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June 22, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 June 2025

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

Nothing sums up the selfishness of cyclists more than this:

In Auckland, buses will have six seats removed so that up to two bikes may be carried. If no bikes are present then up to nine passengers can stand instead.

So, passengers will have to stand, just on the off chance that cyclists can’t be bothered riding home.

And, did I mention, the cyclists do not pay to have their bikes carted around.

Truly, a “let them eat cake” moment.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/564415/auckland-buses-to-get-bike-racks-so-cyclists-can-travel-across-harbour-bridge
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June 22, 2025 8:10am
- mike
  
  Why can’t they have fold up seats, as for wheelchair spaces, so the seats can be used when there are no bikes being carried?
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:21am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    The reporter omits to discuss this point. Perhaps the bike rack gubbins gets in the way of folding seats.
    
    No word either on the effect on timekeeping by the delays occasioned by getting bikes off & on the bus. Imagine the inconvenience on a crowded bus – “make way for my bike”!
    
    In Wellington, the bus planners are removing bus stops in order to speed up and regulate timetable-keeping. Bike racks of this (or any) type will torpedo this goal.
    
    In other words, cyclists taking advantage of these racks will inconvenience every other bus user.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:51am
    - R
      
      inconvenienc every other bus user…….and as usual; every motorist trying to get to work on time to be productive for the day
      
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      June 22, 2025 10:00am
      - kowtow
        
        Inconvenience , massive cost, impracticality etc matters not in this anti car jihad to save the planet !
        
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        June 22, 2025 11:08am
    - mike
      
      Your same argument pretty much applies for wheelchairs, prams etc. If you’re on a bus and funding about it accommodating different users, then perhaps public transport is not for you.
      
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      June 22, 2025 10:40am
      - Michael Johnston
        
        I think that’s a false equivalence. Some people need wheelchairs. Parents with small children need prams and pushchairs. Cycling is optional. It’s an option that far more money per road user has been used to support than any other, going by Wellington’s little-used and monumentally expensive bike lanes.
        
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        June 22, 2025 10:48am
      - Eastlander
        
        Wheelchairs are needed in order to live with a physical disability. Bicycles are merely wanted because of an underlying intellectual disability.
        
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        June 22, 2025 11:41am
      - rouppe
        
        Nah. If a cyclist had a bike, bloody use it.
        
        Next problem, you have no idea whether they’re is room for your bike until you get on. What happens then?
        
        Back in the day there was a rack on the front of the bus. Rack full, bad luck, wait for the next one. This method will cause chaos.
        
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        June 22, 2025 12:29pm
      - mandk
        
        @ rouppe
        
        Wellington buses had those racks installed on the front of buses at great expense and, in all the years the racks were there, I recall only seeing them being used three times.
        
        Another expensive gesture.
        
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        June 22, 2025 1:48pm
      - greybeard
        
        Sorry Rouppe: hit “report” in error. Your point is valid.
        
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        June 22, 2025 3:58pm
  - Taieri
    
    Why Auckland buses can’t have bike racks in front, the same way as buses in other places?
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:38am
    - mandk
      
      Because they’re not needed and will rarely be used.
      
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      June 22, 2025 1:52pm
      - Taieri
        
        Down here they are being used quite often.
        
        BTW: I can’t understand this obsession with anti-cycling. It’s not an alternative to driving as far as I’m concerned but it’s a very pleasant and healthy activity and I do it as often as I can. But it seems there’s plenty of equal fanaticism on both sides, drivers and cyclists. Why not live and let live?
        
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        June 22, 2025 4:09pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    Why can’t cyclists just cycle? What next, a berth for smart cars for drives too drunk to drive home?
    
    There is no point selling the virtues of cycling in all weather, if cyclists wimp out when it is wet.
    
    It is rather like campaigning for EVs but demanding council pay for tow vehicles and mobile EV chargers on the back of petrol powered utes, because an EV ran out of charge.
    
    Mind you, if Christchurch is any example, the buses are empty most of the time, so at least they will be used by cyclists. But maybe that was the plan all along.
    
    Buses are now cycle carriers.
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:21am
- sirknz
  
  Now bus users can hate cyclists, almost as much as car users do.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:59am
- OlderChas
  
  I can just see passengers standing while M.A.M.I.Ls lounge in the seats next to their precious 5 thousand dollar bikes.
  
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  June 22, 2025 11:04am
- imalwaysright
  
  Can they make a space for my car in case I can’t be arsed driving it?
  
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  June 22, 2025 11:12am
- AitchW
  
  Is it the selfishness of cyclists or the ideology of AT? I predict that these racks will very rarely be used and quietly disappear within 12 months.
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:50pm
  - R
    
    AT ideology I suspect. The entire management of AT seem to live in some form of ideological, environmental fantasy land
    
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    June 22, 2025 1:26pm
    - Paulus
      
      But who voted for the Councillors who in turn allow the Council CEO to do whatever the lobby groups want
      After all the Councillors, and Mayor, only have one vote and the decisions are made by the executive, and to be whitewashed by the elected Councillors.
      
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      June 22, 2025 2:19pm
      - greybeard
        
        Paulus, get real, the CEO and Group Managers and special interest employees are far more powerful than all the councillors. Councillors and mayors come and go: the embedded movers and shakers stay on for decades, on the ratepayers’ tit.
        
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        June 22, 2025 6:05pm
    - AitchW
      
      Clearly spending millions to build cycle ways isn’t enough, now they have to spend tens, if not hundreds, of thousands for bike racks which will very rarely be used.
      
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      June 22, 2025 2:25pm
- SoloView
  
  personally I don’t like the idea.
  
  However – let’s keep it in perspective.
  It’s for a small number of services crossing the Harbour Bridge. (as the Stuff headline says)
  i.e. 15 buses total (a 3rd of the 45 buses used on this route)
  
  The obscuring of headlights on these buses was a reason for going inside with bikes rather than outside.
  
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  June 22, 2025 1:37pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  It would be good to get some solid data on what percentage of NZers do currently actually cycle to work on a daily basis.
  
  I’m pretty sure this is all woke “nudge” wankery again being pushed by an unrepresentative self-righteous minority trying to “encourage” the great majority to start cycling.
  
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  June 23, 2025 8:32pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/360726229/unbelievable-tiny-towns-incredible-transformation-after-new-highway-opens
If Woodville needs a bike rack there is a new one, virtually unused , on the Terrace in Wellington.
They could easily get it for cost price, about $500k.
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June 22, 2025 8:12am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Woodville is going to get pretty sick, pretty quick of the trucks thundering down their Main Street, disturbing the al fresco diners. They’ll be regretting their entreaties to keep SH2 running through town, and will be petitioning for a bypass.
  
  I give it about a year.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:18am
  - Fender
    
    Where did the trucks go before? Nothing has changed at all
    Tirau would make more sense but kill the town dead
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:19am
- igm
  
  Do not believe all you read in “Stuff” publications . . . they have a propensity to exaggerate and lie!
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:20am
- G152
  
  And one at the railway station in Frankton Hamilton almost new
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:55am
- lastmanstanding
  
  The Mullahs have long declared their intention is to wipe Israel off the map. If they are allowed to develop Nukes do you really think they wont use them.
  If so I have a bridge to sell you.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:06am
  - igm
    
    Maybe the mullahs will get wiped off the map, or have they hacked a track already?
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:15am
    - mandk
      
      Wiping the mullahs off the map would be a great service to mankind.
      
