General Debate 05 June 2025

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Anthony Melchett

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/charles-afeakis-sentence-lengthened-for-historic-child-abuse-in-auckland-invercargill-schools/JOY3U2GGCVGM3ESYC4G2CM732Y/

This sicko has been in and out of jail for years. Now he has been found guilty of raping another school boy and they only gave him 2 months extra in prison because it happened around the same time as the other charges.

Make it make sense?

It’s a whole separate rape charge surely?

Makes a very good case for bringing back the needle.
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June 5, 2025 8:01am
- lastmanstanding
  
  I wouldnt get excited about the Greens support in the latest polls. Many of them are students who dont vote and wives from the leafy suburbs who if their husbands find out will quickly inform them of the devasating impact on their lives of the Greens Budget.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:05am
- peterwn
  
  If a cluster of offences take place simultaneously and the accused is convicted of them the accused is sentenced for the most serious charge, and the sentence may be increased for the others. In general cumulative sentencing is not permitted. If one of the offences comes to light later, the sentence for it must be assessed in the same way as if the sentencing was simultaneous with the other charges. I am jot justifying this but merely pointing out that is what the law lays down.
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:52am
  - rangitoto
    
    Change the policy so that all sentences are consecutive.
    
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    June 5, 2025 1:17pm
  - Ehlana
    
    Any idea why this is done?
    The suffering of second and later victims is not less than that of the first victim, or the crime less illegal on repetition.
    If anything, the existance of additional victims should surely strengthen the case for the perpetrator being a more dangerous serial offender for whom a longer sentence is more appropriate.
    
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    June 5, 2025 2:40pm
- Keith White
  
  Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin has entered the chat.
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:52am
- kiwimike
  
  I remember Justice Goddard giving another 2 yrs for an extra rape when the crim was already in for 3 rape 6 yrs.
  
  she lectured the victim who was raped on her 18th birthday that she had given him a justified increase in sentencing.
  
  I wrote to her asking how she came to her decision seeing as a rape could be 7rs and it was clear this was his 4th !
  
  she didn’t reply.
  I was glad when she came back to NZ with her tail between her legs from the UK.
  But dread what she does to NZ’s women today….
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:55am
artemisia

Wellington local government candidate hopefuls suddenly find $4.5 million for 300,000 free transport trips a year – Ponter … up to $4.5 million each year – which the regional council would try to find “internally”. “We can afford that if we juggle other things that we do.

Still focused on more cycleways though. Not sure these wannabe councillors have read that room.

How come this apparently low(er) priority ‘juggled’ $4.5mill only pops up in an election campaign?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/563078/new-fare-capping-scheme-proposed-for-wellington
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June 5, 2025 8:08am
- John Loveridge
  
  Of course he read the room. His living room.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:17am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Ponter has long form on “internal savings” to justify his virtue signalling grandstanding nonsense. He always wilfully chooses to ignore the potential for council rating savings.
  Eg.
  “This won’t be a significant impact on rates, we’re cutting our operational budget to provide for this purchase.”
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/558316/wellington-regional-council-buys-large-block-of-bush-in-eastbourne
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:27am
- RoboRob
  
  Ah yes, the old, ‘we have savings we can make to pay for this new expense’ line. One might wonder why in previous years when rates went up by 10% or more, these savings could not have been found?
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:12am
  - Graeme Hall
    
    Exactly. A good manager does not wake up one morning and think today is the day I might look for some savings.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:29am
  - John Loveridge
    
    It really sticks in the craw, doesn’t it? Considering I’m constantly told by my councilors how hard they work to keep rates rises to a minimum.
    
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    June 5, 2025 11:43am
Chuck Bird

I went to the NZME AGM on Tuesday. I am hopeful that with a new board, including Steven Joyce and Jim Garnon, things will improve, and we may see some balance on articles like climate change.
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June 5, 2025 8:16am
- redeye
  
  And the new editorial board, featuring New Zealands best journalist, Thomas Cranmer, will hopefully help direct the papers overton window back to somewhere near the centre.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:32am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    But alas, he may not have much of a say on RNZ’s funding
    
    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/06/05/lawyers-restricted-influence-over-media-funding/
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:23am
  - Jack5
    
    How will the NZ Herald with its newly juiced-up board of directors fare in the property advertising battle with Trade Me?
    
    TradeMe’s doing well, but it has competition. As a user, I find in its marketplace section that retailers’ goods seem far more numerous than the second-hand items folk have always liked to browse. Electronics junk I like now is also cheaper from Asian online sites like AliExpress.
    
    Still, TradeMe is bubbling along in fields like cars, jobs, and property.
    
    TradeMe’s owned by Apex IX GP Co. Ltd, a London private-equity firm registered in the tax haven of Guernsey in the British Channel islands.
    
    Investopedia says private equity firms raise capital to acquire and manage private companies or take public companies private, with the goal of ultimately selling them for a profit. It adds: “These investments typically require significant capital commitments over several years.”
    
    TradeMe’s total revenue in 2024 was $369.8 million, up from $358.4 million in 2023. Profit was $16.3 million before tax of $7.2 million.
    
    TradeMe has huge intangible assets — more than $2.5 billion, including $369 million in brand value.
    
    You get an idea of where TradeMe’s profitability comes by dividing these intangible assets into what it describes as cash-generation groups:
    
    Motors $766.8 million.
    Marketplace $275.1 million.
    Property $706.5 million.
    Jobs $291.9 million.
    Other $105.5 million.
    
    During the year, TradeMe bought myRent Ltd, which operates over Australia and NZ, advertising, on-line, homes to rent.
    
    The Herald has online markets to build, and it can bring in radio. I’d rate that above any TradeMe access to TV3.
    
    As print newspapers continue their decline, there are markets old and still to be discovered up and down the country for the Herald. It doesn’t need a chain of printing presses.
    
    Let us hope the Herald always remains NZ owned. Good luck to its directors.
    
    [Mod – fixed]
    
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    June 5, 2025 11:38am
    - Jack5
      
      Thanks, Mod!
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:54am
- lifesgood
  
  They need to get rid of that sniveling Simon Wilson for a start.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:39am
- Paulus
  
  And don’t the staff hate it, and tried and actually suceeding in stopping the wholesale change of Directors.
  Watch it hit the fan !
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:04am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.19am, just the one bike today.

