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May 18, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 18 May 2025

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General Debate

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CJames

If the government was really serious about improving the economy and reducing the cost of living, they need to look at the climate change/ Net Zero regime and getting rid of the its derivatives such as the ETS and carbon charges. Like the rest of the Western world, NZ is immiserating its people to make the wealthy richer and allow the leafy suburbanites to virtue signal. The BMW EV on the drive is the social status symbol. As long as they can continue to take Jemima and Jeremy to school in the Range Rover, they don’t care.
China and India, the biggest and third biggest emitters, aren’t as stupid as our “elites” so have made no real changes in their behaviour. Why are we doing it? Anything we do to collapse our economy is not going to have any effect on the world environment. All the predicted climate disasters are not occurring, except in the activists’ fevered brains, but the economic misery from following stupid policies are.
There is not the popular support there for the carbon charges, despite what the politicians tell the voters. A reputable polling company in Oz asked in a recent poll “ How much would you personally be willing to pay each year for Australia to reduce its net emissions to zero by 2050?”. It was no surprise that 75% said less than $1 a week. The majority of those polled also said the main focus of the energy policy should be affordability and reliability.
https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/research-papers/poll-attitudes-towards-net-zero
Why would NZ be any different? What would a poll show here? New Zealanders are already paying a lot more than $1 a week, but it is hidden. Look how much is spent on things like paying wealthy foreigners to grow pines on good farmland. And there are all the carbon charges on your fuel and electricity. Then there are all those unaccountable jobsworth bureaucrats who administer the scheme and dream up more ways of extracting money out of the punters. The money spent on that would be better used to fix the neglected infrastructure. Things like making roads, bridges and towns less flood prone.
What does it need to get the government to get realistic and change its ideas? Who cares what the Greens think? They are opposed to anything that isn’t Marxism. Hit those bludgers hard with the cost of their stupid ideas– nurses paying wealth tax anyone?. The bogeyman of “the rest of the world won’t buy our goods” needs to be called out. How is the EU doing against Trump? Will this government stop the charade or does it need a populist revolt like Reform or AfD?
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May 18, 2025 8:01am
- kowtow
  
  Why blame the Greens for this lunacy when there’s a very strong faction of so called Blue Greens in the Nats ( led apparently, by a farmer MP!) and Luxon is strongly committed to legacy globalism ,effectively saying his energy and farming policies are dictated by the boardroom opinions of the likes of Nestle/ Danone !
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:14am
  - Dougal10
    
    The farmer MPs are usually not typical farmers , more office jockey farmers that have been on every board and committee they can , which is usually where they have drunk the coolade.
    
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    May 18, 2025 11:44am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Having listened to Ms Swarbrick on Q&A this morning any farmer being swayed by Green warm loveliness should take a look at their budget recommendations re family trusts.
    Get your cash out from under the haystacks, the Greens will be coming for your money and your kids won’t thank you for voting for your family farm to go to state ownership when you go to that great cow paddock in the sky.
    
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    May 18, 2025 11:47am
  - pdm
    
    Led by a Farmer MP – interesting.
    
    Grant (MacNational) McCallum is it?
    
    I heard him holding firm on staying in the Paris Accord and other `Greenie’ things with Jamie MacKay on The country a few days ago.
    
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    May 18, 2025 12:25pm
    - kowtow
      
      Yep , him.
      
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      May 18, 2025 1:53pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  “Who cares what the Greens think?”
  
  Jack Tame does. He is interviewing the Greens at 9 this morning. There will be a big difference than when interviewing someone from the right.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:17am
  - CJames
    
    The Greens are now just our version of the Monster Raving Loony Party but with less charisma. Jack Tame is one of the reasons why TVNZ should be sold off – or even given away.
    
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    May 18, 2025 8:26am
    - Waipuk
      
      Sold off. You could not give TVNZ away. Who would want to buy something which is slowly dieing.
      
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      May 18, 2025 9:06am
    - kowtow
      
      The fact is the Greens can poll 10 odd per cent and win electorate seats( not just List) , they have a constituency of monster raving looney voters .And can help form / support govt.
      
      The real MRL party are fun , the Greens are dangerous , extremist subversives.
      
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      May 18, 2025 9:08am
      - Dougal10
        
        They won seats because of the labour disaster that is Hipkins and his top 5 .
        
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        May 18, 2025 11:45am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Don’t forget the criminal element in the Greens. They have had at least one thief in their ranks. God knows what other crimes have been committed that we are yet to find out about.
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:29pm
      - Jack5
        
        The Greens pick up ardent environmentalists who would likely vote Values Party if that old, more rationalist Green party still existed.
        
        Then the present Green Party, with its simplistic promises, impossible to realise, probably takes the votes of many or most of what Marx and Engels called the lumpen proletariat.
        
        This comprises the 5 per cent or so of fuckwits in any society. In a random street surveys you would likely find about 5 per cent of those questioned fitted this description — unable to have a rational opinion.
        
        But split the ecological vote by bringing back the Values Party and you’ve knee-capped the Green Party.
        
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        May 18, 2025 1:37pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    There will be a big difference than when interviewing someone from the right.
    
    Okay, Chuck, I’ve given you some time to think about this assertion. So, tell us, was there a big difference this morning?
    
    In my opinion, Jack gave Chlöe the same tough, assertive, treatment he gives all his interview subjects, whether they be of the Left or the Right.
    
    On the assumption you disagree, can you now inform us as to how Jack gave her an “easy ride” this morning; a ride he would not have given, say, Brooke van Velden?
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:16pm
- artemisia
  
  I heard a Wellington CC mayoral candidate say the council has more than 30 staffers working on climate change. I’m betting an OIA request would produce a carefully curated response, heavy on fudge factors.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:53am
  - kowtow
    
    And what of “partnership” staff .
    
    No wonder rates rises are totally out of control and crushing hard pressed citizens so heavily.
    
    ( same applies to central govt)
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:10am
  - cmm
    
    Many of those are fretting over a theoretical sea level rise and how that will inundate Wellington.
    
    Relax people. Due to seismic activity, uplift causes Wellington to rise at a speed 100x (likely actually more) the purported “sea level rise”). Climate change really can’t keep up.
    
    Basic Reserve was once going to be a harbour.
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:14am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Manhattan was supposed to be underwater by 2006 that’s nearly 20 years ago, family living there say the tide lines have not changed in the time they have lived there since 2000
      
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      May 18, 2025 10:07am
    - JohnRidd
      
      Wellington’s tide gauge shows about 2.75 mm per year rise. No apparent acceleration of the rate of increase.
      
      https://sealevel.info/MSL_graph.php?id=wellington
      
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      May 18, 2025 1:43pm
  - R
    
    That is a minimum of 30 staffers who could be sacked with no noticeable change in Council performance, other than a drop in the Council salary expenses
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:08pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  I can hear the TDS suffers grinding their teeth. The Donalds ME tour was a triumph. He knows that countries that invest heavily in each other seldom go to war. He is letting Israel wipe out Hamas knowing that the Arab States the US and other countries will pour billions into rebuilding Gaza.
  He is looking to sideline and neutralise Iran as a threat. All good things for world peace. IMHO he will solve the Ukraine/Russia conflict and improve US relations with China. Taiwan remains a threat. Does it become a red line or is it sacrificed? Not sure could go either way.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:10am
  - David Garrett
    
    Lastman: He is taking awhile re the Ukraine conflict! IIRC he was going to fix that one in a couple of days, a week at the outside.
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:14am
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Whatabout that, eh? The Donald talks a lot of tosh, no denying.
      Some here even say he’s a wimp.
      
      But for just one ounce of that anti-establishment, boss-man energy in the hearts and guts of our own pusillanimous pollies. Man, I’d roll that dice.
      
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      May 18, 2025 9:41am
    - Dougal10
      
      Well the last one just kept throwing petrol on it , at least that has stopped.
      
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      May 18, 2025 11:47am
      - Phronesis
        
        We don’t even know who the last one was. It’s clear who it wasn’t, just listen to the Hur tapes.
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:20pm
    - alwyn.a
      
      It was quicker than that. He claimed he would stop the war in 24 hours.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fEbGppH86M
      
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      May 18, 2025 5:36pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “He is letting Israel wipe out Hamas knowing that the Arab States the US and other countries will pour billions into rebuilding Gaza.”
    