      Islam is the greatest pestilence ever to befall the world.
      
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      June 22, 2025 1:56pm
    - Paulus
      
      Mullahs already gone with their families and wealth, in the first 4 planes leaving Teheran airport when it was so called closed to flights.
      
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      June 22, 2025 2:21pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    First, the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea all have nuclear weapons, yet none of them have ever used them (except the United States of course, while Israel has a declared policy called the Samson Option of using theirs – officially undeclared, so no non-proliferation commitments – if ever “existentially threatened”). In other words, the record and the rhetoric shows it is the US and Israel that are the two states most likely to use their nukes.
    
    Second, the Israelis have claimed Iran want to destroy them, while also claiming that Iran is weeks or months away from acquiring nuclear weapons, for the last 30 years. I’m looking at recent events and rightfully concluding that it is Israel who want to destroy Iran, while there is no evidence indicating that it is the other way around.
    
    The first point shows that having nuclear weapons does not guarantee their use, and the second point shows that nobody should believe anything the Israelis ever claim about an alleged Iranian nuclear program.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:31am
    - Don Beckett
      
      You must have your ear plugs in when TV reports are shown of the Mullahs threatening ” Death to the Small Satan ( Israel), then death to the Great Satan ( USA)” – which is the reason they want a nuke.
      
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      June 22, 2025 11:27am
      - Wandering Star
        
        So they have to bomb Iran because something the Iranians said was offensive? Besides, do you speak Persian? How do you know what they said?
        
        I’m sick of the justification for extreme violence being the alleged threat of hypothetical violence, based only on the say so of those who are committing the violence. If you support this, fine, but the transparent manipulation of the facts obvious.
        
        There is an important distinction between pre-emptive war (based on an imminent threat), and preventative war (based on a hypothetical future threat). Even if Israel is taken at its word, because it was only recently confirmed and acknowledged that, despite Israeli rhetoric (unchanged for decades) Iran does not have nuclear weapons, these strikes are not pre-emptive but preventative, the latter being illegal under the same body of international law they claim Iran is breaching.
        
        Tulsi Gabbard, based on US Intelligence assessments, reported earlier this year that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon; only recently, Trump has come out (apparently based on Israeli sources) and denied this, and Gabbard now agrees. What facts have changed? Who knows, but the story has certainly changed.
        
        https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-says-his-spy-chief-gabbard-wrong-irans-nuclear-program-2025-06-20/
        
        “A source with access to U.S. intelligence reports told Reuters the March assessment presented by Gabbard has not changed. The source said U.S. spy services judged it would take up to three years for Iran to build a warhead with which it could hit a target of its choice. David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector, questioned the revised view offered by Gabbard on Friday, estimating it would take Iran at least six months to produce a crude nuclear “device” that could not be delivered by a missile. To produce a nuclear weapon that could be delivered on target by missile would take Iran at least one to two years, said Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security”
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventive_war#:~:text=The%20majority%20view%20is%20that,law%22%20and%20lacks%20legal%20basis.
        
        “The majority view is that a preventive war undertaken without the approval of the United Nations is illegal under the modern framework of international law. The consensus is that preventive war “goes beyond what is acceptable in international law” and lacks legal basis. The UN High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change stopped short of rejecting the concept outright but suggested that there is no right to preventive war. If there are good grounds for initiating preventive war, the matter should be put to the UN Security Council, which can authorize such action, given that one of the Council’s main functions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter (“Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression”) is to enforce the obligation of member states under Article 4, Paragraph 2 to “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state . . .”
        
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        June 22, 2025 12:48pm
    - bennerg
      
      Wandering Star, you state:
      
      “Israelis have claimed Iran want to destroy them”
      
      It is not a “claim”, it is a documented fact.
      
      Source: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a statement broadcast on state television on June 14, 2025.
      Quote: “The armed forces will act with determination and destroy the despicable Zionist regime.”
      
      You also stated:
      “also claiming that Iran is weeks or months away from acquiring nuclear weapons”
      
      The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in June 2025 :
      
      “Iran’s stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium could potentially yield enough material for nine nuclear bombs, with analysts estimating Iran could enrich to weapons-grade (90%) in “a week or two.”
      
      This was followed up by the USA White House issuing a statement:
      
      “Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that. And it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon, which would, of course, pose an existential threat not just to Israel but to the United States and to the entire world.”
      
      Given the history of Iran funding and supporting proxies such as Hamas and the Houthis to attack Israel over many years, all the while developing their enriched Uranium up to a level of 60% – when for peaceful purposes you only need 3% – you would have to be somewhat blind to ignore the real intentions behind this move.
      
      Iran is currently a rogue state, run by Mullahs with a psychopathic hardline military to control the original Persian culture, which historically had good relations with Israel.
      
      I think any rational person would wish that the outcome of this current military action will be to 1) destroy the nuclear program, and 2) remove the Mullahs from the picture and instigate some form of regime change.
      
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      June 22, 2025 11:59am
    - Dave
      
      For decades the Iranian leadership has proclaimed death to Israel, supported Hezbollah and other enemies of Israel with money and weapons, developed weapons (and now using some of them) capable of attacking Israel at a distance, and more recently enriching uranium beyond the requirements of peaceful power generation, while Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa became increasingly judenrein.
      
      Reputedly, after liberation, a Holocaust survivor said something along the lines of, ‘The next time someone tells he’s going to kill me, I’ll believe him.’
      
      The story is possibly apocryphal, but the message is clear – you can’t make peace with people who want to kill you.
      
      Ps, just saw the reply tonDon’s comment. So all those rockets and drones weren’t an act of war?
      
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      June 22, 2025 1:43pm
      - kowtow
        
        And of course Iran was behind Oct 7.
        
        This is simply payback , and righteously so.
        
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        June 22, 2025 2:40pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      To have nuclear weapons is to use them.
      What i think you mean to say is that nobody except the USA has ever actually detonated them against an enemy.
      Although they have detonated plenty of them in tests which are also warnings to others.
      Having nuclear weapons means they’re working for your defence every single day.
      
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      June 22, 2025 3:02pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360728787/failed-multimillion-dollar-trucking-company-and-workers-left-without-wages
This surely shows what a failure our immigration system has become: not only riddled with corrupt operators but causing the inevitable taxpayer-funded cleanup and compensation.
I knew as soon as I saw the headline that the owners of the company would be the usual Indian rip-off artists, gouging their countrymen.
Time to stop it.
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June 22, 2025 8:15am
- Swifty
  
  How many unemployed do we have in NZ?
  
  And we have to import corrupt truck drivers?
  
  New Zealand has lost the plot.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:27am
  - artemisia
    
    Let us not forget that there are two parties relating to a job vacancy. An applicant and an employer. But only one party gets to choose who to make an offer to.
    
    And these days they are checking carefully …. especially before paying minimum wage to the young and inexperienced.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:35am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Being a private sector employer in NZ must be the worst job in the world.
      
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      June 22, 2025 11:24am
  - Jack5
    
    Not just truck drivers that NZ would sooner import rather than train.
    
    Politicians sideline a third medical school with an unspoken rationale that it’s cheaper to import trained doctors and just give them a little finishing off.
    
    Where once we had special establishments training kids for farm work, we now import farmhands from the Philippines.
    
    We depend on temporary labour imports from Melanesia and Polynesia to pick fruit.
    
