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September 5, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 05 September 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

A bit more about the Chinese VJ* Day parade: Key and Clark went to China, along with Bob Carr and Daniel Andrews, former Oz State Premiers. No western leader attended although I imagine that NZ was represented by our ambassador.

The Sydney Morning Herald: Andrews’ attendance at the ceremony, marking 80 years since Japan’s World War II surrender, has been condemned by former Queensland Labor premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and his appearance in the group photo shocked Albanese government ministers, although the prime minister has declined to endorse or condemn Andrews’ presence in Beijing.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr says he skipped the military parade due to its “Soviet-style” aesthetic.

* The irony is that the Communists played no part in the war against Japan – that was left to the Kuomintang, the USA and finally the USSR. Taiwan should really have been the host.
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September 5, 2025 8:01am
- Wandering Star
  
  What exactly is your problem with this parade the Chinese put on the other day? It clearly offends you in some way, but it’s unclear what the source of your obvious concern is. Re: the attendance of some Western individuals, are diplomats, officials or other prominent people not supposed to engage in diplomacy and have contact with our supposed adversaries? If not, why not?
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:09am
  - Philview
    
    We can criticise the US and we frequently do but for some reason we have to be very careful what we say about China. Is that freedom?
    
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    September 5, 2025 9:52am
    - Wandering Star
      
      Do we have to be careful about what we say about China, though? I’d say we have to be much more careful about suggesting what’s going on behind the veneer in Washington than we do about how the Chinese power structure works. At least we can clearly see who runs China, whereas exactly where the power resides in our “free and open” liberal democracies is much more opaque, which is a direct consequence of how our “free and open” system works.
      
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      September 5, 2025 11:23am
      - imalwaysright
        
        WS
        You can’t say that…..!
        
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        September 5, 2025 2:13pm
  - David George
    
    President Xi was telling those gathered that China is a benign power only interested in a peaceful and prosperous world. Immediately followed by the biggest display of military might for decades.
    
    Some have fallen for his BS.
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:48am
  - Cassandra
    
    Wandering Star: I’m not going to give you a history lesson. A bit of reading will give you the answers to your questions. But note my earlier reference to “mixed feelings”. On balance I think Bob Carr got it right and Dan Andrews didn’t.
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:18am
    - Wandering Star
      
      No problem, I just thought you may be in a better position than I to explain why you hold a particilar position.
      
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      September 5, 2025 1:59pm
  - Simon
    
    “but it’s unclear what the source of your obvious concern is.”
    
    Its obvious every boomer thinks any strong leader not aligned with the West is Hitler.
    
    Lol – there it is
    
    “I’m not going to give you a history lesson. A bit of reading will give you the answers to your questions. “
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:29am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I’m getting the impression that some people think that those who don’t speak their language are the enemy.
      
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      September 5, 2025 2:17pm
- All_on_Red
  
  The Xi Stooges
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:11am
  - Philview
    
    Remember when some in the Australian media called us New Xi Land.
    
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    September 5, 2025 9:54am
- Gravelroad
  
  There was a discussion about this on newstalkzb yesterday morning.
  A woman phoned up and said it was time for NZ to cut all ties with the USA (because of tariffs and they were war mongers) and throw in our lot with China.
  She seriously said she believed that China was a very peaceful country and no threat to anyone at all.
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:12am
  - Wandering Star
    
    The US is objectively more militaristic and aggressive than China. List the overseas military adventures undertaken by the Chinese over the last 20 or 30 years.
    
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    September 5, 2025 8:20am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Overseas military bases
      
      China 1
      Russia 10
      USA 128
      
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      September 5, 2025 9:40am
      - Ghost
        
        Djibouti
        Cambodia
        Cuba
        Djibouti
        Myanmar
        Tajikistan
        Pakistan
        
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        September 5, 2025 10:13am
      - Hugh Jarse
        
        You seemed to have forgotten to add China’s vassal states in Tibet, the Pacific and Africa to your count.
        
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        September 5, 2025 10:14am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Very good.
        
        That brings the China total up to almost, nearly, just about, just shy of, almost more than, about the same as…. 128.
        
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        September 5, 2025 10:26am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        Sorry Ghost, hit report when I meant to reply
        
        Also Sri Lanka – where they took over the Port, Darwin (same) and many places in Africa where they are colonising to access minerals
        
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        September 5, 2025 10:55am
      - Local Miller
        
        Lies, damm lies and statistics!
        
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        September 5, 2025 11:47am
      - AitchW
        
        Sorry, reported in error!
        Let’s not forget all the Chinese “police stations” all over the world.
        Make no mistake the Chinese are playing a long, long game. They are planning for world domination.
        What happens I wonder when Chinese hegemony is face to face with Islamic intifada?
        
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        September 5, 2025 3:44pm
      - waikatosinger
        
        “What happens I wonder when Chinese hegemony is face to face with Islamic intifada?”
        
        Gee – I don’t know. Maybe ask the Uyghurs?
        
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        September 5, 2025 4:12pm
      - cmm
        
        Aitch: ” Let’s not forget all the Chinese “police stations” all over the world.”
        
        Any different to FBI/CIA stations sprinkled across the world?
        
        Look, everyone has spies and offices looking out for their interests. To find slanty-eyed spies worse than USA spies is just xenophobia.
        
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        September 5, 2025 4:47pm
    - balanced
      
      Umm…. the south China sea?
      
      Although the score in that coflict is 1 nil to the surrounding harassed countries, without those countries having to fire a shot!
      
      So we shouldn’t be too worried about China.
      
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      September 5, 2025 9:48am
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Change the record.
      Xi is telling everyone – including you and me – that they are preparing for war.
      
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      September 5, 2025 10:07am
      - cmm
        
        Well, maybe…
        
        But they are projecting power – mainly for their own domestic consumption.
        
        Just as Americans like to wave their “we’re number one!” foam finger and feel good about themselves – so do China, and Russia, India and pretty much everyone else (except the Germans who are in self-flagellation mode since WW2).
        
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        September 5, 2025 4:50pm
  - Simon
    
    BRICS and GAE are equal garbage. NZs future is with Aust Japan S Korea Thailand Vietnam. Post GAE.
    
    Neutral somewhat but strong ties with Australia until GAE folds. NZ defence spending purchases of cheap anti ship missiles from Russia and drones.
    
    See that the NZ army has sent some soldiers to S Korea. But until GAE has been rolled back this isn’t a good move. NZ could just specialise in anti ship missiles.
    
    But remember National party runs NZ. They will utter ruin NZ foreign relations as well as waste billions on stupid defence spending
    
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    September 5, 2025 8:37am
    - sirknz
      
      What do you think is likley to happen to South Korea if/when GAE folds?
      
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      September 5, 2025 10:54am
      - Simon
        
        “What do you think is likley to happen to South Korea if/when GAE folds?”
        
        S Korea will soar. GAE greatly harms S Korea society. Not unlike the rest of the world.
        
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        September 5, 2025 11:27am
  - peterwn
    
    The words ‘one’, ‘born’, ‘minute’ come to mind.
    
