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March 24, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 24 March 2025

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General Debate

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Tauhei Notts

Interesting chat over the weekend. An old family friend used to be an advertising saleswoman for radio stations. That was 20 odd years ago. At the time she commented on how much competition the National Programme gave commercial radio. She wanted to be selling advertising for them!!!
But now, in 2025, in her words;
“nobody listens to the National Programme”.
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March 24, 2025 8:10am
- David Garrett
  
  Tauhei: Is she basing that view on any evidence? When i last looked Nat Rad had a surprisingly large audience.
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:15am
  - cmm
    
    When was that?
    
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    March 24, 2025 8:21am
    - David Garrett
      
      Cmm: Maybe three or four years ago? It was at the beginning of my disenchantment with their bias, and I remember being very surprised how large their audience still was.
      
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      March 24, 2025 8:28am
      - David Garrett
        
        Actually it must have been closer to five years ago – I have been up in the Kingdom for almost three years.
        
        But I’d still be most interested in some authoratitive audience figure for Nat Rad
        
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        March 24, 2025 8:37am
      - slijmbal
        
        @cmm & David G
        
        stats are available for 2024 for listenership.
        
        RNZ still has decent listenership but constantly decreasing – you can see RNZ’s own press release from last year and GFK’s commercial radio survey numbers can be found on the net.
        
        ZB still rules the roost but listenership is quite fragmented and it only has close to 15% of commercial radio listeners for instance. RNZ would have about 2/3rds of ZB numbers. RNZ has .5m listeners as per the survey definition of listener. RNZ claims exagerrated numbers for their digital readership based on clicks.
        
        in 2010 RNZ was the most listened to station in NZ – again still somewhat fragmented audience. Easy to find on the net. Numbers had been steady until then. That was when the decline started.
        
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        March 24, 2025 8:46am
      - David Garrett
        
        Oh dear…at least three very silly people here…(so far)…I dont give a toss what the stats are; I’d just like to know!
        
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        March 24, 2025 8:49am
      - Mike
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/about/audience-research
        
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        March 24, 2025 8:55am
      - cmm
        
        It looks like some government worker is on double pay today.
        
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        March 24, 2025 8:57am
      - cmm
        
        Fill your boots:
        
        Apply your lawyering eye and be careful of their small print.
        
        80% “engage with their content”, but most of that is accessing their website with only a small number actually listening to the radio.
        
        If you click on the link you will quite likely add one to the number.
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/about/audience-research
        
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        March 24, 2025 9:02am
      - David Garrett
        
        Cmm: Thanks for that…the stat they should find very disturbing is that less than half – 49% of the huge numbers they claim – trust them.
        
        I also smell a rat when they claim that 80% of the population engages with them, mostly online. Their audience is almost certainly skewed towards older readers, and they are the least likely to go to websites.
        
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        March 24, 2025 9:15am
      - cmm
        
        DG: They do many link-throughs from Stuff and such as well as from Google.
        
        If you use Google as a news feed, then chances are you will be offered some RNZ links. I expect that is how they get most of their hits rather than people putting in effort to seek them out.
        
        For an example searching on Google for “NZ school lunch news” gives 4 highlighted links – two of which are RNZ.
        
        A search for “Wairarapa gang shooting news” gives 3 highlighted links – 2 from RNZ.
        
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        March 24, 2025 9:23am
      - Mike
        
        https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/new-zealand/
        
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        March 24, 2025 9:24am
      - RoboRob
        
        @cmm and dg
        
        Since my boycot against Stuff I find myself often using rnz.co.nz.
        
        Compared to the competition (1news, Nzherald, Newstalk) I find their web site clear and easy to navigate. The news arrives quickly and the reports are usually better quality then other sites (when not direct reprints from other sites).
        
        Never ever listen to rnz radio.
        
        Yes I also get heaps of RNZ reports suggested to me by Google.
        
        So I expect their web site is the major driver for their contacts.
        
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        March 24, 2025 10:00am
      - nova
        
        I’ve actually recently started to visit the RNZ website more regularly, not because it is good, but because Stuff is intolerable. The few articles in Stuff that might interest me are often carried by RNZ as well. The RNZ website is not great, but at least it is ad free. I used to listen to National radio quite a bit, but very rarely now. It has gone downhill a long way.
        
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        March 24, 2025 10:28am
      - John Loveridge
        
        @Mike: I’m fascinated by Pornhub outranking Seek, Temu and even TikTok.
        
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        March 24, 2025 12:41pm
      - sirknz
        
        @ John Loveridge
        
        With The Hub outranking Seek, it appears that they are looking for jobs, not necessarily employment…
        
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        March 24, 2025 1:40pm
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    I am looking at the figures and notice that National radio combines RNZ and thr Concert programme in all their figures. “In a typical week in Survey 1 2024, 639,600 New Zealanders aged 10+ listen to RNZ National, and RNZ Concert. This is a slight increase from the last survey (634,800). The number of listeners to all radio across New Zealand (my correction) is 3,648,100 (3,642,600 in the last survey).” Copied from Audience research. Compare with Newstalk ZB which is reported to have half a million listeners to one programme every day, ie the Mike Hosking Breakfast
    
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    March 24, 2025 9:02am
    - Sacha
      
      I listen intermittently to Hosking in the morning and ZB from 4 pm – I liked Heather, and enjoy Ryan Bridge while she is on leave. Otherwise I enjoy radio silence.
      Haven’t tuned in to RNZ for at least 10 years.
      I watch quite a bit of you-tube for entertainment: car chases, and Pepe’s Towing Service, and JRE/Lex Fridman/Diary of a CEO , and others for learning and general interest.
      The TV fell off its shelf during the last shake. I haven’t turned it on since, although the little red light still glows.
      And yet I still seem to be au fait with current events – maybe its because I come here, and go over there as well.
      
