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May 3, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 03 May 2025

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NeverMindTheBollocks

Small tremor reported in the Hutt Valley.

Crumbs!

https://bbc.com/news/articles/cn8vey9355po
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May 3, 2025 8:01am
- Tomtoddy
  
  All earthquakes, minor and medium, all rain showers, all fine periods of over a few days, all wind gusts that blow your hat off are now major news stories, often promoted by the extremist Climate Cosmos outfit funded by Soros.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:12am
  - Mike
    
    Hah, a minor website is controlling the news about the weather! And it’s funded by ~~a secret cabal~~ ~~the Jews~~ Soros!
    
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    May 3, 2025 8:28am
  - farbeyond
    
    Indeed. I was commenting this when I saw it as first news in every MSM site.
    Not so much as it doesn’t matter, but…a storm or rain which was just common has now to be called cyclone. Better for the narrative of wide spread fear. What’s next? Why not calling a sunny day an anti cyclone? Technically speaking would be correct. With the hail yesterday in Auckland I was thinking in a big hail storm we had in 2011… Nothing new.
    
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    May 3, 2025 2:29pm
- Mike
  
  Then we can expect major tremors when the Hurricanes beath the Chiefs tonight.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:34am
  - Fedup oldie
    
    Who cares? A scoreless draw would be the best result.
    
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    May 3, 2025 12:16pm
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      I’m surprised you’ve made it to being old fedup. There are plenty of studies showing miserable people die before happy people.
      
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      May 3, 2025 7:44pm
- pdm
  
  Bollocks – if said earthquake was centered in the Wallaceville area of Upper Hutt it would have been caused by Biscuit and his cat stamping their collective feet in excitement at Liverpool’s achievement.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:16am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Gold star to PDM!
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:31am
    - Biscuit
      
      Mum!
      
      pdm and NeverMindTheBollocks are picking on your wee boy again!
      
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      May 3, 2025 12:47pm
- Jack5
  
  Quakes north and south of New Zealand ….
  
  An overseas earthquake watcher on the quakes around NZ. A Youtube video posted three days ago as I post.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/live/XZMuIMwYcf0?si=6Hd5QO9A0n0iI-vT
  
  And at this web site you can see quakes along the plate right into Indonesia:
  
  https://ds.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/index.phtml?rgn=Australia_NZ
  
  And NZs own quake watch:
  
  https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:18am
  - Jack5
    
    Big (7.4) earthquake in the Drake Passage, off Cape Horn, Argentina.
    
    Commentator says it’s deep (10km), so unlikely to trigger tsunami. The quake follows small quakes in the area.
    
    https://ds.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/index.phtml?rgn=S_America
    
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    May 3, 2025 1:30pm
    - kiwi_chileno
      
      There were two earthquakes – a 6.9 followed by the 7.5 ‘aftershock’. Because of it’s depth, there was less surface shaking. Evacuation orders were issued and then lifted (it’s a sparsely populated region) and a tsunami warning was cancelled. Epicentre was near Puerto Williams, about 1700 km’s south of the 1960 Valdivia quake – at 9.5, the most powerful ever recorded, 10 minutes of shaking, 1000 – 6000 killed by the quake itself and the tsunami, 2 million people left homeless.
      
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      May 3, 2025 3:11pm
    - surfing
      
      Depends on the type of quake too… sideways slipping is ok, vertical slipping will cause massive tsunamis. And, water is very good at transferring energy.
      
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      May 3, 2025 3:38pm
David Garrett

Another hot day brewing in the Kingdom…must be that global warming thingie
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May 3, 2025 8:08am
- Jade Warrior
  
  Actually David, I think it might have more to do with the fact that Tonga lies within the Tropic of Capricorn and consequently receives more direct and intense sunlight than temperate parts of the globe, like here in NZ. But you knew that already right? 😉
  
  Incidentally, given the storm that has just passed over NZ I have seen some commentary to the effect that’s it’s all due to human-induced global warming. The real reason why it happened is because a column of warm air from the north happened to come into contact with a column of much cooler air to the south, and they met over central NZ. As the warm air mass cooled, it was forced to release all of its energy, hence the high winds, heavy rain etc that central NZ has just endured.
  
  I’ve often wondered if the reason why so many people believe in human-induced global warming is because it suggests that humans can control the weather, even indirectly. In this modern technological age, we humans don’t like it when we experience loss or hardship from forces beyond our control.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:24am
  - David Garrett
    
    Jade: Of course i know why it is hot here! But as in NZ, the seasons are changing here too: the wet season has just ended – it ends later and later – and we shouldn’t be getting 30C temps in May.
    
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    May 3, 2025 9:48am
    - judith8409121
      
      what do you mean “we shouldn’t be getting 30c temps in may”? NZ weather is driven by winds and pressure. If the winds are driven from australia NZ can get 30 degrees in june. I have been on the port hills in christchurch on the shortest day and the max temp was above 30 degrees when the wind was nw – so not sure why you think should or shouldn’t?
      
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      May 3, 2025 1:49pm
      - Ghost
        
        David is talking about Tonga, not NZ
        
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        May 3, 2025 5:04pm
  - AitchW
    
    I suspect that a lot of the global warming narrative is driven by people with dreadfully boring lives who feel that they have no control over their circumstances and latch onto catastrophised climate stories to somehow enrich their existence. Not unlike chemtrailer fantasisers and the like.
    
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    May 3, 2025 9:48am
    - surfing
      
      Would you agree that very high atmospheric CO2 concentrations can cause significant global warming and sea level changes over a period of thousands of years?
      
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      May 3, 2025 3:36pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        There is uncertainty whether changes in atmospheric CO2 lag or lead changes in global temperature. One other problem with claiming CO2 is the main driver is that changes in cloud cover overlap and outweigh CO2 effects. And, you cannot tax the clouds.
        
        https://realclimatescience.com/2019/04/does-co2-lead-or-lag-temperature/#gsc.tab=0
        
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        May 3, 2025 4:31pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Transgender woman (ie man) “founds” MENZSHED for women and gender-deluded people in (where else) Wellington. Cis gendered men are banned. Reading between the lines, this is an ego project by the founder.

Women are being used as a beard here, no doubt to polish the fund raising effort.

I don’t have a problem with the concept per se, except that I hope my rates are not paying for it. Mention of Council funding is conspicuous by its absence.

http://Www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/559767/wellington-workshop-makes-space-for-women-gender-diverse-people
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May 3, 2025 8:08am
- kowtow
  
  It’s nuts , a women’s only safe space that includes men on condition they say they’re women .
  
  And a significant proportion of the populace go along with that ( labour /green voters) and influential types ; msm , ngo’s , politicians.
  