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    September 5, 2025 8:38am
    - Simon
      
      You support National……..
      
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      September 5, 2025 8:46am
      - peterwn
        
        Perhaps…… Otherwise I would read The Standard.
        
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        September 5, 2025 1:49pm
    - Boy Geoff
      
      A bit more respect please – the woman may have been a political science graduate.
      
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      September 5, 2025 9:17am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Did this woman caller have a Chinese accent, perchance?
    
    The CCP have plenty of stooges here. Fifth columnists and all that.
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:00am
    - sirknz
      
      I believe these stooges are referred to as ‘pinks’ by their fellow Chinese people.
      
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      September 5, 2025 10:55am
    - Gravelroad
      
      No she did not have a Chinese accent.
      She had a kiwi accent – probably a coloniser/settler.
      Anti USA , very pro China as potentially our saviour.
      Convinced China has no expansion or military ambitions at all.
      
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      September 5, 2025 12:00pm
    - peterwn
      
      There will soon be more Chinese cop shops in NZ than ones run by NZ Police.
      
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      September 5, 2025 1:50pm
- nathie
  
  Can’t wait for the MSM to ask Helen what she thought about our “benign strategic environment” as she watched truckloads of ballistic missiles and laser weapons being paraded in front of her.
  
  Wonder if she got into the “pomp and circumstance” of the moment (despite featuring weapons of mass destruction)?
  
  She seemed to be absolutely fizzing with excitement about attending when she was interviewed on the radio prior to the event!
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:15am
- nigel2010
  
  i do notice no one has asked Aunty Helen about NZ being in a benign strategic location now knowing about Chinas expansion into the pacific and there recent manoeuvres just off the coast of Australia
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:16am
- nathie
  
  “No western leader attended although I imagine that NZ was represented by our ambassador.”
  
  NZ diplomats attended, as it should be.
  
  As for our two former PM’s attending, this article best sums up the pros and cons of the matter.
  
  https://www.thepost.co.nz/world-news/360812105/clark-and-key-provide-succour-dictators-chinas-big-day
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:37am
cmm

+1 for recognising the USSR effort. Far too many Westerners are completely unaware of Operation August Storm. It was perhaps the largest Allied military operation ever – ten times the size of D-Day, still smaller than Barbarossa though.
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September 5, 2025 8:13am
- Cassandra
  
  But of course Russia waited until the last moment. They were rather busy in the west. Still, a huge army was based in the east throughout the war.
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:21am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Not really about the large Eastern army thing. Richard Sorge provided the Sovs with information that the Japanese had no intention of invading Russia, so they shifted the army east just in tine to repulse the Germans at the gates of Moscow.
    
    Once the Germans had been defeated, Stalin put the battle-hardened Red Army on the Trans-Siberian to attack the decrepit under-equipped Japanese in Manchuria. Hot knife through butter and all that. They got offshore as far as Sakhalin and the Kurils. Arguably the A-bomb which brought the Japanese surrender also slowed the Sovs southward move.
    
    80 years ago. Yawn.
    
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    September 5, 2025 9:03am
    - David Garrett
      
      Ian B: Quite a sensible comment -until the last sentence. You don’t believe the conflict in the Pacific was the most significant event of the 20th century in our neck of the woods?
      
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      September 5, 2025 9:11am
    - Cassandra
      
      Ian: shifting the army east to the gates of Moscow was actually the Germans.
      
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      September 5, 2025 11:22am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Yeah yeah. East – west – whatever 🙂
        
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        September 5, 2025 1:16pm
- Simon
  
  “+1 for recognising the USSR effort.”
  
  The West via FDR and Churchill held back the second front until 1944 and let the Russians bleed out.
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:42am
  - Ian Boag
    
    There was a trial run to Dieppe in 1943 and that worked out real well ….
    
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    September 5, 2025 1:18pm
    - Dave
      
      Dieppe was 1942.
      
      Otherwise, fully agree with your message – it took a tremendous build up of forces, planning, training, reconnaissance, deception, novel equipment, destruction of the the Luftwaffe and French transport infrastructure to ensure D-Day succeeded.
      
      The failure at Dieppe led to success in Normandy.
      
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      September 5, 2025 1:45pm
      - pdm
        
        I recall a Pan Book titled `Dieppe Doomed’.
        
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        September 5, 2025 8:49pm
- Dave
  
  Fortunately for Japan and the West, the USSR’s shipping and amphibious capability was nowhere near its land capability, boosted one might note by the 50,000 lightweight radios and 400,000 trucks supplied by the US under lend-lease; so, after some initial planning, the Soviets abandoned their intention to land on and occupy the northern half of Hokkaido.
  
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  September 5, 2025 8:54am
- kowtow
  
  ‘ten times the size of D-Day’
  
  We must never forget that was essentially a naval operation , the logistics of which would have been insurmountable, to any powers other than the UK /US and their other western allies.
  
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  September 5, 2025 9:07am
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: thanks for that very informative comment. I was vaguely aware that the Russians had engaged with the Japanese very late in the piece…I certainly had no idea that the invasion consisted of more than 1.5 million troops.
  
  One learns something every day here!
  
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  September 5, 2025 9:08am
  - Michael Johnston
    
    The Chinese theatre is very often overlooked in accounts of WWII. A large majority of the Japanese army was bogged down there throughout the war, which was a great boon to the Allies’ fight for the Pacific and South East Asia.
    
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    September 5, 2025 12:46pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Poor Wellington! It’s clear that the weirdos of the country come to Wellington, where they can be celebrated with jobs in the public service.

I can put up with their relentless self publicity, prancing around like show ponies. It’s the grab at my wallet I can’t abide.

“Wellington had the highest proportion of rainbow people according to the 2023 Census, with 11.3% of the population identifying as part of the community compared to 4.9% nationally.

One in five young people identified as being Rainbow compared with 10.2% of 15 to 29-year-olds nationally, while Māori youth had the highest rate at 16.8%.“

http://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360813156/pride-place-council-adopts-rainbow-action-plan/
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September 5, 2025 8:52am
- imalwaysright
  
  If the Rainbow community is so inclusive, then why are they so small ?
  
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  September 5, 2025 9:30am
  - Boy Geoff
    
    And what percentage of the Rainbow community is actually trans and ‘queer’ (and any other variant) as opposed to common, garden variety gay, bisexual and lesbian?
    
    I guess Chloe’s sown them up and has them eating out of her palm, but they do seem exceptionally loud & important…
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:36am
    - AitchW
      
      I have a trans family member who believes that Swarbrick is the Messiah.
      
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      September 5, 2025 3:46pm
- AitchW
  
  It’s most likely a career enhancing affectation to be a member of the rainbow mob in the Wellington public service.
  