A cool, calm, damp morning in the Capital, not bad for cycling. The overnight wind, reported ad nauseum by breathless cub reporters, seems to have gone – certainly from central Wellington.
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June 5, 2025 8:19am
- Mike
  
  Severe northerly gales are forecast. But cyclists should just look out the window rather than place credence in the prophecies of egghead meteorologists.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:45am
  - I remember when
    
    Only twenty weather warnings last night.
    Does nothing happen unless the TV Weather forecasts say it will?
    Why do we need a weather warning, are we unable to work things out for ourselves?
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:03am
    - pdm
      
      Stuff Heading I saw at 7am this morning – Evacuations at Taupo.
      
      Turns out the problem was the Tauranga-Taupo River near Turangi.
      
      Talk about misinformation.
      
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      June 5, 2025 10:13am
      - R
        
        NZ schools haven’t included geography in the syllabus since the time of Tomorrow’s Schools, ethnic myths are more value to students during the last three decades
        
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        June 5, 2025 4:50pm
  - Local Miller
    
    Exactly. As a sailor I stopped relying on the forecasts after they were wrong 9 times out of 10. I checked the weather radar and charts and worked out what was happening and made my own decisions.
    As a boaty I found the weather forecasts were far more cataclysmic than the weather ever was.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:06am
    - gravedodger
      
      I worked on the theory, Local Miller, that ratio was eleven out of ten during the years working depending on weather predictions.
      One aspect of more certain prediction came when the News Hounds woke up there was a drought and gave it a serve it would so often see drought breaking rains within the week?
      
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      June 5, 2025 9:13am
    - RoboRob
      
      I know someone who (20 years ago) did a study and found that assuming the weather tomorrow would be the same as today gave more accurate results then the forcasts at the time.
      
      I actually think the modern forcasts are pretty accurate. At least around Christchurch.
      
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      June 5, 2025 9:18am
      - Taieri
        
        I actually think the modern forcasts are pretty accurate.
        ———
        
        The ones provided by the Metservice are usually crap. I use windy.com. Far more reliable.
        
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        June 5, 2025 9:51am
    - Graeme Hall
      
      I miss the forecasts for Christchurch from Lincoln lecturer Neill Cherry. You could always guarantee they were wrong.
      
      He also forecast he would live forever.
      
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      June 5, 2025 9:32am
    - Master Mariner
      
      That’s the issue, We really need more Rain radars in NZ for more comprehensive coverage.
      As well as more Tsunami warning Bouys. That’s a story for another day.
      However the real issue is a lack of Meteorologists who can interpret the data.
      
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      June 5, 2025 10:01am
  - RoboRob
    
    100% they should. I biked to work this morning, in Christchurch. The forcast showed rain. Looking outside my excellent weather forcasting device (my eyes) confirmed I might not infact get wet.
    
    To be fair I would have biked regardless, the difference would only have been a rain jacket. Real cyclists bike rain or shine.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:15am
  - alex Masterley
    
    I am a yachtie and I also run sailing events for my yacht club.
    I look at forcasts supplied by various entities, Weatherwatch, Met service, Predict Wind (including it’s live observations) and Met Vuw and then look outside to see what the weather is actually doing.
    
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    June 5, 2025 10:12am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    And yet – looking out of the window, it’s now a bright sunny day; the early dampness has dried out in the light breeze. Really quite a good day to be on the bike, I would say.
    
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    June 5, 2025 11:04am
- cmm
  
  NZ is one of the most challenging places in the world to do weather prediction. People come from all over the world to cut their teeth here and have been for decades.
  
  For those interested in how it works, I recommend watching Weather Watch NZ on Youtube. They go further than normal weather predictions, putting in a lot of effort to explaining how things work.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:35am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Actually mid latitudes are very easy to predict and NZ even more so with very detailed Data via Australia.
    Low Latitudes are more unpredictable to predict.
    The real Blind spots are mid Pacific, Indian Ocean due to lack of information.
    Nothing beats Sailors on the sea for real life updates.
    As you are aware Satelites picks up a lot of missing Data but not all.
    Hence there WX stations still on remote Islands, Ie South Georgia, Gough Island to list a few I have had dealings with but not limited too.
    Weather Watch is great, But the real issue is NIWA do not release Live Data and allow Outsourcing, Hence Weather Watch are always behind the Eightball.
    NZ is predominently in the Roaring Forties weather system and part from seasonal variations is incredibly easy to Forecast.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:48am
  - Allan
    
    The problem with the weather reports of today is that they rely on computer modelling which we know is subject to the GIGO garbage in garbage out principle. Prior to the last manned light house being phased out in NZ in the early 90’s the light house keepers used to send in weather reports of their region. Also Airline Pilots used to report the current wind direction and speed and other information when doing their position reports either trans Tasman or on the Pacific routes. All of the information was correlated by Met Service and pretty accurate weather reports and forecasts were issued. Unfortunately this has been replace by as I said computer modelling and because Meteorology is an inexact science with many variables the end results are not always correct.
    
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    June 5, 2025 10:14am
  - OlderChas
    
    “People come from all over the world to cut their teeth here…..” That would explain the sad lack of Kiwi accents from all their spokespeople over the years!
    
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    June 5, 2025 3:04pm
- rjay
  
  Is it always the same bike?
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:13am
  - Jethrod
    
    The one ridden by the Press Secretary?
    
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    June 5, 2025 1:22pm
- R
  
  Pity that the breathless wind from some quarters of the Wellington Beehive isn’t gone also
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:34am
- lifesgood
  
  The best weather forecasts I have ever heard were from Jennifer Weathercentre on BFM radio. She used to look out the window and say “It looks like a cloudy day with a possibility of rain” and so on. More accurate than any other forecaster.
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:57am
- Biscuit
  
  NMTB, the Greens have just announced their new transport policy for Wellington and, you’ll be astonished, it allows regular vehicular access to the city’s streets!
  
  Costings haven’t yet been worked out, mind:
  
  https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aXP2Gv9_460svav1.mp4
  
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  June 5, 2025 11:02am
- Ra Henare
  
  Back in Siem Reap and the happy/smiling people.
  
  My take on Vietnam is that they are a dour lot. Only smile when they think you about to spend money with them. Thailand, a close second IMHO.
  
  Both observations over the last month.
  Weather is great. a warm 30c this morning, a short rain shower(downpour) in the afternoon will clean the air and drop the temperature
  
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  June 5, 2025 2:56pm
G152

It would appear that the party maori are in for a bit of a week…
And hopefully a month long holiday to sort themselves out
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June 5, 2025 8:20am
- Jethrod
  
  Where is Geŕry going today that needs another Speaker for the day?
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:44am
  - imalwaysright
    
    He might be at the new bar in Parliament.
    Bars, restaurants and cafés around the city are on their financial knees, but Gerry sees an inhouse bar to be a good idea.
    They live in another world.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:31am
Maggy Wassilieff

Is our Education system preparing enough children for a prosperous future?