    He is doing more than “letting” Israel wipe out Hamas (I would say wiping out Gaza and Gazans. myself). Without US backing, Israel would not be able to act as aggressively and with such bellicosity as it does, because by itself, it is far too small in both manpower and resources.
    
    The US is now and always has been an indispensable sponsor and facilitator of Israel. This is why the Israel Lobby is so crucial to the Zionist project, both in bribing US politicians to act for Israel and, increasingly in suppressing rising anti-Israel sentiment among the US public.
    
    In fact, you really give the game away yourself, when you say that “the Arab States the US and other countries will pour billions into rebuilding Gaza.” Why would they want to rebuild Gaza? Because the intention is that, once it has been knocked down and ethnically cleansed by the IDF, it will be annexed into Israel, that’s why. “Wiping out Hamas” is just rhetoric and a flimsy pretext – what they actually want is the land, and all or most of the people out.
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:37am
    - AitchW
      
      So nothing to do with endless attacks, suicide bombers, rockets, and a stated desire to “Kill the Jews”?
      
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      May 18, 2025 11:14am
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        Those are just Zionist talking points. You forgot “Israel has a right to defend itself” which is the principal justification for anything Israel does, no matter how questionable or over the top.
        
        Moreover, is there really just a binary choice between “do nothing” and murderously rampage through Gaza and ethnically cleanse the place? That’s a false dichotomy inherent in the Zionist rhetoric.
        
        What about the “endless attacks” Israel perpetrates on Palestinians and the wider Middle East, always in “self-defence”? They regularly assassinate officials in nations who they aren’t even at war with.
        
        We also hear about this “stated desire to Kill the Jews” – maybe this is a stated desire (and where does this desire come from, we may well ask), but the difference is, Israel has a comparable stated desire to kill the Palestinians but, unlike the Palestinians, Israel (supplied by the US) actually has an ability to do so, and has been doing so.
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:06pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Aitch. Suggest you Stop drinking the anti Palestine/Arab cool aid and actually try and understand BOTH SIDES of the story. Not just the wests propaganda/Israeli PR.
        
        Critical thinking would be a bonus.
        Ie take the known history and facts from both sides, then making a rational decision.
        
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        May 18, 2025 4:49pm
  - kiwimike
    
    and after The Donald in 3 yrs ??
    
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    May 19, 2025 12:08pm
peterwn

Herald story – ‘Pay Equity Move Erodes Democracy in NZ’. Surely then Labour removing tax cuts in early 2018 also eroded democracy in NZ. Would also apply to the Wellington Mayor and her Green Councillors ramming through contracts before the election. Surely that is eroding democracy. Interestingly it is a Labour Mayoral candidate Andy Little complaining about this.
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May 18, 2025 8:07am
- AitchW
  
  Let’s not forget Labour re-appointing the governor of the reserve bank to a 5 year term weeks before an election it knew it would lose.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:17am
- kowtow
  
  I wonder did they ever run stories about lockdowns and mass arrests eroding democracy .
  
  No , they cheerled our descent into fascism.
  
  And while they chase , so ,gleefully the 2×2 , they have done sfa follow up on Doyle or his deleted offerings.It’s as if Bussygate never happened.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:20am
- artemisia
  
  I’m sure all those journalist dedicated to speaking truth to power were all over those incidents. And all the others, of course.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:55am
- Ian Boag
  
  I take it you were opposed to losing the tax cuts (eroding democracy) and in favour of women losing their pay equity stuff (pragmatic saving of billions).
  
  Free country and all that. Gummints get elected and do what they want to do. Personally I think that any kind of tax cuts right now is bananas but that’s just me. Urgency is always a bit doubtful.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:40am
  - Prince
    
    Presumably Labour are going to reset the tax brackets to what they were in 2023, so they can continue to fund the various scams they had going when last in Govt.
    God defend that tax brackets should be adjusted for inflation, the same as benefits, super etc are.
    The yawning maw of the Govt demands more, more, MORE.
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:15am
  - Cassandra
    
    Nats used urgency because they didn’t want a prolonged faux outrage opportunity for Labour. Very sensible. Labour did it too. Good tactics, you play the cards you’re dealt.
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:30am
  - Damocles11
    
    I have deal for you Ian: the Right will stop offering tax cuts to get support if the Left will promise to stop offering socialistic freebies and giveaways to get support…..deal?
    Thought not.
    It’s so pitiful the way the Left play dumb around political realities.
    
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    May 18, 2025 11:09am
- PurplePen
  
  Vaguely related. I read this today:
  
  “What makes equality such a difficult business is that we only want it with our superiors” French playwright Henry Becque
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:21am
  - AitchW
    
    We have a long tradition here of “Jack’s as good as his master”.
    We seem to be losing the egalitarian ethos now, driven largely by liberals, activists, and hand wringers ceaselessly pushing the “rich pricks” button and driving wedges between blue and white collar, between town and country and between ethnicities.
    
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    May 18, 2025 11:19am
    - Ian Boag
      
      We have a long tradition here of “Jack’s as good as his master”.
      
      Yer wot? Which country are you on about?
      
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      May 18, 2025 11:43am
      - pdm
        
        The New Zealand I grew up in – born 1946.
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:32pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Dunno. I was 1945. We were sort of middle class in Hastings. There were nobs around then as now.
        
        wedges between blue and white collar, between town and country and between ethnicities.
        
        Dunno what utopia you lived in – were you perhaps from a rural pakeha family farm and went to boarding school? Sisters presented as debs and all that? Family good solid National voters …
        
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        May 18, 2025 1:19pm
      - Jack5
        
        Hastings, eh Ian Boag?
        
        Hastings and Hawke’s Bay in the North Island, and Christchurch and Canterbury in the South Island, were two areas where touches of English aristocracy long survived.
        
        In Canterbury, Christ’s College until a decade or two ago, instilled a faux English upper class accent in its pupils. There were other traditions such polo, and the blue-rinse and twinset brigade ladies of the Old Families.
        
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        May 18, 2025 1:47pm
      - Sponge
        
        Having attended Christs College in the 1980’s I can assure all readers that Jack5 is talking utter rubbish.
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:06pm
      - Jack5
        
        Sponge, if Kiwiblog could talk, would you be saying, non-rhotic style, “Uttah rubbish”? 😀
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:26pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  And who could forget Labour’s Willy Jackson blithely informing us that “Democracy’s changed….We’re in a consensus-type democracy now. This is not a majority democracy. ”
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/willie-jackson-says-democracy-has-changed-co-governance-is-good-act-leader-is-a-hypocrite/VZZAIF66LH76WWEXUXUXAZQ3XA/
  
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  May 18, 2025 12:36pm
- I remember when
  
  Pay Equity used to mean achieving your own pay rises.
  
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  May 18, 2025 2:39pm
  - R
    
    ‘Own pay rises’…. by dint of taking personal responsibility for your ambitions, developing motivation and applying such to the pursuit of a satisfying lifestyle
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:18pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Peter, MSM is pushing gross misinformation about the AMENDMENT in its seemingly continuous smears of the current government.
  
  Its an amendment to fix a flaw in the original 2020 LABOUR bill that introduced INEQUITY
  
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  May 18, 2025 4:53pm
David Garrett

Good morning from the Kingdom…the country which is closed on Sundays…but thankfully due to the wisdom of King Tupou II in 1914, the Royal Nuku’alofa club is open all day.
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May 18, 2025 8:08am
- Cassandra
  
  Enjoy your day, DG. After a spell of lovely sunny days Tauranga has rain forecast for today. Concert at Holy Trinity this afternoon.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:28am
  - David Garrett
    
    Cass: thanks old boy…three sad individuals – with more to come I’m sure – felt the need to downtick your friendly greeting…
    
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    May 18, 2025 8:52am
    - Mike
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Complaining about downticks seems a tad insecure. Just saying.
      
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      May 18, 2025 9:09am
      - graham
        
        “Complaining about downticks seems a tad insecure” …
        
        … how petty would you have to be to complain about someone complaining about downticks?
        
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        May 18, 2025 10:40am
      - Mike
        
        Not complaining, just an observation.
        
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        May 18, 2025 11:11am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        We pretty much all know who the utter plonker is in that regard. Not looking at anyone in particular of course. 😉
        
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        May 18, 2025 3:24pm
    - cmm
      
      There’s always someone who feels the obligation to pee in the tea urn.
      
