.com/p/C3eDLJ0v1ix/?img_index=1
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:04am
    - David Garrett
      
      Oh dear…so the current ACT MP’s are just as prone to virtue signaling as the Nats are…shame on them.
      
      19 0
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      February 19, 2024 9:45am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    A number of gay people opine that their time was much better in the old Hero days; I think they find this Pride thingy’s all a bit too much…
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:13am
  - cmm
    
    DG: You’re only short because your inherent right to be tall was stolen from you by tall gened people such as myself (6ft 5). You’re the victim here.
    
    Yes there is “tall privilege”. It is not imposed on the world by tall people. It is just biological preferences. Historically, taller people were better fed, more successful etc. That’s all imprinted on us as a society.
    
    It is just assumed that tall people are in authority, are more intelligent and more capable. This sometimes comes with a burden on tall people. A form of noblesse oblige
    
    Of course there are many successful short people, but they no doubt have to work harder to prove it.
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:19am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      I think tall people on average die earlier than short people?
      
      Revenge, we will have our revenge!
      
      9 0
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      February 19, 2024 10:07am
      - Flossie
        
        Yes they must do. Ever heard if a Big Old Lady? It’s always Little Old Lady. As a very undersized specimen I find that’s the only positive in being a short female.
        
        12 0
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        February 19, 2024 10:28am
      - Bridgenag
        
        I think vertically challenged is kinder
        
        3 0
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        February 19, 2024 12:06pm
      - Local Miller
        
        Little old Lady seems to be the thing. My mother’s 4″ 6′ (1.37m for those who don’t understand the old language) and she’s just turned 94. Here 5 sisters were all similar heights, and except for one, all made it to their 90s.
        Go the short people.
        
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        February 19, 2024 4:23pm
      - cmm
        
        Revenge comes far sooner than that. The world is designed for gnomes. If you’re taller you go through life smashing your head against things, feet sticking out of beds, struggling to find shoes and clothing to fit,…
        
        Get into a car like a BMW 7 series and your shoulders touch the ceiling.
        
        I was in the Army for about 6 weeks before they found a pair of boots that was big enough for me.
        
        “I think tall people on average die earlier than short people?”
        
        It is not a straight line.
        
        The medium to slightly tall apparently live longest. IIRC about 6ft is about peak.
        
        The short arses live a bit shorter than them.
        
        According to the cardiologist I spoke with, being 6ft 5 ish knocks 5 years off my life expectancy.
        
        5 0
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        February 19, 2024 5:32pm
  - Ghost
    
    Why not? Politicians go to many events to show their support. Why should they not go to this?
    
    5 7
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    February 19, 2024 9:53am
    - David Garrett
      
      Because having “pride” in a trait you were born with is inherently ridiculous.
      
      14 0
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      February 19, 2024 10:31am
      - Ghost
        
        I think everyone should celebrate and have pride in who they are. We have Diwali Festival, Chinese new year, even used to have boobs on bikes, etc, get out more and celebrate. Might as well have some fun because these buggers look like they want wars and more control of society.
        
        5 2
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        February 19, 2024 10:37am
      - kowtow
        
        Yer “celebrate” “buggers” , why not .Innit.
        
        5 0
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        February 19, 2024 11:33am
      - Local Miller
        
        Sorry David, there is NO evidence that one is born gay. They’ve been trying to prove this for at least 50 years and have not been able to. It’s now just become a matter of belief for the LGBTQ+++ community and its promoters.
        
        1 0
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        February 19, 2024 4:26pm
      - cmm
        
        Ghost, celebrating a cultural event, be that Diwali of Christmas is not necessarily pride.
        
        The whole idea of black pride, white pride or gay pride is preposterous.
        
        Having the courage to come out of the closet and proclaim yourself as gay 50 years ago was an accomplishment. It was something to be proud of.
        
        But these days, meh. Who cares? It’s nothing more to be proud about than shopping at New World.
        
        1 0
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        February 19, 2024 5:38pm
      - Ghost
        
        We’re getting there but not there yet. Still bullying and harassment going on, still some kids committing suicide because of it.
        
        But at the end of the day it’s just people enjoying and celebrating their life. More people should do that.
        
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        February 19, 2024 5:51pm
  - Simon
    
    “why do National polis feel the need to virtue signal at this and other ridiculous “gay pride” events?”
    
    Yep.
    Couldn’t Luxon have gone to some farmers market instead? Many don’t like Luxon but they wouldn’t let a bunch of smelly Marxists abuse and harass him. The gays didn’t help him. Lesson learnt?
    
    Very different to Ardern where she was harassed where normal people gathered with her only supporters being smelly Marxists & MSM.
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:31am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      It was anti Jew hatred, nothing about the gays, like that wimp Hipkins tried to spuriously divide over
      
      3 0
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      February 19, 2024 11:55am
  - Taieri
    
    Anyone with any intelligence knows Gays are born not made
    ———–
    
    If they can’t influence what they are what is there to be proud of?
    If someone is heterosexual, should he/she be also proud of it?
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:33am
    - David Garrett
      
      Taieri: Precisely my point…it would make just as much sense to have a “pride” parade for short heterosexual men like me…in other words, utterly ridiculous,.
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:13pm
      - cmm
        
        DG: There is some evidence that short arses need to work harder to get laid, so yes, be proud of that hard work!
        
        2 0
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        February 19, 2024 5:41pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        I think you are missing a very important point here, which is, don’t just take the public justifications presented for a behavior as the prime motivation for that behavior.
        Of course, homosexuals like to meet and dance around with other homosexuals. Doing it in public just makes it more stimulating.
        Once we have a strong desire to do something, particularly if it’s dubious, then we retro-fit a noble justification for it.
        
        0 0
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        February 19, 2024 9:39pm
    - Jethrod
      
      So what is the current thoughts for transgender persons …… born or developed?
      
      3 0
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      February 19, 2024 2:24pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Born or made, why can’t it be both?
      The idea that environmental factors can have effect intrauterine that influence sexual functions is hardly a radical idea or even a very new one.
      It happens in other animals, why not in humans too?
      
      1 0
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      February 19, 2024 9:30pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    When is the heterosexual parade on as I will go to that one?
    
    5 0
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    February 19, 2024 12:34pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      That’s the other 11 months of the year, Bobba. No parade provided (or needed).
      
      1 0
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      February 19, 2024 9:36pm
  - NoFax
    
    DG: there is no consensus on why some people are homosexual. It’s not purely genetic that’s for sure.
    
    3 0
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    February 19, 2024 12:44pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    a “Short Pride Day” for vertically challenged chaps like me
    
    A free country. Go for it. Who knows how many munchkins would turn out … 🙂
    
    1 0
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    February 19, 2024 2:20pm
    - Ghost
      
      October 25th is dwarf day….
      
      2 0
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      February 19, 2024 2:23pm
- redeye
  
  I suspect she is paid by clicks so sorry but I wont be reading it. Even when I visit Stuff (they do cover sport quite well) I do not click on anything written by O’Brien and suggest others do the same.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:01am
- igm
  
  O’Brien is lower than a snake’s navel.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:11am
- Stellaboxer
  
  Gravel I don’t engage with O’Briens poison and judging by the ratings of her recent talk back show and the readership of Stuff neither do many others. You would think that she and in fact a fair few others in the failing New Zealand media would reflect on such, but no they just keep pumping it out and the ratings and the trust and their jobs shrink along with it. Can’t wait to see Stuff go under.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:16am
- Im Right
  
  Gravel road, Tova has lost 2 jobs thus far in her ‘political reporting’ career, she is well aware that controversy and siding with her lefty company keeps her pay cheque coming.
  God forbid she reports on the lefts failings or god forbid she ever dissed St Jacinda.
  BUT in her heart of hearts she knows Ardern was useless, but she could never put it in writing.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:27am
- peterwn
  
  To my utter amazement Tova has! See:
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350183184/labour-where-bloody-hell-are-ya
  Tova has criticised Chris Hipkins and Labour for the dearth of press releases. Chris has lamely responded that they do not chase every passing car.
  Possibly Tova and her workmates are finding it difficult to do their jobs when Labour does not hand them enough bullets.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:35am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Also indicates that Tova O’Brien has few contacts in the Government coalition.
    
    She clearly doesn’t know who are the movers & shakers in the current set-up and is devoid of any “news” to release.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:00am
    - Jack5
      
      Does anyone who doesn’t post on Kiwiblog general debate take any notice of Tova O’Brien?
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:25am
      - Sacha
        
        If I didn’t come here, I wouldn’t know she existed. And even then I don’t read any of her work . . . .
        
        6 0
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        February 19, 2024 12:48pm
      - peterwn
        
        I normally do not bother reading Tova stuff. But the headline “Labour, Where the Bloody Hell are Ya” was enough to attract my attention on this occasion.
        
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        February 19, 2024 1:34pm
- mogg
  
  All forms of Media are now full of left wing activists who are intent on not having Labour exposed for their shocking level of failure while in government.
  Surely the most important news yesterday was Luxon’s revelations about the Labour government having been all spin and PR with big promises and announcements made about their new ideas and projects, but no funding allocated to put them into action, yet there was no question from Media about any of this at all, it was glossed over as usual.
  What we are seeing is an ongoing coverup and determination not to make Labour take responsibility for their lies, failure and incompetence, all at was massive cost to nz taxpayers.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:42am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I can’t see what the shouty protestors achieved.
  
  The PM was willing to engage and chat with folks at the Gay Day out until some folk started shouting at his face.
  