    Those repairing our streets often seem to be recently from India or China.
    
    Meanwhile many of our people are idle — written off as unemployable, poorly educated, or lazy.
    
    It’s one thing to attract to the country bright, innovative, skilled people. What’s going on is beyond that.
    
    Our trade training, our agriculture training, our medical training need fixing urgently.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:49am
    - artemisia
      
      Trade training. I have mentioned before, one of ours did a polytechnic trade foundation course. More than 20 started, some dropped out week 1, 4 graduated and went on to apprenticeships. Ours said all or most of the drop outs were required by WINZ to attend.
      
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      June 22, 2025 11:13am
  - kowtow
    
    We as a society are rapidly changing.
    
    To date we’ve had huge koharuption so why can’t we have some curryruption too , in the interests of diversity and inclusion .
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:11am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  New Zealand Immigration underestimates the desperation of Third Worlders to come here. They take their lead from Helen Clark, who said that they’re just like us, plus interesting festivals and food.
  
  Such naivety results in abuses like this on a disturbingly regular and frequent basis.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:31am
  - Damocles11
    
    Apparently we need huge numbers of new immigrants ‘to make New Zealand an interesting place’. 🤦🏻‍♂️
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:30am
    - Wandering Star
      
      Reminds me of the old Chinese “curse” – “May you live in interesting times.”
      
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      June 22, 2025 10:34am
      - slijmbal
        
        An Urban myth – not a real Chinese curse
        
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        June 22, 2025 11:02am
      - Wandering Star
        
        Is that relevant? The rhetorical effect and the sentiment are spot on.
        
        Besides, what does “real Chinese” mean? Sounds a bit interestingly bigoted. There are no Chinese nor English curses in our Interesting New World.
        
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        June 22, 2025 11:57am
      - slijmbal
        
        @Wandering
        
        was just pointing out it’s not a Chinese curse – actually originated in the English world and incorrectly attributed to the Chinese. Common misconception.
        
        Interesting you went to the racial meme as your go to response for being wrong. You really are trolling and bigotted in your own way. Must be a sad, lonely place.
        
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        June 22, 2025 2:36pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        [Mod – you can stop now, and that doesn’t mean you go and open up another account to hide behind]
        
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        June 22, 2025 3:27pm
- Simon
  
  For business folding not paying wages is a crime from March 2025.
  
  Anyway low wage immigration has been a train wreck for NZ. It’s one reason NZ is in steady state decline.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:44am
  - sirknz
    
    A turd in the water supply does not increase the average water quality, just like low quality immigrants do not improve the society that brings them in.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:01am
- Damocles11
  
  These drivers know that paying these ‘premiums’ is part of a dishonest practice. They should be on the next plane out of here. But that probably doesn’t gel with Luxons big pivot towards India. Perhaps we should expect more of this going forward, not less.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:26am
- John Loveridge
  
  It seems to me that Indians are vastly over-represented in the corruption and rip-off statistics.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:39am
  - sirknz
    
    We had an Indian fellow that was responsible for hiring and promoting people in one of our warehouses, for a while there we only seemed to be hiring and promoting Indians. He has since left the business and we are now seeing a whole lot less Patels, Singhs, and Kumars starting and are now seeing a mix of names (and ethnicities) that are generally a lot more representative of the general population.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:06am
  - AitchW
    
    Corruption is a way of life in much of Asia. Sadly we’re importing that corruption.
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:04am
Scott

The people in Great Britain are rising up!
According to the latest ipsos poll Reform are at 34%, Labour at 25% and the Tories at 15%.
If these polls were translated to an election Reform would get 400 seats, Labour 140 seats and the Tories would get 10 seats. The result for the Tories is their worst since polling began.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14834639/Reform-WIN-General-Election-poll-Nigel-Farage-Labour.html

The key issue appears to be mass immigration. Britain wants to remain Britain, not be transformed into another country through mass immigration.

There is a lesson here for all of us. We can only hope that Reform does get elected and the people of Great Britain finally gets a government that reflects the will of the people.
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June 22, 2025 8:17am
- Paulus
  
  Sadly too late for the UK = Enoch Powell has been proven correct for many yeara and it is generations too late.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:55am
  - Wandering Star
    
    I agree. I think the effects of mass immigration are now being openly acknowledged and discussed simply because it is too late to do anything about it now. On the current trends (and there is no reason to think the policies will change) New Zealand will experience exactly what the UK and Europe have already experienced, though slightly deferred.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:42am
  - slijmbal
    
    @Paulus – I would argue Powell was wrong at the time. I grew up in the UK during the 60s and 70s and the immigrants around that time became part of Britain. Intermarriage being a good proxy for integration.
    
    It’s more recent that there is a preponderence of immigrants who minimally integrate. Of course, the bulk of these come from theocratic muslim societies.
    
    Immigration per se is not a problem and, in fact, is a benefit, if it’s done properly.
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:13am
    - Wandering Star
      
      “Immigration per se is not a problem…”
      
      Few disagree with this. But we don’t have immigration per se, we have mass immigration from places radically different to our own.
      
      Becoming a minority, or even a drastically reduced majority, in your own country because of endless immigration is very disagreeable, and it shouldn’t be dismissed as an inevitable consequence that cannot be averted, because it isn’t.
      
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      June 22, 2025 12:04pm
    - Paulus
      
      I was born in London in 1940, and we left in 1975 because we did not like what we saw happening.
      We were not wrong !
      
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      June 22, 2025 2:26pm
  - kowtow
    
    The odd thing about the E Powell immigration thing was his stated position was the official policy of his own party. A position that had huge support in the grass roots , but none or very little at the party leadership level.
    
    Sounds familiar .
    
    It’s taken nearly 60 years to come full circle.
    
    Reform, if they do ever win power better deliver.
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:16am
  - mandk
    
    Enoch Powell was only partly correct.
    
    He was concerned about immigration from the Carribean, not by Moslems.
    
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    June 22, 2025 2:04pm
- Wandering Star
  
  Farage likes a pint and a fag or two, but he is part of the Establishment. Reform wouldn’t be allowed to change anything much, even if they wanted to (which is debatable).
  
  Reform is a pressure valve. The Establishment know that there is a rising tide of unrest in the UK, particularly over the massive demographic transformation that is no longer a “right wing conspiracy theory” but is an unavoidable fact whenever Brits walk down the street.
  
  Voting Reform will may make people feel better, but the feeling won’t last for long.
  
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  June 22, 2025 10:39am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The UK seems to have the same problem as us, and that is their public servants, judiciary, police, and media, will operate as they see fit regardless of who is in government.
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:32am
- NothingLeft
  
  UK has four more years of Labour under that shower that is Starmer though. No chance of being able to right the ship after that.
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:22pm
  - AitchW
    
    I wonder if Starmer will last 4 years? He’s not universally loved by voters and must be a liability to the Labour Party. Can they roll him, or does there need to be a general election?
    
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    June 22, 2025 2:31pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

As a result of the one child policy, China has 30m more men than women.

Even in a country of 1B+ people, that’s a problem that matchmaking services cannot overcome.

A good time to be a girl in China.

http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e0p9eg6gyo
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June 22, 2025 8:25am
- pdm
  
  Bollocks I am just wondering this.
  
  Do China have a lot of men transitioning to women?
  