  It’s beyond parody.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:49am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “a women’s only safe space…”
    
    That’s a big assumption. Apparently groups of women can become quite toxic and engage each other in psychological and physical brutality.
    
    Women and men have always been safer when there is a 50/50 mix.
    
    The “safe space” bullshit is a ruse to get women on their own and indoctrinate them.
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:25am
    - Flossie
      
      …”Apparently groups of women can become quite toxic and engage each other in psychological and physical brutality”…
      
      Having worked in male dominated industries all my working life – often as the only female – I have to say groups of men can be equally as nasty as women. And IMO they gossip even more!
      
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      May 3, 2025 12:46pm
  - PurplePen
    
    I question whether there really is a significant proportion of the populace that go along with it. It’s just that MSM does and they’re highly visible, which is their job and then others that are the usual noisy left get all their attention along with a handful of corporations. The usual silent majority would easily outnumber them surely. Roll on the board takeover of Herald and the defending or cleanout of RNZ.
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:13am
  - Jack5
    
    Kowtow’s …It’s nuts ….
    
    Straight to the point.
    
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    May 3, 2025 1:58pm
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    Grammar police: “a women-only safe space” please.
    Women’s only suggests it’s the only place women can go to be safe.
    
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    May 3, 2025 2:40pm
- AitchW
  
  More like a Henzshed…..
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:49am
- David Garrett
  
  Nevermind: Did you notice how many tines it used the word “space” as in “a space for the gender diverse” ? All sorts of “spaces” are mentioned.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:53am
  - Toes on the nose
    
    Space cadet used to be a mild putdown in the 80s.. a bit like ‘cray cray’ now
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:21am
  - greybeard
    
    I counted 13
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:50am
  - pdm
    
    DG – any mention of Outer Space?
    
    Or even Out Her Space?
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:17am
    - David Garrett
      
      pdm: No, but apparently damaged women can be “triggered” – another silly new term – by the presence of “even the most well meaning cis man”
      
      I wonder how they tell? The front-thing looks – aside from long hair and the suggestion of breasts – more like a man than a woman to me. But what would I know?
      
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      May 3, 2025 11:47am
- Ghost
  
  They’re fundraising to get the money
  
  https://www.cahoots.nz/
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:57am
- JackRabbit
  
  There is no such thing as a ‘cis’ man or a ‘cis’ woman, just as there are no ‘cis’ hens, that is a hen, as opposed to a ‘hen’ that is anything that identifies as a ‘hen’ e.g. a fox.
  
  If you modify any ‘real thing’ away from what it is, the modified ‘thing’ is accompanied by a suffix or prefix to denote the modification. The base term never gets modified.
  
  For example: A Car is car. An EV is an EV Car. EV is the modifier. We don’t say that an EV is a car, and that a car with an internal combustion engine is a ‘cis’ car.
  
  So we have have Men, and Women.
  
  Men and Women who have had genital mutilation performed are called sick. And those that enable or force said mutilation on children are sexual predators, on par with Hannibal Lector.
  
  And those that genuinely think that they belong to the opposite sex are either deluded or in denial of who they really are.
  
  The mental inmates have escaped and taken over society. And the Greens are a party of escaped mental patients. They wear their badges of mental sickness, shoplifting, shirt-lifting, pedophilia, and food allergies with pride. They insist their abnormalities are normal, and strut around, like a 2 year old wearing soiled nappies on its head.
  
  One flew over the ~~Cuckoos Nest~~ Green Party HQ.
  
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  May 3, 2025 12:28pm
- farbeyond
  
  Sadly, women are just now a bargain chips for the woke Marxist ideology that pollutes the west. They served the cause during the sexual revolution, now are cast aside for the next victimized-livint-at-the-margins group – transgender.
  
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  May 3, 2025 2:34pm
- Notsofast
  
  Look what happened when Sall Grover tried to exclude men from her Giggle website for women. She got hammered in the Australian high court.
  I think Jade is on shaky ground here.
  
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  May 3, 2025 2:49pm
- SpencerArnold
  
  I do have a problem with this, a lot of Menzsheds do allow women to join, and (IMHO) they are welcomed, treated respectfully and participate fully. Unfortunately, agenda-(sorry)-driven dickheads tend not to do well in these environments so do not join.
  
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  May 3, 2025 3:31pm
  - ISeeRed
    
    Men can’t ever have their own space. Because PATRIACHY and EQUALITY and THE WHOLE WORLD IS A MAN’S SPACE ANYWAY.
    
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    May 3, 2025 4:50pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Cis men banned. Isnt that against Human Rights and dicrimination ?
  
  I hope the Human Rights Commissioner(HRC) is all over this.
  
  Yes, I am dreaming. the HRC will be writing an opinion saying this is normal and acceptable under teh ACT.
  
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  May 3, 2025 4:44pm
kowtow

Another day , another NZME Herald 2 page spread on the 2×2 sect , along with a pointless but deliberate mention of the MP sect member .

Meanwhile in their “world news” they mention a British heat wave , but nothing of the stunning Reform results.

Shameful.
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May 3, 2025 8:12am
- Michael Sommerville
  
  Indeed. Huge coverage of the staggering Reform performance in the Council elections. The Conservatives all but wiped out. The heat wave does not get a mention.
  
  It goes to show the low quality of the NZH and their lack of worldwide perspective but retain a determination to be left leaning, hence the focus on something that might reinforce the climate change noise.
  
  Another example of low quality journalism.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:40am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “Huge coverage of the staggering Reform performance in the Council elections.”
    
    How exactly do you expect Reform to “reform” anything, and what will this look like?
    
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    May 3, 2025 12:45pm
    - Michael Sommerville
      
      Farage is going to remove DEI and woke policies. Plus stop giving in to the bleeding hearts.
      
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      May 3, 2025 6:06pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        When’s he going to do that, and how? Farage has toned down his rhetoric on the immigrant problem too (which was never that radical anyway), and it is significant that the chairman of Reform is a Muslim named Zia Yusuf. He often boasts about how he helped destroy the BNP too, that’s how mainstream he actually is.
        
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        May 3, 2025 7:50pm
- AitchW
  
  Was that the 23C heatwave?
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:50am
  - pdm
    
    I would not mind 23C in Hastings at the moment Aitch.
    
    15C at present.
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:19am
    - AitchW
      
      18C here in Waikato. Warm and sunny with a light breeze.
      Clear skies, ducks will be flying high.
      
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      May 3, 2025 1:47pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      31c Here in Siem Reap at noon.
      
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      May 3, 2025 4:52pm
- pb
  
  War against Russians not popular. Weak parties Labour and Conservatives need Zelensky to hold the EU anti-Brexit Globalist charade together.
  