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      March 24, 2025 11:26am
    - Ra Henare
      
      I suspect(based on my cohort in NZ) that it’s baby boomers who listen to RNZ. So expect listenership to drop as the boomers drop.
      
      However, the website hits will increase as the teenagers look for wider news as they grow up!!
      
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      March 24, 2025 3:18pm
  - Swifty
    
    Their actual ‘listenership’ has plummeted in the last three or four years.
    
    Last time I looked it was, from memory, 40 or so per cent lower than their 2020’ish highs.
    
    As to why this has happened I can’t say, but there are a good six or so in my close circle who have been lifelong listeners who have given up of late all saying that they can no longer stand the bias – and that they’ve now got alternatives.
    
    This mirrors my experience, I’ve been a daily listener for 40 years and hardly bother now. I catch their news now and again in the car but I’ve completely abandoned them in the mornings, and my dinner making routine now has The Platform in the background (replaying that days’s interviews on YouTube).
    
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    March 24, 2025 9:56am
    - John Loveridge
      
      I’ve never been able to stomach commercial radio. The advertising drives me mad. RNZ always used to be a pleasant alternative to that, but they started driving me away some years ago with the constant lefty bias and increasing Maori drivel. They’re dead to me now, other than my offsider exposing me to the afternoon show if we’re both in the office.
      
      In fact, other than that, I listen to no radio at all, and watch almost no TV. My news and information comes from the internet, and my entertainment is mostly reading.
      
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      March 24, 2025 12:37pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    I believe that Nat Radio has 7% audience share – its quite pitiful.
    
    Many years ago Morning Report was a “must listen”, now you’d have to be mad to bother – 3 hours of deep-concern porn, interspersed with chin stroking.
    
    Time to put RNZ out of its misery, only retired teachers listen to it anyway.
    
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    March 24, 2025 4:16pm
- Philview
  
  I still enjoy listening to Jim Mora on Sunday. However there are so many interesting podcasts out there it has really killed the need for radio background noise.
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:09am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Yes, Jim is the one regular RNZ presenter whose politics is not on display.
    
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    March 24, 2025 3:01pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  She used to carefully tailor advertisers’ requirements to what would work. Yes, it was anecdotal, but if it did not work her commissions would plummet.
  She had a good understanding of what people were listening to. And she did that by chatting with many many people.
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:16am
  - Sacha
    
    Who is she?
    
    [Read the 0810 post at the start of this thread. mod.]
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:30am
cmm

Yesterday DPF expressed a hope that the 18 year old Southlander caught doing 215kph changes his ways before he hurts someone else.

Unlikely.

We had someone like that up our way. The only good thing about that outcome was that he managed to carry out his death wish without involving anyone else.
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March 24, 2025 8:12am
- Raphael
  
  He might change his ways.
  
  When I was 21, I got a new (for me) car it was a 2l fuel-injected VW Jetta to replace my 1800 non-fuel-injected VW Jetta that some nasty buggers relieved me of at gunpoint.
  I once tested my speed and got up to 190km/h along the Cedara flats on the N3 (Natal Midlands).
  The cop caught me when I was slowing down and I got a ticket for doing 170 km/h
  
  I’ve not done near that speed again.
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:44am
  - cmm
    
    I really hope he does, but he has been nicked twice which suggests there’s form. Statistics suggest there’s a power pole in his future.
    
    I know that bit of road well. I lived in Winterskloof. That’s one of the nicest roads to drive at speed if the weather is good.
    
    Unfortunately far too many people put the boot down and do 150kmh+ even when there’s one of those thick Hilton mists and you can’t see 50 metres in front of you.
    
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    March 24, 2025 9:56am
    - Raphael
      
      I grew up in Hilton (went to Laddsworth, until Std5 and then Howick Prep and Howick High).
      When I was a student I commuted from Hilton to Tech Natal on the Berea Campus every day as I was in a lift club with my brother who was a lecturer and 3 other staff)
      The one time the mist was so thick from the Hilton onramp going down towards PMB that my brother had his car door open to try to make out the lines of the road and even those we could barely see.
      
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      March 24, 2025 10:07am
      - cmm
        
        Sounds like the Hilton I remember.
        Lights on in the middle of the day for light – not just to be seen. Driving from cats eye to cats eye or following the lines. Fine at 40kph but not the 100+kph they do on the N3.
        
        The problem with going too slowly is that people would rear end you.
        
        My sister went to Laddsworth but I didn’t. IIRC she was there for Std 1 to 5 (approx 1974 to 79). I went to Athlone Primary (to Std 4), then Cowan House (std 5/6), then Alexandra HS in Pmb.
        
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        March 24, 2025 10:50am
      - alloytoo
        
        I recall a trip from Boston through Merryvale to Hilton in the mist, Farmer’s blasting past in their Hi-Lux’s, all fun and games until someone hit a cow.
        
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        March 24, 2025 12:45pm
  - alloytoo
    
    I got a Nissan Sentra 200 Sti over 200km/h in the midlands, it started a wee vibration which woke the co-pilot.
    
    Was my boss’s company car and company sponsored petrol enroute to Jhb.
    
    That was two children ago, I rarely get above 100km/h now
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:42pm
  - sirknz
    
    I had a 5spd 2l Turbo mid 80s Mitsi in my early 20s, 150km/h in 3rd, off the clock in 4th, not enough road to go to 5th on the Ngatea flats. Lucky to not be caught by anyone at the time, or a statistic as the car did not take long to get up to loss of licence territory.
    
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    March 24, 2025 1:45pm
- Bridgenag
  
  I know of a local young “hero” who was called smash………
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:07am
Hugh Jarse

So the Herald runs a story about Jim Grenon trying to put his side of the dispute with disgraced Labour Minister Michael Wood’s union E Tu and then puts it behind the paywall to be seen by only the couple of thousand Herald devotees.
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March 24, 2025 8:14am
artemisia

Public servants asked if their work provides value for taxpayers in Public Service Census Herald today.