  Why would anyone bother to hang around when loud, agitated folk step into your personal space?
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:42am
  - I remember when
    
    “what the shouty protestors achieved.”
    They managed to convince themselves that they were relevant,
    not realising that it was only within their small, like-minded group.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:24am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Give them a smack in the head like Rob Muldoon did!
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:45am
- Paulus
  
  I fully expect that Tova is on her last legs as no employer can continue to let her vent her personal spleen in their name, continually as she does.
  Her colleague Jess got out as she could see the writing on the wall.
  As a one time employer I would suggest she seeks Counselling – we would pay, and would appreciate the result before making any decision.
  Her Union will help I suspect.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:56pm
  - Ghost
    
    Tova O’Brien, labour press secretary?
    Tova O’Brien, opposition leader?
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:03pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Paulus: I notice that her nasty Irish mate Vance seems no longer to be on Stuff…has she signed up as a Labour press sec does anyone know?
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:15pm
    - Ghost
      
      She moved on to tvnz…..
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:19pm
Matt Long

The defence force covid vaccine mandates have been found to be illegal,
I wonder if someone is ever held responsible when the government piles illegality upon illegality.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/nzdf-covid-mandate-ruled-unlawful-by-court-of-appeal/
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February 19, 2024 8:41am
- cmm
  
  This is going to have implications for a long time.
  
  A military organisation is not really a normal workplace for many reasons. People who did not play the game will be labelled as “not a team player” and will have their career curtailed in many ways.
  
  Should we select Smith for a role leading to promotion etc? No, remember that Covid nonsense and all that fuss back in the early 2020s? No give it to Jones.
  
  Finding it illegal is one thing, fixing up the damage to the people involved is quite another.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:27am
  - Sacha
    
    Recently an Hastings truck driver was awarded $29k for lost wages when he was mandated out of a job for refusing the vax.
    Some organisations could be in for a surprise . . . . .
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:00pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “Safe and Effective” she said.
  Obvious she knows nothing of the Nuremberg Trials. That is all it was – a socialist experiment of control by using blackmail.
  Then came the side effects and reactions.
  Then she ran.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:53am
- Simon
  
  Covid enquiry. Will they ever get to the bottom of why a morbidly obese “scientist” was front and centre promoting the covid response without reference to the obese having a much greater risk of serve illness or death from covid -19.
  
  It’s like Uncle Bully being made Children’s Commissioner. Will the covid enquiry crack this unusual puzzle?
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:33am
  - miltonF
    
    I always thought they preferred Wiles because her character related well with the demographic that they were trying to target with the “vaccine”. She certainly wasn’t the best qualified for this role.
    
    It’s kind of similar to how Burger King uses a chubby fella to advertise their products.
    
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    February 19, 2024 5:15pm
- I remember when
  
  Chris Hipkins is still trying frantically to persuade everyone that Labour’s Covid response was world-leading and saved untold thousands of lives –
  
  ahead of the outcome of any Covid Enquiry.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:28am
Maggie Pie

Can anybody actually explain WHY National Prime Ministers continue to attend the Troons Day Out. It’s not as if they’re welcomed.

All that happens is they get heckled and jeered then made to look silly in the leftwing media. The MP-for-Tijuana can’t help himself either….

https://twitter.com/RMarchNZ/status/1759071134065340470
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February 19, 2024 8:49am
- David Garrett
  
  Maggie: As I’m sure you know, it is pure virtue signaling, nothing more.
  
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  February 19, 2024 8:59am
- Nukuleka
  
  It’d be interesting to know which ‘laws and policies’ that he speaks of have prevented this gay immigrant from becoming an MP in NZ and earning a great deal of money as a consequence. This is identity politics, tribalism and group- speak at its worst. It’s time politicians stopped speaking about ‘the gay/ rainbow community’. There are certainly plenty of hard left- wing gay activists around but to suggest that they speak on behalf of all gay folk in NZ is nonsense.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:18am
  - ISeeRed
    
    What’s more sickening? The actual grift in action or the complete lack of self-awareness?
    
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    February 19, 2024 4:16pm
- MCōs
  
  This particular PM is a socially conservative evangelical Christian, which everyone knows
  He’s never going to appeal to the people that yelled at him yesterday, but he won’t have lost any support from those he wants to appeal to either.
  His heart would have sank if they’d all gathered round and sang For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:28am
  - Local Miller
    
    MCos: “but he won’t have lost any support from those he wants to appeal to either”
    
    I’d not be so sure about that, there are probably a lot of socially conservative evangelical Christians like myself who are shaking their head at PM Luxon and won’t vote for him in the future. He’s certainly not winning my vote at the moment.
    
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    February 19, 2024 4:32pm
- alex Masterley
  
  I just tell people to avoid Point Chev at all costs. Makes the day a lot easier for all concerned.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:40am
  - I remember when
    
    How many votes did Luxon lose by attending and how many did he gain?
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:19am
    - alex Masterley
      
      I know it sounds counterintuitive but i think he gained votes by turning up.
      He gave the queers an opporunity to show that they are an inclusive bunch. The opportunity was given but not taken up. They, the queers, have managed to proove to all but themselves that they are not.
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:03pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, further down X comments is a video of an Arab gay being stoned to death. Whatever one’s views of gays are this is horrible.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:06am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Chris was lucky not to be the recipient of a flying dildo.
  
  Just typing those words seems ridiculous, except …
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:10am
- Burtland
  
  Luxons media handlers are clearly stupid, allowing him to go to the big gay out and present a state of the nation speech on the same day
  
  This allowed Maiki Sherman to portrayal Luxon as weak by splicing Palestine demonstrators in with his speech and the media Q&A briefing.
  
  Maiki Sherman 1 Luxton nil
  
  Draining the media swamp needs to be added to the 100 day plan
  
  The Q&A briefing is actually worth watching https://youtu.be/OelNoEX66fs
  
  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/one-news-at-6pm/episodes/s2024-e49
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:14am
  - Paulus
    
    Sherman I understand is now the Head Honcho of the Parliamentary Press Gallery – sorry Tova but she is Maori, and you are not I believe.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:00pm
- Scooter
  
  Look at their body language they are so uncomfortable,this term can’t end well unless Luxon grows a pair.
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:09pm
Southern Raider

Would be interesting to know how many anti Israel, radical transgender rights, climate crazies who protest every possible occasion are actually sucking off the taxpayer by being employees of universities

Draining the swamp needs to start there
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February 19, 2024 8:51am
- kowtow
  
  They are disgusting.
  
  They allege Luxon has “blood on his hands”.
  
  They wilfully ignore the terror of Oct 7 . A man called Avichai survived the Oct 7 attack on his home at Kibbutz Karem Shalom . His wife and 6 children took refuge in a safe room . Avichai literally lost both hands holding the door closed as the terrorists blew it up .
  He and his family survived.
  Lost both hands .
  
  These protesters are literally extremist sympathisers .
  
  Where is the outrage.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:39am
I remember when

From Randwick Races Saturday:
“Procrastinator is slow out of the gates.”
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February 19, 2024 8:51am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump was right on NATO defence spending.
Find out who is screwing who and who is not paying.
US 4.2%, some others way under 2%.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/trump-was-right-here-s-where-nato-defense-spending-stands/ss-BB1i9m0c#image=10
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February 19, 2024 8:51am
- kowtow
  
  It’s hilarious .Te media and so many others constantly slag off Mr Trump.
  
  And yet here we see NATO scrambling to implement their own promises of the 2% at the behest of the man who’s not even president , yet.
  
  Yesterdays Sunday Telegram ; “Nato rush to hit 2pc target by summit”
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:38am
- Burtland
  
  ” collective expenditures on defense (increased) from 1.48% of GDP in 2017, Trump’s first year in office, to 1.75% in his last year, 2020.
  
  “Spending as a percentage of GDP remained relatively flat and even fell back to 1.70% over the next two years as the countries’ economies improved but shot up sharply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, reaching 2%.”
  
  https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0a00-0242-b213-08dc2e944a97_w650_r0_s.jpg
  
  https://www.voanews.com/a/nato-s-european-allies-collectively-at-2-gdp-defense-spending-for-1st-time-ever/7489447.html
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:03am
- virtualmark
  
  Poland spends comparatively far more on defence than the US does. So do the Baltics.
  
  And, caution, US defence spending includes the spend on the VA, so it is a little inflated over what other countries would report.
  
  But yes, the European NATO countries have upped their spend a lot since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:46pm
  - Paulus
    
    Poland as a NATO member is the highest % payer, it is because they are afraid that Killer Putin will invade them next.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:02pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Good luck to him. Ukraine has already wiped out about half of Russia’s conventional military strength. So now go take a look at Poland’s current military … there’s no way Russia could match that.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernization_of_the_Polish_Armed_Forces
      
      Heck, Germany couldn’t beat Poland in a straight fight at the moment.
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:40pm
Scooter

Just spent a few hours in relatively new company, an American (NZ born) a Canadian and moi, not in a bar but wine involved (not enough as it turned out). It’s true that you should never discuss politics or religion (religion we didn’t) but I’d add another one, COVID. I found a quote that sums it up from the link below.

“You cannot reason someone out of something he or she was not reasoned into” (Jonathan Swift, 1721).

https://www.courierherald.com/opinion/we-simply-cant-discuss-politics-or-religion-heres-the-reason/

They thought Ardern was the bees knees and saved NZ, and that she was right in preventing people returning to see dying relatives and there should be more women leaders like her and Sanna Marin as they are more level headed.
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February 19, 2024 8:59am
- kowtow
  
  Just when you think we may have reached peak bonkers the Sunday Telegraph (UK) reports ;
  
  “The Army is too hierarchical ,says general who idolises Ardern”
  
  That’s Lt Gen Dame Sharon Nesmith ,second most senior general and tipped by some as future chief of the service.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:55am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    How does someone like that reach the position she is in?
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:12am
    - David Garrett
      
      Nevermind: Because most of the members of the modern military have never been within 1000 miles of any combat. And because the powers that be are obsessed with “diversity”.
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:22am
      - kowtow
        
        DG
        
        From the article ;
        
        “She is the author of the Army Race Action Plan which advocates easing security checks in order to drive diversity ”
        
        And in what could easily pass as a Pythonesque sketch ;
        
        ” Three years ago as a brigadier she ordered senior officers to practise laughter yoga in order to set the right tone”.
        