  Could that be a solution he also asks with tongue firmly in cheek?
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:27am
- greybeard
  
  If 15m Chinese men joined the Greens they could then self-identify as women and solve the problem.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:30am
- rjay
  
  Traditionally society evened up any excess number of males by having a war. Beware!
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:33am
artemisia

The always-worth-reading Lindsay Mitchell reports on childhood immunisation rates by district. A measles outbreak is imminent so this is very timely.

On June 18, 2025, Health New Zealand published extensive data (March 2025 quarter) in a two-page spread contained in The Post….. Two years ago, describing the coverage then as “dangerously low,” a Maori collective was formed to specifically focus on improving tamariki immunisation rates.

Random impertinent questions. Is it working? (Seems not.) What is the failure costing taxpayers?

https://lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com/2025/06/is-by-maori-for-maori-shifting-dial.html
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June 22, 2025 8:30am
- kowtow
  
  Extraordinary to the point of disbelief.
  
  Our msm went on and on and on , on behalf of the Ardern regime and its other agents ( Wiles , Bloomfield etc) to get everyone jabbed …..mandates , job losses , exclusions etc
  
  From a sniffle that was really at most a danger to the old and frail.
  
  And yet here we have a very real , current threat to our most vulnerable , children, and all the usual suspects are virtually silent .
  
  btw if the Maori Party really represented the true interests of “their people” , they’d be all over this and not grandstanding on extreme left causes such as Hamas hugging etc and if our media weren’t such cowards they’d call them out on it . Instead they spend much of their time pillorying Seymour. Much safer you see.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:59am
- Paulus
  
  Sadly, but what do you expect from such as these highly paid experts ?
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:56am
Gravelroad

Front page of the “Your Weekend” section of Saturday’s newspaper states:
“New Year reflections – 9 New Zealanders share their biggest lessons from the past year this Matariki.”
And here was me thinking the New Year started on January 1st.
Did they miss a trick though with the use of New Zealand in the headline instead of Aotearoa?
Or maybe not…….
I will await a growing campaign to have our yearly calendar changed to further suit a minority interest – and their activist supporters.
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June 22, 2025 8:37am
- Inandout
  
  Gravel, when Jacinda pushed through this public holiday I understand it was voted for by all MPs. The NZME radio stations were full on Matariki and it reminded me of the Covid days when it was wall to wall messaging.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:43am
  - Damocles11
    
    Yes, an all-out brainwashing campaign is underway, paid for by the taxpayer. This under what Maori radicals hysterically claim is ‘the most right wing government in New Zealands history’.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:32am
    - Don Beckett
      
      We were visiting an old friend yesterday. She has a smidgeon of Maori blood. Her brother went to St. Stephens Maori College back in the 1950’s. He died several years ago, and she got all his old books, among which was a Maori dictionary, probably printed in the 1930’s or thereabouts. There was no mention at all of Matariki, but there were other mythical names. There was also a 1972 dictionary the he had purchased. Same there – no Matariki.
      A recent invention ??? 😆
      
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      June 22, 2025 11:39am
      - OlderChas
        
        Yes, Don, a very recent invention.
        
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        June 22, 2025 12:11pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Yes, it’s a modern invention and legend-building exercise of what was at most a minor calendar footnote for Maori in a few regions. Armored by the usual howls of racism and other epithets if anyone points out the bullshit using historical sources.
        
        A bit like the various recently discovered taniwhas used to extort money from govt and others as people do development work. (One I was told about during construction of devils staircase in Arthurs Pass was a ancient culturally significant huge boulder that an oldtimer revealed had actually rolled down the hill when he was a lad.) Maori tribes always with the bullshit and fabrication if there is power/money advantage to it. Can’t blame them for exploiting stupid credulous whitey.
        
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        June 22, 2025 12:26pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        No, it is not a recent invention.
        
        Edward Shortland reports on Matariki in “Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders” – 1856.
        
        Chapter XI
        https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Traditions_Superstitions_of_the_New_Zeal/ljc_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR3&printsec=frontcover
        
        The recent revival of Matariki – has been very much a political process – instigated by the Maori Language Commission (via the Labour Party).
        
        Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Mâori – the Mâori Language Commission – is spearheading a campaign to elevate Matariki, or Aotearoa Pacific New Year, into an iconic national event.
        
        https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0505/S00195/maori-language-commission-on-polynesian-new-year.htm
        
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        June 22, 2025 12:38pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        It’s a good point.
        Check out the old dictionaries to track the changes in language and therefore the politics. These are official publications and an printed book is basically impossible to fake, a digital website, who knowns?
        Your friend should try to build up a collection, the old school journals would be another old gold mine.
        
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        June 22, 2025 3:12pm
  - Paulus
    
    Sooner this so called and contrived, by Ardern for votes, and paid for by the taxpayers, Public Holiday is returned to where it came from only a few short years ago.
    Child indocrination again like the Mullahs in Iran to the childcren.
    
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    June 22, 2025 2:30pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    I understand it was voted for by all MPs.
    
    Nope.
    
    In favor (77 votes):
    The Labour Party (65 votes)
    The Green Party (10 votes)
    Te Paati Māori (2 votes)
    .
    Against (43 votes):
    The National Party voted against the bill.
    
    Troughers voting for a bigger trough.
    
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    June 22, 2025 2:37pm
- sirknz
  
  Trying to turn it into a thanksgiving type holiday hasn’t seemed to resonate with those of us calling it a made up holiday, what will they try and make it into next year? A midwinter Xmas maybe, sans the gifts because we can’t commercialise this most sacred of days…
  
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  June 22, 2025 10:11am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From the coverage I’ve seen, though Matariki is described as being for all of us, actually it seems to apply only to those Maoris who go back to their maraes for the long weekend.
  
  I certainly haven’t seen a spontaneous, upswelling of sentiment from others.
  
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  June 22, 2025 1:21pm
Cassandra

And now for something completely different, Pakistan has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership during its recent confrontation with India.
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June 22, 2025 8:37am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  They will withdraw that when he bombs the hell out of Iran.
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:48am
- mike
  
  But he’s still feeling sorry for himself:
  “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me,”
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:49am
  - Graeme Hall
    
    All Trump needs to do to get a Nobel peace prize is to darken his spray-on tan. Worked for Barry.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:38am
    - Graeme Hall
      
      For those who habour Liberal tendencies and doubt Barry was known as Barry in his early days here is the book that details his early life in the most excruciating detail, written by a Democrat.
      
      https://www.amazon.com/Rising-Star-David-Garrow-audiobook/dp/B06XHTQF8N
      
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      June 22, 2025 11:57am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    If he was a feel sorry for himself type there is no way in hell he would have survived political life thus far. He just knows the woke establishment very well.
    
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    June 23, 2025 8:37pm
- MCōs
  
  If he resolves the Israel/Palestine conflict he’s bound to win the Nobel Peace Prize; just like every other American President who has permanently settled that conundrum
  
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  June 22, 2025 8:51am
  - Wandering Star
    
    The only practical way for a US president to resolve the Middle East is to cease supporting Israel. This is an appalling thought to many, though, who’d prefer an ongoing series of wars to peace, based on the idea that Israel is entitled to wage any war it likes because everyone hates them for no reason, or some other nonsensical justification.
    