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      May 18, 2025 9:17am
      - CJames
        
        If one looks at the person who was the source of the libel against Sean Plunket, don’t they do unspeakable things with carrots and hamburgers?
        
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        May 18, 2025 10:02am
- Scott
  
  Or you could go to church in Tonga, enjoy the wonderful singing
  Find a preacher you can respect and listen to him. Probably you’d be invited for lunch somewhere afterwards and get to enjoy some fine local hospitality.
  That wouldn’t be so bad. A great way to spend Sunday. 😊
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:57am
- cmm
  
  When we arrived in NZ in 1992, almost all businesses in NZ were closed on Sundays and many that were open on Saturday only opened for the morning.
  
  I feel things were a lot simpler back then.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:16am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: Gosh was it still like that in 1992? I was a cab driver in 1980 when New Brighton in Christchurch had “all day shopping” on a Saturday…the place was packed all day…a good place to pick up decent fares…in fact my first ever fare – NB to Linwood was from there.
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:21am
    - MCōs
      
      I was at boarding school in Chch back in the sixties and the New Brighton shopping area used to be quite an attraction back then.
      I believe it died when widespread weekend shopping came in
      
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      May 18, 2025 9:41am
      - David Garrett
        
        MCos: You are right…NB is apparently a pale shadow of its fomer lively self these days.
        
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        May 18, 2025 10:04am
  - R
    
    Yes!…people took the time to sit back, relax and appreciate what they had achieved in life. No indoctrinating advertising pressure then
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:22pm
- Ra Henare
  
  And hello from the Kingdom of Wonder where Sunday is just another day for 90% of the population (98% Buddhist).
  Except for large corporates and Government departments of course.
  
  Its really nice living in a free market society with buggar all Government Intervention (that is recognised and obeyed).
  
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  May 18, 2025 4:56pm
artemisia

Remember covid? And that jab? Now largely below the radar in the MSM but in the journals not so much. Not surprising of course that there are some deep dives into what in aggregate is probably the biggest single issue health data repository of all time.

Alex Berenson, in his Unreported Truths substack, has been banging on this door for years. This week he posted – People who took mRNA Covid vaccines were 30 percent likelier to develop thyroid disease a year later as those who did not, a study of over 2.3 million patients shows. The study by Taiwanese scientists has been published, online only so far, and is covered in some detail in the substack post.

There will be many many studies published reporting various findings. Some will be refuted, some will be superceded, many probably ignored. But published. So assumptions, methods and results can be examined. Mass formation, rather less so.

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/mrna-covid-jabs-often-cause-long
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May 18, 2025 8:13am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I had a relative die of cancer last year, not too long after qualifying for super. Not a smoker, was a social drinker, ate reasonably healthily, carried a few more kilos than he should have, not in an industrially hazardous career.
  
  So far, so regular, you might say. What raises a minor eyebrow is that on both sides of the family, it’s the ticker that tends to give out – cancer is all but unheard of. It’s just a data point, of course, and in this as in any other case, we’ll never know whether the vax contributed. But, it makes me go hmmm.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:33am
- kowtow
  
  The political elites in ireland do .
  They’re courting Dr Mike Ryan of WHO infamy for the upcoming Presidency .
  
  And some folk say titular republican HoS is the way to go.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:39am
  - Nobby2
    
    Is that the band or the organisation ?
    
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    May 18, 2025 12:15pm
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Crank alert: Alex Berenson.
  – claimed marijuana use increases homicide numbers and causes schizophrenia
  – turned to Covid nuttery, as above
  – unqualified on either subject
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:48am
  - Colville
    
    you DONT think marijuana increases mental health issues including but not limited to schizophrenia?
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:30am
    - Mike
      
      There is an association, but probably not a causal one.
      
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      May 18, 2025 10:17am
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Studies have repeatedly shown cannabis use is a significant predictor of psychosis, when other potentially confounding factors are held constant. Here’s a recent review in the Lancet, which states “Although the link between cannabis use and development of psychosis is well established, less is known about the effect of continued versus discontinued cannabis use after the onset of psychosis.”
        https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(15)00363-6/fulltext
        
        The review concludes “Continued cannabis use after onset of psychosis predicts adverse outcome, including higher relapse rates, longer hospital admissions, and more severe positive symptoms than for individuals who discontinue cannabis use and those who are non-users. These findings point to reductions in cannabis use as a crucial interventional target to improve outcome in patients with psychosis.”
        
        If that’s not evidence of a causal link, I don’t know what is. I see Mike has posted some sophistry below about “not a direct causal, it just triggers individuals who are genetically predisposed to psychosis”. Much the same argument can be made about smoking and lung cancer – some people can smoke all their lives without getting cancer. But then again, if you’re genetically predisposed …
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:45pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    [Mod – debate without the personal jabs]
    
    National library of medicines article from 2008 states “ There is now reasonable evidence from longitudinal studies that regular cannabis use predicts an increased risk of schizophrenia and of reporting psychotic symptoms. These relationships have persisted after controlling for confounding variables such as personal characteristics and other drug use.”
    
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2424288/#:~:text=There%20is%20now%20reasonable%20evidence,characteristics%20and%20other%20drug%20use.
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:48am
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      Fair enough mod my intention isn’t to abuse Mike but to call out his hypocrisy and delusional ideas.
      
      Mike hasnt debated the thread (trolling I believe) but has reverted to diminishing the prior post by personally attacking Alex B. Alex B’s position is backed by research.
      
      Mike is espousing a position on marijuana that is factually incorrect.
      
      Mike is actually doing what he is accusing Alex B of doing. Stating a crank theory on marijuana.
      
      [Mod – Mike has commented on what Alex Berenson has said, he’s not made it personal. You’ve turned this thread into one not on topic but about Mike, debate what is said]
      
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      May 18, 2025 10:14am
      - AitchW
        
        Everyone knows, and has done for decades, that dope causes schizophrenia. Trolls gonna troll, best not to feed them.
        
        19 4
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        May 18, 2025 10:37am
      - Mike
        
        Google is your friend:
        
        While cannabis use is strongly associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, it’s not a direct cause. It’s more likely that cannabis use can trigger or accelerate the onset of schizophrenia in individuals who are already genetically predisposed to the disorder.
        
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        May 18, 2025 11:14am
      - Cassandra
        
        Mike: re cannabis and schizophrenia, you’re right. Cannabis is a trigger. And also appears to trigger stroke. We did a small project at Auckland Hospital on stroke admissions, high incidence of cannabis use.
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:47pm
      - rouppe
        
        Sigh…
        
        No one said it was a direct cause of schizophrenia apart from you, Mike @8:48
        
        Everyone else has said “increased risk”.
        
        So you have introduced the notion of “causes” and then attacked everyone else for saying “causes” when all they said said “increases risk” or “more likely”.
        
        I do hope you’re not an opposition MP speech writer.
        
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        May 18, 2025 12:54pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Might be a bit off-topic to observe that alcohol is widely credited with causing more social harm than all the other drugs put together.
        
        I can’t point to any sort of authoritative link other than the son who is a consultant addiction psychiatrist in the public sector …..
        
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        May 18, 2025 1:28pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Mod – I used the identical post format to Mike ie.
        
        Crank Alert: Name
        Comments debating the viewpoints of the named.
        
        Why is one judged as debating what Alex B said and the other as a personal jab?
        
        I appreciate the blog and the mods but on this occasion there is a double standard.
        
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        May 18, 2025 1:39pm
      - Jack5
        
        This comes from a review of research on marijuana’s effects on schizophrenia. The review comes from the American National Library of Medicine:
        
        “From the current data, we can conclude that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) component of cannabis can be the main culprit causing psychosis and schizophrenia in the at-risk population. THC can also be the one exacerbating symptoms and causing an adverse prognosis in already diagnosed patients.
        
        https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7442038/
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:03pm
      - I remember when
        
        Marijuana is a trigger – bang.
        
        7 1
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        May 18, 2025 2:54pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Well .. spare a thought for the residents of Lice in Turkey. This week gone residents of Lice (pop. 25k) were stoned after police burned 20 tons of seized marijuana in the town center. Thick weed smoke filled the town for days, leaving residents dizzy, nauseous, and hallucinating.
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:27am
    - Mike
      
      And way more relaxed.
      