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        February 19, 2024 1:00pm
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        She served in Iraq, as a Signal Regiment commander. Probably among the most senior Signals Officers in the UK deployment.
        Of course it is not Infantry or Armour, but she would certainly have been in harm’s way.
        
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        February 19, 2024 1:24pm
      - David Garrett
        
        kowtow:…and I didn’t even have to Google her to get the “diversity” bit right.
        
        When and by whom was it decided that “diversity” was such a wonderful thing? We have all the diversity we need in NZ IMO.
        
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        February 19, 2024 2:19pm
  - MCōs
    
    There must be two articles
    This one certainly doesn’t quote her as saying she idolises Ardern
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/general-behind-lax-security-checks-says-army-hierarchical/
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:04pm
I remember when

Secondhand EVs Are Starting to Look Like a Bargain: Bloomberg.
“The energy transition will falter unless consumers feel more comfortable about buying a used battery-powered vehicle.”
“More than three quarters of cars purchased annually in Europe are pre-owned, yet EVs still account for less than 2% of used car sales in large markets like the UK and Germany.”
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February 19, 2024 9:00am
- cmm
  
  There are two main reasons for this:
  1) It is still rapidly changing technology with lots of hype about new breakthroughs just around the corner.
  
  How much do you get for a second hand computer or iPad? Pretty much nothing, because it is old technology.
  
  2) Too much of the expense/value is in the battery. An older EV is likely due for a new battery sometime. That will often be more expensive than the value of the vehicle. It is often not worth doing.
  
  The market is saturated. All the EV fans who want one have already bought one. Now there’s a huge slump in EV sales and many companies are going broke.
  
  Of course there is a healthy market for second hand vehicles because almost everyone needs reliable, low cost, transport. Few want the drama that comes with an EV, hence second hand EV sales are few.
  
  The whole vehicle sales model is designed around vehicles holding value, especially leasing. It breaks with EVs because they don’t hold value.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:39am
  - kowtow
    
    It’s also almost entirely top down driven and not by market demand and need.
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:56am
  - Burtland
    
    the value of an EV is directly related to the life left in the battery – apparently this is quite hard to assess accurately
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:23am
    - Paulus
      
      I have yet to hear that EV Batteries can be changed.
      Last year we were advised of a battery change quote and it was double the value of the car.
      We do not yet have anybody who will take out batteries as there is nowhere to …..destroy….. or recharge them.
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:07pm
    - cmm
      
      “the value of an EV is directly related to the life left in the battery”
      
      That is certainly part of it. The other is the residual value for how much it can be sold for which is largely driven by supply and demand.
      
      At the top tier are people who lease vehicles. They pay a premium for leasing which is highly influenced by how much the leasing company think they can get for the second hand vehicle.
      
      If the underpants fell off the second hand market (as they have), then the leasing companies will have to push up the lease to make up the difference.
      
      Rental companies are dumping EVs in USA. The price can only go one way.
      
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      February 19, 2024 5:50pm
- Inandout
  
  Irw, my daughter traded her Tesla for an ICE vehicle 7 months ago. The Tesla remains unsold and I reminded her of that old saying about dodging the bullet.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:17am
- wsk12345
  
  My 50 something Aussie cousin called me yesterday. She’s not political at all and I’d put her in the “go along with most things and believe most narratives” camp.
  
  She asked me how it is that people don’t understand that the EV they are raving over the green credentials of is actually run on coal.
  
  Maybe the tide is turning!
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:37am
  - KH
    
    Let her know the 3-4 EVs nearest to here are run off my solar.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:11pm
    - Local Miller
      
      Well done, until you have to do a trip away from home that requires a recharge, like a long holiday. Then the car you are using is being run on coal.
      Not so bad in NZ because coal is mostly our backup, but we don’t have surplus “renewables” (Geothermal and hydro mainly) to support many more EVs.
      
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      February 19, 2024 4:39pm
- miltonF
  
  That’s about the numbers I would expect. You have to remember that NEW EV sales are only 5-10% of the market, and most EVs are still very new. Most would not be old enough to make it onto the second hand market yet.
  
  You could also read this the opposite way. Perhaps owners are so happy with their EVs that they are not selling them? Apparently studies show that only 20% of EV buyers go back to ICE. This could explain your figures.
  
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  February 19, 2024 5:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

More about the Showdown.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/a-showdown-is-coming-part-2/
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February 19, 2024 9:02am
Bridgenag

What have I done to the mods to be still waiting to get out of Moderation? Is Batman back?

[Mod – as I have told you before, posts are approved when a moderator comes online. If your post hasn’t been approved it is because no one is online]
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February 19, 2024 9:07am
- Ghost
  
  Try being thankful instead of complaining all the time
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:36am
- Bridgenag
  
  Fair enough but it is frustrating to see a post made early, sit for an hour when other posts get out of moderation that were posted later. Still hours better than the ‘ole days though. Thank you to the mods.
  
  [Mod – those people have been approved by DPF to not be moderated. You can do that by writing DPF, giving him your name, details and asking him if you can be approved to not be moderated]
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:38am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    I did that months ago and … nothing. I guess I’m in the naughty box.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:58am
- David Garrett
  
  Of course you could – heaven forbid – post using the name you were assigned after birth…no moderation for chaps using their own names.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:50am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    True, that.
    
    BTW, do many of your customers read Kiwiblog?
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:13am
    - David Garrett
      
      Nevermind: Well, since nowadays most of my “customers” are either in Tonga or the US or Europe, I doubt it.
      
      I do however get emails from time to time commenting on something I have written here, which is always nice. (The detractors – who aside from the killer are almost all anonymous keyboard warriors – don’t bother to email)
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:20am
      - Ghost
        
        I’m surprised how many convicted murderers post here.
        
        5 1
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        February 19, 2024 10:24am
      - Jack5
        
        Do we have posters who are still in prison, Ghost?
        
        1 1
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        February 19, 2024 10:57am
      - Ghost
        
        Well the one that keeps posting they are innocent still hasn’t been given parole.
        
        1 2
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        February 19, 2024 11:36am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    DG – posting under your own name is for people who cant have their careers wrecked or personal lives destroyed.
    
    As you well know being in the public eye leads to all sorts of dirt digging and plain malevolent attacks on a person
    
    A lot of us are entirely cancellable and have livings that are predicated on getting the next contract or gig. We do not have the luxury of posting in our own names.
    
    I did once upon a time post in my own name… within 24 hours someone pm me on one of my personal name social media platform presences and made threats about my job prospects.
    
    24 hours…. think on that.
    
    I defused the situation because I knew who they were and I made the cost to them apparent if they attacked my livelihood…
    
    You, DG, are lucky in a sense as you have been through the furnace of public life with a spectacular, fiery public life demise. You have nothing more to lose… most of us have a lot to lose.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:57am
    - Bridgenag
      
      Yes and Google knows all about you. Remember to use Duck Duck Go or other platforms
      
      5 0
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      February 19, 2024 12:13pm
    - David Garrett
      
      JimBob: I – somewhat reluctantly – concede your point. It should not be that people can’t freely express their opinions here or elsewhere without career or even possibly life threatening consequences, but I accept that for some that is the case.
      
      But I do wonder about this new found obsession with “doxing”. Unless I am much mistaken, there is still such a thing as a Phone Book? As well as people’s names, it also gives their address
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:23pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Only old farts like me with a landline still appear in the Phone book.
        
        Most folks under 60 don’t bother with a landline.
        
        7 0
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        February 19, 2024 2:47pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        doxing is the blogosphere equivalent of farting loudly in church 🙂
        
        Not that it ever stopped people from wild guesses about the true identity of mikenmild …..
        
        1 1
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        February 19, 2024 2:50pm
      - Local Miller
        
        Even if you have a landline, as do we, you can ask that your phone number, name and address not be included in the white pages.
        
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        February 19, 2024 4:43pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I don’t think Batman is back. He said he was compiling a list of all the Trump supporters so he could tell us we were all wrong and he was right.
  Seems to have disappeared with his tail between his legs.
  
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  February 19, 2024 4:08pm
Grunter

Grant Robertson must now be lambasted as the worst Finance Minister NZ has ever had.

Muldoon took us to the edge, so he has some merit.

Walter Nash (supported by Savage) was also a massive blight on the country’s books (only saved by Britain as WWII broke out).

All three essentially bankrupted the country with socialism.

Message to Luxon & Willis – never waste a crisis! A pithy 6.5% cost cut will not do enough. Crank out the asset sales and let the private sector rip.

And, obviously, get out of the media game altogether. Let the hard-left MSM die as they deserve.
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February 19, 2024 9:09am
- Yabster
  
  yep public servants’ numbers up 15,000 – about 34% increase since 2017- how does 7 % in savings roll that back given the bulk of expenditure is salaries.
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:24am
  - kowtow
    
    Anyone else notice how govt “services” to the public have improved by 34% ………other than a plethora of ki oras and nah mihis .
    
    Perhaps that’s why Lux and Co are afraid to really do their duty , too divisive?
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:04am
  - Burtland
    
    if you calculate the cost based on PS average wage its comes to over $1B a year
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:48am
    - Jack5
      
      Grunter’s …Muldoon took us to the edge, so he has some merit.
      
      Merit? Muldoon was Far Left.
      
      He imposed price controls.
      