  Reform a plant, to bring the fringe back into the fold
  
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  May 3, 2025 10:13am
Cassandra

Much comment in our media that Trump sacked NSA Walz because of the conference call error. Typical shallow NZ media. Walz, a Russia hawk, was shafted by the so-called doves (who are not doves in the usual definition of the term) plus chief of staff Wiles who didn’t rate his management. Rubio is now the last remaining hawk. Next NSA will indicate where the US will head next. Watch out for Michael Anton, currently at the State Department and a long-term MAGA intellectual.
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May 3, 2025 8:17am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  So what, if anything, do you think should have been the consequences for “the conference call error”?
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:27am
  - Mike
    
    Promotion?
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:45am
    - losingtheplot
      
      I’m going with nothing, because that’s how Maga rolls. National security only matters when its not our team screwing up.
      
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      May 3, 2025 3:55pm
- Mike
  
  ‘MAGA intellectual’ – classic oxymoron.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:30am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Isn’t “MAGA intellectual” an oxymoron?
  
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  May 3, 2025 2:43pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Media at it again. Walz SACKED.
  
  More correctly, they might have said. Moved to UN Ambassador.
  
  But I guess hyperbole is in the bloodstream of most Journos.
  
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  May 3, 2025 4:56pm
artemisia

Evidence of alarming increase in meth use, most recently in hospital discharge data.

Couple of weeks ago Ngapuhi leader Mane Tahere said The community also needed to start calling people out, he said. “There’s no secret and we need to speak up about it ourselves, around the supply and who’s doing it.”

How’s that working? A cheap solution, perfick. Noted, however, that actually most of his solution is more taxpayer money.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/557394/iwi-leader-sounds-alarm-over-northland-drug-crisis
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May 3, 2025 8:33am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  “The community also needed to start calling people out”
  
  Okay then. What happens when the “people” are members of your extended family? Calling them out will have repercussions.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:48am
  - artemisia
    
    Not calling suppliers out, even if extended family, also has repercussions. While the suppliers are laughing all the way to their bricks of $100 notes.
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:00am
  - PurplePen
    
    I was surprised that they finally realised that’s the solution, calling out the criminals in their tribe or tribes themselves. Doesnt need any money to do that. Next they just need to click that the same approach is how they might solve all the Ruthless Empires in their communities.
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:16am
    - The Housekeeper
      
      So true PP. Until we Maori address our own behaviours nothing will change. This guy sees the problems in his own community but still looks to the police (taxpayers) to solve it. He is an iwi leader FFS, why is he calling the police when he should be castigating his own people and actually leading? He sounds weak because he offers no solutions.
      The biggest problem for maori leaders is maintaining maori are hard done by while they are dining at the finest tables.
      
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      May 3, 2025 3:37pm
- Simon
  
  Yep, another “charity” racket in the making. Huge salaries for those with the right family connections to Iwi bosses. Northland has had a drug problem for decades. Parts of Northland have collapsed. Try looking at Kaikohe and south. It’s a third world wasteland.
  
  Nothing will change except a few SUV dealerships will do well.
  
  If you are a Iwi and can up with a few lines about poverty or crime the dripping wet insane National party will pay you millions.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:53am
- Gravelroad
  
  The reality seems to be that the more taxpayer money given to “fix poverty” (especially for children) the more the recipients of that money feel entitled to spend it on meth, and other mind altering substances.
  Am I wrong?
  How much money would be enough for people to grow up a bit and look after their kids first?
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:54am
  - imalwaysright
    
    It is bizarre.
    Tahere is basically saying that if they had more money they would be able to afford to not buy drugs !
    
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    May 3, 2025 9:04am
  - artemisia
    
    Those addicted will need help. Certainly. But it really is about the supply first. It’s the lake and stream. Not a lot of point bucketing out the lake when those streams keep merrily tipping in.
    
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    May 3, 2025 9:10am
    - David Garrett
      
      Art: you have it the wrong way round – demand drives supply. If there is no demand there is no business. If supply is short, the price does up. Basic economics. Doesnt much matter what the product is.
      
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      May 3, 2025 9:14am
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        That’s very simplistic and, frankly, false in many cases. In general, how much unnecessary and/or harmless crap do people buy which they would never buy in the first place but for a supply and, typically, a marketing campaign telling buyers they need/want the supply of the thing? Drugs of all kinds are presented as glamourous and cool in popular entertainment, for instance, which no doubt creates artificial demand.
        
        The same can be said for the domain of politics, where people vote for the worst kinds of policies (often against their interests) simply because those policies are what they are supplied with, creating “demand”. Meanwhile, some of the policies they would actually benefit from are never supplied to them for consideration.
        
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        May 3, 2025 11:32am
      - Ra Henare
        
        The reverse applies for MSM/Politics use of fear.
        
        Increase supply of fearmongering and the steeple lap it up(demand)
        
        Hence, more and more fear BS.
        
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        May 3, 2025 4:58pm
      - Colville
        
        DG.
        Wrong.
        There is push and pull in the market place.
        You are only talking about the pull side.
        
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        May 3, 2025 6:52pm
- surfing
  
  Yet at the same time the Maori elite are happy to use gangs as their fist against civil society. They’ll complain about gangs to the media, yet, at the marae they’re best mates. The way Maori dispense justice to the their own is a joke . If anything, they approve of crime against non-maori invaders.
  
  Wrap around social services are a joke too.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:09am
  - AitchW
    
    Perhaps they could start by banning patches on maraes. There’s a photo about of Ngarewa-Packer, presumably taken at a gang hovel, where she’s front and centre of a pack of baying gang members and she is grinning from ear to ear.
    Gangs are inextricably interwoven into Maori culture from the ground up all the way to their political and social elite.
    
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    May 3, 2025 9:33am
    - marcw
      
      Patches have never been allowed on maraes. Maori royalty would never let their superiority be challenged like that. Us in the community? Don’t care.
      
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      May 3, 2025 11:40am
      - AitchW
        
        Thank you, I wasn’t aware of that. How is the ban enforced I wonder? A fierce Aunty with a wooden spoon?
        
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        May 3, 2025 11:48am
      - pdm
        
        Aitch – or a stock whip.
        
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        May 3, 2025 12:35pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Patches have never been allowed on maraes.
        
        Untrue..
        Some marae specifically forbid them… but not all do.
        
        https://waateanews.com/2024/03/06/marae-exempt-from-gang-patch-ban/
        
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        May 3, 2025 3:56pm
      - AitchW
        
        Maggie, why is it always Manurewa Marae? Whanau…..
        
        [Mod – before she comes in, it’s Maggy]
        
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        May 3, 2025 8:21pm
    - Paulus
      
      The Moko is replacing the Patch now in the Marae – real recogintion to many now much younger wahine, as showing that they are even more special, as you cannot take off a Moko at any time, like a Patch.
      