Questions like – Q113 – what changes would help your organisation deliver better results for taxpayers.

So there will be a list unless (for some unfathomable reason) those surveyed can’t think of a single thing that should be binned or changed.

Next question – if there is a list, what happens next?
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March 24, 2025 8:21am
- cmm
  
  “Next question – if there is a list, what happens next? ”
  
  First it will be run through the treaty…
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:26am
- artemisia
  
  A good start in assessing items on the list would be 3 simple questions.
  
  1. Is there a benefit cost analysis?
  2. Is it any good?
  3. If not why not.
  
  Then add names to a new list – managers not fit for purpose.
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:30am
  - pdm
    
    Education would be a good start.
    
    Are Iona Holstead and Mrs Hipkins Senior still running the cutter there?
    
    Like Margie Apa in Health they seem well past their use by dates and Education should prosper without them.
    
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    March 24, 2025 8:57am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Education in NZ is a gravy train run for the benefit of adults.
      Look at Stanford having to shop around overseas for a method of testing childrens writing and maths skills. She employs over 4000 people in her ministry, yet none of them can manage such a simple task?
      Or maybe she knows that asking any of them to do anything useful is futile.
      
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      March 24, 2025 11:04am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Not sure that it would make much sense at this stage to commit to anything more than “responses will be carefully considered”.
  
  If you say, all suggestions for cost saving will be automatically implemented, then you are inviting responses such as “sack Stacey from HR” (unsaid – because she turned me down for a date) or “stop the regular audits” (unsaid – before they discover that I’ve been fiddling my expenses).
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:39am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  In 1979 I was Mate of a SCONZ vessel and we were doing the annual Cargo Gear, FiFi and Lifesaving equipment surveys.
  
  I asked for a Mar Dept surveyor to be on board at 0645 to start doing the water tightness survey on the hatches. Crew all stood to, 5 gangs of wharfies. Idea was to do the test at No 1 and then crew open up etc etc. So v little down time.
  
  By 0800 no surveyor so opened up and started cargo with a really hacked off Mate.
  
  0900 he turns up and see me and says “Are you the Mate?” Marched hip straight up to Master who told him how much he had cost te company etc etc.
  
  Marine Supt informed, who phoned Mar Dept.
  
  From that time on the surveyors were early and even waiting on the wharf at weekends when we arrived!!!!
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:40am
- imalwaysright
  
  Shouldn’t the customers be the judges of the value? Especially MBIE, MPI and Immigration etc customers who have direct contact and pay fees, over and above their taxes, for services.
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:53am
  - artemisia
    
    Nothing stopping asking customers. Sometimes walking and chewing gum at the same time is possible.
    
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    March 24, 2025 10:57am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Correct. That would have been a very interesting census.
      
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      March 24, 2025 11:11am
- cmm
  
  Ok, how will they be able to hold any meetings if there is nobody that knows all the songs?
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:55am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  I wonder if the question was “multiple choice” or a chance for a long unfocused ramble. Unless one has training in how to design a “survey” we are at risk of believing that subjective ramblings are valid information to use in decision making.
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:12am
cmm

A group of adolescents or teens walk into a mall with hammers and take what they want.

Time for that grown-up conversation. People should be allowed to arm themselves with at least pepper spray.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/auckland-crime-masked-group-targets-michael-hill-jewellers-in-manawa-bay-mall-smash-and-grab/MPORV6XOZVE75BH6QLUFI2KRAY/
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March 24, 2025 8:25am
- AitchW
  
  Not their fault. They’re only trying to feed their families. Ask Tamatha.
  And everyone knows that gangs are whanau.
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:35am
  - kowtow
    
    Capt Cook did it!
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:00am
- kowtow
  
  A “party” in the UK.
  
  ‘Three teenagers were arrested last night after a gang of youths crashed a birthday party at a school and stabbed two teenagers.
  
  It has been reported that more than 50 youths armed with knives and machetes ran into Elm Park Primary School’s hall, in Havering, Essex, at around 9pm on Saturday.’
  
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14528557/Moment-children-run-screaming-event-hosted-primary-school-crashed-group-youths-armed-knives-leaving-police-hurt-two-teenagers-stab-wounds.html
  
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  March 24, 2025 8:49am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “Youths armed with knives” – newspeak for muslims. Otherwise they would be far right white extremists.
    
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    March 24, 2025 10:51am
    - kowtow
      
      No comments allowed in that story .
      
      Nudge nudge wink wink.
      
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      March 24, 2025 12:41pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Ah yes “youths”…. more of that vibrant diversity we are so grateful for?
    
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    March 24, 2025 4:29pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Over the last 15 or so years men have allowed themselves to be emasculated by activists. We now have a generation of bearded and compliant males who ask their missus what they should do next.
  It wasn’t that long ago when these punks would have been swarmed, disarmed, and hurt by any men nearby.
  Now, the first reflex is to hit the video record button and hope for blood spatter.
  
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  March 24, 2025 11:39am
imalwaysright

I wouldn’t mind seeing a televised mid-term Leaders Debate.
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March 24, 2025 8:27am
imalwaysright

What happened to the lady who sunk the grey boat and nearly killed everyone on it?
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March 24, 2025 8:32am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Waiting for the final report, due EOM. Then the Courts Martial.
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:54am
  - Matt Long
    
    And what will the courts do, I note this woman is now an experienced Master of both Marine and Submarine Naval Vessels.
    Do we have a vessel worthy of her talents, or will she perhaps be transferred to the RN to be put in charge of an aircraft carrier?
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:20pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      She’d try to deck an A380.
      
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      March 24, 2025 12:25pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Maybe go to Australia? They have new subs coming I hear.
      
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      March 24, 2025 4:25pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘nearly killed everyone on it?’
  