The education system in New Zealand—and elsewhere—is no longer simply failing our children; it is actively robbing them of their future. The emphasis has shifted away from equipping students with the tools to build the next century, and toward weaponising the past in a way that confuses guilt with knowledge, and conformity with understanding. When a child opens a textbook and learns more about historical blame than biological cells, when they can recite ideologies but not equations, when they are told how to feel rather than taught how to think, then we are not preparing them for the stars. We are chaining them to the soil.

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/06/zoran-rakovic-real-equity-is-found-in.html
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June 5, 2025 8:22am
- cmm
  
  I recently read a very interesting book on the Joe Average people in Nazi-era Germany called “They thought they were free”. It drags a bit in places, but it is enlightening.
  
  One of the things they went through was packing school books with ideology: “If a Jew charges 5% interest on ….”
  
  At least the wee Sig Heilers were still learning some basic maths.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:40am
  - Mike
    
    Nazis – not all that bad?
    
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    June 5, 2025 8:49am
    - Colville
      
      Hugo cut a sharp uniform!
      
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      June 5, 2025 9:05am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Heck, our maths educators can do ideology, mythology, group-think and improbability, no sweat:
    
    https://ncea.education.govt.nz/mathematics-and-statistics/mathematics-and-statistics/1/2/activity-a
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:00am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Jesus, That was an Eye opener.
      
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      June 5, 2025 10:10am
    - Dave
      
      Ah, but this is relevant because it’s NZ.
      
      While it’s important to be able to translate word problems into mathematical solutions, pity the poor ESL learner who faces an extra burden here.
      
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      June 5, 2025 10:21am
    - Master Mariner
      
      This makes more sense.
      
      Lauren – French exam – The Catherine Tate Show – BBC comedy
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1zK8zRCPo
      
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      June 5, 2025 10:23am
    - R
      
      and all at the same time in any subject. Clever aren’t they
      
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      June 5, 2025 10:37am
    - cmm
      
      “Brother 5 slows down over the course of the five days, with output modelled by the equation L = -1.125t2 + 75.75t with L being the total taura produced, and t being the time in hours since weaving first begun.”
      
      I call bullshit. The brothers had no notion of addition, let alone multiplication and squaring.
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:24am
    - John Loveridge
      
      Fucking hell. I can’t wait until my last kid finishes school and gets the hell away from these people.
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:59am
    - rouppe
      
      There’s about 60% fluff that the student has to shift through to find the 40% of useful information required to complete the task.
      
      If you’re trying to teach a skill, you don’t add unnecessary, irrelevant crap to the lesson.
      
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      June 5, 2025 12:16pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Over half way through the 3-year term, and this crap is still in the curriculum?Where the hell is the much-vaunted Erica Stanford?
      
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      June 5, 2025 12:20pm
- Paulus
  
  Started in David Lange’s time with Tomorrow’s Schools, and continued with the feminisation of Education to a large extent, caused in part by the Peter Ellis Case.
  Damage is done and any positive change would take 30 years to correct, but it can never be corrected now.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:08am
  - pdm
    
    Paulus I liked Merv Wellington’s move to have all of New Zealand’s Schools fly the New Zealand Flag.
    
    Bet not many, if any, do these days.
    
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    June 5, 2025 10:17am
    - Paulus
      
      But it would be argued as to what is the New Zealand Flag ?
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:40am
      - kowtow
        
        And therein proof they are winning.
        
        To think John Key played such a big part in that particular battle in the Marxist culture wars.
        
        btw it’s some sort of so called pride week and many schools are involved.
        
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        June 5, 2025 12:24pm
- I remember when
  
  Building the foundations for an effective mana whenua iwi partnership: Breaking Views.
  
  “Maori have a special connection to wai (water) through whakapapa (genealogy), and an obligation as kaitiaki (guardians/stewards) of the water to protect this precious taonga (treasure).”
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:09am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Every human being has a special connection to water through basic cell biology (humans 60-80% water) and daily requirement of 1-3 litres (age/activity/temperature dependent).
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:36am
  - R
    
    I Rem …..sounds like you must be a recent graduate from Tomorrow’s Schools
    
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    June 5, 2025 10:39am
  - Paulus
    
    What a load of Bullshit !
    
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    June 5, 2025 11:40am
  - John Loveridge
    
    What a load of crap. I have a special connection to water myself. I’m made largely of it.
    
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    June 5, 2025 5:19pm
imalwaysright

Instead of banning the Maori MPs for 21 days, they should make them ATTEND for 21 days !!!

They won’t like that…
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June 5, 2025 8:29am
- pdm
  
  That is thinking outside the square ima.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:50am
- Colville
  
  get them to attend until the have made 21 meaningful contributions?
  
  *hell freezes over*
  
  Still waiting…..!!
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:06am
- RoboRob
  
  Make them attend AND cut their pay for 21 days, that would hurt even more!
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:20am
- wisteria
  
  If all other male MPs were to come into Parliament and wear cowboy hats I wonder if Dave would take his off.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:44am
Maggy Wassilieff

Not a maggot.
(surprise, surprise)

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/06/04/mystery-of-dead-larva-found-in-school-lunch-solved/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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June 5, 2025 8:39am
- Mike
  
  The kids will look forward to munching more moth larvae after that reassurance.
  Creative teachers will use the school lunches as helpful teaching tools about biology.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:48am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Indeed, and the parents (and the Labour Party ) can be reassured that our kiddies are receiving pesticide-free, protein-enriched spuds.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:07am
  - Paulus
    
    Anything regularly to denigrate the elected Coalition Government will do for the media whether fact or fiction.
    Not done deliberately by any suppliers, though albeit their staff are Union Members.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:12am
    - Mike
      
      Yes. I for one would be reassured to find the maggot served to me at lunch was only a moth larva.
      
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      June 5, 2025 9:19am
  - I remember when
    
    Practising for the crickets of the future lunches?
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:14am
    - Mike
      
      Or, the Monty Python version:
      
      Inspector: Then we have number four. Number four: Crunchy Frog.
      Mr. Hilton: Yes.
      Inspector: Am I right in thinking there’s a real frog in ‘ere?
      Mr. Hilton: Yes, a little one.
      Inspector: What sort of frog?
      Mr. Hilton: A…a *dead* frog.
      Inspector: Is it cooked?
      Mr. Hilton: No.
      Inspector: What, a RAW frog?!?
      Mr. Hilton: Oh, we use only the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and sealed in a succulent, Swiss, quintuple-smooth, treble-milk chocolate envelope, and lovingly frosted with glucose.
      Inspector: That’s as may be, but it’s still a frog!
      Mr. Hilton: What else?
      Inspector: Well, don’t you even take the bones out?
      Mr. Hilton: If we took the bones out, it wouldn’t be crunchy, would it?
      