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      May 3, 2025 2:13pm
      - AitchW
        
        My understanding is that a wahine Maori has to earn the right to wear a moko. No idea what the rite of passage is, perhaps someone more familiar with the kaupapa could enlighten us?
        I’ve seen some very light skinned young women with moko, or are they just chin tats?
        
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        May 3, 2025 3:13pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        My understanding is that a wahine Maori has to earn the right to wear a moko.
        
        Na..
        
        https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/24-05-2018/moko-kauae-is-the-right-of-all-maori-women-it-is-not-a-right-for-anyone-else
        
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        May 3, 2025 4:01pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Gangs and cults like face tattoos and the like because it locks in members for life – you can never leave because you have irreparably disfigured yourself with emblems that will see normal people actively trying to avoid you.
        
        Same with moko. Most people are going to be very cautious about hiring people with moko or other face tats – it screams likely trouble maker – taking offense at everything, demanding special treatment etc, and is highly offputting to majority of customers.
        
        Outside of wacky woke cult public sector that tolerate far-end-of-the-spectrum virtue signalers it will mostly make you near-unemployable
        
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        May 3, 2025 7:16pm
      - AitchW
        
        Thank you again Maggie! So who is a Maori, and who is a wahine?
        
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        May 3, 2025 8:23pm
  - Keith White
    
    ~18% of NZ’s population do ~50% of the violent crime in NZ.
    
    Fix that, Chief Tahere Running Mouth.
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:25am
    - Paulus
      
      Where do you get the 18% from please as I believe it is a false figure, created to suit the Media and Maori.
      What for start is a Maori ?
      
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      May 3, 2025 2:15pm
      - Keith White
        
        Stats from “Police proceedings (offender demographics) for ViolentCrimes in NZ between Jan – Feb 2023:
        
        18% from
        Maori males 8.7%
        Maori females 8.9%
        
        #Māori males = 40.9% of violent crimes (vs 8.7% of the population)
        #Pasifika males = 8.0% (vs 4.5% pop)
        #Māori females = 9.0% (vs 8.9% pop)
        #Euro/Other males = 27.3% (vs 35.5% pop)
        
        Māori females are more likely to commit violent crime than European/Other males.
        
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        May 3, 2025 2:47pm
- Ian Boag
  
  If all else fails, one could have a look at Portugal …
  
  from https://www.portugal.com/op-ed/portugal-drug-laws-under-decriminalization-are-drugs-legal-in-portugal/
  
  On July 1, 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize all drugs, including meth and heroin. The law made drug possession for personal use legally prohibited, while drug trafficking remains a criminal offense. Portugal now has some of the lowest drug usage rates in the European Union (EU), where most countries hold criminalization models.
  
  There’s probably more to it. Sounds pretty radical I suppose, but it’s hard to just dismiss results.
  
  Go figure.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:37am
  - David Garrett
    
    Ian B: The Swiss tried the “legalise everything ” model…IIRC it didnt end well, with Switzerland becoming a mecca for addicts from all over Europe.
    
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    May 3, 2025 9:58am
    - Ian Boag
      
      The Portugese decriminalised posession rather than legalising it. I forget what the difference is, not being a lawyer and all that.
      
      As far as the Swiss go, their permissive attitude seems to have had good results if this link is to be believed. Was apparently pretty grim before they loosened up.
      
      https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2019/01/21/switzerland-couldnt-stop-drug-users-so-it-started-supporting-them/
      
      Possibly you have access to some better info?
      
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      May 3, 2025 11:06am
      - Ian Boag
        
        In both these countries – according to the links – problems from drug usage fell off a cliff when the rules were changed, Seems a bit counter-intuitive but the numbers are the numbers ……
        
        There is also some interesting data from British Columbia for the last 3 years. From 2023 it has been legal to own small amounts for own use in non-public places. Possession outside these limits is treated primarily as a medical issue …
        
        https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/overdose/decriminalization
        
        Of course if we tried that in NZ, the acute shortage of addiction-qualified psychiatrists would be an issue.
        
        Oregon is backing off some, but this comment in a related link made me scratch my head …
        
        Supporters of decriminalization say treatment is more effective than jail in helping people overcome addiction and that the decades long approach of arresting people for possessing and using drugs hasn’t worked.
        
        Go figure
        
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        May 3, 2025 11:48am
  - NoFax
    
    In Portugal, if a person is caught with drugs for personal use, he or she is referred to a “Dissuasion Commission”. This isn’t a court but has the power to:
    -Take no action (often the case for first-time or low-risk users).
    -Impose fines or warnings.
    -Require treatment or counselling.
    -Refer to social services for further support.
    
    In other words, very intensive State intervention into that person’s life so that he no longer takes drugs. But it doesn’t lead to a conviction. Here, we don’t do anything. So, if we were to adopt the Portuguese model, it would lead to the police actually doing something rather than ignoring it.
    
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    May 3, 2025 2:10pm
  - slijmbal
    
    @Ian
    
    There have been several attempts to study the Portugese approach. They all suffer from the usual problem where it’s difficult to avoid experimenter bias. The early studies were done by those in favour of loosening drug restrictions. They tended to describe the results in rather glowing terms.
    
    Later studies haven’t shown results anywhere near as good as the early ones but are still an improvement on the historical position e.g. drug use dropped but is rising again. They do appear to have reduced deaths from overdoses, disease transmission through sharing needles and drug related crime. They do still have a hard drug problem.
    
    However, it wasn’t just personal decriminalisation, they also applied a whole raft of new measures including the way they supported addicts with additional treatment and focussed on locking up the suppliers rather than the consumers.
    
    I think most accept that prohibition generally fails for addictive substances and that a US like deterrent regime doesn’t work unless the deterrents are massive like Singapore. Singapore doesn’t just execute their suppliers they also effectively imprison personal users by locking them up for 6 months in ‘rehab’ centres that make a US prison look like a vacation home.
    
    Also used to live in the Netherlands who are famously relaxed about cannabis use. I think their and several other regimes’ (eg some US states) experience supports the belief that cannabis consumption is on a par with alcohol consumption in terms of harm (many argue that turps is worse as it results in more violence – talk to a nurse in the A&E in the weekend) and treating the two differently is difficult to justify. We do need to understand that many, many drugs are much worse and we need to be careful to differentiate. For instance, despite cannabis decriminalisation, Holland is about average for hard drug use in the EU last time I looked but the overlap between cannabis users and hard drugs users was quite low. So decriminalisation of cannabis isn’t some slippery slope. The Dutch also have had very supportive policies about supporting addicts going back 30+ years.
    
    This all supports the proposition that approaches just based on general decriminalisation don’t work.
    