    The fact is that Israel has relied on US support since its establishment, so claims that the US shouldn’t get involved in Israel’s wars is to radically misunderstand the situation – the US is necessarily deeply involved in any war Israel conducts, because it is impossible for Israel to fight any war if not for US backing.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:50am
    - bennerg
      
      “The only practical way for a US president to resolve the Middle East is to cease supporting Israel. ”
      
      Like that’s gonna happen.
      
      Israel is a modern democracy, created out of practically nothing, and able to defend itself.
      
      Gaza is a cesspit filled with the dregs of Arab society, whom no other country in the region wants.
      
      The only way ahead is to force the region to collectively remove them from the Gaza Strip, and as Trump has suggested, for an international supported group to rebuild it it as another Dubai.
      
      Pouring more money into Gaza with the current Hamas leadership will only see more tunnels, guns, bombs, hate education, and atrocities. I can see why Israel has taken the step to completely remove Hamas, and now their paymasters in Iran. Both are a cancer and both need to be taken out of the gene pool.
      
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      June 22, 2025 12:10pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        If Israel is able to defend itself then what is reason for the gigantic amount of weapons and money it receives from America?
        Either it’s needed or it’s not.
        That’s a question no one seems to be keen to answer.
        But in the bigger picture, without a long term comprehensive peace deal with all of its neighbors, Israel can only be maintained in its current configuration with superior fire power. That also depends on America maintaining its comparative position in the world. America’s position is declining, it’s never going to regain the position it had from the early 90s to the early 2020s.
        
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        June 22, 2025 3:22pm
BarryB

FUNERIAL is the word………

The organisers of the super-rugby final must have searched long and hard to find the two worst singers in the southern hemisphere. The Anthem sounded like a funeral durge.

Then the game consisted of a few interesting things like scrums and line outs, followed by a lot of that silly game where two people run flat out at each other to see who can do the most head damage. After doing this a few time the team with the ball then kicks it to the other team and they take over the ‘run at each other’ game.
No wonder rugby is losing its charm.
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June 22, 2025 8:40am
- AitchW
  
  Dirge, Barry. I heard part of the anthem and it was truly dire. I was reminded of American sports events where they get a celeb to sing the anthem and they need to fill 10 minutes before the next ad break so every note takes 30 seconds.
  Just belt the bloody thing out!
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:14am
- pdm
  
  BB – I agree rugby is a bloody awful watch at the moment. League with lineouts.
  
  There were only 3 players on the park with any awareness of space and with attacking skills – Havilli and Jordan for the Crusaders and MacKenzie for the Chiefs.
  
  As for the Anthem.
  I have heard some bloody awful singing of our National anthems over the years but, that pair last night were so bad and pitiful and I almost felt sorry for them.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:39am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    McKenzie had possibly his worst game of the season last night pdm. He made uncharacteristic errors and always looked under pressure. I suspect the Crusaders made a tactical decision to close down his space, and Ethan Blackadder did that to perfection.
    
    It wasn’t fluff and bubbles regular season stuff where defence was optional. It was a match of test match intensity as the two best teams in the competition went at it. I may be in the minority, but I found it enthralling as one team would seem to get a period of ascendancy, then the other team came back at them.
    
    Last thoughts – Rivez Reihana is going to be something special. He’s given himself an outside chance of All Black selection, although I hope the selectors prefer Ruben Love. But he has come from nowhere this season. Maybe there’s something about the Crusaders’ culture that brings out the best in people. I was stoked for Rob Penney too; a genuinely humble man who really deserved that moment after a wretched 2024.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:47am
    - Quail
      
      The great number tens usually come from Canterbury !
      See Watt ,Mounga ,Smith , Carter Mehrtens plus others.
      
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      June 22, 2025 10:15am
    - pdm
      
      MacKenzie takes on too much of the hard yards for the Chiefs but, even then he still recognizes where the space is. I don’t think he was as bad as you say Inv given his workload.
      Agree re Reihana he looks the goods but, may dip out if Robertson is hell bent having Mo’unga back next year. Worth a try and keep BB as a bench player.
      
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      June 22, 2025 10:23am
    - Colville
      
      I thought it was a cracking game where the Crusaders out thought the Chiefs.
      
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      June 22, 2025 10:33am
- Paulus
  
  It only goes to show how so called Rugby is now fading the New Zealand.
  Look at the football pitches every Saturday morning and you will see that reflected by the children’s parents where child thuggery is not the norm.
  Ask the Mother’s particularly.
  
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  June 22, 2025 2:35pm
hookerphil

Everybody is just so excited after the CRUSADERS just carried on winning another title – now how good was that. Chiefs need to realise that finishing second for two years in a row only means that you finish second three years in a row.
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June 22, 2025 8:47am
- Gravelroad
  
  Is it time that a day light rugby final played during an afternoon might be considered?
  It was obviously freezing cold and generally pitch dark at the Christchurch venue – yet here were these professional sports people slip sliding around making a lot of handling errors due to those conditions.
  Yes, I realise the timing of these games is ruled by money, advertisers and TV viewers in other countries, but these night games in the middle of winter have very little to recommend them.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:09am
  - hookerphil
    
    As it appears the Crusaders will be there, or there abouts most years – the new indoor stadium should fix a lot of those problems. Failing that, play it at Dunedin.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:25am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    It will be far better next season under the roof at the new stadium.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:48am
  - Colville
    
    Gravel.
    For every person at the game freezing there were probably 50 nice and warm at a bar somewhere and another hundred at home with slippers on. No way I want an afternoon game as I wouldn’t ever watch it live.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:38am
  - kowtow
    
    ‘Yes, I realise the timing of these games is ruled by money, advertisers and TV viewers in other countries, but these night games in the middle of winter have very little to recommend them’
    
    And therein lies the issue .
    
    It’s not about the game , it’s about the money .
    
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    June 22, 2025 11:22am
    - Colville
      
      The same way going to a restaurant for a steak is about the money.
      Without the money there is no restaurant or steak.
      I like steak.. and no I dont want to kill my own cow!
      
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      June 22, 2025 12:00pm
      - kowtow
        
        Yes , at least when you go to the restaurant you get to eat the cow .
        
        But how much would one be prepared to pay to watch someone else eating it. Along with commentary and perhaps an interview with the cook between courses .
        
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        June 22, 2025 1:25pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        That probably explains the strange historical phenomena of why nobody ever ate or played games before money was invented.
        
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        June 22, 2025 3:25pm
  - pdm
    
    Gravel I am with you on afternoons for finals and tests.
    
    I must admit that I would have missed a grandsons game at Tikokino yesterday afternoon.
    
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    June 22, 2025 12:57pm
- Damocles11
  
  The Chiefs turned up, competed fiercely, and were beaten. It happens. Had they not been hit by injuries to key players – Tupaia and Jacobsen – before their finals match against Auckland it might have been them hosting the grand final at their home ground. No need for you to put the boot in.
  
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  June 22, 2025 11:04am
  - Colville
    
    Chiefs lost two out of the last three games of the series.
    You dont do that and get to lift the trophy.
    
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    June 22, 2025 12:01pm
  - pdm
    
    Agreed Damo.
    
    Jacobson’s leadership was missing in the Aucklnad gamed and Tupaea was excellent last night.
    
    Actually I thought Jacabson was Chiefs Captain – good and all that Vai played I don’t think captaincy is really his go.
    
    Surprised also that Jordan took over as Crusaders Captain when Havilli was in the bin. Taylor, Barrett or Christie would surely have been more logical.
    