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      June 5, 2025 9:34am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “Creative teachers will use the school lunches as helpful teaching tools about biology.”
    
    Two NCEA credits if you correctly identify your lunch.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:18am
    - kowtow
      
      Excellence if you can bag David Seymour .
      
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      June 5, 2025 12:27pm
  - pdm
    
    Good protein.
    
    I heard Ruud Klienpaste tell someone the other day (Monday I think) that you could eat cockroach. Just cut them up small.
    
    8 0
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    June 5, 2025 10:20am
    - Jethrod
      
      Is this the same guy who was bitten by an insect/spider and got terribly infected?
      
      2 1
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      June 5, 2025 1:30pm
      - John Loveridge
        
        The same guy I once had the misfortune to share an airport shuttle with. He was a thoroughly arrogant, difficult prick to the driver. I haven’t been able to stomach him since.
        
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        June 5, 2025 5:21pm
NothingLeft

Won’t surprise anyone; but here from The Economist is the concise economic explanation of why you can’t allow Middle Eastern, North African, Turkish and Pakistani “MENAPT” immigrants (and their descendants) into your country, unless you have carefully selected for high achievers that will integrate: On average they cost the state about $2million to support over a lifetime in Denmark:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsi1JBsasAQd-ZA?format=png&name=small

I knew they were a net drain, but not how bad it was. It really says that Europe, having allowing left to control immigration policy for several decades, is completely screwed, and they simply have to send the MENAPT back from whence they came if they want to have any hope at economic survival. They simply can’t afford not to.
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June 5, 2025 8:46am
- ISeeRed
  
  They cost the state nothing. They cost net taxpayers, the most overlooked and exploited minority.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:07am
- Paulus
  
  Am I right in saying India from whom ware getting many immigrants currently is some 40% Muslim ?
  Does the UN Refugee Programme from whom we get (as given) take our views into consideration ?
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:16am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    About 20% spread across the country.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:29am
  - RalphT
    
    Paulas,
    No, it’s only about 15%, which is still around 200 million. It had the largest number of muslims for a non-Muslim country.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:30am
    - kiwimike
      
      Ralph T
      
      and they get up and kill Hindus regularly and kidnap their young girls for marriage jihad.
      
      5 3
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      June 5, 2025 11:06am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Interesting that when Muslims are 87.6% (248mill)
        they dont kill non Muslims.
        
        Maybe??? Just Maybe??? its a Minority reaction to the majority.
        Think Hamas, think Maori, Think many African Countries.
        
        0 5
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        June 5, 2025 3:11pm
      - Mike
        
        Ra
        It seems far more likely to me that a majority population tends to oppress the minority.
        
        1 3
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        June 5, 2025 3:38pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Muslim population of India is about 15%.
    
    https://www.studyiq.com/articles/muslim-population-in-india/#:~:text=According%20to%20World%20Population%20Review,of%20the%20global%20Muslim%20population.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:47am
  - cmm
    
    I would doubt that 40% of Indian immigrants are Muslim.
    Perhaps you are confusing Sikhs with Muslims because of the turbans?
    
    All the Sikhs I have met in the last year or so tell me they want to work in NZ fort a few years then go back to Punjab to take over family farms.
    
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    June 5, 2025 9:53am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I think immigrant Indians and Sikhs are generally pretty positive for a country. Hard working, value education and get along well with other cultures. Indians integrate, I think Sikhs do too over long term (I’ve known a few lapsed Sikhs). For whatever reason Muslims seem better able to resist integration, perhaps a result of restricting their daughters freedoms heavily and practicing cult-like exclusion or targeting of apostates.
    
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    June 5, 2025 11:22am
    - sirknz
      
      I would much rather have a Sikh temple over a mosque in my town, any day of the week.
      
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      June 5, 2025 4:43pm
- kowtow
  
  nothing left
  
  Wadda ya mean the left and immigration.
  
  Merkel regularised it.
  
  France , allegedly centre right is allowing a flood to cross to UK. Where the Conservatives did nothing , and that’s why they got smacked and Reform will win the next GE there .
  
  The Dutch , so called right govt has just collapsed because Geert W says they aren’t doing enough.
  
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  June 5, 2025 12:31pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    The left have controlled Europe for decades through their ownership of govt bureaucracy, ‘the blob’ that are the true power of the land, particularly in their control of the judiciary that sabotages any efforts to correct course, but also the vast array of NGOs dedicated to spending taxpayers money on their hobby horses. Conservative minded politicians have been mostly powerless against that.
    
    The pain of the inevitable reckoning when sopping wet empathy-uber-alles feelz gets punched in the face by brutal fiscal and social break down realities is going to be immense. The ‘nice’ welfare net we have all become accustomed to enjoying will fail, altruism and trust will collapse, crime will skyrocket and everybody will get hard nosed and mean.
    
    Although with AGI on the scene in a year or two all prognostication fails.
    
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    June 5, 2025 1:12pm
- pb
  
  Ever since the Dutchman William III and his monied backers invaded England and killed the king, England and Europe has been dominated by a mercantile ruling class, wh0m hate the native populations. Brexit was the beginning of a fightback against the Euro-weeny invaders, and the monied class didna like it.
  
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  June 5, 2025 8:56pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Are you confusing William of Orange with William of Normandy? William of Orange’s 1688 invasion was unopposed, and the incumbent British monarch (James 2nd/7th) wasn’t killed – he fled.
    
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    June 6, 2025 12:40pm
    - pb
      
      William III was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 4 November 1650. Baptised William Henry.
      
      His invasion was sponsored by…
      
      Francisco Lopez Suasso, funny surname Jew. Gave 2 million guilders and recorded in history: “If His Highness succeeds, I know he will repay me; if he fails, I am prepared to lose the money.”
      
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      June 6, 2025 5:43pm
gravedodger

And the fragile little grub managed to get to school lunch status undamaged by what at my kitchen would have been a rather potentially destructive process?
Pealing, slicing, mashing, serving and not a hair on its head or body damaged, give me a break Occam’s Razor suggests a careful placement for discovery before being “Partially Eaten”, surely?
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June 5, 2025 8:51am
- Cassandra
  
  Although I did once find an entire cooked cockroach in a takeaway curry. Needless to say that particular outlet is no longer used by us. Indeed takeaway curry has become very rare in my house.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:01am
- Local Miller
  
  This bothered me as well. How did that caterpillar make it through the potatoes being mashed, without being damaged in any way? While not impossible I would think it’s very improbable.
  Unless of course it’s not mashed potatoes, just chopped.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:35am
  - Groggy
    
    For $3 per meal they won’t be using real potatoes, too much labour cost to prep them. they will be reconstituting dehydrated mash
    
    6 2
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    June 5, 2025 12:20pm
mandk

I see Auckland Uni has been ordered to pay Siouxsie Wiles $205k for failing to protect her from threats and harassment.