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  September 5, 2025 9:38am
- Bobba Fret
  
  No surprises there then.
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:14am
- BarryB
  
  Using the word ‘Rainbow’ to indicate the query, gay and others of uncertain gender is an insult to mothers of stillborn children or children that die soon after birth.
  A rainbow child a healthy child born after a pregnancy loss, such as a miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death.
  Check https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/rainbow-baby
  There is an organisation in New Zealand called SANDS.
  https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/community-health-and-social-services/community-health/sands-nz/
  
  It really is an insult to use the term that covers a loss of a baby to instead use it to cover a part of the community that seems to want to impose their ideas and behavior on everyone. One thinks of people like Doyle………
  
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  September 5, 2025 12:50pm
  - Ghost
    
    Not really.l, it’s a completely different thing, and the term rainbow baby has only been in use since 2008. The rainbow flag was first created in 1978 in the gay community. Rainbow has different uses and meanings to different groups. A rainbow child in the new age community is a highly evolved soul, that term has been around since 2000
    
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    September 5, 2025 1:09pm
- Paulus
  
  And we are supposed to look and accept the results of the 2023 Census and the last to be.
  Believe that there are many anomolies, as the CEO accepted, did he not resign and get a top job elsewhere.
  
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  September 5, 2025 2:57pm
surfing

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360809614/three-recalls-one-unused-car-why-couple-wont-drive-their-ford-escape-again

This interests me, when a vehicle recall is made in the US , but, not in NZ.

I had an issue with my Hyundai, where the issue was part of a recall fix in the USA (loose cable which costs over $1000 to repair).

Hyundai NZ said my car was out of warranty — I pointed out the US recall was made well inside my warranty period… Hyundai NZ then said it might be a different problem, really cagey behaviour and they were just coming up with excuses to not pay for a known problem.

In the end, they wouldn’t fix it, so, fixed it myself using the instructions online (its just a loose cable so using a cable tie to secure it does the trick).

But, Hyundai NZ are dodgy! Avoiding their obligations! Hyundai USA seem good though, but not much use to me other than helping me to fix it myself.
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September 5, 2025 8:57am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  In the US, Hyundai and other manufacturers face the possibility of law suits with enormous damages if found to be negligent.
  
  That has the effect of focusing their minds.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:03am
- Ghost
  
  Car recalls can depend on where they are manufactured as the problem can be due to that plant. Hyundai manufacture their USA fleet in the USA, so a USA recall that is specific to an issue in their build doesn’t mean that issue is in other builds.
  
  Hyundai NZ has a list of recalls
  
  https://www.hyundai.co.nz/safety-campaigns
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:06am
- Bullitt
  
  Kia Australia did a recall on Stingers due to a petrol pump issue that could cause them to catch fire. Kia NZ didn’t – on the same cars.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:18am
  - Ghost
    
    If you mean this Recall
    
    The same Recall was made in NZ
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:30am
- imalwaysright
  
  I would be wary of dealer servicing during warranty.
  Their only motivation is for the car to survive the term.
  
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  September 5, 2025 2:23pm
G152

Remember remember 11th September
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September 5, 2025 9:01am
- ObligatoryMarxist
  
  It’s the 5th? You need to check your phone’s calendar mate
  
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  September 5, 2025 9:45am
  - G152
    
    And 6 days before the 11th ……
    You might even remember what occurred
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:53am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Remember, remember, the 5th of November.
  
  Gunpowder, treason and plot.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:04am
Keith White

One of the most somber war memorials I have ever attended, was the Poklonnaya Hill (Moscow) Hall of Remembrance and Sorrow – dedicated to the human cost to Russia’ people of WW2. It contains books on pedestals, encyclopedia-sized, listing the names of over 26 million Soviet war dead. Every day one guard turns one page…
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September 5, 2025 9:13am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  In a few years time they’ll be building an extension to house the books of the dead from Putin’s land grab.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:07am
- nathie
  
  Sure remembrance is a good thing but did it also mention Russia joining Hitler’s Germany and invading Poland, kicking off WW2, and the atrocities they committed against the Poles?
  
  Be good if those victims were remembered too and to highlight nationalism and greed comes at a cost i.e. was the cause of Russian loses in the first place.
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:07am
  - Wandering Star
    
    The Soviet invasion of Poland from the East shortly after the Germans moved in from the West is one of those facts that is memory holed due to the serious undermining effect it has on the popular myth that is the WW2 narrative.
    
    If breaching Poland’s territorial sovereignty was the justification for Britain declaring war on Germany (while, incidentally, never taking any action to restore Polish sovereignty), then why did Britain not declare war on the USSR for exactly the same offense? The answer is that Britain wanted war with its rival Germany, not the other way round, and so it did everything it could to ensure that it got its war.
    
    Millions of lives were lost as a consequence and, to make matters worse, the Allied nations (except perhaps Russia, notably) have all been effectively destroyed as a direct consequence of the “universal principles” that became enshrined in the globalized order post-WW2, to ensure that none of these nations could never be cohesive sovereign nations determined to exercise self-determination like the defeated Germans had attempted.
    
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    September 5, 2025 1:01pm
    - Dave
      
      … Britain wanted war with its rival Germany, not the other way round, and so it did everything it could to ensure that it got its war.
      
      This is not an area of history I know much about, but this seems wildly inconsistent with the preceding policy of appeasement – Britain didn’t want war with anyone but was forced to the conclusion Germany’s ambitions were insatiable and eventually would either destroy Britain or turn it into a vassal state.
      
      Some Brits wanted to support Finland against the Soviet Union, but the prospect of fighting both Germany and the USSR was just a bit daunting.
      
      As for “exercising self-determination like the defeated Germans had attempted” – you do have a novel way with words.
      
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      September 5, 2025 2:54pm
    - Jack5
      
      The Soviet Union, like Germany, committed atrocities against the Poles. Apart from the well-known Katyn massacre, the Soviets unleashed Ukrainian ethnic cleansing of Poles in eastern Poland. Some of the Polish refugee children who came to New Zealand were victims of these atrocities. A well-known barber in Burnside, Christchurch, known widely just as Tony, was one of these. His father, a Polish police chief was murdered and the rest of the family was bundled off to Siberia.
      
      The question of why Britain and France didn’t declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland, seems plain in hindsight. Britain didn’t have the military power. It was struggling to survive.
      
      The British were, and in hindsight, still are, the good guys in this case They went to war because Poland was invaded. They did the little they could to help, and in the post-war carve-up they were a minor player; Poland’s post-war fate was up to the Americans, who had to decide whether to fight the Soviet Union. The Americans made the right choice. They would have had to use atomic bombs against the vast Soviet tank armies, and Poland would have been the scene of some, even many, atomic explosions.
      
      At the first link below’s a whole discussion of the issue of Britain and Poland and the Soviet invasion of Poland.
      