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    June 22, 2025 1:01pm
  - mandk
    
    The Chiefs lost because their kicking from the hand was much worse than the Crusaders’. Too many of their kicks were too long to be contestable.
    
    It was pretty much the same in the Warriors’ game against the Panthers.
    
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    June 22, 2025 2:20pm
Bridgenag

accounting for accountability
sorting the correct fight out of the false one

“one sees it everywhere. once you enshrine legally, ethically, and functionally through selective prosecution, charging, and sentencing, ideas like “disparate impact” or the empathy traps of “well they are just poor unknowing that cannot be expected to know better so it’s not fair to hold them accountable” or “we cannot blame marginalized people” it’s sort of amazing how rapidly “cultural enrichment” and “empathy” turn into widespread crime, cultural dissolution, and outright intolerable atavistic recursion to behaviors [sic] that are, not to put too fine a point on it, actually insane to the point of outright horror.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/accounting-for-accountability?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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June 22, 2025 8:47am
Yvette

Tamaki’s Destiny

Brian Tamaki leads protest against immigration, non-Christian religions
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/brian-tamaki-leads-protest-against-immigration-non-christian-religions/QPOCLWOGHBEFJGF4HX2YEJTOHE/

With the tension between Destiny’s strident rejection of non-Christian religions (particularly immigrant religions like Islam or Hinduism) and its apparent tolerance —or even appropriation — of Māori cultural expressions like haka, weaponry, and traditional attire, is a notable inconsistency in the public and theological posture of Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church.

Why does Destiny Church not see Māori spirituality as a threat – despite its very strong presence in State schools?
Why does Destiny not mount a sustained protest campaign against mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge systems) in schools in the way conservative Christian groups elsewhere have protested things like sex education, evolution, or Islam in schools.

Why is Tamaki not disturbed by the sudden elevation of star-worship in Matariki to a status similar to Christ-mas and Easter – but without commercialisation, so far, to a more sacrosanct status?
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June 22, 2025 9:07am
- pdm
  
  Yvette your last 3 paras obviously do not fit with Bishop Brian’s agenda.
  
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  June 22, 2025 10:27am
  - Yvette
    
    Pdm, That is why I would neutrally as possible just wonder why Brian aligns his Life with such Maori cultural identification when te Ao Maori religious worldview system of belief, venerating natural phenomena and the natural world as sacred and divine, is diametrical opposed to the Word for Word Revelations and mingled Old Testiment ‘sermon’ he was preaching to his “ROAR OF GOD” audience yesterday evening.
    
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    June 22, 2025 10:48am
- mike
  
  It seems probable that Tamaki does not see Māori traditions as any threat to his ideal society in the same way as some pakeha seem to.
  
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  June 22, 2025 11:01am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Not a threat so much but an unwillingness to go through the absurd exercise of attempting to force real and made up norms from 200 years ago on modern society. Apparently so lefties and can play with themselves with glee at the imagined “revenge” aspect of it all.
    
    How about enjoy whatever culture you like in your own time and on your own dime?
    
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    June 23, 2025 8:42pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Hi Yvette, where has Brian Tamaki said he supports Māori spirituality?
  
  It is possible to embrace cultural traditions without spiritual traditions. For instance many NZers of Scottish descent participate in highland dancing, haggis eating, pipe bands but not in the Druidic pagan religion.
  
  While I am anti-cultural activism and the embedding of pagan religion into our society, cultures should be free to celebrate their cultural traditions.
  
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  June 22, 2025 11:47am
  - Yvette
    
    Pineapple Lumps – Hi Yvette, where has Brian Tamaki said he supports Māori spirituality?
    I don’t know that he does say. It is more what Brian omits saying.
    
    I was just wondering why no journalist or such person asks Brian Tamaki about yesterday, when Bishop Brian and his supporters denounced the Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Palestinian communities, burning flags representing those communities, and on at least TV1 6pm NEWS it looked like Maori were responsible, such was the cultural appropriation. I am just asking a question, which it seems media won’t.
    
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    June 22, 2025 1:30pm
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      I dont think Tamaki will support paganism in any form, even if this didn’t feature in yesterdays March.
      
      However, it is easy to see the media aren’t going to as any questions about Māori paganism incorporated in the Te Ao maori worldview – they are one of the parties sponsoring it and the most responsible for spreading the message of indoctrination.
      
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      June 22, 2025 3:05pm
- Jake Dee
  
  There is Maori Christianity and Maori Christian prophets too.
  How a local culture adapts to the arrival of Christianity (which is indigenous to no where except ancient Jerusalem) is a serious question that many nations have had to answer.
  Maintaining local authority over cultural and tribal questions is an important party of why King Henry VIII created the Church of England, many such cases.
  The bigger question is why Mātauranga Māori supporters don’t do this through the Ratana Church?
  The reason is that Mātauranga Māori is NOT an indigenous belief system, its a subset and out growth of modern Liberalism, and as such is an opponent of any other belief system such as Christianity.
  All comprehensive religions have had to work through all aspects of a persons life and answer certain fundamental questions, marriage, birth, death, war, peace, how to organize society? reward the good, punish the bad? how to relate to foreigners?
  Mātauranga Māori can do none of that, it’s good for having an occasional festival, writing a few minor government reports and getting government money, because that is what it is made for.
  If you seriously believed in God (or the Gods or the spirits and ancestors) then you don’t need parliament or government ministries and you certainly don’t apply for their funding.
  It’s a fake faith, and everything their fake followers actually do just proves it even more.
  What I believe, but most other New Zealanders would refuse to accept, is that “Bishop” Brian Tamaki is probably the most authentic Maori spiritual leader alive today.
  There maybe some mystic Maori mendicants meditating upon the mysteries somewhere in the forest, but who the heck knows who they are? If they’re hermits they’re hardly leaders.
  Brian Tamaki does what he believes is best for his people according to the word of God as he understands it.
  Mātauranga Māori followers are doing what they think is best for themselves according to instructions from foreign academics, parliamentary parties and government departments. They feed them, they pay them and so they own them.
  A man who thinks he’s following the word of God behaves very differently to a man who thinks he’s got a cushy gig.
  
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  June 22, 2025 4:08pm
Maggy Wassilieff

An education system failing to deliver a 21st Century education to our children..

Prof Elizabeth Rata’s submission on the Education and Training Amendment Bill

Section 57(1)(b) is relevant to the first part of my submission where I describe the damage done to NZ education by including the ‘knowledge systems’ approach into the curriculum. These are belief systems but are falsely misrepresented as knowledge systems by postmodern relativists. Such belief systems, including religious instruction and observances, are not subject to the requirements and procedures of science – i.e. objective, provisional, falsifiable, and universal, therefore they are to the detriment of the normal curriculum of the school and contrary to Section 57(1)(b).

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/professor-elizabeth-rata-submission-to-the-select-committee-on-the-education-and-training-amendment
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June 22, 2025 9:14am
- imalwaysright
  
  They should rename it the Ministry of Indoctrination.
  Education seems to be anathema to the 4200 at the Ministry.
  
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  June 22, 2025 10:37am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Yes, and it’s happening under a “centre-right” government.
  
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  June 22, 2025 10:41am
  - NothingLeft
    
    you misspelt spineless.
    
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    June 22, 2025 12:34pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      My apologies.
      