Is this the same Siouxsie Wiles who campaigned to cancel a fellow Auckland Uni academic for daring to say that matauranga Māori (i.e. folk wisdom) is not science?
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June 5, 2025 8:54am
- Cassandra
  
  It’s bizarre. Wiles set herself up as an extremist and then, as happens, people who disagreed with her took to the ether. And apparently it’s her employer’s fault. Weird.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:04am
  - I remember when
    
    The surname says it all!
    
    13 4
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    June 5, 2025 9:17am
    - cmm
      
      The pink hair says even more:
      Look at Meeeeee!
      
      24 3
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      June 5, 2025 9:39am
    - Taieri
      
      The surname says it all!
      ———
      
      Did you mean the first name?
      
      11 1
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      June 5, 2025 9:48am
  - R
    
    Activist Judges!
    
    11 1
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    June 5, 2025 10:44am
- Cassandra
  
  She set herself up as a “character”. Strange name, far, weird hair, weird views. There are people out there who will abuse that sort of thing. How do you stop it? Can you stop it? If it had been Susan Wiles, dressing normally, natural hair, speaking in measured tones she’d have a cross well. Very little abuse.
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:07am
  - riffer
    
    So, let me get this straight. Due to her name, hair colour and views she was deserving of doxxing, rape and death threats.
    
    Way to support your fellow woman, Cassandra.
    
    4 28
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    June 5, 2025 10:44am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      At no point did Cassandra state that Assoc. Prof. Wiles deserved any abuse.
      
      Cassandra was merely making the observation that some folks are triggered by weird names, weird hair.
      
      There are people out there who will abuse that sort of thing.
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:19am
      - Mike
        
        Nice hair splitting.
        From the same school as: “Well, look how she was dressed”
        
        4 19
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        June 5, 2025 11:29am
      - Jack5
        
        Riffer’s use of Troll Tool No. 2:
        Extend a person’s argument, then ridicule the extension.
        
        13 4
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        June 5, 2025 11:49am
      - Cassandra
        
        Mike: nonsense. Read what I wrote. Use your block for a change.
        
        14 2
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        June 5, 2025 12:08pm
    - Cassandra
      
      No, I didn’t say or mean that. But I have learned that there are people out there who are nasty and the way to avoid that distraction is to stop making yourself a target. And how is an employer supposed to stop weirdos attacking another weirdo?
      
      17 4
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      June 5, 2025 12:07pm
      - Ghost
        
        No one should have to change who they are so that some unhinged people don’t abuse them.
        
        2 6
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        June 5, 2025 12:54pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      But you didn’t “get this straight”‘ riffer.
      
      5 3
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      June 5, 2025 12:43pm
  - Cassandra
    
    I’ve just noticed a typo. Far should be fat.
    
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    June 5, 2025 12:04pm
- Burtland
  
  Wiles was interviewed on RNZ this morning
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/563136/siouxsie-wiles-absolutely-delighted-by-employment-court-ruling
  
  she spent over 600k on legal fees – not the sharpest tool in the shed
  
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  June 5, 2025 9:29am
  - pdm
    
    Burt she is lucky to have 600k to squander.
    
    Well I suppose 400k net to squander.
    
    12 1
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    June 5, 2025 10:26am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Who paid the fees ?
    She was part of group that got at least 6 mil dollars to denounce anti vaxers and model for Covid along with the prize clown Hendy.
    
    8 1
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    June 5, 2025 1:27pm
- pdm
  
  The same Siouxsie Wiles who apparently went swimming a couple of kilometres from home, with a friend from another suburb during Covid lockdowns.
  
  Without any consequences. So one of the favoured ones.
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:24am
  - mandk
    
    Ardern thought she deserved some kindness.
    
    9 0
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    June 5, 2025 10:50am
    - kowtow
      
      Ashley also publicly opined it wasn’t “swimming” by the companion. IIRC.
      
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      June 5, 2025 12:36pm
      - Master Mariner
        
        Yeah he’s another one I would love to do a “Book Tour”, Rest assured I will be there .
        
        4 1
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        June 5, 2025 1:28pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Not a lot of reflective surfaces at Siouxsie’s place, it seems.
  
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  June 5, 2025 12:25pm
sungsamning

he net-zero zealots want to force a worldwide renewable energy transition. But they don’t always get their way. Their fanciful projects have been blocked more than 1,000 times globally. In a world seemingly gone mad, this is welcome news.

“The total number of alt-energy rejections or restrictions now exceeds 1,000 — it’s 1,011 to be exact,” says energy author Robert Bryce, who operates a database that shows 814 U.S rejections of solar, wind and battery projects. Add those to others across the world and the total exceeds a grand.
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June 5, 2025 9:04am
sungsamning

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/5326891-rubio-visa-policy-censorship/
Marco Rubio declares war on the global censors.
On May 28, 2025, Rubio shocked many of our allies by issuing a new visa restriction policy that bars foreign nationals deemed “responsible for censorship of protected expression” in the U.S.

The new policy follows a major address by Vice President J.D. Vance in Munich challenging our European allies to end their systematic attacks on free speech. Vance declared, “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you. Nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people that elected me and elected President Trump.”
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June 5, 2025 9:04am
- Northshoredoc
  
  The hypocrisy is astonishing.
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:38am
  - Master Mariner
    
    I’m lost there, Please explain why ?
    
    4 1
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    June 5, 2025 1:29pm
    - Mike
      
      The US is attempting to deport people for exercising free speech rights. Vance et al only want free speech with which they agree.
      
      2 6
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      June 5, 2025 1:53pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Me too. And I won’t bother answering.
      
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      June 5, 2025 3:41pm
NothingLeft

The regressive triumvirate of Police, UK judiciary and crown prosecution, having become entirely decoupled from mainstream norms due to left wing capture, have decided to re-institute blasphemy laws in UK, but only for Islam:

From the (left wing) Independent in UK: “Hamit Coskun – a 50-year-old of Armenian and Kurdish descent who was born and raised in Turkey, and whose family have suffered persecution at the hands of Islamists – was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence.