      He nearly bankrupted the country by right up to the brink of national economic catastrophe refusing to float the NZ dollar.
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:52am
      - Grunter
        
        Jack – I meant Muldoon has merit to the claim of “the worst Finance Minister”. But now overtaken by Robertson IMO.
        
        I agree with you, Muldoon was far left.
        
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        February 19, 2024 1:35pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        I think you have confused right & Left.
        Muldoon was no more left than a stick of cheese(yep a meaningless statement).
        
        Muldoon was very much right. He was dictatorial.
        Hence rent freeze, price controls, dismantly National Super.(ie forerunner of Kiwisave)
        
        Dont confuse the left (socialism/communism) and freemarket and capitalism.
        
        Both belief systems generate dictators.
        
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        February 19, 2024 3:29pm
      - Jack5
        
        re Ra Henare at 3.29 on Left v Right….
        
        The overwhelming definition, by consensus of usage was that Left comprised Communism and democratic socialism that encompassed parties like Labour.
        
        Capitalism was on the Right, except many commentators lumped State ownership and control freaks like fascists and Nazis as also on the Right.
        
        Confusion began with the fall of the Soviet Union, when the BBC and other Left-leaners reported in the battle in Moscow against Yeltsin in 1993. Generals who wanted a return to a Soviet-style era unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Yeltsin. The BBC and the like branded these pro-Soviet folk as “right wing”.
        
        Muldoon’s economic actions, which included attempting to control inflation by price controls, were Left wing. His Think Big investments were also Left-ish.
        
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        February 19, 2024 4:13pm
    - cmm
      
      Burtland: It takes far more than a wage to employ someone.
      
      Add office space, Kiwisaver, lap top, coffee, Maori language courses, parking,… and the average PS salary of $97,200 swells to north of $130k a year of cost per extra employee.
      
      $130k x 15k = $2bn.
      
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      February 19, 2024 5:59pm
  - Paulus
    
    If we include the Local Governments as Public Servants ?
    Here in Mahuta Commissioner led Tauranga we have so many very highly paid with exorbitant titles that it is a laugh, if it was not serious, as it sure is gonna cost !
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:11pm
Maggie Pie

And if you want a larf on a Monday morning….
this is absolutely GOLD 😀 😀 😀

“WELCOME TO WINZ”

https://tiktok.com/@knuckles_tiktok/video/7332783296901827841
14 1
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February 19, 2024 9:12am
- mogg
  
  That is no joke, when I went to claim NZ Super there was a woman before me being lectured by the Winz worker, “I will put this money into your account again. but this time you must use it to pay your electricity bill, do not spend it on anything else”
  
  15 1
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  February 19, 2024 9:52am
  - Sacha
    
    Wouldn’t you think that it would be more efficient if the WINZ person simply took the account and paid it there and then?
    And what if the woman had already paid it and was about to pocket the refund? I reckon that would work!
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:19pm
- sirknz
  
  If you’ve got this app installed on your phone, you’ve given the CCP access to everything on it. They make Facebook and Google look like absolute amateurs when it comes to data harvesting.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:34am
  - Burtland
    
    google home,
    google gmail,
    google fitbit,
    google fit,
    google youtube,
    google maps,
    google chrome browser,
    android and all its apps
    
    google knows you better than you – and sells your data
    
    your choice – GAE or CCP ?
    
    6 0
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    February 19, 2024 11:19am
    - Jake Dee
      
      It’s a good question.
      The logical answer seems to be, use a Huawei phone when you are in The West and an Apple phone when you are in The East.
      It’s hard to imagine how CCP surveillance of your Kiwiblog comments is going to cause you to lose your job in NZ.
      
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      February 19, 2024 10:02pm
All_on_Red

Everybody hates Hamas
‘Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry sharply criticized Hamas on Saturday, saying that “the organization is outside the Palestinian consensus, which recognizes Israel and wants to reach negotiations with it, because [Hamas] is not ready to give up its support for violence.”

Shoukry made these comments at a press conference held at the Munich Security Conference. He also said that “we must give an account of how Hamas gained power in the Gaza Strip, and why it received financial support to increase the division between it and the other peacekeeping Palestinian factions – whether these are the Palestinian Authority, the PLO or the Palestinians’

Israel is soon to invade Rafah. The Egyptians have built a massive wall of barbed wire and;
‘Their army has begun to build an eight-mile-deep buffer zone on their side of the Gaza border for the refugee flood that will result from an assault on Rafah. ’

Interesting the comment from the Foreign Minister about recognising Israel
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February 19, 2024 9:13am
- Matt Long
  
  Looks like the International Court of Justice has lost patience with Iran’s proxies, refusing to hears complaints about Rafah.
  It seems their last judgement contained a little reported clause about the terrorists releasing the hostages which has been ignored.
  https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1758595703079596366?s=20
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:44am
- David Garrett
  
  All on: Even more interesting that the Egyptians don’t want a bar of the Palestinians…why is that I wonder? Because wherever they go violence and terrorism follows perhaps?
  
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  February 19, 2024 9:52am
  - Che Guava
    
    I wonder what obligation you think Egypt or any other country is under to take the Palestinians being ethnically cleansed from Gaza. Rather than ask who must take them, we should ask what right does Israel have to expel them?
    
    We never hear the end of the history of Jewish expulsions, yet expelling an entire population is Israel’s aim here. The hypocrisy is entirely typical.
    
    A lot of people ask “why does nobody want the Palestinians in their countries in 2024?” but its apparently anti-semitic to ask the same question the other way around, being “why did nobody want the Jews in their countries for the last 3,000 years?”
    
    The answer seems to be “because they are trouble- makers” vis a vis the Palestinians, but conversely it’s “we just don’t know why” vis a vis the Jews.
    
    Can someone bridge the explanatory gap, here?
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:43am
    - Lance
      
      You reveal yourself to be a deeply ignorant person with comments like that.
      The Palestinians were originally welcomed into the neighbouring states but after trying to violently over throw the king of Jordan and create war and mayhem in Lebanon, their neighbours learned they are trouble. It’s called evidence.
      What did the Jews historically do to the Russians, Poles, Germans etc other than form enclaves of certain skills/ industries because they were forbidden to own land?
      But keep the hate going so we can see the lefties value system in action
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:24am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        See also Kuwait where – after decades of them providing financial, employment, diplomatic and political support for the Palestine cause – the local Palestinians got into all the street dancing and sweets handouts when Saddam invaded and took over Kuwait in 1990.
        
        Once back in charge of their nation the Kuwaitis promptly expelled all the Palestinians, some 350,000 I think.
        
        I think it’s fair to say that the rest of the Arab world has had a gutsful of the Palestinians. Iran still backs them, but merely as another proxy terrorist group and a stick to bash Israel with via idiot Western Leftists – and their new Right-wing friends of course.
        
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        February 19, 2024 12:06pm
      - Che Guava
        
        “It’s called evidence.”
        
        No, that’s an assertion. We can freely give our opinions without citations, but you are making a truth claim about an historical fact, which requires support. Please provide some actual evidence for your claim.
        
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        February 19, 2024 2:42pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        I think harsh and abuse of other KB members.
        ie a deeply ignorant person….
        Che from reading his comments is far from deeply ignorant..
        
        OK Che writes things you may vehemtly disagree with. This does not make him deeply ignorant.
        
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        February 19, 2024 7:04pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Yeah nah
        Most of what Che says is selective and ignorant.
        He sees everything through a ‘certain’ lens
        
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        February 19, 2024 7:18pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Egypt has a responsibility for Gaza because its their bloody territory. The only reason Israel ever, ever occupied Gaza in the first place was because Egypt attacked Israel and was comprehensively defeated losing all of the Sinai and Gaza.
      
      When Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt resulting in the Sinai being return, but Egypt refused to take Gaza and the palenstinian resident s back. Because they are pool of terror and violence for who ever takes them in..
      
      But you know all this, but attacking Israel and Jews in general is just your thing.
      
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      February 19, 2024 12:02pm
      - Che Guava
        
        “Egypt has a responsibility for Gaza because its their bloody territory.”
        
        So Israel is at war with Egypt now because Israel has invaded and is now occupying Gaza, which you contend is Egyptian territory? Someone should probably inform Cairo at once.
        
        If Egypt still has responsibility for Gaza despite Israel controlling the area for the last 50 or 60 years, then the Palestinians must similarly still have responsibility for what is now Israel, despite Israelis controlling that area for 80 or 100 years.
        
        Your ridiculous claim implodes simply on account of its own logical implications.
        
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        February 19, 2024 2:49pm
      - cmm
        
        “So Israel is at war with Egypt now”
        
        No, they are at war with terrorists who happen to be in Egyptian territory (which Egypt is now refusing to administer and has walked away from).
        
        To say that Israel is attacking Egypt is as wrong as saying that the USA, UK et al are attacking Yemen. No they are not. They are attacking the Houthis who happen to be in Yemen.
        
        Just as the Houthis are at odds with the Yemeni government, Hamas are at odds with Egypt.
        
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        February 19, 2024 6:05pm
- kowtow
  
  Yer but Hamas is the Palestinian consensus , the Gazans voted them into power.
  
  Reap as you sow.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:09am
- thirteenstars
  
  “Interesting the comment from the Foreign Minister…”
  
  It’s more than interesting because it reveals the consensus in that region that they’ve had belly-full of the endless violence.
  
  At some point even states that were at each other’s throats for long periods eventually work out that amity and concession brings about peace and trade. The kind of deep-seated hatred exhibited by the likes of Hamas can only survive in that scenario if a population is captured by propaganda and indoctrination.
  
  No doubt the governments and peoples of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, et al. don’t have any particular affection for Israel, and behind the scenes would express it, but at some point enough is enough and realpolitik kicks in.
  