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      June 22, 2025 3:08pm
mike

Is it correct that the new flagpoles are 88 feet high?
https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88
Must be a coincidence, right?
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June 22, 2025 9:17am
- Yvette
  
  They were to have been 100 feet each, and we are yet to see if the 88 foot pole on the South Lawn screws up Air Force One helicopters.
  
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  June 22, 2025 10:52am
- NothingLeft
  
  tedious.
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:35pm
- rouppe
  
  Oh, right. This is classic socialist stuff.
  
  88 is code for Heil Hitler because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet.
  
  In Spanish “skull” is “cráneo” and C is the 3rd letter in the alphabet but a skull definitely isn’t the ‘3’ in the MS13 tattoo even though it’s on the 4th knuckle, preceded by all the other symbols of an M, an S, and a 1.
  
  Gotcha. 🙄
  
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  June 22, 2025 1:08pm
- Ghost
  
  Thank goodness it wasn’t 69 foot, or you’d then be making out it was something else
  
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  June 22, 2025 1:16pm
Bridgenag

Therapeutic DMSO Combinations Revolutionize Medicine
How DMSO being mixed with numerous common medications creates a myriad of remarkable therapeutic possibilities

Many people still believe DMSO is an unproven and rarely used therapy, whereas in reality, it is many different pharmaceutical products.

In short, while DMSO is an “unproven” “dangerous” and “unapproved” “fringe remedy,” once combined with another patentable drug, it magically becomes “safe and effective.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/amidwesterndoctor/p/therapeutic-dmso-combinations-revolutionize?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

I am working on Tinnitus and it is definitely improving
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June 22, 2025 9:18am
- mike
  
  DMSO has no proven therapeutic effects. It’s a paint stripper.
  
  5 14
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  June 22, 2025 9:30am
  - Inandout
    
    mike, have you researched the chemicals in your everyday packaged foods?
    
    8 3
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    June 22, 2025 9:57am
  - Ghost
    
    Well it does have one, treatment for interstitial cystitis
    
    6 1
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    June 22, 2025 10:13am
  - bennerg
    
    Mike, I think you misread your reference, it’s another “horse de-wormer”.
    
    3 2
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    June 22, 2025 12:16pm
    - rouppe
      
      As per my reference below, both arsenic and the active ingredient in rat poison have been used therapeutically for decades if not centuries.
      
      Ivermectin might have the same active ingredient as your “horse dewormer” but the concentration is of course completely different.
      
      I know someone who developed debilitating symptoms after their second “safe and effective” jab. The next two years the medical system pranced around doing nothing while my friends health deteriorated. They obtained ivermectin, took a dose and the worst of the symptoms disappeared. Overnight.
      
      [Mod – unnecessary]
      
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      June 22, 2025 1:57pm
  - rouppe
    
    Oh, goodness, another one. I’m reevaluating my opinion of how smart you are Mike.
    
    Consume arsenic and you will die. Yet arsenic had been used therapeutically for a very long time.
    
    Eat rat poison and you’ll likely die. Yet the active ingredient in rat poison was used in warfarin as an anti-coagulant for decades. I had to take it after my pneumothorax to prevent blood clots in my lung.
    
    It all depends on the dosage and combinations with other compounds whether something is effective.
    
    By the way, the FDA has approved dmso use therapeutically
    
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    June 22, 2025 1:20pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    So what? Warfarin started life as a rat poison before its blood-thinning characteristic was found to be useful to heart patients. Viagra was designed to suppress runny noses before its other feature became, ahem, apparent.
    
    I have no idea whether DMSO is therapeutic or not, but it’s wrong to dismiss it just because it may be used to strip paint.
    
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    June 22, 2025 1:30pm
Chuck Bird

The link is to well known climate change economist, Borjn Lomborg.

https://mailchi.mp/lomborg/newsletter-4727300?e=da3eadba9b
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June 22, 2025 10:28am
- bennerg
  
  A precis
  
  “When a grid failure plunged 55 million people in Spain and Portugal into darkness, it should have been a wake-up call on green energy. Climate activists promised that solar and wind power were the future of cheap, dependable electricity. The massive half-day blackout shows otherwise.”
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:19pm
Jack5

A prominent NZ art academic features in the Telegraph’s obituaries.

John Simpson, who died this year at age 100, spent a thousand hours making a pair of silver kiwis as a national wedding present for Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones. Christie’s sold the kiwis in 2000 for 36,000 pounds, more than 40 times their estimated value.

Simpson was head of the Fine Arts School at the University of Cantefrbury.

He began carving wood as an eight-year-old in Kent, and after serving as a navigator in RAF Lancasters in World War 2, he and his family eventually migrated to Christchurch, NZ, in 1958.

The newspaper said he participated in design of NZ’s new decimal banknotes, but was disappointed by political interference in the design of the coins.

In NZ he supervised fabric and art in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Christchurch. Many if not most people regarded its design as superior to that of the Anglican Cathedral at the city’s heart.

A funeral notice in NZ said he died on May 18. His full name was Harold John Simpson, but like many older folk he was always known by his second Christian name.
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June 22, 2025 10:35am
vand

he first point shows that having nuclear weapons does not guarantee their use, and the second point shows that nobody should believe anything the Israelis ever claim about an alleged Iranian nuclear program.

WS -there is a religious dimension you have missed; Destroying Israel which is seen as the little Satan and usurper of Muslim land will usher in the return of the 12th imam – for Islam to dominate the world
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June 22, 2025 10:50am
- Wandering Star
  
  “WS -there is a religious dimension you have missed; Destroying Israel which is seen as the little Satan and usurper of Muslim land will usher in the return of the 12th imam – for Islam to dominate the world”
  
  OK, maybe. But don’t religious Jews believe that establishing Israel in the Holy Land and rebuilding the temple will usher in the Anti-Christ who will then rule over the gentiles?
  
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  June 22, 2025 11:05am
Jack5

Former British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has been among the anti-Israel protesters out in London.

Addressing the National March for Palestine Corbyn said politicians were seeking to “turn people who protest against the invasion of Iran or the occupation of Palestine into terrorists”.

He added: “We need to stop the bombing of Gaza, we need to stop the occupation of Gaza. “I want to see a reconstruction of civilian life in Gaza and the West Bank. I don’t want to see the destruction of Iran. I don’t want to see the world’s arms industries getting even more trillions for weapons of mass destruction.”

Many of the thousands of protesters carried Palestinian or Iranian flags.

Palestine Action, which vandalised the RAF base Brize Norton, has announced a mass protest outside Parliament on Monday to oppose its imminent designation as a terror group.

Are there Corbyn sympathisers in NZ’s Labour Party?
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June 22, 2025 11:34am
- AitchW
  
  Of course there are. The left hates Israel with a passion. I’m surprised there aren’t keffiyehs on Labour’s benches!
  
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  June 22, 2025 2:38pm
Pineapple Lumps

As an employer a significant factor in the employment decision for less skilled jobs is “will the person be reliable and hardworking“. All employees require some form of training and investment. Being punctual, attending regularly and working conscientiously are all attributes that make that investment worthwhile. There is nothing worse than giving a job to someone to find they constantly arrive late, have lots of days off work and are lazy. It is better to not fill a role than have this type of person sap the morale of your team. This is a large reason employers are choosing immigrants to work driving trucks, in rest homes, factories etc

So it is most important that the education system teaches societal values that lead to successful careers. In this light the focus on attendance is actually teaching the importance of turning up. Equally important are values like punctuality, conscientiousness, pride in your work, integrity and honesty etc. The other benefit of instilling these values is it will lift the results in the academic subjects.