      3 14
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      May 18, 2025 11:15am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Getting unexpectedly hit with a massive dose of THC would be terrifying for most people who aren’t used to it.
        
        7 1
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        May 18, 2025 3:27pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      On a recent trip to Thailand. Hard to walk down a street in a Tourist area without wafts of weed smoke everywhere.
      Legal to buy and sell.
      Illegal to smoke in public!!!
      Disgusting IMHO.
      
      PS. Had to go out for the night as people in adjoining balcony puffing up large, which of course polluted our room/balcony,
      All legal on their behalf.
      
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      May 18, 2025 5:03pm
- cmm
  
  Of course taking any form of medication has always been a trade off. That has been known for decades.
  
  But still, it is really hard to get the statistics right in studies such as this.
  
  There is always an unknown component of a form of selection bias. For example are those that got vaccinated more likely to be in reduced health or are older and thus more likely to develop thyroid disease anyway?
  
  I don’t have a dog in this fight (I was not vaccinated myself), but statistical based studies can be problematic.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:23am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    It was this complexity that enabled the tobacco industry to maintain its revenue for decades. Eventually the truth will come out but too late to offset any damage caused.
    
    We all have a dog in this fight, because it is not about whether you took the shot or not. It is about the level of safety testing and regulatory validation we expect. In a pre-Covid world we would have expected comprehensive testing and validation of a new medicine prior to release. In the hyped times of Covid when our Medsafe regulatory body wouldn’t sign the new treatment off due to insufficient safety data it was approved by a clandestine and secret committee.
    
    Unfortunately David Seymour’s recent bill that allows for fast track sign off of medicines if they have been approved overseas opens is up to bad decisions by overseas authorities and diminishes our sovereignty further.
    
    My personal view is I want things thoroughly tested before they are approved. I also want NZ to retain sovereignty for these decisions.
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:59am
    - AitchW
      
      You also retain the ultimate sanction not to take the drug prescribed if you don’t trust it.
      Yes, Ardern et al really muddied those waters by mandating Covid jabs, but you always have that option.
      By way of disclosure, I’ve had 2 jabs, going for a third next week when I get my flu jab.
      I’ve had both Covid and a flu ( unboosted and un-flu jabbed) and neither was an experience I’m keen to repeat.
      
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      May 18, 2025 10:39am
      - pdm
        
        Neither mrspdm or I have had covid.
        
        We have had most of the jabs but not all – the last one last week.
        
        We both had Flu jabs in early April and mrspdm has a stinking cold verging on flu at the moment. Would it have been worse without the jab – who knows?
        
        5 4
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        May 18, 2025 12:48pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        why keep going back for more…..DOESN’T WORK
        
        7 3
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        May 18, 2025 1:16pm
      - I remember when
        
        pdm:
        Would it have worse without the jab – who knows?
        
        Much to the joy for vaccine manufacturers.
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:59pm
- backster
  
  In this weeks Leighton Smith podcast he interviews Dr.Pierre Kory who stated that of the 3300 cases of Covid he treated with Ivermectin 2 died. Most recovered overnight.
  
  10 3
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  May 18, 2025 11:15am
  - AitchW
    
    I haven’t done any reading on the mechanism by which Ivomec treats Covid, but on the face of it it’s hard to understand how a treatment for parasites has any effect against a virus.
    Or is the argument that Covid is caused by a parasite infestation?
    
    3 9
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    May 18, 2025 11:34am
    - AitchW
      
      Hmmmmm 2 downticks but no attempt to explain how Ivomec works.
      I had an exchange on X, some fellow claimed that the TPB attacks Maori culture but flatly refuses to give even 1 example.
      Is this similar?
      
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      May 18, 2025 1:31pm
    - jonno1
      
      Ivermectin is FDA-approved as an anti-viral (DNA and RNA) as well as an anti-parasitical. The debate is on whether it works against Covid specifically. The problem was/is that if it does, then the emergency approval of the untested vaccines was unlawful.
      
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      May 18, 2025 2:40pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      You might find this interview interesting
      Ivermectin Research
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m-HM2hmVSM&t=3361s
      
      1 0
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      May 18, 2025 5:07pm
    - Keith White
      
      The mode of action of ivermectin is its ability to inhibit glutamate-gated chloride channels (GluCls) at nanomolar concentrations in invertebrates, but that inhibition does not take place in vertebrates i.e. us spine-supported homo sapiens types. Inhibition of GluCls disrupts feeding, motility, and reproduction of susceptible organisms, right down to a cellular level.
      
      If this seems at odds with reality – think of the way penicillin, Viagra, and Minoxidil were ‘discovered’ to have helpful effects way beyond what the researchers involved were actually studying.
      
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      May 18, 2025 5:43pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Warfarin was initially a rat poison, before it was discovered to be useful as a heart disease treatment.
      
      As I understand it (non medical), it’s an anti coagulant. The quantity given to rats causes their blood system to collapse (which presumably would happen if a human overdosed), but in the right quantity works to reduce artery blockage. Or something like that.
      
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      May 18, 2025 7:17pm
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360691630/columnist-dismisses-faux-outrage-after-pay-equity-column
Would there be any journalist in NZ more conceited and condescending than Ms Vance?
I realise she is paid to tell the peasants what to think in the great msm scam of reporting the “news”, but seriously, enough is enough.
The only “faux outrage” is hers.
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May 18, 2025 8:28am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Anyone who has been responsible for giving her awards must surely be reflecting on their judgment.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:34am
- Tomtoddy
  
  Her sycophantic fellow ‘faux outrage’ writers (they are not professional enough to be called journalists) arrogantly thumb their noses at the rest of us by granting Vance some award.
  
  Trying to defend her gutter language and misrepresentation of the pay equity law changes just underlines how out of touch the MSM is and why they represent a failing, dying breed. Good riddance.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:46am
  - graham
    
    Meh. The media have an awards ceremony for the media in which people involved in the media vote for other people involved in the media to receive awards for their work in the media, at a ceremony attended by the media.
    
    It’s almost impossible for me to take this cosy little ceremony seriously. It’s a bunch of people in the media congratulating their colleagues and themselves for what fantastic work they’ve all done and sycophantically gushing over the so-called personalities and celebrities and telling them how important they are.
    
    It really only matters in their own little bubble, which is giving every appearance of becoming increasingly insulated from the real world daily. It has absolutely no relevance or meaning to the rest of society.
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:10am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Yes, they are probably the most incestuous of a number of such organisations in our fair land.
      
      23 1
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      May 18, 2025 10:33am
      - lifesgood
        
        Followed closely by the luvvies of the Book Awards
        
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        May 18, 2025 10:44am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Describes industry awards in general. It’s 2025, must be Buggins’ turn.
      
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      May 18, 2025 7:19pm
  - AitchW
    
    To be fair, that award had most likely been decided well ahead of it being handed out. Her dire article hadn’t been published during deliberations I suspect.
    But having said that, News of the World. Once a gutter journalist….
    
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    May 18, 2025 9:21am
- graham
  
  I’m not going to read the link – I have made it a point of principle to avoid Stuff for the last three years or so, when it became obvious that their constant crusading and pushing their various agendas were becoming more important than actually reporting the news in a non-partisan, neutral manner.
  
  But your description is sufficient to tell us what it is about, and I would merely point anyone trying to defend that column to DPF’s excellent article Stuff’s hypocrisy laid bare, where he lays out several examples of previous articles and columns and opinion pieces railing against sexist abuse of MPs and women in general.
  
  They have published numerous articles decrying sexist abuse of MPs, and then they turn around and publish a column by one of their own journalists calling female Ministers a bunch of c***s.
  
  Andrea Vance can try to defend the indefensible all she like, but DPF has done an excellent job of laying out Stuff‘s hypocrisy in allowing this appallingly misogynistic piece to be published. And the fact that it was written by a woman makes it even worse.
  
  Describing the reaction as “faux outrage” only serves to prove just how out of touch with the real world Ms Vance is. For me, the name “Andrea Vance” is now forever linked with that horrendous column, in the same way that “Cushla Norman” is indelibly linked with going wildly out of control in comparing a quip by Chris Luxon to a Nazi eugenics programme.
  