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    May 3, 2025 6:34pm
I remember when

NY Times reports 177,000 new jobs for the US.
US Job growth remained strong in April.
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May 3, 2025 8:41am
- Culture War Criminal
  
  The problem is though, the United States national debt is USD36,800,000,000,000. They’ve gone from a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 50% in 1960, to 120% today.
  
  They’ve already hit the iceberg long ago and it’s just a matter of time before they go under. In this context, 177,000 new jobs is completely irrelevant.
  
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  May 3, 2025 12:36pm
bennerg

One has to question the priorities and abilities, not to mention the memory of the New Zealand Police.

The New Zealand Herald reports that Barclays Bank in the UK is refunding a Pensioner who accidently entered a wrong account number for the transfer of $198,000 into a Westpac account. The recipient then went on a spending spree, including sending money to a relative in Samoa. While Westpac was able to recover $28,000, police said that the woman – a beneficiary – used the rest of the money to buy two cars, transfer $60,000 to her boyfriend, and send $20,000 to a relative in Samoa.

Apparently the Police refused to deal with it, stating it was a Civil matter. Well not until Mt Roskill MP Carlos Cheung intervened.

Seems the same situation occurred in Rotorua some years ago when Westpac when one of their customers was given $10 million instead of $10 thousand dollars overdraft, and promptly absconded overseas. This was dealt with quickly as a theft by the Police.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/runaway-millionaire-returns-to-rotorua/J37Y2CCER2TRC3XDTYUV267Q5Q/

As an aside the pensioner concerned stated his old keyboard was sticky and the number 4 failed to register. That made the account number entered 15 digits instead of 16. Westpac system added a “0” to the suffix (-000 instead of -00) and by chance this matched an existing account. Normally account numbers have a check digit that ensures one digit difference does not make for a valid account – (there’s an algorithm alled “Luhn” that ensures this), but the suffix seems to thwart that as we went from 2 to 3 digit suffixes in recent times.
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May 3, 2025 8:57am
- JamesP
  
  It’s not a crime to have money accidentally transferred to your account by another person. It is a crime to go on to spend that money or run away with it to China. In the pensioner’s case, the position of Police changed as the circumstances changed or once further information showed a crime had occurred (unclear on the media reports). The first “civil matter” response was sometime last year according to the reports.
  
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  May 3, 2025 10:02am
  - bennerg
    
    JamesP
    
    “as the circumstances changed “.
    
    I don’t think so. The money was accidentally put in the wrong account and the person receiving the money did not return it. Simple.
    
    It shows a very lacksadasical approach from the Police, as from the outset it was plain and simple. A call around to the person concerned, ascertain what they had done, and if all the money was returned no problem. But if not, out with the handcuffs.
    
    Why should it be any more complex?
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:44am
    - JamesP
      
      It really isn’t as simple as you think. You assume Police could just visit the recipient. But they don’t have any more information than the victim can provide (ie. the receiving account number). To obtain a Court order to compel the receiving bank to release the identity of the receiving customer requires suspicion of an offence. And accidentally being sent money isn’t an offence. Once you get to the point where the receiving bank says they can’t recover all the funds because they’ve been spent / transferred, then you have an offence, but it’s also too late.
      
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      May 3, 2025 12:43pm
      - bennerg
        
        Did Westpac refuse to provide said information? As it was their mistake (modifying the account number to fit their system) I’m sure they’d be wanting to get it sorted asap.
        
        So does the unwillingness of a participant to support the investigation then become a reason not to consider it a crime worthy of investigation?
        
        Receiving and then spending money is a morally corrupt action, and the person concerned needs to be named and shamed.
        
        People make mistakes, but that is not reason to excuse any subsequent action. Just as the US reporter who accidentally got included in a Signal meeting. Did he not realise he was not meant to be there and speak up / or leave the meeting? Or did he not consider that after the act he should have kept the confidence of the meeting?
        
        Ethics is the basis of good moral standing, and these people use all sorts of mental contortion to justify their actions.
        
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        May 3, 2025 1:25pm
    - MCōs
      
      The police were right on to it when Winston ‘inadvertently’ claimed too much pension money or when Golriz stole some clothes
      In both cases it was a fraction of what this nameless person stole
      
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      May 3, 2025 12:59pm
Bridgenag

Domestic spy agency declares Alternative für Deutschland to be a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organisation, as authorities inch closer to banning the party
The AfD allegedly understand Germanness to be “defined by ethnic descent,” which is “incompatible with the free democratic basic order” of the Federal Republic.

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/domestic-spy-agency-declares-alternative?r=4oxscl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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May 3, 2025 9:09am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  People who believe that ____ness is “defined by ethnic descent” love to say that “being born in a stable does not make you a horse.”
  
  If some ____ness is defined by ethnic descent, then at what point does the “drop of blood” become too diluted?
  
  Is blood the only defining quality for ____ness? What about love of the culture? Ability to use the language? Support of one’s child to marry a member of that culture?
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:46am
  - bennerg
    
    I don’t think me living in Japan and loving their culture would make me Japanese. Or Russian, or Fijian or Papa New Guinean.
    
    This is simply an excuse to hammer the opposition.
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:46am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “Is blood the only defining quality for ____ness? What about love of the culture? Ability to use the language? Support of one’s child to marry a member of that culture?”
    
    No, but it is the main factor, and that is because it is not something you choose, or an idea you adopt, which are malleable and can change from day to day.
    
    In other words, blood is thicker than water, which everyone knows to be true deep down.
    
    It’s a bit like the “self-identification” principle justifying the transgender insanity – it doesn’t matter how much you identify as an X, or really want to be an X, or feel sympathy for Xs: unless you are born an X, you’ll never be one.
    
    There are many motivations attributed to the diversity, anyone-can-be-a-[insert nationality] ideology, but one of them is purely economic: if everyone is the same and equally able to take on a national identity, then labour can flow into and out of countries easily without protest from the locals, who have been indoctrinated into believing we are interchangeable economic units and whose thinking and acting is constrained by meaningless terms like “racism.”
    
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    May 3, 2025 11:54am
- Mod88
  
  Have no fear the European Commission will be driving this. They are the true Fourth Reich have no fear of that. The last time Germany had policies like this it led to a World War. The Left are like rust, they never sleep.
  
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  May 3, 2025 10:21am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    How can the European Commission be “the true Fourth Reich” (by that, you mean the successor to the Third Reich) when, by their post-national, ultra ethnic diversity ideology and their disdain for dissenters on this project, they are obviously antithetical to one of the foundation stones of the Third Reich? These kinds of globalist policies that have taken root across the West seem to me to be the logical consequence of Germany’s defeat in WW2, not a furtherance by another name of a Third Reich agenda.
    
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    May 3, 2025 12:18pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  “The AfD allegedly understand Germanness to be “defined by ethnic descent,” which is “incompatible with the free democratic basic order” of the Federal Republic.”
  