If more young people were leaving school with these attributes, employers would snap them up!
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June 22, 2025 11:35am
- R
  
  All well and good Pineapple!, but what about the young people’s right to ‘do their own thing’, and seek instant gratification ?
  
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  June 22, 2025 3:30pm
Colville

So the B2s got Fordow?
9 0
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June 22, 2025 12:07pm
- Wandering Star
  
  What does it say when the US President consistently states that he doesn’t want to go to war, but he apparently has no say in the matter? Is he there to just rubber stamp the decisions of others? Has Israel dragged reluctant Americans kicking and screaming into yet another ruinous war?
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:24pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Yes, they bombed all three sites
  
  4 0
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  June 22, 2025 12:40pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Looks like it. Fordow Natanz and Esfahan. Bombers all on way home.
  
  https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1936573183634645387
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:40pm
Rusty

I didn’t hear any cowbells at last nights super rugby final.
2 0
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June 22, 2025 12:16pm
CJames

I think we can now be quite confident that Iran is no longer a potential nuclear power. I think that the worldwide terrorist activities will take a sudden step down. You can’t do much if you aren’t being bankrolled. I wonder how much longer it will be a theocratic state run by mad mullahs? I doubt that even an anarchic regime there would be worse than the current one.
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June 22, 2025 12:29pm
- NothingLeft
  
  With more than a week to squirrel away enriched Uranium since bombing started I doubt this has achieved much at all, unless it help brings about regime change.
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:42pm
- AitchW
  
  Military takeover perhaps? I wonder how many of the population are hard wired Muslims?
  If Iran returns to a non-secular monarchy will its fundamentalist Muslim neighbours tolerate it?
  God, the ME is mental.
  
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  June 22, 2025 12:57pm
  - MCōs
    
    “If Iran returns to a non-secular monarchy”
    You can’t be serious
    
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    June 22, 2025 1:45pm
  - Paulus
    
    Such Mullah indotrination has taken place in that the children have been educated by the Mullahs to believe in everything they perceive.
    This is prevalent with the young women also, as the men are as ignorant as pig shit, as they know know only physical violence, no difference to any other Middle East country.
    Listen to the young women on any news programme – and you could accept as well educated.
    
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    June 22, 2025 2:43pm
- kowtow
  
  Our msm will assiduously overlook the role the Mullah regime had in the appalling events of Oct 7 .
  
  ”An Israeli airstrike in Iran killed Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps in the IRGC Quds Force, who funded and armed Hamas ahead of the terror group’s October 7 onslaught as part of a multi-front plan to destroy Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday.
  
  Izadi was “one of the architects” of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, “and among the few who knew of it prior to its execution,” the IDF said.
  
  The military said he was killed overnight in a safe house in the Iranian city of Qom “following a prolonged intelligence effort.” ‘
  
  And I’d add anyone protesting against Israel action against anyone who had a role in those events is on the side of evil .
  
  https://www.timesofisrael.com/irgc-palestinian-division-chief-an-architect-of-oct-7-killed-in-overnight-strike-in-iran/
  
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  June 22, 2025 1:21pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Please explain your reasoning for I being quite confident that Iran is no longer a potential nuclear power.
  When has it ever been the case that being attacked makes it less likely rather than more likely that they will seek weapons to defend themselves.
  Now Iran has been attacked by two nuclear armed powers and being a party to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty has not prevented that.
  
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  June 22, 2025 4:23pm
MCōs

Some interesting tweets
https://x.com/repmtg/status/1936564082477531596?s=61
https://x.com/qasimrashid/status/1936593558481330334?s=61
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June 22, 2025 1:57pm
Jack5

How Western manufacturers can compete with cheap-labour countries: automation.

A small shoe factory in Kentucky uses robots to keep labour costs down.

The strategy explained by its chief operating officer, Hari Parumel, to the BBC:

“We are making products here in the USA very economically and very efficiently,” says Mr Perumal.

“And the way we do that is with tons of automation, and [it] also starts with how the products are designed and what kind of materials and automation we utilise.”

The Kentucky example:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4zvezn5nlo

For those who want to find out about robotics in NZ, head to Scott Technology, of Dunedin:

https://scottautomation.com/en/insights/robotic-trends
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June 22, 2025 2:07pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Where are you going to get the robots from?
  Are you going to get robots to make the robots?
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siplpEJSi_Y&t=38s
  Robotics companies in China offer robots at far lower prices than rivals in Europe or Japan. Chinese models typically cost less than a fourth of what comparable units do.
  Yet far fewer than 5% of Chinese robots are exported. China’s world-leading adoption rates for robot installations, along with massive official support to the industry, point to the reason: China’s strategy is to lead the world in robotics manufacturing and deployment to improve efficiency and productivity exclusively in China’s factories…
  China is installing over 12 times more robots than you would expect, given China’s manufacturing and labor costs
  https://kdwalmsley.substack.com/p/why-isnt-china-exporting-robots
  
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  June 22, 2025 4:34pm
  - Jack5
    
    That’s a bit defeatist, Jake.
    
    The link I gave to Scott Technology showed a New Zealand company at the forefront of robotics manufacture for the world meat industry.
    
    It’s so successful that the world’s biggest meat processor, JBS (Brazil based but listed on the New York Stock Exchange, took a 53 per cent stake in the Dunedin-based firm.
    
    Last December Scott also announced a $24 million contract to automate production lines for a Chinese whiteware manufacturer.
    
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    June 22, 2025 9:25pm
mogg

Ian Mcglaughlin has died. The Mighty Mouse who showed the 1971 All Black props how it was done.
Often giving away 4 stone in weight he could lift the front row with ease, that’s when it was legal to do so.
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June 22, 2025 3:08pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360731724/new-texas-law-will-require-ten-commandments-be-posted-every-public-school-classroom

I am a bit ambivalent about this: on the one hand there is some merit in having a set of “rules” or “suggestions” for kids to think about and evaluate, on the other hand it smacks of hypocrisy when we all know that Texan lawmakers and educators are just as likely to have affairs, steal, lie, watch/make porn , kill someone or kiddy-fiddle as anyone else on the planet.

If it does go ahead I will wait with interest for Mr. Abbott’s name to come up in future.
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June 22, 2025 4:16pm
- Don Beckett
  
  Just because the Ten Commandments be put up in every public school does not mean that all Texans will become paragons of virtue.
  But what it does mean that there will be a set of visible values and behaviours to aspire to, and thus encourage a more civil and moral society. One does not have to be religious to recognise that as a good thing.
  
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  June 22, 2025 4:54pm
NothingLeft

The rapidly improving dexterity of robots – how much longer are minimum wage workers going to be able to keep their jobs against this likely $1/hr , 24/7/365 competition?

https://youtu.be/mhfleCK_IAI

What new jobs can be created that won’t quickly be taken by such robots?
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June 22, 2025 5:01pm
- Jack5
  
  Or, NothingLeft, could robotics be like the auto industry replacing horse-carriage makers and buggy-whip manufacturers?
  
  “Assist robots” or “social service robots” might also be a big help to hospital and aged-care industries.
  
  Some industries with unpleasant or dangerous work will benefit. Meat processing is one.
  
  Everywhere, skilled meat workers are harder to recruit. First World countries are importing workers from the Third World.
  
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  June 22, 2025 9:31pm

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