      A snippet from one point of view:
      
      On August 25, two days after the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Agreement of Mutual Assistance between the United Kingdom and Poland was signed. The agreement contained promises of mutual military assistance between the nations in the event either was attacked by some “European country”. The United Kingdom, sensing a dangerous trend of German expansionism, sought to prevent German aggression by this show of solidarity. In a secret protocol of the pact, the United Kingdom offered assistance in the case of an attack on Poland specifically by Germany, while in the case of attack by other countries the parties were required to “consult together on measures to be taken in common”. Both the United Kingdom and Poland were bound not to enter agreements with any other third countries which were a threat to the other.
      
      https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/3064/why-did-britain-and-france-not-declare-war-against-the-soviet-union-when-it-inva
      
      If you want something-else authoritative:
      
      https://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/blbk19.asp
      
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      September 5, 2025 3:06pm
      - Eastlander
        
        ‘the Soviets unleashed Ukrainian ethnic cleansing of Poles in eastern Poland’
        
        Scratching my head and trying to figure out how the Soviet Union controlled OUN-B.
        
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        September 5, 2025 5:04pm
    - Eastlander
      
      You’re not going to rehabilitate the Reich. Not now, not ever.
      
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      September 5, 2025 4:58pm
- CJames
  
  How many of those war dead were actually killed by Stalin? From what I read, Stalin and his tactics killed more Russians than Hitler did.
  
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  September 5, 2025 12:44pm
  - Eastlander
    
    They were all killed by the invading Germans so none. I have heard a variant of this argument from Z-enthusiasts and it sounds just as wrong-headed from them.
    
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    September 5, 2025 5:00pm
Notsofast

Graham Linehan’s arrest for posting scientific truths and realistic self defence measures for women and children proves that trans ideology is a grave threat to every British resident, and to anyone visiting that country.
He is Irish.
New Zealand looks safe for now despite the disgraceful law commission recommendations filed yesterday to comprehensively roll back the rights of women and children.
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September 5, 2025 9:15am
- imalwaysright
  
  Notsofast,
  
  Konstantin Kisin gives a great summation of what is happening in Britain in this brief (2m.45s) parody/satire…
  
  https://youtu.be/OQIBUPS2ltU?si=jReDfLssEQKYFMgU
  
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  September 5, 2025 9:46am
  - Notsofast
    
    I seem to be paying money to him, but dont recall subscribing.
    I like him more and more plus he has the so called lived experience to comment authentically on a lot of matters.
    
    4 2
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    September 5, 2025 11:06am
  - Notsofast
    
    This from X is extraodinary, the autogynephiles organised for Linehan to be arrested.
    These are the people the Law Commission just recommended full rights and protections to, marauders of innocent women and girls.
    
    https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1963528602164555894?t=OaIXZf51uE8C1XPGzoULag&s=19
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:35am
- Philview
  
  New Zealand’s last Government introduced 3 year prison sentences around the Trans therapy issue. At the same time that Government rolled out a sex/gender education programme in schools that I would describe as a grooming process.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:02am
- kowtow
  
  In the interests of this debate , he’s not so much a victim of ‘trans ideology” but of state over reach .
  His comment “kick him in the balls’ which to any reasonable person , in context , is not a deliberate intentional ,incitement to violence , but is a rhetorical flourish . Same with the Connolly woman locked up for the ‘hotels , for all I care’ comment.
  
  Not an intentional, actual incitement , but mere “hurty words”.
  
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  September 5, 2025 12:11pm
balanced

Yesterday I received the second answer, after a year of asking, to my if not Luxon then who question?

The first answer was Seymour so I measured him up against luxon and predictably showed Luxon was the hands down superior choice for PM.

The latest suggestion for pm is Erica Stanford.

Erica is in the top 6 performing ministers, alongside luxon, Bishop, Brown, Mitchell, and McLay.

So let’s do a comparison with luxon.

Luxon gave up a multimillion pay packet to become pm. Stanford’s highest position was Murray McCullys Senior MP Support, there is no evidence to suggest Erica has ever been promoted to a managerial role.

Luxon has a masters of commerce, Stanford has a bachelor Arts.

Luxon was selected and promoted to lead large blue chip companies, Erica followed noise control around with a camera crew.

Luxon turned around a dispirited national party, won an election, and selected hitherto low profile mps to form a stellar ministerial top 6.

Stanford hasn’t.

Constant, unevidenced, and unreferenced personal abuse of the PM, without a superior alternative, is an unwelcome throw back to the Ardern and Robo personal attacks, to mask their own lack of rational thought or plan, technique..

National’s real electoral issues lie at the doors of the Ardernesque Willis and the out of depth Van Velden.

Next week I’ll compare Willis and Van Velden to superior alternatives: Uffendel and Stephenson
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September 5, 2025 9:19am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Nope. If the entire National party sucks, I am entitled to point out that any one of them sucks without being required to endorse an alternative.
  
  If forced to pick one most likely to govern well (or least badly) it would be Chris Bishop. If forced to pick one most likely to win the next election it would be Nicola Willis.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:07am
  - balanced
    
    [Mod – just debate the topic, we don’t need your sarcastic view of what you believe people think]
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:35am
  - Groggy
    
    You have got to be kidding about Nicola Willis. She would be a disaster.
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:59am
- MCōs
  
  So Christopher Luxon is a marvelous PM and from the comments I read on this forum Anthony Albanese over in Australia is a complete disaster leading the country to wrack and ruin
  Why, then, are so many Kiwis heading over there?
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:13am
  - balanced
    
    Nicola Willis and Brooke Van Velden.
    
    Support of the nz big business cartels fleecing Kiwis wallets and ruoning our quality of life.
    
    And the inability to find our how, where, and why our $74.4b disappeared….. for a seasonal flu!
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:22am
    - Ghost
      
      You actually look stupid going on with this myth that there is $74.4 billion missing. There isn’t, and that is why no one from national, nz first or act are screaming about it from the mountains tops. Because if there was it would end labour for decades. But hey, put your tinfoil hat on and keep pushing bullshit
      
      Social Development 26.3
      Finance 10.2
      Health 8.1
      Business, Science and Innovation 6.2
      Education 3.6
      Housing and Urban Development 2.8
      Transport 2.1
      Internal Affairs 1.7
      Revenue 1.6
      Māori Development 1.1
      Other Votes (grouped) 9.7
      
      Where some of that funding went
      
      Wage Subsidy Scheme 18.0 Supported 1.76 million jobs in 2020 and 1.36 million in 2021 to prevent layoffs
      
      COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment 2.9 Helped businesses with ≥30% revenue drop due to alert level changes
      
      Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme 2.3 Provided loans to 128,000+ small businesses facing revenue loss
      
      COVID-19 Support Payment 1.3 Assisted businesses with ≥40% revenue drop during Omicron wave
      
      National Health Response 2.7 Testing, contact tracing, hospital readiness, PPE, public health campaigns
      
      Vaccine Strategy Implementation 1.7 Procurement, distribution, public education, and rollout logistics
      
      Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) 1.6 Facilities, staffing, transport, and security for border control
      
      Education Support ~3.6 Remote learning tools, school upgrades, tertiary sector stabilization
      
      Infrastructure Projects ~3.0 Fast-tracked shovel-ready projects to stimulate economic recovery
      
      Māori & Pasifika Community Support ~1.1 Targeted health, housing, and employment programs for vulnerable groups
      
      Housing & Urban Development ~2.8 Emergency housing, rent relief, and
      
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      September 5, 2025 10:38am
      - balanced
        
        Aside from the unnecesary personal abuse thats a good start G.
        