  That’s very unfair . The way our Great and Good have put it , that was the most successful , well executed and led lifeboat drill in the history of the Royal NZ Navy ! ( forget the expense though)
  
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  March 24, 2025 2:15pm
Grunter

The Germans are going crazy again. They are now planning to spend up to 1.7 trillion Euros on infrastructure, climate change initiatives and guns & bombs. This will take their Sovereign Debt to 125% of GDP.

All voted in by the new the Fuhrer who has not even been elected chancellor yet and negotiates the biggest borrowing in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany with parties that lost the election, in a Bundestag that has long since been dissolved! Imagine saying that 10 years ago……

The polite pushback from the Taxpayers Assoc of Germany states:
“This debt package is a dangerous mistake,” stresses BdSt President Holznagel. “Germany needs sustainable solutions – not new burdens for taxpayers and future generations!”

Germany, up until now, has been the only sensible EU country when it comes to Debt. The 1.7 TRILLION is a hundred times more than all DAX companies together earned in 2023. So it can never be paid back. It will be defaulted on.

And remember, the Ruskies will be reading about all this. The last time a German Fuher went crazy 27 million Russians lost their lives.
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March 24, 2025 8:48am
- Master Mariner
  
  My understanding they are going for the Savings of depositors.,
  
  WAR FUND: EU Seeks 10 Trillion Euros in ‘Citizens’ Savings’ to Fund the War Machine
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIGw8bgpB54
  
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  March 24, 2025 11:52am
  - cmm
    
    Will that be through compulsory war bonds or just nationalising the savings?
    
    If the latter then they won’t even need to leave the borders to find an enemy.
    
    German politics is still very much divided according to the old West/East split. Nearly 40 years since the wall came down and Germany still isn’t really united.
    
    I wonder how easy it would be for them to kick off a civil war?
    
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    March 24, 2025 1:29pm
- imalwaysright
  
  I read a number of years ago that the worlds largest companies were running out of customers with money and therefore could not meet profit targets.
  Basically the world didn’t have enough money to spend on their products.
  Next thing we have massive money printing and lockdowns, climate cult, wars etc.
  Therefore there is now a new demand, people with money, and the big companies ready willing and able to satisfy the demand.
  Artificial as it is.
  This can’t happen again. We won’t survive it.
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:21pm
  - cmm
    
    Well there’s a slump in rich people. Population numbers are going down. People are also getting older and many are now on fixed incomes.
    
    So where is the growth of consumption going to come from?
    
    If you think it is going to come from the breeding parts of the world (eg. West Africa) you’re dreaming.
    
    West African consumer splurging means buying a new bucket. Not a new car and 15 pairs of silly shoes.
    
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    March 24, 2025 1:32pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Not sure what you are getting at, but my point is about the west.
      Increase in the number of people is irrelevant, increase in available money is relevant.
      Therefore my conclusion, and presumably yours, that it is artificial .
      
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      March 24, 2025 2:00pm
- kowtow
  
  There was interesting commentary in the UK Daily Telegraph ( hardly a hot bed for crazies)
  
  When the CDU/CSU ruled out the AfD it was a signal to the SPD ( who lost the election) that they could basically ask for anything and get it in what the mainstream would claim passes for “negotiations”( which they aren’t given upto a fifth of the electorate can be safely ignored.
  
  In other words the process is a farce , the elctorate who voted CDU/CSU for strong migration policy , thereby weakening the appeal of the AfD were hoodwinked /cheated.
  
  Because SPD is now demanding 500 k migrants a year to be allowed in.
  
  Watch this space.
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:48pm
  - cmm
    
    Good old kingmaker politics. Our Winnie is an expert at that.
    
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    March 24, 2025 1:33pm
Yvette

• Peters is getting on board the Whangarei District Council’s push to challenge the central government’s direction to fluoridate drinking water, claiming NZ First backs a referendum for ratepayers to decide.

I wonder how the Maori Advisory Council guides Taumata Awowai, the New Zealand Water Regulator on this matter, since the National-lead Coalition and New Zealand First apparently have not yet made them redundant?
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March 24, 2025 9:05am
- Ghost
  
  The Director-General of Health is responsible for the decision not Taumata Awowai
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:17am
cmm

Well Iceland’s Minister of Children was clearly very knowledgeable about her portfolio,,,

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360625582/icelands-minister-children-quits-after-admitting-she-had-baby-teenager-30-years-ago
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March 24, 2025 9:06am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  In Iceland they have an app on their phone so that they can check if anyone they fancy at a party is closely related to them!!!!
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:28am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Well, yes, but you say that as though it’s a bad thing? Yes, she understands that children may be born into undesirable circumstances and the lasting impact that that has on their lives. Yes, she understands that young people make idiotic mistakes that can have profound and far-reaching consequences not only for themselves but for others around them, including innocent children. As such she’s actually ideally placed to think realistically about how these things can be averted and/or ameliorated. I’d like to think that if I were the Prime Minister (or whatever they have there) of Iceland, I’d have backed her
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:44am
  - cmm
    
    Sure, but it was a criminal act. Can you really back your ministers for being criminal in their 20s?
    
    Hey, let’s get some Mongrel Mobber as Minister of Police. He would know the ropes!
    
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    March 24, 2025 10:54am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Not according to your linked article
      
      Iceland ’s age of sexual consent is 15, but it is an offence for an adult to have sex with a teenager they teach, employ or mentor.
      
      He was 16, and she wasn’t his teacher, employer or mentor.
      
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      March 24, 2025 11:00am
- nova
  
  On the surface it is surprising that this has caused such a scandal 36 years later. They were both quite young, but from Wikipedia it seems she didn’t treat the father very well afterwards.
  I have learnt one thing from this, thanks to Stuff spelling her name differently in the photo caption than in the body of the article, and that is:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:19am
- kowtow
  
  Wasn’t it the Icelandic PM who tweeted along the lines of ‘happy Downs syndrome day’ showing how woke she was but Iceland doesn’t have any due to their eugenic genocide policy towrds differently abled people.
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:23am
Skippytony

If you were looking for the perfect metaphor for the state of the world…

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/richard-tice-claims-heathrow-shutdown-was-caused-by-net-zero/ar-AA1BnuO3

I was discussing how surprising it was that the UKs biggest airport was taken out by a very predictable single point of failure, which is bad enough In itself.
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March 24, 2025 9:06am
- cmm
  
  Bottom like here was having a “back up system” that wasn’t.
  