  I expect after Israel has concluded operations in Gaza that the Saudi peace deal will pick up exactly where it left off.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:20am
- Paulus
  
  Egypt are currently building deep high walls to keep Palestinians out of Egypt.
  They do not want what Hamas there.
  
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  February 19, 2024 2:14pm
  - Che Guava
    
    Israel has a wall, Egypt is building a wall, but anyone else is a White supremacist for wanting a wall in Europe, America of the Anglosphere?
    
    You evidently support Gaza being cleared of Palestinians, but guess where those Palestinians are going to end up? If not for Israel, the West probably wouldn’t be being swamped with those they’ve driven out. Join the dots.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:54pm
- Jake Dee
  
  That wall appears to be much more substantial than just barbed wire. It could be useful for several things, one of which would be to prevent the Israelis pushing the inhabitants of Gaza into Egypt.
  Another thing it would be good for is cover for, and protection from tanks and artillery. A massive army on your border is still a massive army on your border for both sides. Measures have to be taken.
  Israel isn’t getting out of this without making real concessions to its neighbors to the north, the south and the east.
  Isreal and the USA just don’t have the preponderance of force they had twenty years ago. The calculations have shifted against them, and that trend is only going to accelerate.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:15pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Oh the wall is very substantive and has been for years.
    They have just beefed it up
    Egypt is Israels ally
    They wont be concerned with the IDF
    I suspect the Egyptians have made the buffer zone so they can sort through and admit civilians from Rafah to that buffer zone and leave Hamas to be killed
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:37pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      And then what? Once Israel has filtered the Palestinian population, killed or imprisoned everyone they wish to kill or imprison, will peace reign?
      Every one of the women children and old men left will have at least 1 probably many kinsfolk killed or imprisoned by the Israelis. What is the grand solution that is being tried now that hasn’t been tried and failed many, many times before?
      One of the amazing things about this whole debate is the number of commenters who just don’t think that 6 month, 1 year, 5 years, 50 years down the road is a mythical alien planet that we just will never get to and don’t need to think about.
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:07pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Seems they don’t like Biden in East Palestine, Ohio. Town blocks his visit because he only shows up in Election year! There was a vinyl chloride spill after a derailment. Joe ignored them, Trump brought thousands of bottle of Trump Water. No it was not 13 years old or contaminated as claimed by some media.

https://www.thepoliticalglobe.com/shift-in-political-loyalties-biden-supporters-eye-third-party-options-02-17-2024/?
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February 19, 2024 9:21am
- sirknz
  
  As I tell my wife, technically the water we are drinking is around 4.5 billion years old, possibly older.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:54am
  - greybeard
    
    I bought a packet of “Himalayan coarse Pink Salt” a while back.
    The blurb on the packet says:
    
    “Natural, unrefined rock salt, mined deep within the foothills of the Himalayas.
    Free from added chemicals, additives and anti-caking agents.
    Said to be over 250 million years old, the ancient salt bed is a remnant of an ancient ocean and
    regarded as the purest salt on earth, uncontaminated by modern pollutants and toxins”.
    
    Another label says: “ Best before 04/01/2025”.
    
    So after 250 million years I have to use this salt in the next 12 months !
    
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    February 19, 2024 12:20pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yes you have to use it and buy more!
      “Best before” or “Use by?”
      Anyway, that salt has been exposed to that terrible “Capitalism” thing that the Greens rave about. You can get white Himalayan salt, Pink is for the rainbow trendsetters.
      
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      February 19, 2024 4:13pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Hillary Clinton making comments about Joe Biden.
I still say there is every chance that she will replace Joe.

https://www.thepoliticalglobe.com/clinton-highlights-bidens-age-as-a-legitimate-issue-amidst-classified-documents-scandal-02-16-2024/?
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February 19, 2024 9:23am
- MCōs
  
  From the same site a story headlined
  “Outrage as Burger King Features Adult Film Star in Brazilian Whopper Ad Campaign”
  Covering all the big issues & all these stories are days old.
  The guy who does everything probably doesn’t work on the weekends
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:27am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Nek minit Stormy Daniels can balance a big Mac on each tit!
    
    3 0
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    February 19, 2024 4:16pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Considering that Huma is currently dating Alex Soros who now controls the activism money it does seem like she’s getting the war chest ready.
  
  5 1
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  February 19, 2024 10:33am
- RoboRob
  
  Nooooo…… not Killary V Trump round 2.
  
  4 0
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  February 19, 2024 10:40am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Things could get bad. She has a reputation.
    
    4 2
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    February 19, 2024 12:18pm
- Ghost
  
  No, it will be a celebrity, not a politician replacing him.
  
  4 0
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  February 19, 2024 10:42am
  - MCōs
    
    Celebrity v celebrity
    
    For all the faults of our system that’s something we’ve avoided here
    
    6 0
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    February 19, 2024 11:34am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      So which celebrity will replace businessman Donald J Trump?
      I struggle to think of one. Most celebrities are stark raving mad lefties!!
      
      1 1
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      February 19, 2024 4:23pm
Maggie Pie

Watched the SUNDAY program last nite.
Felt really sorry for all those guys & gals that give freely of their time as Life Guards out at Piha. Their clubroom was destroyed and lots of personal gear lost during Gabriel.
Some low asshole even stole all their Radio equipment worth about 30k 🙁

They are still fund raising to secure a couple of mill so they can build a new clubhouse and replace lost and stolen equipment. Sponsers have come to the party but they’re only half way to the target.

Made me think of the nearly $3 million donation of taxpayer money Dam Jacinda made to the Mongrel Mob.
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February 19, 2024 9:38am
- Burtland
  
  The Provincial Growth Fund has turned all the rundown clubrooms into palaces in Christchurch – thanks Shane
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:39am
  - wsk12345
    
    I believe that was insurance payouts after the EQs. Way before the PGF existed.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:42am
    - cmm
      
      Must be more to it than that. Insurance would only replace like with like.
      
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      February 19, 2024 6:10pm
Its only I

After months of investigation, month of alt-right tv hosts doing monologue after monologue, months if not years of Maga republicans putting aside running a country to focus on Hunter and Joe Biden, its finally been determined…Hunter Biden is the son of Joe Biden…
oh, and MAGA bases their fake outrage based on information supplied by russian operatives….just like their boss old stinky. True facts.

You couldn’t make this shit up.

Now the Trump organization has a full time monitor for the next three years with more power to remedy trump fraud its going to be hard for Stinky to use Saudi money to pay off is legal obligations…oh dear.
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February 19, 2024 9:39am
Bridgenag

Was anything said about the passing of Muru Walters on the MSM? What a man.
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February 19, 2024 9:41am
- Swifty
  
  Yes, I agree.
  
  I’d add the same thought for Selwyn Muru who also passed on recently. I expected more of a big deal to have been made of his departure but I just haven’t seen it.
  
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IZrPHqKuyQ4
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:23am
- I remember when
  
  I still remember Muru Walters’ performance at Athletic Park in 1957 when New Zealand Maori were defeated 13-36 by Fiji.
  All of the Fijians seemed seven foot tall and Muru was treated for injury at least three times but stayed on the Park.
  He was a colossus on defence that day, despite what the score may suggest, and I have always remembered him for that reason.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:43am
pdm

`Made me think of the nearly $3 million donation of taxpayer money Dam Jacinda made to the Mongrel Mob.’

For no return.

The garden of Waipawa Mongrel Mob Head Honcho Sonny Smith is still a mess.
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February 19, 2024 9:41am
- cmm
  
  “For no return.”
  
  For negative return.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:11pm
I remember when

More serious fires on the East Coast of the South Island.
Must be “Climate Change.”
What else could possibly be causing them?
Surely not the fact that the population of grazing animals in New Zealand has been decreasing for some time.
For example, in 1972 there were an estimated 60.9 million Sheep in New Zealand but only 25.4 m in 2022.
Or, Beef Cattle numbers in 1972 were 5.35 million but only 3.9 million in 2019.
Add in, the growth of rural housing properties as an aggravating factor.

So, yes, possibly man-made?
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February 19, 2024 9:54am
- sirknz
  
  Most definitely the fault of National and Act and NZ First.
  
  – Lefty Twitter
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:50pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Does Christchurch have an arsonist or two?
  
  6 1
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  February 19, 2024 12:50pm
- MCōs
  
  You forgot about dairy cattle and in Canterbury numbers have taken off in recent times
  Here’s a more comprehensive analysis of the numbers
  https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/livestock-numbers
  Having said that I’m not entirely convinced that’s the nub of the problem
  I do know that at the best of times it’s very dry in that region and most fires are deliberately lit
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:33pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Dairy is only about 20% of canterbury agricultural earnings. But big thing that has changed in canterbury since 1990’s is a huge increase in irrigation and horticulture (which is far more valuable than dairy in the region).
    
    Your link says Canterbury cattle increased from 430k to 1.7 million between 1990 and 2020, but (generally unirrigated) sheep dropped from 10.4million to 4.3 million.
    
    And irrigated dairying converts shitty land into more valuable horticultural land over 20-30 years as topsoil is built up.
    
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    February 19, 2024 3:41pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Oh stop with your sensible analysis against McCos shallow musings
      lol
      
      3 0
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      February 19, 2024 7:16pm
Maggie Pie

How utterly DISGRACEFUL is this?

Remember I posted last week about that Maori communist trans-gender activist and prison abolutionist Emmy Rakete who’s employed as a Criminology Lecturer at Auckland Uni and was sprung recently taking selfies in the toilets?