        Now dig down and find out who actually got that enormous amount of seasional flu money.
        
        It may explain in Arderns 2 year luxurious US vacation.
        
        “Pfizer’s $2.3 billion ($3.5 billion in 2022) settlement including a record-breaking $1.3 billion criminal fine.”
        
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        September 5, 2025 10:56am
      - Ghost
        
        No, she’s been earning an income, she gets paid substantially on the public speaking circuit, she also had a large advance for her book, and she was paid by Harvard for her time there. You really do need to stop making things up
        
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        September 5, 2025 11:01am
      - balanced
        
        Ghost, until you or someone dives down and shows us where the $74.4b spending the auditor general labelled ” uncontrolled”, your personal attacks on the questioner are petty.
        
        Care to post your references /sources for your ardern income claims?
        
        Here’s an enlighteing referenced source of information…
        
        “Pfizer did not reveal its payments but says it will join the 2023 disclosures. Novartis only disclosed payments from November and December.
        
        Medicines New Zealand says the disclosure, which was a collaboration with the now-defunct Medical Association, aims to make the financial relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and health workers more transparent and better understood by the public.
        
        Auckland University associate professor of psychological medicine and transparency advocate, David Menkes, says the data are “the beginning of a good news story”.
        
        “But it’s got a ways to go yet.”
        
        .https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/131175559/under-the-influence-inside-new-zealands-first-disclosure-of-drug-company-payments-to-health-professionals
        
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        September 5, 2025 12:20pm
      - Ghost
        
        Pass, I’ve already provided you those links other times you post your delusions, it’s pointless providing them again because you obviously don’t have the ability to deal with anything that disproves your delusions. Yeah, for the first time ever on this blog I’m going to tell you to go use google and find them yourself, rather than waste my time getting them for someone that didn’t bother to read them last time and still pushes the same bullshit
        
        And your link isn’t even relevant to your made up bullshit about Ardern
        
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        September 5, 2025 12:59pm
      - balanced
        
        G. Spending time posting references to prove your claims is a waste,
        
        but abusive posts, making claims you can’t back up, is a wise use of your time?
        
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        September 5, 2025 1:12pm
      - Ghost
        
        You really do need to educate yourself
        
        1 Arderns advance on her book well covered by the media
        2 Arderns fee for public speaking has also been well covered by the media.
        3 you can also find roughly how much Harvard pay for fellowships
        
        I’m not the person who makes things up and rabbits on about $74.4 billion missing and never produce proof of that, or who asks how Ardern lives in the USA and never provides evidence.
        
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        September 5, 2025 1:22pm
      - balanced
        
        Come on ghost.
        
        You must be able to find one reference to back up your claims.
        
        Ps. A website advertising public speaking isn’t an income.
        
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        September 5, 2025 1:58pm
      - Ghost
        
        As I said I’ve already provided you those links, either you’ve lacked the ability to comprehend what they said, or you have chosen to wilfully push fake narratives on this blog that you have never backed up.
        
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        September 5, 2025 2:55pm
      - balanced
        
        And as I’ve told you countless times….. asking who got our $74.4b, especially in light of the auditor generals criticism of the uncontrolled covid spend, is not a narrative or a conspiracy, it is a question.
        
        So Ghost I’ll ask again. Please post references to back up your claims about arderns income or post up the covid spend audit report.
        
        As soon as I get answers to my questions. I’ll stop asking them.
        
        Ps. Abuse and false accusations won’t stop me asking.
        
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        September 5, 2025 3:17pm
  - Jack5
    
    Cossie, Australia’s a richer country than New Zealand. It’s richer in resources, and the gap between NZ and Australia will likely continue to grow.
    
    Two big factors in the present migration drift from east to west across the Tasman Sea:
    
    1. Comparative wealth of citizens, which you can measure by GDP per capita: Australia at present is 31st in the world in this; NZ is 42nd.
    
    2. Australia is a hard country for people from the Third World to migrate to.
    
    New Zealand is a back door to Australia for these folk. So much so that if the traffic continues to grow, Aussies might be tempted to close this by ending visa-free entry to NZ residents.
    
    Nearly half the New Zealand folk applying for Australian citizenship aren’t born in NZ:
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/567964/nearly-half-of-kiwis-applying-for-australian-citizenship-born-elsewhere
    
    [Mod – fixed]
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:55am
  - Paulus
    
    Media perception of Money
    Remember nobody can get in to Australia if they have a criminal record, so what are we to be left with ?
    
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    September 5, 2025 3:02pm
    - MCōs
      
      “Remember nobody can get in to Australia if they have a criminal record, so what are we to be left with?”
      Seeing as there are about 600,000 NZ citizens or dual citizens living in Australia; about 88% of us don’t.
      Btw
      The number of Kiwis in Oz hasn’t changed much over the last ten years. A lot must return, die or move on.
      
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      September 5, 2025 3:27pm
  - MCōs
    
    https://x.com/rugbyintel/status/1963431677776335294?s=61
    
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    September 5, 2025 3:09pm
- Philview
  
  Luxon has endured intense media pressure. A new National Party leader would have to endure a firestorm of pressure as they would attempt to break the person. An ACT MP isn’t going to be PM but Seymour and van Velden seem to be cool under pressure. In the past the MSM have allowed comments about van Velden in their comments section that I would describe as misogynist. It seems a different set of rules for Left and Right in the comments. Even last week the comments about Nicola Willis under a Stuff article would not have been allowed for Jacinda Ardern. In that context comments that were hyperbolic such as calling Nicola “the Liz Truss of NZ Politics” and referencing her to a cabbage.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:18am
  - balanced
    
    Phil. Man, woman, left, and right have nothing to do with ministerial ability so why do people bring those factors up?
    
    It looks suspicially like you’re attempting to mask the real issue which is, ministers who lack the integrity and intelligence to do their jobs.
    
    Man / woman is only a factor if you believe their promotion wasn’t purely meritorious.
    
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    September 5, 2025 10:48am
    - Philview
      
      I am not making that an issue over ability. It is just a fact that the media will attack and in a right leaning woman why are we reading comments about ‘her weight” in the mainstream media as if it has any relevance. Even the use of the word “c**t” to describe a woman. They are looking for pressure points and I would prefer to stick with Chris Luxon right now as I know he can take it.
      
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      September 5, 2025 11:08am
      - balanced
        
        I understand and concur with your points that the nz media are a disgrace, which is why they’re all going out of business, and that there is no better pm in nz than luxon.
        
        The rubbish the media and spin doctors print claiming a guy (who was chosen to lead companies with staff numbering in the thousands) can’t connect with people is laughable.
        
        I do wish the kb debate woud steer clear of man vs woman though. We should focus our efforts on vital results or lack of results.
        