  From https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=nation
  
  “nation(n.)
  c. 1300, nacioun, “a race of people, large group of people with common ancestry and language,” from Old French nacion “birth, rank; descendants, relatives; country, homeland” (12c.) and directly from Latin nationem (nominative natio) “birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe,” literally “that which has been born,” from natus, past participle of nasci “be born” (Old Latin gnasci), from PIE root *gene- “give birth, beget,” with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.”
  
  Obviously, then, it is the case that “the free democratic basic order of the Federal Republic” is incompatible with the very idea of a nation, and therefore it should probably go.
  
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  May 3, 2025 12:13pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Am I wrong? If a “free democratic order” means we can’t have coherent nations characterised by a body of people with similar ethnicity, history and culture, then a “free democratic order” obviously leads to more harm than good, and we need a new order.
    
    It seems to me, we have it backwards: apparently we need a free democratic order at all costs, then we deal with all of the negatives it generates rather than determining what we want our system to generate, then establishing an order that will lead to those outcomes.
    
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    May 3, 2025 2:43pm
- Philview
  
  The leader of the AFD is a lesbian with a brown skinned Sri Lankan partner. An unusual compromise.
  
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  May 3, 2025 2:45pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “The leader of the AFD is a lesbian with a brown skinned Sri Lankan partner.”
    
    If the straight White males aren’t going to step up, gay women with brown partners and nationalist policies is probably the next best.
    
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    May 3, 2025 3:16pm
Rusty

Is anyone else having problems with the new Sky boxes?
No satellite signal message and a black screen happening on and off all week.
Sky technician couldn’t fix it a couple of days ago.
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May 3, 2025 9:16am
- Chuck Bird
  
  A temporary fix is to watch online. You watch most things online, but not everything. For example, Fox.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:25am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “You watch most things online, but not everything. For example, Fox.”
    
    At least not every type of depravity and idiocy is readily available on the internet, then.
    
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    May 3, 2025 4:12pm
- hookerphil
  
  Ours is fine but a friend has been for quite awhile. Phone and internet both affected as well. Sky man coming on Monday, if not fixed the whole lot is going, from a very angry lady.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:30am
- pdm
  
  We had to get a new decoder about three weeks ago.
  
  Got it all set up but, haven’t seen any change since so would not have a clue if we are on the old or new system.
  
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  May 3, 2025 9:39am
  - Jethrod
    
    We’ve resisted every move by Sky to swap to the “new” sky box. Haven’t had any problems at all in the last 6 months or so, apart from short periods of rainfall.
    
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    May 3, 2025 10:58am
- MCōs
  
  I have Sky and there’s no issue with the box, just the cost of watching the sports channels
  I’m not interested in the news channels. I subscripted to them for awhile, but found them incredibly biased and I mean all
  
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  May 3, 2025 12:30pm
- Paulus
  
  No but TVNZ is well int0 the poop currently necessitating paying for an expert to put it right.
  Cannot find any comment from TVNZ but they know TVs many are stuffed.
  
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  May 3, 2025 2:18pm
  - slijmbal
    
    The TVNZ app on android based TV streaming devices is famously buggy and has been for years. the new device box is based on the same core android TV streaming app I understand.
    
    The user interface for the new Sky white box is definitely worse than the black boxes it is replacing.
    
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    May 3, 2025 6:53pm
    - Quail
      
      A major deterrent to watching or supporting any TV is the forcing of initial Te Reo on to whoever would like to watch the News , weather and some other TVNZ productions.
      The bare arrogance of having an often incomprehensible political statement before anything of interest angers and disgusts many , pehaps most viewers.
      The end result is not bothering to look at the item.
      There are at least two dedicated channels for those who wish to get their news in Te Reo so those viewers are catered for. Their choice.
      They are not coerced as the rest of us are.
      If any of these channels were to dispense with this largely incomprehensible Te Reo pre-ambles it is pretty certain viewing would increase
      Worth a try TVNZ???
      
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      May 4, 2025 12:47pm
    - Rusty
      
      @slijmbal
      
      The white sky boxes are rubbish. If it doesn’t come right next week I’m returning them,
      
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      May 4, 2025 6:02pm
Yvette

A small tremor reported in the Hutt Valley.
How often can a small quake be related to conditions of flooding. Is the added weight of tons of water in particular places triggering surface tensions that are otherwise randomly “on the way”?
Just wondering for a friend?
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May 3, 2025 9:30am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  It was a joke, Yvette. No tremor was reported in the Hutt Valley. The associated URL linked through to a BBC story saying that there were tremors reported in Liverpool when the local team scored in a recent game to clinch the Premier League title. Biscuit, a Liverpool fan, lives in the HV.
  
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  May 3, 2025 8:33pm
Suze Wainwright

Do Chloe, Ricardo and Tamatha (& Benjamin) wear keffiyeh and rainbow adornments when they’re doing all those publicity shots of them cleaning streams and waterways and picking up rubbish in the community…?
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May 3, 2025 9:54am
- artemisia
  
  Those watermelon yarmulke were very fetching.
  
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  May 3, 2025 10:35am
- pdm
  
  Suze they would of course have been wearing gloves and previously unblemished gumboots I assume.
  
  None of this getting ones hands dirty or feet wet for the Green Parliamentarians.
  
  Or were they standing on the banks telling their minions what to do? Seems most likely.
  
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  May 3, 2025 11:26am
pb

Who won the dance off between Pakistan and India?
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May 3, 2025 10:09am
- Mike
  
  No winners when the fundamentalist fanatics face off.
  
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  May 3, 2025 11:52am
- kowtow
  
  Speaking of which the footage of the Indian man on the zipline, his and his family’s survival is a quite a story .
  
  Not to mention the very strange behaviour of the guy who sent him down the line ……
  
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  May 3, 2025 12:29pm
G152

Watching TV last night and came across a program on Rush called “Mountain Monsters” where 3 or 4 hillbillies wave rifles around in their search for Big Foot and other imaginary entities….
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May 3, 2025 10:44am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIZzfNk6jkU
“A Three Sided Win” – Trump’s Tariff FORCES Massive Chip Comeback To U.S.
TSMC’s third Arizona fab marks a $165B US investment driven by Trump-era tariffs. Pat, Tom, and the crew break down the economic win, the geopolitical risks with China, and how this reshapes America’s chip dominance—while warning what China might do next. [When the torque wrench, or screwdriver are needed; the hammer will be put aside.]
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May 3, 2025 11:10am
- Greenheart
  
  The Act setting up the chip industry in the USA
  and providing $53 billion to fund it was passed two years before Trump was elected..
  
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  May 3, 2025 11:58am
  - Mike
    
    Hush you – don’t spoil the fantasy.
    