  Andrea Vance will never live this down. She will for the rest of her career be inextricably associated with that column and the awful things that she said in it.
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:55am
  - AitchW
    
    Truly awesome and enlightening article at the top of Stuff today, Ardern musing on how many spoons of Milo are too many. Really.
    In the red “breaking news” banner at the top of the page. Jesus wept!
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/food-drink/360692762/6-spoons-milo-too-much-jacinda-ardern-thinks-so
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:43am
    - Don Beckett
      
      She would probably recommend Almond Milk – after all – didn’t she squeeze Clark’s almonds ? 😆
      
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      May 18, 2025 11:56am
      - pdm
        
        DB – just to confirm.
        
        Almonds are nuts aren’t they?
        
        8 0
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        May 18, 2025 12:53pm
    - Dougal10
      
      Just another test to see if she is still one of our most despised ex pm’s
      
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      May 18, 2025 12:00pm
      - Phronesis
        
        [Use proper names. mod.]
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:01pm
      - R
        
        ‘one of our most despised’……she is by far the most despised that I have experienced in 80 years of political consciousness, and there have been a few lulu’s in that time
        
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        May 18, 2025 3:38pm
  - rouppe
    
    Not just that column.
    
    News of the world employee. That’s the crowd that would hack the voicemail of celebrities phones to get juicy gossip. Albeit the victims had obvious pin numbers but nonetheless. Don’t know if Vance was directly linked to any such hack.
    
    Developed a ~~honey trap~~ “relationship” with Peter Dunne which led to leaking of confidential GCSB information. That led to Peter Dunne’s resignation.
    
    She is a snake.
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:04pm
- pdm
  
  Gravel. Vance is still fighting hard with Jack Tame for the number 4 position on the Labour list in 2026.
  
  She has to secure it soon in case Stuff goes `down the gurgler’ in the next 6 months or so.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:24am
- John Loveridge
  
  Let me guess – she’s upset by all the nasty people who’ve had a go at her, but wants to thank all the many thousands who wrote to her in support?
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:30am
- nathie
  
  Ms Vance has been caught out (double standards) but instead chooses to double-down and deploy spin, also ignoring her other insults she made.
  
  The other problem with this is where does one draw the line? By being “ok” with using a weapon-grade insult, and then defending it, does this open the door to other people normalising such behavior?
  
  And if that behavior escalates, severely, is that also “ok” because those being insulted are considered to be the “wrong type of people”?
  
  And to think Stuff condones this??
  
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  May 18, 2025 11:36am
  - kiwimike
    
    Nathis
    no not stuff
    but Sineed Boucher the $1 woman.
    
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    May 19, 2025 12:27pm
kiwikidsnz

The beat goes on…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360691630/columnist-dismisses-faux-outrage-after-pay-equity-column

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360691019/brooke-van-velden-one-handful-ministers-directly-combatting-nzs-decline-writes-damien-grant
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May 18, 2025 8:28am
kowtow

Sunday thought.

If we want to flush ’em to where they belong ;

No more posting links to $1uffed .
14 1
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May 18, 2025 8:45am
- graham
  
  kowtow, I’m not too bothered if people post links to Stuff. As I said above, it is a point of principle for me that I consciously avoid Stuff and have done for the last three years or so.
  
  I became deeply uncomfortable with their constant crusading and peddling of agendas. It seemed to me that Stuff were becoming increasingly strident in this regard, to the detriment of good solid news reporting, and the comments I have seen since have only confirmed that I was right to avoid Stuff.
  
  This latest sorry saga has shown that not only are Stuff more interested in pushing their own campaigns than reporting the news, but that any principles or standards they might claim to have are easily set aside without a second thought when it suits them.
  
  Stuff appear to have no qualms about setting aside their own principles when they wish. I have higher standards, and I will not read the disgraceful outlet that is Stuff.
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:18pm
  - kowtow
    
    Yeah but linking to the c***s simply helps drive up their numbers .
    
    Perhaps posters could just provide a short summary , then we get the gist w/o giving them what would be counted as support , when it comes to their advertisers etc
    
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    May 18, 2025 2:38pm
  - kiwimike
    
    Remember Stuff (read Sineed Boucher) interfered with the Wellington Mayoral Election by
    1. denying Ray Chung fair coverage.
    2. pitted the 2 males fighting against each other and 3. pushed Tory Whanau as the sensible choice
    
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    May 19, 2025 12:30pm
AndyW

There’s an article in the Herald about two women who claim they were abducted, abused and held captive for three days. I can’t see anything in the article about their families contacting the police and reporting them missing.
Am I missing something here?
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May 18, 2025 8:52am
BeaB

Andrea Vance furiously castigated us for calling Jacinda Arden ‘Cindy’. She told us the nickname was demeaning, infantilising and Jacinda didn’t like it.
Now Andrea Vance accuses senior women Government ministers of being ‘c–ts’. She tells us they do ‘girl maths’.
This demeaning and infantilising language must be perfectly ok because Vance has just won Political Editor of the Year.
No wonder we love and trust the media.
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May 18, 2025 9:00am
- AitchW
  
  If Ardern dislikes being called Cindy I wonder what her friends and family call her? Any 3 syllable name is going to be shortened, I can’t think of anything other than Cindy, or maybe just Cin. Jax perhaps?
  
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  May 18, 2025 11:38am
  - Taieri
    
    what her friends and family call her?
    ———–
    
    Dame Jacinda. That’s if she’s got any friends of course…
    
    6 0
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    May 18, 2025 2:24pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    I liked to call her “Jacinda Muddleduck”. With apologies to Beatrix Potter.
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:28pm
- R
  
  She didn’t win anything,she was awarded the title ‘for services to the cause’
  
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  May 18, 2025 3:43pm
Bridgenag

The Assault on Freedom in the UK and Europe
and a warning for the US
By Peter Mcilvenna

“So it takes 5 years for compensation from a rapist for their victim but 2 days for hurty words online.”

…”And the demographics! between 2005 and 2020, the general UK population grew by 10.7% while the Muslim population grew by 107%. That’s 10 times. Extrapolate that out and Britain will be majority Muslim by 2065 I think. London is 12% Muslim. Paris 15%. Brussels 30%. Brussels the political capital of Europe! What a huge change”

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/the-assault-on-freedom-in-the-uk?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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May 18, 2025 9:03am
- Inandout
  
  Bridge, many of us have been to London but I am shocked that once wonderful city has apparently become a crime centre.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aGKrhDDVE0
  
  10 1
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  May 18, 2025 9:36am
  - Bridgenag
    
    No need for wars in Europe. Just let them walk in and breed up.
    
    9 2
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    May 18, 2025 10:46am
Cassandra

Well I never! Did you know that 86 47 means “Get rid of President Trump”? 86 was a 1930s term for time-expired food; Trump is the 47th president. Normally this would be in the Useless Knowledge file but former FBI Director Comey was seen photographing shells on a beach lined up as 8647. Crikey!
16 4
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May 18, 2025 9:04am
- Mike
  
  Being investigated by the FBI as an alleged assassination threat!
  
  8 21
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  May 18, 2025 9:07am
- kowtow
  
  FBI director acting like a 17 y.o ‘wannabe’ antifa type.
  
  Says it all really.
  
  15 1
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  May 18, 2025 9:12am
- Cassandra
  
  I should add that 86 has morphed from “get rid off” to “kill” in some circles.
  
  15 3
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  May 18, 2025 9:17am
- David Garrett
  
  Cass: where did you get that info about expired food? There were no “use by” dates until the late 80’s IIRC.. certainly not in the 1930’s…My kids were, and remain, utterly paranoid about use by dates…my daughter used to get very upset when I consumed yoghurt a couple of months after its used by. They used to ask how we knew food was still good to eat in the “olden days”…I told her we used our eyes, noses, and tongues.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:27am
  - Cassandra
    
    It was in the fast food/diner industry. I read it in an American newspaper.
    
    6 3
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    May 18, 2025 9:42am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    My youngest daughter is a fine-dining patissier.
    
    She always checks out the remaindered/ past-use- by dates sections in supermarkets and delis.
    – picks up some real bargains.
    
    18 1
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    May 18, 2025 9:56am
    - David Garrett
      
      Maggy: My very bright daughter remains very much reliant on use by dates – even though i never showed any ill effects from all that “expired” yoghurt…
      
      11 1
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      May 18, 2025 10:08am
      - Cassandra
        
        How would you tell the difference? Yoghurt is expired when it’s made. Dreadful stuff. But good with a curry.
        