He was fined £240 after he held the flaming book (the Quran) aloft outside the Turkish consulate in Knightsbridge while shouting “Islam is religion of terrorism” and “F*** Islam”. His one-man protest wound up when he was himself assaulted by a passerby.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/blasphemy-laws-burn-quran-hamit-coskun-b2762598.html#:~:text=Blasphemy%20laws%20in%20England%20and,the%20greater%20exercising%20of%20it.

What this (Muslim) story writer doesn’t tell you is that the Quran was being burnt silently in protest, until the ‘passer by’ Muslim stabbed him with a knife, and another joined in and started beating him, prompting his quite reasonable in the context comments.
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June 5, 2025 9:09am
- Scott
  
  NothingLeft – yes it seems that a state of semi sharia is in force in the UK. You cannot criticise Islam, you cannot burn a Koran and you cannot draw a picture of Mohammad. If you do you can be imprisoned or fined and the emphasis and blame will be on you rather than anyone who attacks you.
  
  The reason for this is that the authorities are afraid of Muslim violence and in their hearts want to appease Muslims.
  
  Now I don’t recommend burning a bible or shouting abuse at Christians. Drawing a picture of Jesus is generally fine.
  But no court in the UK will convict you of any crime if you do any of those things. Indeed it’s generally the Christian preachers who are targetted by the police.
  
  How long the British people will stand for this two tier system of justice is anyone’s guess?
  
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  June 5, 2025 11:42am
  - Mike
    
    Are you aware of an outbreak of Bible burning going unpunished?
    
    3 13
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    June 5, 2025 11:50am
    - Scott
      
      Mikey – I don’t know of a case where burning a bible has got someone arrested?
      Burning a Koran as we saw in this case in the UK, will get you arrested and convicted and fined.
      
      6 2
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      June 5, 2025 2:18pm
      - Mike
        
        It’s good that no one is burning bibles, isn’t it?
        
        3 1
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        June 5, 2025 2:53pm
- kowtow
  
  Could it also be due to unintended consequences of how laws are worded .
  
  This perhaps should go back to parliament.
  
  But of course won’t.
  
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  June 5, 2025 12:40pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    It’s due to activist-left wing capture of judicial appointment process a few decades back (after Blair govt changed system). The bench has now been warped sufficiently that it feels enabled to remake governance as it sees fit.
    
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    June 5, 2025 2:14pm
I remember when

Ngati Whatua Orakei tells iwi wanting to invest to ‘come through the front door’: Breaking Views.
“But Ngati Whatua Orakei Trust deputy chairman Ngarimu Blair said it was disappointing to see iwi based outside of Auckland investing in the city without meeting with them first.”

Who needs an RMA?
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June 5, 2025 9:23am
- Handyman
  
  Do you mean Ngarimu Corleone?
  
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  June 5, 2025 11:11am
  - AitchW
    
    I know some people. Kapai people!
    
    4 1
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    June 5, 2025 11:50am
Taieri

A vehicle carrier MV Morning Midas carrying 800 EVs has been abandoned by her crew about 300 Nm off the coast of Alaska due to the fire in the section of the vessel containing electric vehicles.

Looks like a real Midas’ Touch. An EV for anyone?
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June 5, 2025 9:44am
- AitchW
  
  19 years old. Liberian registered….
  
  7 1
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  June 5, 2025 10:35am
- cmm
  
  How the hell can these things be moved safely?
  
  There is absolutely no way to use normal fire suppression systems on EVs.
  
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  June 5, 2025 10:44am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Just need high capacity water sprinklers to spray hell out of any car that catches alight and prevent fire from propagating. A few hundred tonnes of fresh water backed up by seawater if run out or it starts to get away on you. Really not hard to do or significantly more expensive given these ships probably cost several 10k’s per car space, but does need to be built-in/upgraded on existing ROROs.
    
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    June 5, 2025 11:19am
    - AitchW
      
      As soon as the car dries out it’ll catch fire again. EV battery fires are incredibly hot, and almost impossible to extinguish.
      This article is illuminating. Check out the submerge section..
      https://www.evfiresafe.com/ev-fire-suppression-methods
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:46am
      - cmm
        
        It doesn’t even need to dry out.
        
        1 0
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        June 5, 2025 12:58pm
    - Taieri
      
      A few hundred tonnes of fresh water backed up by seawater if run out
      ——-
      
      No can do. Due to the free surface effect in the cargo spaces.
      
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      June 5, 2025 11:51am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Bilge pumps are hardly new tech.
        
        1 0
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        June 5, 2025 1:15pm
      - Taieri
        
        Bilge pumps are hardly new tech.
        ————
        
        I suspect that you haven’t been onboard a ship.
        
        2 0
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        June 5, 2025 2:19pm
    - kowtow
      
      I thought it was basic seamanship to keep water out of the hull .
      
      Where’s Archimedes when you need him.
      
      4 0
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      June 5, 2025 12:42pm
    - cmm
      
      Normal vehicle fire suppression is easy – just flood the compartment with CO2. No more oxygen. Fire goes not.
      
      Fire needs three things: fuel, oxidizer and heat. Take any of those away and the fire stops.
      
      But EVs don’t burn like that. As the battery cathode material decomposes in heat it releases oxygen so the fire is self sustaining.
      
      The battery provides everything needed to sustain a fire: the fuel, the oxygen and the heat.
      
      This is far more like burning gunpowder than a normal fire. Gunpowder does not need oxygen to burn.
      
      Perhaps your suggestion of intense spraying capabilities at each parking bay could work to prevent the spread of fire from vehicle to vehicle, but that would need intense spray systems that could spray the top, sides and undersides of each vehicle.
      
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      June 5, 2025 12:49pm
      - Taieri
        
        Fire needs three things: fuel, oxidizer and heat
        ———-
        
        Fire requires fuel, oxygen and a source of ignition.
        Fire is the rapid oxidization of a material and being an exothermic process emits heat.
        
        2 0
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        June 5, 2025 1:09pm
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      The free surface effect on the upper decks would be horrendous. The ship would capsize.
      
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      June 5, 2025 1:04pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    They cant, Hence the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) code classifies them as Dangerous Goods( lithium batteries).
    
    Ferry operators have banned them in Norway.
    
    Just to think we nearly ended up with Batteries in the (New) Ferries ?
    
    BYD , The Biggest EV Maker now builds its own Car Carriers outside of Rules and regulations ( Coming).
    
    Got to give it too the Chinese, They sure understand supply chains.
    
    4 1
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    June 5, 2025 11:37am
  - sungsamning
    
    The fire will soon go out when it sinks.
    