Well here she is again, reacting to the news of King Charles cancer diagnosis…

https://twitter.com/ADG311491192432/status/1758427964390445530
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February 19, 2024 10:40am
- sirknz
  
  She? That woman is a man, man…
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:57am
  - Jack5
    
    Rakete’s research interests as listed on the Auckland University site:
    
    Marxist political economy, Dependency theory, decolonial theory, Social Reproduction theory, Marxism-Leninism, critical political economy, kaupapa Maori, prison abolition.
    
    Rakete’s a political activist, and thanks to Auckland University, living off taxpayers.
    
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    February 19, 2024 11:47am
    - David Garrett
      
      JAck: I wonder if that idiotic “woman” has ever been asked what she would do with William Bell – a multi murderer – and Tarrant?
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:32pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  There are way too many ways to describe that human. Sadly empathy is not one of them. One day maybe the prostate in that human will decide their fate too.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:14am
  - Jack5
    
    Do transgender women keep their prostate if they go the full hog and get male gear cut out?
    
    5 0
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    February 19, 2024 11:55am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      I would presume they have to otherwise they would become incontinent totally….
      
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      February 19, 2024 11:57am
      - David Garrett
        
        Blog: The prostate doesn’t control retention of urine mate…in fact its real function in the body is still not entirely clear. It has something to do with semen production IIRC. Semen the substance, not sperm.
        
        4 0
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        February 19, 2024 2:34pm
- Swifty
  
  The kind caring left.
  
  As one noted, how will she feel when she becomes afflicted with prostate cancer? Or testicular cancer?
  
  She’ll be feeling like a right Charlie then, won’t she.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:51am
Ghost

Sounds like a name people won’t confuse

Te Whatu Ora Becomes Health New Zealand
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February 19, 2024 10:56am
- mandk
  
  Where would you rather go if you were sick or injured: Health New Zealand, or “The weaving of wellness” (translated)?
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:25am
  - MCōs
    
    A & E or the GP
    
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    February 19, 2024 12:02pm
fightingtemeraire

Drive around Rifle Range Road and the area in Hamilton.

There should be a cull.
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February 19, 2024 11:06am
slightlyrighty

Why did the Aussies vote no on the Voice Referendum??

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/wa-man-faces-jail-for-disrupting-rainbow-serpent-after-building-bridge-over-creek-on-his-property/news-story/8853b77040b11a9e9e3729d64a8a5174

Maybe for things like this??
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February 19, 2024 11:24am
kevn

Good comment… fat link

https://www.downtoearth.kiwi/post/ardern-in-the-usa-harvard-s-kennedy-school-should-be-using-her-as-a-case-study-of-the-perils-of-cha

[Mod – gave link a diet for you]
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February 19, 2024 11:40am
- kevn
  
  Thanks mod…
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:06pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI1CqhIJips
Truckers Refuse New York City loads because of Trump Ruling!
Explore the growing movement among truckers in response to the recent verdict in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial. In a bold statement of solidarity, truckers are voicing their intention to boycott hauling loads to and from New York City, following the staggering $355 million verdict.
Chicago Ray, a prominent figure among truckers, took to social media to express the widespread outrage among his peers. In a viral video, he highlighted the frustration felt by many in the industry, with numerous truckers pledging to refuse loads destined for NYC starting Monday.
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February 19, 2024 11:49am
- Ghost
  
  I don’t think much will come of that.
  
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  February 19, 2024 11:58am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yeah, probably not. Worth keeping an eye on the situation to see though.
    
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    February 19, 2024 8:00pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  A large percentage of truckers are Trump voters.
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:31pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO4dia5Gi_Q
Could a NO CONFIDENCE Vote Be Coming?
Are Canadians Going to the Polls in 2024? Singh can get his pension as long as he holds his seat… That he knows he is in danger of losing that seat and his pension + his NDP leader position. He is playing chicken and is one at the same time.
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February 19, 2024 11:50am
Ghost

Police stations throughout New Zealand may have to close due to health and safety requirements, with black mould and leaky walls causing “significant health hazards”, the Police Association says.

Article

A man died when his car crashed into the timaru police station July 31st 2023. The damage to the police station was fixed last week.
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February 19, 2024 12:03pm
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION

Does the ‘NZ Independant Royal Commission COVID INQUIRY’ terms-of-reference cover such matters as possible corruption?

https://twitter.com/carolvorders/status/1758783847120998417
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February 19, 2024 12:08pm
MCōs

Huge, if true, from the champion of free speech
https://x.com/ch_uff/status/1759299859323257060?s=46&t=XZLqGbhN-xeYzprhTaktsg
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February 19, 2024 12:13pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  If I invite you into my house you can talk about whatever you want but if you insult me I will kick you out.
  
  I think the left call it “consequences” but unlike with the left, this does seem proportionate.
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:58pm
  - MCōs
    
    Not quite the same
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:23pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Why?
      It sounds like that particular person has a habit of attacking Musk. Why would Musk not kick them to the curb?
      If I came on here and started insulting David constantly it would not be hypocrisy for him to ban me. Why is it different for Elon Musk?
      
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      February 19, 2024 1:42pm
- virtualmark
  
  Elon buying Twitter has just highlighted what a thin-skinned hypocrite he is.
  
  My advice to any high-profile person would be to stay off social media … let alone buy a social media network. It’s much easier to appear to be a tech genius when people only see a carefully curated view of you. But when you spend your day revealing your true self on social media people discover for themselves that you’re really just a big chode.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:26pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Someone’s bitter Musk has opened X up to Free Speech.
    You got a lot of hate havent you
    
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    February 19, 2024 7:13pm
    - virtualmark
      
      I don’t hate Musk. He’s achieved a lot in areas like space, and electric cars. But, at the same time, I think he’s a thin-skinned egotistical narcissist. That’s fine if you like that sort of thing – and it seems like you do. But personally I’ve not yet met a thin-skinned egotistical narcissist who I’ve thought was a nice person worth spending time with.
      
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      February 19, 2024 8:10pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        You sure sound like you hate him
        Always full of invective towards him
        Did you consider getting some help for your issues?
        
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        February 19, 2024 8:36pm
BeaB

You have to admire the confidence the Left have in National. They expect them to do in less than 100 days what Labour failed to do in six years.
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February 19, 2024 12:17pm
BeaB

Tova O’Brien says Luxon’s audience for his state of the nation speech was ‘adoring’.
Was there ever anything more besotted than Tova and Jessica and their fellow hacks as they gazed adoringly at Jacinda Ardern and nodded enthusiastically at everything she said?
I look forward to Luxon realising they will always hate him and there is no point even trying to win them over. Just forge on and get your agenda done!
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February 19, 2024 12:35pm
- KH
  
  The political awareness of Tova is measured by her comment on the morning after the election “who saw that coming”
  
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  February 19, 2024 2:19pm
Swifty

Could someone more clever than I please decipher for me exactly what these people are asserting about DPF?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PsIXzWUbGUc

I can’t make head nor tail of what they are on about. What conflict of interest are they referring to?
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February 19, 2024 12:36pm
- Ghost
  
  Here is DPF talking about this conspiracy with Sean
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D_OAVhxJOg
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:44pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Ghost: When I was at uni 30 odd years ago, the big bogey for the left was something called the Tri-lateral Commission…they were supposedly in charge of everything.
    
    To his great credit, my proudly left wing Pol Sci lecturer – one Jim Lamare – ridiculed that conspiracy theory.
    
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    February 19, 2024 2:45pm
    - Che Guava
      
      No doubt he ridiculed it, but that’s not at all the same as refuting it. Lots of people dismiss conspiracies, based only on the premise that they find them hard to believe.
      
      He’s probably one of those poor naive types who think that power is wielded through the front-facing “political process” that kids learn about in 4th form social studies, rather than through back door where things are, and deliberately so, much harder to grasp.
      
      Between them, it’s probable that the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations have more influence than most, if not any other, collectives of “elites.”
      
      https://www.britannica.com/topic/Trilateral-Commission
      
      “Trilateral Commission, organization of private citizens founded in 1973 principally by American banker David Rockefeller to confront challenges posed by the growing interdependence of the United States and its principal allies (Canada, Japan, and the countries of western Europe) and to encourage greater cooperation between them.”
      
      “The Trilateral Commission reflects powerful commercial and political interests committed to private enterprise and stronger collective management of global problems. Its members (more than 400 in the early 21st century) are influential politicians; banking and business executives; media, civic, and intellectual leaders; and a few trade union chiefs. Membership is by invitation only.”
      
      “The Trilateral Commission’s agendas have anticipated those of the Group of 7 (G7) and Group of 8 (G8) summit meetings between the leaders of the world’s largest economies. Members have held key positions in U.S. administrations and in the governments of other member countries. In the late 1970s, for example, many former Trilateral Commission members held senior positions in the cabinet of U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter.”
      
      “In 2001 the Trilateral Commission expanded its membership to incorporate economically smaller but emerging countries within its regional structure. For example, Mexico was accorded a handful of members, as were Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. Members from China and India were first admitted in 2009.”
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations
      
      “The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit organization. CFR is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership has included senior politicians, numerous secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, corporate directors and CEOs, and senior media figures.
      
      CFR meetings convene government officials, global business leaders and prominent members of the intelligence and foreign-policy communities to discuss international issues. CFR has published the bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs since 1922. It also runs the David Rockefeller Studies Program, which makes recommendations to the presidential administration and diplomatic community, testifies before Congress, interacts with the media, and publishes research on foreign policy issues.”
      
      “A critical study found that of 502 government officials surveyed from 1945 to 1972, more than half were members of the Council. During the Eisenhower administration 40% of the top U.S. foreign policy officials were CFR members (Eisenhower himself had been a council member); under Truman, 42% of the top posts were filled by council members. During the Kennedy administration, this number rose to 51%, and peaked at 57% under the Johnson administration.”
      