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        September 5, 2025 12:42pm
- imalwaysright
  
  “The first answer was Seymour so I measured him up against luxon and predictably showed Luxon was the hands down superior choice for PM”
  
  What sort of comparison is that?
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:58am
  - RoboRob
    
    People can argue for an against a variety of MPs they think would be better then Luxon. Balanced thinks that Luxon is by far and away the best candidate for the job. Fair enough.
    
    The issue is that in the real world there are two measures of success for a party, how well they govern and whether they can get re elected. Luckily the later measure is easily quantifiable in the form of election results. Polls are a useful guide between elections as to how likely a party is to get re elected and whether they will do better or worse then last time.
    
    For all peoples talk here about the excellent quality of various National MPs and their leader, we need to remain focused on reality. National are on a serious downwards polling trajectory. This is a fact. Polling under 30%, for National, is a seriously bad result. Luxon has struggled to out perform Chris Hipkins in preferred PM. This is extremely unusual for a first term PM, especially against a defeated Labour leader. This is not opinion, just simple facts.
    
    So we need to look to why National and Luxon are performing so poorly. One obvious answer is the economy. The economy is bad. It was broken by Labour. The RBNZ needed to stall the economy with high interest rates to resolve the inflation caused by GR and the Orr. No, Balanced, Luxon and National did not fix Inflation. The RBNZ did by putting us in recession. But that is all a side issue. If Nationals performance is bad due to the economy, what are they going to do to improve their polling? Is continuing on as is and praying the economy will recover in time for the election next year the best strategy?
    
    Why are National voters fleeing them? Obviously many have moved to Act and NZF but recent polling shows National voters moving left to Labour.
    
    I want the right to win the next election. I don’t want Labour / Hipkins back. However I also want a right wing government implementing right wing policies too. I don’t just want better managers and ‘not Labour’. I don’t think its unreasonable to expect parties to respect the will of their voters.
    
    I am not throwing stones at people. I am saying National are in trouble and what are they going to do to get out of it? I think the answer is in leadership. Regardless of how amazing a manager or how super qualified Luxon is, National (and Luxon) are not doing well in the polls. I think they need to change their face and messaging, even if Luxon continues to manage things behind the scenes. I don’t pretend to know who they should pick, although I think Erika Stanford might be a good option.
    
    We can play silly games pretending we can measure a challenger against Luxon, and in Balanced’s case have Luxon beat them all, but none of that changes the facts. National are polling as a One term government. This would be the first time EVER for National. What are they going to do about it or would they rather go back to opposition?
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:53am
    - balanced
      
      The problem won’t be solved by groundless abuse of Luxon.
      
      Comparing Luxons credentials to suggested alternatives is a vital exercise. I did the same with ardern and didn’t vote for her. I bet there are many reading this blog who wished they done the analysis before voting for ardern.
      
      No prime minister is perfect and there are grounds for criticizing luxon (eg overseeing Willis and Van velden”s failures) but there are also many reasons for praising NZs best ever qualified PM.
      
      Balance is required if you want nz to be successful.
      
      I’ll bet any money you want luxon will win the next election.
      
      Especially if he sorts out the covid and cartel farces.
      
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      September 5, 2025 1:40pm
    - Paulus
      
      Whatever National do the opposition Labour Ladies Media Party will condemn any thing they do or say.
      
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      September 5, 2025 3:05pm
      - balanced
        
        True. Kiwiblog used to be a quality public square with experts from various industries and universities chipping in.
        
        But most of the reasoned evidenced commenters have disappeared.
        
        There are a couple of examples today, as to why that happened.
        
        It’s a real shame.
        
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        September 5, 2025 3:45pm
  - balanced
    
    [Mod – don’t copy and paste replies you have already posted above]
    
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    September 5, 2025 12:53pm
- wsk12345
  
  And yet Erica Stanford has done more good for NZ this term than Luxon. Hate to say it but as an attractive woman she is Nats best chance (given lefty swing voters seem to be all about looks and kindness). If the vacuous Ardern can do it on looks, Stanford should win hands down.
  
  Ps what’s your beef with Van velden? Willis is awful but vv I think has been pretty steady.
  
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  September 5, 2025 12:12pm
  - balanced
    
    I don’t have a beef with vv. She appears to be a lovely person.
    
    I have a beef with what appears to be a farcical covid inquiry and ministers who do not have the talent required to do their jobs.
    
    We all pay a heavy price for ministerial failures.
    
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    September 5, 2025 1:23pm
alex Masterley

Auckland is in line for a bit of gangster chaos today. A bad bugger died during the week and his funeral is today.
This means that motorways and Onehunga (he is being buried at Waikaraka Park) will be clogged with other mobsters “paying their respects”.
My wish is for the police to put these people through the ringer, bail checks, licence checks, WOF checks just to make the point.
The reality is that wont happen.
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September 5, 2025 10:10am
- imalwaysright
  
  Alex
  
  For these events the organisers, NZ Police, politely ask the public to make allowances for the rascals and their disregard for the law.
  
  If the public politely decline the Police request and move freely around their country thereby disrupting the Police event plans, the polite Police will politely stop, fine , or arrest them.
  
  That’s just plain rude.
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:46am
- Ghost
  
  There has been a change since labour left on how gang funerals are treated
  
  https://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/arrests-made-weapons-seized-tauranga-gang-funeral-operation
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/police-arrest-one-impound-bikes-after-rebels-gang-funeral-ride-in-%C5%8Dt%C4%81huhu-causes-traffic-chaos/
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/napier-mongrel-mob-funeral-eight-arrests-as-some-mourners-flout-patch-ban-at-funeral-for-angus-benson/PCXQZP5CMBCADPGP4PHTDOKB6Y/
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/napier-mongrel-mob-funeral-eight-arrests-as-some-mourners-flout-patch-ban-at-funeral-for-angus-benson/PCXQZP5CMBCADPGP4PHTDOKB6Y/
  
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  September 5, 2025 10:55am
  - MCōs
    
    I went passed what I assume was a smallish gang funeral at a cemetery on Kirkbride Rd last summer.
    The boys brought their motorbikes along on trailers. Unloaded them, did a few burnouts put them back on the trailers and drove off again. There was a crowd of people watched over by about six car loads of police.
    It was all a bit perfunctory. Maybe the main actors collected their money, shared it out with the police and they all went off to the next funeral.
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:18am
- Swifty
  
  Many Maori and PIs (not all) really do deserve everything they get when they celebrate the lives of criminals like Pulete – rather than shunning them and all they stand for.
  
  In European society that man would indeed be largely shunned with only family and very, very close friends showing up at the funeral.
  
  https://karldufresne.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-gross-failure-of-editorial-judgment.html?m=1
  
  The harm that man caused to Maori and PI families during his life will never be fully calculated.
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:09am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Great post by Karl Du Fresne. Some of the comments are classic.
    Jarrod Savage has his arse kicked.
    