  The “back up system” needed the grid to work.
  
  As useful as an Irish parachute that opens on impact.
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:55am
  - kiwi_chileno
    
    Chile had a power blackout on 25/26 th Feb, affecting 19 m people. The early lesson is that the best, paper DR plans for critical, complex systems are useless, unless they’re repeatedly tested, proven, and updated. It took over 9 hours to restore electricity and a State of Emergency was declared. It was the the worst outage since the 27 Feb 2010 8.8 earthquake (that’s 316 times more powerful than the 2011 6.3 Christchurch earthquake).
    
    The government electricity network co-ordinator had a DR / service recovery plan, but, for several years, had failed to ensure that operators carried out mandatory recovery tests (Chile’s generation, grid, and distribution is entirely privatised.) The initial fault in a critical 500 kV transmission line was apparently resolved quickly. But the fault had rippled through the network, tripping electronic protection circuits, eg, generators couldn’t get back on-line. And because of a communications blackout, SCADA control systems went off-line and weren’t receiving real time information. Telecomms quickly switched to back-up power, but became overloaded. Other critical infrastructure and facilities – hospitals, prisons, Santiago airport, etc – kept operating on back-up systems, but in some areas, the water supply failed because pumping stations couldn’t operate.
    
    A cyber-attack has been ruled out, although SCADA systems globally seem notoriously vulnerable. The leftist government has predictably blamed the private operators for mis-managament and under-investment and called for nationalisation of the grid. The opposition and the companies have blamed red-tape, like environmental regulation, for hindering network hardening and upgrades. Experts also point to grid capacity not keeping up with the growth in renewables generation, an issue not limited to Chile (the fault occurred north of Santiago and south of solar plants in the Atacama – the line that faulted was operating at or above capacity).
    
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    March 24, 2025 3:41pm
    - Skippytony
      
      Absolutely agree. A decision was made to move to a new DR/Backup approach but it clearly wasnt ever tested for viability. In an engineering sense this is 101 thinking. Thats how they calculated the size and output of the diesel generation capacity originally, so its not like its completely new to them. The airport from memory is ISO certified, so they must have routinely run the failover test to evidence the business continuity capability.
      So, “someone” proposes a fundamental change to the architecture of the solution – again this is SOP, they a guy with a grey coat and a slide rule in his pocket goes: Scenario 1: XYZ, if this, do this..This should happen, Scenario 2, repeat etc. I was doing network architecture projects many years ago and we had to get three separate groups to review our design, looking specifically for SPoF and things like load assumptions.
      
      Again, how in 2025 do we seem to have gone significantly backwards on the maintenance of a critical piece of infrastructure? Are we now like the britons, after the Romans left, living in a decaying infrastructure we have neither the means or the understanding to maintain? Thats a deeply depressing prospect.
      
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      March 24, 2025 4:03pm
grumpy

Looks like it’s universal..,,
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/michelle-obama-says-she-was-shocked-that-people/
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March 24, 2025 9:33am
Matt Long

Just before Hamas attacked Israel in the worst massacre since the Holocaust there was a standoff between the leftist judiciary using lawfare to stymie the Netanyahu government.
The Democrats are now doing the same thing in the USA, it’s almost as if they’re reading from the same playbook.
Obama appointed District Court Judges are attempting to over rule the elected government.
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1903861845015908494
https://x.com/WesternDecline_/status/1903863815504003547
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-fumes-over-late-night-deportation-move-signed-in-dark
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March 24, 2025 9:35am
- RoboRob
  
  Re the US situation.
  
  I am very happy to ensure governments act legally. Trump (and Biden) should act within the law. If there is a question of something being legal or not then it should go through the courts (quickly) before being implemented or not.
  
  However, there is a major issue in the US. There are ~900 (in 2018) federal, appeals and supreme judges. The concept that any one of these judges (after some judge shopping by the complainant) can stop any of the presidents actions seems absurd. Obviously there needs to be some sensible restriction on the powers of judges too. There have been some very ‘hairy’ decisions that seem like trying to force the law to justify what the Judge wants to occur.
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:12am
- Colville
  
  “Worst massacre since the holocaust”
  Why… because black people dont count?
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:17am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Good point Colville,
    Antihamitic perhaps?
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:42am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Matt is prone to exaggeration in order to make a point…
      
      Of course the Hamas incursion // was not the worse massacre since the holocaust.
      
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      March 24, 2025 3:37pm
  - Matt Long
    
    I thought it was obvious that the reference was to Israel and therefore massacre of Jews, mea culpa.
    Of course there’s the ongoing genocide of Christians in Africa.
    https://x.com/mschlapp/status/1903493056457851182
    Not to mention Hutus versus Tutsis, and a whole lot of others.
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:29pm
    - kowtow
      
      It was obvious .
      
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      March 24, 2025 12:34pm
Notsofast

Hundreds March in Wgtn to support Lupron on demand for children.
And it looks way more than a thousand.
Elizabeth Kerekere is pictured as an advocate, and freshman Benjamin Doyle in particular wants to sterilise and degrade children.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hundreds-march-in-wellington-to-support-access-for-puberty-blockers-gender-affirming-care/24FUPXHBNJBS7JZMSI2TBWQ2EY/
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March 24, 2025 9:52am
Master Mariner

@Maggy W.