        7 4
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        May 18, 2025 10:35am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Love yoghurt – who cares about expiry dates ?
        
        6 1
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        May 18, 2025 11:57am
      - rouppe
        
        Make sure you both understand the difference between “use by” and “best before”.
        
        Different things.
        
        5 1
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        May 18, 2025 1:08pm
    - peterwn
      
      People like that do not need to go to budget advisers, they have learned good financial habits from their parents by example.
      
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      May 18, 2025 12:50pm
- Colville
  
  nah…
  
  86 is rhyming slang for nix, very old fashioned but nothing to do with food.
  
  nix is nothing or nil but can be get rid of ie: “nix it” or “86 it”
  
  I have been on a bender reading WW2 biographies….. !
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:40am
  - Cassandra
    
    “86″ has two main meanings in everyday language: a slang term meaning “to get rid of” or “to refuse service”. In the context of restaurants and bars, it’s used to indicate that an item is out of stock or that a customer is no longer being served. It can also refer to the Toyota 86 sports car.
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:37am
    - david
      
      I’ ve also heard of the phrase to “deep six” something meaning to trash or dump it.
      
      5 0
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      May 18, 2025 12:52pm
- Pavel
  
  The day he posted that it just happened to be 8647 days since 911 but Comey didn’t know that so can’t use that excuse.
  
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  May 18, 2025 11:14am
- Rich Prick
  
  It’s code for “take out”, on the old rotary phones (and the modern equivalents) 8 = T and 6 = O.
  
  5 1
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  May 18, 2025 11:47am
- Local Miller
  
  86 represents TO on old dial phones and mobile phones with letters. It was a military short code for Take Out, i.e. kill! It was adopted by other groups like the mafia, and even restaurants used it as I heard a waiter explain 86/green beans written on the kitchen board meant “take green beans off the menu as we are out”.
  With his police and FBI career, Comey would 100% know what this means.
  
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  May 18, 2025 6:38pm
Mike

I have read frequents comments suggesting that Hamas overstates casualty figures in Gaza. Their ‘official’ total is around 50,000 deaths. New research suggests the figure is between 77,000 and 109,000.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/middle-east-and-africa/2025/05/08/how-many-people-have-died-in-gaza?utm_source=facebook&utm_content=discovery.content&utm_medium=social-media.content.np&utm_campaign=editorial-socialc
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May 18, 2025 9:05am
- Culture War Criminal
  
  You look at the shear devastation wrought on Gaza, as well as the stats as to the munitions that have been dropped on the place, and you’d have to be blind or an idiot to not expect a severe civilian death toll. Given the 2 million or so Gazans living there at the start, it could easily be hundreds of thousands of deaths.
  
  However, even if it were as low as 5,000 (which is not realistic at all), that would still be 500% more than Hamas are alleged to have killed.
  
  It’s darkly amusing seeing pro-Zionists tying themselves in knots trying to explain that, as the Good Guys, the IDF is taking great pains to kill only combatants, and that, even when they kill civilians, it is Hamas’ fault, and even if Hamas comes out with very high figures, they are self-interested liars (but the Good Guys aren’t), and even if tens or hundreds of thousands have been killed, it doesn’t really matter anyway because the Good Guys have an indubitable right to exist (while presumably the Palestinians don’t), and a right to defend themselves by attacking with overwhelming and disparate force.
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:53am
  - Conservatarian
    
    Oh yes, I was in Gaza just yesterday, and I walked past the local hospital and I saw a sign saying “A&E over here, oncology department over there, and this way to the terror tunnels, longer than the London Underground, all 300+ miles of them, funded by quote-unquote humanitarian aid from the UN, ordinary citizens of Gaza most welcome, definitely not solely for the use by the total military state. “
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:46pm
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      OK, but what does that attempt at a joke have to do with anything? I don’t see what the fact there is Hamas infrastructure in Gaza used to fight against Israel has to do with the extreme number of Palestinian civilians killed by the IDF, other than you are using the former to distract attention from the latter.
      
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      May 18, 2025 2:27pm
- mandk
  
  I think the point you need to grasp, Mike, is that, regardless of whether the number is 50,000, 77,000 or 109,000, Hamas is responsible for every single one of them.
  
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  May 18, 2025 12:43pm
  - Mike
    
    By that logic, the IDF could round up every person in Gaza and execute them all and it would be Hamas’s responsibility.
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:32pm
    - mandk
      
      That’s a pretty silly response, even by your standards.
      
      The other point you need to grasp is that the Israelis lament the killing of civilians. If they didn’t, they would do what you suggest.
      
      Hamas, on the other hand, would delight in killing all Israelis, even if it meant the loss of another how many thousands of Gazan’s lives.
      
      The thing about Muslim radicals is that they don’t care how many of their brother and sister Muslims are killed. Hence all the Muslin on Muslim atrocities committed in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Sudan, Somalia, and many other places where the “religion of peace” operates.
      
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      May 18, 2025 3:38pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        The other point you need to grasp is that the Israelis lament the killing of civilians.
        
        Got a link for that?
        
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        May 18, 2025 9:04pm
- kiwimike
  
  “don’t stop until you get enough” is what I’d tell the IDF
  
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  May 19, 2025 12:34pm
Mike

I see Florida has joined Utah in banning fluoridation.
Call it the RFK Jr effect: emboldening cranks everywhere.
8 28
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May 18, 2025 9:13am
- Jack5
  
  In Christchurch before there was one unified city council, the Waimairi district had fluoridated water and the other part of the town did not.
  
  Waimairi kids had distinctly better teeth than the others.
  
  If I had a vote on fluoridation, I would support it.
  
  Until ultra-violet or ozone treatment become cheaper, we surely must have chlorination of our city water. For the mass of homes, it seems to be that or cholera.
  
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  May 18, 2025 3:00pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Is it possible to buy flouride pills if you want extra flouride in your body? Why, yes, it is.
  
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  May 18, 2025 3:31pm
CJames

Oh, the disgrace. The leader of the Maori Party spray tanning! Bunnings test pot titled “Ngāti Bronze No.7”.
https://matuakahurangi.com/p/breaking-te-pati-maori-co-leader
I wonder if it is libel. Or does she want to emulate Trump?
27 3
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May 18, 2025 9:22am
- artemisia
  
  Cool photo there CJames. Maybe not enough in the Parliamentary pay packet to include the legs.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:28am
  - pdm
    
    Maybe she should change her name to `Snow White’.
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:09am
- kowtow
  
  I suppose this is why some people call it ‘The partly maori” party .
  
  btw all this claim to Irish ancestry . Cleasby is an English name , not Gaelic Irish . I make the point simply because so much is made of “ancestry” in certain corners .And the “fiery” red hair isn’t gaelic either , it’s likely Norse settler colonist . Oh and all groups concerned , be they Norse , Gael or Maori were all very enthusiastic slavers.
  
  Goose gander and all that.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:39am
  - PurplePen
    
    Isn’t there Maori stories of red-haired Norse-like? people that were already here when the Maori arrived?
    
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    May 18, 2025 10:53am
    - kowtow
      
      Red herring .
      
      9 3
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      May 18, 2025 12:04pm
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Very good, kowtow. And true – the Vikings’ adventures were confined to the North Atlantic, the Baltic, Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas. No mean feat, but nowhere near the Southern hemisphere.
        
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        May 18, 2025 1:09pm
      - Jack5
        
        The Udmurts of Russia have the highest proportion of red hair of any people.
        
        Their homeland is in the Urals, but they are genetically related to the Finnish. There are about half a million Udmurts, with numbers falling as they merge into the general Russian population.
        
        Izhevsk, the main city in Udmurtia, was where the Russian rifle designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov, did much of his work.
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:17pm
- Quail
  
  CJ.
  False ( faux) to the core . Colour from the bottle!
  TPM is just another corporate predator with Irish and other racial input.
  I suspect there is much more non indigenous influence than indigenous in TPM!
  This is why NZ urgently needs ACT s treaty bill !
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:46am
- H. Upmann
  
  I wonder what lead to SunKissedByShazza spilling the beans on what appears to be a regular little earned for Shaz?
  