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    May 3, 2025 2:22pm
  - sungsamning
    
    It’ll start having more effect now there is no longer a corpse in the Oval Office.
    
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    May 3, 2025 4:26pm
sungsamning

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-surgeon-general-pick-touted-fierce-maha-advocate-before-confirmation-hearing
Trump’s surgeon general pick touted as ‘fierce’ MAHA advocate before confirmation hearing.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill, garnering support ahead of her upcoming confirmation hearing, with senators describing her as a “fierce” advocate for the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement.

Sources familiar with her confirmation hearing prep told Fox News Digital that Nesheiwat has had many “productive meetings” on Capitol Hill regarding her nomination. [Wow! Bernie and other ‘health advocates’ will be well pleased. //]
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May 3, 2025 11:10am
- MCōs
  
  She’s married to the newly promoted nominee for Ambassador to the the UN, Mike Waltz
  Making America healthy is a pretty big job
  
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  May 3, 2025 12:46pm
  - Mike
    
    With the morons in charge, expect more of this:
    
    Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
    
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmggp2y99o
    
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    May 3, 2025 2:28pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Um err. Its her sister who is married to Mike Waltz
    
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    May 3, 2025 5:33pm
Ghost

Marjorie Taylor Greene is unhappy

I represent the base and when I’m frustrated and upset over the direction of things, you better be clear, the base is not happy.

I campaigned for no more foreign wars.

And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with Iran.

X Post
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May 3, 2025 2:34pm
- Mike
  
  She needs to get with the program. Whatever the latest nonsense emanating from Trump’s mouth, she’s supposed to be 110% behind it (the extra 10% being her own special nuttiness, like the ‘Jewish space lasers’).
  
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  May 3, 2025 2:45pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  What’s the rationale for the United States going to war with Iran? The two countries are about 11,000 km from each other and Iran has never threatened the United States.
  
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  May 3, 2025 3:01pm
  - Swifty
    
    You don’t believe in looking after your mates?
    
    Got it.
    
    3 3
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    May 3, 2025 3:12pm
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      What mates? Israel? When has the US’s “mate” ever reciprocated? Never.
      
      Trump campaigned against wars for Israel.
      
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      May 3, 2025 3:34pm
      - Swifty
        
        Two questions:
        
        1. Do you agree or disagree with the notion that countries should form alliances with like-minded nations to help preserve their respective interests?
        
        2. Do you believe that Israel is the only nation in the Middle East threatened by Iran and who’s interests are served by preventing Iran becoming nuclear?
        
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        May 3, 2025 4:32pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        “1. Do you agree or disagree with the notion that countries should form alliances with like-minded nations to help preserve their respective interests?”
        
        Only Israel has an interest in taking out Iran, so there is no shared interest. Israel obviously has an interest because Iran is Israel’s competitor in the Middle East, but what interest do Americans have in this? Very little actually, particularly given that Iran has never threatened (or could) attack on the US, and the massive cost in resources and loss of life, which would be immense given that Iran is much stronger militarily than Iraq in 2003 was, where the US spent 20 years at a cost of half a trillion dollars.
        
        In this way, a war with Iran only benefits Israel, and harms the US, who would be better off having friendly relations with the Arab/Persian world. The reason the US is “the great satan” is because it is bound to back Israel.
        
        “2. Do you believe that Israel is the only nation in the Middle East threatened by Iran and who’s interests are served by preventing Iran becoming nuclear?”
        
        What other countries do you think Iran threatens in the Middle East? The argument is that “we need to attack Iran so they can’t get nuclear weapons” but this is a form of begging the question: the only reason Iran needs nuclear weapons is to protect itself from an aggressive Israel and the United States, who are intent on attacking Iran.
        
        Having a nuclear deterrent would make peace more likely, but Israel and the US don’t want peace, they want to ensure Israel has regional hegemony. Look at the countries who have been “regime changed” by the United States for Israel’s benefit, and all of them were vulnerable because they didn’t have a nuclear deterrent.
        
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        May 3, 2025 5:20pm
      - Swifty
        
        Didn’t answer either question.
        
        Cool.
        
        2 2
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        May 3, 2025 6:12pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        I certainly did answer your question, although not in the manner you’d have liked. For the avoidance of doubt, yes, I do think that like-minded nations should form alliances, but the nature of an alliance is that it is reciprocal, which the US-Israel alliance is not. Moreover, I don’t really think that the US and Israel are like-minded and on balance are actually fundamentally incompatible as two distinct groups of people. This is why it’s so hard to account for US politicians’ unwavering fanaticism towards the interests of a foreign nation (particularly when it is a net-negative for America), and despite public support for Israel steeply declining, particularly among the youth.
        
        1 3
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        May 3, 2025 8:02pm
      - Swifty
        
        Nope you didn’t, that’s why you had to have a second go at it.
        
        You might also want to look up other countries in the region, Islamic countries obviously I might add, who are greatly fearful of and implacably opposed to Iran spreading its poisonous tentacles further, especially when nuclear-tipped.
        
        1 2
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        May 3, 2025 8:46pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        Honestly, I had to “have a second go at it” because you clearly couldn’t comprehend the implications of my first reply.
        
        Moreover, I note that you haven’t specified in detail which countries in the region have genuine cause to fear Iran, presumably because you don’t know of any, despite making the claim.
        
        0 1
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        May 3, 2025 9:04pm
      - Swifty
        
        FFS.
        
        Have you not heard of the Shia/Sunni divide?
        
        They hate each other. Have done for 1,400 years.
        
        1 0
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        May 3, 2025 10:58pm
  - Dougal10
    
    You may need to check your history before commenting re iran and usa
    
    4 1
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    May 3, 2025 4:43pm
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      Which aspects of history do you have in mind?
      
      0 1
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      May 3, 2025 5:26pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Actually, Iran invaded the US in 1979.
    
    0 0
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    May 3, 2025 8:36pm
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      Technically true, but they never left Iran to do it.
      
      0 0
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      May 3, 2025 9:09pm
  - emmess
    
    ‘Death to America’ isn’t a threat?
    Riiiigght
    
    0 0
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    May 4, 2025 8:42am
- sungsamning
  
  Hopefully there’s a plan to deter Iran by other means. Can’t have Rar ray, Grummy Bear, and Lockheed Martin rubbing their hands in glee.
  
  4 1
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  May 3, 2025 4:28pm
Gravelroad

Apologies if this has already been discussed – just back from kids rugby.
David Seymour on social media media noting a meeting he was holding at Auckland University with students re economics.
Someone (student? Staff member?) put up a request that students avoid the meeting if they can or “grab pots and pans and make his life hell. We should not be welcoming to those who try to oppress us”.
How embarrassingly pathetic is that?
I thought that students, many of whom are subsidised by the taxpayer to attend university, wanted to gain knowledge and broaden their horizons.
But no, we might not like what the speaker has to offer so we should just not go, or drown him out with noise.
How is a talk on economics going to be “oppressive?
15 1
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May 3, 2025 2:42pm
- mandk
  
  All students are subsidised by the taxpayer to attend university.
  