WATCH: The Most Compelling Argument Against Tech In Schools | Sophie Winkleman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V6nucKFK88&t=13s
@7mins +
At least in my mind this is why school results are in a downward spiral in the Western World.
Along with the lack of Male teachers in a World were the breakdown of the Family unit is encouraged along with absent Fathers.
Question , Why is NZ MOE enforcing the use of Chrome Books in Primary school ?
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March 24, 2025 9:57am
- Ian Boag
  
  MOE enforcing the use of Chrome Books in Primary school
  
  Enforcing? Wot?
  
  I would have to say that where I have seen Chromebook use in a primary school I have been pretty impressed with how it can enlarge the kids’ horizons.
  
  Chromebooks are cheap and easy care – too dumb to get malware, and pretty much everything is stored in the cloud. So if you lose/drown/break the device just get another one, identify yourself and bingo. Also means the school doesn’t have to run a LAN ….
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:19am
  - cmm
    
    Is enlarging horizons really the primary goal in primary school.
    
    Surely it should be getting the 3 Rs done properly?
    
    If broadening horizons is really the right thing to be doing then I would suggest that over 50% of kids are doing the right thing by wagging school.
    
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    March 24, 2025 10:57am
    - newview
      
      cmm If you’ve ever looked at online math for say 8y olds, you would see they are challenging and entertaining. Computer learning for primary school is beneficial imo. They also get to learn computer skills which is essential these days, for everything.
      
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      March 24, 2025 11:44am
      - cmm
        
        Certainly they are. No point in going to school.
        
        “They also get to learn computer skills ” This is the biggest line of bullshit out there. Learning how to click a mouse and such is hardly a skill.
        
        It is like suggesting that eating is a “nutrition skill”,
        
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        March 24, 2025 1:37pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        I would dispute your statement that 8 year olds need to learn computer skills.
        
        computer skills which is essential these days, for everything.
        
        Replace the word with technology handling skills and I would agree with you.
        
        Keep in mind that most 8 year old can already do amazing things with smart phones, smart TVs, smart microwaves etc etc
        
        Computer skills is a msinomer in current and future sociaties.
        
        Learn to code is also doomed to failure as AI takes over the necessity to code and have computer skills.
        
        What 8 year olds need to learn IMHO is the 3 Rs plus CRITICAL THINKING!!!
        
        Also mechanical skills. ie fixing things that are physically broken.
        
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        March 24, 2025 3:43pm
  - OlderChas
    
    I wish my grandchild’s primary school would insist on chrome books. Way cheaper to provide. Her school specifically states “no chrome books’. Must be a laptop with Windows installed.
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:30am
  - imalwaysright
    
    If the kids had written their lessons in an excercise book they would have retained far more information than they would with a digital screen.
    The ability to log in on a different device and take up from where they left off in a lesson is analogous to going back online in google maps, the destination is still there, but the route so far is a foggy memory.
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:55am
    - PurplePen
      
      Agree. I touch type near 100 words a minute. A couple of times I’ve used a laptop in my meetings to take notes. I decided to type just key words as I do with pen and paper. For some reason it was never as effective as pen and paper. I went back to my old method which was pen and paper. A few key words here and there was all I need to write with some lines and circles or arrows etc and so long as I wrote up the minutes within a day or two the key words I’d written were all I needed to just about recall everything that was said.
      
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      March 24, 2025 1:08pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Well said Purple. When ones muscles are directed by the brain there surely must be a reason that is beneficial.
        
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        March 24, 2025 2:08pm
- Jack5
  
  For a scientific argument that handwriting helps memory, see the link below.
  
  Some foreign-language teachers say that taking notes by hand, and preferably in cursive script, helps get new vocabulary into your memory.
  
  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:48am
  - OlderChas
    
    An old maxim I recall during my school days: You remember about a quarter of what you hear, half of what you see, and three quarters of what you write.
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:32am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yep, Mentioned in the above video.
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:55am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m out of the country this week…trying to cope with small cellphone screen…
  I’m not opposed to digital tech in the classroom as long as the teacher is checking/ reading the work the pupil produces and provides individual feedback.
  
  If I remember (ha ha ha), I’ll comment more next week.
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:49pm
Bridgenag

Sunday Strip: Driving that Train
off the deep end.

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/sunday-strip-driving-that-train?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 24, 2025 10:04am
PurplePen

ODT reports LGNZ president Sam Broughton saying the government proposal for a cap on rates increases would do the opposite. It will restrict the ability of councils to invest in infrastructure. In the past councils have had their own rates caps with elected members deciding to keep rates increases at 2, 3 or 4%. Over generations of that decision-making we have a massive infrastructure deficit.

I nearly fell off my chair laughing at what Broughton says above and choked on my porridge. The no cap approach it would seem has given us infrastructure deficit. No mention of the cap affecting all the non-infrastructure non-specific projects where all past rates were needlessly wasted.
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March 24, 2025 10:08am
- cas
  
  I tried to get my local Council to withdraw from LGNZ citing examples of other councils which had. No luck – they maintained it was useful for training and advocacy!!
  
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  March 24, 2025 11:18am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Broughton may very well be out of a job soon.
  
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  March 24, 2025 11:24am
  - pdm
    
    Maybe two jobs.
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:41pm
- grumpy
  
  Has he got a decent opponent?
  
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  March 24, 2025 9:29pm
cmm

“Hamas attacked Israel in the worst massacre since the Holocaust ”

Maybe the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. There have been a few massacres with larger numbers than that, Rwanda being one of them.

An Israeli guy I speak with often said that that a lot of the people living in the Gazan border areas were very left leaning, pro-Gaza and anti-defence. Ironically they were the major victims of October 7th.

Many Gazans were travelling into Israel to work on a daily basis on these border farms. Perhaps they got complacent and started to see the Gazans as friendly people.

The Gazans all knew something was brewing. In July or so, a survey by some international outfit found that over 75% of Gazans believed there would be a major attack on Israel before the end of the year. It was in the bloody papers. The Israeli intelligence must have known of this. The Gazan workers could have warned their Israeli “friends”.
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March 24, 2025 10:11am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Ironically they were the major victims of October 7th.’
  