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    September 5, 2025 3:34pm
I remember when

Let’s stop taking Dr Joy seriously:

Not sure he wants to be taken seriously but really is advertising for potential students for his courses.
Perhaps future number are not looking as healthy as he would like.
He has always used ‘dirty dairying’ as motivation and the present value of dairy income to our overseas funds will rankle.
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September 5, 2025 10:32am
Swifty

How dare we judge this man harshly. It’s obvious he was assigned legged at birth when in fact he was actually legless and through this intervention has realised his true self.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360814161/surgeon-jailed-uk-over-insurance-fraud-and-extreme-pornography-had-his-legs-cut-sexual-gratification

This man is just doing what many trans folk have done – having parts removed to feel better about themselves.

To help them achieve their ideal vision of themselves.

This man should be celebrated and legless-affirming care should be taught to our young folk in schools.

//
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September 5, 2025 10:33am
- sirknz
  
  To quote John Lennon
  
  “Whatever gets you through the night, is alright”
  
  But I don’t think that this is what he had in mind when he wrote the lyrics…
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:04am
  - Don Beckett
    
    I know people who have been legless, yet retain their legs.
    
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    September 5, 2025 11:37am
- peterwn
  
  Artist Van Gogh started that trend although ears are not as important as legs.
  
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  September 5, 2025 2:00pm
Jack5

Matthew Hooton is putting his townie boot into National again. Fortunately for the rational majority, his rant is behind the Hooerald pay wall.

Notorious for his promotion of National’s Todd Muller mutiny — and disaster — Hooton is trumpeting that a new National Party leader is needed before the next election.

In his mind, Hooton still lives under a first-past-the-post electoral system, and he attributes poll trends of the day to performance and assessment of Luxon as a country supremo.

Luxon’s name appears on only one electorate’s voting paper. His party, National, is one of three in a coalition government.

The country still reels from the economic and social disaster of the mad one-party country leader Ardern, but we’ve relaxed back into MMP coalition politics.

Managing a coalition of three parties, skill which Luxon has, counts. Who else in National could hold together National, NZ First, and ACT as Luxon does? Who is Hooton’s hero knight or knight-ess this time?
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September 5, 2025 10:34am
- lifesgood
  
  Hooton? Meh! Runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. Gave up reading anything he writes years ago. A paid gun, nothing else.
  
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  September 5, 2025 12:54pm
  - Keith White
    
    He regularly gets shot down in a gaze of bleary…
    
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    September 5, 2025 3:17pm
- Eastlander
  
  A thing to remember is that Albanese was not popular at all going into 2025. It was one thing to grizzle about him in the abstract but as the election got closer the voters looked more at the opposition and asked whether they really wanted them instead.
  
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  September 5, 2025 2:18pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Seems the Ministry for Culture & Heritage is on a revisionist kick and wants to forget that thousands of NZers died in military campaigns.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/572010/children-s-war-history-lessons-at-national-memorial-to-end-as-historians-lose-jobs
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September 5, 2025 10:39am
- Eastlander
  
  The conflict we ought to remember and the victory we ought to celebrate is the Land Wars, seeing as the descendants of the losing side wish to revise the outcome.
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:24am
- imalwaysright
  
  And the bell ringer at the nearby War Memorial is out of a job also.
  
  Combine these with the National Library destroying half a million books and a cynical person might see a pattern developing.
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:31am
  - AitchW
    
    Correct me if I’m wrong, but the books destroyed were duplicate copies or mainstream books that can be found anywhere.
    Surely the National Library is justified in making space for rare and unusual books?
    
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    September 5, 2025 4:01pm
- Jack5
  
  The Ministry’s home web site still gives first place to its Maori name, Manatu Taonga.
  
  On its web explaining its role, the English-language wording is in light type, the Maori wording in bold type.
  
  The chief executive of this Ministry, or Secretary for Culture and Heritage, is listed as Leauanae Laulu Mac.
  
  The Ministry web site notes, in addition to his Auckland UK academic background:
  
  “Leauanae Laulu Mac has āiga (extended family) connections with the villages of Fa’ala, Iva and Sa’anapu in Samoa. His matai title ‘Laulu’ is from Fa’ala where it was bestowed in a traditional saofa’i ceremony in July 2010. In January 2023, he was bestowed the Leauanae title. This is a tulafale / ali’i title and means Leauanae Laulu Mac has speaking chief and high chief status, enabling him to contribute to the speaking and decision-making in his village of Iva, Savai’i.”
  
  You can read about the Ministry’s leaders here:
  
  https://www.mch.govt.nz/about-us/our-leadership-team
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:38am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You can also read about him here:
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/should-not-have-happened-former-ministry-for-pacific-peoples-boss-apologises-for-improper-spending/OF4BO2WWWNDPVNP2BKYJD326AA/
    
    5 0
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    September 5, 2025 1:19pm
  - Paulus
    
    Blimey !
    
    3 0
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    September 5, 2025 3:08pm
imalwaysright

Ironically, the only asset the Maori Party have is that they have the word Maori in their name.

Because of that, some misguided Maori see them as being their official representatives, hence the votes.
14 2
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September 5, 2025 10:49am
- Swifty
  
  I wonder if in future we’ll see the rise of multiple ‘Maori parties’.
  
  I don’t see why not.
  
  A major driver could be senior Maori with political aspirations but who refuse to be subservient to the Tamihere clan.
  
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  September 5, 2025 11:32am
  - imalwaysright
    
    It would be better for all Swifty if they did. Unfortunately the Maori people are scared of Tamahere and none of them has the wit to harness the fear for rebellion.
    
    4 2
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    September 5, 2025 1:37pm
  - AitchW
    
    I’d be surprised if we don’t see more Maori parties.
    Maori are tribal at heart and there is a great deal of bad blood between tribes.
    
    3 0
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    September 5, 2025 4:03pm
Philview

I am often critical of TVNZ News but I commend Kate Nichol-Williams report of Judith Collins’ visit to Ukraine last night. That would have been a challenging trip for all concerned.
8 1
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September 5, 2025 10:57am
imalwaysright

Heard Craig Stobo tell Michael Laws on the Platform that annual social welfare spending has increased by $20 billion since 2017.

Nearly double.
7 2
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September 5, 2025 11:25am
sirknz

It is as if the heavens opened today, and angels came down singing joyously.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland/auckland-transport-to-be-stripped-of-most-powers/OJH2WGILFBHMFDXP2NAQTPSZWY/

I swear that Auckland Transport has a team that has the sole purpose of figuring out ways to ruin everyone’s commute, no matter where they are driving to.
8 0
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September 5, 2025 11:51am
I remember when

Vote planned to adopt Rainbow Action Plan: Wellington. Hanna McCallum. 4 Sept.
“The WellingtonCity Council could become the first council in New Zealand to implement a strategy focused specifically on its Rainbow community.
Today, it will vote to adopt the proposed Rainbow Action Plan, after the Council decided in October 2023 to have a completed Rainbow strategy by mid-2025.
With one in four young Maori and Pakeha in Wellington identifying as part of the Rainbow community, Wellington City Councillor Teri O’Neill said it was “fitting” for the capital to take the lead.