      “In an article for the Washington Post, Richard Harwood described the membership of the CFR as “the nearest thing we have to a ruling establishment in the United States.”
      
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      February 19, 2024 6:33pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Can you use links?
        You abuse the goodwill of the blog with such lengthy posts
        
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        February 19, 2024 7:11pm
NothingLeft

Something I’ve just realised; the social media age does seem to have been the death knell for the dumbest end of the spectrum of conspiracy theories/scams.

Eg when I was a younger engineer I would, several times a year be talked at by generally older men telling me that water powered engines or myriad free energy devices (using magnets or whatever) were a real thing but had been shut down by oil companies or illuminati or zeta reticulans etc. That doesn’t seem to happen any more.

But the better evidenced (and sometimes true) stuff now gets a lot more attention (and clicks), which is why the whole elite/rentier capture of institutions (ie emergent behaviour of various institutional leadership and employees looking to individually build their empires/feather their nests and jumping on personal opportunities they see to do that in a manner that collectively emerges as ‘deep state’) is so much better recognised and increasingly called out/resisted.
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February 19, 2024 12:36pm
- cmm
  
  It has quite likely reduced.
  
  But it is also worth noting that social media tends to drop people into a bubble and keep them there. Those people are still out there, but because they aren’t in your bubble you just don’t encounter them as much.
  
  Go onto Youtube etc and you will find heaps of free energy stuff, but quite often masquerading in a slightly more updated form (hydrogen, ground breaking new battery tech, space travel, …).
  
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  February 19, 2024 12:47pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Good point, I’m perhaps just seeing the balkanisation of social media.
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:54pm
- Jake Dee
  
  It’s a very good point. I saw a Joe Rogan podcast with Ron Miscavage, the father of David Miscavage, the current leader of the Scientologists.
  He said that getting the internet for the first time was the beginning of the end of his involvement with Scientology and the falling out with his son.
  I also believe that the internet was crucial in exposing the Catholic Church’s sex abuse. The victims then had an information network about the church that didn’t run through the church.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:32pm
Vinicius

In the USA the state of Oregon is having ‘buyer’s remorse’ after decriminalizing drug usage in 2020 making it the most liberal in the country.

The measure is known as ‘Measure 110″.

Reuters reports that:
• Under Measure 110, instead of arresting drug users, police issue them $100 citations along with a card that lists the number to a hotline for addiction treatment services, which they can call in exchange for help dismissing the citation. Those who simply ignore the citations face no legal ramifications. State data shows only 4 percent of people who receive citations call the hotline.

• Now, facing public pressure amid a surge in overdose deaths, state lawmakers are preparing to vote on re-criminalization.

Deaths because of drug overdoses have increased substantially since Measure 110 was introduced.

Just goes to show these woke, do-gooder policies don’t work.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hard-hit-by-us-opioid-crisis-oregon-reconsiders-decriminalization-2024-02-18/ [May require free registration to view].

OR free edited version:
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-02-18/hard-hit-by-the-us-opioid-crisis-oregon-reconsiders-decriminalization
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February 19, 2024 12:59pm
- virtualmark
  
  I’ve always thought that Colorado and Oregon would be good test cases … basically clinical trials to show whether or not these drug policies work or not.
  
  Similarly, Argentina at the moment under Milei is also a good clinical trial of those economic policies.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:23pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Unfortunately I don’t think Milei is going to work out. Argentina is just too keen on Socialism and it won’t be long before they rebel against any form of austerity.
    
    Likewise, I doubt it would work here either as our Bureaucratic workforce is simply too large and powerful now (part of the reason the Left keep actively expanding it).
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:45pm
    - Grunter
      
      I suspect you’re right, unfortunately.
      
      Meilei is a big follower of Rothbard’s writings, which I think are the ideal way to run any society. The hard part is how to get them implemented. Meilei has been able to get this far because Argentina is such a basket case, and Meilei has the personality and intellect to cut through to a decent portion of the public.
      
      In NZ, even ‘right-wingers’ struggle with ditching the welfare state despite its obvious failure and destruction of people’s lives.
      
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      February 19, 2024 2:05pm
      - MCōs
        
        You’re pissing into the wind if you expect NZ will reject social welfare, Grunter.
        You would be better off to put your mind to improvements to that which currently exists because if you advocate abolition few people are listening
        
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        February 19, 2024 6:29pm
- Grunter
  
  There are huge disasters in places like Portland and Vancouver where hard drug use has spiralled out of control. People literally walking the streets like zombies. All due to decriminalising hard drugs.
  
  Portugal is often used as a good example where decriminalising all drugs has worked (still debatable, but better results than the traditional prohibition model).
  
  What Portugal did years ago, at the same time as decriminilising all drugs, was ramp up addiction services to get druggies off the drugs, AND, most critically, they hit the drug suppliers big time. If you got caught selling drugs you were locked up for something like 20+ years.
  
  In my book, if you sell someone something that causes them addictive serious harm, then you deserve a very long time in jail (at the least). And if you knowingly take a harmful drug, good luck with your life, bad choices have consequences.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:56pm
- cmm
  
  “Deaths because of drug overdoses have increased substantially since Measure 110 was introduced.”
  
  I wouldn’t be blaming Measure 110 though.
  
  This has happened simultaneously with the massive increase in Fentanyl access. Enough Fentanyl to get stoned (and maybe even dead) costs less than $1.
  
  Criminalisation at this stage is not going to change anything. There are just not enough facilities of any sort (medical or legal) to process all the druggies through rehab or the court system.
  
  The time to have acted was before the Fentanyl crisis started. Now it is too late.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:20pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    It was always going to happen like this. Fentanyl is just a single point on a long graph. As time goes on the drug or narcotic becomes more powerful and concentrated.
    What is needed is a body politic strong enough not to need it and resist it.
    
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    February 19, 2024 10:38pm
virtualmark

Hey Trumpkins!

Bought your Trump sneakers yet? You have? US$399 a pair you say?

Bugger, you could have bought them on Temu for NZ$30. Look at https://www.temu.com/search_result.html?search_key=men%27s%20trendy%20faux%20patent%20leather%20high%20top.

Cause basically Trump just pays US$18 for a pair of chintzy “Made in China” (MAGA lol) boots, slaps a golden “T” on them, and then sells them for US$400. Best part is that you pay now, but they don’t ship until July (2024?).

Maybe they should be called “snuckers” not “sneakers”. Sneakers for suckers.
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February 19, 2024 1:12pm
- peterwn
  
  If his mugshot were on the soles they would be worth $4k.
  
  3 4
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  February 19, 2024 1:37pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Well, you could pay $400 for them, and then tell your bank they’re worth $4,000, but tell the IRD that they’re now only worth $4 and you want to claim a tax loss.
    
    That’d be real gold-standard authentic Trumpism.
    
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    February 19, 2024 1:42pm
- Its only I
  
  He wasn’t just flogging shoes he was also flogging scent.
  Odeur de Shart.
  
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  February 19, 2024 1:59pm
Suze Wainwright

Didn’t The Dominion and The Evening Post once used to have some kind of mana (even if they were always left leaning)?
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February 19, 2024 1:22pm
- MCōs
  
  In the good old days newspapers were the only reasonable comprehensive news sources
  They could say what they liked dressed up as news and there was nothing to contradict them
  
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  February 19, 2024 2:57pm
  - Jack5
    
    Cossie, libel laws existed then, and there was sometimes vigorous competition. Here’s a historical NZ case.
    
    From Timaru Herald, 22 October 1875, page 4:
    
    OAMARU, Wednesday evening
    
    Mr Mosley, editor of the North Otago Times was horsewhipped in the street today, by Mr Shrimski, the late Mayor.
    
    Samuel Edward Shrimski was an auctioneer and a JP in Oamaru as well as a local body politician.
    
    This account appeared in a Timaru Herald a column headlined “Oamaru Small Talk” and attributed to “a correspondent”:
    
    “We have had a veritable case horse-whipping in the streets, the whipper being Mr S.E. Shrimski, ex-Mayor, a wee little man, and the whippee Mr Montague Mosely, the editor of the North Otago Times, the mildest newspaper in New Zealand.
    
    “It appears that on the sixth of July last, a letter appeared in our local ‘buster’ signed ‘Elar,’ reflecting on the action of Mr John Hood, one of the Council for the past year. The election of the Mayoralty was approaching and Hood had promised Shrimski his support.
    
    “On or before the polling day, however, it appears Mosley, who was unfavourable to Shrimski, asked Hood how the election was going? Hood replied — “Oh Shrimski will go in; I will vote for him.”
    
    “Mosley then said — ‘But he wrote that letter against you,’ (knowing that the Shrimski was not the writer). Hood consequently voted against Shrimski.
    
    “It got to the latter’s ears why he had done so, and Shrimski demanded of Mosely an apology, which was refused.
    
    “Shrimski at once dealt him three or four smart blows with a whip which he carried. Mosley grappled with his assailant and both rolled over on the road in deadly embrace.
    
    “They rose refreshed and Shrimski, being uppermost, again ‘wired in’ with the whip of which Mosley got a hold, and again they bit the dust, ‘and again their battered armour rang’.
    
    “Again they rose, Mosely, pale, wrathful and trembling, holding on by Shrimski’s coat collar; Shrimski’s whole framed seemed as if being violently shaken by his opponent, but it is asserted by a truthful eyewitness that it was caused by nervous trepidation from which Mosley seemed to suffer, and not by muscular exertion on his part.
    
    “Mosley then caught the whip, a peace conference ensued, when it was agreed that if Mosley let go the whip, Shrimski would not strike him again. He let it go and Shrimski carried it away.”
    
    The Timaru Herald report continued that Mosely wrote up the fight in his newspaper.
    