  I believe the largest single atrocity was at the music festival.
  
  Young , life loving people enjoying the freedoms of the west . Possibly lefty types who’re into the environment etc
  
  Exactly the same type of people the Greens are made up of and appeal to .
  
  And yet ……….
  
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  March 24, 2025 10:29am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    I think it was actually a music festival specifically promoting peace.
    Also, the Kibbutzim are basically self sufficient communities. Both of these groups are things the Greens etc would normally be fans of.
    
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    March 24, 2025 11:10am
    - kowtow
      
      Years ago the kibbutz movement was a darling of the left .
      
      Nowadays , not so much .
      
      I wonder what changed that . Israel seen as too close to the imperialist capitalist USA ?
      
      A broader more radical leftist movement against all things “settler colonial” and pro “indigenous”?
      
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      March 24, 2025 12:53pm
- Master Mariner
  
  “The Israeli intelligence must have known of this. The Gazan workers could have warned their Israeli “friends”.
  That is the question that needs addressed. Did the Egyptians warn that an attack was imminent?
  Not too mention reporters coming through the border filming the attack.
  I fail to understand how this happened. The only logical conclusion ( I have) was a “red flag” event that got out of control.
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:01pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    And how did the most guarded fence on earth get breached, and the most paranoid defence force on earth not notice for seven hours?
    I thought Israeli intelligence were meant to be smart…
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:32pm
  - Matt Long
    
    The Gazan workers could have warned the “friends”, dear Israeli peace activist, I’m pretending to come here to work so that in a few days we can rape, murder and burn you alive, we’re going to target you in particular because we know you. If we warn you our families will die horribly, love your suicidal empathy, sincerely, Gazan civilian worker.
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:35pm
  - kowtow
    
    At the moment the consensus in the Israeli msm ( and according to recently released reports from the IDF ) is it was a monumental fuck up by multiple agancies in Israel.
    
    Who had become complacent ( for multiple reasons) around the risk that Hamas posed .
    
    One reason it went so badly so quickly was there was a massive storm of rockets initially . Now rocket fire from Gaza is nothing new , the drill was always to go into shelters and that’s what the military etc did , They never expected the huge simultaneous ,cordinated wave of attcks on the fence ( bulldozers etc ) cos that’s not what Hamas did . The past was pinprick small attacks .
    
    Smashing through the fence and quickly attacking nearby major bases , where nearly everyone was in a shelter then left the fighting soldiers in those bases literally overwhelmed and fighting for their lives .
    
    Commander couldn’t command or summon assistance , they were literally on the walls or in the compounds doing private’s work .A lot of senior soldiers died that day , testament to that truth.
    
    This meant there was no co ordination between different bases and up the command line .
    
    Almost unbelievably the bases did not have weapons for every soldier on base and nor were everyone of them trained in weapon use as fully as they might have been ( that’s why there were so many female observer corps casualties) .
    
    There is also criticism of the air force who were holding back as they weren’t informed of the full extent of the invasion .
    
    All this is available .
    
    No big conspiracies . Nor was pearl Harbour or the Channel Dash. or so many other fuck ups through history.
    
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    March 24, 2025 1:07pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Unfortunately, this equates in my mind to a guy at the pub. ie another personal opinion.
  
  An Israeli guy I speak with often
  
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  March 24, 2025 3:47pm
imalwaysright

Is there a reason why Luxon hasn’t published the spending of each ministry on race based policies ?
It would be useful to know the disparity.
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March 24, 2025 11:23am
- Damocles11
  
  Two downticks for your valid question. National don’t want you to ask those sort of questions, they want you to lay back and think of India.
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:28pm
- pdm
  
  I doubt Luxon will go within a bulls roar of something like that ima.
  
  Guess who it might upset?
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:43pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Yep, he isn’t the saviour, he’s the finisher.
    
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    March 24, 2025 2:15pm
Paulus

Today the BOP Times is headlining the Sam Uffindell’s Private Member’s Bill he has put into the ballot, being that he proposes Equal Voting Rights both Local and National.
His comment is that ” I hear a lot of concern from members of the Community that Councils. like Tauranga CityCouncil, want to move away from equal sufferage and give special rights and voting power to people based on ethnicity”.
Wow, the usual vicious condemnation from the media and local Maori against such a bill.
It is close to the Seymours thinking and Natiuonal should heed the intention of this bill.
Well done Sam, close to my and many others thinking in the Tauranga Electorate.
I am tired of being denigrated by the media, that I an older male being non Maori – even a 1,000 part, and that they must always be right.
The last 30 plus years have been a serious downfall by a minority for our Country too.
It has got much worse in the last say 10 years like the divisions as seen in the Feminist run media, between Women and Men.
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March 24, 2025 12:09pm
- kowtow
  
  Why isn’t this bill and indeed Winston First’s anti woke whatever taken up as govt bills ?
  
  Is it all one big stage show .
  
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  March 24, 2025 12:38pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I thought he was fighting woke as the next election platform
    
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    March 24, 2025 12:59pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Yes it is all one big stage show. Winston doesn’t want to pass the bill (yet ant maybe ever), he wants it there to say ‘NZF are fighting against woke’. As G rightly points out, it will be his next election campaign. He should be able to get 5% from that issue alone and thats all NZF really is every after.
    
    p.s. Have been remarkably imporessed by NZFs performance so far in this government. Much better then expected.
    
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    March 24, 2025 1:31pm
    - AitchW
      
      Peters picks a hot button every election. For years it was Asian immigrants, now it’s wokeism.
      He’s not campaigning out of any real desire to get rid of wokeism, he knows that in the political centre wokeism is a vote winner.
      If you look up populism in the dictionary there’s a photo of Peters.
      