‘One in four’ – is this an indication of how diverse the public service have become?
6 0
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September 5, 2025 12:37pm
- mandk
  
  A greater proportion of Wellington residents identified themselves as Christians in the 2023 Census.
  
  Should WCC develop a Christian Action Plan?
  
  No, of course not.
  
  And neither should the Council have a pan for Rainbow people.
  
  6 2
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  September 5, 2025 1:18pm
Chuck Bird

Faina Savenkovais is 15 and is on a Ukrainian kill list.

Hello, Mrs. Trump! My name is Faina Savenkova

Faina Savenkova: She could not remain indifferent even after Donald Trump handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter from Melania Trump during a meeting in Alaska.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_jfVTwSogM
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September 5, 2025 1:25pm
cmm

If a decent NZer was threatened, would they get 16 cops turn up to guard them? Probably not, but the gangs get this.

If it was up to me, I’d tell the gangs that through their criminality they have used more than their fair share of police resources so all the cops are busy looking after the citizens that pay taxes.

No, a gang member’s life is not worth as much as someone else’s.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360814996/increased-police-presence-after-attempted-firebombing-christchurch-gang-pad
2 2
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September 5, 2025 3:47pm
- Eastlander
  
  Let them kill each other and then arrest the survivors.
  
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  September 5, 2025 4:33pm
AitchW

Benjamin Doyle has resigned, safety concerns..
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360815002/green-mp-benjamin-doyle-resigns-citing-safety-concerns

What a crock of poo.
What’s the bet there’s a story about to break or a criminal charge….
11 0
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September 5, 2025 4:13pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I was so pleased to read of his resignation.
  He has plumbed the depths of depravity.
  
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  September 5, 2025 4:40pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    You say that, TN, but I think that the Green Party has further depths of depravity to plumb.
    
    You can be certain that they will pick up te wero.
    
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    September 5, 2025 8:46pm
- alex Masterley
  
  Good. He cannot leave soon enough.
  
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  September 5, 2025 4:44pm
- Rumblestrip
  
  The “Bussy” scandal came out in March. So why is Doyle resigning in September?
  
  Not the first time that a Green MP has pulled out the “safety concern” story without evidence.
  
  Some questions for Doyle
  * What was the nature of these “threats”? (Email, social media, mail, etc)
  * How many “threats” were there? When, what frequency?
  * Were all “threats” immediately reported to the police?
  * Did the police judge these “threats” to be credible and serious?
  * How did his child come to know about these “threats” and pressure him to resign?
  
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  September 5, 2025 4:54pm
- grumpy
  
  According to the NZ Herald there are a few of them going. They keep referring to “they”…..
  
  3 0
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  September 5, 2025 5:15pm
  - rouppe
    
    But in their announcement Doyle constantly used “I”, not “we”.
    
    Which meant to me his whole pronoun thing is performative.
    
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    September 6, 2025 7:55am
Swifty

Easily one of the most arrogant, self-important and entitled people ever to set foot in our Parliament, I believe.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/green-mp-benjamin-doyle-resigns-in-u-turn-on-previous-desire-to-stay-in-parliament/5TCRCRLIVZBHVA5DQY7UK3FE7M/

I will not miss being lectured by him, and in that sneering tone of his, seemingly every time he opened his mouth.
14 1
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September 5, 2025 4:18pm
Boy Geoff

Who’s next on the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s list?

I wonder if something new was about to hit the media…?
6 0
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September 5, 2025 4:25pm
sirknz

Benjamin Doyle … he can spend more time with the kids? [ Mod – keep it up. This is not “debate” – a holiday could be in your future ]
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September 5, 2025 4:26pm
- lifesgood
  
  Good riddance. New Zealand deserves better.
  
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  September 5, 2025 5:00pm
rouppe

Benjamin “Bussy Boy” Doyle has resigned.

Loads of excuses about hate being directed at him though I’ve not heard a thing about him since “that” incident.

Ilam’s Mike Davidson is next on the ~~merry go round~~ list
6 0
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September 5, 2025 4:31pm
Boy Geoff

Is it possible that Chloe’s realised there are sectors more important than the Rainbow community to be taken seriously politically in this country?
3 0
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September 5, 2025 4:34pm
- AitchW
  
  Is that the third Green MP to leave under a cloud this parliamentary term?
  What fresh nut job will be sworn in in his place?
  
  4 0
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  September 5, 2025 4:53pm
- AitchW
  
  Reports on X that “sources” in the Green Party say that new information has come to light which makes his position as a Green MP untenable.
  Given that his original behaviour didn’t make his position untenable, whatever has come to light must be quite scandalous.
  Did he use a plastic straw? Forget to rinse a tin can before recycling it? Buy an ICE car? Drive in a bus lane?
  
  8 1
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  September 5, 2025 5:06pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    If these “reports” are accurate, then TV1 did a marvellous job tonight in gaslighting them.
    
    7 0
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    September 5, 2025 7:48pm
    - AitchW
      
      Maiki was a fabulous Doyle cheerleader.
      
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      September 5, 2025 8:41pm
- grumpy
  
  I don’t think Chloe “realises” anything. The “Associate Mystery Shopper” and “Bussy Apologist” is beyond reality.
  
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  September 5, 2025 5:18pm
DimChappie

Yes something is about to break and he is trying to make himself a smaller target. He would otherwise hang on to his highly paid MP job. Jolly good riddance.
6 1
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September 5, 2025 4:41pm
Nikola Donatello

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360815002/green-mp-benjamin-doyle-resigns-citing-safety-concerns

Good riddance.

I see the media panders to his delusion by referring to him using plural “they / them” pronouns.

No, he is a man. He may not think so, but the world should not pander to delusions.
7 2
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September 5, 2025 5:23pm
- AitchW
  
  He’s no man. He might be biologically male, but he can hand his man badge back right now.
  
  5 0
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  September 5, 2025 5:41pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  He was happy enough to use the pronoun he in 2023.
  
  Doyle, who identifies as Ngāpuhi/Pākehā and uses the pronouns they/he/ia, has a strong record of community organising and advocating for social and environmental justice.
  
  https://waikatoindependent.co.nz/2023/03/benjamin-doyle-declares-candidacy-for-hamilton-west/42456/
  
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  September 5, 2025 7:42pm
AitchW

Where are Swarbrick and Davidson?
Why are they not heaping concern, praise, and good wishes on him?
7 1
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September 5, 2025 5:52pm
- Ghost
  
  Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said the party supported Doyle “prioritising their wellbeing and are grateful for the contribution they have made in Parliament”.
  
  “As a country, we clearly have work to do in making politics a place that is safe for everyone.”
  
  Article
  
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  September 5, 2025 5:55pm
mandk

There looks to be some censorship happening here.

[Mod – we aren’t going to put this blog in jeopardy so that you can make comments like that. People actually need to be more aware of what they say and what ramifications those comments can have for this blog]
[ Nuther Mod – whinge to DPF and see where it gets you ]
1 1
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September 5, 2025 7:12pm

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