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  May 18, 2025 11:57am
  - CJames
    
    I suspect that it is a spoof post.
    Probably Matua is seeing how much righteous indignation he can stir. Waiting for all the crybullies to come out of the woodwork. Then he will hit the critics with something about the Maori Party that is really incriminating or scandalous.
    
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    May 18, 2025 2:06pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  She is whiter than white CJ. Her “before” pictures make a mockery of her talk about “my people” when her “people” are actually white!
  She’s probably similar to Willie Jackson’s 2.5% Maori.
  
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  May 18, 2025 5:01pm
Damocles11

A concise, easy to understand explanation from Damien Grant on the Pay Equity row as follows:

“The idea of comparing teachers and nurses to better-paid male professions in order to wrangle more cash from Treasury reminds me of the discredited Labour Theory of Value.
It is demanding I pay you a lot of money for your painting because you spent a hundred hours on it and some other painter sold his work for a fortune.”
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May 18, 2025 9:29am
- imalwaysright
  
  You would think that the Minister for Women and the Minister for Men would have sorted this out long ago…
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:43pm
Gravelroad

So I watched Ms Swarbrick on Q+A.
Overall, a good job by Mr Tame trying to pin down a light-weight and slippery politician on their party’s budget promises and proposals.
But it was all “pie in the sky” stuff from Ms Swarbrick – whose fall-back reply to awkward questions was “we would have to see the data on that”.
One claim she made is that there are 500,000 people accessing food banks every week.
True? Or not true?
No mention made of how all these hungry people manage to fund their meth and alcohol habits.
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May 18, 2025 9:29am
- cmm
  
  It doesn’t need to make sense.
  Greens are not trying to expand their share of the vote to 50% (well not in the next few years anyway). All they want to do is shore up their voter base.
  
  The easy way to do that is envy,
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:39am
- Damocles11
  
  The crazier the Greens get, and the higher they poll, the more middle New Zealand will shy away from electing a left wing government. That’s my hope anyway.
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:03am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    What is “democracy” other than politicians attracting voters by way of extravagant promises that they have no intention, or ability, to follow through on? The reality rarely matches the rhetoric, which is fine when most voters can’t even remember what happened last week.
    
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    May 18, 2025 11:41am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Better to have religious fascists telling everyone how to live their lives?
      
      4 2
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      May 18, 2025 3:34pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        You live in a democracy right now wherein you are constantly told how to live your life, what you should think and how you should act via mass media, mass pop culture and so on. But I doubt you even appreciate this reality though, so much so that you think you’d be less free under another system, and react badly if someone suggests that there are alternatives.
        
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        May 18, 2025 8:20pm
- Lindsay
  
  “Over half a million people are now being supported by NZFN food hubs each month but there is still a growing need.”
  
  Even if you accept that number, she over-stated it by factor of four… or thereabouts.
  
  https://www.nzfoodnetwork.org.nz/foodbanks-feeding-165-more-people/
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:14am
  - [email protected]
    
    500,000 people accessing food banks a month. It is very difficult to use that statistic to calculate how many people are reliant on food banks. Do people only access the food bank once a month?
    
    If they access the food bank more often than once a month then the total number of people depending on that food bank is reduced.
    
    From what I can figure a person goes to a food bank for a parcel of food. I take that to mean that person is probably obtaining food for themselves and possibly other family members.
    
    If true, that increases the number of people relying on the food bank.
    
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    May 18, 2025 12:47pm
  - rouppe
    
    If you give stuff away, of course people are going to take it. And when they tell their mates they are getting $100 a week worth of food for free, of course it’s going to escalate.
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:17pm
  - AitchW
    
    An awful lot of beans in the photo accompanying that story….
    
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    May 18, 2025 2:55pm
- MCōs
  
  Much more interesting was the interview with Marcel Dirsus who authored How Tyrants Fall
  He concluded, who would want to be a dictator?
  One minute everyone seems to love you; next minute you’re dragged around the main square behind a Hilux with your best friend at the wheel
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:28am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    There’s a misconception that under a dictatorial system, there is no possibility of removing the dictator if things don’t work out, and you’re stuck with him. In fact, there’s arguably more fluidity in an autocracy than in our own system. As you say, you can remove a dictator and his deputies and drag them down the road in a Hilux; you can’t drag liberal democracy down the road, however, so we’re stuck with it – all you can do is vote for some other puppet who will perpetuate what came before.
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:27pm
- PurplePen
  
  500,000 accessing food-banks does not necessarily mean 500,000 doing it tough financially. You’d need to assess how many of them are just taking advantage of the service to get a real indication.
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:56am
  - kowtow
    
    Anecdotally, anyone recall how appalled one of the tv news’ was some years back when tourists were turning up for Christmas dinner put on by some mission or other .
    
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    May 18, 2025 12:10pm
  - pdm
    
    PP. Foodbanks by their being there attract opportunists and bludgers as well as he needy.
    
    We have discussed this here re Nourish For Nil several times in recent months.
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:01pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      I wonder if anyone would starve if foodbanks didn’t exist.
      
      7 0
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      May 18, 2025 2:24pm
- AitchW
  
  One in ten? I find that hard to believe. But, hey, why let the facts stand in the way of a good story?
  Greens lie. But when you’re saving the planet the ends justify the means.
  Was she wearing a keffiyeh?
  
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  May 18, 2025 11:24am
- mogg
  
  I walk past a food bank on a daily basis. Approx 100 metres further down the street there is a bar with gambling machines. On several occasions I have seen food bank bags alongside outdoor tables where young men are sitting drinking jugs of beer in the AM.
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:25pm
cmm

In 1979 I took part in an inter-school maths exam across the whole of South Africa that I was ill prepared for and I didn’t get the desired result (to place in the top 100 in South Africa). This has been a monkey on my back for 46 years now – in particular one of the geometric problems. I probably got 85% for this exam. Had I solved The Problem it would have placed in the top 20. Easily.

Had I done so, I would have likely changed my studies from computers to mathematics and my life would have been radically different. I think I picked the right course by going with computers. Still, the monkey holds on tight.

Every few years I have tried to solve The Problem again and each time I tried I have failed. I suppose I could find a solution on line, but I have avoided that.

About 20 years ago, I got it into my head that I would solve The Problem on my death bed. Kinda one of those dramatic last gasp things you see in the movies.

All very well, except 3 weeks ago I solved The Problem in an extremely elegant way at about 3am while lying in bed. I was thinking about a novel way to process satellite radio signals and thought “Hey, maybe this can also solve The Problem too!”, and it did.

So now I have a mixed emotion of elation (at finding an incredibly elegant solution to The Problem) as well as a foreboding. My rational brain dismisses the foreboding, but…
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May 18, 2025 9:37am
- Cassandra
  
  I hope you’re wrong, cmm! What an interesting story. My family has a soft spot for SA. Part of my Canadian grandfather remains there (a Boer shot him, in 1901?, removing an eye – amazingly he survived to marry an Australian and move to NZ). Not too sure that doing maths when you should be asleep will lead to a long life.
  
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  May 18, 2025 9:55am
  - cmm
    
    Thanks
    
    Superstition is dumb, but powerful.
    
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    May 18, 2025 2:02pm
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: I for one certainly hope u dont expire prematurely! Your comments here are aways worth reading
  
  15 1
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  May 18, 2025 10:11am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Especially his response to Gravelroad’s 9.29 a.m. post.
    Envy is the principal point of the Greens.
    
    13 1
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    May 18, 2025 11:13am
- Jethrod
  
  Ain’t AI amazing!//
  
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  May 18, 2025 10:46am
- R
  
  So sad cmm…..now you have nothing to think about on your death bed!
  
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  May 18, 2025 3:55pm
Sparrow

The magic of the FA Cup is still there. Congratulations to Crystal Palace dreams can happen. As a kid in the 50s our local amateur team Tooting & Mitcham United beat two league teams all faced at their tiny ground. Then faced the might of Nottingham Forest I was in the jam packed little ground with hundreds locked out. It was magic. Forest won and went on to win the cup.
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May 18, 2025 10:13am
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Fantastic stuff from Palace. Henderson was massive, but so many other great performances.
  
  One of the oldest clubs in the world, a founding member of the Football Association, the site of FA cups finals before Wembley even existed, a club whose very name evokes a lost marvel of Victorian Britain, shut out of European football by tragedy at Heysel, so much history but never won a real trophy, rescued from the brink of death in 2010, and now third time lucky and finally FA Cup winners!
  