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    June 5, 2025 3:43pm
- Master Mariner
  
  https://gcaptain.com/photos-car-carrier-morning-midas-catches-fire-with-electric-vehicles-off-alaska/
  
  “All 22 crew members successfully evacuated the vessel via life raft and were rescued by the M/V Cosco Hellas, one of the responding good Samaritan vessels. No injuries were reported.”
  
  The first course of action after not putting the Fire out is to Evacuate.
  Therein lies the issue of carrying EV’s.
  
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  June 5, 2025 11:41am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yep, it’s happening again.
  
  I wonder what the plan when a Cook Strait ferry catches fire.
  
  WorkSafe should be all over this like a batch of boils.
  
  4 0
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  June 5, 2025 12:38pm
Ghost

I wonder if labour will back down or continue to fight against it

More than half of voters consider the proposed penalty for three Te Pāti Māori MPs over the Treaty Principles haka to be either appropriate or too lenient, polling shows, ahead of the debate on the matter resuming on Thursday afternoon.

Article
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June 5, 2025 10:38am
- kiwimike
  
  too lenient by far.
  
  This is our Parliament, the highest Court in the Land.
  If they won’t engage with the privileges committee then suspend them on no pay until they do.
  
  Their constituency is ………..
  
  not Maori just activist Maori so is that even 1% of the country’s voters?
  
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  June 5, 2025 1:50pm
Sparrow

Firstly I admit I think the honours system is a whole load of shit, and was living in OZ when Ruth Richardson produced her ” Mother of all Budgets” and am politically naive. I came across an article by Max Rushbrooke who I guess would not be popular on this site complaining about Richardson being made a Dame. Frankly had no interest in the story but as having been in OZ knew little about Richardson. So did some research. Came across a society called “Mont Pelerin” which Richardson was a member of. Wow it opened my eyes about the power brokers in the background. Nodoubt there are many more societies which most of us are unaware of from both the right and left. Maybe it’s best to be ignorant.
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June 5, 2025 11:08am
- Cassandra
  
  No. Best to get oneself informed. Mont Pelegrín has been around for donkeys’.
  
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  June 5, 2025 12:12pm
- MCōs
  
  Ruth Richardson is a CNZM which is a level below a Dame. Her successor as Minister of Finance, Bill Birch is a GNZM, two levels above.
  It’s been more than thirty years since she left parliament. Took a while for the honour to come through.
  
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  June 5, 2025 1:18pm
cmm

“Kiwi woman” poses as a psychiatrist in the UK and is now behind bars for the nth time.

Born in Iran in 1967, arrived in NZ in 1986 (aged 9). She spent 9 years in NZ before heading off to UK with fake qualifications where she has spent 27 years in UK – many of those behind bars for various crimes.

Apparently living in NZ for 9 out of her 58 years makes her a Kiwi Woman.

I suppose, like GG, it’s the PTSD that made her do it.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360712651/fake-doctor-who-used-forged-auckland-uni-degree-ordered-pay-nhs-back-or-stay-jail
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June 5, 2025 11:16am
bennerg

The NZ Herald reports:

Two young men smuggled ATM card-skimming gear into the country concealed in household goods, including air fryers. They then stole more than $60,000 by targeting ATMs and parking machines, including at a hospital.

The pair were sentenced to community and home detention after Customs detected their crimes after intercepting a package in April 2023.

The reality of the sentence is that for the crime of stealing $60,000, plus all the incovenience caused to the victims, and the operators of said machines, these two scumbags get a 6 to 12 month holiday at home, on some welfare to survive of course, where they can hang out, binge watch netflix, order in Uber Eats, and chat with their mates (or matesses) online if they can’t actually come around and party.

No deterrrent or punishment of any signficance.

At least they should have a ban on internet access, no outside visits apart from family living in the same house, no alcohol or fast food deliveries, and a requirement to repay all money + costs of the inconvenience once they get back into employment.

But methinks 2 years hard labour somewhere around Waiouru would be a far better deterrent for them or anyone else contemplating such a career.
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June 5, 2025 11:24am
- bennerg
  
  Further to my last post regarding the card scammers, I realised that although these were 21 year olds (ie adults), their names were not published by the NZ Herald. Actually there were identical articles in Stuff and 1News. Scoop was the same but had been reworked slightly. Still no names in any publication.
  
  RNZ did their own article but about card skimming, not about the sentencing.
  
  So teh majority of our major News outlets are not editing these items, obviously just copying and pasting press releases given to them.
  
  A little more research shows that in 2023 a 40 yr old was sentenced to 25 months in prison for the same crime.
  
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  June 5, 2025 12:34pm
  - kowtow
    
    Very poor journalism . They should state why names aren’t given . As that then leads to un necessary speculation and a further decline in trust in an already untrusted media.
    
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    June 5, 2025 12:52pm
- cmm
  
  This is pretty sophisticated offending. It really should be considered organised crime and treated as such.
  
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  June 5, 2025 12:57pm
MCōs

We have water meters in Auckland, which make people watch what they use and fix leaks
Down our street the water main has been replaced and we’ve all been issued with new smart meters so now we can use a app to read the meter without getting out of bed
Plus
It notifies you if there is a leak around the property
A great big Samoan bloke covered in tats gave me the lowdown yesterday while he was standing in a big hole outside our house.
He also told me they’re heading off to Sandringham Rd next. If you live down there expect months of disruption and a ton of road cones.
I told the guy I was going to grizzle to the road cone hot line. He laughed and said he was too!
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June 5, 2025 12:43pm
rouppe

Headline in the Herald about a “grid-scale battery” being built at Huntly.

Genesis Energy has started building a $150 million grid-scale battery on its Huntly Power Station site, which it says will be able to power 60,000 households.

Construction of the 100-megawatt (MW) battery started today at a ceremony… blah blah blah

Little bit farther down…

The battery will have a storage capacity of 200 megawatt hours (MWh), enough to power around 60,000 average households for two hours during winter, Genesis says.

Two hours. What a joke.

You can get a decent portable generator for $1500. $150M can buy 100,000 generators that can power 100,000 homes a heck of a lot longer than 2 hours.
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June 5, 2025 12:49pm
- Ghost
  
  2 hours seems to be the benchmark….. an incredible waste of time and money
  
  Meridian opens $186m battery farm to boost Northland’s energy resilience
  
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  June 5, 2025 1:21pm
- Handyman
  
  The clue is the word “homes” ie voters/customers.
  The purpose is not to provide power backup in a widespread power shortage; it is to smooth over blips due to weather dependent generation from wind or solar.
  