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      March 24, 2025 5:12pm
      - Jethrod
        
        I did just that…… a lot of Liebor and flunkies and some of Winnie too. Rob Muldoon appeared too!!
        
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        March 24, 2025 6:15pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360626044/paris-votes-making-500-streets-car-free-test-green-city-policies

Dear God, I hope the Wellington City Council hasn’t heard about this, or Tory Whanau will take it as a sign of things to do.
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March 24, 2025 12:35pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Apply it to Newtown.
  
  Build a fence around the place too, so they can’t get out.
  
  Build a car way to & from the hospital, for the rest of us.
  
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  March 24, 2025 7:22pm
G the giant from Dunedin

Good to hear Peter’s pointing to the Hipkins failures lies and mismanagement and in fact leaving him out from working with him post election. I have noticed rotten media trying to suggest Peter’s will be in play for the Labour Party so they can leave TPM out of a government, well thanks to Peter’s he has said no, thank hod for that
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March 24, 2025 1:02pm
- Cassandra
  
  And God too, to support hod.
  
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  March 24, 2025 1:50pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Hod ?
    
    [More proof you can’t be bothered to check your own posts before ‘send’. mod.]
    
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    March 24, 2025 3:59pm
    - AitchW
      
      Don’t you blaspheme against Hod!
      
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      March 24, 2025 5:08pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Oh
        
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        March 24, 2025 5:52pm
      - Keith White
        
        Hood Hod!
        
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        March 24, 2025 6:03pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Sorry, but I didn’t know what it was. Very sorry to offend MOD
      
      [Mod – read your original post]
      
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      March 24, 2025 5:51pm
    - greybeard
      
      Yeah, come on “H the Hiant from Dunedin”, check your spelling.
      
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      March 24, 2025 6:20pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        It wasn’t my spelling ffs
        
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        March 24, 2025 6:25pm
      - marcw
        
        No, it was the invisible hand of Hod.
        
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        March 24, 2025 7:21pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Donald Trump has one ace up his sleeve to defeat rogue Democrat judges.
Are leftie activist District Court Judges running the US or is the President? Congress can stop their nonsense.

https://patriotpulse.net/donald-trump-has-one-ace-up-his-sleeve-to-defeat-rogue-democrat-judges/?
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March 24, 2025 3:23pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  That is he same problem we have here. Does parliament and legislation run the country or do Judges like Emma Aitken and her ilk run the country?
  
  8 2
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  March 24, 2025 3:30pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Does it really not give you the slightest qualm that people without any criminal record have been arrested and sent to a prison in El Salvador WITHOUT. A. HEARING, on the basis of an order that plainly doesn’t meet the criteria of the law that it claims to rely on and that Trump now says he didn’t sign even though the order has his signature on it?
  
  Do you really see a Federal judge’s objection to such events as “rogue nonsense”?
  
  What do you understand by the separation of powers provided for in the US constitution, something we were previously given to understand was so important to Americans that they are willing to sacrifice children’s lives to it?
  
  4 9
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  March 24, 2025 3:31pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    They are not Americans, they are illegals.
    Who is sacrificing children’s lives? They can go with the illegal parents.
    
    9 4
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    March 24, 2025 3:59pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      In the absence of a hearing at which evidence and counter-evidence could be presented and examined, how do you know that they’re illegals? And even where they are, since when was the penalty for that imprisonment in a third country?
      
      Children have died in their hundreds because America thinks their constitutional right to bear arms is more important than ensuring their safety. But now it turns out that the constitution matters less than used toilet paper
      
      4 9
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      March 24, 2025 4:30pm
    - RichardX
      
      Otto, Do you understand that the US Constitution even offers you some protections when you are in the US?
      
      When it comes to key constitutional provisions like due process and equal treatment under the law, the U.S. Constitution applies to all persons – which includes both documented and undocumented immigrants – and not just U.S. citizens.
      
      If a constitutional provision refers to “citizens” then it only applies to citizens.
      
      https://news.law.fordham.edu/blog/2017/01/30/does-the-constitution-protect-non-citizens-judges-say-yes/
      
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      March 24, 2025 4:56pm
Graeme Hall

Besides being dangerous individuals who have committed crimes (they were screened), illegal aliens can also be deported for just being illegal aliens. The President has the power to control who goes in & out of the country under the US constitution.
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March 24, 2025 4:18pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Whatever the results of that “screening”, they were not presented to a court for examination and challenge and no opportunity was provided for the presentation of counter-evidence before the sentence was carried out.
  
  Which provision of the US constitution, precisely? Because Trump’s executive order relies not on the constitution but on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which enables action in wartime or in the event of invasion. If there is a case that these criteria have been met, that case has not been presented to the judiciary for examination.
  
  Don’t you think this matters?
  
  3 7
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  March 24, 2025 5:28pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Millions coming across the US southern border is not an invasion by non-citizens?
    So you just walk into the US and there should be a Court Hearing?
    [Mod – just debate the topic]
    
    6 3
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    March 24, 2025 6:09pm
cmm

Sloppy job Herald…

In an article about a male medical grad, they still had to pick the file photo of a medic with breasts to go with the byline:

“A top medical graduate says he struggles to find a hospital job despite needing further training. Photo / File / 123rf”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/top-medical-graduate-struggles-to-find-job-calls-for-health-nz-reform/5F5OO7N5NVEPHAQGFZR4BZR4UA/
9 2
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March 24, 2025 5:00pm
- Keith White
  
  No biologists on the Herald’s staff…
  
  4 3
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  March 24, 2025 6:04pm
Mike

Is he the whiniest guy in the world?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14529609/Trump-demands-presidential-portrait-taken-down.html
3 2
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March 24, 2025 6:08pm
- Ghost
  
  Saw that before, couldn’t see anything wrong with it
  
  3 0
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  March 24, 2025 6:16pm
  - Mike
    
    Yeah, what’s wrong is the president’s psyche.
    
    2 3
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    March 24, 2025 6:32pm

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