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  May 18, 2025 8:14pm
goNZ1

Tuesdays Order Paper. after Orals.
Consideration of Privileges Committee report
Question of privilege concerning the conduct of four
members during proceedings of the House (I.17G)
10 m speeches.

this will be the biggest shit show of the year, the only question being whether Mr Speaker keeps order , among MPs and from the lunatics who will pack the public gallery…
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May 18, 2025 11:03am
- AitchW
  
  Let us hope that the speaker has extra security staff on hand to clear the gallery. Anyone interested in a sweep on when the first haka happens in the gallery?
  
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  May 18, 2025 11:27am
- rouppe
  
  And how will Gerry stop those that insist on continuing beyond 10 minutes?
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:20pm
  - AitchW
    
    How does he ever do that? I suspect there will be banners hung from the gallery if not missiles hurled! Tuesday has the potential to make the original haka party look decidedly orderly.
    
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    May 18, 2025 2:52pm
Culture War Criminal

Dave Witherow slyly and artfully skewers New Zealand, and the wider sphere of the West, as it stands in 2025:

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/05/dave-witherow-brave-new-world.html#more
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May 18, 2025 11:35am
surfing

Trump has now ordered Walmart not to increase prices because of increased tariffs.

https://archive.is/LuoY4

On which planet is Trump living? He wants to impose extra costs but for them not to be passed on?
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May 18, 2025 11:48am
- AitchW
  
  Not entirely accurate. Nowhere in that post does he order Walmart to do, or not do, anything. He accuses Walmart of raising prices and blaming tariffs, but all he says is that he’ll be watching.
  I don’t believe that even the Don would be silly enough to try to order a legitimate business to freeze its prices. Maybe he’ll do a Muldoon and introduce a general wage and price freeze….
  
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  May 18, 2025 12:57pm
  - Mike
    
    Nice try. The idiot-in-chief thinks Walmart should ‘EAT THE TARIFFS’
    The fool then goes on to say ‘Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected’. He must have forgotten that businesses were doing terribly under Biden.
    
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    May 18, 2025 1:39pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Nice try. He’s clearly stating don’t FALSELY use the tarrifs as an excuse for profiteering. No doubt many companies will try that on.
      
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      May 18, 2025 3:37pm
AitchW

Some quite puzzling downticks today on very innocuous and non controversial posts. Do we get many visitors from the Standard?
8 5
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May 18, 2025 12:52pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Might be just the one logged in on various user accounts using vpn access etc.
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:45pm
  - Mike
    
    Seems like a lot of trouble to go to.
    
    2 8
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    May 18, 2025 2:01pm
  - AitchW
    
    Why would you bother?…
    
    3 1
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    May 18, 2025 2:03pm
- graham
  
  Meh. As far as I’m concerned, downticks mean nothing (even though I chided Mike for saying much the same 😂). It takes someone nil thought or effort, just half a second to click and done.
  
  I genuinely don’t worry about them. And I’m the sort of person who will agonise over something I said if I think there is the slightest possibility that I offended someone. But that’s in real life. The Internet isn’t real life.
  
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  May 18, 2025 2:03pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Just the usual prat/s AitchW.
  
  Hence why we need names against down ticks.
  
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  May 18, 2025 3:45pm
  - kiwimike
    
    Yeah right.
    It does you good….
    
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    May 19, 2025 12:47pm
Pope Punctilious II

Lying media at it again this morning. They don’t even respect the Sabbath! (sarc). I heard Guyon Espiner talking about “Trump pushing back against diversity in the arts”.

Nobody, Trump included, is attacking “diversity”. The Trump administration is pushing back against the discrimination against whites and Asians that has become normalized in certain US institutions. And don’t the libby media hate it!
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May 18, 2025 1:14pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  “…the discrimination against whites and Asians that has become normalized in certain US institutions” is what ‘diversity’ means, although Asians are still higher up the hierarchy than Whites are. The fact people include Asians in the mix in this context is that if they just pointed out discrimination against Whites, they may be crossing into the dangerous territory of advocating for White people in particular.
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:34pm
  - Mike
    
    Those poor white people certainly need a lot of advocacy. The US Congress is only 75% white, after all.
    
    1 12
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    May 18, 2025 2:07pm
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      I completely agree. 75% White (and this category includes Jewish congressmen at 7%, so it’s really only about 68%), yet they’re all too shit scared to even talk about White people as a category. What does that tell you about the status of White people in the United States, where White people are still a (fast decreasing) majority? It demonstrates that just because a group is a majority, there’s no guarantee at all that they are in charge, or even have much power at all. The fact Whites get shit on so often and so routinely tells us how little power we collectively have.
      
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      May 18, 2025 2:17pm
      - AitchW
        
        Wtf? Being Jewish disqualifies you from being white?
        That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read in a very, very, long time!
        
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        May 18, 2025 2:48pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        AitchW yes the stench of inherent hatred of Jews emanating from one particular religion wafts about strongly.
        
        7 2
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        May 18, 2025 3:40pm
      - AitchW
        
        NIE, I’ve never understood anti-semitism.
        I’ve only known a few Jewish people in my life and they’ve all been perfectly normal, pleasant human beings.
        I’ve known some other people who are nominally Christian who are complete dicks, but I don’t hate all Christians as a result.
        One guy I worked with in the late 80s, a NZer born and bred who also happened to be Jewish, moved his family with 2 little kids to Israel. Nice guy, (even though he was an accountant), I wonder about him and his family when I see rockets fired into Israel.
        
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        May 18, 2025 4:35pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    “The fact people include Asians in the mix in this context is that if they just pointed out discrimination against Whites”
    
    Bovine excrement. You mean you don’t know about this sort of thing? https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/15/harvard-sued-discrimination-against-asian-americans
    
    And no, diversity means just that – diversity. I don’t know anyone who’s against diversity per se. The whole DEI industry is based on ideology, not evidence.
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:33pm
- Mike
  
  ‘Discrimination against whites’ seems a good reason to censor hundreds of books?
  
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  May 18, 2025 1:47pm
  - Jack5
    
    Mike, I recall you defended the cull of tens of thousands of book from the National Library supposedly to make storage space for more NZ and Pacific books.
    
    Would you class this as ultra-censorship?
    
    7 2
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    May 18, 2025 2:37pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Oh come on Jack5, you expect progressives to actually advocate in a principled manner? And who could forget Whitcoulls suspending sales of Jordan Petersen’s innocuous “12 Rules for Life”?
      
      It’s revealing that Stuff described Petersen as “controversial”:
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111472744/whitcoulls-removes-jordan-petersons-books-from-sale
      Can you remember Stuff ever describing (say) Moana Jackson or Joanna Kidman as “controversial?
      
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      May 18, 2025 5:59pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Why not? On the basis of the oft-asserted doctrine “racial discrimination is bad” then why would we allow books that discriminate against Whites? Is it because there is a tacit modification to the doctrine, and it is really “racial discrimination is bad [except against Whites, which is a moral imperative]”?
    
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    May 18, 2025 2:46pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    ‘Racial discrimination’ is not a good reason to censor hundreds of books intended for children to learn from, Mike?
    
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    May 18, 2025 3:47pm
Jack5

Ship-bridge collision video …

Sal Mercogliano analyses the collision with the Brooklyn bridge of the Mexican Navy training sailing ship.

Around 9.50 min into the video clip, Sal M. raises the possibility of the ship being under power when she hit the bridge, and he asks why a tug didn’t act.

https://youtu.be/l2p9bYfFhHE?si=2gcFu8D5qHztDJhp
1 0
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May 18, 2025 5:02pm
- Keith White
  
  The tug did not have a mandate to act…
  
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  May 18, 2025 5:44pm
- DistantObserver
  
  Unconfirmed reports of Ivonne Gris at the helm?
  
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  May 18, 2025 6:48pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    No, it was Ricardo Menendez-March!
    
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    May 18, 2025 8:44pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  In the video I saw, the ship seemed to be going backwards into the bridge, which is generally agreed to be unnatural for three masters.
  
  Presumably from an outgoing tide or river current. Someone’s head’s on the block here.
  
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  May 18, 2025 7:47pm

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