  Tuition fees cover only about one-third of the costs.
  
  9 1
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  May 3, 2025 2:47pm
- Swifty
  
  Yep, that’ll win Seymour to their cause.
  
  //
  
  6 0
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  May 3, 2025 3:10pm
Swifty

Disgraceful.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/559777/companies-directors-fined-1-point-6m-for-altering-tallow-for-profit

Shameful.
9 0
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May 3, 2025 3:09pm
- greybeard
  
  I agree. I heard about this last week, and my first thought was about the potential damage done to NZ’s reputation as a primary-products exporter.
  Name and Shame is the first reaction.
  
  5 0
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  May 3, 2025 4:32pm
Swifty

AI is getting pretty good these days:

https://x.com/ramble_rants/status/1918298603010875877

Sanders and AOC love fest.

[Mod – link fixed]
5 0
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May 3, 2025 3:26pm
- Keith White
  
  Hadda say – ewww. AI is too good at materializing That Which Should Never Be Seen.
  
  …and yes I should not have clicked!
  
  2 1
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  May 3, 2025 3:51pm
- sungsamning
  
  That was well done. Grok is very easy to use. And its free.
  
  1 1
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  May 3, 2025 4:31pm
- Swifty
  
  Thanks.
  
  1 0
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  May 3, 2025 4:32pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360675701/race-kerrin-leoni-launches-campaign-be-aucklands-next-mayor
A Tory Whanau clone. Just another step in the maori plan to control NZ.
1 0
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May 3, 2025 4:44pm
Jack5

Finance Minister Willis is looking at intervening in the supermarket industry.

RNZ reports her saying:

“Officials are working with the appointed advisors to consider options including a possible demerger of existing entities.”

Demerger? State-ordered break-up?

One of the two dominant companies is Australian, so intervention in an overseas-owned company would be an issue.

Enticing overseas capital for a retail chain spread across a group of island must be a challenge. Dirigist state intervention won’t make it easier.

One of the two present chains, Woolworths, wrote off $1.6 billion on the asset value of the supermarket chain it bought from Countdown.

The market’s tough. The geography’s tough. The population’s spread out – that’s tough. The isolation of the country’s tough.

Is Finance Minister Willis looking to divert voters from the tough economy she’s dealing with?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/556597/nicola-willis-considers-structural-separation-of-retail-grocery-market
5 0
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May 3, 2025 4:53pm
Swifty

Time after time after time I see Stuff and other news media outfits subtly suggesting that all the racism and misogyny we see in our politics comes solely from the right, and only against lefties, Maori and women.

Here are two just from today.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360675701/race-kerrin-leoni-launches-campaign-be-aucklands-next-mayor

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/559790/tory-whanau-believes-politics-has-become-a-lot-more-toxic-especially-for-wahine-maori

Over the last month or so I’ve done, for the first time in my life, a deep dive into ‘X’ and had a good look around – and in addition to using Facebook a lot more to see what the mood of the nation is.

One thing of many I’ve noticed is the absolutely horrific abuse directed towards Luxon, Seymour and others in the Coalition – and clearly from the left. I won’t repeat it here, but it is horribly racist, portrays Europeans as innately evil, that the Coalition wants to wipe out Maori and, at times, that the country would be better off if those I’ve named would be dead. Many, many of the latter are from posters with Maori names, often male, quite often female.

Where are RNZ and Stuff’s pieces on that? I struggle to remember ever seeing one.

But piece after piece on Ardern, Whanau, Swarbrick, Davidson etc etc.
12 0
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May 3, 2025 4:56pm
- Eastlander
  
  What would these cretins do if they were ever faced with a real racist right-wing government?
  
  5 0
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  May 3, 2025 5:57pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Taking one for the team – well done, Swifty
  
  4 0
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  May 3, 2025 8:39pm
Ghost

Imagine selling your daughter for body parts…..

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/05/03/south-african-woman-convicted-of-kidnapping-selling-6yo-daughter/
2 1
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May 3, 2025 5:09pm
- Keith White
  
  Cannot imagine it.
  
  But can imagine a woodchipper sentence for the guilty.
  
  0 2
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  May 3, 2025 5:23pm
Keith White

“South Auckland Mongrel Mob funeral blocks roads, police monitor procession
NZ Herald
3 May, 2025 04:05 PM”

Because of course they do. And because of course the NZ WokePolice facilitate them to do it.

“Police confirmed this afternoon that officers have been monitoring a funeral procession today for a gang member in South Auckland.”

Gutless Police Management display their Lack of Guts yet encore une fois.
5 0
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May 3, 2025 5:21pm
Swifty

“Blacks people have used up all of our earned moral currency….”

https://x.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1918432813696860439/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1918432813696860439&currentTweetUser=TheRabbitHole84

I must confess to feeling similar with many ‘causes’ I once greatly supported – addressing Maori grievances and the trans issue being two of the big ones.

The more they demand and the more left they pull, the more right they push me.
8 0
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May 3, 2025 5:28pm
- Keith White
  
  I am sick and tired of pretending that racial problems can be fixed if European people just shut their mouths and tolerate bad behavior by Maori people – or by any other minority in our country. That has gotten us nowhere, so why even bother trying to keep pretending that it will change anything?
  
  8 1
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  May 3, 2025 6:07pm
MCōs

Good luck to this young chap
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/05/03/life-saving-heart-transplant-technology-a-game-changer/
2 0
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May 3, 2025 7:03pm
- Keith White
  
  Indeed yes. Heart transplants were a major game changer back in the day, but I do remember when they could keep people alive a few months longer at best, in the very early days; now, expectancy is mostly a confident 10 years and sometimes double that. But still not normal life expectancy. By the time this young fella’s one looks like failing him, hopefully the science contra immunological rejection is way better developed. All the best to him.
  
  2 0
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  May 3, 2025 8:25pm
Ghost

Labor MP claims she tripped after bumping Liberal volunteer

Sure you did. Just admit it, you didn’t trip and just wanted to shove him out of “your” place.
1 0
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May 3, 2025 7:41pm
Ghost

Election results

https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDefault-31496.htm
2 0
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May 3, 2025 7:55pm
- BananaLlama
  
  Why are they yapping about Trump when it is one Nation taking the votes? Honestly man.
  
  2 0
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  May 3, 2025 9:31pm
- Ghost
  
  This is looking like a slaughter
  
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  May 3, 2025 10:27pm

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