  Secondly it is not two hours. The actual business case for batteries is to make money trading in the electricity spot market. The batteries will always be between 40 and 80% charged, ready to buy cheap daytime solar and discharge at peak times.
  In a real time outage scenario, the company will have the choice to sell the battery power at 10 times normal rate or supply “60,000 homes” at zero profit.
  
  Thirdly, no one (reporters or RMA authority) asks the question: How will you dispose of the enormous chemical waste when the batteries are end of life?
  
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  June 5, 2025 1:56pm
- MCōs
  
  The power from the batteries is used to top up the supply of electricity on a particularly cold night, for example, for a short period when the usual supply can’t cope.
  The next day when normal generator exceeds demand the surplus is used to replenish the batteries.
  It would be a catastrophic situation if all other power sources were knocked out and 60,000 houses only had some batteries to rely on.
  
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  June 5, 2025 2:21pm
cmm

To me the only real take away from this poll is that TPM support has almost doubled.

Clearly their rabble rousing is working and resonates with the extreme racist activist radicals they are targeting.

That 5%-odd of voters (around a quarter of Maori) give TPM the thumbs up is rather alarming – especially given that Maori are out breeding others leading to a future where that 5% will grow.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360712325/two-polls-two-different-outcomes-which-one-right
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June 5, 2025 12:52pm
- Mike
  
  Rather than finding it alarming, perhaps you could consider that the supporters represent a genuine strand of Māori dissatisfaction with their position.
  
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  June 5, 2025 1:20pm
  - kiwimike
    
    Genuine ?
    
    I laughed my socks off at that one Milky
    
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    June 5, 2025 1:55pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    I wonder if any of them are net tax payers?
    
    Te Parasitical Moochers
    
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    June 5, 2025 2:21pm
    - Mike
      
      Net taxpayers is a nonsensical concept.
      
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      June 5, 2025 2:51pm
      - mandk
        
        On the contrary; it’s perfectly sensible.
        
        A net taxpayer is someone who pays more in tax than they receive in transfer payments.
        
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        June 5, 2025 4:24pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        So is a cop/teacher/soldier salary a transfer payment?
        
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        June 5, 2025 4:38pm
      - mandk
        
        @ Ian Boag
        
        No, a salary is income from employment.
        
        A transfer is a payment that is not for employment, e.g. it is a benefit, pension, or for some other reason.
        
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        June 5, 2025 4:46pm
- Quail
  
  Without MMP and the archaic ethnic seats ,TPM (and the Greens ) had absolutely no hope of getting seats in Parliament,
  MMP is destroying democracy!
  
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  June 5, 2025 5:09pm
Keith White

Everything that is free is paid for by those who produce more than they consume.

The Govt is worse than the Mafia. When you pay the Mafia for protection under threat, you get the protection you were extorted for. When the Govt takes your money under threat, you still don’t get protection from other thieves.
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June 5, 2025 1:16pm
Bridgenag

Big Food Fights
Food manufacturers lose the first round.

“Despite the setbacks in Georgia and North Dakota, states are taking the Make America Healthy Again initiatives out of DC and converting those policies into law. Model legislation is being shared between states and the outlook is good for some real change.
With each state that passes such legislation, it will be harder for big food companies to continue adding harmful chemicals to our foods.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/big-food-fights?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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June 5, 2025 1:24pm
- Mike
  
  The MAHA crowd wasn’t helped by fruit loop RFK Jr producing a ream of AI-generated bullshit:
  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/29/rfk-jr-maha-health-report-studies
  
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  June 5, 2025 1:35pm
- sungsamning
  
  Really good news. Its good to see a Kennedy making real contributions to daily life. I’m sure his uncle, and father would be proud.
  
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  June 5, 2025 3:52pm
kiwimike

When they prosecute those who didn’t tell the taxpayer about all the shit in the vaccines.
Then I’ll believe Rfk and others.

I want to see arrests both here and in other countries.
you can start with Jacinda Ardern, Chippy and Dr Ashley Bloomfield here…..

and get around to those at MOH who are hiding and obfusecating the Vaccine Injuries and Injured.

wouldn’t mind a list of all those Coerced (chippy) out of their careers and those who got an exemption..
Just saying Mr Luxon & Mr Brown
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June 5, 2025 2:00pm
Sparrow

The saying “There’s knought as funny as folk” is so true. Live in a fairly conservative community in
Northland. Spoke to local bookshop owner asked about the Book. He has been totally surprised sold the lot has to reorder. Dont know the numbers could only be a handful. He won’t like me be reading it soon.
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June 5, 2025 2:13pm
- mandk
  
  Let’s not be PC here.
  The saying is actually: “there’s nowt so queer as folk”.
  
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  June 5, 2025 4:23pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

I see that per The Press (which I won’t link to), Shirley Boys High will spend $800k from their reserves to convert their 2019-built open plan classrooms to the more traditional model.

Apparently, the noise from one end of the room was too distracting at the other end. Just as predicted by everyone, except the MinEd apparatchiks in love with some teaching theory or other.

Will any heads roll at MinEd? They damn well should.
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June 5, 2025 3:01pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  It will be years before our open-plan classrooms disappear, I fear.
  
  https://www.smh.com.au/education/noise-chaos-and-disengagement-i-was-wrong-about-open-plan-classrooms-20231205-p5ep8y.html
  
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  June 5, 2025 3:57pm
  - Mike
    
    One of Hekia Parata’s fads.
    
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    June 5, 2025 4:00pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      They’ve been around since the 1980s at least in NZ.
      
      Here’s Helen opening the Decile-1 open-plan Porirua College
      
      https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-post-1022/20080509/281530811756520?srsltid=AfmBOorqTSOjqPDfV68gOjYKafBqlOs-61f9aE4FacE5WpS50aAw1V9T
      
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      June 5, 2025 4:41pm
    - greybeard
      
      You are showing your age.
      
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      June 5, 2025 6:53pm
Ghost

An investigation needs to take place. The cover up from the media also needs to be examined.

US President Donald Trump today directed his administration to investigate Joe Biden’s actions as president, alleging aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline” and cast doubts on the legitimacy of his use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents.

Article
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June 5, 2025 4:57pm
Ghost

RNZ have an interesting photo in their live thread of the protests outside parliament

I have to keep reminding myself what this protest is about when I look at that photo….

Can someone count how many Māori flags are being flown…..
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June 5, 2025 6:11pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I walked past that demo. A couple of hundred protesters making a racket. I assume that it’s about Gaza, although the issue before the House concerns the parliamentary haka episode.
  
  Perhaps the protesters are confused – the Gaza demo was Wednesday.
  
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  June 5, 2025 6:56pm