    The Timaru Herald correspondent writes: “Mosley’s heroism is depicted in glowing colours. He is made to appear at once a polished gentleman and a gladiator. What a nice comfortable thing it is to have a newspaper to report one’s own doings in.”
    
    The correspondent urges the Timaru Herald to set up a rival Oamaru newspaper to the North Otago Times.
    
    Mosley sued Shrimski for 50 pounds for damages, but the case was adjourned by mutual consent.
    
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    February 19, 2024 3:58pm
    - MCōs
      
      Those were the probably some other generation’s good old days
      
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      February 19, 2024 6:12pm
NothingLeft

Really damning data from John Campbell: Eastern european countries with lower vaccination rates (~40-60%) have had much lower levels of excess deaths (near 0% or below) over last year than highly vaccinated OECD counties that are mostly in the 10-20% range.

So we have a clear mechanism (a brand new, never before seen pathology of amyloid clots in arteries only seen after vaccination program started), and a lot of data pointing to a huge death toll.

Will the medical/political/media complex ever be honest about it, or will they continue to piss our faces and tell us its raining?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSKT4k6Kr34
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February 19, 2024 2:33pm
- Grunter
  
  Make sure you put in a submission to the NZ Covid inquiry to expand their scope.
  
  Their options don’t mention vaccine safety or excess deaths (no surprises there), but you can still write up suggested additional areas to investigate.
  
  I’m with you on this one. Joining the dots leads to only one conclusion. And the fact that they refuse to release raw data with vaccination status just confirms they are hiding something.
  
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  February 19, 2024 3:12pm
- cmm
  
  Excess deaths is a pretty useless measure of anything.
  
  All it measures is the number of deaths above the running average.
  
  If one year has a bad flu season then the excess deaths will be higher.
  
  And the next year it will be lower, because the grim reaper took a bigger crop the previous year, leaving less people to die.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:23pm
- miltonF
  
  Indeed. The fat lady has sung. The experiment is over. The vaccine failed. It does not prevent Covid or significantly reduce symptoms. It kills approx 1 in 1000 people who take it and causes a myriad of irreversible health conditions. All the evidence is there. Clear as day. The prosecutions needed to start yesterday.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:40pm
Maggie Pie

What were they thinking?

It is really hard to believe that they let Hamas build a vast network of terror-tunnels under all this…. then sacrificed the whole shooting match for a one day raping and killing spree.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1758999710449246703

Some peeps just never know when they’re well off.
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February 19, 2024 2:34pm
- kevn
  
  Maggie… Like Persia in the 1950’s – 1970’s. Pre taliban.
  
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  February 19, 2024 3:50pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Not a single kid was sniffed that day.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Nw4bFPtEgV4
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February 19, 2024 3:31pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Coke in the Whitehouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OknFDV37Zws
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February 19, 2024 3:32pm
Swifty

The MP for Tijuana lies in suggesting Simeon Brown accused Genter of lying in the House:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9wqxkYvGw9M

What a little liar the Mexican MP is.
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February 19, 2024 3:48pm
- Swifty
  
  Sorry, there’s one other possibility that I overlooked – that he (the Mexican) is too stupid to realise that that Brown saying Genter’s graphs are misleading IS NOT the same as Brown accusing Genter of lying.
  
  Actually I think I prefer this latter explanation better. I think it is more likely than him knowingly accusing Brown of suggesting Genter was lying when he (the Mexican) knew that Brown did no such thing.
  
  Either way, the Mexican made himself look like a fool.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:17pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The trouble with Tribalism:

Papua New Guinea ambush: More than 60 shot dead in Highlands region

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68302051
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February 19, 2024 4:12pm
- cmm
  
  There’s an update that says only 26 were killed.
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/19/png-papua-new-guinea-highlands-death-toll-ambush
  
  Considering PNG highlands has around 10x the population of South Auckland, and they’ve basically got a civil war going, then 26 (or even 60) isn’t too bad.
  
  Probably not much more dangerous than Ōtara. Maybe the Aussies can send us some peace keepers?
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:36pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Keep an eye on this one, the rebels are still holding a Kiwi hostage and are much better armed than the bows and arrows they had 20 years ago.
  This has the potential to turn into a very nasty situation.
  
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  February 19, 2024 10:44pm
Maggie Pie

My partner managed to secure a pair of the ‘Super Limited’ Trump Gold Sneakers off the pre-sale site.

All those nasty rando’s on Twitter suffering from TDS will be pretty p*issed… they all SOLD OUT within a couple of hours. LOL!!

The Hosk reckoned this morning “they were a great investment” and wished he’s ordered some. If Mike is a US13, I know where could get a pair for around 5k+ 😀
10 1
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February 19, 2024 4:52pm
- MCōs
  
  Could have sent and extra $600 to the North Piha Surf Lifesaving Club towards their new clubhouse on top of his previous donation
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:00pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    He’s already sponsored a RIB to the local club.
    And a 50hp Merc.
    
    You helped out with Manakau SLSC cos?
    
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    February 19, 2024 6:45pm
- greybeard
  
  Don’t forget that Hosking said he paid a couple of thousand POUNDS for a pair of shoes purported to have been made for a senior member of the Royal Family !
  He is either a remarkable, prescient investor or a real dick with too much cash.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:13pm
  - greybeard
    
    A downtick ! Hi, Mike !
    
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    February 19, 2024 6:50pm
Swifty

The MP for Tijuana says National’s policies are ‘the politics of cruelty’:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/christopher-luxon-fronts-media-at-post-cabinet-press-conference-after-tough-love-benefit-remarks/WFK6HN5IRVED5HAJYHXGR4HTN4/

Well if that’s the case then the Green’s and Labour’s policies are the politics of hopelessness, helplessness, despair, squalor and failure – based on the appalling figures released recently (and on KB) describing how multi-generational welfare dependency skyrocketed over the last six years.

Once again a Green MP treats us all as fools. He thinks we can’t see right through his calamitous prescriptions for our country and our people.

He’s not just misguided – no, his ideology wrecks lives and destroys families. Their record over the last six years lays it all bare and for the whole country to see.
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February 19, 2024 5:52pm
- sht1971
  
  According to him clearly making people work isn’t helping them support themselves. They can only do that on the taxpayers tit.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:33pm
sht1971

Mail I Sherman is almost having to choke on the poll. All she can keep saying is how the coalition has been chaotic. I almost choked when she said NZ doesn’t want a patronising PM. Dear God… what did we have for nearly 6 years… be kind everyone.
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February 19, 2024 6:11pm
- Prince
  
  Did she really say the Coalition had made a ‘chaotic’ start !
  Perhaps she should get out from her left-wing echo chamber and talk to some Kiwis. The Polls should have sent her that message.
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:20pm
  - sht1971
    
    And National’s numbers are because he kept a cool head through Waitangi Day. Not that people might actually like what is being said…
    
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    February 19, 2024 6:56pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes twice, her chaotic claim was because of leaving smoking at the status quo and treaty issues, sadly the stupid bint does not realise the voters wanted change
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:16pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Michael Bassett has just described her as
  “that low-level reporter”
  
  https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/michael-bassett-challenges-facing-christopher-luxon-s-government
  
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  February 19, 2024 6:46pm
- Ghost
  
  This is our fourth poll, 3 show act down, Curia is the only one showing act increasing.
  
  Act down one, national up one. But greens down two, really, are greens shifting to Māori party who are up two……
  
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  February 19, 2024 7:01pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Funny how they say Act losing 1% is because of treaty bill, what was greens excuse for losing 2% Davison said she was stoked A y was down but she didn’t even notice greens were down twice as far
    
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    February 19, 2024 9:18pm
- Scooter
  
  Those on the “left” really are deluded and probably suffering from an actual mental illness. New US ex kiwi acquaintance actually said Biden is the best politician since Roosevelt and the “stumbles” he makes is just something everyone does.
  
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  February 19, 2024 7:55pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350182123/homeless-woman-inundated-offers-help
Crikey !

I think I might buy a couple of dogs then contact a couple of newspapers !
Rent out my home and get some free accommodation.
Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs and I understand the bond between owners and their pets, but it seems to me that her life is being controlled by her attachment to these pooches.
This is the bit that annoys me:

“In a desperate bid, Taylor shared her story with the Manawatū Standard, and offers of help immediately came flooding in.”

I would really like to see all of the correspondence between Taylor and the Manawatu Standard: who she contacted, any prior connections, etc.
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February 19, 2024 7:01pm
- Ian Boag
  
  I would really like to see all of the correspondence ..
  
  I’m scratching my head to figure which bits of it are any of your business …
  
  1 1
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  February 19, 2024 9:03pm
Maggie Pie

And what about the fire in the Treasury basement?
Never been heard of before.
My partner reckons it sounds suspicious as fcuk 🙁
4 0
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February 19, 2024 7:08pm
Tauhei Notts

I am presently in the Mahurangi peninsula. For 14 minutes a helicopter has been circling us. Very weird.
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February 19, 2024 8:27pm
Hugh Jarse

So Labour have reverted to type so quickly and effectively that even Tova has been forced to comment on their non appearance. They will now sit back doing SFA for the next 9 years minimum before the NZ voters decide to give them another chance. They won’t have any policy ready and it will be bring in the working groups….again.

The media can criticise Luxon for his corporate ways all they like, but he had his Ministers selected, their priorities sorted, they knew their portfolios n the lead up to the election and have hit the ground running. Compare that to the shambles of 2017. The main fly in the ointment has been two other coalition parties but even that seems to be working ok with all of them having similar baseline policies give or take a little.

Chippy will be well gone by the end of this year, replaced by Carmel who won’t see 2025 out, to be replaced by Ginny, and so on. And every year more journalists will go down the rabbit hole in despair of seeing their preferred parties back in power.
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February 19, 2024 10:00pm

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